President Mahinda Rajapaksa had sent us a letter inviting us to discuss four conditions laid down by our party to support the budget. But we do not want negotiations. We need only action.
The President still has time to change his mind and agree for our conditions, JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe said addressing a packed media conference in Colombo.
Extracted from,
http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/11/17/news/13.asp
A 20-member suicide squad of the Tamil Tigers has intruded into the capital and are planning to kill President Mahinda Rajapaksa and ten union ministers, an MP warned on Thursday.
"A 20 member LTTE suicide cadre is in Colombo targeting President Mahinda Rajapakse, his three brothers (holding important posts in the government) and ten ministers and steps needed to be taken to enhance security in the capital," United National Party MP Mahinda Ratnatillake who defected to the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) said.
Read more,
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200711152123.htm
The Sri Lankan government said on Friday that the LTTE had been collecting up to $30 million a month from Sri Lankan Tamil expatriates across the globe.
Praising the US Treasury for freezing the assets of the LTTE front – Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told parliament that Sri Lanka could now expect a "significant decline" in the collections of the LTTE world wide which ranged from $ 20 million to $30 million per month.
The US government had become the "first foreign government to take tangible action against an LTTE front organization," Bogollagama said.
Could assume new guises
But the minister warned that eternal vigilance was necessary because the LTTE had become an expert in circumventing curbs and bans.
Read more,
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=
SMS verifications used to protect IPR
Softlogic, Sri Lanka’s sole agent for mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has created history in the country by being the first to introduce a system to protect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) via SMS technology whereby constomers can differentiate genuine phones from fakes.
Explaining this revolutionary system to the Daily Financial Times, Softlogic’s Assistant Marketing Manager Nirasha Croos Moraes said, “It’s a very simple solution.
We have got a sticker with a coded number pasted on our products. The customer has to just scratch it and SMS the number to 4656 to verify if their phone is a fake or a genuine one. A reply will be then sent confirming the genuineness of the server.”
She however noted that they were disappointed with the response received so far, as this facility is currently available to only Dialog customers.
“We have not got the expected results so far. The response has been slow with only 0.2% of the people verifying the genuineness.
Read more,
http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/11/16/ft/14.asp
Sri Lanka army elite units yesterday (November 13) killed LTTE's In Charge for heavy weapons in a surprise attack conducted in the North of Palampiddi area, said the defence sources.
The sources further said that the senior terrorist leader Pullawar Annan alias Thuiyyawan Master and four others were killed when the soldiers ambushed their vehicle movement around 4 last evening.
A senior defence official speaking to defence.lk said that the soldiers had acquired the target with precise intelligence obtained through very reliable sources . He further said that the loss of Tuiyywan Master would have severe impact on the terrorist outfit since he was known to be the most experienced person in heavy weapons such as heavy mortars and artillery guns.
Extract from,
http://defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20071114_05
National list MP of government, MP Wijedasa Rajapaksa crossed over to the opposition today (14) morning at the parliament.
He crossed over amid cheers of opposition MPs. after making a special statement.
Rajapaksa was the Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), had earlier accused seniors of the government of blocking investigations into COPE findings.
Wijedasa Rajapaksa was also a senior member and a legal adviser of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
Read more,
http://news.nidahasa.com/news.php?go=fullnews&newsid=386
Sri Lankan Air Force chief, Air Marshal Roshan Goonatilleke has said the days of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran are “numbered” and his force would “go all out to get rid” of him soon.
In an interview to the state run English weekly Sunday Observer, he said it was not a difficult task for the Air Force to get at Prabakaran as he was confined to a very limited area in Wanni.
“I do not think it is that difficult for us to get at him now. We will find him somehow soon. We need a great deal of patience,” he said. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told journalists days after the November 2 raid on Kilinochchi in which the LTTE political wing chief Thamilchelvam was killed, that the Air Force would hunt down senior leaders of the LTTE.
Read more,
http://www.hindu.com/2007/11/12/stories/2007111254151400.htm
Suspected LTTE rebels attacked Indian fishermen inside the country's territorial waters off Rameswaram coast and forcefully took away diesel from their boats early this morning, police officials said.
According to officials, the suspected militants carrying country-made weapons, approached around 20 fishermen fishing near Irana Thivu and Natchikuda in five boats, and demanded diesel.
Some of the fishermen who gave diesel stocked in their boats without showing any resistance, were paid by the armed men.
