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LTTE decides silence is best
Saturday, 5 November 2005 - 1:49 AM SL Time
The LTTE has decided to adopt a silent stand on the killing of Colonel T. R. Meedin after the government blamed the rebels for the assassination.
LTTE media spokesman Daya Master said the LTTE would not respond to the allegations that it was behind the killing of Colonel Meedin as it has now become a norm to blame the Wanni rebels for political assassinations.
'Even before investigations are launched the finger is pointed at the LTTE so we would rather be silent and let the government say what it wants', Daya Master told the Daily Mirror.
The LTTE is usually quick to deny any involvement in political killings and has done so in the case of murdered army intelligence officer Major Muthaliph and Foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.
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Mahinda in Jaffna, blasts UNP
Saturday, 5 November 2005 - 1:47 AM SL Time
Prime Minister and UPFA Presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapakse on a sudden visit to Jaffna yesterday ' a day after a similar visit by his main rival - attacked the UNP as hypocrites, who once robbed the rights of the Tamil community and now posed as saviours.
'Who torched the priceless treasures of the Jaffna Public Library, who were the people who triggered the July 1983 riots, Who plundered the votes at the Jaffna District Development Council elections in 1981,' Mr. Rajapakse asked at a public rally at the Nadeswara College, Jaffna.
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Ranil says peace deal in two years
Friday, 4 November 2005 - 2:42 AM SL Time
Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe visited the main military garrison in the Tamil heartland of Jaffna Thursday and vowed peace within `two to three years` if he is elected president this month.
He made a rare visit to this sprawling military complex at the northern tip of the arid Jaffna peninsula to address troops who are observing a shaky truce with Tamil rebels.
`We cannot have peace in a day or two,` Wickremesinghe told the security forces. `A permanent peace will take two to three years. Yes, I can promise you peace. The ceasefire was the first step.
`In the meantime we need to strengthen the security forces. We need to modernise the armed forces to meet the new challenges.
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Politics
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Budget as usual: UNP to announce plan tomorrow
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 2:28 AM SL Time
With the government being determined to go ahead with Tuesday`s Budget in spite of a request from the UNP to postpone it for a date after the presidential poll on November 17, all opposition parties, except the JVP, have denounced the Budget presentation as undemocratic and unfair.
These opposition parties with a parliamentary strength of 107 seats (68 UNP, 22 TNA, 06 SLMC, 02 UPF, 08 CWC and one JHU dissident monk) ' six short of a majority in the 225 seat House ' have taken a decision to oppose the Budget when it comes for a vote.
The JVP and the JHU which sit on the opposition benches and back the candidacy of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse at the November 17 polls, are supportive of the Budget.
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Voters prefer a honest president
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 1:42 AM SL Time
Most Sri Lankan voters first expect honesty from their presidential candidates, followed by leadership, experience and education, an opinion poll said last week.
The survey ' by the Centre for Policy Alternatives ' also found that, for the majority of voters, the overriding issue in selecting their candidate was his ability to control the cost of living.
Curiously, men placed slightly higher confidence in Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe`s ability to handle the peace process, reduce unemployment and safeguard the country. In comparison, women placed more trust on these issues in Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse. The study does not attempt to explain this difference.
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Mangala shoots down Ranil`s foreign aid claims
Saturday, 5 November 2005 - 2:06 AM SL Time
Donors and international lending organisations give aid to governments and not to persons, Minister Mangala Samaraweera said yesterday (4).
Samaraweera, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse`s chief presidential campaign organizer, said the Opposition leader and UNP presidential candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe had said at a number of campaign meeting that The present government has not been able to obtain foreign aid and such aid would be given to the country only if he comes to power. This he said was an attempt by Wickremesinghe to mislead the people.
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Editorial News
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The last days of Horogolla`s `koombi haamu`
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 2:29 AM SL Time
Several years ago, a television documentary to felicitate Sirimavo Bandaranaike featured an interview with an old and faithful family retainer at Horagolla Walawwa. The elderly gentleman fondly recalled how Chandrika Bandaranaike was known as `koombi haamu` in the Horagolla household. This he said was because the young lady had a sense of urgency about everything she did and was as energetic as an ant!
