Dec 31 (CG) The TNA says it hopes to have talks with US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal is she visits Sri Lanka next month. TNA MP Suresh Premachandran said the TNA hopes Biswal will also visit the north and father information on the human rights situation. The UN Embassy in Colombo is yet to confirm Biswal’s Sri Lanka visit while the External Affairs Ministry said that there was a request more..

Dec 31 (DM) UNP MP Mangala Samaraweera’s residence at Panadura is reported to have been burgled last afternoon, police said. They said there was nobody in the house at the time of the incident. Sequent to a complaint made by Mr. Samaraweera to the Panadura North Police, four police officers were sent there to provide round-the-clock security. The burglars appear to have gone through some of the documents more..

Dec 31 (CT) In 1964, a joint session of the US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving the President carte blanche to wage war in South-East Asia. 41 years later, declassified NSA documents confirmed what global public opinion had known/suspected all along – that the August 4th attack on two US ships by North Vietnamese Navy, which precipitated the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, never happened. The portentous event was nothing but a lie, used by the Lyndon Johnson more..

Dec 31 (LBO) Stocks end 0.23% higher Tuesday with banking and insurance firms gaining trading for 2013 and the market up 4.7% over the year. All Share Price Index closed 13.58 points higher at 5,912.78, up 0.23%. The S&P SL20 closed 3.58 points lower at 3,263.87, down 0.11%. Turnover was 565.25 million rupees, up from 515.26 million rupees a day earlier, with stocks of 74 firms closing in the red against 96 gainers. All Share Index was up 4.78% over the year, more..

Dec 31 (BBC) An investigation against BBC Sinhala Service Senior Producer Chandana Keerthi Bandara is underway, the Colombo Telegraph learns. This follows a complaint made against him by the former BBC Sinhala Service Head, Priyath Liayanage. Bandara has been informed that the BBC could take disciplinary action against him, although is not clear what the charges are. The BBC World Service spokesman, Paul Rasmussen refused to give details, but did not deny the story. more..

Dec 31 (LT) "200 girls under the age of 20 at Welikanda have been implanted with contraceptive capsules – 14 year girls too would have to undergo the ordeal – Bigwigs in North-Central are bemused!” – This is the headline of a newspaper published today. A statement made by Chief Nursing Officer of Divisional Health Office Ms. D.K. Jayasinghe that 200 girls under the age of 20 at Welikanda have been implanted with contraceptive capsules and 14 year girls too would have to follow more..

Dec 31 (Island) BIA customs yesterday arrested a 21-year-old Sri Lankan passenger, who arrived from Kenya, with 50 kilos of Khat plants, which contains a narcotic stimulant chemical. Customs spokesman Leslie Gamini said that it was first such incident they had detected so far. Youth had tried to smuggle in the narcotic plants by going through the green channel. Khat plant contained the stimulant Cathinone. more..

Dec 31 (AD) The GMOA says that the rapidly increasing number of patients with kidney disease has become a grave issue in providing healthcare services and therefore urged the Health Ministry to give more emphasis to the matter. A specific unit should be established for kidney disease and necessary measures be taken to curb it, the Spokesperson of the GMOA, Dr. Naveen de Soysa said. He stated that the GMOA has presented a 12-step programme regarding kidney disease to more..

Dec 31 (CT) “The Ambassador was called in to see Prime Minister Wickremesinghe on the afternoon of Saturday, Jan 10. Milinda Moragoda was also present. The meeting began with the participants exchanging thoughts on the books they had read over the Christmas/New Year’s lull, with the PM noting in particular a biography of Franklin Roosevelt.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington. Opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe listens to journalists more..

Dec 31 (DM) A9 - the road from Jaffna to Colombo is rapidly improving – surface and surroundings- as hundreds from the South travel to the North and are greeted by the northern traders as the mainstay of their sale. Northerners travel in greater numbers to the South in ease and spends more. Life in Jaffna meanders without stress in tranquil surroundings these days with its stoic inhabitants having experienced heavy storms before; more..

Dec 31 (Island) Police Headquarters said yesterday it had received information, that a team, led by a foreign woman and four Lankan youths, had inquired about the background of the woman, whom the Anti Vice Squad OIC, of the Maho police station, had allegedly sought a sexual bribe in a hotel on the Lake road, Kurunegala. The foreign woman had photographed the complainant woman’s house and its surroundings. It is believed that the foreign woman had gathered all such details more..

Dec 31 (Island) Country wide raids will be immediately conducted, by the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA), on fruit juice manufacturing plants. The CAA said it had received information that rotten fruits were being utilised to manufacture fruit juice which is sold to the unsuspecting public at various cool spots. Minister Johnston Fernando has issued directives to CAA Chairman Rumy Marzook to inspect places where fruit juice is not only manufactured, but places where it is sold in more..

