Apr 25 (LT) UNP Parliamentarian Mr Mahinda Wijesekera speaking at a special disciplinary committee said a great injustice has been done by its leadership removing him from the Matara District leadership and the working committee. Mr Wijesekera added that six of them left Chandrika Bandaranaike Government leaving his Ministerial portfolio and joined the UNP who only asked why they are leaving the Government. more..

Apr 25 (LT) Polling cards for the election to be held on May 20 will be delivered by the Postal Department between May 7-11. Election of 22 provincial councils will be held on this day. The official polling cards will be handed over to the Postal authorities on the 28th of this month by the Elections Commissioner’s Department. more..

Apr 25 (SN) Jatika Hela Urumaya (JHU) yesterday urged the Sri Lankan government to give an ultimatum to the LTTE terrorists to cease violence and to withdraw from the ceasefire agreement (CFA) if the LTTE failed to do so, calling the government to place the country on a war footing. more..

Apr 25 (Reuters) With its stunning views over Sri Lanka's rolling green tea hills, the Norwood plantation manager's bungalow was designed to compensate British tea planters for their lonely lives far away from home. The plantation remains, but the bungalow has been refurbished and converted into a boutique hotel more..

Apr 25 (SLBC) A survey is launched to review the progress of the three months development programme implemented in conformity with the Mahinda Chinthana. President?s Economic Advisor and the Secretary to the Ministry of Plan Implementation Ajith Nivad Cabral said the aim is to review whether the Ministries have met their respective targets. more..

Apr 25 (TN) Nine members of the Trincomalee Town and Gravets Pradesiya Sabah (PS) took oaths Monday morning at the PS office located in Chelvanayakapuram in Uppuveli police division, about four km off north of port city. Mr.T.Thiruchenthilnathan, President of the Trincomalee Bar Association and Justice of Peace first administered oaths to the Chairman, more..

Apr 25 (ANN) Barbarians have struck again! They have massacred six Sinhala villagers including two school children, in Kalyanapura in the Eastern Province on Sunday (April 23). The perpetrators of such heinous crimes may call themselves Tigers but, to the discerning, they are nothing more than a pack of gender-confused hyenas looking for carrion. They have laid bare their true faces once again. more..

Apr 25 (SLBC) The Ministry of Judiciary and Legal Reforms states the legal provisions will be introduced to rehabilitate children convicts before the courts. Secretary to the Ministry Suhada Gamlath opined the reforms are formulated focusing the attention on the rights laid down in the United Nations charter on children. UNICEF is to extend its support in this regard. more..

Apr 25 (PIS) President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said no other leader in the world in the recent past would have displayed the degree of patience that he was exercising in the face of the highest level of provocations. He stressed that nobody could break his resolve to be resilient even under extreme circumstances. more..

Apr 25 (PIS) The LTTE continued with their barbaric acts against civilians yesterday too killing one more civilian, this time a 38-year old feeding her child at home at Block C, Serunuwara in Trincomalee, military and Police said yesterday. The 38-year-old mother was stabbed to death by two LTTE cadres who came there to launch another brutal attack on the civilians in the village yesterday around 1.30 p.m. more..

Apr 25 (GN) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has directed the Ministry of Education to take steps to fill teacher vacancies in Tamil Medium schools islandwide without delay, a media release by the President's Office stated. The President during a discussion with a delegation from the All Island Muslim Educationists Federation held at Temple Trees yesterday, more..

Apr 25 (LNP) Security in Colombo city and the suburbs has been tightened with immediate effect, Police Chief Chandra Fernando said yesterday, as violence continued in the north and east. He said this decision was taken following information that an LTTE suicide squad was in Colombo to launch attacks in the city and road blocks had been set up at strategic points to check vehicles. more..

Apr 25 (LNP) A graduate of the Kelaniya University has sued the University claiming that the procedure of selecting undergraduates for special streams was not in a proper method. Kahatavita Liyanage Don Suresh of Dalupitiya, Kadawatha filing his plaint before the District Court of Colombo stated that due to the improper method of selection, more..

Apr 25 (LNP) Parents of children warded at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital and doctors are irked over the poor sanitation conditions prevailing in the hospital. They have urged the hospital authorities to take immediate action to rectify the situation which they say is a result of the inefficiency of the cleaning service conducted by a private company contracted by the hospital. more..

Apr 25 (GN) Arrangements are being made to hold a Tripitaka chanting from May 6 to June 10 at the Sri Subodharama Buddhist Centre, Peradeniya to commemorate Buddha Jayanthi 2550. This will be held under the guidance of Viharadhipathi Most Ven. Wattegama Dhammawasa Nayake Thera, the Chief Sangha Nayake for Australia. more..

Apr 25 (GN) More than the extensions, terminations of Railway lines were noticed after we regained Independence. Therefore the extension of the Railway line from Matara to Kataragama was re-started, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa when he addressed the gathering after laying the foundation stone to construct a Railway Bridge over the River Nilwala, at Piladuwa, Matara. more..

