May 4 (LT) Senior Presidential Advisor and Parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa visited the Indian Army hospital established at Pulmoddai yesterday (3rd). After inspecting the facility Mr. Rajapakse highly commended work being done by the Indian Army medical team and said the service provided by the medical team was a service much needed by the people who flee from terrorists� held areas. more..

May 4 (LT) The Urban Development Authority took measures yesterday (3rd) to remove all unauthorized shops that had been erected opposite Central Bus Stand in Pettah in Colombo. The occupiers say about 450 families lost their livelihoods due to the act carried out with the assistance of the police. The police that arrived opposite the Central Bus Stand asked the occupiers to leave their shops and withdraw their goods within two hours. more..

May 4 (LT) The prices of white sugar, dhal and gram have increased after the price control imposed by the government for the Western PC election was withdrawn. Accordingly, price of a kilo of white sugar has increased to Rs.80, a kilo of dhal to Rs.180 and gram to Rs.120 say consumers. The government imposed a price control for several commodities targeting the Western PC election and it was removed immediately after the election. more..

May 4 (MoD) Possibly, President Obama had been misinformed by the officials to include the name of Thissanayagam in his statement on World Freedom Day. Sadly, the statement was made at a time his (Tissanayagam's) high court trial is proceeding where the prosecution has closed its case after leading the evidence of twelve witnesses and the defence is leading the evidence presently. In an admissible confession, accuse Thisssnayagam had admitted his links with the LTTE. more..

May 4 (MoD) An all-night Pirith chanting ceremony to invoke blessings on the country, Security Forces and Police was held at the BMICH on Saturday with the participation of 3,000 Buddhist monks. Marking the inauguration of the ceremony Venerable Udugama Sri Buddharakkitha Thero attended the participants in Pancha Seelaya. Venerable Welamitiyawe Kusaladhamma thero, pointed out the main objective of the massive ceremony was to bless all the war heroes dedicated their lives for defending the motherland. more..

May 4 (GDI) Prasanna Ranathunga takes oaths as the new WPC Chief Minister today. Apart from holding high-office as the Chief Minister, Prasanna Ranathunga takes oaths as the Provincial Minister of Finance and Planning, Low and order, Land, Education, Provincial Administration, Manpower and employment and Economic Development. WPC cabinet comprises of five ministries where WPC members Jagath Thilikasiri Perera, more..

May 4 (MoD) The LTTE has taken many journalists, especially foreign journalist for a ride. We expect foreign journalists to be aware of what happened to the lady who rode the tiger. The LTTE known also as the "Tamil Tigers" are now on the mat in many countries for numerous offences committed by their leadership. The offences range from extortion, forced child conscription as 'child' soldiers, to drug smuggling, human racketeering, weapons smuggling, more..

May 4 (GDI) The Department of Pensions has introduced a series of measures to broad-base the pension benefits covering a wider section including next-of-kin and the Department has included several new causes of death for armed forces personnel to be entitled to Widows and Orphans Pension (W&OP) benefits. Accordingly, widows of dead armed forces personnel are now entitled to a 10-year combined pension and other payments if and when they remarry. more..

May 4 (GDI) The medical personnel arrived from the South have already been posted at the hospital in Settikulum-Zone II and other IDP welfare centers. The doctors, nurses, paramedics and other supporting staff are attending to medical requirements of the war-displaced civilians fleeing from the terror-grips of the brutal LTTE and crossing over NFZ. �The team comprises a large number of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other medical personnel, and more..

May 4 (CT) The National Movement Against Terrorism launched a poster campaign in Colombo, Sri Lanka as a five-member British parliamentary delegation is due to arrive in the island tomorrow (May 05). The posters display the slogan "Great" Britain, before shedding tears over 'civilians', please pay compensate for civilians killed (over 100,000 killed) in 1818 � National Movement Against Terrorism." more..

