Sep 26 (TN) The Norwegian government has granted 23,9 million Rupees in support to The Peace Secretariat for Muslims (PSM), according to a press release issued by the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo Monday. The PSM will facilitate dialogue and build consensus among Muslim political parties and interest groups, more..

Sep 26 (TN) Tamil civil groups in Trincomalee have called on the Tamil speaking people not to open new accounts in State Bank branches in the district and to boycott these branches on Tuesday September 27 to show their token opposition for the blatant discrimination meted out to educated qualified Tamil speaking youths in the recruitment process. more..

Sep 26 (SLA) An unidentified assailant, suspected to be from LTTE has thrown a hand grenade at a Sri Lanka Air Force truck with the intention of causing physical injuries to troops carried when it was returning from CHINA BAY Air Force Base in TRINCOMALEE on Sunday (25) around 8.30 p.m. more..

Sep 26 (SLA) In the wake of escalated Tamil Tiger violence in the east and elsewhere, combined Security Forces and the Police have taken steps to take suspicious persons in for questioning from different areas in the island. more..

Sep 26 (LM) The colossal presence of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) founder leader late Mr.M.H.M.Ashraff in national politics made an indelible mark in the political history of the Sri Lankan Muslims, said party national leader Rauff Hakeem MP. more..

Sep 26 (LM) Tissa Attanayake, Deputy General Secretary of the United National Party said that if the government's budget is presented before the presidential election it would be defeated in Parliament. more..

Sep 26 (UNP) The UNP will lodge a complaint with Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake against Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse using state money to enhance his vote bank. more..

Sep 26 (PRIU) Today is the 46th death anniversary of Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike. A simple ceremony was held this morning to commemorate the founder of the SLFP and the fifth death anniversary of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike at the Bandaranaike Mausoleum in Horagolla, more..

Sep 26 (LBO) Battle between the board and the management at the monopoly power utility CEB intensified as engineers objected to the board calling for reasons from the General Manager for his conduct. more..

Sep 26 (LBO) Environmental conservation groups say the Sethusamudram project, which is set to dredge a continuous navigable route through the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait to link the Indian west coast with its east, can threaten both the fragile ecosystems in that area and the livelihood of those depending on it. more..

Sep 26 (AFP) The race to fill the shoes of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is gaining pace amid growing consensus that an Asian should take over when the Ghana native stands down at the end of next year. more..

Sep 26 (LT) In a shooting incident that took place at Gampaha around 9.30 a.m. this morning a person believed to be a leader of underworld thugs was shot dead when about 5 gunmen armed with T-56 guns blocked the prison vehicle. more..

Sep 26 (LT) In a press release Mr Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the JVP says that Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe ought to make an apology to the farming community of the country for the insult made by Mr Rajitha Senaratne. more..

Sep 26 (LT) A person was taken into police custody on suspicion who was engaged in disgracing Prime Minister�s sons pretending as one of his sons. The suspect who is a son of a UNP supporter who is dealing with arms was arrested at a luxurious hotel in Kandy who was in the company of three attractive girls and three youth posing as security guards. more..

Sep 26 (LBO) Governments loosen the fiscal purse strings when elections are around the corner. Higher spending to create more jobs and raise salaries is common in the run up to elections. But if the deficit exceeds the budget, governments sometimes use strong-arm tactics on the Central Bank to printing money. more..

Sep 26 (CI) Chris Martin destroyed Sri Lanka A with a superb spell of swing and seam bowling as New Zealand A clinched their first win of the triangular one-day series in Colombo. Martin took the first four Sri Lankan wickets and finished with superb figures of 6 for 24 as the home team, chasing a challenging 239 for victory, were bundled out for 166. more..

Sep 26 (SAMN) President Chandrika Kumaratunga is likely to dissolve Parliament within the next two weeks, political sources said yesterday. It is believed she would call for a general election prior to the Presidential election on November 17. more..

Sep 26 (SAMN) The British High Commission in Colombo, which last week said the UK�s national position was clear and they support the listing of the LTTE by the European Union as a terrorist entity, does not think Anton Balasingham, LTTE theoretician, wanted in India for the assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, has committed any crime under the British laws. more..

