A bomb explosion in Pettah; 43 wounded - Colombo

A bomb had been exploded in the Olcot Mawatha, Pettah in Colombo around 12.15 p.m today, 30 August.

The Director of the the National hospital Colombo, Dr Hector Weerasinha said that 43 people suffered injuries were admitted to the hospital. Few of the victims who suffered severe injuries were already taken for immediate surgeries.

More information will follow.

Extracted from,
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080830_07

Suicide Jacket materials found in Colombo – Bomb found in Kandy

Accessories used to assemble suicide jackets were found hidden in the premises of a Catholic church in Olcott Mawatha in Pettah, by the security forces this morning, (22), Ministry of Defence said.

The recovery was made on information provided by a civilian around 8.50 am. The materials included detonators, switches and a few other items that had been concealed inside the St. Phillip Nerish Church in Pettah, in Colombo.

These items also included five remote antennas.

Meanwhile Kandy Police conducting a search operation on a tip off have uncovered a bomb weighing around 1 kg from the Balagolla area, a suburb in Kandy.

The bomb, containing gelignite sticks and C-4 high explosive, had been hidden in a sand mound near a privately owned residence in the Balagolla area, sources said.

The Army bomb disposal team later defused the bomb, sources added.

Extracted from,
http://www.news.lk/index.php?
Photos,
http://www.army.lk/morenews.php?id=15454

Student shot dead at university in eastern Sri Lanka

A student belonging to the majority Sinhala community was shot dead at an university in predominantly Tamil minority eastern Sri Lanka by unidentified persons on Thursday night, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

The student was identified as a 27-year-old first year business management student attached to the Vandaramullai University in Batticaloa, 240 kilometres east of the capital Colombo.

The spokesman said it was not clear as to who was responsible for the shooting or the motive for the killing.

The shooting came as students belonging to the majority Sinhala community who have been selected to attend the university staged a protest in the capital, refusing to register at the university because they claim it is not safe.

The students selected to go to the university are asking the government to allow them to register in other universities in the south which are located in predominantly Sinhala areas.

Extracted from,
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/227302,student-shot-dead-at-university-in-eastern-sri-lanka.html

Defence deal offered to Lanka

Pakistan, a key supplier of small arms to Sri Lanka, has proposed a defence pact to boost military cooperation between the two countries, Pakistani officials said Friday.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the offer to his Sri Lankan counterpart Rohitha Bogollegama on the sidelines of a South Asian meeting in Colombo, the officials said. “A (draft) defence cooperation agreement has been given to Sri Lanka,” said a senior Pakistani official who did not wish to be named.

India has been uneasy about the growing military clout of its arch-rival Pakistan in Sri Lanka, which New Delhi regards as being within its sphere of geo-political influence.

Islamabad is already an important supplier of small arms and ammunition to Sri Lankan security forces, who are battling separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, and Pakistan is also training a large number of Sri Lankan military personnel.

Indian diplomats have privately raised concerns about closer defence ties between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which also buys military hardware from China and Israel as well as from former Soviet Union states.

“We want Sri Lanka to quickly move on that (the draft agreement),” the Pakistan diplomatic official said, adding the pact was intended to bring the two sides closer. There was no immediate comment from Sri Lankan authorities on the Pakistani proposal. Details of the defence pact offer were not immediately available.

Read more,
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online

Sri Lanka Assumes SAARC Chair

Sri Lanka assumed the presidency of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), made up of eight countries, which are preparing projects for the 15th Regional Summit to be held from August 2-3.

The 25th session of that panel discussed the agenda of the important event that will gather Head of States from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Falkland Islands, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan, which entered as full member.

It was also announced that they finished an agreement that was ready to be signed, devoted to establish the Developmemnt Fund of SAARC, which will allocate resources for this economic, social, and infrastructural phenomenon of the organization member countries.

The eight heads of States and Governments will arrive in Sri Lanka Thursday and Friday, under an unprecedented security mechanism in Colombo.

The Summit will be attended by Prime Ministers from Bhutan, Jigme Thinley, India and Pakistan Manmohan Singh and Yousuf Raza Gilani, and Presidentes of the Falklands, Afghanistan and the host country, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Hamid Karzai, and Mahinda Rajapaksa, respectively.

Top level delegations from China, the European Union, Iran, Mauricio, Japan, South Korea and the United States will participate as observers.

Extracted from,
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?

