Jan 14 (LeN) The Director of PAFFREL Director Kingsley Rodrigo says that the people are not interested in the elections of the Central and Northwestern Provincial Councils. He raises the question if this election is a need of the time. PAFFREL says that the election results may also reflect the war situation in the country and adds that a fair election cannot be expected in the context the government has ignored the Supreme Court order to establish the Legislative Council and the Independent Election Commission. more..

Jan 14 (GDI) The foreign employment bureau warned yesterday (13) that although advertisements were appearing in the media over Korean language training classes in preparation for examinations by the bureau in April, no such exam will take place. Chairman of the bureau Kingsley Ranawaka stated that as was previously announced the Korean Government has temporarily suspended new intake and as a result there will not be Korean language examinations until at least next year. more..

Jan 14 (GDI) Sri Lanka Cricket received a tremendous boost when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) provided the green light for the Indian team to tour Sri Lanka for a five match one day international series and a Twenty20 international to be worked off between late January and early February this year. This was announced by the Minister of Sports and Public Recreation Gamini Lokuge and the Secretary of the BCCI, N. Srinivasan more..

Jan 14 (GDI) Election violence has been at an all time low, says the PAFFREL. Speaking at a media briefing held yesterday, PAFFREL Executive Director Kingsley Rodrigo said only five instances of election related violence have been reported within the two weeks following the closing of nominations. He however, anticipated the violence to build during the period running up to the day of the Provincial Council Polls, on the 14th of February, but more..

Jan 14 (GDI) Minister of Social Services and Social Welfare Douglas Devananda has taken steps to expand the psychological counselling services to the Northern Province. He pointed out that the psychological counselling services now in operation islandwide, under the Ministry of Social Services and Social Welfare, could be extended to the North, especially to deal with the problems prevalent in the locality. more..

Jan 14 (GDI) The Media Centre for National Security insisted that it was compulsory for all citizens in the Western province to register themselves through the newly set up Defence Ministry website www.citizens.lk. MCNS Director General Lakshman Hulugalle stated that residents who had access to the internet could register online directly, while others could either visit a Nenasala Centre for the purpose or register themselves through the mobile service units that would be made available soon. more..

Jan 14 (LNP) SriLankan Airlines presented `Wings` to 14 new pilots, following their successful completion of the national carrier`s rigorous training program. The airline`s Cadet Pilot Training Program has earned a strong reputation for its high standard. The high standards of SriLankan`s pilots contributed to the airline receiving the rare honour of being named `World`s Most Efficient Small Fleet Operator` of two types of aircraft - A330`s and A340`s - by Airbus Industry. more..

Jan 14 (SAMN) The UPFA claimed that 5,000 UNP members from the Kandy district would join the UPFA on Sunday, including 25 of its Pradeshiya Sabha members out of a total of 47. Transport Minister Dullas Alahapperuma asserted that the UNP political propaganda machinery today was in a state of paralysis and they were yet to encounter any sort of competition in their campaign trail for stakes in the Central and Northwestern Provincial Council elections. more..

Jan 14 (SAMN) The safe and effective disposal of clinical waste from hospitals, clinics and laboratories has always been an unresolved problem and poses a huge threat to public health. Taking this booming risk into consideration, the healthcare division of Finlays Rentokil (Ceylon) Ltd., a subsidiary of Finlays (Colombo) PLC, has taken on an initiative to provide a clinical waste disposal service to all private hospitals and laboratories in the country. more..

Jan 14 (SAMN) Caritas Sri Lanka, the social service arm of the Catholic Bishops Conference, while thanking the government for allowing civilians from the South to visit the historical shrine of Madhu during Christmas has called for the opening of roads to Madhu permanently to allow the pilgrims in the South to visit the Shrine. A spokesman from Caritas Sri Lanka said they would make a written request to the Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa shortly. more..

Jan 14 (SAMN) It’s official. Sri Lanka Cricket has been sold to India for a period of ten years for a grand sum of US$ 45 million. At a time when various cricket boards in the world and the International Cricket Council are showing concern on the way the cash rich Indian board is trying to manipulate cricket, SLC has become the latest pawn to fall prey to the Board of Control for Cricket in India. more..

Jan 14 (LBO) Tea prices rose again at this week's Colombo auction on strong demand with brokers saying the trend augurs well for producers who saw the market crash towards the end of last year. "The market continued strong for Low Grown varieties," Asia Siyaka Commodities said in a report on the sale of January 12-13. "However, demand was more selective this week." Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers concurred saying "there was excellent demand." more..

