Southern Provincial Council polls to be held 10 October

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 04:54 GMT]
Southern Provincial Council elections will be held on October 10 this year, the Department of Elections announced Friday. Ten political parties including ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), main opposition United National Party (UNP), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and five independent groups handed in their nominations for the Southern Provincial Council elections Thursday.
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Monks launch campaign against 13th Amendment

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 July 2009, 10:34 GMT]
The National Front of Buddhist Monks (NFBM) Tuesday launched a leaflet campaign to mobilize the masses against implementing the 13th Amendment at the Matara main bus stand in the south of Sri Lanka. The NFBM has planned to distribute one million leaflets in towns and villages across Sri Lanka. More than 30 Buddhist monks participated in the launching event.
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19 Tamil civilians arrested in Matara

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 06:43 GMT]
Deniyaya police arrested nineteen Tamil civilians, most of them residents of North and East, in a cordon and search operation conducted Monday in Deniyaya town in Matara district, sources in Matara said.
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Maddakka'lappu / Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 12:10 GMT]
The muddy lagoon / backwaters
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99 Tamil civilians arrested in Matara district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 06:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police took 99 Tamil civilians into custody Sunday in a joint cordon and search in Akuressa and Morawaka in Matara district on a tip that the suicide bomber involved in the recent Akuressa bomb blast had spent several months in an estate in the district. Meanwhile, Matara police had earlier arrested 19 Tamils, most of them upcountry residents, in connection with the Akuressa bomb blast,They are being detained and interrogated on Defence Ministry detention orders, Matara police said.
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5 Tamil civilians arrested in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 2009, 18:19 GMT]
Five Tamil civilians were taken into custody by the police in cordon and search operations conducted in Trincomalee town and its suburbs on Wednesday following the bomb attack on a procession in Akuressa in Matara in down south.
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Bomb blast in Islamic procession in Matara, 10 killed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 March 2009, 07:43 GMT]
Ten people were killed and several, including a Sri Lankan minister were wounded Tuesday noon in a bomb explosion at a Milad-un-Nabi festival procession in Akuressa in Matara in Southern Province, Police said.
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Explosion disrupts coastal train service in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 16:46 GMT]
Coastal train services from Colombo to Matara were suspended immediately following an explosion that took place Wednesday night around 7:00 p.m., military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara told media.
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North and South cannot remain separate, Rajapaksa tells Jaffna people

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 December 2008, 08:57 GMT]
“The people of Jaffna peninsula should forget the tragic past and all people of the north and south should live as one people”, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka, said in a special satellite television broadcast Monday night for the people of Jaffna peninsula, which has become an open prison under Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control. Another message, delivered by Mr. Rajapaksa to the people of Jaffna, was that he has taken steps to 'liberate' Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu and very soon the people there will 'live like' the people of Jaffna.
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5 upcountry Tamils arrested in Matara

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2008, 19:49 GMT]
Five upcountry Tamil youths were taken into custody by Sri Lanka police in a cordon and search operation conducted Wednesday in Matara town in the southern province following a grenade attack Tuesday evening in the busy bazaar of Matara town. The upcountry youths are being detained in the Matara police station for further inquiry.
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3 killed, 5 missing, train derails in Hikkaduwa

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 June 2008, 08:08 GMT]
Three passengers were killed and several wounded when a Matara bound train from Madawaachchi, derailed at Seenigama in Hikkaduwa near the Southern port town Galle Monday afternoon, initial reports said. Five persons were reported missing as the train slided into a river, gintota, after the derailment.
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Seven leaders including G.G.Ponnambalam honored in SL parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 04:29 GMT]
Seven political leaders, C.W.W.Kannangara, A.E.Goonesinghe, Dr.S.A.Wickremasinghe, G.G.Ponnambalam, Dr.N.M.Perera, Phillip Gunawardene and Alhaj T.B.Jayah were honored for their services to Sri Lanka, Tuesday in Sri Lanka's parliament. Their photographs were unveiled Tuesday morning in the parliament as a mark of respect in an event presided by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, parliamentary sources said.
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Death toll in floods reaches 20 in south

