President, Opposition meet next week

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 February 2000, 16:47 GMT]
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge has invited the leader of the Opposition, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe for discussions on constitutional reforms scheduled to be presented to the Parliament by her government.
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Press release on Norwegian visit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 February 2000, 23:54 GMT]
The foreign ministries of both Sri Lanka and Norway released statements about Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek's visit to Sri Lanka yesterday. Mr Vollebaek met Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinge and President Chandrika Kumaratunga during his one day visit.
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Norwegian Foreign Minister arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 February 2000, 07:28 GMT]
The Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek who arrived in Colombo today had a two-hour long discussion with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Lakshman Kadirgamar this morning.
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President presents budget

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 February 2000, 11:30 GMT]
Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga began presenting budget for the current year around 3 p.m. today. This is the first time a President has presented the budget in the house, observers said.
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Norwegian Foreign Minister to visit Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 February 2000, 16:17 GMT]
Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek is set to visit Sri Lanka on February 16. He will arrive in the capital Colombo early on the 16th morning and leave late the same night, Ingvard Havnen, spokesman for the Norwegian Foreign Ministry told TamilNet.
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Details of talk between PA and Tamil parties

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 February 2000, 16:26 GMT]
The Government has agreed to vest all state lands to regional councils in the respective regions including forest reserves and excluding tea, rubber, coconut and teak plantations, research farms and national parks, according to Tamil party sources.
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Opposition demands devolution draft

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 February 2000, 10:40 GMT]
The Leader of the Opposition and United National Party Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe has asked the President to table the draft constitutional reforms already made public three years ago, in Parliament immediately. "We are amazed that instead of finalizing and tabling the draft constitutional reforms made public in October 1997 in Parliament, your government is now engaged in an exercise preparing new draft" said Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe in a letter sent to the President today.
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President, opposition to meet later this month

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 February 2000, 22:00 GMT]
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge is likely to meet Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the United National Party, during the third week of February, political sources said today.
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PA and Tamil parties meet on new constitution

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 February 2000, 21:57 GMT]
Representatives of Tamil political parties represented in the Parliament would meet the government leaders on February 10 and 15 to sort out the question of merging northern and eastern provinces without a referendum being held, sources said.
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Talks about passenger service between Trincomalee and Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 February 2000, 12:32 GMT]
The International Committee of Red Cross is having talks with the Defense Ministry, Sri Lanka Navy, the Liberation Tigers and the shipping firm concerned in connection with providing escort to the proposed passenger line service between Trincomalee and Jaffna, the spokesman for the organisation, Harsha Gunawardene said at a press conference held on Monday evening at the Batticaloa ICRC office.
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President urges 'political solution'

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 February 2000, 12:17 GMT]
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge today appealed to the leaders of all political parties and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to join the government in its efforts to stop the war and find a political solution to the ethnic problem.
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Stop transfer of detainees to Anuradhapura - MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 January 2000, 17:32 GMT]
Mr.Joseph Pararajasingham, MP for the Batticaloa district has made an urgent appeal to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge to direct the Defense Secretary and the Commissioner of Prisons to stop the transfer of 46 Tamil political prisoners to Anuradhapura from Batticaloa.
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Scrap pass plan, says Pararajasingham

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2000, 19:38 GMT]
Joseph Pararajasingham, Batticaloa district Member of Parliament, has appealed to President Chandrika Kumaratunge to withdraw a proposed pass system for travelers from the Batticaloa district.
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Rebel UNPers violated party rules - lawyer

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 January 2000, 11:52 GMT]
Petitioners including Dr Sarath Amunugama violated Party discipline when they met President Chandrika, who was a rival Presidential Candidate, at temple trees without the authority of the party and pledged her their support during the election campaign.
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CTTU protests poor standard Tamil Texts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 January 2000, 16:49 GMT]
The All Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) has demanded the resignations of the Chairman of the National Institute of Education and the Director General of the Department of Educational Publications for having failed to prepare and print high standard Tamil medium school textbooks without grammatical, spelling and factual errors.
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Norwegian Foreign Minister to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 January 2000, 20:55 GMT]
The delayed visit of the Norwegian Foreign Minister to Sri Lanka is expected to take place during the weekend political sources said.
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Sunday Leader Editor defends article

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 January 2000, 20:18 GMT]
Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge has told the High court that an alleged defamatory article published in his English weekly journal didn't convey the impression that the president was a corrupt person.
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UNP extends support despite "reservations"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 January 2000, 12:24 GMT]
The United National Party Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe has informed the President Chandrika Kumaratunga that his party would support the government's constitutional proposals despite its reservations.
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Election Commissioner 'Valid In Law'

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 January 2000, 16:42 GMT]
Court of Appeal has declared that the appointment of an Acting Commissioner of Election by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge during the recent Presidential Election was valid in law. The Court held that it was the President's prerogative.
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President security stops letter bomb

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 January 2000, 11:55 GMT]
A letter bomb addressed to the Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunge was detected at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo today, said sources. It was later defused by the bomb disposal unit of the Sri Lanka Army, the sources said.
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