Oct 13 (LP) President has instructed Minister of Healthcare and Nutrition Nimal Siripala De Siva to open the Kidney Transplant and Research Centre which was established at a cost of Rs 450 million in Maligawatte. Health authorities have identified that there are around 30,000 kidney patients in North Central, North West and Uva Provinces. The highest number of kidney patients numbeing 17,000 are reported from Anuradhapura district. more..

Oct 13 (LP) A tsunami simulation exercise will be conducted in Hambantota and Batticaloa tomorrow at 6.30 in the morning. The exercise is organized by the Intergovernmental Coordination Group of Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (ICG/IOTWS). Fourteen other countries in the Indian Ocean will also engage in the exercise which is conducted to coincide with World Disaster Reduction Day. This is only an exercise to check the standards of the operation procedures in the countries. more..

Oct 13 (LT) Asanthi Wasana, the 13 year old child, who was studying at Minuwangate Vidyalaya in Kurunegala died yesterday (12th) night after being admitted to hospital with an allergy developed after administering the rubella vaccine. She is the second child to die after the administering of the rubella vaccine this year. The first rubella death this year was recorded from Matara. more..

Oct 13 (LT) The President has decided to appoint a person from Hambantota as the chief minister of the Southern Provincial Council say sources from the Presidential Secretariat. Mr. Shan Wijelal was the chief minister of the former PC. He received 92,297 preferential votes, the highest from the Province, at the election held last week. Newspapers yesterday too had predicted that Mr. Shan Wijelal or Mr. Hemal Gunasekera, more..

Oct 13 (TC) The just concluded Southern Province elections provided a surface snapshot of the domestic aspect of our postwar crisis. The result was a relative victory for the UPFA government and an absolute defeat for the UNP led Opposition. A comfortable win by any standards, the victory for the Government was relative rather than absolute. This is because "Southernism" and the Ruhuna factor in the wake of a military victory which more..

Oct 13 (LT) The election results for the Galle District at the Southern PC election issued to the media by the Department of Elections is inaccurate. The total number of votes and the rejected number of votes for Galle District issued to the media by the Department of Elections and approved by the Commissioner of Elections was stated as 523429 and 5401 respectively. This was published on the web site of the Department of Elections as well. more..

Oct 13 (LT) With the announcement of results of preferential votes internal conflicts have begun in the UPFA regarding the selection of the chief minister for the Southern Provincial Council. Former Chief Minister Shan Wijelal, who has obtained the highest number of preferential votes in the Province, is expecting to be appointed chief minister this time too while Mr. V.K. Indike who received the most number of preferential votes from Hambantota District too is claiming the post. more..

Oct 13 (LNP) Government sources yesterday said that there was absolutely no truth in the allegation that it planned to settle Sinhalese in the post-war Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts. The allegation had been made by the TNA at a meeting with a visiting delegation of Tamil Nadu MPs at India House in Colombo. This was nothing but a barefaced lie, ministerial sources told The Island adding more..

Oct 13 (LNP) Indictment was served before Colombo High Court Judge on two accused in connection with former Foreign Minister Laxman Kadirgamar s assassination. The prosecution commenced leading evidence from the late Kadirgamar's personal guard Major Suranga Niroshana Manathunga of the Commando Regiment after the accused pleaded not guilty. Attorney - General filed indictment against six including LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and more..

Oct 13 (LP) Sri Lanka's average remittances per person has reached US$131 making it a nation with the largest per capita remittances in South Asia. On average the remittances per person in South Asia is US$33. Sri Lanka's average is eight times higher than the regional average. US$2,527 million remittances that were sent to Sri Lanka by migrant workers accounted 8% of GDP in 2007. more..

Oct 13 (LNP) The UPFA has secured a convincing victory with a two-thirds majority of 38 members at the recently concluded Southern Provincial Council Election. This massive victory is clearly present in all the districts namely Galle, Matara and Hambantota. People in the Southern Province have thus given a slap in the face of the UNP which fought against the UPFA, National Freedom Front Leader Wimal Weerawansa has said in a press release. more..

Oct 13 (LNP) Prabhakaran and his trusted lieutenants may be dead for months but the country is not yet free from terrorism of the underworld. There are some much advertised halfhearted forays into the nether world of crime from time to time but criminals have demonstrated their ability to rise above the law of the land. Worse, notorious underworld elements are even in a position to have efficient police officers taking the battle into more..

