July 7 (Xinhua) Sri Lanka is to relocate over 200 wild elephants to construct a new airport and massive games city in the south of the country to host a sporting event, a minister said Thursday. Sri Lanka is bidding to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Hambantota and if selected a massive games city will be constructed at the selected location which borders a national park. "Some 200 elephants will be relocated from parts of Hambantota where more..

July 7 (Island) Contrary to Minister Susil Premajayantha’s statement to the effect that payment for 20,000 metric tons of fuel, imported from a private supplier in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), which was alleged to have been contaminated, was suspended, a Letter of Credit (LC) has been opened with a State bank. Minister Premajayantha said that 17,000 metric tons had already been distributed to filling stations, but more..

July 8 (LBO) Sri Lanka's vehicle registrations were up 65.2 percent in May 2011 to 41,862 from a year earlier, with total registrations also up 65 percent to 200,415 in the first five months of the year, official data shows. Car registrations rose 10 times to 5,173 in May, motor cycle imports were up 38.2 percent to 22,036 and three wheelers were up 64 percent to 9,518. Sri Lanka's vehicle imports rose sharply this year after the state cut taxes. Sri Lanka has a oppressive tax policy on cars where more..

July 8 (GDI) An Agreement has been signed by the Government of Sri Lanka with Cairn Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd. pertaining to the exploration work of the above block which includes a minimum work programme including drilling. Drilling is the most technical and risky aspect of a petroleum exploration programme and drilling locations and drill depths may need changes at short notice due to operational difficulties and emergencies during drilling. more..

July 8 (AT) Indigenous people in Sri Lanka are to celebrate the United Nations’ International Day of the World's Indigenous People on August 9th on a grand scale this year. UN International Day of Indigenous People is celebrated on August 9th each year to promote and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous population. This event also recognizes the achievements and contributions that indigenous people make to improve world issues more..

July 8 (DM) The much talked about 20,000 ton petrol stocks has been removed from the market and a new stock has been issued for public use. The public could use the newly issued consignment without any fear and that fuel distribution was successfully taking place Island wide. Further releasing a statement the Petroleum Ministry stated that under the directions of Petroleum Industries Minister Susil Premajayantha the newly imported petrol consignment was distributed island wide and more..

July 8 (Age) A negative edict from the Australian govt is seemingly the only way Australia would pull out of next month's tour of Sri Lanka. The conduct of the Sri Lankan military, and its government, in halting the long-running civil war involving the Tamil community has been under renewed scrutiny in the past week because of a critical British television documentary, shown locally on the ABC's Four Corners. The documentary contained footage depicting Tamil hospitals being attacked and more..

July 8 (LT) The IUSF has demanded that the govt immediately withdraws the plan to sell to foreign students opportunities of thousands of children in this country to study in universities. Speaking at an agitation held opposite fort Railway Station yesterday (6th) the convener of the IUSF Sanjeewa Bandara said a continuous agitation would be carried out with the participation of students who lose these opportunities, more..

July 8 (PTI) Seeking India's pro-active role in addressing the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, CPI today said it will organise a nationwide solidarity day tomorrow to highlight the sufferings of the ethnic minority in the island.Even two years after the war ended in Sri Lanka, the Tamils were "suffering" in camps with "no rehabilitation", CPI National Secretary D Raja said here."Sinhala colonisation is taking place in the Tamil occupied areas. more..

July 8 (LBO) Sri Lanka's government is seeking a new head for the Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat (PRDS), to lead the island's search for oil and gas resources. The vacancy for the Director General of the Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat has been posted on the website of the organisation, which now comes under the Presidential Secretariat. The PRDS was originally under the petroleum ministry but was later brought under President Mahinda Rajapaksa. more..

July 8 (AD) The water levels at the catchment areas have reduced to 25%, Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka stated while adding that if the water level recedes to a level of 15% most of the reservoirs will not be used for power generation. Minister Ranawaka stated that the country was currently generating most of its power requirements through thermal power stations which in turn bears a great cost on the country. more..

July 8 (EB) Jayalalithaa has submitted a memo to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that lists demands from post-conflict Sri Lanka. She has said that the Sri Lankan regime should be held accountable for war crimes during the last days of the fratricidal war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), where thousands of civilians were killed, hundreds of thousands became refuges, Tamil areas of the north were reduced to rubble, and humanitarian assistance to Tamils were denied. more..

July 8 (GDI) Sri Lankans’ annual rice production has gone up making the country 117% self sufficient in rice due to continuous fertilizer subsidy programme continued by the government for the last six years. As a result of the rapid increase in local food production mainly the staple food - rice , the authorities said that the annual per-capita wheat flour consumption has come down rapidly. it has now come down to 28kg in 2011 from its earlier records of 41Kg. more..

July 8 (ENS) With a view to provide tourists visiting Colombo via a ship from Tuticorin with a unique holiday experience, Flemingo Liners, the international passenger ferry service operating in the sector, has launched a “Drive in-Drive out” facility on its vessel Scotia Prince. According to the ferry operator, this new facility will enable tourists to take their vehicles with them on the ferry and drive around at the destination. more..

