May 21 (MN) FORMER US President Jimmy Carter�s Atlanta based Carter Center, in a statement issued on Friday (May 16), has urged the United Nations General Assembly not to re-elect Sri Lanka to the Human Rights Council (HRC) in the upcoming council elections. Six countries - Bahrain, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Timor Leste - are competing for four open seats in the Asian group of UN member states. more..

May 21 (ML) The TMVP yesterday said that it would not disarm itself or dismantle its camps for the time being owing to the continuing threat posed by the LTTE. TMVP Leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan had decided not to lay down arms until the threat posed against them by the Tigers ceased to exist, according to the TMVP eastern co-ordinator J. Jeyaraj. The TMVP however indicated that they would use their own weapons for protection and not that of the State. more..

May 21 (ML) The Sacred Tooth Relic and the Dalada Maligawa were brought to disrepute by allowing Sivasuntharai Chanthrakanthan alias Pillayan to pay homage to them, former Diyawadana Nilame Niranjan Wijeratne has charged. The bomb-laden lorry that exploded in front of the Maligawa on January 24, 1998 had been traced to the eastern province where Chanthrakanthan was a high-ranking Tiger leader till he broke away from the LTTE, Wijeratne also charged. more..

May 21 (ML) The government�s bid to hold on to Sri Lanka�s place in the 47-member-nation UN Human Rights Council suffered another blow last week with as many as three Nobel Peace Prize laureates calling on UN member nations not to re-elect Sri Lanka to the Council. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in a comment piece published in the UK�s Guardian newspaper last Thursday, May 15, wrote that "Sri Lanka stands out as the most clearly unqualified state seeking election to the council this year, and more..

May 21 (ML) The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said yesterday that it did not believe in the government�s justification of pursuing military operations to create the space for a political solution arguing that a political solution should be sought first. ICJ statement came following the review of Sri Lanka�s human rights record at the 2nd session of the UN Human Rights Council�s Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). more..

May 21 (BL) Despite government insisting that, as per core inflation index, Sri Lanka�s inflation is in single digits and isn�t �unbearable,� leading economists are of the view that core inflation, in which food and energy are excluded, hides actual price trend and does not reflect economic impact on middle and lower income groups, which constitute the bulk of Sri Lanka�s population. more..

May 21 (BL) Sri Lanka has been rated above average, in social protection, in an Asian study, but in a critical analysis fares below, even Mongolia or Uzbekistan. In the Social Protection Index for Asian Countries released this week, by the Asian Development Bank, Sri Lanka is ranked 9th behind the more developed Japan (ranked first) and Korea (second), as well as Mongolia (fourth) or Uzbekistan and Cook Islands. more..

May 21 (BL) Warning that payment delays were demotivating the construction sector, especially the small and medium scale operators, an industry grouping has urged President Mahinda Rajapakse, to introduce legislation, to deal with the crisis situation. �Payment delays, have become the number one problem, of the small and medium scale sector of the construction industry, as delays occur, without an end running for months and years, because more..

May 21 (BL) A Sirasa TV media team was assaulted, with their camera smashed and vehicle damaged by an identified gang early morning yesterday at Kiribathgoda, whilst covering Vesak celebrations in the area. A spokesman for the TV Channel said that the gang had inquired whether they were from Sirasa and threatened that they cannot film the Vesak pandal at the Kiribathgoda pola. more..

May 21 (AT) A well-respected Church of England priest and a British citizen told Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a hard hitting letter that it was matter for utmost regret that the LTTE described as the �the most evil terrorist organization in the world� was possible to secure the Archbishop�s apparent support to denigrate Sri Lanka. Rev. Tony de Alwis of the Church of England Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham replying about Tutu�s alleged campaign against the more..

May 21 (AFP) A senior leader of Tamil Tiger rebels died of a sudden heart attack on Tuesday in the guerrilla-held northern regions of the country, a pro-rebel website said. "Brigadier" Balraj, a commander of the LTTE, led the rebels' conventional fighting unit that has carried out repeated attacks on Sri Lankan troops, it said. The rebels did not give Balraj's real name or his age, but more..

May 21 (IL) Politicians who become the lawmakers are often victims of sinister motives in developing countries, sending these countries deeper into corruption and scandal. These politicians often speak in discriminatory ways, issue misleading statements, and often encourage violence for their own political survival. But, the general public has little ability to understand these politicians. Sri Lanka is a great example. more..

May 21 (BBC) Fifteen people have disappeared in the Trincomalee district during the first half of May, says the Human Rights Commission in Trincomalee. The District Human Rights Co-ordinator, Gloria Frances told Sandesaya that the Commission had received complaints of these disappearances between May 9 and 15. Among the disappeared are two women, and all those who disappeared are in the age group of 20 to 30, she said. more..

