Aug 8 (N360) A state run hospital in Sri Lanka is attracting overseas couples who is seeking help from its medical professionals to have a baby through In Vitro Fertilisation. The hospital says couples who is experiencing difficulties in having children is seeking its help to achieve pregnancy through a guided medical program. The state run Lanka Hospitals says couples from the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States of America, more..

Aug 8 (SO) SSP Maxi Proctor, Head of the Fraud Investigations Bureau (FIB) said that there are many professional money launderers who take innocent people for a ride by making them invest their hard-earned money in various money-making schemes. He was addressing a press briefing following the arrest of Sri Lanka�s most wanted conman Sakvithi Ranasinghe, on Friday. The FIB can help anyone who wants to invest money in unknown financial institutions or more..

Aug 8 (SO) The Government will send a consignment of dry rations worth nearly Rs. 2.1 million to Pakistan as flood relief items. The Ministry of External Affairs will despatch the consignment along with Lanka Sathosa on the directive of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The consignment of dry rations will be sent on a C-130 plane of the Sri Lanka Air Force this morning from the BIA at Katunayake, Air Force Spokesman Group Captain Janaka Nanayakkara said. more..

Aug 8 (SO) The CID has begun questioning A. Chandana Veerakumara alias Sakvithi Ranasinghe and his wife Anuradini whether they had stashed the ill-gotten money of the depositors in a foreign country while they were abroad for almost two years, Police Media Spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said. He said that the CID would obtain a detention order from the courts to question the suspects at length to investigate the 2,900 complaints of depositors more..

Aug 8 (SO) A record 150,000 people of 16,000 village committees islandwide will extend their co-operation towards the 'Dengue Prevention Week' declared by the Health Ministry from August 16 to 22. Members of provincial, district and village level committees all over the country will launch large scale mosquito eliminating programs in their areas during the week under the supervision of health authorities. more..

Aug 8 (Island) The Securities and Exchange Commission, though belatedly, intervened last week to enforce some order into what has been freely touted as the world�s 'second best performing stock exchange.� The Colombo Stock Exchange, undoubtedly, has been doing exceptionally well this year and for good reason. The ending of the war prepared the ground for Sri Lanka to unleash its undoubted economic potential and more..

Aug 8 (SO) Sri Lanka�s indigenous people need no introduction; even a small child would have heard of the Adi Vasi, Vanniyela Aththo (forest dwellers) or Veddah community though only a few may have seen or talked to them. They are the descendants of the island�s original occupants and have a history dating back to around 16,000 BC. Indigenous communities are not unique to Sri Lanka. more..

Aug 8 (LB) The infamous Mervyn Silva affair in which the Minister tied a Samurdhi official to a tree over a minor transgression, and then taunted him, and the crossovers of two MPs who contested on the UNP ticket, Palani Digambaram and Prabha Ganeshan, and the president�s apparent remarks at the welcoming ceremony for them at Temple Trees where he told journalists that �this is only a rehearsal and there is more to come��, shows only one thing � � which is that the government is cock-a-hoop and more..

Aug 8 (LB) The crowds agitating against Minister Mervy Silva on the issue of tying up a a Samurdhi official to a tree would be ample enough testimony to the fact that these people believe that in fact there was such an incident, even though Mervyn Silva is now taking a stance of what could loosely be called �denial�. It would not be normally expected that scores of people would protest against such a grotesque incident if it did not happen in the first place. more..

Aug 8 (SO) After the slash of import duty the demand for brand new motor cars has increased sharply. However, the prices of second hand cars have not yet changed and a price reduction in second hand cars is expected only after brand new car orders are delivered. The minimum lead time for a brand new car is over four months and therefore the second hand car prices will reduce by October this year, market sources said. more..

Aug 8 (Island) Sakvithi Ranasinghe, the master conman who defrauded a billion plus rupees from unsuspecting depositors, had been living in abject poverty � in a small squalid rented upper floor without even a chair to sit on. What happened to all the cash � more than one thousand million rupees � he misappropriated? This is exactly what�s baffling police sleuths who arrested Sakvithi and his wife Anuradha at Navagamuwa on Friday. more..

Aug 8 (NS) In the recent past, many governments have had their mavericks, and our country being a decent democracy, we have tolerated them, at times, in good humour and, at other times, in exasperation. But these politicians have only been another facet of our democracy, not a threat to it. For some time though, Hewa Coparage Mervyn Silva, our �honourable� deputy minister of highways, has been testing the patience of the public, more..

