M'lore police nab suspected LTTE stooges

The Dakshina Kannada police today nabbed two suspected LTTE stooges who were involved in Money laundering and other works for the LTTE network.

The Police gave the names of the arrested persons as Bala Reuben alias Reuben aged 22 of Vavuniya district in Northern Srilanka and Nallathambi Jayasheelan alias Sheelan aged 25 belonging to Sangana district of North Jaffna.

The police inspector of Kankanady rural station Jayanth Shetty and Mangalore North Police Inspector Umesh Shet apprehended them in a city lodge on a tip off operation carried out today. Police Sub Inspector Narayan Byndoor was also involved in the operations. Speaking to Mangalorean.Com Jayanth V Shetty preferred to call the duo as 'Associates of LTTE'. The tip off came from the internal sources of the police and the suspicion came stronger when they were speaking in Tamil on the phone.

Read more,
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=broadcast&broadcastid=62906
Photo,
http://mangalorean.com/images/newstemp15/20080105ltte3.jpg

Indian filmstars in adverts for alleged LTTE fundraiser:report

Colourful posters featuring South Indian filmstars have come up in a few stores in London advertising a fundraising event allegedly for the LTTE, state media claimed here today.
The posters invite people to a show on Thai-Pongal day next week sponsored by an organisation allegedly close to Tamil Tigers, the government-owned Daily News said.

White Pigeon, the newly formed "charity" allegedly linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that replaced the activities of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation after it was banned in the United Kingdom "is vigorously promoting the event unobstructed in the United Kingdom", the newspaper claimed.

"Alexandra Palace in London, the venue where thousands of LTTE supporters converged to pay their last respects to the remains of Britain-based leader Anton Balasingham and collect funds will be once again used on the coming Thai - Pongal day to raise one million pounds to procure arms for terrorism," the daily said.

Read more,
http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/

CFA abrogation unmasks LTTE - TULF leader

The Tamil United Liberation Front leader Veerasingam Anandasangaree welcoming the decision to abrogate the Ceasefire Agreement said that the agreement only helped the LTTE to expand its terrorist activities and to blindfold the international community.

Anandasangaree commenting on the abrogation of the CFA told the 'Sunday Observer' that the CFA should have been scrapped when the LTTE went beyond its limits. "The CFA was introduced to streamline the peace process.

Not only Sri Lankans even the international community expected the CFA to work effectively. But the LTTE had committed the bulk of the CFA violations. The CFA allowed the organisation to carry out the political activities in the cleared areas. But instead of concentrating on political matters, the outfit was planning its war strategies within the cleared areas to launch its attacks against the Security Forces," Sangaree said.

Read more,
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2008/01/06/sec01.asp

Man from TN held on charges of smuggling fuel for LTTE

A suspected agent of separatist outfit LTTE was arrested after a fight with a Tamil Nadu police when he was attempting to smuggle diesel for the banned Sri Lankan group at Mandapam.

Mahendran, a native of Sivaganga District, was walking along the seashore with two cans of diesel when Sub-Inspector Ravi followed him on suspicion on Friday night, police sources said.

Sensing trouble, Mahendran pulled out a sword and tried to attack the SI, who however, escaped unhurt, overpowered him and seized the sword and the diesel cans, they said.

Investigation showed Mahendran was an LTTE agent smuggling essential commodities for the Sri Lankan militant group, said the sources.

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/

1,000 Lankan nurses for California

The Californian Government and the Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry have signed an agreement to recruit 1,000 Sri Lankan nurses to Californian hospitals by the end of this year, Ministry sources said.

Director General Health Services Dr. Ajith Mendis and Deputy Director General Nursing Service Bietrice Samaranayake participated as Sri Lankan representatives to sign an agreement with California Government officials last month.

Meanwhile, many European countries have requested Sri Lankan nurses to their hospitals.

Officials in USA, Australia, Canada, UK and Italy have requested the Health Ministry to send Sri Lankan nurses to their hospitals.

Read more,
http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/01/07/news03.asp

PM not visiting Lanka in Feb, alternative dates to be fixed

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not be able to make it to the diamond jubilee celebrations of Sri Lanka's Independence Day on February 4 and alternative dates for his visit to the island nation are being worked out, a senior government official said here on Sunday.

"The Indian Prime Minister is not coming to Sri Lanka next month due to scheduling problems expressed by the Indian authorities. Alternative dates are being worked out," said the Foreign Ministry official, who did not wish to be named.

Singh had been extended an invitation to visit Sri Lanka for the Independence Day celebrations next month as the Chief Guest.

When contacted, an Indian High Commission official said "dates for the Indian Prime Minister Mamohan Singh's visit to Sri Lanka will be worked out through the diplomatic channels."

Major newspapers here also reported that Singh is not attending the Sri Lankan Independence Day celebrations.

Read more,
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200801061521.htm

Lankan film surprise award winner at Dubai

Director Salinda Perera’s film Dheevari (Fisherman’s Daughter) set among the needy fishing community was a surprise award winner, having collected the most votes from viewers attending the Dubai Film Festival.

This is the only non-Arab film to win an award at the recently concluded Dubai International Film Festival. This is because Dubai’s Muhr Awards are open only to Arab filmmakers.

This year, Dubai instituted the People’s Choice Award for which the public votes for their favourite film. Perera was told on the last day to attend the evening event, which gave him his first inkling that he would be on stage as an award winner.

