June 25 (LT) It is reported that medicine and various medical equipment necessary for surgery and other medical care is not available at Kalubowila Hospital. Painkillers necessary for surgery and after delivery is not available in the hospital so that patients have to bear their pain say these reports. Gloves used in wards as well as at child birth is not available say these sources. more..

June 25 (LT) The Supreme Court yesterday allowed the fundamental rights violation petition filed by aggrieved residents and owners of the Mews Street Houses in Slave Island which, they complained, had been demolished by the UDA on May 5, on the purported instructions of the Defence Ministry. The Bench granted leave to proceed for the alleged infringements of the affected Petitioners� fundamental right to more..

June 25 (NF) The Chief Justice has granted permission to the Attorney General to take up the case pertaining to the Angulana double murder before a trial at bar at the high court. The CID informed this to Mount Lavinia chief magistrate Harsha Sethunga while presenting a further report when the case in this regard was taken up yet again yesterday. The CID also informed court that once the trial at bar takes the case up, indictments would be filed against the suspects. more..

June 25 (DN) The Jaffna Fort will be renovated by the National Heritage and Cultural Affairs Ministry, Minister Pavithra Wanniarchchi said. The building which is known as Queen�s House and the Roman Catholic church were seriously damaged by terrorist activities during the past. The constructions and buildings which had been used by security personnel for over hundreds of years were damaged due to terrorism. more..

June 25 (DN) The Supreme Court yesterday fixed for July 30 the rights application against the construction of two roads in the Wilpattu National Park to consider a petition by the residents living in proximity to the park seeking to intervene in the proceedings. Thirteen petitioners who permanently settled in Mannar before they were forcibly evicted by the LTTE before 1990, sought to intervene in the proceedings on the basis that more..

June 25 (DN) Ban Ki-moon is a sweet man. I know, I know, he�s given to a bit of mumbling now and then, practices double-standards, has selective memory and tends to go off the edge more often your average UN Secretary General, but then again, no one is really perfect. I mean, we live in a world chock-full of Navi Pillais, Phil Alstons, Louis Arbours, David Milibans, Bernard Kouchners, Darrel Hairs and Rajiv Gandhis. more..

June 25 (LP) Poson Poya is a most revered festival for the entire Buddhist population of Sri Lanka as it reminds us of the advent to Sri Lanka of Arahat Mahinda with Buddha�s message of the Dhamma. Celebrating this historic, two thousand three hundred and eighteenth Poson Festival in unity with the entire nation brings us great joy. The Dhamma preached by Arahat Mahinda led our society and culture to a new path. more..

June 25 (DN) Higher Education Deputy Minister Nandimithra Ekanayake yesterday ordered the authorities to halt all constructions within the Sigiriya Archaeological boundaries with immediate effect. The Deputy Minister made this order when he met representatives of two organizations on President Mahinda Rajapaksa's directive. These two organizations launched protests over the unauthorized constructions within the Sigiriya Archaeological boundaries. more..

June 25 (Island) Universities in this country are perennially on the boil. Academics, non academics and students seem to take turns to ensure that they are more closed than open. Hardly a day passes without the news of a university being closed indefinitely somewhere mostly due to student violence or some other trouble. This time around, university teachers are on the warpath. They are demanding that their salary anomalies be rectified immediately in keeping with a presidential directive to that effect. more..

June 25 (Island) JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva says people should not expect Cooperatives and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando to provide them relief. He said that Fernando, too, would be like his predecessor Bandula Gunawardena, who did nothing to help those struggling to make ends meet. A smiling Silva said that it would be foolish to expect a positive change due to reshuffling of ministers. more..

June 25 (DM) If the government is really keen on convincing the people in the North and overseas that it is the UPFA government that rules the entire country, then the idea of making a Kilinochchi venue for a Cabinet meeting may not look that bad. It has its symbolic value, one may argue. However to go on rotation and hold Cabinet meetings in every district is certainly preposterous. more..

June 25 (DM) The provincial council opposition leaders and members belonging to the UNP held a special meeting in Kandy yesterday. At the meeting they resolved to conduct protests countrywide if the government went ahead with the proposed constitutional changes that sought to increase the number of terms that an executive president may serve. The opposition leaders passed a total of eight resolutions to fight against this government. more..

June 25 (Island) Minister of Housing and Construction, Engineering Services and Common Amenities, Wimal Weerawansa, addressing the third Asian Pacific Housing Ministers conference in Solon, Indonesia, spoke about the housing problems of residents living close to slums He also held talks with India�s Urban Development Minister Professor Sugatha Roy, who said that after peace had dawned in more..

