Feb 5 (DN) Minister Susil Premajayantha said the Opposition lacks the knowledge of basic arithmetic and it is engaged in levelling baseless allegation at the Government over the election results. The Minister said the people cannot be taken for a ride by the adverse media campaign carried out by the Opposition members to the effect that the results of the recently concluded Presidential election have been manipulated. more..

Feb 5 (Island) President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s main rival at last week’s Presidential Election, Sarath Fonseka said that the President was still scared of him despite having ‘won’ by over 1.8 million votes. Addressing a joint opposition meeting at Hyde Park in Colombo on Wednesday, to protest the "fraudulent manner" in which Rajapaksa was re-elected President, Fonseka said that the harassment he and more..

Feb 5 (DM) Several popular film actors and actresses are slated to contest the upcoming general elections according to informed sources. Among the artistes who are expected to contest the general election are Jackson Anthony, Geetha Kumarasinghe and Malani Fonseka amidst speculation that popular film director Somaratne Dissanayake would be included in the UPFA national list. more..

Feb 5 (AFP) Sri Lankan police and troops began a crackdown Friday against thousands of military deserters after a large number failed to heed a surrender call, military officials said. Some 1,400 soldiers who were absent without leave turned up at military camps Thursday to take advantage of an amnesty declared to coincide with Sri Lanka's national holiday marking the island's 1948 independence. more..

Feb 5 (GDI) The President of the United States of America Barack Obama said the US stands ready to continue their long-lasting bilateral partnership to help build a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka. The US President in a message of congratulation to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the occasion of country's Independence Day said for the first time in over a generation, Sri Lanka is not under the shadow of terrorism. more..

Feb 5 (Hindu) The re-elected Sri Lanka President, Mahinda Rajapaksa is leaving on an official trip to Russia. The fact that Mr. Rajapaksa has chosen Moscow as the first destination of his foreign travel after securing a resounding second endorsement from the people of the island nation has not gone unnoticed here in the political and diplomatic circles. more..

Feb 6 (LBO) Sri Lanka has wrapped up a deal to get a 16 million dollar loan from the OPEC Fund for International Development for an irrigation project in the island's central region, a senior minister said. The Kalu Ganga (river) development project is part of the Moragahakanda development program, information minister Anura Yapa said. The first phase of the project is estimated to cost 167 million US dollars. more..

Feb 6 (LBO) A Sri Lanka state agency is to be given money to buy 140,000 metric tonnes of paddy produced in the upcoming main cultivation season to maintain farm-gate prices, a government minister said. Sri Lanka has high rice prices and from late December the government brought down high import tariffs to allow some imports to come in from other rice producing countries where the grain is cheaper. more..

Feb 6 (EU) EU nations have decided to suspend Sri Lanka's preferential trade status because of the island's human rights record and will make the formal move later this month, officials said Friday. "European ambassadors have taken the decision. The EU Commission's investigation showed Sri Lanka has not demonstrated that it has taken the steps that would allow it to retain or regain the GSP+ status," more..

Feb 6 (VoA) On February 4th Sri Lanka marks its 66nd anniversary as an independent country; first as the Dominion of Ceylon, and since 1972, as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. This year's anniversary is significant, because it is the first since the end of the island nation's 26-year civil war. Since gaining its independence from Great Britain in 1948, Sri Lanka has developed a mostly democratic system with 2 dominant political parties. more..

Feb 6 (GDI) Cabinet granted approval to a memorandum submitted by Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva to purchase 30,000 litres of Bacillus thurengeinsis israelensiss from Labiofam Pharmaceutical Biological Laboratories Enterprise, Cuba to initiate the trial planned to be conducted in 3 MOH areas in Kandy district. The cost to purchase 30,000 liters of Bti from the Cuban manufacturer will cost more..

Feb 6 (GDI) Cabinet granted approval to a memorandum submitted by the Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardane to implement the first phase of Conservation of the Ancient Dutch Fort in Jaffna Project by obtaining a sum of RS. 62.1 million, a grant from the Government of the Netherlands, and to bear the balance amount of Rs. 42.4 million in this respect from local funds. more..