Aug 8 (SL) The UNP has now called on the government to release the proposals on constitutional reforms and the 17th Amendment while the JVP has continuously emphasized the need for the government to release the draft of its proposed constitutional amendments. UNP MP Joseph Michael Perera said that the government needed to release a draft of its proposed constitutional reforms if the UNP is to re-consider its decision to more..

Aug 8 (NS) There was not much fanfare surrounding the event, but it was a significant political development nevertheless, the SLFP (M) faction was dissolved, with its membership led by former minister Mangala Samaraweera, obtaining membership of the UNP. This development may not create waves in political circles just yet, but its implications cannot be dismissed or overlooked; it has consequences for both the UNP as well as Samaraweera�s former party, the SLFP. more..

Aug 8 (NS) An Advanced Level student of a leading school in Negombo, who was preparing to sit the examination tomorrow, committed suicide by hanging himself on Wednesday. On Wednesday morning, he had requested money from his parents to pay the school. The father, employed at a leading foreign bank, told him he would send the money that afternoon through his driver. Thereafter both parents left home to their respective workplaces, leaving the son to study at home. more..

Aug 8 (ST) Soon after he took the chair at last Wednesday's cabinet meeting, President Mahinda Rajapaksa was to trigger some laughter amongst his ministerial colleagues. Earlier that afternoon, at 2 p.m, he said, a meeting had been scheduled with the Opposition UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. That was for talks on the impending constitutional changes. A member of the Buddhist clergy had telephoned him to say it was not suitable to his kethi kaley or more..

Aug 8 (Island) The police recently arrested a senior police official for allegedly accepting Rs 7.5 million from a person promising to help him to acquire a large stock empty artillery shells belonging to the Sri Lanka Army. Government sources told The Sunday Island that the arrested official had posed as a confidante of Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and negotiated a lucrative deal. more..

Aug 8 (Island) One of the country�s biggest resort hotel projects kicked off yesterday along the `Golden Mile� on the Beruwela coast when Economic Development and Investment Minister Basil Rajapaksa laid the foundation stone for the three billion rupee Chaaya Bey hotel, a 200-room four-star property on 11 acres of beachfront land. President Mahinda Rajapaksa later visited the site and examined plans for the luxury property more..

Aug 8 (NS) With the number of Dengue cases reported nearing 26,000 to date this year, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa took city cleaners to task recently, following complaints that they are not performing their job adequately. The Defence Secretary, under whose purview the Urban Development Authority (UDA) functions, summoned a meeting of contractors who have undertaken Colombo�s waste disposal. more..

Aug 8 (Island) Scars of war, ominous though they were, did not curtail or inhibit progress; quickly reshaping the Eastern port city of Trincomalee. Funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through the North East Coastal Community Development Project (NECCDEP), wide cross section improvement projects are on-going. Cod Bay Fisheries Harbour, re-establishing mangroves to enhance prawn, crab, and lobster stock and more..

Aug 8 (ST) It may be said that Sri Lanka recorded its first major success on the international stage last week, since the stonewalling at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in the immediate aftermath of the war victory over the LTTE a year ago. On that occasion, the Non Aligned Movement, and India came together to block a Western putsch to have Sri Lanka condemned for alleged human rights violations in the last few weeks of the military offensive that more..

Aug 8 (NS) Sri Lanka�s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Dr. Palitha Kohona is likely to be recalled at the end of the September sessions of the UN General Assembly (GA). Diplomatic sources in New York told The Nation that Kohona may relinquish duties somewhere in October, paving the way for a total reshuffle of the office of the Permanent Representative. more..

Aug 8 (Island) UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe says ministers, top officials and members of President Mahinda Rajapaksa�s cabinet should be given the 'Mervyn Silva treatment' and tied to tress for their failures. He asserted Deputy Highways Minister Mervyn Silva�s way of punishing those who had failed in their duty was right, though the man tied to a tree should have been the minister in charge of the health portfolio. more..

Aug 8 (ST) The alleged billion-rupee fraudster Chandana Weerakumara alias Sakvithi Ranasinghe, who is accused of cheating thousands of people of their life�s savings operated as a tuition master in Chilaw after slipping back into the country apparently some months ago, a detective said yesterday. CID detectives visited Chilaw yesterday to gather details about what he did and whom he moved with in the area. more..

Aug 8 (ST) Minister Basil Rajapaksa has intervened to settle a crisis with Samurdhi officers who have launched a countrywide protest against last Monday�s tree punishment given to a Samurdhi officer by Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva. Mr. Rajapaksa has appealed to the Samurdhi officers to end the protest, claiming Mr. Silva has been warned by President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he should not resort to such acts. more..