May 21 (FI) The government conducted the first provincial elections in two decades on May 10 in the Eastern Province. The ruling colaition of the UPFA through an electoral alliance with the TMVP and an �understanding� with the dissidents of the SLMC grabbed 20 of the 37 seats in the Eastern Provincial Council. The TMVP is a breakaway group of the LTTE, a group that seeks a separate state for the country�s minority Tamils in the north and east. more..

May 21 (MG) M.L.A.M. Hizbullah�s threat to act as an independent group with two other Muslim UPFA members in the Eastern Provincial Council, taking away the majority from the governing side was turning out to be nothing but a storm in a tea cup. Despite his claim for the Chief Minister post backed by several Muslim Ministers, President Mahinda Rajapaksa went ahead with his initial plan and appointed Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan to the post. more..

May 21 (MG) The SLMC General Secretary M.T. Hassan Ali, coming down hard on the Muslim ministers who threatened to quit the government, has challenged them to quit if they had any self-dignity. He said that although the Muslim ministers threatened to quit the government, in reality they would not do it. �I challenge them. Since they have no self-respect, they stick with the government and depend on the perks and comforts offered to them by the government,� he alleged. more..

May 21 (LT) "Red Star Relief Task Force" of the JVP is prepared to dispatch a team of relief workers along with doctors to engage in relief activities in the Sichuan earth quake last week. This was intimated to Mr. Ye Dabo, the Chinese Ambassador in Sri Lanka by JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe. Mr. Amarasinghe met the Chinese Ambassador to convey his party's deepest condolences to the Government of China and to the Chinese Communist party at the devastation caused by the earth quake. more..

May 21 (LG) The President has chosen Mr. Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan as the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, and undoubtedly we are into a new era in politics, especially in Tamil politics. Gone are the days that Tamil politics was determined by a few families in Colombo. The main aspiration of those families in Colombo was to lead the country displacing a similar set of Sinhala families centred in Colombo. more..

May 21 (LG) 25 year old plantation Tamil youth Jayakanthan Ramaiah abducted on 19th March, 2007 at Kadawatha town on Colombo-Kandy highway from a public transport bus and taken away in a waiting white van by men posing CID police personnel. Victim�s brother registers police complaint at Kadawatha police station on 22nd March, 2007 under # 229/208 obtains receipt and also at Civil Monitoring Commission. more..

May 21 (LG) The unofficial Fourth Eelam War commenced on a high tone, while the South was gripped by a collective �vertigo of intoxication� (a term coined by Israeli writer and peace activist Uri Avnery). As the Mavil Aru crisis was climaxing a wave of religious dementia afflicted the South; claims of Budu res sightings (halos of light around Buddha statues) were reported from right across the country. more..

May 21 (LD) Visiting the Chinese embassy in Colombo this morning (May 21st), former Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera signed the book of condolences for the earthquake victims in China. President Mahinda Rajapaksa too, added his signature to the condolence book this morning while Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama and Ravi Karunanayake wrote on the book of condolences on behalf of the government and the UNP yesterday. more..

May 21 (LD) The swearing in of M.L.A.M. Hizbullah as Health Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council today (May 21st) has been postponed owing to disagreement over his request for several other portfolios, sources at the Presidential secretariat said. Initially, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and East Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan had agreed to vest Mr. Hizbullah with new responsibilities including the upliftment of eastern Muslims. more..

May 21 (LD) An unidentified gunman had shot another policeman dead in Batticaloa last night, defence sources say. The victim was returning from duty when he was gunned down at Harasadi Junction. Batticaloa Police say that his remains are being kept at the Batticaloa Hospital mortuary. He is the second policeman to be killed fate following the Eastern provincial Council Elections. Earlier, a similar attack in Batticaloa left a policeman dead and another injured. more..

May 21 (GDI) The Ministry of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion is planning to maintain a data bank with feasibility records of all mega development projects. The purpose of this exercise is to attract possible foreign investors seeking to fund such projects in the country. Accordingly the Ministry of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion will maintain the data bank with the feasibility reports of all the mega development projects planned for the next years. more..

May 21 (GDI) The Board Of Investment (BOI) entered into agreements on eight new projects involving agriculture, steel products, readymade garments, production of motor cars, housing schemes, and ornamental plants. Accordingly, a motor vehicle assembling plant will be set up by Frontier Transportation Solutions investing Rs.238 million to produce vehicles for local and foreign markets. This is under the Products Sri Lanka Enterprises 300 Scheme. more..