However, militants forcefully took away the diesel from fishermen who refused to give. In this attempt, they also injured one fisherman, Arokiam, by hitting him with a beer bottle.
Read more,
http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID
Mahela Jayawardene joined Trevor Bayliss, Sri Lanka's coach, in support of Marvan Atapattu as the veteran opener faced an uncertain cricket future following an outburst in which he branded national selectors as 'a set up muppets headed by a joker'.
Atapattu's fate, whether he remains a member of the current Sri Lankan team in Australia, hinges on what action Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) takes over the remarks. The outburst came at the end of the third day's play of the first Test at Brisbane and has become the key topic of discussion in cricket circles ever since.
Read more,
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/australia/content/story/319475.html
Marvan Atapattu launched an astonishing attack on the Sri Lanka selectors, calling them a set of muppets headed by a joker and blaming them for the lack of bench strength in the side. His statements came at the end of the third day of the first Test against Australia at the Gabba, with Sri Lanka fighting to stave off a heavy defeat.
"Sri Lanka cricket at this moment of time is not going in the direction it should be going, especially with a set of muppets headed by a joker," Atapattu said at the end-of-day press conference. "I don't give credit to the way they have handled selections.
Read more,
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/australia/content/current/story/319220.html
The main opposition UNP yesterday issued a statement challenging the contents of the Daily Mirror page one comment titled “UNP and the Media Freedom” in which the Editor of the Daily Mirror said that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe reprimanded Daily Mirror journalist Kelum Bandara.
The first statement sent by the UNP yesterday did not have a signature. However when contacted by the Daily Mirror Mr. Wickremesinghe’s Media Secretary Saman Athaudahetti confirmed that the statement was sent by the UNP. Later the UNP sent a second copy signed by UNP spokesman Gayantha Karunatilleka with similar contents.
Please find below the Daily Mirror response to the contents of the UNP statement.
UNP : In its comment titled “UNP and Media Freedom”, the Daily Mirror has failed to live up to the editorial practice that ‘facts are sacred”. It is a misrepresentation of facts.
DM : It is the UNP that has misrepresented facts. We will prove this point in our answers below.
UNP : The Leadership of the UNP did not contact Daily Mirror journalist Kelum Bandara yesterday.
DM : UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe did speak to Kelum Bandara and he used the mobile number 0777 448224 to call the journalist and reprimand him.
Read the full article here,
http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/11/10/front/2.asp
Kenya has emerged as the world’s largest exporter of tea in the seven months of this year, surpassing Sri Lanka and China.
Recovery in production this year is said to have helped Kenya to become a top exporter of tea. Kenya, which suffered a production loss of 18 million kg in 2006 due to prolonged frost, has reported an increase of 63.6 million kg in the first seven months of 2007 to reach an output of 221.5.
Read more,
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International__Business/
At least 52 LTTE terrorists were killed while scores of terrorist casualties were on the rise following counter attacks from troops at an LTTE offensive advance at Muhamalai this morning, security sources said.
Troops effectively neutralized the LTTE offensive taking over few LTTE bunkers inflicting heavy losses to the outfit, retaliating the terrorist offensive today(07) at 5.30a.m. Scattered LTTE elements were pushed backed assisted with long range artillery barrages, ground sources said. Security forces had full control over the LTTE bunkers till 7.a.m and later consolidated positions along the defences, the sources said.
Eleven soldiers sacrificed their lives and another fourty-one sustained injuries in defending the Muhamalai forward defences, MCNS said. LTTE vehicles were observed ahead of the defences rushing with heaps of slain terrorists and casualties, ground sources confirm.
Extracted from,
http://defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20071107_07
As many as 400 LTTE militants have been killed in encounters with government forces since last month, largely due to information provided by civilian inhabitants in embattled northern Sri Lanka, an official said here today.
While 349 tiger rebels were gunned down during October, as many as 51 LTTE militants have been killed this month, Defence Spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara told PTI.
"Besides the success of the security forces during confrontations with the tiger rebels, the common people in northern region are also informing about the presence of the LTTE rebels who are forcing people to join the outfit to carry out attacks," he said.
"During the month of October itself, we received 29 pieces of information from the common people in the northern region on the whereabouts of the LTTE rebels that also helped us in dealing with the militants," Nanayakkara said.
Read more,
http://news.indiainfo.com/2007/11/05/0711051900_lanka-ltte.html
