Apr 25 (LBO) Hire and fire compensation formula could stiffen the labor market by adding a floor on compensation for voluntary retirement schemes say employers. Labour Minister Gazetted the formula last month that gives up to 48 months salary for termination in addition to another year�s wages through a government dole. more..

Apr 25 (PIS) Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando has deployed several police teams, including the Special Task Force (STF) to trace Inspector Thurairatnam Jeyaratnam of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID). He is missing from last week. more..

Apr 25 (Reuters) Stocks inched up to a new life closing high on Monday as foreign and local investors bought select stocks tipped to post upbeat full-year earnings, brokers said. The key Colombo all-share index gained a provisional 0.16 percent, or 2.87 points, to 1,805.0 points. more..

Apr 25 (DN) The Education Ministry yesterday said that they have received information through the Police that certain elements were planning to have a protest campaign near two leading schools in Colombo today, claiming to be parents of the students and past pupils of the schools. more..

Apr 25 (PTI) Sri Lanka's national carrier, SriLankan, will launch a freighter service to Coimbatore from Wednesday, the airline announced today. The twice-weekly service will operate on Wednesday and Saturday with the airline's two Antanov-12 aircraft, more..

Apr 25 (IANS) The Indian cricket team's next assignment is a one-day triangular series in Sri Lanka in July-August where the West Indies will be the third team. S.K. Nair, secretary of the BCCI, confirmed India's participation in the tournament that will be played July 26-Aug 19. more..

Apr 25 (ANN) The CFA is being put to different uses by the two parties to it. For the LTTE, it serves a dual purpose; a bludgeon to beat the government with and a wish granting magic wand. The government is using it as a basket to put all its economic and political eggs in. more..

Apr 25 (HT) War is still not on the cards in troubled Sri Lanka. But the peace process, so thoughtfully and courageously bought into being in February 2002, continues to be very fragile. Movement forward is currently blocked by four factors: more..

Apr 25 (AP) Police have sent anti-terrorist commandos to search for an intelligence officer allegedly abducted by Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka, a police spokesman said Monday. The abduction last Wednesday of T. Jeyaratnam, who was involved in gathering information on the rebels, more..

Apr 25 (ADB) A journey along Sri Lanka's historic A9 road between Jaffna and Vavuniya shows clearly how prosperity can burgeon amid an uneasy coexistence between truce and tension. The ceasefire agreement between the Government and the LTTE still holds after 3 years, though progress towards a peace settlement has been uncertain. more..

Apr 25 (BBC) A photographer lodged an official complaint at the Hikkaduwa police station following an alleged attack by a leading politician of the ruling party in the South of Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 25 (BBC) Sri Lanka�s Supreme Court (SC) ordered the government to amend the existing laws so that the relatives of the disappeared can apply for death certificates after six months since tsunami. more..

Apr 25 (TN) Liberation Tigers Monday lodged a complaint with Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that commandos of the Special Task Force (STF), the elite counter insurgency arm of the Sri Lankan armed forces, had forcibly entered the LTTE political office in Navithanveli, about 36 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa. more..

Apr 25 (TN) Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Monday dismissed the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) campaign to explain the Joint Mechanism for distributing Tsunami aid in the northeast as �a time buying tactic to gloss over the fact that it cannot overcome JVP�s strident opposition�. more..

Apr 25 (TN) The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the all monks political party, Monday said it would launch a protest campaign against the proposed joint mechanism with the LTTE to disburse foreign funds for the reconstruction of tsunami affected coastal villages in the northeast. more..

Apr 25 (TN) Mr.Nimal Sripala de Silva, a senior Minister in the UPFA government, said that the proposed joint mechanism would not confer any administrative powers to the LTTE. "Sinhala people need not get perturbed over the propaganda that such mechanism would undermine the sovereignty and integrity of Sri Lanka," more..

Apr 25 (IANS) Unesco has clarified that it has no plans to de-list the Bodh Gaya temple in Bihar, near the site where the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment some 2,500 years ago, from its World Heritage List. more..

