Nov 30 (GDI) The Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam has called United Nations to action against the LTTE’s child recruitment. Speaking at the Security Council debate on Children and Armed Conflict on 28 November 2006, Mr. Kariyawasam has stated that "Ever since it was discovered that the armed group, the LTTE, is engaged in recruiting and using children in battle, more..

Nov 30 (GDI) The promised pension scheme for the media personnel will be implemented from next year Media and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa conveyed yesterday at the Parliament, answering to a question raised by the UNP MP Ranjith Aluvihare. He stated that the Government would implement the pension scheme for next year once funds are allocated for the programme by the Treasury. more..

Nov 30 (GDI) President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived in Colombo yesterday night after a very successful four days Indian tour, with a setting up towards further strengthening the harmony between the two countries. President held fruitful bi-lateral talks with several Indian decision makers during this official tour. more..

Nov 30 (GDI) After an hour long discussion with the Indian Premier Dr. Manmohan Singh President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the talks were cordial and "straight forward – one to one", speaking to the media, yesterday at New Delhi. The meeting with the Indian Prime Minister at Hyderabad House was followed by a lunch hosted by Dr. Singh. more..

Nov 30 (GDI) Hon. Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka paid an official visit to Vietnam from November 26' to 29' 2006, at the invitation of Hon. Nguyen Tan Dung, Prime Minister of Vietnam. This is the first visit by a Prime Minister of Sri Lanka to Vietnam. The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka was accompanied by Hon. Chamal Rajapaksa, Minister of Agricultural Development and senior officials. more..

Nov 30 (TW) “It is now crystal clear that the Sinhala leaders will never put forward a just resolution to the Tamil national question. Therefore, we are not prepared to place our trust in the impossible and walk along the same old futile path…. We therefore ask the international community and the countries of the world that respect justice to recognize our freedom struggle.” more..

Nov 30 (TW) It is with grave concern that we take the floor to draw your attention to the grave deterioration of the human rights and humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka since the second session of the Council in September 2006, when the High Commissioner, the Rapporteur on Summary and Arbitrary Executions and many others spoke to the issue. more..

Nov 30 (LeN) There is "clear and compelling evidence" that Sri Lankan government forces are helping guerrillas to kidnap boys and young men to turn them into child soldiers, says Human Rights Watch. And, the New York-based rights organization says, the conclusions confirm findings earlier this month by Canada's Allan Rock, a United Nations special adviser on children and armed conflict. more..

Nov 30 (LeN) A Sri Lankan national who was executed in Kuwait for murdering an Asian woman during a robbery remained alive five hours after he was hanged and pronounced dead, newspapers reported Wednesday. Sanjaya Rowan Kumara was pronounced dead by doctors eight minutes after he was hanged but medics who transported his body to a morgue said they noticed he was still moving, Al-Qabas daily reported. more..

Nov 30 (LeN) President Mahinda Rajapaksa Yesterday told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the LTTE did not give him 'even breathing time' to pursue peace after he become the president in November last year yet he was still committed to peace and the devolution package to solve the conflict would be ready by next month. more..

Nov 30 (AT) Rebutting the denial issued by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry on Erik Solheim’s questionable dealings with the Tamil Tigers, V.Muralitharan, alias Colonel Karuna, hit back giving more details of the transactions, including the gifting of a six-foot TV to the TV addict Velupillai Prabhakaran and 16 million kroners handed to Anton Balasingham to buy ammunition. more..

Nov 30 (PISL) Indian Opposition leader L.K. Advani during his meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday, reiterated his country would never support a division of Sri Lanka and that a negotiated political solution was the only option. "India and its people will in no way support a division of Sri Lanka and support a state of Eelam," he told the President more..

Nov 30 (IMC) International Medical Corps is helping fight a fast-spreading Chikungunya outbreak in eastern Sri Lanka's Ampara District. So far, health authorities speak of 10-15,000 suspected cases in an area where thousands are still living in crowded camps after their homes were destroyed during the tsunami. more..

Nov 30 (ND) Vietnam, Sri Lanka emphasised the need to develop their traditional relationship into an economic partnership in a joint press release issued at the end of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka's official visit to Vietnam on November 29. The two sides acknowledged that the traditional ties between the two countries are growing and wished to promote the ties to an economic partnership. more..