May 4 (CT) A 13-year-old girl has been sold for prostitution for Rs 5,000 in Puttalam around a month ago, according to Wanatawilluwa Police. A woman who sold the girl and the owner of a lodge who bought her are in the custody of police. Previously, the young girl's mother had given her to the charge of an elder brother, but she had left him after some disagreement, for her father's home. The father had subsequently handed the girl to the suspect woman, police said. more..

May 4 (LNP) 'We destroyed several militant hideouts in heavy artillery shelling of suspected bases in the area,` a senior military officer has told AFP. 'The aerial attacks were launched after fighters ignored warning to leave the area fighter jets, helicopter gunships and tanks took part in the assault in an expansion of the operation,' said another press report. And continual shelling has killed several civilians and injured many in a densely populated area. more..

May 4 (MoD) We hope that even now the LTTE will change its attitude and let the IDPs in areas it still holds move to other areas, as several thousands of others had already done, Japan's special envoy for Peace Building, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction in Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi said. "It is heartwarming that people from the South of Sri Lanka, most of them Sinhalese, are collecting goods and money for the internally displaced people from the north. more..

May 4 (MoD) The 58 and the 53 Divisions cleared their paths towards the remaining five km stretch of the No Fire Zone after 53 Division stormed another heavily fortified earthbund built across the Paranthan-Mullaittivu, A-35 road following close quarter fighting that continued for long in the early hours of yesterday. The 53 Division which is operating in the narrow land stretch between the Nanthikadal lagoon and the A-35 road captured this earth bund which more..

May 4 (DN) "What is more value, more money or more ideas," the Chief Justice quoting USA Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes, asked the audience. More ideas are more value than more money, Chief Gustice Sarath N. Silva, PC said. He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the Sri Lanka Law College newly built auditorium premises recently. more..

May 4 (DN) Coordinator of the World Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka (WAPS) Jivinda de Silva says the WAPS is playing a leading role to counter false propaganda launched by the pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora throughout the world on Sri Lanka. WAPS Coordinator in an interview with the Daily News expressed his views on the moves taken by the WAPS in collaboration with various organizations formed by the patriotic Sinhala Diaspora to defeat the LTTE�s false propaganda campaign by more..

May 4 (Island) The GMOA yesterday said that both thermal scanners installed at the Bandaranaike International Airport to check passengers arriving in Sri Lanka as part the efforts to tackle the spread of deadly swine flu weren�t operational. The scanners, which had been imported during the alert for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) to detect people with fever couldn�t be used without major repairs, the association said. more..

May 4 (DN) President Mahinda Rajapaksa told the visiting Special Envoy from Japan , Yasushi Akashi, that he was firm in his own commitment and that of his Government to free the Sri Lankan Tamil citizens who remained being held as hostages by the LTTE. At a breakfast meeting at Janadhipathi Mandiraya on Saturday, there was a wide ranging discussion of the humanitarian situation in the North, more..

May 4 (Island) Forty nine per cent of students who sat for the GCE O/L examination last year had failed in mathematics, well informed sources told The Island. Sources said that 145,140 and 163,725 candidates (55%) had failed to obtain at least a simple pass in mathematics and Science, respectively. Sources said that about 56,000 had failed Sinhala, while 203,845 (69%) had failed to obtain a simple pass in English. more..

May 4 (Island) President M.R. cleverly used the new attitudes to terrorism arising after 9/11. He adopted the re-definition of terrorism pronounced by President George Bush in his war against terror. But terrorism is only a method of warfare and it is adopted universally by the weak. Rebel movements all over the world have resorted to it such as Hamas or Hizbul Mujahideen, ETA in Spain, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) etc. more..

May 4 (AN) Eight year old Aparna looked up at me as I approached; a far away look in her eyes; she said a shy "hello" and for a fleeting moment, her face lit up in a beautiful frame of curls. The next minute she was gone seeking refuge behind her mother's skirt, and peering at me from her position of 'safety'. Aparna is just one of tens of thousands of innocent children whose lives have been profoundly affected by the 26 year long conflict in Sri Lanka which now appears to be nearing its end. more..