Dec 31 (LBO) Sri Lanka's consumer prices rose 4.7% in the 12 months to December 2013, slowing from 5.6% in November, the state statistics office said. In the month of December the widely watched Colombo Consumer Price Index remained flat during the month at 176.5 points, the same as in November. Sri Lanka has seen weak credit growth in 2013, allowing for inflationary pressures to be low. In the second half of more..

Dec 31 (AD) The 2014 Budget of the UPFA-controlled Ja Ela Urban Council has been defeated for the second time by a majority of 5 votes. The budget proposal was presented to the council today (Dec. 31) by the Chairman, Upali Arambawatta. Four UPFA councilors including the Vice Chairman of the Urban Council and the three UNP members cast their vote against the budget while only the Chairman and another UPFA councilor voted in favour. more..

Dec 31 (CT) From 1 January 2014, no importer, manufacturer, or distributor of milk powder shall store, stock, or keep milk powder either in packs or in bulk in any warehouse which is not registered under the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA). The CAA would be acting under the powers vested in them by Section 10 (1) (b) (ii) of the Consumer Affairs Authority Act, No. 09 of 2003. The law will come into effect through the Gazette notification bearing No. 1842/21. more..

Dec 31 (PTI) The Indian govt built 10,000 houses this year for internally displaced people in Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern provinces and 33,000 more will be constructed in the next two years. The housing project funded by New Delhi made significant progress during 2013, the Indian High Commission here said. “The second phase of the Indian Housing Project, involving the construction of 43,000 housing units for IDPs more..

Dec 31 (PTI) Indian Navy on Tuesday arrested four Sri Lankans, including three members of a family, for reaching the country without proper documents and seized their fibre glass boat. They were arrested while getting off from the boat off Dhanushkodi coast. The arrested have been identified as Nirmalan, his wife Nishandhini, their one-year-old son Dickson and boat operator Kandhasamy. The couple told the naval personnel that they wanted to come to India as their parents in Sri Lanka more..

Dec 31 (HT) “Sri Lanka is fully able to undertake the tasks set out by the LLRC and to guarantee the rights of its citizens”, Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris told Prensa Latina in an interview by Alberto Salazar, published by Prensa Latina December 26 this year. The LLRC is a commission appointed by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to look into any possible wrong doing that govt forces are accused of having committed in the last months of the civil war between it and the LTTE. more..

Dec 31 (GDI) Minister Douglas Devananda, participating at the Jaffna District Civil Security Committee meeting held in Jaffna recently instructed, the Jaffna DIG Roshan Dias to set up more police stations, Guard Posts and increase the frequency of Police night patrols to rein in the miscreants as there had been recently an escalation of robberies, violence and other anti-social activities in the entire peninsula. more..

Dec 31 (CG) The chairman of the Deraniyagala Pradeshiya Sabha has been arrested over an assault incident, the police media unit said. The police said that Anura Wijeysuriya was arrested this morning after he was alleged to have assaulted a volleyball player at a match in Deraniyagala last night. The 23 year old volleyball player identified as Palitha Hettiarachi was allegedly assaulted by Wijeysuriya using his hands and legs. The police are conducting further investigations.

Dec 31 (CT) “As the world prepared to celebrate Christmas on the 24th evening, three churches in the South of Sri Lanka were attacked by mobs”, says the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL). 1. The pastor of the Assemblies of God church in Angunukolapalassa was surrounded by a mob of over 300 villagers together with Buddhist monks, demanding he stops all worship services planned for Christmas day. The mob alleged that there was a more..

Dec 31 (Island) The Education Ministry has completed 409 schools under its 1,000 Secondary Schools Development Project, subject minister Bandula Gunawardena said. He said that the rest would be completed by the end of next year. Establishing those schools would be an alternative to the so called popular schools, Gunawardena said adding that the JVP and its trade unions had misled the people by spreading adverse rumours more..

Dec 31 (AD) The UPFA has named new Chairmen for the Rajanganaya and Medawachchiya Pradeshiya Sabha in which the budgets were defeated. A senior spokesman for the party stated that the Elections Commissioner had been informed of the new appointments in the two areas. The UPFA had earlier appointed new Chairmen for the Peliyagoda Urban Council, Kesbewa Municipal Council and Meerigama Pradeshiya Sabha. New Chairmen are yet to be appointed in more..

Dec 31 (Island) Minister Bandula Gunawardena challenged Western Provincial Council Minister Udaya Gammanpila to a public debate on the Grade V scholarship examination. He said that provincial minister Gammanpila was unable to understand his explanations regarding the amendments to the examination. "We will not scrap the examination from 2016, but we will remove the mad competition in it," Gunawardena said adding that the exam would remain like a term test more..

Dec 31 (CI) The Pakistan seamers shredded the Sri Lanka batting in unthreatening conditions to wrest control after a manic second session in Abu Dhabi. Junaid Khan maintained his stranglehold over the Sri Lanka batsmen, picking up his fourth five-wicket haul against them, but central to the collapse was debutant Bilawal Bhatti's post-lunch spell during which he picked up three wickets - two of them in one over. more..