Apr 27 (AT) Construction Chamber signs a Memorandum of Understanding with Skills International to train technical personnel engaged in the Construction Industry. Chamber of Construction Industry, the accredited representative of the domestic construction industry has undertaken training of technical personnel for the construction industry in collaboration with Skills International [Pvt] Ltd., more..

Apr 27 (Hindu) The Tamil Tigers are on the run in the face of a concerted military offensive by the Sri Lanka government. This is evident, among other things, in their retreat from erstwhile strongholds in the east � Sampur in Trincomalee in September 2006, Vaharai in Batticaloa in January 2007, and in recent weeks a number of smaller bases. The Sri Lanka Air Force has played a leading role in boosting the state's ground forces. more..

Apr 27 (Hindu) Through the World Cup, Mahela Jayawardene has worn the air of man who recognises his moment. He sees it for it is and, though nervous, is excited about challenging himself. It isn't as glib as it sounds: even the greatest have felt helpless, unsure why unstinting preparation and indubitable skill aren't enough some days. more..

Apr 27 (AFP) Sri Lanka's mild-mannered cricketers should be more aggressive if they want to beat the Australians in Saturday's World Cup final, former Sri Lankan opening batsman Sidath Wettimuny said. "Sri Lankans need to show aggression in all departments of the game," Wettimuny, Sri Lanka's star opening batsman in its early years of Test cricket said overnight. more..

Apr 27 (ToI) Many might think the Sri Lankans have what it takes to beat the Australians in Saturday's World Cup final, but the bookies don't think so. The odds they are offering suggest that the Aussies are clear favourites. Be it international betting sites Ladbrokes, William Hill or Indian bookies, the odds are heavy on an Australian win. Ladbrokes is offering 2/5 on an Australian win and 7/4 on a Lankan win. more..

Apr 27 (Reuters) Sri Lankan cricket fans pray as Buddhist monks chant during a blessing ceremony for Sri Lanka's cricket team at a temple in Kalutara April 26, 2007. Sri Lanka will play Australia in the cricket World Cup finals on April 28. more..

Apr 27 (Age) WITH one last conquest in mind, Glenn McGrath has declared the setting perfect for a third straight World Cup and a final crack at old rival Sanath Jayasuriya, whom he believes will not enjoy the steep bounce of the Barbados pitch in tomorrow's final against Sri Lanka. The great Australian paceman is set to finish his career as the outstanding bowler of the tournament, more..

Apr 27 (AFP) Muttiah Muralitharan hopes that a Sri Lanka victory in Saturday's World Cup final against champions Australia can help heal the war wounds of his strife-torn country. The star off-spinner, one of three survivors from the team that beat Australia in the 1996 final, said a victory would be a timely boost as violence on the island escalates between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels. more..

Apr 27 (BN) Sri Lanka's inflation probably eased to a six-month low in April after five increases in interest rates since June helped slow loan growth. Consumer prices in the capital Colombo gained 17.9 percent from a year earlier, after increasing 19.5 percent in March, according to the median estimate of nine analysts in a Bloomberg survey. more..

Apr 27 (TO) Arjuna Ranatunga has described Sri Lanka�s World Cup victory of 1996 as the greatest triumph in the history of his country, but the worst moment for its cricket. From then on, the former captain believes, malign influences hijacked the running of the game and money started to become a corrosive factor among players. more..

Apr 27 (TW) I have been in receipt of a large number of queries and comments. A typical comment from a reader and my reply to it are given below: In response to my article on Countering the LTTE�s Air Capability, I have been in receipt of a large number of queries and comments. A typical comment from a reader and my reply to it are given below: more..

Apr 27 (wsws) The LTTE carried out a second air attack in just over a month, hitting the Sri Lankan military�s main complex in the northern Jaffna peninsula at Palaly late on Monday night. Palaly is the main northern air base and thus a major supply route for the military, which has no road access to the south of the island. The defence ministry at first denied any LTTE air attack. more..

Apr 27 (TN) The British diplomatic mission in Colombo shed diplomatic neutrality on Friday to support Sri Lanka's cricket team in their World Cup final against Australia, AFP reported. "We're hoping for a repeat of the 1996 World Cup final result. Come on you Sri Lankan Lions. Let's hear you roar," a message from the UK High Commission said. more..