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 June 2008, 07:23 GMT]
Floods due to incessant rain in the south continued Wednesday and the death toll has risen to twenty. Most of the deaths took place in Kalutara district in the western province and second Galle district. About four hundred thousand peoples have been internally displaced and being sheltered in public buildings, schools and welfare centres, according to the officials at Sri Lankan social department.
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Bomb blast inside train, 9 killed, 70 wounded

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2008, 11:54 GMT]
Nine civilian commuters were killed and more than 70 wounded in a bomb blast around 4:45 p.m. Monday at Dehiwela railway station in Colombo inside a packed compartment of a train bound from Maradana to Panandura. A parcel bomb has went off inside the 5th compartment of the train, according to the police. The attack comes in the wake of the detection and deactivation of powerful bombs in two separate incidents on Saturday.
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2 Muslim youths arrested in Matara

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2008, 17:33 GMT]
Matara Police Wednesday night arrested two Muslim youths who are residents of Sammanthurai in eastern province. They are being detained until Sammanthurai police verifies their background and the authenticity of their identity cards, police sources said.
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Police arrests Tamil youth in Matara

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 March 2008, 11:51 GMT]
Matara Police Friday arrested a 35-year old Tamil civilian residing at Pitapatara estate in Matara police division and have him at Matara police station, media sources said. Terrorist Intelligence Division is interrogating the man on a report that he had been sent to Matara from Killinochchi to collect information about important personalities in the area, sources added.
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14 killed, 103 wounded in Colombo train blast

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 February 2008, 08:45 GMT]
Fourteen civilians, including 6 students of D.S. Senayakaye vidyalaya and a baseball teacher were killed and around 100 people wounded in a bomb explosion at the platform of Colombo Fort Railway station while Matara-Vavuniyaa train reached the 3rd platform the station, situated in the High Security Zone in Sri Lanka's capital Sunday at 2:10 p.m. All train services have been suspended, the Fort station was cordoned off and a search operation by the Sri Lankan armed forces was launched. The blast comes a day before Sri Lanka's 60th Independence Day celebrations amid speculations of Colombo embarking on a full fledged war on Vanni, stepping up aerial bombardment and artillery barrage.
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Rupavahini producer injured in knife attack

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 January 2008, 12:56 GMT]
Lal Hemantha Mawalage, news producer at state-run Television station, Rupavahini, has been admitted to the Colombo General Hospital after being attacked with machete and knives by unknown assailants at 11:30 p.m. Friday while walking in Athurugiriya in Colombo, sources in Colombo said. Mr Mawalage suffered injuries to both hands and body, according to his relatives. The attackers are suspected to be allied to non-cabinet Minister of Labour Mervin Silva who was involved in an altercation at Rupavahini on 26 December.
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Media workers attack Sri Lankan minister Mervyn Silva

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 December 2007, 07:50 GMT]
Mervyn Silva, the Sri Lankan Minister of Labour and a thug leader in the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapkasa's government, was held captive and attacked by media workers Thursday. He was surrounded when he reportedly went amok against a news editor, T.M.G Chandrasekara, of the state owned Rupawahini cooperation, for "failing to broadcast" a video footage of his appearance in a meeting in Matara on Wednesday. Mr. Mervyn Silva, beaten by the media workers, was later freed by the Police security out of the Rupawahini premises located in the high security Bauddhaloka Mawatha after a mediation attempt by non-cabinet minister of media, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, failed.
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Rajapaksa delegates civil police powers to military

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2007, 11:23 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has delegated civil powers hitherto discharged by the Police to the three armed forces, Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) by a recent Extra-Ordinary Gazette Notification of 1491/18 under Chapter 40 of the Public Security Ordinance dated April 06, 2007. Civil powers entrusted with the police throughout the whole island have been delegated to the military by Mr. Rajapaksa.
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