May 4 (IANS) Sri Lanka has hailed neighbouring India for providing urgent healthcare assistance to thousands of civilians fleeing the island's northern war zone where the troops and the Tamil Tigers are locked in a fierce battle. Visiting the Indian field hospital at Pulmoddai in the eastern port city of Trincomalee, MP Basil Rajapaksa Sunday said Sri Lankans would "never forget how India came to the assistance of civilians who were affected by LTTE atrocities". more..

May 4 (DM) The All Party Representative Committee (APRC) is finalizing its report to have it ready when the present humanitarian operations come to an end and has suggested the setting up of a Constitutional Court in a proposed new Constitution, APRC Chairman Tissa Vitarana said. He said the APRC which was set up to submit a set of proposals to resolve the longstanding ethnic conflict had also suggested that the Executive Presidency be abolished and more..

May 4 (DM) The UN office in Colombo, in a statement released today says it did not circulate the controversial document containing casualty figures of civilians in the Wanni to the diplomatic corps in Sri Lanka. The government had disputed the figures last week. In the statement the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator said it had received a number of queries regarding casualty figures that began circulating in the media ten days ago. more..

May 4 (NP) July 23, 1983, is a day of infamy -- a 9/11 if you will -- for Sri Lanka's Tamils. The day marks the Sri Lankan government's orchestrated mass killing of over 3,000 members of the country's minority Tamil ethnic group. Tamil homes and businesses were destroyed, and almost one million Tamils went into exile -- many in Canada. After witnessing the horrible riot, my father hardly ever spoke about it, but when he did, I listened. more..

May 4 (DM) Sri Lankan cricket selectors are reported to be in a quandary after leaving out some in-form players for next month�s World Cup in England and sticking to players who are struggling to perform in the on-going Indian Premier League. The final 15-member squad which has to be finalised and authorised by tomorrow is without in-form allrounder Chintaka Jayasinghe and the leading wicket taker of the concluded Sri Lanka T-20 championship Malinga Bandara. more..

May 4 (DM) Police investigating the abduction and murder of an eight-year-old school girl in Batticaloa last week have been unable to discover why the girl was abducted or by whom. There has been no breakthrough so far. Batticaloa Division SSP Priyantha Weerasuriya said that three teams had been deployed to investigate the crime but they had not got any leads. He said he could not say whether the girl had been abducted for ransom or on due to a personal grudge. more..

May 4 (ANN) Amidst mounting international pressure to suspend the war against the LTTE, the UNP yesterday urged the government to maximise the use of all armaments at its disposal to finish off what is left of the group�s conventional military power. UNP MP Palitha Ranga Bandara told The Island that there shouldn�t be any restrictions on the use of artillery, mortars, air and naval assets against the LTTE now trapped on the Mullaitivu coast. more..

May 4 (LBO) "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - President Obama�s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Without question, Sri Lanka is in the thrall of multiple crises. In the short-term, the government is almost on the verge of inflicting a decisive military defeat on the LTTE, but is being hamstrung by a looming balance-of-payments crisis. In the medium-term we lack the means to develop the infrastructure and win over the disaffected minorities. more..

May 4 (LBO) Central bank which is collecting information on assets of Golden Key Credit Card, a collapsed financial firm, said its officials and past officials should declare assets by May 05. The Central Bank brought forward the deadline following a court order on April 27 which required information to be submitted to court by May 11. "In order to give effect to the said Order of the Supreme Court, it has become necessary to obtain the Declarations of Assets and Liabilities from more..

May 4 (LBO) Sri Lankan businesses should be more cautious and assess customer creditworthiness more often, when doing business during a recession, a senior corporate executive said. They should watch out for bad debts as during such times previously solvent customers can quickly become insolvent, says Chemanex chief executive Preethi Jayawardena who was the keynote speaker at the LBR-LBO CFO Forum. more..

