Three Tamils detained for questioning in Tangalle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 April 2007, 03:15 GMT]
Thirty eight persons were arrested on Friday in a cordon and search operations conducted by the combined government armed forces in Tangalle, a town in Matara district in the southern province. Of the arrested nineteen were Tamils, and three Tamil are being detained for further questioning. The Kandy Magistrate released sixteen Tamils when they were produced in court later, sources said
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CID to question Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2007, 12:35 GMT]
Media reports in Colombo said Mangala Samaraweera, one of the three-sacked ministers by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse in a major cabinet reshuffle last month, is likely to be taken in for questioning regarding an alleged malpractice during his tenure as minister. Mr. Samaraweera was foreign minister when he was dismissed from the cabinet, sources said.
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Samaraweera vows to continue his political journey

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 March 2007, 17:06 GMT]
Mangala Samaraweera, dissident parliamentarian of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government led by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse said no force can stop his political journey, during a meeting held at Navimada in Matara district Saturday evening. He was commenting on a report that he had been removed from Matara district SLFP organizer post by the party central working committee, sources said.
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Struggle will continue until CFA is annulled-JVP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 20:27 GMT]
The Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said that its struggle will continue until the Sri Lanka government annuls the ceasefire agreement (CFA) it signed with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "We successfully obtained a ruling on the demerger of NorthEast province after nineteen years. We will also succeed in cancelling the ceasefire agreement very soon,"Wimal Weerawanse, parliamentary group leader of the JVP addressing a meeting last Sunday in Matara in the southern province said.
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SLN destroys suspicious boat in the seas off Matara

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 04:49 GMT]
Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo have claimed that the Sri Lanka Navy destroyed a suspicious boat 230 nautical miles off Matara on Sri Lanka's southern coast around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Sri Lankan officials later said that the incident occurred 180 nautical miles from Dondra Point.
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SL President leaves for China on 7-day official visit

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 February 2007, 03:11 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse around midnight on Sunday left Colombo on a seven-day official visit to China leading a delegation of about fifteen ministers. Several business leaders and officials of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries in the districts of Kandy, Galle, Matara and Kegalle also joined the President's delegation, sources said.
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Anura Bandaranaike receives death threat

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 February 2007, 12:13 GMT]
Anura Bandaranaike, the Sri Lankan minister of National Heritage, and the brother of former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga, has complained to law enforcement authorities in Colombo that he has received telephone death threats from anonymous callers. The threats are reported amidst speculation that relationship between Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and Anura Bandaranaike has been severely strained since the latest cabinet reshuffle when Mr. Bandaranaike lost his Tourism Ministry portfolio.
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Sinhalese police officer arrested in Matara

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 January 2007, 18:26 GMT]
A former officer in-charge of the Trincomalee Harbour Police was arrested Monday with a suspect, allegedly belonging to Liberation Tigers, in possession of 4.5 million rupees inside a hotel in Matara in the southern province, media sources in Colombo said quoting security forces.
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Second bus bomb kills 15 in South, 40 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 09:35 GMT]
Another bus explosion was reported in South, claiming 15 lives, on Galle Road, at Seenigama in Meetiyagoda Police area in Galle District, 88 km southeast of Colombo Saturday around 2:20 p.m. More than forty civilians were wounded in the second explosion reported within 24 hours, according to Karapitiya hospital sources. Military officials in Colombo blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for the bomb attacks in buses Friday and Saturday. LTTE Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthiryan denied the accusation as baseless accusations.
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$210m ADB loans for Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2006, 11:43 GMT]
The Asian Development Bank signed a loan deal for Sri Lanka worth 210 million dollars on Thursday, to upgrade national highways and water sector, reports said. A loan package of 150 million dollars will be used to widen and rehabilitate a network of 350 kilometres of roads, LankaBusinessOnline reported, quoting the finance ministry.