C-4 Explosives Emerge From House in Modera

ACTING ON A tip-off provided by neighbors after they entertained suspicion about the movements of some people into a house on ALUTH MAWATHA in MODERA, GRAND PASS, COLOMBO 15, a Police team searched the house early Tuesday (25) morning and recovered 4 kgs of C-4 explosives, ten electric detonators and four timers while they had been kept hidden inside the house.

Five suspects in this connection were taken in for questioning by the Police after preliminary investigations pointed to their involvement in collection of those explosives.

MODERA, a COLOMBO suburb has been in focus for the last couple of months as more and more LTTE activities were reported. It was only a month ago, an LTTE suicide bomber blew himself up when the Police and the troops swooped on his hide-out in a two-storeyed building.

The GRAND PASS Police are conducting investigations.

Extracted from,
http://www.army.lk/morenews.php?id=11862

SAARC summit venue shifted to Colombo

Sri Lanka on Tuesday decided to shift the venue of the upcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit from Kandy to Colombo due to inadequate facilities in the island nation's scenic tourist spot to accommodate the leaders and delegations from the member countries.

The 15th summit of the regional grouping and its preceding meetings are scheduled to be held from July 27 to August 3.

''Colombo city hotels have been identified to accommodate around 1200 delegates and media personnel associated with the event,'' an official statement said.

The shifting of the venue from Kandy to Colombo has been done due to inadequate infrastructure facilities to accommodate the seven heads of state, their respective delegations and the large international and regional media contingent, it said.

Read more,
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/

Anandasangaree demands LTTE to take full responsibility for the killing of MP Sivanesan and his driver

In a strongly worded statement V.Anandasangaree, demanded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam led by Velupillai Prabakaran to take complete responsibility for the killing of Kiddinan Sivanesan the Tamil Nation Alliance member of parliament of the Jaffna district and his driver Maheswararajah, in Vanni on 06 March.

While condemning the killing of Sivanesan and his driver Maheswararajah, Anandasangaree has posed pertinent question to the LTTE to response regarding these killings.

According to the statement of the TULF President, the said incident had taken place about 2 miles from Mankulam on the A9 road and about 190 miles from Colombo. Of these 190 miles he points out that about 170 miles fall within the Government controlled areas and therefore under the army’s control.

He said that no man with any sense will say that the penetrating unit went into the LTTE held areas to a distance of about 20 miles from the defense line to plant the claymore mine, when they had 170 miles of the highway under their command. Anandasangaree alleged that it was by such type of silly accusations that the LTTE and the TNA Members had lost their credibility.

He adds, “No one believes their stories because their political honesty is questionable.”

Read more,
http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/9958

Sri Lankan truckers to strike in protest against port delays

Container transporters in Sri Lanka Thursday announced plans for a protest action and work stoppage that could disrupt the flow of cargo to and from Colombo port.

The Joint Council of Transporters (JCT) said in a statement their members would commence a protest combined with work stoppage from March 10 to protest against lengthy delays in getting containers into the port.

"The long queues experienced during the last few months and other issues have compelled the trade to take such action," the statement said.

"Although we have communicated to the relevant authorities of our intention we have not received any response from them."

The JCT said they had told shippers, shipping agents, freight forwarders and business chambers of their planned industrial action.

Truck drivers have complained they have had to often wait for 12 hours to be given permission to enter the port.

Read more,
http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?

Sri Lanka - Reggie Ranatunga sworn in as member of parliament

Reggie Ranatunga, a provincial council governor in Sri Lanka, was Thursday appointed a member of parliament for the ruling coalition to represent the Gampaha district, north of Colombo.

Ranatunga, the father of Sri Lanka's cricket star-turned-politician Arjuna Ranatunga, was sworn in as a member by the speaker of parliament W J M Lokubandara.

Ranatunga fills the parliamentary seat left vacant by the death of Sripathy Sooriyarachchi, also representing Gampaha district, who was killed on February 9 in a motor vehicle accident.

Ranatunga is the governor of the Sabaragamuwa province, south east of Colombo, and has also been a parliamentarian and deputy cabinet minister on a previous occasion.

Extracted from,
http://www.lankaeverything.com/vinews/srilanka/20080221035218.php

Sri Lanka accuses international rights groups of bias

The Sri Lankan government on Wednesday accused international rights groups of bias for their alleged failure to condemn the killings of students by Tamil Tiger rebels.