Read more,
http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/01/07/news36.asp

LTTE's 'military' intelligence head killed in ambush - Mannar

Head of LTTE's 'military' intelligence wing Shanmuganathan Ravishankar, alias Charles is reported killed along with three other terrorists following an ambush by SL elite forces, at general area North of Mannar, yesterday (January05) evening, reported pro-LTTE news sources.

This time it was Charles, a self styled "Colonel" and head of LTTE's 'military' intelligence wing and, deputy of Pottu Amman. Wanni sources, say he was killed caught in a military ambush while traveling on a van.

The attack is believed to have reverberated into the Wanni heartland causing fear and anxiety among the senior LTTE profiles, at a time where the security forcing were knocking the doors to Kilinochchi.

Read more,
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080106_04
and
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=24197

`India should balance interests of Tamils, its security`

India should strike a "balance" between its efforts to secure rights of Tamils and protect its own security interests in Sri Lanka by preventing Pakistan and China from getting a "foothold" in Colombo, a senior Tamil politician from the island nation said here.

Pakistan and China wooed Mahinda Rajapakse government with defence cooperation offers to fight LTTE, requiring India to strike a balance, Tharmalingam Sitharthan, heading the Peoples Liberation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), said today.

"If India feels Pakistan and China should be kept out of Sri Lanka, New Delhi should have a degree of defence cooperation to ensure island's own security," he said.

Sitharthan, a former militant-turned-politician opposed to the LTTE, was on a fortnight-long tour to India along with Anandasangaree, President of Tamil United Liberation Front and T Sritharam of Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, to drum up support for moderate Tamil parties in Sri Lanka.

Read more,
http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=416652&sid=NAT

Nato secrets USB stick lost in Swedish library

The discovery of a USB memory stick containing classified NATO information in a library in Stockholm has prompted a meeting between the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service and foreign defence officials.

The Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service is a division of the Swedish Armed Forces Central Command responsible for Sweden's military intelligence.

According to Swedish daily Aftonbladet, the stick contained material on NATO's ISAF peace-keeping force in Afghanistan, as well as an intelligence report on the attempted assassination of Lebanon's defense minister and the murder of Sri Lanka's foreign minister.

Colonel Bengt Sandström of the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service says this kind of carelessness is intolerable and can result in up to six months in prison.

It is unclear how the USB stick ended up in the library.

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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/04/another_stick_with_

PM’s Colombo visit dates not yet finalised

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not participate in the 60th Independence Day celebrations of Sri Lanka on February 4, the island nation’s Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, said here on Friday.

Mr. Bogollagama clarified that though Sri Lanka had extended an invitation to Dr. Singh, the dates of his visit are yet to be worked out.

The disclosure that the dates of Dr. Singh’s visit to the island nation have not yet been finalised was made a day after the Foreign Minister called the Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad to inform him about the decision of Colombo to abrogate the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement.

According to sources in the Sri Lanka Foreign Office, Mr. Prasad reportedly told the Minister that New Delhi was concerned about the current situation in the island nation and would like to see faster progress on a political package for the resolution of the ethnic conflict.

A few weeks ago, the Minister told Parliament that Sri Lanka had invited Dr. Singh to be the chief guest of the function on February 4 marking the 60th Independence Day.

Read more,
http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/05/stories/2008010556481200.htm

Sri Lanka not looking at February for Indian PM's visit

Sri Lanka said Friday that it was not expecting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit the country in February, to be the chief guest at the 6oth independence day celebrations.

'We are not looking at February or any other specific date for the Indian prime minister's visit. What we would like is a bilateral visit by the Indian prime minister in the course of 2008. No Indian prime minister has paid a bilateral visit to Sri Lanka in the last 20 years,' Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told the media here.

Asked if any other date had been fixed if Manmohan Singh was not likely to be in Colombo Feb 4, the country's independence day, the minister said it was for India to come up with dates.

According to diplomatic sources, the Sri Lankan government had invited Singh to be the chief guest at the Feb 4 independence day celebrations. But the Indian government had not taken a decision in the matter.

Read more,
http://www.indiaenews.com/srilanka/20080104/89687.htm

Vaiko urges Manmohan Singh not to visit Colombo

MDMK General Secretary Vaiko has urged Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh not to visit Colombo to participate in Sri Lanka's Independence Day celebrations, saying that it would send a "wrong signal" in favour of the Mahinda Rajapakse government which was using military might to resolve the ethnic conflict.

Vaiko, a staunch LTTE supporter, appealed Dr. Singh not to accept the invitation extended by Sri Lankan President Rajapakse for attending the National Day celebrations on February 4.

He cited the report of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, who after a visit to Colombo indicted the Sri Lankan military for gross human rights violation.

Read more,
http://www.indiavision.in/article/National/8695/

Is a ban on LTTE Lanka’s next step?

Sri Lanka’s decision to call off the February 2002 ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is at one level a logical move as the truce was only on paper.

In the last two years and more both sides have used air power and artillery in what is virtually a full-fledged war between the two sides.

Yet Wednesday’s move signals the growing confidence of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the defence establishment in Colombo that the military has gained the upper hand. The next step could be a ban on the LTTE.

The President’s brother defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had already given a hint in an interview to the government-controlled Daily News last week.

He said the government should officially withdraw from the ceasefire and ban the LTTE for a fresh approach to the Tamil question. The ceasefire agreement brokered by Norway had become a joke in the eyes of the people, he added.

Read more,
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1143105