Aug 8 (LeN) The Deputy leader of the UNP extended an open invitation to the leader of the DNF General Sarath Fonseka to join with them and work together. The Dep. Leader sent out this invitation when speaking on the occasion of the Matara District MP Mangala Samaraweera, the leader of the SLFP (M) and his other party members joining the UNP and were received officially by the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. more..

Aug 8 (ST) President Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on September 22 when more than 150 world leaders are expected to attend a summit meeting to take stock of the successes and failures of the UN's Millennium Development Goals. But there is a division of opinion in the Presidential Secretariat and the External Affairs Ministry on whether or not the President should be more..

Aug 8 (LB) Fifteen thousand school children in the North and East are compelled to study under trees since schools have been converted into IDP and transit camps and detention centres, while the government spends millions on military bases, education department sources said. The situation is grave in Vavuniya, Omanthai, Maithadi and Kilinochchi where the majority of schools function in temporary shelters with minimal facilities. more..

Aug 8 (NS) As controversial MP Mangala Samaraweera joins the main Opposition UNP embroiled in its worst internal crisis in decades, the Opposition is likely to lose more MPs to the Government, political sources said. With the cross over of two Opposition MPs Prabha Ganeshan of DPF and P. Digambaram of the National Workers� Front on Thursday, the Government is just short of five MPs to obtain its two-third majority in Parliament. more..

Aug 8 (LG) President Rajapaksa is unique in the way he solves problems. He has integrated KP to his strategy to solve problems of North and East. In other countries, KP's like would be treated among the worst of criminals. He would have been interrogated thoroughly by the best of investigators. The entirety of his deeds would have been recorded. This record would have been studied by the prosecutors. more..

Aug 8 (ST) It was around 12.15 p.m. on Friday. Nawagamuwa Vigilance Committee chairman Ajith Welgama was driving his threewheeler to the Ambagaha junction threewheeler park when he saw a familiar-looking young woman in a red skirt walking towards a two-storey house nearby. Her appearance rang a bell and suddenly realizing who the woman was, he wasted no time. He made two quick phone calls to two members of the vigilance committee, more..

Aug 9 (DR) The township held its 35th annual Sri Lanka Day on Saturday amid perfect summer weather and a celebratory atmosphere at Gardner Field. The event, as in past years, drew both local residents and immigrants from the South Asian nation living throughout the region. Officials in attendance included Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., and Morris County Freeholder Director Gene Feyl of Denville. more..

Aug 9 (BBC) Police in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, have arrested three Sri Lankan Tamil men thought to be from rival factions supporting the Tamil Tigers, after a clash in a Hindu religious festival. "Six men are wounded and three of them are arrested after dispute that evolved into the fight, "operations manager Find Belle of the Oslo Police was quoted in Norwegian media. A fight has erupted at a Hindu temple festival in Oslo on late Saturday night, it said. more..

Aug 9 (IL) A workshop titled Ape Gamana (Our March) of the Sri Lankan Government was kicked-off at Rivarina Hotel Conference Hall at Beruwala, this morning on 7th August. Ape Gamana workshop, is the first of a chain of educational seminars which was organized by the Presidential Secretariat, only for the Parliamentary Group members of the UPFA Government. more..

Aug 9 (SL) Foreign news reports quoting an official source have stated that a group of 76 undocumented immigrants from Central America and Sri Lanka were rescued with signs of dehydration from inside a semi-trailer left abandoned in the southeastern state of Chiapas in Mexico. The Latin America Herald Tribune has quoted the Chiapas delegation of the federal Attorney General�s Office saying that a semi trailer was found at more..

Aug 9 (SL) An archeologically valued mountain in Dambulla �Dahaiyakanda� was set on fire this afternoon. A suspect believed to have been one of the arsonists was arrested by the police. The police are in search of two other suspects also believed to have been involved in setting the mountain on fire. A bicycle belonging to the suspect in custody has also been recovered while the reason for setting the mountain on fire is still under investigation.

Aug 9 (NF) Innocents are chased away and the land is being given to loyalists of the government, says UNP parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake. He was expressing his views while engaged in a tour of the Mattakkuliya area. The area residents had organised the meeting to thank Mr. Karunanayake for his involvement in resolving the housing problem in the Summitpura area in Mattakkuliya. more..

