July 17 (LP) The number of total Influenza AH1N1 (swine flu) cases reported from Sri Lanka is 40. Speaking to Lankapuvath Director of the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) Angoda Dr Anura Senanayaka said that there are only 07 patients who are receiving treatments at the hospital. The rest of the patients were treated and discharged. Reports of 03 more patients which were sent in for tests were negative while more..

July 17 (LP) Two terrorist suspects were arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) and another in Colombo. At the time of arrest, they had travel documents to go to Egypt. All suspects have been temporary residents in Wellawatte and Kotahena. Their original places of residence have been identified as Jaffna, Chavakachcheri and Palaly. The suspects were identified as Vishvaswami Krishna Prasad, G. Kaleepan and Sashidaran. more..

July 17 (LNW) The request made by UNP MP, Sajith Premadasa, for additional security due to the threat to his life by a person interested in his wife, Jalani, has received a positive response, the Lanka News Web learns. The President, acting on Premadasa�s request, has deployed two sub inspectors from the VIP security division along with two police officers to his security contingent. more..

July 17 (LNW) A proposal made to the Gamini Jayawickrema Perera committee by UNP National Organizer S.B. Dissanayake - who is hopeful of becoming the common candidate of the opposition at the next presidential election if Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe decides not to contest the election � has received unanimous approval by the UNP�s Political Affairs Committee and the Working Committee. more..

July 17 (LT) According to reliable sources the government is taking measures to suppress news web sites that they cannot tame. According to sources the CID has been deployed to find information of those who are maintaining these web sites. Meanwhile, today�s �Dinamina,� publishing a news item under the heading �Operation to apprehend smear campaigning web sites�, states the police has started investigations to find out web sites that publish news items that humiliate the government. more..

July 17 (LeN) Opposition and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe addressing a meeting of Party Organizers from Jaffna and Vavuniya at his party Office at Cambridge place, on 15th said, the very purpose of elections is being defeated by the Govt. by calling for Municipal elections in Vavuniya and Jaffna even before a suitable environment has been created for the people to exercise their franchise freely and fairly. The war may be over , but the fear psychosis gripping the people is not over yet. more..

July 17 (LP) About 40% of the newly built bridges of the Southern Highway would be demolished and rebuilt. Speaking to Lankapuvath Director of the Southern Highway Project of the Ministry of Highways Mr S Maihendran said that the contractor who was in charge of the construction will have to bear the cost of the new bridges which will be put up. The fault lay not in the design but the lapses in construction. more..

July 17 (LT) Several officials from Palinda Nuwara Pradeshiya Sabha transporting an elk they had hunted from Sinharaja nature reserve were apprehended with a double cab and were produced before Court. The arrest was made by Kalawana Police. When the hunting party was arrested by Kalawana Police the Chairman of Palinda Nuwara Pradeshiya Sabha Dhammika Ranasinghe had been present. more..

July 17 (DN) Cultivation in the Northern and Eastern provinces after 30 years is due to begin with the advent of the next harvest season. Before that we hope to solve the problem of shortage of agriculture officers immediately, Agriculture development and Agrarian Services Minister Maithripala Sirisena said at the Vavuniya Agriculture College addressing agriculture officials of Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya and Mannar districts. more..

July 17 (LG) The 10th annual awards ceremony to honor excellence in journalism jointly organized by Sri Lanka Editors' Guild and the Sri Lanka Press Institute was held on Tuesday (24) in Mount Lavinia Hotel with much grandeur but turned out to be a farce as the internationally recognized investigative journalist and slain founder editor of The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge was completely forgotten at the event. more..

July 17 (LNP) Sri Lankan beach volleyballers who are ranked fourth in the Asian region fielded two men s teams and two women s teams. The team comprising Dhammika Silva and Pabudu Ekanayake (A team) and Mahesh Perera and Wasantha Ratnapala are well experienced and are expected to perform at their best. Four of them are in peak form upto yesterday according to their coach Prasanna Udyakumara. more..

July 17 (DN) Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures coupled with difficulties in finding suitable land for dumping could delay the solution to the garbage problem at least for another two years, the Colombo Municipal Council Solid Waste Management Unit Director P. Thangamile told the Daily News. He said that temporary dumping grounds in the Colombo City had not been used for the last two weeks due to bad weather. more..

July 17 (DN) State Revenue and Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya yesterday urged all taxpayers to honour their commitment and contribute to supplement the country's development efforts at a time the Nation has been saved by the Security Forces. "After successfully defeating terrorism the Government is now fully geared to meet the economic and development challenges to drive the country towards greater prosperity," he added. more..