Keheliya Rambukwella, the minister of Foreign Employment and the government's defense spokesman told reporters that some 14 school children had been killed as a result of recent bomb explosions blamed on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

"These groups who are very quick to blame the government have remained silent on the LTTE's killing of students," Rambukwella said.

An LTTE female suicide bomber killed 14 civilians including six students at the Colombo's busy Fort railway station on Feb. 3.

The students from a leading Colombo school were members of the baseball team and were returning to Colombo from the central town of Kandy when caught in the explosion.

Read more,
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/13/content_7598545.htm

Bombers may use 'pregnancy prosthetics'

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is reminding law-enforcement officials of the increased use of female suicide bombers worldwide, and warning that women terrorists might hide explosives in devices “that mimic the look of a pregnant woman.”

The unclassified DHS threat assessment, released Monday and obtained by NBC News, shows photographs of “pregnancy prosthetics,” hollowed-out devices that could hold explosive devices. The report says “female suicide bombers have used devices that make them appear pregnant to hide explosive devices.”

The DHS report states that terrorists are using female bombers more frequently, in part because these attacks generate “more widespread media exposure.” It adds: “Continued use of female suicide bombers-the most recent example being a 3 February 2008 attack at the main railway station in Colombo, Sri Lanka-indicates that terrorists judge this tactic as effective in increasing defenses and thwarting security measures.”

Read more,
http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/02/11/656670.aspx

Most Killed in Railway Station Blast were School Children

The death toll of the suicide attack by the LTTE female cadre at Colombo Fort railway station rose to 14 yesterday(4). Among them were seven students of D.S.Senanayake College, Colombo. They were members of the College Baseball team. The coach of the team was also killed in the blast. The team had been returning home after a match, police said. According to witnesses, the coach had taken the team to the cafeteria for refreshments.

Malinda Arumadura of Gandara was the coach. The students killed were: Kolitha Kumara Wasalamudalige of Hokandara, Rajaratnam Radheeshwaran of Dematagoda, Vimukthi Sajan Thevarapperuma of Kalutara North, Supun Halalla of Angoda, Dinuk Priyashanka of Homgama, Tivanka Tissera of Dehiwala, and Eranga Chaturanga of Colombo 7.

Two school girs were also killed by the blast. One of them was a student of an international school.

Primary Magisterial inquiries into the deaths of the 14 were held yesterday (04). Subsequently, post mortems were conducted by Colombo Chief Judicial Medical Officer and the bodies handed over to relatives.

Ninety two injured have been admitted the National Hospital.

Extracted from,
http://www.army.lk/morenews.php?id=10511
Photos,
http://www.divaina.com/2008/02/06/news24.html
and http://www.army.lk/morenews.php?id=10511

LTTE carnage continues ; 13 civilians killed 16 injured in a claymore blast - Ethawatunwewa

LTTE terrorists have carried out a cowardly claymore blast targeting a civilian bus at Ethawatunuwewa around 3.50, this evening. According to the defence sources in the area, the terrorists have targeted a state owned public transport bus that was playing from Anudradhapura to Janakapura at a location close to "Kobbakaduwa Junction".

13 civilians have been killed and 16 others including children injured in the explosion. According to the hospital sources the victims have been initially taken to Padaviya hospital. Six out of them, including two children have been transferred to the Anuradhapura Hospital. Two among the dead are women, the sources added.

LTTE is a ruthless terrorist outfit fighting for a mono ethnic separate homeland for the Tamils living in Sri Lanka since 1983. Led by its psychopathic leader, V.Prabhakaran, the outfit routinely carryout civilian massacres in pursuit of its utopian state of Tamil Eelam.

LTTE is infamous for attacking soft target such as infants, schoolchildren, pregnant women, elderly persons etc in its regular genocides. Yesterday, it massacred six students of a school base ball team when one of its brainwashed suicide bomber exploded herself at the Colombo railway station.

Extracted from,
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080204_07

CIAL in discussions for proposed Sri Lankan airport at Weerawila

A high level delegation from the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), headed by managing director, S Bharath, is currently in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to explore the possibility of setting up a Greenfield airport at Weerawila in southern Sri Lanka on the same model as the CIAL airport.

The delegation has arrived in the island nation on the invitation of the Govt of Sri Lanka and has already held discussions with the president of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, as well as the Sri Lankan minister for ports and aviation.

At their meeting with the Sri Lankan president, CIAL managing director S Bharath provided a detailed presentation on the economic model adopted by CIAL in the development of an aerotropolis around the airport, which has allowed it become self-sustainable.