Feb 6 (GDI) Cabinet granted approval to a memorandum submitted by the Minister of Local Government and the Provincial Councils, Janaka Bandara Tennekoon to implement the Provincial Road Project in Uva, Eastern and Northern Provinces with the assistance of the World Bank under the supervision and co-ordination Ministry of Local Government and the Provincial Councils. more..

Feb 6 (BBC) The main opposition has accused the elections commissioner of making confusing statements over the conduct of the recently concluded presidential election. UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara told journalists that the statements given by the commissioner immediately after the elections were contradicted by him within few days. "This is very serious. Now the commissioner's out of depression but we are having a depression in understanding this," more..

Feb 6 (UCAN) Tamil Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam has visited the civil war’s final battlefield for the first time since the fighting ended, and said rebuilding lives and churches in the area was an “unbearable burden” on the people there. The bishop is the first to be allowed to visit the war zone after fighting ended last May. The government still prohibits civilians, UN agencies, NGOs and more..

Feb 6 (LNW) The media in Colombo has reports the “Inside Story” of the so called “Military Coup against the Government”, which is in the front lines of state newspapers these days. The true story is being slowly but steadily revealed through various informants within the military establishment itself. The Security Council for a considerable period of time has been assessing the situation in a defeat at the Presidential Elections. more..

Feb 6 (PTI) Russia will give Sri Lanka a $300 million loan to buy arms and dual use equipment from it, an agreement regarding which will be inked during the upcoming visit of president Mahinda Rajapaksa, a top official said today. Rajapaksa is arriving in Moscow tomorrow, according to Kremlin. "Such agreement is being prepared for signing," deputy finance minister Dmitry Pankin said. more..

Jan 6 (BBC) Sri Lanka's newly re-elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been celebrating the country's independence day, the first since the end of the war against Tamil Tiger rebels. But opponents say the president has ordered revenge against those who voice opposition. Charles Haviland reports. more..

Feb 6 (AT) The Sri Lanka High Commission in the United Kingdom celebrated the 62nd National Day with the participation of a large number of Sri Lankans living in the UK, at the High Commission premises on 4 February 2010. The National Flag was hoisted by the High Commissioner Nihal Jayasinghe. Ven. Bogoda Seelawimala Thero, Chief Incumbent of the London Buddhist Vihara, Rev. Kurukkal Punchatchara, more..

Feb 6 (AT) The political parties which contested in the presidential elections under the swan symbol have lost their ways and make some false fabricated tales to put the government in trouble. “The danger of their activities is the image they give to the international community is not good for the country”, said by Cabinet Spokesman and Mass Media and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa more..

Feb 6 (AFP) India kicked off Friday a 13-nation naval exercise off its Andaman archipelago it said was aimed at improving disaster management and not an attempt to form a security bloc. The exercises are the biggest naval event off the India-administered island cluster since 2007 when a smaller exercise involving Australia, India, Japan, Singapore and the United States, riled giant neighbour China. more..

Feb 6 (CPJ) It was good to hear Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa point out in his Independence Day speech on Thursday that the country “cannot be developed with harassment, gross punishments or by the gun.” But the sentence that followed that—“Discipline is not revenge”—gives cause for concern. Rajapaksa’s speech marked the 62nd anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain. It was delivered in Kandy, the heartland of the president’s electoral base. more..

Feb 6 (AT) As a gesture of goodwill from Japanese residents and Japanese companies operating in Sri Lanka, they will jointly provide 18 sets of mobile libraries with picture books called Alipancha to the to pre-schools in Menik Farms in the Northern Province, with the assistance of the Ministry of Social Services and Social Welfare. The mobile libraries will be soon be handed over the Northern Province Governor, Major General G. A. Chandrasiri. more..

Feb 6 (AT) President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to be awarded today at 6 pm with an Honorary Doctorate by the Peoples’ Friendship University of the Russian Federation, especially considering his outstanding contribution towards fostering world peace and his success against terrorism. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov visited Sri Lanka on October 26 last year, met Sri Lanka President and more..