Oct 13 (LNP) The City Football League ground redeveloped with the funds obtained from the tsunami Solidarity and the Basel pavilion a donation from Ms.Gigi Oeri, the Chairperson of FC Basel and President of the SCORT Foundation, Switzerland will be opened by the Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa today at 3.30 p.m. The President of the Asian Football Confederation Mohamed Bin Hammam and more..

Oct 13 (LNP) Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the opposition leader and leader of the UNP, is to meet the visiting Indian MPs in Colombo today. The meeting is to take place at his Cambridge Terrace residence, according to party sources. The UNP has welcomed the visit of the South Indian MPs to look at the plight of the IDPs living in welfare camps in the North. more..

Oct 13 (DN) We have reached a watershed in the annals of our modern history and we must not, and will not, let the unique opportunity to build a Sri Lanka that we can all be proud of, slip from our grasp. The goodwill, participation and contribution of all segments of our national polity, and also of those persons of Sri Lankan origin who are dispersed across the world, must be included in this process of rejuvenation and national renewal. more..

Oct 13 (DN) There has been a gradual decrease in land market transactions in the past two years. Purchasing land was considered an investment. However, with the drop in interest rates there is a likelihood that the demand for lands will go up, a spokesman for the Department of Valuation told Daily News Business. There were less land transactions in the Colombo city compared to transactions in the outstations. more..

Oct 13 (DN) The re-registration of companies under the new Act No. 7 of 2007 has become vital to identify the active companies in Sri Lanka. The company registration started in 1861 under the Joint Stock Companies Ordinance and until the implementation of the new Act in 2007, there were 66,496 registered companies with the Department of Registrar General of Companies. Despite the large number of companies registered only 24,948 companies applied for re-registration, more..

Oct 13 (DN) Mallika de Mel, former Member of Parliament passed away after a brief illness yesterday in a private Nursing Home in Colombo. She was a leading Social Worker in the South and in Kalutara District, where she spent a whole life time of service to the poor and dispossessed for over 40 years. Without utilizing any government funds, she spent from her own vast fortune to build hundreds of houses for the homeless, more..

Oct 13 (LS) SLMC contemplate towards the Tamilnadu politicians visit to Sri Lanka as only the ruling parliament members were called by the Sri Lankan government. The Tamilnadu political representatives visited Sri Lanka to observe the displaced people, are members from ruling congress and Diravida Munnetra Alliance parties hence the minority parties are much perturbed, as to why the government parliament members are only called by the Sri Lankan government. more..

Oct 13 (LS) A Statement was issued by J.M.Aaron, the displaced people sheltered in the internment camps in Sri Lanka are not facing hardships according to the news items published in the Indian Media. Such actuality was able to observe by him, while he personally visited the northern displaced camps was mentioned by him. There are problems of obtaining drinking water and vegetables in the midst of people sheltered at the displaced camps, but more..

Oct 13 (Island) Non Government Organizations had funded so called environmentalists to the tune of Rs. 3.7 million to block the proposed compost plant and final disposal facility in Dompe, Minister Champika Ranawaka said. "These culprits who pose as environmentalists were behind the sabotage. I request them to come for an open debate rather than block development," he said. more..

Oct 13 (Island) Newly re-elected Southern Provincial Councillor Buddhika Pathirana would be named the next Opposition Leader of the 55-member council, party sources said yesterday. He had received the highest percentage (61.09%) of preferential votes polled for any single party as a candidate in Saturday’s SPC election securing 57,802 votes of the 94,614 received by UNP for Matara District. more..

Oct 13 (Island) Senior Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Lands and Land Development B. M.P. Udayakantha said that the Government had commenced a program to distribute land belonging to the State to those people who are legitimately landless. He said that on the advise of President Mahinda Rajapaksa this programme of distributing available land among the landless and applications were called for from August of 2009. more..

Oct 13 (Island) The whole world has focused on the problem of urbanizing and Sri Lanka has launched several programmes to address the problems related to urbanization during the past decades. In this connection, more attention has been drawn to the problems of poverty-stricken people of the city. President Mahinda Rajapaksa realizing the impact of development of the city on rural areas has given priority to development of the village, more..

Oct 13 (DM) The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) is to install a new computerized traffic lights system in the Colombo City soon. All traffic lights would be interconnected and form a network under this new system, which is termed finconaisation. “Under this system, when a vehicle passes the traffic lights when the green light flashes, it will find that the green light is on at the next signal light as well,” he said. more..

Oct 13 (DM) Remanded Ceylinco Chairman, Lalith Kotelawala yesterday consented to the Colombo District Court to discharge his duties as the guardian of Dr. Gamini Corea and manager of the property. The District Judge Laffar Thahir made the decree Nisi given earlier absolute when Lalith Kotelawala produced an affidavit from the prison hospital consenting to hand over the guardianship of Dr. Corea to a relative, more..