Jan 14 (DN) The ten suspects, which included leading athletes in the visa racket case, were further remanded till January 27 by the Colombo Fort Magistrate and Additional District Judge Gihan Pilapitiya. Earlier the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) probing the visa racket told Court that they have forwarded the dossier of the investigations into the visa racket to the Attorney General for his advice. more..

Jan 14 (DN) Youth Empowerment and Socio Economical Development Minister Arumugam Thondaman will provide sports facilities to estate youths, through his ministry. The Minister has opened a sports stadium to encourage the youths in sports and provided sports items. Volleyball, cricket, netball and indoor games such as carrom and chess will also be popularised among the youth. Plans are afoot to obtain the support of the Sports Ministry and other sports organisations to provide training to the youth. more..

Jan 14 (Island) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed a special committee to inquire into a recommendation submitted by the Presidential Investigation Unit that the Secretary of the Ministry of Education Nimal Bandara be suspended from service for his alleged involvement in a fraudulent financial transaction while he was serving in the capacity of Secretary North Western Provincial Council. more..

Jan 14 (Island) The Micro Car Company yesterday expressed confidence that a financial crisis at the South Korean automaker Ssangyong Motor Corp wouldn’t cripple their joint operation. "We are watching the situation," a senior company spokesperson told The Island yesterday evening. Responding to our queries, he asserted that their operation was stable and the crisis triggered by slump in Ssangyong sales, both at home and abroad, would be temporary. more..

Jan 14 (DM) Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene said yesterday that the development of the recently librated Kilinochchi would begin soon with the assistance of India. He said the government would also seek the assistance of other countries to develop Kilinochchi. he said that preliminary discussions had taken place on Monday between Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa and Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad on the development of Kilinochchi and the North. more..

Jan 14 (IRIN) The Sri Lankan government is under intense local and international pressure to halt attacks against journalists and media organisations after a newspaper editor was killed and a private television station attacked by unidentified armed gangs. The incidents came as the military announced making significant headway in its battle against LTTE separatists in the north and northeast of the island. more..

Jan 14 (DM) Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva yesterday said the Executive could not interpret the decisions made by the court and if there was any difficulty, they should come to court. Taking up the case regarding the non compliance of the court’s interim order to reduce the price of petrol to Rs 100 a litre, the Chief Justice said if the Executive could not implement all the interim orders made by the court relating to this case, the court would set aside all interim orders including more..

Jan 14 (CI) Shakib Al Hasan's powerhouse batting and inspired bowling performances from vice-captain Mashrafe Mortaza and debutant Rubel Hossain ensured Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka in the third match of the tri-series and, more importantly, secured a place in the final on Friday, where they will face the same opposition again. In a must-win match for them, reduced by bad light to 31 overs each, more..

Jan 14 (EB) President Mahinda Rajapaksa believes that the LTTE and its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran are presently confined to a minuscule area 30 km in length and 20 km in breadth in the northeastern district of Mullaitivu. Over the last few days the rebels lost about 1,000 sq kms, shrinking area under their control rapidly. Rajapaksa said that Mullaitivu town had all but fallen because it was being attacked from the west, south and the north giving the LTTE no chance to stem the assault. more..

Jan 14 (Reuters) Nearly 800 civilians have fled Sri Lanka's shrinking war zone in the last day as the army bears down on the last strongholds of separatist Tamil Tigers, the military said on Wednesday. Troops are marching to the port of Mullaittivu across a small wedge of northeastern Sri Lanka still held by the Tigers, where aid groups say more than 200,000 people are trapped in an area of no more than 330 square km (127 square miles). more..

Jan 14 (AFP) Sri Lankan authorities on Wednesday buried 41 bodies of suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed by advancing security forces in the island's north, officials said. Hospital officials in the town of Vavuniya said ongoing fighting made it difficult to transfer the bodies back to the LTTE through the Red Cross. "The Tigers have not specified a place where the Red Cross can hand over the bodies to them," more..

Jan 14 (PTI) LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran would never face the Sri Lankan security forces closing in on his last stronghold of Mullaitivu and would flee the country, a senior minister has said. "Our troops are on the verge of wiping out the LTTE and most of its leaders are now trying to either surrender or flee the country," Minister Dallas Alahapperuma said. But the minister said, "Doors were still open," for the LTTE to bring the conflict to an end by surrendering. more..

Jan 14 (AFP) Sri Lanka's government censured a senior international diplomat after he spoke at the funeral of a newspaper editor whose murder has been blamed on the island's rulers, officials said Wednesday. German ambassador Jurgen Weerth was ordered to the Colombo foreign office and told of Sri Lanka's anger over his graveside eulogy for Lasantha Wickrematunga, more..

