Jan 10 (LT) Although Mr S B Dissanayake�s Parliamentary membership has expired after one year of absence in the Parliament, no action has been taken by the officials in the Parliament to inform the Commissioner of Elections. more..

Jan 10 (LT) Nominations for Local Government polls in North and East which were postponed twice have to be cancelled. This was revealed at a press conference held this morning in Colombo at a media briefing by the Minister of Local Government, Mr Janaka Bandara Tennekoon. more..

Jan 10 (LT) Since December 4th last year 54 security personnel in the Army and Police have been assassinated while 13 are missing. This was disclosed by the Army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. He revealed these deaths were occurred following the claymore bomb attacks aimed at the security forces. more..

Jan 10 (SLBC) A National Housing Scheme for economically deprived persons will be implemented. Under the first phase of the programme 25 houses will be built in each Grama Niladhari Division. The programme also includes constructing of 20 houses each in selected twelve villages in twelve districts. more..

Jan 10 (SLBC) The Ministry of Education will modernize the primary and secondary education methods during this year aiming a qualitative development in the country's education sector. Several important measures such as modernization of the teaching methodology in the primary section, practical English and improvement of the information technology know-how among children will be introduced. more..

Jan 10 (SAMN) While there is still no compromise on the venue for peace talks with the LTTE, the government is pinning its hopes on Norwegian Minister Erik Solhiem�s visit later this month to facilitate an agreement between the two parties. more..

Jan 10 (SAMN) Criminals found guilty of murder, robbery, rape, theft and other crimes should be punished. They should not be jailed and maintained at public expense, said the Most Ven. Udugama Sri Ratnapala Buddharakkhitha Mahanayake Thera of the Asgiriya Chapter. more..

Jan 10 (SAMN) A delegation of TNA parliamentarians, led by TNA group leader S.Sampanthan, met President Mahinda Rajapakse during the weekend and urged him to start peace talks with the LTTE without disagreeing on the venue of talks suggested by the LTTE. more..

Jan 10 (LNP) The two survivors of Saturday`s attack on a navy Dvora craft have revealed that their vessel sank within minutes of the alleged LTTE attack. The two injured sailors, who are receiving treatment for minor injuries, said this when interviewed by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), in Trincomalee on Sunday evening. more..

Jan 10 (LNP) A detailed discussion took place yesterday between Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and three MPs led by UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya about the distribution of powers and responsibilities among senior MPs of the party. more..

Jan 10 (LNP) The Annual Duruthu Perahera of the Kelani Raja Maha Viharaya will be held today, tomorrow (11) and on Wednesday (12). The pageant will begin with the Udamaluwa Perahera and conclude with the Maha Perahera on Wednesday. There will be more than 50 elephants on parade in the Perahera more..

Jan 10 (CI) Tom Moody, the Sri Lanka coach, says his side will not get involved in any verbal jousting with Australia and South Africa in the upcoming VB Series. Sri Lanka arrived in Australia having completed a five-match series against New Zealand, and were training at the Melbourne Cricket Ground today more..

Jan 10 (AFP) Australia's generous response to the Indian Ocean tsunami relief effort convinced Muttiah Muralitharan to play for Sri Lanka in the one-day series in Australia, Marvan Atapattu, the Sri Lanka captain, said on Tuesday. more..

Jan 10 (LBO) A week long union strike at Sri Lanka's largest tyre manufacturer CEAT Kelani Tyres was called off on Tuesday, after Labour Ministry intervention. The dispute arose when the company refused worker demands to double monthly salaries by Rs. 5,000. more..

Jan 10 (AFP) - The United States warned Sri lanka against banking on a quick free trade deal to fix its economic woes and urged the island to restore peace and open its markets. US ambassador to Sri Lanka Jeffrey Lunstead told a meeting of business leaders here that peace in the ethnically divided island was the key to economic prosperity. more..

Jan 10 (DN) JHU leader Ven. Ellawala Medhananda Thera in a media release yesterday referred to news items in some weekend newspapers that said that a few Cabinet Ministers have expressed their discontent to President Mahinda Rajapakse about former D.I.G. Kotakadeniya's statements and orders to the police to conduct search operations in Colombo and the suburbs. more..

Jan 10 (AAP) The Australian government has condemned the rise in violence in Sri Lanka. At least 60 soldiers have died in attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north and east of the country since December. more..