Apr 25 (SAMN) Condemning the massacre of six civilians by the LTTE, at Morawewa on Sunday (23), all political parties and organizations, called upon the public not to react to the calculated provocation by the Tigers. The massacre of farmers at Morawewa, Gomarankadawala by the LTTE on Sunday is an attempt by the terrorist group to provoke another communal backlash in Trincomalee, more..

Apr 25 (SAMN) SriLankan Air Taxi is giving passengers the opportunity of experiencing an exhilarating water landing on the Bentota River with its weekend Scenic Flights starting this April. "We have added a ‘Touch-And-Go’ at Bentota to our highly popular weekend Scenic Flights on our amphibious Turbo Otter aircraft," said Herman Pereira, Manager Air Taxi. more..

Apr 25 (SAMN) The problem of disposing garbage was highlighted when the newly-elected members of the Maharagama Urban Council took their oaths recently.Dinesh Gunawardena, Minister of Urban Development, Water Supply and Housing said, "I believe that the new UC administrators will be able to turn Maharagama into a lawful and moralistic town during their period. more..

Apr 25 (TN) The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), which has been inciting violence with it's paramilitaries in total violation to the ceasefire agreement and working hard to sever the relationship between the LTTE and the international community, has shattered all the goodwill gestures, said S.P. Thamilchelvan in a letter to the Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hanssen Bauer on Tuesday. more..

Apr 25 (DN) A new Bill named the 'Prevention of Mosquito Breeding Act' will be presented to Parliament shortly to control dengue and other diseases caused and spread via mosquitoes, Health and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told the Daily News yesterday. He added that the drafting of the Bill was almost complete. It will come into effect once it is approved in Parliament. more..

Apr 25 (AFP) Tension gripped Sri Lanka's north-eastern Trincomalee district after an overnight killing of a hotel owner police say was designed to provoke inter-communal riots. The man was gunned down around midnight on the same day suspected Tamil Tiger rebels hacked to death a mother feeding her baby, police said on Tuesday. more..

Apr 25 (GN) The Government spends around Rs.15billion annually to import wheat flour to the country and this would be restricted by popularising rice flour based products in the country. The need to increase rice flour consumption has been emphasised with the bumper harvest of paddy in the past couple of years. more..

Apr 25 (AP) A female suicide bomber disguised to look pregnant blew herself up in front of a car carrying Sri Lanka's top general, killing eight people in a brazen attack on the heavily fortified grounds of the country's army headquarters. The general's driver and escort were killed while the target, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, was seriously injured, more..

Apr 25 (Reuters) A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber disguised as a pregnant woman blew herself up inside Sri Lanka's army headquarters on Tuesday, critically wounding the army commander and killing at least eight. The blast came as peace envoys from Norway tried to coax the rebels to return to peace talks in Switzerland, more..

Apr 25 (BBC) The Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission strongly condemns the suicide bomb attack that took place at the Sri Lankan Army Head Quarters in Colombo earlier on Tuesday. The attack was aimed at Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka who was subsequently rushed to hospital. more..

Apr 25 (Reuters) The vehicle of Army Commander Sarath Fonseka is seen after a suicide bomb explosion at the military headquarters in Colombo. A suicide bomber blew herself up inside Sri Lanka's army headquarters on Tuesday more..

Apr 25 (AFP) A Tamil Tiger suicide bomber pretending to be pregnant blew herself up seriously wounding Sri Lanka's army chief and killing 10 others. More than 30 people were also injured by the blast inside the high security zone of Colombo's main military base, police said on Tuesday. more..

Apr 25 (AFP) Nordic truce monitors said on Tuesday that Sri Lanka's Navy and Air Force were launching air and artillery strikes on Tamil Tiger positions near the northeastern port of Trincomalee. Head of the SLMM, Ulf Henricsson, said that air strikes had been launched and that the navy was also targeting positions in rebel territory following a suicide bomb attack on the army headquarters in Colombo. more..

Apr 26 (OW) We are very happy to inform the latest news regarding the Project Upgrade of Library and Computer room of Vishnu Maha Vidyalayam (School), Kalmunai, in Sri Lanka. These Projects which were launched by S4K last year right after the building of Vishnu School was completed. more..

Apr 26 (GT) A NUMBER of United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) members of parliament are reportedly pressuring the government to investigate online lotteries that wound up suddenly amidst allegations of corruption and diversion of hundreds of millions of rupees of National Lotteries Board (NLB) funds. more..

Apr 26 (PTI) Terming the suicide bombing in Colombo, which seriously wounded the Sri Lankan army chief, as a "brazen act of terrorism", Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today spoke to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on phone and conveyed India's solidarity with the government and people of the island in its "difficult hour". more..

Apr 26 (HT) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that he will not be cowed down by the terrorist acts of the LTTE. In a televised address to the nation after the suicide bomb attack on the Army Commander Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka earlier on Tuesday, Rajapaksa also said that the main aim of the LTTE was to foment Sinhala-Tamil communal clashes. more..