Aug 9 (LBO) An energy efficiency initiative by Sri Lankan hotels is helping them to reduce costs and attract special interest visitors, an official said. Krishan Deheragoda, former chairman of the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA), said energy audits done by the authority indicated significant potential to make savings in energy use. "Average savings potential in the range of 20-30 percent has been identified," he told an energy symposium Saturday more..

Aug 9 (LG) If I have the powers or am the President of Sri Lanka I dial his number and invite him to the President House and I have a one on one, heart to heart, frank and candid discussion with him. I look him in the eye and say �I am old but I like change. I want to do some �social engineering� one more time. These I will give to you. 1. Powers to make bold and unique decisions. 2. Powers to select your own subject matter expert �Tiger Team-the Crisis Managers in more..

Aug 9 (TC) �Go, Thora, Go,� the girls from Colombo shouted, and responding to the shouts from their sister school, Bishop's College, the boys from St. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia, a suburb just south of Colombo, came up with an all-out effort to row away with the honours � just as the shouting girls had done � at the recent Asian Schools' Rowing Championships held near Muttukkadu. Intrigued local journalists were keen to find out what �Thora' meant, but more..

Aug 9 (TC) The World Heritage Committee, the decision-making body on matters connected with the World Heritage Convention, met in Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil, from 25 July to 3rd August 2010. A major item on its agenda was to decide on nominations that had been made by member states for inscription of properties in the World Heritage List. On 30th July, after deliberating on the matter, the Committee declared the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka as a World Heritage, more..

Aug 9 (LG) After a lull, the onslaught on the media has resumed. �We need to maintain emergency laws to ensure the safety and security of the nation� the Prime Minister informed the parliament, days after the slash and burn attack on the �Siyatha� office, located in a downtown Colombo high security zone. The PM also announced that more than 1,500 Tiger suspects were arrested, post-war, even as the police claimed to be �clueless� about the identity of the Siyatha attackers. more..

Aug 9 (LG) This refers to the non-compliance of the Supreme Court Order by you as per judgments issued on the two cases bearing No. SC/FR 258/2007 and SC/FR 224/2006. The judgment on SC/FR Case No. 258/2007 was delivered on May 13, 2009. Accordingly, the Supreme Court ordered you to pay a sum of Rs. 75,000/-( seventy five thousand) as compensation to the petitioner, Uduwa Athukoralage Chandrasena. more..

Aug 9 (TN) Around 2,500 hundred students from the districts of Vavuniyaa, Mannaar, Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu in Vanni sitting for the GCE A/L examination which commenced Monday are among the 2,45,000 students appearing for the examination throughout the country. 367 students from the districts of Vanni arrested and detained under Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) claimed as members of LTTE are also sitting for the examination, more..

Aug 9 (TN) A minor violent incident, resulting from a dispute over parking car at a Tamil religious festival on Sunday in Oslo, Norway, was wrongly reported by BBC Sinhala as a clash between �rival factions supporting the Tamil Tigers.� Even though there was undue highlight, the Norwegian media reported the incident properly along with police report. But the BBC Sinhala.com, citing the Norwegian media and police, mischievously came out with imaginary additions, Tamil circles in Oslo commented. more..

Aug 9 (LP) A solid programme should be implemented to protect archeologically important places in the Northeastern province, Prime Minister D M Jayaratne suggested to the 2600th Sambuddhathva Operational Commission. The Premiere said that attention should be paid to the protection of pagodas, temples and related archeological sites along with the National programme for their conservation. more..

Aug 9 (LP) Parliamentary Ministers do not have any special privileges besides the normal privileges they receive, and the courts are currently checking whether there is a limit to Parliamentary privileges, said Attorney General Mohan Peiris, PC. The Attorney General stated that being a Parliamentary Minister does not make them above the law if they commit a crime or do something against the law, and more..

Aug 9 (LP) A vehicle belonging to UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake was attacked by activists of the same party last night. The vehicle was attacked as he was returning from a meeting in the Beliaththa area and according to the residents of the area behind the attacks is a senior UNP member. The attack has taken place at around 9 pm yesterday when MP Karunanayake attended a meeting held at the house of a party member in the Dikwella Road more..

Aug 9 (DM) More than 30,000 � 40,000 prostitutes currently operate countrywide in thousands of trafficking centres, the Health Education Bureau (HEB) said. According to HEB Media Coordinator Dr. Shantha Hettiarachchi, although an accurate survey had not been conducted on this topic due to the clandestine manner in which the individuals in this trade as well as these rackets operate, the fact had been revealed through extensive more..