May 17 (IANS) India extended the ban on Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers because its cadres are regrouping in Tamil Nadu to take revenge against Indian leaders for not preventing its military rout last year, according to a home ministry notification. Although the Sri Lankan military has decimated the LTTE, its surviving members are 'regrouping in Tamil Nadu in pursuance of their avowed objective of establishing separate Tamil Eelam', more..

May 17 (DN) A Health Ministry team will arrive in India today to bring down 95 varieties of essential medicinal drugs, which are in short supply at public hospitals in the country. The team will meet representatives of pharmaceutical suppliers registered with the National Drugs Authority in Mumbai, a Health Ministry spokesman said. more..

May 17 (LNP) As the UPFA-run Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council is dragging its feet on a disciplinary inquiry, a principal allegedly involved in several cases of sexual harassment at a government school in the Kolonna Educational Division stays put. Sources allege that provincial authorities has not yet acted against the principal, though the issue dominated the sessions of the Sabaragamuwa PC last year. more..

May 17 (DN) Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said the involvement of Ministers or politicians in the school admission process will be completely stopped. The Ministry will soon implement a new mechanism by which all school admissions are carried out by school principals with the coordination of Parent - Teacher Societies, the Minister said addressing Education Ministry officials in the North Western province last week. more..

May 17 (DN) Journalists must not distort facts. Anyone has a right to express his opinion in a democratic country but they must be careful. They could argue, oppose or agree but no one has the right to insult another, said. Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella. He made these observations when he addressed the journalists from the hill country at a reception accorded to him at the Telepix Limited auditorium in Kandy on Saturday. more..

May 17 (Island) The government has re-imposed taxes on food items, waived in the run-up to this year’s presidential and parliamentary polls. A spokesman told The Island that government was compelled to reintroduce taxes on several consumer items owing to increases in prices in the international market. The new prices would come into effect shortly when they import food items next but retailers have already jacked up prices. more..

May 17 (DN) A special super luxury and air condition train service will be launched between the Secretariat halt opposite Colombo Hilton and Bandaranaike International Airport for foreign visitors including film personalities coming to Sri Lanka to participate in the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards 2010. Sri Lanka will witness a large crowd with over 600 Indian film personalities gracing the IIFA awards ceremony to be held from June 3 to 5. more..

May 17 (Island) Greater growth in the tourism trade can help bridge budget deficits, says an industry expert. "We have to do more to catch up with rest of the Asia," said Sri Lal Mittapala, President of the Tourists Hotel Association of Sri Lanka. He was speaking at the 18th annual general meeting of the Institute of Hospitality recently. Tourism is seen as a panacea for all ills. more..

May 17 (MoD) The department of Police is preparing to install 100 Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras within the Colombo city limit with the intention of curbing crimes and easing traffic congestions. A team of Police officers headed by Senior DIG Gamini Navaratne left for Singapore yesterday to attend for a weeklong workshop and to conversant with operational aspect of the CCTV system. more..

May 17 (Island) The Irrigation and Water Resource Ministry has decided to evict persons who encroached on lands adjacent to water reservoirs. Irrigation and Water Resource Development Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told The Island yesterday that he had ordered the ministry secretary to conduct an investigation. "According to a soft survey about 200 families have encroached along 75 acres adjacent to the Kotmale reservoir," de Silva said. more..

May 17 (DM) Addressing the recently held 2010 Diplomatic Security Conference on the Terrorism Situation and Trends in the EU, the Sri Lankan Ambassador to EU Ravinatha Aryasinha had reportedly said the following. “When I was asked at a Seminar on the LTTE organized by Europol in December 2008, as to what will happen if the LTTE was defeated in Sri Lanka, I remarked ‘it is then that your problem will begin’: and in a sense that has come to be true. more..

May 17 (DM) The SLMC and the TNA - the two opposition minority parties have decided to engage their counterparts in the ruling coalition for a common understanding on matters such as the proposed constitutional amendments that affect the minority communities. SLMC Deputy General Secretary Nizam Kariappar told the Daily Mirror that his party had exchanged ideas with the TNA leadership last week in this respect. more..