Apr 27 (LBO) State-owned Bank of Ceylon's syndicated dollar loan has been able to raise more money than originally envisaged. There had been substantial interest from prospective lenders allowing the loan size to be enhanced, an official said. The deal, arranged with bookrunner HSBC, was earlier scheduled for late last year. more..

Apr 27 (AT) French police has expressed their utter disappointment to the Tamil university students in Paris for violating the conditions they agreed by turning a 'rally' into a 'protest march.' The students have originally agreed to hold a 'rally' on Wednesday April 25 but the it subsequently turned vociferous with slogan shouting, placards display amounting to 'protest march.' more..

Apr 27 (GDI) Education would be the cornerstone in uplifting the living standards of the estate community, which would incorporate new attitudes and standards in socio-economic spheres in the estate sector, contributing immensely to the country�s development process, President Mahinda Rajapaksa stated yesterday in a message sent to the ceremony to award teaching appointments to estate sector schools at Temple Trees. more..

Apr 27 (LNP) Though there is a common belief that the cost of living would increase due to the hike in fuel prices, Assistant Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. H. N. Thenuwara said that would not be so as the fuel hike would only bring down inflation because it would reduce government borrowing money to subsidize fuel and electricity. `Maintaining subsidies causes a large impact on the inflation because the government has to borrow money,` Dr. Thenuwara said. more..

Apr 27 (LNP) It is not only in cricket that anything is possible. In politics, too, that is so. Whoever thought Mahinda and Mangala would ever sit together for a meal again and make a good dessert of a World Cup cricket match at the Temple Trees after all the insult they had traded a few moons ago? The duo pretended that nothing had happened, when they met on Tuesday! Politicians are good actors, aren`t they? It was like a get-together of Darrel Hair and Murali! more..

Apr 27 (SAMN) Leading rights groups including the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International are calling on the US government to limit military assistance to Sri Lanka and some 20 other countries where the use of child soldiers is rampant. A new bipartisan bill - Support the Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007 - introduced by US Senators Richard Durbin and Sam Brownback last week would restrict such aid but would require the support of the Bush administration to be implemented. more..

Apr 27 (SAMN) It is tragic that we are travelling through turbulent times in controllable areas, Colombo District UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake said Thursday. Addressing journalists in Colombo, Karunanayake said that the tragedy was that abductions, killings and threats to the media were taking place in Colombo, which the government claims is safe and sound. more..

Apr 27 (SAMN) The real estate sector in Sri Lanka has now matured in many of the traditionally popular residential areas whilst other emerging spots are driving the overall market in an upward direction. Prices have not dropped in any part of the Western Province over the past three months as reported by sector analysts. However, some of the high-priced suburbs like Colombo 07 have now reached a peak. more..

Apr 27 (SAMN) Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Patalee Champika Ranawaka Thursday warned that Sri Lanka�s Mangrove resources are facing grave danger due to shrimp farming and land expansion projects and other commercial activities. While revealing that most affected area is the North Western Coast he stressed the need for involving local communities in the programs aimed at preserving the ecological resources such as mangroves. more..

Apr 27 (DN) The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry spends a large amounts to treat road accidents victims annually without getting paid a cent. All other parties connected to road accidents receive compensation. A strategy will be formulated in the future to cover the expenditure spent on treating road accident victims, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said. more..

Apr 27 (DM) Complaints are pouring in from Batticaloa that around 70,000 Internally Displaced People (IDP) who are living with host families are facing food shortages. However the government insisted that adequate food supplies have been sent to the area to last till the end of May. A large number of the 139,905 IDPs who are living in 91 camps scattered around the Batticaloa town are living with host families in makeshift tents spread over a large area. more..

Apr 27 (DM) The Condominium Management Authority has decided to take legal action against those Developers who have not registered their properties with the Registrar General�s Department. Many Condominium developers have not registered their properties although 5 years had passed after the construction of the Apartments. In a recent survey the Condominium Management Authority has found that many developers have sold the condominium parcels to the unit owners only on Sale Agreements. more..

Apr 27 (Reuters) Sri Lankan stocks fell on Friday after an air raid scare prompted authorities to temporarily close Colombo international airport and fire anti-aircraft guns skyward a day earlier, traders said. The Colombo All Share index closed 0.68 percent weaker at 2,824.64 points. The market has retreated in recent weeks from an all-time closing high of 3,016.42 hit on Feb. 13. more..