July 8 (GDI) The Colombo City Tour adds flavor and excitement to the city of Colombo’s tourist attractions further promoting & enhancing the Tourism Industry consonant with the “Mahinda Chinthanaya" the Vision of the President. It is now operating an exciting and educative ‘Kiddies Colombo Ride’ especially for kids and their parents, with its increasing popularity and various seasonal packages and tours. This unique experience combines an unforgettable fun filled ride of more..

July 8 (ST) Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who met with the United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon in New York recently said that unless the govt pays serious attention to the UN Panel of Experts report, it will be difficult to stop continued international interference in Sri Lankan affairs. The UNP Leader met the UNP Secretary General on July 5th when he was on a visit there said that it is necessary for everyone to get together and build up the image of the country more..

July 8 (LBO) Sri Lanka will build a new 'tourist city' in the Western coastal city of Katana north of Colombo, which may draw 1.5 billion US dollars in foreign investments in its first phase alone. The development will have four 5-star hotels with 2,300 rooms, an exhibition and convention centre and two shopping malls and be sited on a 80 hectare block of state land. A firm called Asian Resorts & Consortium has been given approval by more..

July 8 (PTI) Madras High Court Bench here today upheld a trial court's order convicting two persons, including a Sri Lankan national in a 2005 drug trafficking case. Dismissing appeals by Sachidanandham of Sri Lanka and A Ilango challenging their conviction in the case filed by the Narcotics Control Bureau, Justice M Sathyanarayanan held NCB had proved beyond reasonable doubt. The two were arrested for attempting to smuggle 3.5 kg of heroin to Sri Lankan through the Rameswaram more..

July 8 (NN) Minister G.L Peiris has backed some army officials being appointed as Ambassadors to represent Sri Lanka overseas. Responding to a statement made by the UNP in parliament, G.L Peiris said that people like Major General Shavendra Silva had done yeoman service even as an Ambassador. UNP MP John Amaratunga told parliament that the appointment of inexperienced officials to the foreign service was affecting Sri Lanka’s image. He said that military officials should not be in foreign service as more..

July 8 (LBO) The Sri Lankan govt has approved changes to an offshore oil well drilling programme by Cairn India in the northwestern Gulf of Mannar set to start in August this year, officials said. The Cabinet of ministers Wednesday had approved changes to the drilling locations and depth in Cairn's original programme of work. "Drilling is the most technical and risky aspect of a petroleum exploration programme and drilling locations and more..

July 8 (Economist) Cricket is supposed to uphold the virtue of fair play. The preamble to the Laws of Cricket talks about “the spirit of the game”; their English custodians even hold an annual “Spirit of Cricket” lecture at Lord’s in London, the game’s home. In Sri Lanka, cricketers have long been a source of inspiration for a troubled island: not just for their sporting prowess (the national team punches far above its weight) but also for their capacity to unite. more..

July 8 (DM) Having lost their all three round robin matches in the 13th World Netball Championships in Singapore, Sri Lanka underwent another defeat when they were beaten by Barbados in the ranking match for the ninth to the 16th position which was played on Thursday morning. It has been an unlucky tournament for the die-hard Lankan lasses who has so far though coming out as losers. They played more than what was expected from them. more..

July 8 (NN) Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Alistair Burt was among those who attended a meeting organized by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) in London on Tuesday, the GTF said in a statement today. GTF said that the packed reception in the British Parliament on Tuesday highlighted the level of support amongst parliamentarians and key decision-makers for truth, accountability and justice in Sri Lanka. more..

July 8 (LBO) The soaring Australian dollar has turned the country's four biggest cities into some of the most expensive locations in the world, according to a new global survey published Thursday. Sydney and Melbourne are now the sixth and seventh most expensive cities on the planet, the Economist Intelligence Unit's biennial cost of living survey revealed. More significantly Perth and Brisbane, major regional centres closest to the country's booming coal and iron ore mines, more..

July 8 (NN) The COPE has pointed out several irregularities of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and demanded the previous Interim Committee to provide to Parliament a breakdown on income and expenditure from 2005 to 2008, where the COPE held that the SLC has operated without a budgetary, corporate or action plan as pointed out by the Auditor General. The previous SLC Interim Committee and the present Committee attended a meeting of COPE that lasted for over 4 hours yesterday, more..

July 8 (BBC) When Kumar Sangakkara took to the podium to deliver the annual Cowdrey lecture at Lord's he was fully aware that the words he had prepared would send a shockwave through Sri Lanka's cricket establishment. But by voicing his belief that the development of the game in Sri Lanka has been hindered by constant turmoil off the pitch, he was merely echoing the thoughts of many fans. Cricket in Sri Lanka has been overseen by interim administrations more..