Apr 26 (TN) A cadre of the paramilitary �Karuna Group� was killed and his Singhalese colleague was abducted by gunmen in Karapola, an interior Tamil village in Polannaruwa district close to Batticaloa border, around 4.30 p.m. Monday. Police sources in the area said that the gunmen had fired on the victims who were in a house in Karapola. more..

Apr 26 (LM) The President Chandrika Kumaratunga is making an all-out effort to win the support of the Western Provincial Council members to vote against the no-confidence motion sponsored by the United National Party, according to reliable political sources. more..

Apr 26 (AFP) Pakistan said the start of a free trade agreement with Sri Lanka in June is expected to double business between the two countries to almost 300 million dollars in the first year. more..

Apr 26 (LBO) Ceylinco�s pollution free car � the Reva selling at over Rs. 1.2 mn has so far received some 20 confirmed orders. The Indian made electric car was commercially launched Monday, targeted at environment minded Sri Lankan�s willing to cruise at a maximum speed of 65 kmh. more..

Apr 26 (LBO) Sri Lanka has been urged to devise a new Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) with the World Bank following the donor meeting in May. Crucial to this would be working out a joint mechanism for distributing aid to the North-East region. more..

Apr 26 (LBO) World Bank says the country has lost the education advantage it had in Asia but second generation reforms of the sector can help Sri Lanka regain lost ground. In an in-depth look at the sector the World Bank, which is getting ready to give budget support to the sector says spending will not only have to be increased but also re-oriented. more..

Apr 26 (PTI) The Madras High Court on Monday permitted two Sri Lankan Nationals, being detained by Tamil Nadu police, in connection with the murder of EPRLF leader Padmanabhan and Rajiv Gandhi assassination, to proceed to the island nation. more..

Apr 26 (RW) India yesterday pledged its continued assistance towards the relief and reconstruction drive in tsunami-hit areas of Sri Lanka. This assurance was made by Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh when he met his Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapakse on the sidelines of the Asian-African Summit in Jakarta. more..

Apr 26 (LAT) A proposal to make the shallow strait between India and Sri Lanka navigable has upset environmentalists and the port of Colombo. To its supporters, it is a dream project, no less than the "Suez of the East." To its opponents it would be an environmental catastrophe. more..

Apr 26 (BBC) Coalition partners in the ruling UPFA have decided to take different paths in the Western Provincial Council. JVP say that it will abstain from voting when a no-confidence motion against Chief Minister of the Western Provincial Council (WPC) is debated on Tuesday, while the Peoples Alliance (PA) group have decided to oppose the motion. more..

Apr 26 (BBC) Girls are the greatest casualty of war all over the world, a leading charity working with children said on Monday. A Save the Children report found more than 120,000 girls and young women have been abducted and pushed into conflict worldwide. more..

Apr 26 (LT) Several UNP stalwarts are preparing to put forward Karu Jayasuriya, deputy leader of the party as its Presidential candidate. Anti-Ranil National Front consisting of those who were removed from the posts of electoral organizers and others who were removed from the party are taking the leadership in the move. more..

Apr 26 (LT) Even we are divided in to parties and ideologies nobody can agree with an idea of dividing Sri Lanka in to parts, Patriotic National Movement in a letter addressed to Ministers and members of parliament says. It is responsibility of all Sri Lankans to protect the motherland for the future generation PNM in the letter insisted. more..

Apr 26 (LT) Several ministers and deputy ministers of the former UNP government who had been accused of mass scale fraud and swindling have expressed their willingness to support the Alliance Government if the accusations against them were withdrawn. more..

Apr 26 (AT) Sri Lanka briefed the Indian leaders about the current status of the peace process. The peace process and the tsunami relief were the two main topics of discussion when the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh met his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rjapakse in Jakarta where the two leaders were attending the Asian-African Summit. more..

Apr 26 (AT) May is the month it may start coming apart. The Aid group meeting is scheduled for mid-May and the grapevine has it that there is a danger of postponement in the absence of agreement on a joint mechanism. more..

Apr 26 (AT) Traders in the Jaffna peninsula lamented that state owned and commercial banks are not providing any banking facilities to them, though almost all the major banks have opened up branch offices in the peninsula. more..