Apr 26 (AT) Allegations and counter allegations continues and now it is the turn of S.P.Tamilselvan to charge the Sri lanka Government of "Pervasive duplicity," He made this allegation in a letter he dispatched yesterday to Norwegian Special Envoy, Jon Hanssen Bauer, on the current situation with a view to project the position of the LTTE. more..

Apr 26 (BBC) At least eight people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on Sri Lanka's army headquarters, while the head of the army has been seriously injured. Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka is said to be in a stable condition after surgery in Colombo, where the attack happened. more..

Apr 26 (BBC) Venerable Members of the Maha Sangha Members of the Clergy of all religions, Loving Mothers and Fathers, My dear Brothers and Sisters, Dear children. I address you today at a tragic time when a suicide bomb attack has been made targeting the Commander of the Army. more..

Apr 26 (AP) The United States condemned on Tuesday a suicide bombing in Sri Lanka that targeted the country's top military officer and said it was organizing a pressure campaign against rebellious Tamil Tigers. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher called the bombing a terrible terrorist attack and said it was "regrettable the Tamil Tigers decided to restart the war instead of restarting the peace process." more..

Apr 26 (ISL) Leader of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Democratic People's Liberation Front (DPLF) D. Sitharthan has blamed the SLMM chief for the indifference over the LTTE killings of his party supporters. A letter was sent to SLMM Chief Ulf Henrickson. more..

Apr 26 (ISL) "The Tamil Democratic Congress strongly and in unequivocal terms condemns the suicide attack on the Sri Lankan army headquarters in Colombo on the 25th of April by a suspected female LTTE cadre. This cowardly attack has seriously injured Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka-the army commander, killed ten others and left thirty others injured. more..

Apr 26 (ISL) Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make them mad is a well known adage. Ever since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were banned in Canada, the shocking waves have sent the supporters and their leaders of this terror outfit in Canada reeling. more..

Apr 26 (ISL) LTTE staged bus highjack drama causing death to one innocent civilian while LTTE suspects escaped the scene. LTTE disguised as passengers taking the bus driver as hostage in Sarasalai, Jaffna last Monday evening reportedly ordered drive towards a security checkpoint, according to sources from Jaffna. more..

Apr 26 (TN) Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district head of the Liberation LTTE Tuesday night asked the SLMM to clarify whether the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has launched a full-scale war violating the ceasefire agreement. Mr.Elilan made this query in his complaint lodged with the SLMM over the air strike by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) more..

Apr 26 (TN) The entire Muttur east villages Tuesday night plunged into darkness as the electricity supply system has been completely cut off due to air strike, shell and gunboat attacks launched by the State armed forces Tuesday evening. In some areas electric pylons had also been damaged due to air strike, civil sources in Muttur east said. more..

Apr 26 (AP) A bomber pretending to be pregnant talked her way into a military complex Tuesday, then blew herself up in front of a car carrying the Sri Lankan army commander, killing eight people and wounding the officer and 26 others. Government warplanes quickly struck at areas held by the Tamil Tiger rebel movement in a new round of escalating violence more..

Apr 26 (GN) The Government vehemently condemns the assassination attempt on Army Commander Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka. Initial investigations and the modus operandi of the suicide bomb attack point to the LTTE as responsible for the attack which killed eight persons including several civilians who were visiting patients at the hospital in the compound and injured dozens of others including the Army Commander. more..

Apr 26 (IE) Days before this afternoon’s suicide attack by the Tigers on the Lankan Army chief Sarath Fonseka, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had told German Chancellor Angel Merkel that New Delhi was getting “disconcerting” reports about the state of the peace process in the island nation. more..

Apr 26 (IE) That India lives in a rough and turbulent neighbourhood is not news. Even as we celebrate the triumph of people power in Nepal we are shocked by the latest manifestation of terrorism in Sri Lanka. It is not that India could have stopped Tuesday’s daring bomb attack in Colombo on the Sri Lankan army chief right in the heart of the army headquarters. more..

Apr 26 (DM) The UNP warned yesterday that the country would plunge into a deep economic and political crisis, given the recent fuel price hike and the decision to stop recruitment to the public service. UNP parliamentarian Bandula Gunawardena told journalists yesterday that people were reeling under the highest ever fuel price hike, immediately after the New Year celebrations. more..

Apr 26 (DM) Political parties including the main Opposition UNP and the Tamil United Liberations Front (TULF) yesterday condemned the LTTE attack on Army Commander Sarath Fonseka. UNP Assistant General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said the Tamil Tigers should realize that peace could not be achieved through violence. more..

Apr 26 (DM) The government last night vowed to take all necessary action to counter and prevent terrorist acts while condemning yesterday’s assassination attempt on Army Commander Sarath Fonseka. Blaming the LTTE for the assassination attempt, the government said in a statement “Initial investigations and the modus operandi of the suicide bomb attack point to the LTTE as responsible for the attack more..