Sep 26 (LNP) UNP leader and presidential candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe addressing a gathering in Badulla recently said that most of the massive development projects in post independent Sri Lanka like the Gal Oya and Mahaweli shemes were carried out under UNP regimes. more..

Sep 26 (LNP) Female students who come to Galle, as well as their parents are alarmed and worried about an organized gang who allegedly prick and injure them with vaccinating syringes. Such incidents happen frequently when these students come to the city alone, it is alleged. more..

Sep 26 (SAMN) The Norwegians are likely to take up Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga�s apprehensions that LTTE would disrupt presidential poll, with the group�s London based chief negotiator Anton Balasingham. more..

Sep 26 (PIS) The Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) in collaboration with the Peace Education Division of the Ministry of Education, organized an island wide art competition on the theme �Brush Strokes of Peace in Sri Lanka� as a comprehensive interactive exercise for peace building through children. more..

Sep 26 (PIS) The Indian Government has expressed serious concern about the Maoists acquiring sophisticated arms and explosive material from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) through Bangladesh. more..

Sep 26 (Xinhua) Sri Lankan Tamil business community has pledged their full support to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse to elect him as the next President, Daily News reported Monday. The community made the decision on the basis of being the only leader who has a pragmatic approach to solve the country's burning issues, the paper said. more..

Sep 26 (AFP) Fishermen who survived the tsunami in this small village in northern Sri Lanka are no longer in the same boat -- some have their own, the rest wish that they did. Almost nine months after the catastrophe, 32 of the 235 families who lost everything to the giant waves have received replacement fishing boats from foreign donors. more..

Sep 26 (DN) SLFP Presidential Election Campaign Spokesman, Ports and Civil Aviation Minister Mangala Samaraweera said they have asked the Commissioner of Elections to appoint a Competent Authority to ensure balanced reporting by the private media. more..

Sep 26 (HT) An Indian expert on South and South East Asia has suggested that India and Sri Lanka enter into a deal in which Sri Lanka gives India the Kachchativu island on "lease in perpetuity" and licenses to select Indian fishermen to fish off the north Sri Lankan coast, in return for a Defence Cooperation Agreement, which among other things, will help curb the LTTE's deadly naval wing, Sea Tigers. more..

Sep 26 (AP) A retired Norwegian military general will likely visit Sri Lanka next month to review an Oslo-brokered cease-fire between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, an embassy spokeswoman said Monday. more..

Sep 26 (Xinhua) Four people were killed including three prison officials when an armed gang attacked a prison van in Sri Lanka on Monday, police said. The attack occured around 10:00 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) at Gampaha, 38 Kms north of the capital Colombo. more..

Sep 26 (Reuters) Sri Lankan government officials misspent or misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of tsunami aid after failing to follow instructions, the island's auditor general said on Monday. more..

Sep 27 (TN) A sweeping investigation into the Sri Lankan government�s use of international tsunami-related aid has found widespread misappropriation of funds and bureaucratic incompetence, an interim report released this week says. more..

Sep 27 (TN) Thousands congregated at Murugan temple, Kilinochchi, Monday morning for the commemoration rally in memory of Lt.Col.Thileepan who died after a 12 day old hunger-strike protesting against the Indian IPKF and the Sri Lankan armed forces occupying the North-East. more..

Sep 27 (SO) The wife of the highest-ranking officer in the Sri Lankan army came to Carlisle on a mission. She wanted to remind people that the work of recovery from the December 2004 tsunami is progressing slowly, it is far from done. more..

Sep 27 (Time) Crossing borders has been an arduous business since 9/11, and entering northern Sri Lanka is no different � if anything the delays are longer, the checks more thorough and the wait, outside a row of wooden sheds in a baking tropical sun, more grueling than arriving at Heathrow or JFK. more..

Sep 27 (BBC) The government has requested elections chief to establish cluster polling booths for presidential elections in the north and the east. A delegation of senior ministers and Tilvin Silva, have met Elections Commissioner, Dayananda Dissanayake, on Monday to discuss issues relted to forthcoming presidential eletions. more..