May 17 (GDI) Minister Basil Rajapaksa is preparing blue prints to develop the Wilpattu National Park that was released from terrorists in to an attractive tourist destination. Wilpattu is a scenic National Park and the oldest wildlife sanctuary in the country that connects Anuradhapura, Puttalam and Mannar districts. It attracted tourists several decades ago due to its special habitat. more..

May 17 (LP) Ministry of National Heritage and Culture has initiated action to proclaim Sri Pada, as a world heritage site reported the President's Media Unit. The proposal in this regard is to be submitted at the conference of the UNESCO to be held in Brussels of Belgium next month. Sri Pada is located in the Samanala mountain range in Sri Lanka's hill country in a unique natural environment. more..

May 17 (TC) In a sense, I could say that it all began on November 18, 2005 around seven o'clock in the morning. Those were tense moments and we were monitoring the results of Sri Lanka's closest presidential election at Temple Trees. My brother, then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa walked out of the self-styled 'Operations Room' where the results were coming in thick and fast. more..

May 17 (MoD) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed the eight member 'Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation' Commission to report on the lessons to be learnt from the events in the period, Feb 2002 to May 2009, their attendant concerns and to recommend measures to ensure that there will be no recurrence of such a situation. The Commission has been charged with reporting whether any person, group or institution directly or indirectly bears responsibility in this regard. more..

May 17 (NF) UNP MP Buddhika Pathirana says that one should not be a pawn of the leader although he or she takes examples from that leader. Buddhika expressed this view addressing a workshop for young leaders at the management training centre in the Southern Province. “Sir D. B. Jayathilaka or Baron Jaythilaka once said that leaders are not born by accident. Leaders cannot be made or produced like broiler chicken. more..

May 17 (AFP) The Sri Lankan government killed thousands of its civilians by shelling "no-fire zones" in the last months of the country's decades-long civil war that ended a year ago, an independent group said Monday. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group urged the United Nations and Sri Lanka's aid donors to press for a war crimes investigation into the military offensive that finally crushed the separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas. more..

May 17 (AT) A year ago this week, Sri Lanka's three-decade-long civil war was formally declared over. What was once considered impossible happened: the "militarily invincible" LTTE were defeated, with chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, his family and the LTTE's entire top brass cornered and killed near the Nandikadal lagoon in the north of the island. To mark its victory over the LTTE, the government is holding a victory parade on May 20. more..

May 18 (AFP) In the early hours of a hot dry day, four orphaned elephants begin a bumpy truck ride back to the jungles of southern Sri Lanka where they had been rescued from near certain death. The four baby jumbos -- now aged five and six -- are ready to leave the Elephant Transit Home where they have been treated and cared for since they were less than a year old. The state-run home is refuge for dozens of baby elephants who are separated from their herds, more..

May 18 (DM) Over 1900 suspects arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) will remain in custody despite some of the emergency regulations being relaxed recently, Prime Minister D.M Jayaratna said. The Premier noted that while several regulations under the emergency law were relaxed the clauses pertaining to the arrest and detention of suspects under the PTA still remain and as a result those arrested under the act will remain in custody pending investigations. more..

May 18 (PTI) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday took over as the new chairman of the Group of 15, even as he asked for a “realistic and fruitful” dialogue with the developed countries. “In taking over the Chair, I commit to continuing to further strengthen the voice of our Group on the international stage,” he said here. I have every confidence that in this task, more..

May 18 (DM) The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) says that it has been forced to disrupt power in certain areas as a result of flood waters seeping into some sub stations. Power has already been cut in Colombo 13, 14 and 15, CEB Chairman Vidya Amarapala said at a press briefing a short while ago while a CEB Spokesperson told Daily Mirror online that power might also be interrupted in the Kelaniya area if it continues to rain throughout the next few hours. more..

May 18 (AN) “The Church of Sri Lanka is making great strides in rebuilding not only the structures but also the lives of those who have suffered from a long civil war. But there is still a long way to go in the North, a road that we must travel together”. These the comments of Archbishop Joseph Spiteri, Apostolic Nuncio in Sri Lanka, to AsiaNews after his visit to the Northern provinces of the island nation last week. more..