Apr 27 (NP) A year after the RCMP raided a Canadian non-profit organization suspected of financing arms purchases for the Tamil Tigers terrorist group, investigators are still sorting through the boxes of materials they hauled away in a moving truck. Although police have not commented on their investigation into the World Tamil Movement (WTM), an RCMP affidavit filed this week says officers are working full-time to translate and analyze more than 1,000 exhibits. more..

Apr 27 (RW) UNICEF today said that one of Sri Lanka's battling factions is not taking seriously its public assurances that it is not recruiting child soldiers. Speaking from Colombo after a mission last week to a conflict area where the so-called Karuna faction was supposed to provide access to a camp, UNICEF spokesman Andrew Brooks characterized the current level of cooperation with the faction as "stalemated." more..

Apr 27 (AAP) A group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers, now being held on Nauru, would be happy to go to the United States, a community representative says. They would be the first sent to the US under a plan by which Australia would accept some Cuban asylum seekers who had sought to enter the US. The government says the scheme would be a deterrent to people planning on reaching Australia illegally. more..

Apr 27 (Reuters) Eleven years ago, Sanath Jayasuriya's fierce hitting at the top of the order inspired Sri Lanka to an upset World Cup triumph. The left-handed batsman's undiminished skills will again be vital for the 1996 champions as they bid to upstage a hitherto virtually flawless Australia in the final on Saturday. more..

Apr 27 (HT) SLM Nashwal and MIM Naufer are two young university students from Kattankudy, the all-Muslim Eastern Sri Lankan town which hit the headlines last year when radical Wahabis attacked Sufis, and gun toting youth began to impose diktats against "heresies and un-Islamic cultural practices." In addition to their secular studies, the bearded duo had gone to an Arabic college to study Islam. more..

Apr 27 (AP) Sri Lankan navy sailors and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels battled in the country's east on Friday, leaving three sailors dead, the military said. Military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said the rebels also suffered casualties. He gave no further details about the fighting. The attack took place in the coastal village of Uppuveli in Trincomalee district, the site of a major Sri Lankan navy base and natural harbor. more..

Apr 27 (AFP) Sri Lanka was on high alert Friday over the threat of another Tamil Tiger air attack, the morning after a suspicious aircraft forced the closure of the island's only international airport. "We are on alert. In fact, every day we are on alert now and we have beefed up our measures," air force spokesman Ajantha Silva said. more..

Apr 28 (Age) MUTHIAH Muralidaran might be a magician, but he is also a compulsive chatterbox. In an animated conversation with some Australian players at their team hotel in Grenada last week, Sri Lanka�s mercurial off spinner talked excitedly about his new, improved doosra. "It was quite funny. He was saying that New Zealand thought they had him sussed, because the doosra goes a fraction higher," recounted Brad Hodge, more..

Apr 28 (LBO) Sri Lanka�s state tea promotion agency is planning a new initiative based on performance incentives to boost flagging valued added tea exports, an official said. The incentive is to be based on exporters� performance in increasing the volume and value of such teas, Sri Lanka Tea Board Chairman Lalith Hettiarachchi told LBO. more..

Apr 28 (AFP) Britain said Friday it was putting colonial slavery records online for the first time, an archive which will eventually cover three million slaves in South Africa, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean. The collection on the ancestry.co.uk website is taken from registers lodged between 1812 and 1834. Britain has been celebrating the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. more..

Apr 28 (PTI) The LTTE was behind the killing of five Indian fishermen off the Kanyakumari Coast on March 29, Tamil Nadu police said. DGP D Mukherjee, in a statement here tonight, said this was revealed during the interrogation of six LTTE cadre arrested on April 11 last off Tuticorin Coast. He said 12 Indian fishermen, who had been reported missing since March 4 last, were abducted by the sea tigers and were in the LTTE's custody now. more..

Apr 28 (BBC) In September 1992, a young off-spinner made his Test debut against Australia in Colombo. He was part of a bowling line-up which, quite frankly, deserved little mention in the annals of cricketing history. Indeed, who can honestly say they remember the exploits of Dulip Liyanage, Don Anurasiri and Champaka Ramanayake without consulting reference books? more..