May 4 (AFP) Sri Lankan troops won control of a fortified embankment and killed several Tamil Tiger rebels in their latest advances into the guerrillas' remaining territory, the defence ministry said Monday. The soldiers inched their way across heavily mined terrain in the island's northeast, where the Tigers are holed up with tens of thousands of civilians, the ministry said. "The LTTE suffered heavily during this battle," more..

May 4 (CI) Fast bowler Lasith Malinga has been included in Sri Lanka's squad for the World Twenty20 which begins on June 5 in England. Sri Lanka have also chosen uncapped allrounder Isuru Udana and 35-year old batsman Indika de Saram in their 15-man squad. Malinga has made only one appearance for Sri Lanka - against India in February 2009 - since the knee injury which ruled him out after the tour of Australia in early 2008. more..

May 4 (AFP) The Sri Lankan government is increasingly tilting towards Iran, Libya and China for foreign aid as its traditional Western allies ramp up their criticism of the war against Tamil rebels. Many Western nations have outlawed the Tamil Tigers and cut off their funding networks, but the Colombo administration is deeply upset over repeated calls from the United States and the European Union for a truce. more..

May 4 (AP) Sri Lankan forces battled Tamil Tiger insurgents from three sides Monday, the military said, pushing deeper into rebel-held territory amid a report that navy gunboats heavily shelled an area packed with civilians. With concerns growing for the tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone, a new round of international officials came to Colombo to meet with the government. Another 200,000 civilians who already fled the fighting have overwhelmed displacement camps in the north. more..

May 4 (BBC) A team of British MPs has arrived in Sri Lanka to discuss the difficulties facing tens of thousands of civilians affected by the conflict in the north. The delegation includes former defence secretary Des Browne, whose appointment as Britain's special envoy to Sri Lanka was turned down by Colombo. The MPs are to visit camps for displaced people in the north. Meanwhile, Tamil Tiger rebels have praised the UK and French foreign ministers for their visit last week. more..

May 4 (Telegraph) Division commanders described discovering their enemy included a conscript army of children as they stood on the edge of the 'no fire zone' where 50,000 civilians are believed to be trapped by the once-feared LTTE making their last stand. As both sides in the conflict traded claims of war crimes, one army commander spoke of his regret that his men had shot and killed young girls. more..

May 4 (NP) The road across the salt water lagoon to Putumathalan was lined with soldiers preparing to end a civil war that began so long ago that most of them weren't even born. Two weeks ago, this sandy quay on the Indian Ocean was in the hands of the Tamil Tigers, but the rebels lost it in a matter of hours, leaving a trail of bullet casings, shot-up vehicles and fallen cadres. The front line is now a few kilometres southeast of here. Behind it, what's left of the rebel forces, and thousands of Tamil civilians, are surrounded in an oceanfront enclave no larger than a few city blocks. more..

May 5 (MN) The international Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) apprehends that thousands of civilians, including women, children and elderly people, many of them wounded and sick, remain trapped inside the conflict area of northern Sri Lanka. Those civilians are also at risk in a small area along the coast that had been declared a �no-fire zone� by the Lankan government. In a statement issued by the international forum stated that the ICRC, since February 10, has evacuated close to 12,400 people from more..

May 5 (ST) Humanitarian organisation Mercy Relief is trying to raise $200,000 to help victims of armed conflict in Sri Lanka. More than 170,000 people in the country, which has appealed for international humanitarian assistance, are displaced from their homes, traumatised, hungry or sick, the organisation's spokesman said. Fighting has broken out between the country's armed forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels, while tens of thousands of civilians are trapped in the war zone. more..

