Apr 2 (Dawn) The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) has reacted strongly to the statement of the President of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Mr Anandasangari, that he would contest the forthcoming local government elections independently. more..

Apr 2 (AP) Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger separatist rebels — taking advantage of their cease-fire with the Sri Lankan government — have taken to the game of cricket, winning their first match in a grand style, a news report said. more..

Apr 2 (OW) Closed since 1985 after Tamil separatists and Sri Lankan security forces converted it into an unlikely battleground, Sri Lanka's famous Wilpattu National Park was reopened for visitors recently, under a U.S funded wildlife restoration project. more..

Apr 2 (DN) The Tea Market showed a dramatic improvement yesterday with most of the produce on offer being sold at better prices despite the on-going war in Iraq, the government said yesterday. The statement opined that the improvement in prices and quantity was due to renewed buying paradoxically from the Middle East. more..

Apr 2 (Reuters) Police have arrested 21 Pakistanis alleged to have been planning to enter Italy illegally in fishing trawlers, an official said on Wednesday. The arrests were made at a Colombo hotel following a tip, Senior Superintendent of Police D.S.Y. Samaratunge told Reuters. more..

Apr 2 (TN) “There aren’t good relations between the people of Jaffna and the Police as a consequence of twenty years of war”, said Sri Lanka’s Inspector general of Police, Mr. T. E Anandarajah, speaking to presspersons in the northern town Wednesday. more..

Apr 2 (BBC) Bob Woolmer has declined an offer to coach Sri Lanka to continue his consultancy role for the International Cricket Council (ICC). Woolmer told the BBC Sport website: "They did ask me but I turned them down." more..

Apr 2 (UNI) The Sri Lankan government today agreed to the main demand of the LTTE rebels and the Tamil parties to relocate its major military camp out of the dense-Tamil populated Jaffna town. more..

Apr 2 (ET) Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) is now planning to expand its operations in Sri Lanka further with investments of around $38 million. After the first phase, wherein it took over petrol pumps, the oil major has now focused its attention on developing an oil tankage facility in the island nation. more..

Apr 3 (Kyodo) Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels will not be invited to an international meeting in Washington later this month to consider aid for the country's reconstruction after over two decades of civil war, U.S. Ambassador Ashley Wills said here Wednesday. more..

Apr 3 (Island) President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s spokesman Harim Peiris yesterday cautioned the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to be "careful about what it says as it would lose credibility." more..

Apr 3 (CI) World Cup star Chaminda Vaas will miss Sri Lanka's crucial first Sharjah Cup match against Pakistan on Friday. Vaas, who took a record 23 wickets at 14.39 during the World Cup, has injured his right landing ankle in practice. more..

Apr 3 (TN) "The recent attacks on the Chinese trawler off Mullaittivu and the troops transport ship off Trincomalee are not only attacks against Chinese civilians and the Sri Lanka armed forces, but attacks aimed at destabilizing the Ceasefire and the Peace Process in Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 3 (TN) Five parliamentarians of the TNA, joined the sit-in-protest campaign of the volunteer teachers, which entered 31st day Wednesday in front of the offices of the northeast provincial ministry of education and provincial department of education in Trincomalee, sources said. more..

Apr 3 (SLA) An LTTE deserter has attempted to commit suicide by swallowing poison on 01 April 2003 in the general area of KARADIYANARU, about 23 km west of BATTICALOA. more..

Apr 3 (SLA) A political activist of the ex-Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) has been shot dead by suspected LTTE gunmen in the general area of KATTANKUDY, about 6 km. southeast of BATTICALOA on 02 April 2003 around 11.45 a.m. more..

Apr 3 (SLA) A suspected LTTE cadre named SELVARATNAM SUDHARSHAN of NELLIYAAN, CHAMPIANPATTU has sought protection from Security Forces (SF) on duty at Forward Defence Line (FDL) at NAGARKOVIL on 2 April 2003 after he escaped from LTTE. more..

Apr 3 (Gulf) President Chandrika Kumaratunga yesterday accused U.S. President George W. Bush of adopting double standards by sending American troops to Iraq to wage war and calling Sri Lanka's government to negotiate with the Tamil guerrillas. more..

Apr 3 (Gulf) A leader of a Tamil minority political party has slammed the Scandinavian monitors on their recent comments about the attacks on a Chinese trawler and a Naval troop carrier off north eastern Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 3 (CI) Unilever Ceylon made a spectacular comeback into sponsorship of school cricket in Sri Lanka when they signed a 3.5 million sponsorship package with the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association and the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 3 (DOI) A 'Land Bank' to announce sites available for tourism development will be established soon. The move, on a directive of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe envisages establishing an up-to-date Information Bank for the use of both international and local investors keen on setting up leisure related business. more..

Apr 3 (DOI) President Chandrika Kumaratunga remains totally committed to the process of finding a negotiated settlement to resolve the country's ethnic conflict, Presidential Media spokesman Harim Peiris asserted yesterday. more..

Apr 3 (DOI) The Government has sought the assistance of the United States to solve problems in exporting tea to countries in the Middle East including Iraq. According to reliable sources the US Ambassador Ashely Wills had met the Plantation Industries Minister Lakshman Kiriella more..

Apr 3 (DM) Repeated trade union action of doctors and dentists crippled the state Health sector yesterday while more strikes are in the offing. The dentists in the Western Province staged a one-day strike yesterday while doctors in the Sabaragamuwa province earlier launched a three-day strike and GMOA is to launch a countrywide strike today. more..

Apr 3 (DN) A former DIG and founder of the Police Narcotics Bureau R. Sundaralingam Tuesday appealed for the political will and strength to assist the drug enforcement agencies to combat international criminality and the spread of hard drugs. more..

