Protest demonstration against Minister Mervin Silva in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2008, 15:00 GMT]
More than a hundred media persons and political leaders staged a protest demonstration Friday around 12:00 noon at Colpetty junction in Colombo, organized by five leading media associations, condemning Minster Mervin Silva’s assault on media persons who went to participate in the opening ceremony of Kelaniya flyover recently, sources in Colombo said.
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NESoHR: 70,000 new IDPs in Vanni in 60 days

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2008, 11:35 GMT]
Documenting that during June and July, an additional 70,800 people registered with the Kilinochchi and Mullaitheevu Secretariats as new Internally Displaced People from areas proximity to Mannar, Vavuniyaa, Ma'nalaa'ru, and Mukamaalai Foward Defence Lines (FDLs), a report released Friday by NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), a Vanni based rights group, said that restrictions imposed by the Sri Lanka Government on taking essential items to Vanni have further hampered assistance given by the humanitarian agencies.
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NESoHR: 70,000 new IDPs in Vanni in 60 days

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2008, 11:35 GMT]
Documenting that during June and July, an additional 70,800 people registered with the Kilinochchi and Mullaitheevu Secretariats as new Internally Displaced People from areas proximity to Mannar, Vavuniyaa, Ma'nalaa'ru, and Mukamaalai Foward Defence Lines (FDLs), a report released Friday by NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), a Vanni based rights group, said that restrictions imposed by the Sri Lanka Government on taking essential items to Vanni have further hampered assistance given by the humanitarian agencies.
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Iran ‘willing’ to share nuclear technology with Sri Lanka, ups aid

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 August 2008, 18:45 GMT]
Iran is willing to share nuclear technology for peaceful purposes with Sri Lanka, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told The Island newspaper. Mottaki, who was in Colombo to attend the 15th SAARC Summit told The Island, that Iran and Sri Lanka are long standing friends and Tehran was willing to assist Colombo in all fields, including uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes. He also called for the establishment of an Asia parliament on the lines of the European Parliament as a first step towards regional integration. Iran has outpaced Japan as Sri Lanka’s biggest donor this year.
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Abducted Batticaloa Tamil girl escapes in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 August 2008, 10:00 GMT]
A nineteen-year-old Tamil girl who was abducted by an unidentified armed group on Tuesday evening in Batticaloa town escaped at Cinnamons Garden in Colombo Wednesday evening while being taken in a bus along with some abducted girls from the east, sources in Colombo said. The girl was taken into custody by police in Wellawatte when she was going to her relative's house in Wellawatte afer escaping from the abductors, according to police sources in Colombo.
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Sinhalese woman detained under PTA, in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 August 2008, 11:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka Defense Ministry has served a detention order with effect from Tuesday till August 14 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) on a Sinhalese woman, Kamali Krishanthi Perera, of Pamankade in Colombo, for allegedly providing accommodation to a suspected suicide bomber of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Colombo, media sources said.
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23 Sri Lankan soldiers killed in Claymore ambush in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 August 2008, 10:29 GMT]
23 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and four wounded in a Claymore ambush at Periyavaddavaan in Tharavai (Thoppikkal) area in Batticaloa district Tuesday evening around 6:30, well informed sources in Batticaloa told TamilNet. Wounded soldiers were admitted to Welikande hospital. This is the first major ambush on SLA since the Sri Lankan forces occupied the Thoppikkal region an year ago.
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Jaffna, Colombo register highest in civilians deaths, disappearances, says NESoHR

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 August 2008, 06:17 GMT]
A total of 38 civilians were killed, 42 disappeared in July, with Jaffna accounting for the highest number of killings (14), and Colombo registering the highest number of disappearances (12), said a report released Monday by the NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), a Kilinochchi-based rights group.
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Shortage of sugar in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 August 2008, 06:09 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) has suspended the distribution of sugar as part of the relief food assistance under World Food Programme as the stocks of sugar in the government stores have depleted, sources in Jaffna said. The AG has directed the co-operative shops to increase the amount of rice, wheat flour, lentils and cooking oil instead of sugar.
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Opposition parties to form alliance against election violence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 August 2008, 06:15 GMT]
Mangala Samaraweera, rebel Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) parliamentarian, has started talks with the main opposition United National Party (UNP), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) to form an alliance to oppose the increase of election related violence in the elections to the North Central Provincial Council and Sabragamuwa Provincial Council scheduled to be held on August 23, sources in Colombo said.
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Upcountry Tamil youth arrested in Kadugannawa

