Police arrest youth in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2008, 16:18 GMT]
Jaffna police arrested a youth in Veala'nai in the islets of Jaffna Friday on instruction from Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Colombo to the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jaffna, in investigations related to the recent suicide attack attempted on Sri Lanka Minister of Agriculture and the General Secretary of the ruling constituent Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Mithiripala Srisena, in Colombo, legal society sources in Jaffna said.
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Colombo main roads to be closed daily for one hour

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2008, 16:05 GMT]
All main roads from Colpetty junction up toSri Lanka parliament building will be closed for general traffic both in the morning and afternoon from Tuesday till Friday for one hour to maintain the security of Prime Minister and cabinet ministers, cabinet Security Division announced Monday.
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Paradigm shift is the need of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2008, 15:41 GMT]
The International Community and especially India, should not burden any further the peoples of Sri Lanka by insisting on a united Sri Lanka. The first step to diffuse tension is to recognize the right to self-determination of Tamils, not necessarily to mean partition, but to achieve parity and to provide a conducive platform needed for meaningful negotiations of the concerned parties to decide the future of the island of Sri Lanka, peacefully. The way sentiments have been built up, initially it may stir emotions among the Sinhalese, but it may not take long for them to realize that it was for their good as well, writes opinion columnist Chivanadi, quoting paradigm changing global thinking on ethnonationalism.
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Jaffna fishermen's woes discussed with GA, in civil society meeting

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2008, 17:23 GMT]
Government Agent (GA) met with a delegation of civil society members from the Federation of Fishermen societies from the peninsula to explore solutions to hardships faced by fishermen in Jaffna district last week. GA told the civil society delegation that he was not in a position to get the ban on fishing lifted, but that he will provide a response regarding increasing the monthly relief payment after consultations with higher authorities in Colombo.
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Mahinda telephones Manmohan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2008, 23:15 GMT]
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa telephoned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday to discuss recent developments in Sri Lanka. While the Sri Lankan press release is silent on details, the Indian brief discloses the PM's concern for the safety of civilians, ensured relief supply to IDPs, not enmeshing the Tamil community in the hostilities with LTTE and nurturing democracy in the East, apart from the usual reiterations on political solution, united Sri Lanka and Indian fishermen casualties. The Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee was invited by his Sri Lankan counterpart to visit Sri Lanka at an early date, according to SL press release.
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SLA soldier recovered dead in Mukamaalai FDL

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 18:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Mukamaalai Front Defence Line area on finding an SLA soldier dead with gunshot wounds Wednesday early morning at his post informed Kodikaamam police. Gunshot wounds found on the body indicate that he had been shot at from behind and it is unlikely that he committed suicide, the police said.
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Tamil fisherman abducted in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 18:24 GMT]
53 year-old Tamil Subramanian Ganeshan, a fisherman by profession was abducted Friday morning in Udappu in Munthal police division in Puththa'lam district by two unidentified armed men arrived in white van, according to complaints lodged with the police by his relatives.
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Time for India to re-think, says Singaporean scholar

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 16:21 GMT]
The all-party resolution in Tamil Nadu should provide New Delhi an opportunity to do some introspection about its Sri Lanka policy, says TS Gopi Rethinaraj of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore in an article that appeared in Hindustan Times on Thursday. Unless India is able to lock SL in a broad bilateral security relationship, their leadership will have no qualms about allowing China or Pakistan to get a foothold, he says. "This is the real danger of India's current policy facilitating the military defeat of the LTTE. If India were to take a hard-nosed view of its interests, a subtle shift in its position on the LTTE will go a long way in safeguarding its strategic interests in the region besides securing the interests of ethnic Tamils in the island."
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Karuna faction overruns Pillayan's office

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 11:42 GMT]
The faction of the TMVP paramilitary, led by Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna, who was recently nominated by the Rajapaksa government as a national list MP, has overrun the main office of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, who was installed as the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provice by Mr. Rajapaksa. The attack on 'Meenakam office' in Koavinthan Road in Batticaloa city took place Friday around 12:30 p.m., initial reports said. Meanwhile, informed sources in Colombo said Pillayan was hurriedly escorted to Colombo by Rajapaksa's government and a meeting was arranged with Karuna.
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Melamine in Lemon Puffs, Edna chocolate

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 11:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka's largest biscuit company, Ceylon Biscuits Limited, has ordered a recall of a popular biscuit, the Munchee Lemon Puff, after Swiss authorities found melamine traces in the product. The move comes amid an international health scare after milk tainted melamine, a poisonous substance used in the manufacture of plastic, led to the deaths of four children in China and made 53,000 thousand others sick. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has ordered a ban on the sale of Edna chocolate products, the BBC Sinhala service reported.
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Attack on media: freedom, arrogance and playing with the will of people