As that lady now retires ' like any other government servant, at the age of 60 ' and a nation looks back at the legacy she leaves behind, sadly for Sri Lanka, the Horagolla household seems to have been mistaken. The last thing that the Kumaratunga presidency was about, was a sense of urgency.
We say it is the last thing, quite literally too. These past few weeks have been a flurry of activity for Her Excellency, not because she is criss-crossing the country drumming up support for her party nominee Mahinda Rajapakse, but because she is busy settling some outstanding issues such as the creation of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and finalising the Norochcholai coal power deal.
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Mangala`s brass
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 1:46 AM SL Time
For brazen audacity, Ports and Civil Aviation Minister Mangala Samaraweera takes not just the cake but the whole bakery. On his own admission, nearly three million rupees of funds belonging to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority has been spent in installing a lift in his official bungalow which is a two storey structure. Samaraweera`s ageing mother shares this house with him and by all accounts has a problem climbing the stairs because she is on a wheelchair. While nobody will (or should) cavil at any son, be he a minister frequently in the public eye for lavish expenditure of tax money for the satisfaction of expensive personal tastes, or somebody more humdrum heaping love and care on his mother, the minister`s antics certainly exceed all permissible limits.
A son must look after his mother with his own resources and not public funds. When our reporter asked Samaraweera whether there was no ground floor room in his bungalow that his mother might use, the minister who is now one of the loudest voices in Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse`s presidential campaign, did not answer that question but responded: `It wasn`t put there only for mother...it`s for my mother and all other mothers after mine.` What is the country, many of whose people are still living in tents nearly a year after last year`s tsunami disaster hit, expected to do' Stand up and cheer such inane statements coming from somebody who would be prime minister'
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Nip this violence in the bud
Saturday, 5 November 2005 - 1:53 AM SL Time
Despite all the unethical and undemocratic acts, the political parties are resorting to, in their bid to bring victory to their respective candidates, the people were relieved to some extent to observe that the scale of election-related violence and crime had been kept low.
However, the violence and damage to state property in a demonic spell, reported from Dankotuwa jolted the people out of their complacency. In the spree of violence unleashed the vandals have burned tyres on the roads in the area and damaged a telephone connection distribution cabinet at Katukenda Junction causing an estimated Rs.1 million loss to Sri Lanka Telecom and disrupting over 600 phone lines.
Reports said that the police had deployed special teams to arrest the miscreants. The question that arises here is why the police were not able to nab the culprits in the act. Such a disturbance in the area could not have occurred, in our view, without the knowledge of the police in the area. It is all the more surprising that such incidents have taken place at a time when the police are said to be kept on high alert. Special measures should have been taken, as it is generally done in other places, to offer security to the UNP meetings scheduled to be held in the area.
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| Security |
Detained policemen cry out to The Sunday Times
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 2:27 AM SL Time
The three policemen detained by the LTTE after entering an uncleared area in Mannar are lamenting that the government was not taking sufficient steps to secure their release.
Speaking to The Sunday Times at their detention centre, two kilometres off Kilinochchi, the three policemen said they expected the authorities including the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) to play a more active role in getting them released.
The policemen, K.A.D. Sarath, W.G.D.S. Hemantha and B.W. Bopitigoda who have been in detention for 58 days were in conversation with two International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officials when The Sunday Times visited them after securing permission from the LTTE `High Court` in Kilinochchi.
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Tigers open 4th `court` as crime rate rises
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 2:25 AM SL Time
The LTTE will open another `court` in the uncleared area of Pallai in the Jaffna Peninsula to take up complaints from the government controlled areas in the peninsula, its judicial chief V. Pararajasingham told The Sunday Times.
He said the court to be declared open early next month was necessary in view of the rising crime rate.
`We have decided to set up the court as currently cases relating to thefts, robberies, land disputes, family disputes and other matters are coming to Kilinochchi, far from the scene of the incident,' he said.
Mr. Pararajasingham claimed that since the closing down of LTTE offices in Jaffna town, there had been an increase in crime with some 200 complaints being received at Kilinochchi during the past two months alone.
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Navy seize five dinghies with Sea Tiger
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 1:45 AM SL Time
The Navy seized five dinghies with a Sea Tiger in the deep seas, 40 km away from Sangamankanda in Pottuvil early yesterday.