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LTTE hands over 74 SLA bodies to ICRC

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 October 2006, 03:07 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) handed over 74 bodies of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in black body bags to ICRC Thursday evening in Kilinochchi. Another soldier's body was brought to Kilinochchi Thursday evening. More than fifty bodies of SLA soldiers are strewn around in the battlefield in unidentifiable state, according to LTTE officials. 133 SLA soldiers were killed in action or reported missing according to the official figures released by the Sri Lankan defence ministry media co-ordinating centre Thursday. More than 200 SLA soldiers were killed when LTTE defense formations under Special Commander Col. Theepan defeated the SLA forces Wednesday, LTTE officials claimed.
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18 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 October 2006, 03:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police, went on board the Vavuniya-Matara train at Fort station in Colombo on Tuesday morning and checked each compartment until the train reached Matara where they arrested 10 Tamil youths travelling in the train, sources said. Police, boarding the Colombo bound train from Galle at Panadura, took into custody 8 Tamil youths when the train reached Fort Station on the same day, Deputy Police Commissioner Mr. Poojitha Jayasundara said. The searches on trains were conducted after the Police were tipped that youths suspected of links to terrorism are travelling in the trains, the commissioner added.


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Norway provides credit guarantee fund to South Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2006, 07:26 GMT]
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that has provided Rs 200 million in support for the reconstruction of 32 Buddhist Temples in southern Sri Lanka and 35 religious buildings in the east, said Wednesday that it agreed to provide further Rs. 250 million to establish a credit guarantee fund for the southern region, according to a press release issued by the Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka. Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer and Ambassador Brattskar attended the opening ceremony of two Buddhist Temples damaged by the tsunami in Galle and established the Credit Guarantee Fund for the southern region.
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UPFA wins 5 councils, UNP 4 in local polls

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 May 2006, 05:59 GMT]
The ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won five councils and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) four in the elections held Saturday for twenty local government authorities located in the Western, Southern, Central and Eastern provinces, election department sources said.
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Konesapuri tsunami-hit families receive permanent houses

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 April 2006, 01:49 GMT]
Twenty permanent houses under a project funded by member firms of KPMG International, a well known audit firm, were handed over to beneficiaries in Konesapuri located about 16 km north of Trincomalee town at an event held on Monday, sources said. The project has funding to build 500 houses to tsunami-affected families in the coastal districts of Sri Lanka. About 100 houses have already been handed over to beneficiaries.
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Swizerland pledges help for tsunami affected, school reconstruction

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 April 2006, 11:57 GMT]
In a press release issued in Colombo Tuesday Switzerland pledged 8.5 million USD (850 million Rupees) to support the house owner driven reconstruction programme of the Government of Sri Lanka. This comes in addition to the 7 million USD pledged in 2005.
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Two killed in Sri Lanka election violence

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 March 2006, 02:33 GMT]
One person was knifed to death in Weligama at 7.30 p.m., and another was shot to death in Belliatte in Sri Lanka's south at 9.30 p.m., Thursday in election related violence between supporters of ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and opposition United National Party (UNP), sources in Colombo said.
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Local election opens fault lines in ruling alliance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 March 2006, 05:20 GMT]
The ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its key constituent, Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), are engaged in battle of words to assert electoral dominance in the forthcoming local council elections, and this combined with the recent escalation in attacks against JVP members by UPFA supporters portend dangers of creating permanent fissures in the alliance, political sources in Colombo said.
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Japan provides boats, gear to tsunami affected fishermen

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 February 2006, 11:53 GMT]
In a ceremony held in Unawatuna, Galle on 27 January, the Government of Japan donated to 8 large fishing boats as part of a 40-boat gift program to tsunami affected fishermen from districts of Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Ampara, Batticaloa and Jaffna, a press release from the Embassy of Japan in Colombo, released 7 February said.
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Red Cross hands over fishing boats to tsunami affected

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 February 2006, 12:34 GMT]
One hundred and twenty five fishermen affected by tsunami from Colombo, Matara, Puttalam, Trincomalee and Kalutara districts received fishing boats from through a boat manufacturing project funded by the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS). The handing over of boats to beneficiaries took place in Ratmalana, Colombo Thursday, SLRCS sources said.


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