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 August 2008, 11:21 GMT]
A Tamil youth from upcountry was taken into custody by Kadugannawa Police when he was traveling in a passenger train from Colombo to Badulla Saturday night. When the train stopped at Kadugannawa railway station all passengers in the train were subjected to severe search and intensive interrogation, sources in Kadugannawa said.
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Portending danger for potable water in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 August 2008, 09:50 GMT]
The news of re-opening the cement factory at Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS) in the Jaffna Peninsula has been received with serious concern by academics and environmentalists from Jaffna. According to them, the factory, when it was functioning earlier, was a health hazard to the densely populated surroundings. It affected horticulture as crops were covered by cement dust. Above all, exploitative quarrying of limestone has already portended the possibility of seawater coming inside and polluting the entire groundwater table of the peninsula.
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SLA blocks resettlement in Valikaamam HSZ

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 August 2008, 01:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has refused to allow resettlement in areas inside the High Security Zone (HSZ), but has given permission to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to settle in the no-man's area adjoining the Front Defence Line (FDL) area in Valikaamam north, sources in Jaffna said.
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ACHR: Sri Lanka, worst Human Rights violator among SAARC countries

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2008, 12:40 GMT]
Asian Center for Human Rights (ACHR), a New Delhi-based human rights watchdog, in a rights report covering the South Asian Association for Regional Cooporation (SAARC), released Friday, said "Sri Lanka ranks South Asia’s No.1 human rights violator," adding, "Sri Lanka’s human rights indicators must be considered within a context of very high levels of impunity which tend to suggest a worsening over the human rights picture over the long term."
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Body of youth recovered along Maha Oya bank

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2008, 10:47 GMT]
The body of a youth estimated to be about 30-years old, and tied to a piece of heavy concrete slab, was recovered from the bank of Maha Oya in Katana in Negombo police division Wednesday night, civil sources in Colombo said. Local residents of the area told the police that they witnessed unidentified men in a white van attempted to dump the body in the river, but the body fell on the bank.
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Indian Prime Minister to meet TNA leaders

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 August 2008, 14:58 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh arrived at Katunayake International airport at 12:45 p.m, Friday to attend the 15th SAARC conference. He was received by Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake and given a red carpet welcome. Later he was escorted by the Indian special guard forces to the helipad and flown to Colombo in an Indian helicopter.
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Jaffna/ Yaazhppaa'nam/ Yaazhppaa'nap Paddinam/ Yaazhppaa'naayan Paddinam

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 August 2008, 13:36 GMT]
The city of the bard / minstrel
The city of the lord of bards / minstrels
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Extortion threats to Tamil businessmen on rise in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 August 2008, 07:17 GMT]
Extortion threats to Tamil businessmen in Colombo and its suburbs by intimidation through phone calls have been stepped up during the recent weeks, Sri Lankan Deputy Minister and Parliamentarian of the Upcountry Peoples' Front (UPF) P. Rathakrishanan, has complained in a letter to Inspector General of Police (IGP), Jayantha Wickremasinghe, citing numerous complaints made to him and the police. The threats are being issued with visible caller ID at a time when Sri Lankan Defence ministry has implemented stringent measures on telephone usage.
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Supreme Court orders holds detention more than 90 days illegal

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 August 2008, 01:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, in a ruling on Fundamental Rights violation petition, held Wednesday that Sri Lanka Police violated the law by keeping an arrested person in custody for more than ninety days, and ordered the police to transfer the suspect immediately to remand prison. Three member bench of the Supreme Court made the order at the conclusion of the preliminary inquiry in the FR violation filed by Counsel Gowrisankari Thavarajah on behalf of Thiyagarajah Mohanaruban, a resident of Wellawatte, legal sources said.
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Colombo municipal councilors walk out protesting against white van threat

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 July 2008, 19:27 GMT]
Councilors of the Western Peoples Front (WPF), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) along with veteran trade union leader Vasudeva Nanayakara of the ruling independent group walked out of the monthly meeting of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) held Wednesday in protest to threats by gangs coming by white vans. Other members of the ruling independent group did not participate in the walkout.
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