July 8 (LG) Channel Four’s footage on Sri Lanka broadcast on the 14th June 2011 , created a sanctimonious ripple effect which still has not precipitated from the media. An inward reaction to the Channel Four broadcast in the UK enabled some disgruntled viewers to lodge their complaints with The Broadcasting Complaint Authority’s ( Ofcom ) and its weekly Report covering the period from 14th June 2011 to 20th June 2011 indicates that there were 105 complaints from those who more..

July 8 (LG) Among the subjects of intense debate in the national and international political arenas today is the right or the propriety of a country or a group of countries to interfere in the internal affairs of another country. This subject has come to the fore because of the increasing tendency for countries to show interest in what goes on in other countries – neighbouring or otherwise - in the global community. While some countries show this interest in subtle, more..

July 8 (TC) Sri Lanka’s Minister of National Languages, MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara paid a visit to the Sri Lankan Embassy in Paris today, 5th July 2011. Minister Nanayakkara handed over both Sinhala and Tamil text books to representatives of several Sri Lankan associations in France . This visit to the Sri Lankan Embassy was also an opportunity to share his vision on post-war Sri Lanka. more..

July 8 (LG) We have received feedback from many angles, in relation to the Australian ABC’s 4 Corners Program - ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’. These include a Notice of Motion by Senator Bob Brown (Leader of Australian Greens Party) as shown in Appendix 1. When I received the email regarding the Green’s ‘Notice of Motion’ my first thought was about the ‘Silence’ from Senator Hanson Young of the same party, to whom my emails are sent almost daily – many of them on the Sri Lankan issue. more..

July 8 (LG) White collar crime is a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation. White collar crime is usually committed by executives or other white collar workers against the corporation or business entity they work for. The distinction between this and corporate crime is that white-collar crime is likely to be a crime against the corporation, whereas corporate crime is crime committed by more..

July 8 (Cimic) The Civil Affairs Office of the 511 Brigade following information provided by the Kopay Divisional Secretariat conducted a research and identified 74 families run by women whose husbands are either dead, totally disable or deserted their families. At the initial stage of the project, 12 cows were given to 12 women at their request. Price of one cow is estimated to be Rs. 43000/= and more..

July 8 (DM) When they called it ‘separatism’ is sounded like a cuss-word. Separatists took time to get smart. Perhaps it would be more correct to say it took them a long time to recover smartness. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam hit the correct idea when he said it was possible to extract anything from the Sinhalese as long as it is done slowly, an idea he captured in the pithy ‘A little now, more later.’ Leaving aside the notion that whoever did the ‘taking’ would be taking from all Sri Lankans and more..

July 8 (DM) Since the end of the war two years ago the govt began the resettlement process that has reportedly just ended. However, various claims of people in the North being displaced even after the war seem to be coming to light with the govt vehemently denying such reports. Tamil politicians allege that even though the resettlement process was taking place there was much more to be done by the govt; from providing people with proper housing to job opportunities which are few in the area. more..

July 8 (SO) The Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) last week updated the base period of the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) the official consumer price index to 2006/07. It was based on 2002. The regular revision of the base period of CPI is a technical detail and is the normal practice that requires to reflect the changing household consumption pattern, said Director, Price and Wages Department D.C.A. Gunawardena. more..

July 8 (ST) Despite the significant contribution that agriculture could make to the country’s economy that was discussed last week, and the incessant rhetoric supportive of agriculture, the reality is a lack of funding to improve the country’s agricultural productivity. This is not so only in Sri Lanka but the world over. Even international assistance for agriculture has been inadequate. The World Development Report of 2008 revealed that agricultural and rural sectors in more..

July 8 (SL) Although there is mounting pressure internationally against Sri Lanka, with Western countries and the European community taking a tough stand against it, the President of SL however reposed immense confidence in India and the Commonwealth countries that they would stand by SL. If by chance, a resolution is brought against SL before the UN Security Council or the UN Human Rights Council, the President entertained the view that India and the Commonwealth countries more..

July 8 (NS) The Sri Lanka government has finally woken up to reality and has called for elections to Sri Lanka Cricket in January. The government’s decision comes in the wake of the ICC (International Cricket Council), the world governing body for cricket taking a decision at their annual conference held in Hong Kong “to suspend a member country in the event of government interferences in the running of a national cricket board”. more..

July 8 (DN) The consumption of locally produced rice is not harmful for the human body. Although it is natural for locally produced rice to contain minute particles of arsenic, its content is insignificant and much less than arsenic found in rice produced abroad that it will never cause any harm to a person's health, a group of scientists who met Prime Minister D M Jayaratne said. "For that matter, all food items consumed by people naturally contain some amount of arsenic," they told the Prime Minister more..

July 8 (DN) Fish consumption has increased by 11 percent from last year due to reduced fish prices and expansion of the Ceylon Fisheries Corporation's fish stalls islandwide, said Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne. The minister was addressing an opening ceremony of a community centre in Sagarasirigama. Community Centres and fish landing centers were opened in Epamulla, Ja-Ela, Palangathurai, Wennappuwa, Thaldeka, Kadawatha, Modarawella, Kurusagahapaduwa and Ambakandawila areas as well. more..