May 5 (PTI) PMK founder S Ramadoss, whose party is a constituent of the AIADMK-led front in Tamil Nadu, on Monday said the LTTE would "not be finished" and would finally emerge victorious in the battle against the Sri Lankan army. "The LTTE will not be finished. It will emerge victorious finally," said Dr. Ramadoss, who had recently described the banned outfit as a "liberation movement" and not a "terrorist organisation". more..

May 5 (UCAN) The website of the Archdiocese of Colombo was recently hacked, blocking hundreds of thousands of viewers trying to get news from the growing humanitarian disaster in the north of Sri Lanka. It is not clear who is responsible for the attack on the website on April 29, which the archdiocese said was the work of "an unknown gang." However, a senior priest in Colombo, said: "If the government is not happy about the true news leaking to the world at large, they do this type of thing." more..

May 5 (BBC) Sri Lankan public "no longer thinks of the stomachs" when voting, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said. The president has made the remarks at the Presidential secretariat addressing the new ministers and members of the Western Provincial Council (WPC). "Today the people of our country do not think only of their stomachs when voting. The time when people voted for election promises is over. Today they place the country first. All other needs are put into second place compared to the needs of the country," more..

May 5 (WAT) It's hard to imagine Christine in combat. But the diminutive 14-year-old with a cheeky smile and dancing eyes knows how to handle a Kalashnikov and detonate grenades. A Tamil speaker from northern Sri Lanka, Christine says she was abducted by Tamil Tiger cadres in March and forced to undergo military training. She performed drills using dummy weapons in preparation for battle and � like many female recruits � her hair was cut short. "I was full of fear when they came and took me; I was crying every day," she said. more..

May 5 (PTI) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has vowed to eliminate terrorism from his country, but asserted that the government stands for a political solution to the issue of the ethnic Tamils. Duringa meeting with visiting Special Envoy from Japan Yasushi Akashi on Saturday, Mr. Rajapaksa stressed on the need to defeat the LTTE and its leader Prabhakaran to eradicate terrorism from the island nation. more..

May 5 (Xinhua) A senior Tamil Tiger leader was killed in the northeastern battle zone when troops captured another of rebel earth bunds, defense officials said Monday. Thamilendhi, the Tamil Tigers' leader in charge of its heavy weaponry, was killed Sunday as the Army's 53 division captured the bund north of the Nanthikandal lagoon. The 500 meter long and 10 feet wide bund was one of many earth bunds built by the LTTE rebels to thwart troops' forward march. more..

May 5 (Xinhua) Batticaloa, the main town in Sri Lanka's eastern province, observed a protest shut Monday, police said. Businesses remain shut while public transport was crippled as an unknown group had called the protest action over the murder of a child. The functions in school also had been crippled due to low attendance. An 8-year-old girl was abducted on 28 April in the area and her body was found Saturday dumped in an abandoned water well. more..

May 5 (PTI) AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa on Monday received a letter threatening to eliminate her using a suicide bomber, in the manner in which former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, police said here. The letter warned the leader that she would meet the same fate as Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber at Sriperumbudur. The anonymous letter also warned that explosives would be placed outside her house and in her convoy. more..

May 5 (HRW) The last stand of Tamil Tiger insurgents appears to be nearing its horrific end. Reduced to a sandy strip no bigger than New York's Central Park, the Tigers seem intent on fighting to the last man, woman and child. Disastrously, the Sri Lanka army has obliged the Tiger's death wish by indiscriminately firing heavy artillery into the strip, littering the area with bodies and body parts. The United Nations says that more than 6,400 civilians have been killed in the fighting since late January. more..

May 5 (NP) Canada is sending another $3-million in foreign aid to Sri Lanka to help the country meet the humanitarian needs of ethnic Tamils displaced by civil war. Bev Oda, the Minister of International Development, said in an exclusive interview the money would help pay for food, water, shelter and hygiene kits for 200,000 Tamils living at temporary camps. "We committed $4.5-million in February and I'm here to meet with the NGO community that we've working with for many years here. more..