May 21 (GDI) Under the 'Eastern Reawaking' programme, the Government has taken steps to develop the handloom sector in the recently liberated Eastern Province which has a great potential in providing employment opportunities for the people in the region. This initiative taken by the Government will uplift the livelihood of the people of the region who were deprived of the possibility to engage in an independent livelihood due to terrorist intimidation for over 20 years, more..

May 21 (GDI) President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a condolence message on the death of veteran musician Visharada Lionel Algama states that Visharada Algama had rendered a yeoman service to uplift of the local music field during a career spanning nearly five decades. The full text of the President's message is given below: "I was shocked and saddened after hearing the news of the demise of your beloved husband, veteran musician Visharada Lionel Algama. more..

May 21 (GDI) In a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Attorneys-at-law S.L. Gunasekara and Gomin Dayasri, who appeared before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Human Rights as Counsel for the Army and the Special Task Force, have stated that the Commissioners have acted in excess of and/or misused their powers in a manner that is totally inimical to their independence and national interest. more..

May 21 (LNP) The LTTE in the face of defeats on the Mannar front continued its hit and run tactics targeting isolated policemen in different parts of the island. A policeman who was shot at while on duty at the police post at the 38 kilometre post on the Buttala-Kataragama road succumbed to his injuries on admission to the Buttala hospital. In another incident yesterday in the east around 6.05 a.m. a police commando was injured in Rufuskulam in Kandikudichchiaru. more..

May 21 (LNP) All chief ministers of the eight provincial councils including the recently elected chief minister of the Eastern Province Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan have decided to forward a resolution to the Government that they be vested with full powers in accordance with the 13th amendment. These powers hitherto not enjoyed by the seven provincial councils include police, land and judiciary. more..

May 21 (LNP) Private bus crews of today seem to have borrowed a leaf out of the book of the highwaymen of yore in dealing with passengers, who are asked to stand and deliver. The only difference between their modi operandi may be the absence of firearms in the case of the former. However, it was recently reported that a commuter had died in hospital after being brutally assaulted by a bus conductor. more..

May 21 (LNP) Sri Lanka running sans two of its proven old horses will have to beat odds to achieve the Olympic qualifying standards in the men s 4x400 meter relay when the country s team runs at the forth coming Asian Grand Prix which commences in Thailand in late June. Sri Lanka will not have both Rohan Pradeep Kumara and Sugath Thilakaratne in the men s event and will have to heavily depend on the experience of Prasanna Amarasinghe to reach Olympic standards. more..

May 21 (SAMN) The United States, Canada and the European Union have come forward to provide funding for the Presidential Commission investigating serious violations of Human Rights (CoI) to continue with the video conferencing facility to obtain evidence from witnesses now living abroad. The commission�s Chairman Retired Supreme Court Judge Nissanka Udalagama said the public inquiry into the massacre of 17 aid workers of a French NGO in Muttur on August 4, 2006 and more..

May 21 (SAMN) The Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) has taken the first step towards launching Sri Lanka�s first satellite. TRC Director General Priyantha Kariyaperuma said two engineers had gone to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) based in Geneva for registration purposes. He said the satellite would be named after science fiction Guru the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke. more..

May 21 (SAMN) The UNP will hold a series of public protests countrywide against what it claims as unfair treatment to the party during the recent Provincial Council Elections in the East, UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said Tuesday. Attanayake said the series of public protests started in Colombo on May 16. Protests are scheduled to be held in Trincomalee, Ampara and Batticaloa. more..

May 21 (SAMN) The local garment industry continues to suffer a shortfall of about 10,000 workers. This shortage of workers covers various categories servicing the garment industry including the factories, and merchandising offices. The shortage of staff was highlighted earlier this year by the Chairman, Joint Apparel Association Forum, Ajith Dias. Dias said that the shortage of workers was in the region of 10,000. more..

May 21 (DN) Aadya Shukla, President of the Oxford Indian Society, in a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa has praised his speech to the Oxford Union on May 13. �I pray that under your vision and leadership, the relationship between India and Sri Lanka will grow stronger. It does not happen everyday that I get a chance to hear the first-hand views of the maker of a nation,� Shukla wrote. more..

May 21 (DN) The country is on the right track with the necessary law enforcement for preventing piracy and there is a decline in the piracy in the country, Director General of National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka D.M. Karunaratna said. �Comparing with the other countries in the region piracy rate in Sri Lanka is high. Both consumers and the genuine traders are affected by the piracy. more..