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 23:57 GMT]
The Tamil nationalist sentiments bursting into anti-media violence, spontaneously or otherwise, is not the appropriate way, said a senior Eezham Tamil editor in Colombo, commenting on the reported recent attacks on The Hindu in Tamil Nadu. "Camouflaged in the name of Indian national interest, the intellectual venom, sectarian interests, dynastic interests and personal biases sadly making The Hindu into a pro-Sinhala and anti-Tamil media have to be countered socially, culturally and politically on a superior intellectual plane by bringing out public awakening locally and globally," he said.
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Australians protest against Bogolloagama press club meet

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 20:20 GMT]
More than 600 Australian Tamils protested in front of the National Press Club in Canberra Tuesday while the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Rohitha Bogollagama, was addressing an invited audience inside the National Press Club, sources in Canberra said. The protesters highlighted Sri Lanka's escalating human rights violations against the media workers.
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Tamil jeweler shot dead in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 19:39 GMT]
A Tamil jeweler was shot dead Monday afternoon when he was standing along Vihare Road in Wellawatte in Colombo by an unidentified came in a three wheeler. The jeweler has been identified as S.Nesarajah, 32. He was immediately transferred to Kalubowila Teaching Hospital where he was pronounced dead on admission.
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Break diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka: Vaiko tells India

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 18:48 GMT]
The MDMK General Secretary Vaiko on Wednesday blamed the union cabinet of India for its 'crime and treachery' against Eezham Tamils by providing military assistance to Sinhalese. The fact of India's military help to Sri Lanka has been conceded in a letter written to him by the Indian PM, he said. "This is being done with full knowledge that such assistances are used for the genocide of Tamils. India should withdraw all assistance and compel Colombo to stop the war. Failing, India should warn Sri Lanka of severed diplomatic ties and imposition of economic sanctions. DMK should withdraw its support to the Congress-led coalition government and the Tamil ministers in the union cabinet should resign if India is not acting in these lines", he demanded in a statement issued from the headquarters of MDMK in Chennai.
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Kanimozhi hands over symbolic resignation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 09:45 GMT]
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, the daughter of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar Karunanidhi and a Member of Indian Parliament submitted Wednesday her resignation saying that it was for the party to take an "appropriate decision at appropriate time" on her resignation following the two-weeks ultimatum given to New Delhi by the Tamil Nadu government to exert pressure on Colombo to declare a ceasefire, The Times of India reported.
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SLA enters Magazine prison, abuse Tamil prisoners - MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 08:45 GMT]
Around 20 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) personnel Wednesday entered the Magazine Prison in Colombo, verbally abused and stripped the detainees sexually harassing them, the prisoners complained to Tamil National Alliance Batticaloa district parliamentarian P. Ariyaneththiran.
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4 siblings seek protection with Point Pedro Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 20:12 GMT]
Two sisters, one of them an 18-year-old student and her sister, 25, along with two brothers, sought protection with Point Pedro Court this week due to death threats. Meanwhile, Jaffna Prison, where more than 360 persons, with nearly half of them placed in protective custody, faces serious shortage of space as its building can accommodate only around a hundred, prison officials said.
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Tamil Nadu Government gives ultimatum to New Delhi to safeguard Eelam Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 19:39 GMT]
Giving a time frame of a fortnight to New Delhi to respond, an All Party Meeting organized by the Tamil Nadu Government at the State Secretariat in Chennai on Tuesday warned the Union Government of India that all forty members of the Indian parliament representing Tamils would resign en masse if New Delhi failed to take up the right steps to protect Eezham Tamils.
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60 SLA wounded in Akkaraayan fighting on Sunday - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 03:09 GMT]
More than sixty Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were wounded Sunday when Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) defensive units put up heavy resistance to the SLA offensive forces along the Akkaraayan - Mu'rika'ndi Road, LTTE officials told media in Vanni on Monday.
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Rajapaksa re-stages 'APC drama' to avert pressure from Tamil Nadu - Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 01:15 GMT]
Leader of the dissident SLFP (M) Wing and a former Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraweera in the Rajapaska government, charged Monday that the Sri Lankan President was engaged in re-staging 'All Party Conference' drama as agitations and protests were growing in Tamil Nadu state in India and Tamil Nadu politicians have formed broad alliances as never before against the war in Sri Lanka. Stating that Rajapaksa regime is bogged down in war with its "Unitary State," Mr. Mangala Samaraweera said there is absolutely no possibility of finding a political solution that could address the just grievances of the Tamil people within Rajapaksa's Unitary State and its 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
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