July 17 (DN) In the central and southern parts of Sri Lanka there are several peaks that are highly ecological and rich in bio diversity. These mountains are preserved as forests and are the starting points of many rivers. Knuckles is one the most important bio diversity environments with range of mountains and a great water and wild life resource. Loved by travellers for it's beauty Knuckles mountains has become a hot spot in eco tourism in Sri Lanka. more..

July 17 (LT) No authority has paid any attention to the protest campaign being carried out by undergraduates for 18 days opposite the private bus stand at Batticaloa says JVP MP Ramalingam Chandrasekar. He said this after having a discussion with the graduates who are engaged in the campaign. The main demand of the more than 1500 unemployed undergraduates from Batticaloa more..

July 17 (DM) The chances of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who ended a 30-year-old war, liking the idea of also being inscribed in the history books as the President who re-invoked the death penalty after thirty years, are rather slim. In the long drawn out debate on reintroducing capital punishment including attempts by President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in that direction, has never seen Mahinda Rajapaksa as an aggressive proponent. more..

July 17 (Island) The Chairman of the Kelaniya Pradeshya Sabha, Prasanna Ranaweera and some PS members have been provided with Police security on the instructions of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Chairman Ranaweera has been provided two policemen for his security while other members� security will be constantly monitored by mobile police patrol. The PS Chairman and some members have been threatened by a well known politician in the area more..

July 17 (Island) Nurses who served more than two years at the Maharagama Cancer Institute (MCI) will be transferred to the Angoda Mental Hospital and to the National Eye Hospital. This will be a continuous process. The Health Ministry said the decision had been taken on humanitarian grounds as requested by the nursing staff of the Institute. The nurses had stopped administering chemotherapy stating that they faced the risk of radiation. more..

July 17 (Island) The Kotadeniyawa Police has deployed four teams to arrest the leader of the multi million rupee robbery committed at Diyagampola on the Kurunegala-Minuwangoda main road on Tuesday night. An Air Force deserter is said to be the mastermind behind the robbery and believed to be in possession of over Rs 01 million of the loot that still remains to be recovered. He escaped from the scene of the robbery in a car and is believed to be hiding in Athurugiriya area. more..

July 17 (DM) The Fort Magistrate yesterday remanded Ceylinco Consolidated chairman Lalith Kotelawela and four other directors of Ceylinco Sriram Capital Management Services in connection with the alleged criminal breach of trust and cheating of Rs. 7 billion belonging to the depositors. Magistrate ordered to re-remand Mr. Kotelawala, Padmini Karunanayake and Daniel Jegasothy in connection with the Golden Key Credit Card company�s alleged fraud of Rs. 26 billion. more..

July 17 (DM) President Mahinda Rajapaksa last Sunday made drastic changes to the country�s military hierarchy surprising the entire defence circle by removing the two topmost defence officials from their posts. Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka had been appointed as the Chief of Defence Staff, which had been given wide powers through a special Gazette notification, while Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda was appointed National Security Advisor, whch is a new post. more..

July 17 (DM) The normal operations at the Welikada Prison was disturbed for a few hours yesterday morning as the military started checking Prison Officers and Jailors under a new security plan, introduced by the Defence Ministry. Opposing this, the officers and jailors stayed away from work for almost two hours from 8 am to 10 am, protesting against the decision taken by the Prison Administration to more..

July 17 (PTI) A Sri Lankan national escaped from a police station in Jammu following which two cops were suspended on Friday, senior officials said. Hussain Nafraz Nawaz, who was arrested in August last year for allegedly possessing contraband, on Thursday escaped from Canal road police station, they said. Mr. Nawaz was to be deported back to his country and was on Thursday shifted to police station on the directions of a local court here. more..

July 17 (LBO) Sri Lanka's private sector has been told a host of investment opportunities have emerged in rebuilding transport infrastucture in the north and east, much of which was destroyed or neglected owing to war. Transport specialist Rohan Abeywickrema said there were opportunities to create facilities to link farmers and factories in the northern and eastern rgeions with markets elsewhere in the island. more..

July 17 (LBO) A proposal to build a bridge linking Sri Lanka and Indian across the Palk Straits is to be discussed at a meeting of south Asian transport ministers in Colombo, a senior official said. Amal Kumarage, chairman of the island's National Transport Commission, said the bridge will help Sri Lanka regain its regional identity and be part of a continent. The bridge, over the existing Adam's Bridge of sand banks, would almost be like an umbilical link between the two countries. more..