Oct 13 (DM) UNP front-liner Palitha Range Bandara yesterday accused the police of having failed to arrest any suspect involved in the arson attack on his residence and party office in Chilaw despite the substantial evidence provided by him. The attack took place on October 4, when Mr. Bandara was away campaigning in Deniyaya. “In my statement to the police, I gave the names of the suspects involved in this attack which left my home and party office razed to the ground. more..

Oct 13 (DM) Indian MP and member of Dravida Munnethra Kalagham Party J.M.Aaron, presently on a visit to Sri Lanka with a group of Indian Parliamentarians, said that the IDPs in the camps in the North did not seem to have been suffering as the Media in India had painted. He said so at a media briefing held in the hill country, following a tour of the tea estate region at the invitation of the secretary general of the Ceylon Workers Congress. more..

Oct 13 (BBC) Australia's prime minister has made a personal plea to the Indonesian president to prevent a boatload of Sri Lankan migrants reaching Australia. Kevin Rudd made the phone call over the weekend asking the Indonesian authorities to intervene. The boat, which set off from Indonesia, had 260 suspected Sri Lankan asylum seekers, some women and children. The vessel was intercepted by the Indonesian navy off Krakatoa and was reportedly escorted to West Java. more..

Oct 13 (IANS) Indian MPs currently on a visit to Sri Lanka should raise concerns about the “safety and dignity” of the hundreds of thousands of Tamils who have been displaced by civil war, Amnesty International said. The refugees, who have been sheltered in 21 government-run closed camps in the north and east of the island nation, have not been allowed to leave the camps and seek alternative accommodation, the human rights group said. more..

Oct 14 (LT) The High Court Judge Mr Ruwan Fernando yesterday ordered the Kaduwela Magistrate to bail out wife of Senior Police Superintendent Was Gunawardena and his son who were in remand custody for assaulting Nipuna Ramanayaka, a student at SLIT at Malabe were bailed out on Rs 35,000 each with a physical bail of Rs 5 lakhs each. All the ten suspects were bailed out asking them report to Athurugiriya Police Station once a fortnight and more..

Oct 14 (AFP) TWENTY-TWO suspected Tamil Tiger rebels went on trial on Monday for running an extortion racket among Paris's ethnic Tamil diaspora to fund their separatist struggle in Sri Lanka. The defendants include Nadaraja Matinthiran, the alleged leader in France of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is accused of extorting some five million euros (S$10 million) from the country's 75,000 Tamils. more..

Oct 14 (BBC) The police in Sri Lanka are accused of trying to undermine a serious abduction and assault case against senior police officers. Lawyers representing IT student Nipuna Ramanayake, who was adducted and assaulted allegedly by police officers and family members of a senoor police officer, made the accusations as the case was taken for hearing by the Kaduwela magistrate. The lawyers also accused the police of deliberately not naming SSP Vaas Gunawardene, whose wife and son are named as suspects. more..

Oct 14 (TA) MORE than 260 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers were last night threatening to blow up their boat if the Indonesian navy forced them to disembark at the port in Merak after the large cargo boat they were piloting towards Christmas Island broke down. "We have gas canisters and we have told the navy we will blow up the boat and jump into the ocean if they try to force us off the boat," said a spokesman for the asylum-seekers, more..

Oct 14 (AFP) Sri Lanka will hold early presidential and parliamentary elections, state radio announced Tuesday, as the government looks to gain from strong public support after its defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels. The presidential poll, which was due by November 2011, will now be held before April 2010, the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation said. It did not give an exact date. more..

oct 14 (LBO) American firms are scouting for business opportunities in post-war Sri Lanka in anticipation of accelerated economic growth, officials said. Senior executives, mainly from top US companies in India, are in Colombo for talks with Sri Lankan firms and government agencies. US investments could help rebuild the war-ravaged economy and contribute to lasting peace, Michael Delaney, assistant US Trade Representative for South Asia, more..

Oct 14 (Hindu) The 10-member parliamentary delegation from Tamil Nadu on Tuesday called on Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and exchanged views on the rehabilitation of the 2.5-lakh war displaced housed in government-run camps and the contours of a political solution to the ethnic conflict. A report on the meeting posted on the Presidential Secretariat web site said: “They came with a different mindset but having visited the welfare centres for IDPs, more..