Apr 26 (AT) The international donors are now waiting to assist Sri Lanka, but they insist that they want Sri Lanka to setup the joint mechanism. �After the signing and launching of the Joint mechanism, we can pour in the required funds needed for relief and rebuilding,� the donor countries have indicated to the Sri Lanka Government. more..

Apr 26 (USE) U.S. Diplomatic Security Officers Alex Moore and Michele Collins presented plaques of appreciation to the Colombo IGP Mr. Chandra Fernando, the Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau, and the Criminal Investigation Department Anti-Human Smuggling Branch more..

Apr 26 (NST) IN Sri Lanka, as post-tsunami relief work continued, disaster relief slowly became recovery relief. Apart from the multi-national efforts to help human beings get back on their feet, there were programmes to help the animals as well. more..

Apr 26 (TN) Three-day Human Rights Congress held in Trincomalee town since Friday concluded Sunday night with the cultural programme of district delegations from Jaffna, Batticaloa, Mannar, Vavuniya, Puttalam, and Amparai. more..

Apr 26 (SLA) A teenage girl resident in the general area of KAYTS has been abducted by an identified LTTE cadre on 25 April 2005 between 9.30 to 11.30 a.m., states a complaint made to the Police by her sister S.J. DAYASETTHI of Camp road, KAYTS. more..

Apr 26 (SLA) An LTTE PRABHAKARAN faction cadre, said to be attached to PALUGAMAN LTTE office was caught with a cyanide capsule, suspicious photographs, cash and a dog tag at MANMUNAI ferry while he was riding towards MANMUNAI from KOKKADICHOLAI area on 25 April 2005 around 1.30 p.m. in cleared areas. more..

Apr 26 (SLA) Armed men, suspected to be from the LTTE in combat uniforms similar to those of the Army have opened fire using small arms on a civilian after abducting another twenty-one year old youth from KARAPOLA, WELIKANDA area on 25 April 2005 around 2.35 p.m. more..

Apr 26 (SLA) An LTTE cadre of the PRABHAKARAN faction has fired several rounds at the EPDP office at VALAICHECHENAI on 25 April 2005 around 12.50 p.m. Troops rushed to the location and recovered three 7.62 x 39 mm empty cases from the location. However, no casualties or damages were reported. more..

Apr 26 (LT) A birth of Siamese twins has been reported from De Soyza Hospital for women in Colombo. A woman from Kiribathgoda gave birth to these children on the 21st. The children who are united near the waist and chest are in good health say hospital sources. more..

Apr 26 (LT) A special discussion was held in Colombo by a group of high ranking representatives of certain NGOs, active in this country, on combating the charges and revealing of their unscrupulous dealings carried on against them by Patriotic National Movement (PNM) and the JVP. more..

Apr 26 (AFP) The tsunamis which smashed into Sri Lanka in December last year battered some of the island's famed coral reefs to bits but left others untouched, environmentalists say. Based on a preliminary survey carried out recently of eastern and northeastern Sri Lanka, some reefs have been badly broken and may take years to recover, more..

Apr 26 (Reuters) Stocks fell on Tuesday from new life highs as traders skimmed profits after recent gains and foreign investors sold over poor returns, brokers said. The key Colombo all-share index dipped by a provisional 0.17 percent, or 3.09 points, to 1,803.9 points, more..

Apr 26 (IL) Sri Lanka�s most controversial power project, the Norochcholai coal power plant is facing more obstacles despite Cabinet approval. The latest hurdle includes the new spate of protests against the project supposedly by Catholic and Muslim residents of the area, who reportedly claim that the project is very harmful to the environment. more..

Apr 26 (LM) Norway has reportedly warned members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to refrain from making sensitive statements that would hurt the religious sentiments, sources said yesterday. more..

Apr 26 (LM) Cegu Issadeen, Deputy Minister of Media and frontliner of the UPFA's constituent party National Unity Alliance (NUA) has confirmed the stance already taken by the SLMC with regard to the controversial joint mechanism for post tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the Northern and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 26 (TP) While the interdictions of three Sri Lankan state school principals have triggered protests from past pupils, students and teachers, three more principals have come under the microscope of the Presidential Investigation Unit (PIU) signalling more interdictions soon. more..