July 17 (Island) Junior Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambapalitiya yesterday said the government couldn�t act beyond the law though the Auditor General and parliamentary watchdog committees, the COPE and PAC had revealed waste, corruption and irregularities. He emphasized that the Rajapaksa administration wouldn�t condone corruption but the situation couldn�t be rectified overnight. more..

July 17 (NP) In May of this year, during the final stages of a brutal ethnic civil war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government, a so-called "humanitarian rescue" of civilians was undertaken by Sri Lanka's armed forces. More than 20,000 Tamil civilians trapped in the conflict zone were massacred. Thousands of dead are children, and most of them died before they even knew that they were Tamils. more..

July 17 (IPS) Elections in early August for local administrative bodies in Jaffna and Vavuniya, two Tamil-dominated northern towns, would be the first litmus test for the Sri Lankan government to restore normalcy in a region devastated by nearly three decades of war. This would be the first time the predominantly Tamil population in the war ravaged north goes to vote after the government defeated the separatist movement led by the LTTE in May. more..

July 17 (BN) Sri Lanka is poised to raise its growth and income levels as the South Asian island rebuilds after the end of a 26-year civil war, the World Bank said. �Ending the armed conflict definitely is an opportunity for Sri Lanka to graduate from a low-income country to a fully fledged middle-income country,� said World Bank Sri Lanka Director Naoko Ishii. The island nation needs to strengthen its �business environment� and more..

July 17 (AFP) Sri Lankan troops have uncovered one of their biggest hauls of weapons and explosives since the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels two months ago, military officials said on Friday. Troops found 332 roadside bombs in the northeastern district of Mullaittivu where Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran put up his last stand in May. He said the bombs weighing up to 18 kilos (40 pounds) were found at the village of Vellamullivaikal, more..

July 17 (CI) Sri Lanka have included Chaminda Vaas in the squad of 16 for the third Test, which starts in Colombo on Monday. Vaas - who replaces offspinner Suraj Randiv - last represented Sri Lanka in February, in the abruptly terminated Test series in Pakistan as a result of the terror attacks in Lahore. On July 4 this year Ashantha de Mel, Sri Lanka's chief selector, had been quoted in the press saying that Vaas had retired from Test cricket. more..

July 17 (LBO) Sri Lanka is widening the tax net to catch small shop owners and hair dressers to fluff up flagging government income, while excise revenues had also lost it usual buzz, officials said. "Most businesses such as boutiques, hair salons and retailers don't pay value added tax (VAT)," the head of Sri Lanka's revenue office, E M M Meegoda told reporters. "If they volunteer to pay VAT they will only be charged at 5.0 percent, if they don't they will have to pay the normal 12 percent." more..

July 17 (NT) The Tamilnadu government today clarified that it had no intention of sending Tamil refugees back to Sri Lanka. Replying to demands for grants for Public and Tamil Development departments at the Assembly on behalf of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, Finance Minister K Anbazhagan said a doubt was raised in the House as to whether the refugees would be sent back to their nation. more..

July 18 (wsws) Nearly 2,000 students from five faculties of Sabaragamuwa University in Belihuloya, 160 km east of Colombo, held a protest inside the university premises on July 8. They presented 16 demands for basic facilities such as lecture rooms, hostels, labs, canteens and sports grounds. The demonstration was held in support of Social Sciences and Languages Faculty students who have been boycotting classes since July 1 over the lack of essential facilities for a decent education. more..

July 18 (Isria) South Africa was aware of the crisis faced by Sri Lanka through many years due to separatist terrorism, and welcomed its defeat under the leadership of President Rajapaksa. President Jacob Zuma of South Africa congratulated President Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka for its defeat of terrorism after so many years, and for its success in upholding the principles of national sovereignty and territorial integrity that were being threatened by terrorism and certain international pressure groups. more..

July 18 (Isria) The defeat of the LTTE and the extended period of terror in Sri Lanka had opened new opportunities for investment in Sri Lanka said the Malaysian Prime Minister Dato Mohamed Abdul Razak in discussions with President Rajapaksa in Egypt. The two leaders met at Sharm El Sheik where they had come to participate in the 15th Non Aligned Summit. Prime Minister Abdul Razak who congratulated President Rajapaksa on the successful defeat of the LTTE and its terrorism, more..