Jan 10 (Xinhua) Sri Lankan military said Tuesday that four claymore mines had been recovered from the troubled North and East provinces. In the eastern Batticaloa district two claymore mines were found at Punany area by a military team which was doing road clearing operations in the area. more..

Jan 10 (AP) Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission has received complaints that 16 ethnic Tamil civilians disappeared after being arrested by security forces in northern Jaffna peninsula, a spokesman said Tuesday. "Our Jaffna coordinator has informed us that relatives have complained that they do not have any information regarding 16 civilians arrested by the forces," more..

Jan 10 (AP) Army operations in northern Sri Lanka have terrified hundreds of ethnic Tamils who have fled government-controlled areas to seek haven in territory controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels, the guerrillas said Tuesday. more..

Jan 10 (Reuters) Ordinary people in Sri Lanka's north are suffering and are fleeing their homes as Tamil Tiger rebels and the government blame each other for rising violence, the head of a Western truce monitoring group said on Tuesday. more..

Jan 10 (AFP) President has made a fresh attempt to reach agreement among political parties before any talks with Tamil Tiger rebels to stem the latest wave of bloodshed, his office said. President Mahinda Rajapakse met leaders of parties represented in parliament Monday more..

Jan 10 (AFP) The United States warned Tamil Tiger rebels that a return to war would cost them dearly. US ambassador to Sri Lanka, Jeffrey Lunstead, told a meeting of businessmen here on Tuesday that Washington wanted the rebel LTTE to stop its "violent activities" and return to peace talks with Colombo. more..

Jan 10 (USE) Happy New Year. The new year is a good time to both reflect and look ahead. What a year 2005 was! Tsunami set the tone � a rollercoaster of hope and despair, followed by ups and downs on the political and economic fronts. more..

Jan 10 (wsws) As Sri Lanka rapidly heads back to open civil war, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera was in Washington last week for three days of high-level talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other defence, treasury and state department officials. more..

Jan 10 (TW) Mahinda Rajapakse the new President of Sri Lanka met representatives of the co - chair quartet of the Sri Lankan peace process on January 9th. One of the issues raised at this meeting was about the cordon, search and arrest operations going on in Colombo and other areas. The President's response according to an official communique was as follows. more..

Jan 10 (Hindu) The European Union is engaged in an intensive internal debate on whether or not to ban the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the wake of mounting attacks by the LTTE in Sri Lanka over the past month. European diplomats have told this correspondent that the issue will remain under discussion till a decision is reached. more..

Jan 11 (TN) A school girl, yet to be identified, was forcefully taken away by four Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers when she was walking home along PaalPannai Road (Milk farm Road) from school between Kondavil and Thirunelvely junctions in Jaffna at 2 p.m. Tuesday, residents of the area who witnessed the incident said. more..

Jan 11 (TP) Calibrated in escalation, the stunning suicide attack by Black Tigers against a Sri Lankan naval vessel outside Trincomalee harbour last Saturday is the most blatant act of war by the LTTE, blurring further Sri Lankan Government's red lines, though President Mahinda Rajapakse has warned not to mistake his patience for weakness. more..

Jan 11 (BS) An MoU was signed between NDDB and Gemidiriya Foundation, an autonomous body set up by the Sri Lankan government today to implement a dairy project in Sri Lanka. The memorandum was signed during a two day visit by a high level delegation from Sri Lanka at NDDB, Anand. more..

Jan 11 (LeN) UNP dissidents decided this evening to request the party leader to convene an emergency meeting of the party's parliamentary group to resolve the leadership crisis. Dissident frontrunner Dr. Rajitha Senaratne told 'Lanka e News' that a letter to this effect would be handed over to the party leadership tomorrow. more..

Jan 11 (LeN) Restrictions should be placed on advertisements on alcohol as they could promote sales by enticing even children, Chief Justice Sarath N Silva said. The Chief Justice stated this when petitions filed against the private members motion moved by JHU parliamentarian to set up a National Authority on Alcohol and Tobacco were taken up for hearing. more..

Jan 11 (ISL) Nesan Thirunesan, son of founding EROS member Nesadurai Thirunesan alias Shankar Rajee told in an exclusive interview with The Independent that the international communities failure to intervene in North East against LTTE atrocities had led to the present law and order deteriorating situation in North East. more..

Jan 11 (ISL) Brigadier Larry Wijeratne who was in service during the mid 90�s won the heart of the Tamil people because of his conduct. By his good conducts and positive relations with the Tamil public, he posed a heavy threat to the LTTE. The standards in public relations he set were good examples for the Army officers in North to follow to defeat LTTE and win the support of North-eastern public. more..