Sep 27 (BBC) A group of former heads of Sri Lankan armed forces allege that the JVP is engaging in a campaign against the forces. Four senior security officials strongly criticised a recent remark on the security forces by Somawansa Amerasinghe, the leader of the JVP. more..

Sep 27 (AT) President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Anura Bandaranaike, two of the three children of Late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and Srimavo Bandaranaike, whose legacy they were supposed to inherit today to be in the forefront of the country�s political arena were conspicuously absent at the remembrance ceremony held on Monday at Horagolla. more..

Sep 27 (AT) The European Union is seriously considering naming the LTTE as a terrorist organization, the EU announced on Monday. Until a decision is taken the EU has agreed to ban with immediate effect LTTE delegations visiting EU member countries. more..

Sep 27 (RW) Sooriya is a 34 year old woman living in a temporary shelter in the south of Sri Lanka near the tourist areas of Galle in Sri Lanka. Her family was luckier than most --- she and her husband, two daughters, and a son all survived the tsunami. more..

Sep 27 (IE) There�s been no official comment in Sri Lanka Cricket circles over the ongoing verbal fracas between Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell. But there is plenty being said behind closed doors, accompanied by the sort of smiles you might expect from india�s neighbours. more..

Sep 27 (UNI) Slamming the Centre for implementing the Rs 2400 crore Sethusamudram Ship Channel project in "haste without going into environmental aspects," Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today told the State Assembly that the project would not pave way for economic development as claimed by the Centre but would only destroy the livelihood of lakhs of fishermen. more..

Sep 27 (AT) The China Radio International [CRI] wishes to introduce digital system to air their daily radio programmes and popularize Sinhala programme among the local masses. Director of Sinhala Service �CRI Mr. Wang Xiao Dong who is currently in Colombo says that the CRI needs more contributions from its listners to introduce new programmes. more..

Sep 27 (IPS) Sri Lanka's future rests precariously on the outcome of the Nov. 17 presidential election, the nation's fourth political contest within five years. Though a three-and-a-half year truce between the government and separatist Tamil Tigers has held since February 2002, negotiations stalled in April 2003, when the latter pulled out. more..

Sep 27 (GNN) The European Union hereby declares its condemnation of the continuing use of violence and terrorism by the LTTE. The pursuit of political goals by such totally unacceptable methods only serves to damage the LTTE's standing and credibility as a negotiating partner and gravely endangers the Peace Process so much desired by the people of Sri Lanka. more..

Sep 27 (TN) Retired commanders of the Armed Forces Monday in a signed press release condemned the statement made by Mr.Somawanse Amerasinghe, leader of the JVP directing the Prime Minister Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse to disband the government security forces no sooner he is elected President if the security forces are unable to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. more..

Sep 27 (TN) Mr.Rohitha Priyatharsana, Jaffna regional co-ordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) with his investigating officer Mr. T.Surendrarajah Monday met with Mr.Ramasamy Swendran (28) alias Manalan, a LTTE cadre from Pallai, who was arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) within the Palaly high security zone more..

Sep 27 (TN) Leader of SLMC party, Rauf Hakim, held discussions with the European Union's resident representative in Sri Lanka Walter Wilton at his residence in Colombo Tuesday and has expressed his fears on the security of the minority party leaders during the forthcoming Presidential polls, more..

Sep 27 (TN) Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, UNP presidential candidate and the Opposition Leader Tuesday morning officially released his forty-page manifesto for the forthcoming presidential poll at an event held at the UNP headquarters Sri Kotha with the participation of party senior leaders including Mr.Karu Jayasuriya, and Mr.Malik Samarawickrema, more..

Sep 27 (SLA) A Tamil woman from general area NAVANTHURAI, 2 km northwest of JAFFNA town has been shot and killed today (27) morning around 6.30 a.m. by an unidentified gunman, suspected to be from LTTE. Dead body of the victim, LEELAWATHI SUBRAMANIUM alias SHANTHI (36), has been found lying beside the road with gunshot injuries to her head and chest. more..

Sep 27 (SLA) Tamil Tigers had hoisted their flag during two LTTE functions held in the general areas of KOKUVIL, about 4.5 km northeast of JAFFNA, and NALLUR, about 4 km north of JAFFNA, on 26 September 2005 around 2.10 p.m. more..