July 18 (Isria) President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived in Sri Lanka this morning after participating in the 15th Non-Aligned Summit, which concluded in Sharm El - Sheikh, Egypt last evening. In addition his participation at the NAM Summit as the head of State of a founder member of the Non Aligned Movement, President Rajapaksa also had a very busy schedule of bi-lateral discussions with several Heads of State and Government. more..

July 18 (LG) One of the most hilarious events that took place recently in the world of book publishing however did not go largely unnoticed. Retired Gen Cyril Ranatunga came out with his memoirs An Adventurous Journey, at a time when most folk who heard about the launch were constrained to ask �Cyril who?�� But the timing of this book is altogether unseemly, to use a rather mild adjective to describe the result of the author�s ill-concealed ulterior motives. more..

July 18 (LG) Sri Lanka Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickramanayaka said that the state had declared war against drug dealers, ransom takers, thugs and murderers following the victory against terrorism. He made this statement addressing a ceremony held to declare open a new building in Mulleriyawa police station. A direct link between the killing of a number of underworld goons during the recent past and this declaration of war against underworld can be guessed. more..

July 18 (LG) Highly respected diplomat and academic scholar Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka was fired from his post as permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva, by the Government of Sri Lanka. According to reliable sources, we can suppose it is because of the 13th amendment debate (in which Dr. Jayatilleka came out in favour of it) and the rising influence of Sinhala racist parties JHU and NFF in Sri Lanka. more..

July 18 (CI) Despite a series win, Mahela Jayawardene has said Sri Lanka still need to go a fair distance to hit peak form. Jayawardene, who gave up the captaincy after Sri Lanka's aborted tour to Pakistan in March, felt Kumar Sangakkara was playing the right cards as leader of a somewhat inexperienced side. "Winning the second Test was a fantastic achievement and a great effort from all the guys in the team," he wrote on his website. more..

July 18 (CT) Sabaragamuwa chief minister Mahipala Herath has ordered another inquiry into the suicide of a man after his son had been unfairly treated by several schools in Warakapola. The new inquiry by the provincial education ministry is in addition to the probe already conducted by the education department, which the chief minister is not satisfied with. Mr. Herath gave the order yesterday (July 16) after returning to his duties following hospitalization for injuries he had more..

July 18 (IANS) The Sri Lankan government Friday said 163 people have died between May 15 and July 14 at the relief camps in the country's north. The health ministry has rejected the reports by some international media that 1,400 people have died at the relief camps last week, the government information department said in a statement. "Several media bodies in Britain, including the London Telegraph, had carried false and more..

July 18 (Isria) Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed has thanked all the Sri Lankans who are employed in the Maldives for their productive contribution to the Maldivian economy. He thanked the people of Sri Lanka, speaking at a special function held by the High Commission of Sri Lanka in the Maldives and Sri Lankan community in the Maldives to salute the heroes of Sri Lankan civil war. more..

July 18 (IFRC) Red Cross volunteers across Sri Lanka are working to stop the spread of a dengue fever epidemic that has already claimed 175 lives and affected more than 17,000 people. The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) is working closely with the Ministry of Health to raise awareness of the disease and help people reduce their risk of catching it. With funding from the American Red Cross, 28 schools in the southern Galle and Matara districts have more..

July 18 (SLMFA) The new Representative for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sri Lanka, Dr. Firdosi Rustom Mehta presented his credentials to Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama today at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Mehta stated that the death rate speculated by some section in media due to the diarrhea disorder in some relief villages and camps accommodating the IDPs were �exaggerated�. more..

July 18 (BBC) The Indian government says that the way Sri Lanka deals with the Tamil issues has a bearing on the island's relations with the regional power. Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said that he urged Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to "do all he can" to resolve Sri Lanka's national issue. He was answering a question by a parliamentarian at the Lower House of the Indian parliament, Rajya Sabha. more..

July 18 (HT) President Mahinda Rajapaksa won the long-drawn war against the separatist LTTE and could now win peace for Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday. "His (Rajapaksa�s) enormous talent should help solve the long-drawn out (ethnic) issue in Sri Lanka permanently,�� Singh was quoted as having said in a bilateral interaction with the Lankan President after the end of the 15th Non Aligned Summit at Sharm El Sheik in Egypt. more..

July 18 (BBC) The British government has expressed support for the efforts to resettle displaced and the development in Sri Lanka's north and east. After a fact finding mission to eastern province, British High Commissioner in Colombo, Dr. Peter Hayes, told BBC Sandeshaya that he was impressed with the improvement in the security situation. "First thing I noticed was greatly reduced number of check points on the roads, particularly the roads up to Trincomalee from Colombo and around Batticaloa," he said. more..