June 25 (Island) The appointment of Ven. Dr. Omalpe Sobitha Thera as the new leader of Jathika Hela Urumaya was a decision taken at the recent meeting of the Executive Committee of the party, JHU Legal Advisor Udaya Gammanpila said. He said that JHU is a political party based on the Buddhist doctrine which said that nothing was permanent. more..

June 25 (DM) Norway has once again claimed that the Sri Lankan government was informed of a surrender by senior LTTE cadres during the final stages of the war and that Oslo was in contact with top Tiger leaders Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP) and S. Pullithevan on the matter. Former Norwegian peace envoy to Sri Lanka Erik Solheim speaking to a group of Sri Lankan journalists who are on a visit to Oslo today said the LTTE leaders were told that the only way they could surrender was to show white flags. more..

June 25 (DM) UNP yesterday questioned the logic behind the appointment of former chief city administrator of Colombo as the new special commissioner to handle affairs of the dissolved Colombo Municipal Council (CMC). Ravi Karunanayake claimed that former chief city administrator Omar Kamil was also a stakeholder of corruption charges the government had framed against the governance of the Colombo Municipal Council. more..

June 25 (DM) JHU MP and former party leader the Venerable Ellawala Medhananda thero says he has no plans to resign from the party but remains undecided if he will take part in future central committee meetings of the party. The venerable thero, who was replaced recently as party leader following the national convention of the JHU, said that he had only received a blank letter and that he was not aware of the meeting to change the leadership of the party. more..

June 25 (AFP) Sri Lanka's economy expanded 7.1 percent during the first quarter of this year, as the island picks itself up after a long civil war. The growth for the January-March period, up from 1.6 percent at the same point last year, was boosted by expansion in farm produce and services. "This promising growth was mainly backed by prevailing peace across the country and also easing of the global economic recession to a certain extent," more..

June 25 (PTI) The US on Thursday asked the Sri Lankan government to "take advantage" of the opportunity and accept an offer of a UN team that is probing alleged human rights abuses in the final months of the war with LTTE. The UN on Tuesday announced that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had set up a three-member panel to look into alleged human rights violations during the final stages of the war against LTTE in Sri Lanka. more..

June 25 (AFP) The head of a UN panel probing alleged war crimes during Sri Lanka's civil war has criticised Colombo's decision to ban him and colleagues from the country, a report said Friday. Marzuki Darusman, a former Indonesian attorney general, was named Tuesday to lead a team advising UN chief Ban Ki-moon on possible war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during its 37-year separatist war that ended in 2009. more..

June 26 (DM) A haul of locally manufactured guns were recovered and a resident of the area was arrested after a raid was carried out on a illegal arms manufacturing plant in Megodadwawe, Anuradapura by a team of the Operations Headquarters in Colombo. Twelve locally made double barreled guns, empty bullet shells, items used for the manufacture of guns and an army fatigue was recovered while some elephant teeth and antlers were also recovered.

June 26 (LeN) Cabinet spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella stated, in the future, the LTTE international chain leader KP alias Kumar Pathmanathan will be brought under the normal laws of the country, and if necessary he will be used as a witness to repel the war crime charges leveled against SL by the Tamil Diaspora and the International Organizations. The Minister gave this answer to a question posed by the media. more..

June 26 (LBO) Sri Lankan Airlines is looking for two Airbus A320 aircraft to join is fleet by late 2010 as it plans to expand the winter schedule amid a pick up in tourism traffic, chief executive Manoj Gunawardena said. "We are looking for two narrow body Airbus A320 aircraft to relieve A330 aircraft from short haul routes and re-deploy them on long-haul destinations," Gunawardena said. SriLankan Airlines is expecting delivery of an A330 in July, more..

June 26 (JS) The Sri Lankan garment industry says the loss of the GSP+ preferential trade benefits will be felt, but will not be catastrophic. The Sri Lankan government categorically rejected European Commission (EC) conditions to extend the GSP+ duty free trade scheme for another six months, which would have included the government giving a written commitment to improving the country's human rights record. more..

June 26 (CI) New South Wales will look to the West Indies and New Zealand for an overseas player after Sri Lanka blocked Tillakaratne Dilshan from playing in the 2010-11 Big Bash. Dilshan, the explosive opener, signed with the Blues in March but his country wants him to avoid any unnecessary setbacks before next year's World Cup. The move is a blow to the Blues and a spokesman said they had already started searching for a replacement more..

June 26 (LBO) The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce has launched its annual �Best Corporate Citizen Award� seeking to encourage corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable business practices among Sri Lankan firms. Prospective applicants were briefed on the requirements and judging criteria for the awards at a seminar this week, the chamber said in a statement. The areas being assessed for the award are environment, employee relations, customer and more..

