Oct 31 (TN) Police Sunday declared unofficial curfew in Kattankudy, a large Muslim town 5 kilometres south of Batticaloa, after mobs demolished a mosque and several houses and buildings belonging to an Islamic sect. more..

Oct 31 (TN) With support from London-based expatriate organization TR TEC, Trincomalee branch of TECH, a Non-Governmental Non-Profit Sharing Organization, Friday opened the seventh free computer-training centre in a remote Tamil village Alankerni, in Kinniya division in Trincomalee district. more..

Oct 31 (SN) 130 Officers graduated from Kotelawala Defence Academy (KDA) in Ratmalana received their certificates at the convocation ceremony held recently (Last Friday) at BMICH in Colombo. The Deputy Minister of Defense Mr.Rathnasiri Wicramanayake was the chief guest. more..

Oct 31 (LT) People’s Artistes have emphasized that formulating a National media policy has become compulsory. It emphasizes that Asian ideology and culture should be reflected through electronic media. more..

Oct 31 (LBO) The Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union is threatening to plunge the country into darkness if the government fails to find sustainable solutions to reduce power prices in the country. The engineers say they are taking trade union action to protest government inaction over the last 22 years. more..

Oct 31 (LBO) The government is hoping to sign up a record amount of aid this year, most of it from money pledged at the Tokyo donor conference in 2002. However, agreements for less than half this aid had been signed by the end of the third quarter. more..

Oct 31 (CI) Danish Kaneria persevered unflinchingly to throttle Sri Lanka's aspirations of saving the Test with a bowling display that gave Pakistan hope, and asked questions that the batsmen had no answer to. Sri Lanka, after battling to overhaul Pakistan's lead, have managed only a piddling one for themselves. more..

Oct 31 (AFP) Japanese envoy Yasushi Akashi has wrapped up talks with Sri Lankan government figures but is waiting to meet Tamil Tiger leaders in an effort to help salvage the island's peace process, officials said. more..

Oct 31 (AFP) Relatives of Sri Lankan truck driver Dinesh Dharmendran Rajaratnam appealed on Sunday to his captors in Iraq to free him, saying he had been forced to work there by his Kuwaiti employer. more..

Oct 31 (Reuters) The distraught wife of a Sri Lankan driver taken hostage by Iraqi militants pleaded on Sunday for his release, sobbing as she huddled with her three young sons in this poor fishing town north of Colombo. more..

Oct 31 (HT) Sri Lanka's largest Muslim party, the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC), has decided to fight President Chandrika Kumaratunga tooth and nail, after she lured three more SLMC MPs into her camp by making them ministers on Saturday. more..

Oct 31 (AP) Tamil Tiger rebels postponed by a day a meeting with a top Japanese peace envoy who is pushing for a revival of peace talks between the guerrillas and Sri Lanka's government, officials said Sunday. more..