Feb 6 (Scoop) The disappearance of Pregeeth Ekanaliyagoda, a political analyst, journalist and visual designer, attached to LankaENews; the arrest of Chandana Sirimalwatta, the editor of the Lanka newspaper and the assassination of Chandaradasa Naiwadu, the JVP Urban Council member at Ambalangoda are among the acts of violence reported during the election for the executive presidency in Sri Lanka. more..

Feb 6 (AT) President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared opened the Deyata Kirula development exhibition in Kandy on 04 February in the afternoon. Public could view the exhibition from 9 AM to 6 PM till 12 the February. The public will be able to view the exhibition from 6.00 p.m. today till February 12. The exhibition is open from 9.00 a.m. to midnight daily. It is reported that a large crowd is arriving to view more..

Feb 6 (UCAN) Poor tea and rubber estate workers are mourning the death of an Italian Jesuit missioner who worked for 58 years in Sri Lanka and who was “more important than Gandhi” to them. Father Angelo Stefanizzi passed away at Lewella in Kandy on Feb. 3 due to illness. His funeral was held today [Feb. 5] at 3 p.m. “He is considered a saint among [tea and rubber] estate workers,” said S.P. Anthonimutthu, more..

Feb 5 (LG) Theravada, “the teaching of the elders” or “the ancient teaching”, the oldest surviving Buddhist school — founded in India and considered to be relatively conservative, and generally closest to early Buddhism — has, for many centuries, been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka, accounting for about 70 per cent of the population. Following the exit of the British, Sinhala Buddhist nationalism gradually gained ground to more..

Feb 5 (LG) Presidents re-election is the most decisive decision of the electorate since the introduction of the franchise to Sri Lanka. It gives a decisive message to the people countrywide and worldwide. 2005 election is the zenith of the political carrier of Mahinda Rajapaksa and the election on 26th of January is the crucial and decisive mandate given ever by the people, after the elimination of the more..

Feb 6 (CT) Pathiraja L.S. Dayananda, a renowned film director and stage drama producer, has passed away. He was 64. Mr. Pathiraja produced more than 30 stage dramas and directed around half a dozen films. He also acted in several films. The funeral is due to take place on February 07.

Feb 6 (TC) Many important political decisions in Sri Lanka have been influenced by parochial short-term considerations, ignoring the larger and long-term interests of the entire society. Besides moral, spiritual and egalitarian values have also been ignored. The decision-makers have been interested largely about immediate personal or political benefits. The exploitation of the island’s ethnic and other inherent divisions for short-term gains resulted in more..

Feb 6 (TC) Sri Lankans know their cricket a lot more than their Constitution. Imagine a Test match, where the team batting first scores over 500 runs for the loss of six wickets and the captain declares the innings closed. The second team won’t just give up – they bat spiritedly, avoid the follow-on and score almost as many runs as the first team but get all out. Now imagine the captain of the first team saying that more..

Feb 6 (GDI) "The landslide victory of the President at the presidential election has demonstrated the fact that the president is the only leader who has the strength to take the country forward through the path of development" said Minister of Power & Energy W. D. J Seneviratne. He also said that the President initiated massive development programmes centering on the village. more..

Feb 6 (GDI) JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe has become a clown by making meaningless statements against the Government, Transport Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said. The JVP leader says the election results have been altered by computer techniques. Any person who is aware of the election process of the country will not believe the false allegation of the JVP. The three most corrupt elections in Sri Lanka’s history were held during the UNP. more..

Feb 8 (LG) The High Commission of India, in association with Indian business ventures in Sri Lanka, is participating in the “Deyata Kirula” development exhibition being held in Kandy to commemorate the Independence Day. Foreign Minister Mr. Rohitha Bogollagama, visited the Indian pavilion today where he was received by High Commissioner Shri Ashok K. Kantha and more..

Feb 8 (wsws) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse delivered the annual independence speech on Thursday, marking 62 years since the formal end of British colonial rule. Just a week after winning a second term of office, Rajapakse used the occasion to outline his government’s agenda. In the name of rebuilding the nation, he is preparing an economic offensive against the working class. more..