Jan 15 (HS) A Tamil refugee mowed down in a fatal hit-run was rebuilding life with his family after fleeing Sri Lanka. Thiruvadivel Sriskandarajah, 29, died in his brother's arms after he was hit by a four-wheel-drive on Stud Rd, Dandenong, yesterday morning. The incident triggered an immediate police hunt for the driver, who failed to stop after slamming into the man at a pedestrian crossing. Mr Sriskandarajah, a devoted Hindu, had been on his way to Tamil New Year celebrations. more..

Jan 15 (ISN) Accompanied by the rumbling of armored tanks and artillery fire, Sri Lankan armed forces continue to move further into the country's northeast to overrun the last remaining rebel strongholds as months of fierce clashes appear to have tipped the balance in the military's favor. After losing the administrative center and de facto capital Kilinochchi, and strategic points such as Paranthan and Elephant Pass to the Sri Lankan army in the first 10 days of the new year, more..

Jan 15 (UPI) It is ironic that at the very moment the Sri Lankan armed forces achieved their greatest feat in battle and opened the long-closed highway to Jaffna, armed assassins struck in Colombo and closed the doors to media freedom. The timing of the assassination – in which masked men on four motorcycles surrounded the Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, and killed him in a high-security zone on a major road near an air force camp – has been counterproductive to the government. more..

Jan 15 (AT) The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, which is presided over by former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala, says the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza indicates once more that there is no such a thing as a clean, technological and aseptic warfare where civilians are spared and only combatants (soldiers or insurgents) are hit. "'It is important to point out that there is a huge disproportion between the two sides, more..

Jan 15 (AT) Dr. Nazeem Seyed-Mohamed, a professor in Business Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden who has lived in the country for over 35 years, says there should be a Forum of Sri Lankan expatriates who can offer their services to their motherland. "If you take any country, human resources are considered as an important factor needed for development, "he said in an interview with Asian Tribune. more..

Jan 15 (ANI) Sri Lankan Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda today urged Minister of Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni to provide expert help to Sri Lanka in strengthening the tourism sector. Moragoda, who called on Soni here today, said: "Sri Lanka wants to learn from India how tourism related issues are dealt at the State and community level. Sri Lanka is involving private sector in tourism related activities and wants to develop new tourism related products to attract more tourists." more..

Jan 15 (AJ) Aid organisations say a major humanitarian crisis is unfolding in northern Sri Lanka where government forces are engaged in fierce fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels. Around 350,000 Tamil civilians are crammed into the area where fighting is taking place, forcing them to endure heavy bombardments and acute food shortages. Foreign journalists are prevented from entering the conflict zone, but Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive pictures showing more..

Jan 15 (IT) With the Sri Lankan security forces closing in on the LTTE forces bottled up in Mullativu, questions are being raised on the fate of its tiny two-aircraft air wing. Last Saturday Sri Lankan forces captured the fourth and longest airstrip which the Tigers used to launch air attacks on Sri Lanka. Also captured near the Mullaitivu jungles were two armoured hangars which the rebels used to store the aircraft. But the airfield, ringed by a 300 metre barbed wire fence, was empty. more..

Jan 15 (IPS) Over 50 years ago, the author of India’s constitution, B. R. Ambedkar, set in motion a Buddhist socio-political movement which many believe is now ready to fructify through Mayawati, chief minister of northern Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. Both Ambedkar and Mayawati come from India’s so-called "untouchable" caste, better known as Dalits (the broken people). more..

Jan 15 (Reuters) Iran is contributing $1 billion to help Sri Lanka double the capacity of its refinery to 100,000 barrels per day, the oil minister of the island nation, A.H.M. Fowzie told reporters. "Iran will be giving us $1 billion and we will contribute about $500 million for the expansion," he told reporters. He said Sri Lanka has a term contract to buy 60,000 tonnes a month of Iran Light grade crude for its refinery, owned by Ceylon Petroleum. more..

Jan 15 (LBO) Condom use has peaked in Sri Lanka but sales of oral birth control methods such as emergency contraceptives are rising, the island's top marketer of family planning services said. The Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka, a non-profit entity, has launched a new anesthetized condom, which can give new life to the condom market. The condom, branded Stamina will give a 'longer love experience' the FPA said. more..

Jan 15 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's military has cornered the Tamil Tiger separatist rebels in the northeastern jungles of the Indian Ocean island, leading many to foresee an end to a 25-year war that is one of Asia's longest-running. But foreign diplomats, including neighbouring India, have long demanded a so-called political solution to the grievances of Sri Lanka's Tamil ethnic minority, and say there will be no lasting peace without it. more..