Apr 3 (PSL) Renowned Sri Lankan physiatrist Dr. Nalaka Mendis and a team of physicians met President Kumaratunga to discuss increasing incidents of mental illness in the country such as depression, anxiety, and stress related ailments. more..

Apr 3 (AFP) Sri Lanka today said it hoped that India would participate at a crucial aid-related meeting, called by the US to help support the island's peace bid, in Washington this month. more..

Apr 3 (AFP) Sri Lanka's government was seriously considering a referendum on its controversial Norwegian-backed peace bid with Tamil Tiger rebels, a senior minister has said here. more..

Apr 3 (TN) A Swiss de-mining organisation operating in the north said Thursday that it is expanding its team to clear more areas afflicted by land mines and unexploded ordnance. A spokesperson for the organisation, FSD, said that it has trained a new batch forty persons in mine clearing techniques, more..

Apr 3 (TN) The Liberation Tigers believe that people’s support for the peace process could be obtained if the cease fire agreement is implemented fully, the head of the LTTE’s political division Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan told Nobel Peace Price winner Mr. John Hume, during discussions between the two in Kilinochchi Thursday, sources said. more..

Apr 3 (CI) John Bracewell, who helped English county team Gloucestershire win six one-day trophies in the past four seasons, wants to become Sri Lanka's new cricket coach. Anura Tennakoon, chief executive of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka, plans to speak to the former New Zealand off-spinner this week. more..

Apr 3 (CI) Outstanding Wesley schoolboy cricketer Farveez Mahroof was included in a 19-member pool picked for training ahead of the New Zealand cricket tour to Sri Lanka later this month. more..

Apr 4 (BL) THE former Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Mr Lakshman Kadirgamar, feels that the Ranil Wickremesinghe Government, "having brought the LTTE to the negotiating table, is desperate to keep it there". more..

Apr 4 (TN) A senior official of Sri Lanka’s Urban Development Authority (UDA) held a consultative meeting at the Jaffna District Secretariat Thursday on re-designing and rebuilding the Jaffna town. more..

Apr 4 (Island) The government on Wednesday said that it approved the divestiture of the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) to a consortium of companies led by the Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka Ltd. more..

Apr 4 (DN) Veteran Singer Gunadasa Kapuge (57) passed away at the Colombo National Hospital last morning. Kapuge sustained critical injuries on Wednesday in a fall while disembarking from his flight at the Bandaranaike International Airport. more..

Apr 4 (LBO) Plans to set up a common regulator for the communication and information sectors have been activated with a draft bill now available. The draft bill accommodates the rapid changes taking place in the industry and is in line with the state’s ICT development agenda. more..

Apr 4 (TN) The LTTE Friday protested its exclusion from an international donor conference to be hosted by the United States in Washington on April 14 to back reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in the Tamil north and east of Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 4 (TN) International voluntary organization, Terre des homme (Tdh) which has its head quarters in Switzerland, Thursday, opened a Medical and Health Clinic in Ayathiyamalai, a village located 52km southwest of Batticaloa town, health officials in Batticaloa said. more..

Apr 4 (TN) Indian trawlers have again started trespassing into Sri Lankan terroritorial waters in the northern sea to engage in iillegal fishing depriving the livelihood of Vadamarachchi fishermen in the Jaffna district and depleting the marine resources, more..

Apr 4 (TN) The LTTE Friday dismissed as “illogical, impractical and unnecessary” Sri Lankan government suggestions for an island-wide referendum on the ongoing peace initiative. more..

Apr 4 (LBO) The remains of THARANGA PRIYADHARSHANA of GALAGEDARA, SENAGAMA, AKURESSA, who died under tragic circumstances after his fishing vessel with Chinese nationals on board came under alleged LTTE attack on 20 March 2003, were brought into the cleared areas on a van (57-0345). more..

Apr 4 (SLA) Two more teenaged LTTE recruits in civil clothes who ran away from SAMPOOR LTTE camp have sought protection from the MUTTUR Police post on 03 April 2003 around 7.00 a.m. more..

Apr 4 (Xinhua) US Commander of Pacific Air Force General William J. Begert arrived in Sri Lanka on Thursday for a four-day visit. Begert will pay courtesy calls on Commander of the Sri Lanka air force Donald Perera and Secretary of Defense Ministry Austin Fernando and meet the Air Force Board of Management on Friday. more..

Apr 4 (DM) Thousands of poor patients were left stranded without treatment at the National hospitals and other public hospitals countrywide yesterday as government doctors staged a token strike over a pay dispute. more..

Apr 4 (DOI) The Presidential Secretariat in a media release yesterday appreciated the World Bank's sustained confidence in Sri Lanka and expressed the President's pleasure particularly to note that the World Bank has pledged a sum of $800 million for Sri Lanka's development targets. more..

Apr 4 (DOI) The deadly pneumonia virus SARS, which is now terrifying Asia and the world has been identified by a Sri Lankan doctor Dr. Malik Peiris, a graduate of the Peradeniya Medical Faculty. Dr. Peiris a microbiologist who is now working at University of Hong Kong (HKG) has plucked the virus from a sea of DNA. more..

Apr 4 (KT) Amidst opposition to the Norwegian-facilitated peace process the government announced yesterday it was seriously considering a proposal to hold a referendum on the administration's year-long peace moves with Tamil rebels. more..

Apr 4 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers accused the United States on Friday of undermining the island's growing peace process by excluding the rebels from an aid meeting this month. more..

Apr 4 (CNA) Singapore and Sri Lanka will launch a feasibility study on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in the second half of the year. A Singapore Foreign Ministry spokesperson said this was agreed to between Singapore's Foreign Minister Professor S Jayakumar, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe more..