Oct 14 (IL) Sri Lanka Janahanda Foundation-UK provided an excellent opportunity for British parliamentarians, Sri Lanka High Commission representatives in London, Hounslow Borough Councillors and local Sri Lankan and British audience to enjoy a multi-ethnic cultural and musical extravaganza, on Saturday night. Sri Lanka High Commissioner in London, Justice Nihal Jayasinghe, Rt Hon Des Browne MP (Kilmarnock & Loudoun) and more..

Oct 14 (LG) A few days ago the Deputy Minister of Finance appearing on TV said that the government will take action to provide job opportunities to all unemployed graduates in the government sector. According to him this will be done in January next year. Doubts arise in the minds of parents of unemployed graduates regarding the sudden statement of the Minister since there is no proper plan to be implemented by the government to address this issue. more..

Oct 14 (LG) Business today has gone to the dogs. A casual survey of the increasingly canine field of commerce will reveal a distinctly doggy trend. On the one hand, there are the sunshine stories of mercantile ladies in love with tramps (strays, dear, of the bouwa-ine ilk) and dog shows that showcase not mere thoroughbreds but the most thoroughly-loved. On the other, proving the axiom that into each rottweiler’s life some rain must fall, more..

Oct 14 (LNW) I will speak a few words mainly for the consumption of officers on this special occasion of the 60th Anniversary Parade in English. This may be the last occasion I make an address of this nature to officers and men of the Sri Lanka Army. Although I am still serving in the Army I have finished my obligations dedicated to the Army as I have reached deferent heights at this time. more..

Oct 14 (BL) People of the North and South are respected as trendsetters. On Saturday and Sunday they gave the country their distinct messages. People of the South have told the government through Saturday’s Southern Provincial Council election that while they appreciate all the mega developments in the South, there is more to be addressed, and a fair guess may be in the cost of living area. more..

Oct 14 (GV) It was one night some years ago that I realized how deep discrimination against Tamils runs in Sri Lanka. We were all stopped at a checkpoint and I happened to notice that my friend’s National Identity Card (NIC) had some extra lettering to mine. At a glance, it somehow seemed more crowded than mine. After going through the paces at the checkpoint, I asked for my friend’s NIC to have a closer look. more..

Oct 14 (BL) Midst apparent soured diplomatic relations recently the United States and Sri Lanka yesterday began a fresh series of what could be a critical dialogue for businesses and trade of the two countries to rise above politics. As a forerunner to the seventh round of talks tomorrow under the US Lanka Trade and Investment Framework (TIFA) which the two countries first began in 2002, the official and high level business delegations interacted yesterday in the city. more..

Oct 14 (BL) Sri Lanka has once again emerged as a strong finalist in BBC’s World Challenge which looks to promote sustainable grass root enterprises from across the globe through an annual competition. This year’s finalist is the Safe Bottle Lamp invented by Dr. Wijaya Godakumbura. A surgeon by profession, Dr. Godakumbura had seen firsthand the number of fatalities caused in Sri Lanka each year due to burn wounds due to unsafe, makeshift kerosene lamps that more..

Oct 14 (BL) From the scrumptious Very Berry Strawberry to the addictive chocolate chip cookie dough, from the classy pralines n cream to the irresistible, deadly and sinful world class chocolate, anyone who has tried Baskin-Robbins will never forget the sheer pleasure each bite brings and finally, Sri Lankans will have the option of enjoying their world class ice cream this month. In 1953, two brothers-in-law, each with a passion for ice cream and more..

Oct 14 (BL) JVP said yesterday that with the US $ 2.6bn Stand By Arrangement doled out by the IMF, Sri Lanka would be in debt till well over 2050. “If the Government of Sri Lanka, had finished asking for any more loans by September 2008, still our last repayment would made in 2047. So with the latest IMF loans all Sri Lankans plus the unborn generations would be in debt to the world, until well over 2050.” more..

Oct 14 (BL) Distraught Golden Key depositors have relief in sight as a Supreme Court directive yesterday implemented the first phase of the Golden Key repayment plan. Personal bank accounts of Lalith Kotelawala’s wife, Sicille Kotelawala with deposits amounting to Rs. 259 million are to be seized and transferred to the dedicated account maintained by Bank of Ceylon for the purpose of granting relief to GK depositors. more..

Oct 14 (Hindu) The Communist Party of India on Tuesday said the government should renegotiate with Sri Lanka the treaty on Katchatheevu to benefit Indian fishermen. Party national secretary and member of Parliament D. Raja made this demand after External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said the “right of access is not understood to cover fishing rights around the island to Indian fishermen.” more..