Read more,
http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_c/

LTTE terrorists exploded a bomb at Colombo Fort railway station

LTTE terrorists exploded a bomb inside the Colombo Fort railway station at 2.10 p.m today, February 03.

Hospital sources said that six civilians were killed while over ninety others received injuries due to the explosion were admitted to the National Hospital Colombo.

Read more,
http://defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080203_12

LTTE terrorists exploded a bomb at Colombo Fort railway station

LTTE terrorists exploded a bomb inside the Colombo Fort railway station short while ago today, February 03. The LTTE terrorists have targeted innocent civilians and the victims are being evacuating to the Colombo National hospital

Extracted from,
http://defence.lk/

Opposition leader never missed a national day party of Norway, yet going to boycott own Independence Day says Hemakumara Nanayakkara

Minister of Agriculture Hema Kumara Nanayakkara speaking on behalf of the United National Party (D) said the decision of the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to boycott the 60th anniversary celebrations of Sri Lanka's independence should be condemned as a treacherous act of a leader of a party whose past leaders toiled hard to gain the country's independence.

"Mr. Wickremesinghe's act," said Nanayakkara of the UNP breakaway group "is another body blow by him against our own motherland."

Speaking at a press briefing in Colombo, Hemakumara Nanayakkara said Wickremesinghe is a person who has never missed a national day party of Norway and was also the leader who had invited the Portuguese to come to Colombo in 2005 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of their cruel occupation of the island nation of Sri Lanka in 1505. "No wonder such a leader was planning to boycott the country's independence celebrations," Nanayakkara said.

In other words, said Nanayakkara, the UNP leader was planning to stop, the garlanding of the UNP founder and Sri Lanka's first Prime Minister Rt. Honourable D.S.Senanayaka, he said.

He said certain sinister organisations connected with Norway and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were boycotting the independence celebrations and he wanted to know whether Wickremesinghe belonged to the same clique.

He said at a time our heroic forces were sacrificing their lives to drive out the last vestiges of terrorism from the country in the North, after liberating the Eastern Province, it was the most treacherous act on the part of the UNP leader to boycott the country's independence celebrations.

Read more,
http://defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080203_04

INGO/NGO BLOOD-SUCKERS & THEIR DILEMMA

A Joint-Statement titled " Abrogation of Ceasefire Agreement Will Escalate Spiral of Violence" has been published in the English & Sinhala newspapers on 28th & 29th January 2008.(quote): "The government's decision to abrogate the Norwegian-facilitated Ceasefire Agreement(CFA) signed with the LTTE in 2002 is a matter of grave concern to the undersigned civil society organizations."(end quote)

Who may these "civil society organizations" be? They are: Association of War Affected Women; Centre for Society and Religion; Centre for Human Rights and Development, Colombo; Centre for Women and Development-Jaffna; Christian Alliance for Social Action; Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies; Equal Grounds, Sri Lanka; INFORM; Home for Human Rights, Colombo; Human Development Organization, Kandy; International Centre for Ethnic Studies; International Movement Against Discrimination and Racism; Law & Society Trust; Mothers & Daughters of Lanka; Mannar Women for Human Rights and Democracy; Muslim Information Centre Sri Lanka; Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum; National Peace Council; Rights Now Collective for Democracy; SETIK, Kandy; Women and Media Collective.

Read more,
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items08/310108-5.html

Army sounds alert in Colombo after recovery of explosives

Sri Lankan security forces have been put on alert here over the possibility of bomb attacks by the LTTE following recovery of five kilogram of explosives from a vehicle bound for the capital from a rebel-dominated area.

As the army is engaged in intense clashes with the Tamil Tigers in the embattled northern region, it is highly possible that the LTTE might try to carry out explosions in Colombo, defence officials said on wednesday.

A plot to smuggle C-4 explosives into the capital from northern Vavuniya was unearthed on Monday, they said. The explosives were stuffed in a portion of a lorry meant to carry re-filled gas cylinders.

Four Health Department employees attached to the Kilinochchi hospital have also been arrested in this connection, the officials said, adding more C-4 explosives were recovered on Tuesday.

"Three detonators and one wire role were found placed inside a piece of log generally used to stop the vehicle without letting it slide," they said, adding "another four kg of C-4 explosives were found concealed around the vehicle jack."

Read more,
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200801301760.htm