Jan 11 (ISL) The Asian Human Rights Commision in a press release condemned the �irresponsible� statement made by H M G V Kotakadeniya, an advisor to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence, on the police appointments. more..

Jan 11 (HT) One of the main factors holding up the start of talks on the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in Sri Lanka is the issue of "equality" of the two parties, namely, the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the LTTE, according to an informed Tamil source. more..

Jan 11 (AT) Sri Lanka needs a stable government. The country also has to come forward with a plan for the infrastructure and tourism developments. Investments for these development activities are easy to obtain. "World's popular business magnates are ready to accept Sri Lanka�s requests on investments." more..

Jan 11 (LT) The two youths murdered by the pistol gang of the wanni tiger organization have been identified as Army soldiers. They had been members of the intelligence unit of the security forces. They had resigned from the intelligence units and had been attached to a camp at Vavuniya. more..

Jan 11 (LT) The state sector should work with discipline and should dedicate itself for the service of the people said President Mahinda Rajapakse. President made these remarks addressing secretaries of ministries when he met them at Presidential Secretariat. more..

Jan 11 (LT) The obstacle President Mahinda Rajapakse has in commencing the peace process is the stand of the JVP said Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe. He said this at a meeting of the Parliamentarians and Members of Provincial Councils held at �Sirikothe�, the head quarters of the UNP at Pita Kotte yesterday. more..

Jan 11 (AT) The Tamil Tiger Air force is ready to launch attacks on the Sri Lanka Government's armed forces, if Eelam War IV breaks out, warns Colonel Bravo Bahnu. This was the first time the Tamil rebel outfit openly admitted the prevalence of an Air force which was inducted as their another fighting unit. more..

Jan 11 (Reuters) If Sri Lanka's two-decade-old civil war flares again, as many fear it will, Tamil Tiger rebels are likely to launch an assault on northern Jaffna as well as hit-and-run guerrilla attacks on supply lines, analysts say. more..

Jan 11 (ANN) Petitions from the public against corrupt policemen including high ranking officers are pouring in now. Director Investigations, Bribery Commission, SP Neville Guruge said around 20 petitions against corrupt officers were being received daily at the Commission�s office. more..

Jan 11 (AC) For many villagers here, the sight of a train swept up in the 2004 tsunami disaster is just too painful. About 1,500 passengers on board were killed when the giant waves swept the southern Sri Lankan coast and enveloped the train's nine cars. more..

Jan 11 (TN) Two demining workers, Tharmasiri and Kandeepan, employed by the humanitarian Danish De-mining Group, DDG, were abducted by unknown armed men who came in a white Hiace van Wednesday early morning in Point Pedro, sources in Jaffna said. more..

Jan 11 (TN) In the escalating shadow war against traders in Jaffna district, Thambu Nadesu, who runs a business near the Puthur junction on the Jaffna - Point Pedro road was shot dead allegedly by Sri Lanka military intelligence operatives Tuesday around 11.30 p.m. civilian sources said. more..

Jan 11 (SLA) A meticulously hatched LTTE plot to tarnish the image of the Sri Lanka Army over an alleged abduction of a school girl in KONDAVIL area, JAFFNA was proved a hoax when Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) representatives on Tuesday (10) ruled that there was no truth in the fabricated story or the alleged abduction. more..

Jan 11 (SLA) A CLAYMORE MINE, about to be set off by Tamil Tigers (LTTE) at PUTTUR in JAFFNA on Tuesday (10) around 6.45 p.m. was recovered by a route clearing patrol conducted by the troops. Two detonators and a wire length of about 30 m was also recovered by the same route clearing team. more..

Jan 11 (SLA) A CIVILIAN WHO WORKED at a shop in the CHAVAKACHCHERI town was shot dead by a gunman suspected to be a Tamil Tiger on Tuesday (10) afternoon around 4.25 p.m. A civilian who was around the seen have reported this incident to the CHAVAKACHCHERI Army camp after about 2 hours. Later, troops directed him to lodge a formal complain with the Police. more..

Jan 11 (SLA) A HAND GRENADE, believed to have been abandoned by the LTTE, has been recovered by the troops on duty in KALLADY, BATTICALOA on Tuesday (10) around 8.30 am. Later the Army bomb disposal team defused it. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) was informed.