May 18 (AN) As Sri Lanka prepares to mark the first anniversary of the end of its civil conflict, aid workers are struggling to cope with the humanitarian impact of the war that could be worse than after the 2004 tsunami, a senior U.N. official said on Monday. Almost 300,000 people were forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in camps in the north of the island during the final months of the 25-year-old conflict more..

May 18 (UCAN) Youths living on tea plantations in Kandy diocese have been taught computer skills through a Church-run program. Caritas–SETIK (Kandy Social and Economic Training Institute), the social arm of Kandy diocese, organized the program for the young people from poor families working on tea estates. From May 9-14, the 21 participants learnt how to use Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other basic computer skills. more..

May 18 (PTI) The deadly Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack by Maoists in Chhattisgarh on Monday was strikingly similar to the precision strikes of the LTTE in its battle against Sri Lankan soldiers before being wiped out. The device itself is believed to have been planted days before today's strike in which at least 40 persons were killed, officials said on Monday. more..

May 18 (EB) A call by the TNA to observe May 17 as a ‘Day of Mourning’ to mourn the alleged mass killing of civilians by the Sri Lankan armed forces in the last few days of Eelam War IV, had little or no response in the Tamil-speaking North and East of Sri Lanka ,sources in the area told Express. “The TNA had called for prayers to be offered at temples and churches, but there was little evidence of any such puja here,” said a prominent Tamil in Vavuniya, more..

May 18 (OW) One year since the war in Sri Lanka ended the situation for ethnic minority Tamils and Muslims remains of concern as communities in the former war-torn areas await justice, security and an opportunity to participate in reconstruction and development of their homeland, Minority Rights Group International says. While the Sri Lankan government is championing economic development in the country’s former war-torn north and east, more..

May 18 (ICG) The Sri Lankan security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) repeatedly violated international humanitarian law during the last five months of their 30-year civil war. Although both sides committed atrocities throughout the many years of conflict, the scale and nature of violations particularly worsened from January 2009 to the government’s declaration of victory in May. more..

May 18 (LG) In a darkened candle-lit room, a bearded guru was peering intensely into a palm of a young man and then into a palmyra leaf scroll that looked like a horoscope. Finally, he switched on the lights and told the young man: “For you to succeed in life you will have to study the three ‘R’s intensively.” “But why should I go back in life? I studied my three ‘R’s – reading, writing and arithmetic very well in kindergarten and now I am a graduate. more..

May 18 (ST) Stringent new laws are to be introduced this year to crack down on irresponsible road-users. The laws will cover, among other things, speeding, reckless driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, and using a mobile phone while driving. The number of road traffic accidents – an alarming proportion of which result in fatalities, grievous injury and permanent maiming – has stayed at an unacceptably high level over the past few years, more..

May 18 (Hindu) It is one year since Velupillai Prabakaran, founder leader of the LTTE, died with his aides in the final stage of the Eelam War. It took Prabakaran two decades to rebuild the LTTE after the mauling he received at the hands of the Indian troops from 1987 to 1990. He took it to a peak position of power and territorial domination in 2002 when he agreed to participate in the Norwegian peace process. more..

May 18 (ST) Several recently appointed Ministers have been openly critical of former colleagues in Parliament, saying the ex-Ministers have left jobs unattended to or incomplete, and that they are putting these half-done or poorly done jobs at the top of their own agendas. One person who is wasting no time getting down to business is Maitripala Sirisena, the new Minister of Health. He has already sought the help of the Sri Lanka Air Force to more..

May 18 (ST) United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's move to appoint a panel of experts to advise him on alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka has sparked a war of words between a blog site covering the world body and the Sri Lanka's Permanent Mission in New York. On May 10, Mathew Lee of Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Martin Nesirsky why a panel was not named 66 days after Mr. Ban had made the announcement. more..

May 18 (DC) Slain Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s mother Parvathi Ammal had expressed unhappiness at not being given permission to land in Chennai for medical treatment, pro-LTTE website TamilNet has said. “I do not know why Kalaignar Ayya (chief minister M. Karunanidhi) sent me back,” the site quoted the ailing octogenarian telling her doctor, A. Mayileruperumal at the government hospital in more..