June 26 (CT) Prime minister D.M. Jayaratne has admitted the government is cash strapped. Mr. Jayaratne said whatever the claims made by the others, he would never utter falsehoods and had to say frankly there was a money problem in the country. He was addressing a religious function in Digawapi today (June 25). The premier said that as a result, the government has been forced to pay more attention to securing funds. more..

June 26 (DM) Despite the government saying it will not have further dialogue with the European Union (EU) to seek an extension of the GSP plus trade benefits, the EU says it is willing to hold further talks on the matter if the Sri Lankan government so wishes. The European Commission press officer Marie Antonie Kerwien said that so far, the government of Sri Lanka has made its views known only to the media and more..

June 26 (CT) The Urban Development Authority yesterday (June 24) demolished a Christian church in Rajagiriya that has been functioning for around 25 years. Its officials had visited the site with a team of armed policemen and razed the building with backhoes. The Christians in the area had strongly opposed the demolition of the religious place located at Fourth Lane. The UDA has claimed that the church had been an unauthorized construction. more..

June 26 (LG) It was reported that IIFA had plans of hosting the IIFA-Awards event at Seoul, South Korea, even as late as March 2010, rejecting the offer by Ireland. It is not known how and why the venue was changed to Colombo, and it is a surprise that IIFA authorities have not given a thought to the deep-rooted sentiments of the Tamil people who have umbilical ties with Sri Lankan Tamils who have been facing death and destruction for more than three decades and more..

June 26 (CI) When a major tournament involving the continent's four Test playing nations is held entirely in a small town, you'd expect the place to be buzzing with excitement. During the league phase of the Asia Cup, though, barring the jacked-up security presence and hotel rates, Dambulla barely acknowledged its existence. There was no sense of anticipation regarding the matches, no billboards or posters advertising that the tournament was on, and more..

June 26 (FP) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, both famous and infamous for his government�s May 2009 military victory over the 25-year Tamil Tiger insurgency, was in India earlier this month. And he promised to resettle the war-displaced Tamils and find a political solution to the ethnic issue � assurances his government gave to the United States two weeks earlier. But will he deliver on his pledge? In Tamil Nadu people and parties protested Rajapaksa�s visit. more..

June 26 (DM) The Citizens� Commission on the Expulsion of Muslims from the Northern Province by the LTTE recently completed its second field visit to the North. The Commission conducted sittings in Musali, Nannatan, Mannar and Mannar Town. The commission met with the Bishop of Mannar, the Army Commander of Thalladi, the DS of Musali, the DS of Mannar, and the trustees of the Mannar Grand Mosque. The commissioners traveled by the newly opened Mannar -Puttalam road to Musali. more..

June 26 (LG) It is real mockery for the Government to seek or accept the offer of assistance of Tamil intellectuals and ex-militant sympathizers for post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction activities. Who is this K.P alias Pathmanathan?. What are his credentials? Who are these so called intellectuals who came from abroad on a delegation to meet top officials of the Government and more..

June 26 (LB) I once overheard a conversation between two undergraduates. One of them had the dubious reputation of being a conscientious non-bather. He stank. The other complained about the stench one day. The stinker responded philosophically, �ganda...mokadda ganda kiyanne? ganda kiyanne suwande avasaana avasthaava� (stench...what is stench? It is the lowest aspect of perfume). It is all relative, isn�t it? more..

June 26 (IC) On Tuesday night, it was carnival time. They were singing and dancing in the Rangiri Stadium isles. India were being crushed and given a good hiding. Come Asia Cup final night, chasing down a target of 269 to retain the trophy was proving to be a lot more difficult for Sri Lanka�s batsmen. The top-order was swept away by the end of the first 16 overs with some explosive and clever bowling as India stared down their island rivals. more..

June 26 (LBO) Top professional surfers from around the world were at Sri Lanka's Arugam Bay, a small village in the eastern coast of the island which was limited to an adventurous few until now. But now it is all changing. "It is a fun wave," says Nat Young from USA, who shone at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) SriLankan Airlines Pro championship this week. more..

June 26 (LP) Sri Lanka government has decided to ban construction of religious places of worship around the country without permission. The reason cited by the government is that these shrines cause religious conflicts. According to new regulations, if anyone needs to build a religious places of worship in certain place, the person has to submit an application recommended by the Divisional Secretary of the relevant area to more..

June 26 (Island) It was that graphic drawing of what we used to call Aeroplane Hopscotch, atop Tissa Devendra�s nostalgic article, "Endangered Childhood Games", (Island: 19th June), that did it. Took me back several decades to an almost forgotten time � first in my village of Madampe in the NWP, and then to kindergarten days and schooling in Colombo. The words "Kan kan booru/ Sin Sin neru" transported me at once to the garden of more..