May 21 (DM) TMVP leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillayan, yesterday denied that he had had a hand in the 1998 LTTE attack on the Dalada Maligawa and expressed disappointment over growing criticism of his visit to the temple and calls for him to apologise for the attack. �I am disappointed that some sections see this as some sort of political gimmick. I am visiting all religious institutions purely to strengthen ties between the communities. more..

May 21 (DM) JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva has been questioned by Welikada Police on Monday evening for allegedly breaking into the house of Sampath Dimuthu Ketapearachchi, the press secretary of Textile Industries Minister Mahinda Ratnathilleke, last week. Meanwhile, the JVP yesterday charged it was a plot by the government to embarrass the party. �A group broke into Ketapearachchi�s house and he pointed his finger at the JVP. more..

May 21 (Island) Q. The cost of living is the main economic issue being discussed now. Had the UNP been in power, do you think that things would be any different to what they are now? A. Definitely, because the UNP would have been able to manage the inflation. It is true that in the past three months, even other countries have been experiencing high inflation, but it has still not exceeded 10%. In Sri Lanka inflation is partly due to the global oil and food prices, but more..

May 21 (Island) The Southern Province Excise Special Operations Bureau and officers of the Bentota Excise Station arrested six suspects who were conducting a large scale Kasippu distilling operation in five different islets in Balapitiya�s Madu Ganga. They seized 27,200 milli litres of Kasippu, 150,000 milli litres of Goda, 65 barrels, six copper tubes and 65 barrels used for the transportation of the hooch, worth Rs one million. more..

May 21 (AP) Sri Lanka's air force launched a strike on Tamil Tiger rebels near the front lines in the war-ravaged northern region while infantry clashes killed 25 rebels, the military said Wednesday. Air force helicopter gunships attacked a rebel mortar launching point near the front lines in northern Jaffna peninsula early Wednesday, said air force spokesman Wing Cmdr. Andy Wijesuriya. more..

May 21 (ATO) It does seem that the LTTE will have to shrink their dreams of a Tamil homeland. Elections to the Eastern Provincial Council last week saw Sri Lanka's ruling coalition, the UPFA consolidate political control over the Eastern Province. The Eastern Province is part of the LTTE's "Tamil homeland", the Tamil Eelam it is fighting to create. The LTTE's grip over swathes of land in the Eastern Province began weakening in 2004, when its eastern commander "Colonel" Karuna left the organization, more..

May 21 (NIP) The death of �Brigadier� Balraj, one of the Special Commanders of the LTTE of a heart attack somewhere in the Wanni on Tuesday was a major blow to the rebel group already short of top commanders. Since the pro-LTTE websites have not mentioned the exact place of his death, it is presumed that the 43-year-old may have died while commanding his troops somewhere in the frontlines, which now stretch over 200 km from Weli Oya in the east to Mannar in the west. more..

May 22 (Bernama) Malaysia scored a hattrick in conflict-hit Sri Lanka to emerge as the top investor in the country for the third year in succession, with total investments of nearly RM1.8 billion. From RM317 million in 2005, Malaysia's investment in the country increased to RM523 million and last year investors pumped in RM943 million, making it the largest investor. Sri Lanka's total foreign direct investment (FDI) last year was RM2.3 billion. more..

May 22 (BBC) The report blames the Tamil Tigers and the government of Sri Lanka for supporting proxy armed groups [TMVP] fighting rebel Tamil Tigers who are said to use children. A new report says the number of children forced to fight wars around the world has fallen. According to the study, by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, the number of conflicts involving soldiers under eighteen years of age dropped from twenty-seven in 2004 to seventeen by the end of 2007. more..

May 22 (LBO) Sri Lanka Treasuries yields plunged for the third week running with the benchmark 3-month yield falling 41 basis points to 17.14 percent, the government's debt office said. The government sold 4.0 billion out of 10.5 billion rupees of maturing bills, the debt office, which is a unit of the central bank, said. The 6-month yields fell 20 basis points to 18.35 percent, while the 12-month yield fell 10 basis points to 18.50 percent. more..

May 22 (PISL) The problem of child soldiers has been a recurrent nightmare for Sri Lanka, since the LTTE made almost a fetish of using children in their forces. Their baby brigade was a source of pride during the nineties and, even though they tried in the course of that decade to establish themselves as a respectable military organization, the issue of child soldiers reveals most clearly perhaps their rejection of civilized norms. more..

May 22 (LT) A special discussion between JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe and Ms Kathy Klugman, High Commissioner of Australia to Sri Lanka was held at the Head office of the JVP. The JVP leader presented the road map for the establishment of peace and democracy after solving the national question in Sri Lanka that is being discussed in the Central Committee of the JVP to the High Commissioner states a media statement issued by the party. more..