May 18 (SLW) A community cannot be taken for a ride by fake, farce and charade such as a government of a transnational state; that is for promoters of myths and fables. Tamils in Sri Lanka devastated in their thousands need facilities and help for economic reconstruction and development. Pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora must be severely warned by their respective governments to desist from fanning Tiger terrorism in their new homelands. more..

May 18 (LP) Kawamma, a 79-year-old village woman and a mother of three from Wariyapola in Sri Lanka’s Northwestern Province, is the real miracle of Somawathi, a Buddhist temple in the Eastern Province. However, she is an ordinary village woman apparently uneducated. More than 800,000 devotees flocked in this forest-locked temple to see the body rays of Lord Buddha from the dagaba in the temple on May 09th. more..

May 18 (IL) President Mahinda Rajapaksa held a series of talks with the Iranian leaders in Teheran on Sunday evening ahead of the G15 Summit which will convene on 17th May with the head of states from 18 countries. He was warmly welcomed by the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at President Palace. Both leaders held a discussion to strengthen bilateral relations and agreed to boost mutual cooperation. more..

May 18 (LG) In future May 18 will be remembered as the ‘day of battle’. Already the government has announced with much fanfare that victory celebrations will end on May 18. The TNA has had secret discussions with the government. Nevertheless, it has declared this very 18 as a day of mourning - to be remembered with black flags. The TNA has requested business houses to close shop and show solidarity. I wonder whether the parties concerned have obtained prior approval from the Delhi masters. more..

May 18 (LG) Sri Lanka’s own Truth and Reconciliation Commission is finally in place we are told, courtesy the president. A welcome step many would say, and it probably definitely is, considering that perceptions matter —- and that there is a perception that the collective sensitivities of the entire Tamil community are at stake, one year after Prabhakaran was found naked and dead near the Nandikadal. more..

May 18 (IPS) A year since Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war ended on May 18 last year, tourists are returning in huge numbers to a popular beach destination located over 300 kilometres from where the last battles were fought. Nowhere is the relief at the end of fighting more tangible than on the beautiful beaches of Hikkaduwa, south of the capital Colombo. The war against the secessionist LTTE, fighting for a separate state for the minority Tamils, more..

May 18 (TC) The President’s decision to appoint a Minister of Justice, and not assign the Department of the Attorney General to the Ministry of Justice is an extremely curious one. It means that the President has assigned to himself, as he lawfully might, the twin subjects and functions of criminal prosecutions and civil proceedings on behalf of the Republic, and legal advice to departments of Government. more..

May 18 (IL) President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is currently in Teheran to participate in the G15 Conference has met Islamic Supreme Leader of Iran Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hoseyni Khumenei last evening at the Revolutionary Leader’s residence. The Iranian Supreme leader wished the Sri Lankan President for his achievements and requested to carry forward continuously the speedy development process now taking place in Sri Lanka. more..

May 18 (FP) Last May, Sri Lankan soldiers captured the final piece of land held by the separatist Tamil Tigers, killing hundreds of rebel fighters, including the group's leader, and definitively ending a 26-year civil war that claimed as many as 100,000 lives. On May 19, the first anniversary of the war's end, however, there is little to celebrate. As many as 93,000 Tamils remain in detention camps and transit centers, more..

May 18 (TN) Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has prevented the first commemoration events of Mu’l’livaaikkaal Massacre of May 2009 being observed in Jaffna Sunday in Nalloor and Jaffna town by chasing away the public from participating, threatening to death the reporters trying to cover the event and detaining Yarl Thinakural reporter who was present in the memorial event observed in Ilangkai Thamizh Arasu Kaddchi (ITAK) office on Martin Road, Jaffna. more..

May 18 (NS) Born on August 4, 1965 in the Bulathsinhala village of Kalutara District, Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka is known for his nationalistic and ferocious approach throughout his political career, and as a student leader. Minister Ranawaka is an electrical engineer by profession but also reputed as an activist and a writer. Charge of the Lion Brigade was his latest book and released in 2009. Patisothigamiwa Tis (30) Wasak is the autobiography of the Minister. more..