Jan 15 (AP) Sri Lanka's military Thursday seized a final strip of Tamil Tiger rebel-held land and secured total control of the key Jaffna peninsula in the north, an official said. Jaffna, the cultural capital of the country's ethnic minority Tamils, has long been seen as the symbolic heart of the 25-year-old separatist insurgency on the island. Taking full control of the territory after nine years is a strategic and symbolic victory for the government. more..

Jan 15 (IANS) The state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will take a decision on exploration of hydrocarbon assets in a block offered by the Sri Lankan government within a month, the oil minister of the island nation said here Wednesday. Sri Lanka had in 2007 offered ONGC a hydrocarbon block in Mannar Basin for exploration. But ONGC's response has been lukewarm as there is little prospect in the block. more..

Jan 15 (UCAN) Christians joined a march in Sri Lanka's capital over the murder of a popular editor of an English-language weekly, carrying placards decrying a threat to media freedom in the country. More than 10,000 protesters including media groups, trade union leaders, Protestant pastors, Catholic priests and nuns, lawyers, politicians and Christian laypeople demonstrated on the evening of Jan. 12 during the funeral procession of Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunga, a Christian. more..

Jan 15 (LG) Chief executive of Basildon DC, Bala Mahendran, describes his life as a journey – and it is, perhaps, one which has taken him on several detours along the way. Born in Sri Lanka, he arrived in the UK in 1975 with ‘good intentions’ of getting a career in engineering before returning home. But, halfway through his mechanical engineering degree, things changed. more..

Jan 15 (LG) The re-registration of citizens is a real head-ache, waste of time, energy and poor peoples’ hard earned cash. Applications are not available in Police stations and at temporary registration offices in the villages, but are available at Rs 3/- each at Petti Kades next the to the police stations. On-line registration costs from Rs 100/- onwards at Public Internet Cafes. I hear some registration temporary offices requested people to bring in photo copies of national ID cards of all residents in the house more..

Jan 15 (IANS) A day before Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon heads to Colombo, Sri Lanka Wednesday said it will look at any Indian request for extradition of LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran ‘positively’. ‘The government’s stand is that if there is a request, certainly that will have to be looked at very seriously - I would say even positively,’ Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India C.R. Jayasinghe told the Times Now news channel. more..

Jan 15 (LR) When LTTE was having merry time with so called peace talks at Oslo and de facto government in the North in 2006, the National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT) published a poster in Colombo defining the word ‘Terrorism’. Ter-ror-ism = The illegal use of violence to achieve political goals. In July 25, 2007 Lankarising published a post elaborating on that poster explaining the need for a clear plan for fight against terrorism based on following key stages; more..

Jan 15 (AT) Qatar has agreed to provide Arabic language training to Sri Lankans working in Qatar. It is expected, at present, there are about 130,000 Sri Lankan expatriates working in Qatar. Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohita Bogollagama pointed out that having an exposure to the Arabic language, the Minister said, would enable such personnel to interact even better and contribute immensely towards improving inter-personnel communication skills. more..

Jan 15 (AT) The Hindu religious festival, Thaipongal was celebrated at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Paris yesterday morning. As it was a working day in Paris, a large number of Sri Lankans - mostly Tamils -visited the consular division at the Embassy for various consular functions and they were pleasantly surprised as they were treated to a simple but very impressive Thaipongal celebration. Visitors and the Embassy staff participated in the ceremony conducted at more..

Jan 15 (AT) "My only wish is before I die, is to visit Alimankada (Elephant Pass) and see the LTTE’s explosive laden bulldozer which my son destroyed," says 61 year old Y.L. Juliet, the mother of Corporal. Gamini Kularathna. Again, the victory of the Elephant Pass has brought jubilant celebrations by the people in the south. The Battle of Elephant pass is emotionally bonded with the supreme sacrifice of then corporal Gamini Kularathne popularly known as Hasalaka Hero or Hasalaka Weeraya, more..

Jan 15 (TC) Lasantha Wickrematunga was my editor and friend over the last one and a half decades. He was an intrepid fighter against corruption, partisan and plucky, mischievous always and Macchiavellian sometimes, he dared to dissent and to push to the hilt the media’s contribution to a vibrant functioning democracy in Sri Lanka. His murder leaves a huge void in the ranks of the defenders of democracy and human rights in this country. more..

Jan 15 (MoD) Army troops of 632 Brigade (18 Vijayaba Regiment and 20 Sri Lanka Light Infantry Regiment) have found the 5th runway east of Iranamadu tank adjoining the old kandy road which runs via Olumadu today evening, 14 January. The runway complex is 50m wide and over 1000m long, the sources said. The runway is situated in the thick jungle with a massive bunker line and a trench line around the runway complex with mine fields and booby traps. more..