Apr 28 (Reuters) Australia captain Ricky Ponting was kept waiting for at least 40 minutes by his Sri Lanka counterpart Mahela Jayawardene for a photo session which ended up being held in the dark. The opposing skippers in Saturday�s World Cup final posed on the beach with the trophy after the sun had set on Thursday. The session had already been postponed at the Sri Lankans� request. more..

Apr 28 (CI) Their only encounter in the World Cup turned out to be a drab, one-sided washout with Sri Lanka resting key players, but that was only a Super Eights game, with nothing except pride at stake. On Saturday, with a whole lot more on the line, expect plenty more passion and fire from the Sri Lankans. If both teams play to potential, this match could even give us the classic last-over finish that this World Cup desperately needs. more..

Apr 28 (BBC) It is an atmosphere of a carnival; they talk nothing but world cup in Bridgetown, Barbados , says our special correspondent Saroj Pathirana. He talked to cricket fans already celebrating the event. Yasmin Abdul Rahim is on a mission in Barbados. A lifelong fan of Indian cricket team Yasmin Abdul Rahim is determined not to let �arrogant� Aussies to defeat their tiny neighbour, Sri Lanka, at the Cricket World Cup. more..

Apr 28 (RW) The Government of Japan has made a donation in kind of 3,175 tonnes of rice for the newly displaced people in North and East areas of Sri Lanka. The official handing over ceremony was held at Orugodawatte Warehouse on 27th April 2007. H.E. Mr. Kiyoshi Araki, Ambassador of Japan, Mr. J.R.W. Dissanayake, Secretary, Mr. R. Tharmakulasingham, Addl. Secretary of the Ministry of Nation Building & Estate Infrastructure Development, more..

Apr 28 (Reuters) Light showers could interrupt the World Cup final between holders Australia and Sri Lanka on Saturday. The Barbados capital had been bathed in sunshine for more than two weeks but overcast skies and outbreaks of rain were forecast for both Friday and Saturday. Temperatures are expected to reach 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit). more..

Apr 28 (Reuters) Sri Lanka will not veer from their usual game plan in their bid to upstage champions Australia in the World Cup final, skipper Mahela Jayawardene said on Friday. The 1996 champions face a big challenge against an awesome Australian team aiming for an unprecedented third title in a row at the Kensington Oval on Saturday. "The most important thing for us is to play the brand of cricket that we have been playing," he said. more..

Apr 28 (AP) Sri Lanka will stick to what it is good at in Saturday's World Cup final and will not repeat the mistakes South Africa made in its semifinal against Australia, captain Mahela Jayawardene said Friday. Jayawardene told reporters South Africa had tried to play an unfamiliar game in its seven wicket loss in St. Lucia, launching aggressive attacks which failed against Australia's bowling. more..

Apr 28 (ToI) If Sri Lanka are looking for similarities between their current campaign and their win in the 1996 World Cup, then here's one. Marvan Atapattu was benched right through the 1996 World Cup and has suffered a similar fate 11 years on in the Caribbean. "And maybe even in 2011," jokes Atapattu. So is he Sri Lanka's lucky charm? Ask Atapattu that and he just laughs it off. But it is not a laughing matter back in Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 28 (AP) To captain Ricky Ponting and his all conquering Australia team, the World Cup is another box to tick. Pace bowler Glenn McGrath, facing his last match before retirement, describes Saturday's final against Sri Lanka as business as usual, while opposition captain Mahela Jayawardene aims to convince his players it's not even a final. more..

Apr 28 (Hindu) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has reached Barbados to cheer his country's cricket team at the World Cup final on Saturday, even as his country awaits with expectation the "mother of all matches." Its cricket team reaching the final is a cause for joy in the strife-ridden country. Everyone is agreed that the team's performance has provided much-needed relief to the common people, at least in the short term. more..

Apr 28 (CI) Everyone would love to think that there is a chink in Australia's armour. Every time they lose a match there is talk about their vulnerability. I would be insulted to not play Australia and have everyone say that they were not to their full strength. I would like to beat them when they are at their full strength. If you have a full strength Australian side and even if they are going to be the frontrunners then it's up to the rest of the sides to beat them. more..