Nov 30 (TN) The Head of Vavuniya Institute of Education, K. Bernad, said that 115 Sinhalese students of the institution complained to him Wednesday around 9:00 p.m that unidentified armed men had come to the institution asking for them. As the students said they feared for their lives, arrangements were made with the Vavuniya Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to give protection to the students Wednesday night, K. Bernad added. more..

Nov 30 (TN) K.N.Sri Kantha of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was sworn in as new parliamentarian of the Jaffna district to fill the vacancy created by the assassination of Mr.Nadarajah Raviraj by unidentified gunmen in the heart of Colombo on 10th November, political sources in Colombo said. W.J.M.Lokkubandara, Speaker administered the oath when the parliament resumed its sittings Thursday to conduct committee stage debate on 2007 Budget. more..

Nov 30 (AN) Throughout Advent, Sri Lanka’s Catholics will focus on praying for peace in the country. In the north and east of the country, people are in dire straits, endangered by what is now all out civil war between the government forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels. The Archbishop of Colombo, Mgr Oswald Gomis, urged all communities, religious and lay, to “intensify prayers for peace during Advent”. more..

Nov 30 (LNP) The Security Forces yesterday lodged a strong protest with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that the LTTE was taking undue advantage out of the safety guarantee provided to transport food convoys to the uncleared areas in Vakarai to feed nearly 30,000 civilians stranded there. Military Spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe told the Daily News yesterday that out of the 120 Vakarai bound lorries, 85 crossed the Kajuwatta entry exit point to reach Vakarai. more..

Nov 30 (LNP) With more business discussions taking place between the Indian business tycoons and delegations from the region, Sri Lanka has managed to attract investment attention for 2007. Summing up the progress made in making Sri Lankan presence at World Economic Forum India Summit 2006, Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told The Island Financial Review that achieving new FDI targets will be easy with current levels of interest displayed in investing in Sri Lanka. more..

Nov 30 (LNP) No sooner had LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakran made an announcement in his heroes` day speech that there was no alternative to political independence than the United States did shoot it down. US Ambassador in Colombo Robert O. Blake has said Prabhakaran`s views are not acceptable and stressed a negotiated settlement on the basis of a solution within a united Sri Lanka to be proposed by the government. more..

Nov 30 (LNP) Sri Lanka Army has bulldozed the Alankulam Heroes` Cemetery in Muthur East, on November 25, said LTTE`s Trincomalee District Political Head, S. Elian Wednesday. `Sri Lankan military has once again desecrated a war cemetery. No military in the civilized world, would engage in a such act,` charged Mr. Elilan. more..

Nov 30 (SAMN) Although Sri Lanka’s initial peace deal had brought a halt to full-scale military clashes, it was rushed through -- and significant problems in process design has ultimately contributed to a renewal of conflict, says an international Brussels-based research organisation. "The peace process was exclusively focused on two parties: the government, then led by Ranil Wickremesinghe of the UNP, and the LTTE," more..

Nov 30 (SAMN) The country’s legislative process has crumbled with the rapid deterioration in parliamentary standards over the last few decades, Presidential Advisor and former Finance and Planning Minister Ronnie de Mel said recently. Mr. De Mel said, “The rot began in the late 80s and it has got much worse since the early 90s, adding that in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, the Sri Lankan Parliament was as vibrant as the British House of Commons. more..

Nov 30 (SAMN) The Government stepped up attacks on Sea Tiger bases, especially after Prabhakaran’s declaration, in his Heroe’s Day message, that there was no alternative to the problem except an independent state. Speaking on conditions of anonymity, a high ranking defence official said that if Prabhakaran felt that there is no alternative he meant war. more..

Nov 30 (SAMN) The Bandarawela-Haputale upper road has been closed due to sinking. Residents of the area revealed that water was flowing under the road. "There had been several landslides at this place close to the Kahagalla estate many years ago. The RDA constructed some devices for easy flowing of water. more..

Nov 30 (DN) Thousands of curious spectators flocked to Paluwatta recently to have a glance at a rare photo by a reporter that captured a ghostly shadow. Paluwatta is a village about one kilometre off Bodhimaluwa junction close to Parakaduwa along Avissawella-Ratnapura main road. The 'ghost' in the photograph is a mother of two assassinated by her husband under the influence of liquor about eight years ago, residents said. more..

Nov 30 (DM) The JHU requested the UNP leadership in Parliament yesterday to state their stand on the de-merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces. JHU Parliamentary group leader Ven.Aturaliye Ratana Thera said that the UNP should state its stand on the Supreme Court judgment nullifying the temporary merger of the two provinces in 1987. more..

Nov 30 (DM) UNP MP, Prof. G.L. Peiris told parliament yesterday there are certain factors in the Indian constitution to be extracted as the foundation for resolving the ethnic conflict here. Speaking during the debate on the Investment promotion and Industrial Development ministry, Prof. Peiris said there are certain other points in it which are not absolutely helpful in resolving the problem. more..

Nov 30 (Xinhua) Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Sri Lankan counterpart Ratnasiri Wikremanayaka in Phnom Penh on Thursday decided to improve bilateral ties in the fields of information, education, tourism and foreign policy, said an official. The two countries will exchange information on terrorists' acts and their government officials have started to organize their working groups, more..

Nov 30 (HT) With only Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon closeted in detailed discussions with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and his Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera on Wednesday, the message was clear. India conveyed its anguish at the escalating spiral of violence that has gripped the island nation and urged an early return to the negotiating table, more..

Nov 30 (IRNA) Indian Tamil leader and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi said he would be happy if the problems of Sri Lankan Tamils were solved through formation of a separate Tamil Eelam (Tamil homeland) or through a negotiated settlement within a unified Sri Lanka. more..

Nov 30 (ANI) Around 1,500 kilograms of Sri Lanka-bound explosives have been recovered near here, when the van carrying the consignment met with an accident. According to police, the accident took place at Manamadurai, about 40 kilometres from Madurai. The police broke open the door of the vehicle as the driver identified as Vijay Kumar, had fainted after the accident. more..

Nov 30 (AP) The Sri Lankan military seized two explosive-laden jackets for suicide bombers from an abandoned house in northern Jaffna peninsula, the Defense Ministry said Thursday. Spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said besides the jackets, the military also found two rocket propelled grenades and two T-56 automatic weapons and ammunition during the search late Wednesday. more..

Nov 30 (Reuters) Sri Lankan stocks rose to a new life closing high on Thursday as local investors snapped up telecom blue chips Dialog Telekom and Sri Lanka Telecom , traders said. The Colombo All Share index rose 2.47 percent to 2,777.73 points, surpassing the previous life closing high of 2,713.94 points hit on Tuesday. more..

Nov 30 (DPA) Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wikremanayake finished a visit to the Cambodian capital Thursday with a tour of a genocide museum after finalizing an agreement with Cambodia to cooperate on combating terrorism. In his last day in the capital before heading for the northern tourist town of Siem Reap and the famous Angkor Wat temples, Wikremanayake toured S-21, or Toul Sleng Genocide Museum, more..

Nov 30 (C365) Kumar Sangakkara helped Sri Lanka recover from a shaky start as their tour of New Zealand got underway against State Otago Volts after a rain delay at Dunedin. Sangakkara struck an unbeaten half-century to help his side to 141 for three at stumps, having been slow out of the blocks when the match eventually began. more..

Nov 30 (AP) A Norwegian peace envoy on Thursday began talks with Sri Lankan government representatives on ways to save the island's moribund peace process with Tamil Tiger guerrillas, an official said. Jon Hanssen-Bauer, who arrived earlier Thursday, met with the government's chief peace negotiator Nimal Siripala de Silva, a close aide of the Sri Lankan official said. more..

Nov 30 (AFP) A top Norwegian peace broker arrived in Sri Lanka, a diplomat said, as Tamil Tiger separatists insisted government forces have killed off an Oslo-brokered ceasefire. Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer was to hold separate talks with Sri Lankan officials and rebel leaders after the LTTE announced a new bid to run their own independent state, the Norwegian diplomat said. more..

Nov 30 (AFP) Sri Lanka's peace initiative was flawed from the start and the island now faces an immediate prospect of more violence, the International Crisis Group (ICG) warns. The conflict resolution experts note however in a new study received here Thursday that neither government forces nor the Tamil rebels appear able to defeat the other. more..