A senior naval officer said the arrested LTTE member had been deployed to look after the dinghies, which were ready presumably to transport arms and ammunition which had been brought in a another vessel, to an LTTE camp in the area.
At the time of the arrest, Navy had found him in a motorised dinghy. .At the time of his arrest there wwere no arms and ammunition aboard the dinghies, he said.
As the navy has intensified surveillance in the Mullaitivu area, the Sea Tigers now unload weapons in the south east., the official claimed.
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Business / Economy News
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Norochcholai caught in power battle
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 2:27 AM SL Time
The controversial Norochcholai power project has been thrown into three-phased confusion. President Chandrika Kumaratunga though in the last days of her presidency has given orders for the Ceylon Electricity Board to go ahead with the project.
But both main presidential candidates Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremesinghe have pledged they would review the project before taking a decision.
Prime Minister Rajapakse has assured the Catholic Bishop of Chilaw and the Muslim community that he would not allow the project until a full reassessment is made.
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Government`s ICT Agency to spend $5 mn. empowering private sector
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 1:45 AM SL Time
Sri Lanka currently earns US$ 80 million revenue from software exports and related services according to World Bank estimates but the industry is believed to have much greater potential with earnings of US$ 1 billion in total ICT related exports services considered possible by 2012.
The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), a wholly owned governmental agency under the prime minister`s office, will soon unveil a blueprint for private sector development, foreign investment and job creation to boost realisation of the country`s true potential in the information and communication technology field.
A news release from ICTA said that the agency was launching a program based on a US$ 5 million fund designed specifically to assist information and communication technology companies in the private sector to develop their competitiveness.
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Indians arrive in numbers mostly on shopping stopovers
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 1:43 AM SL Time
Visiting Indians, who pop over for business and shopping bargains, is likely to replace the United Kingdom as the biggest tourism market for Sri Lanka this year, top officials said Friday.
Sri Lanka has stepped up its promotional activities in the Asian region, as traditional tourism markets like Western Europe, are still bombarded with haunting tsunami images.
But the Indian market in particular, has been singled out with special offers, thanks to relaxed visa restrictions and more flights shuttling between both countries.
`The number of Indian travellers has quadrupled since we relaxed visa restrictions on them three years back. And the way things are going, we will see the largest number of tourists coming from India this year,` said Prathap Ramanujam, Secretary Tourism Ministry.
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| Sports News
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Wesley fails by a whisker
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 2:30 AM SL Time
Weather gods had the final say in school cricket yesterday. It even prevented Wesley from pulling off a well deserved win against Isipatana at Campbell Park.
Having to make 87 runs for victory Wesley were 76 for 6 when the umpires decided it was too dangerous for play due to badlight at 5 p.m.
Wesley too in their run chase too lost their first for wickets with only 37 runs on the board. But young Ryan Kern (28 n.o.) and A.. Liyanage (15) batted bravely till the issue went beyond their control.
At Reid Avenue Sukitha Senaratne scored a stroke filled century ( 101 seven fours and a six) to see his side make 224 for 6 declared against Thurstan At the end of the first day`s play, Thurstan had lost one wicket while making 15 runs.
It was lost cause at the Campbell place too. When play was suspended (and later called off ) at 2.30 p.m. St. Sebastian`s had made 163 for 8.
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Can Sri Lanka keep flogging the same bowlers?
Sunday, 6 November 2005 - 1:47 AM SL Time
How skipper Marvan Atapattu must have been hoping for an effective spinner to support Muralitharan from the other end when Sri Lanka had the Indians on the back foot at Pune. The Indians were struggling at 180/6 in the 35th over of the 4th ODI of the Videocon series having lost 3 wickets inside 4 runs. Muralitharan had captured two of the three wickets and was on a roll but, predictably, Atapattu did not have a reliable partner to keep the other end tight and was forced to even use Russell Arnold at the death, a man who had not bowled earlier in this tournament. Not unexpectedly Dhoni, who had been playing a quiet game until then, piloted the Indians to a dramatic victory by depositing the unfortunate Arnold for two successive sixes into the stands!
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Why is Sri Lanka losing?
Saturday, 5 November 2005 - 1:51 AM SL Time
Who will win in a match between 11 and 12' No need to ask.
Then what type of a match is it' A one day international between Sri Lanka and India. seems to be quite a puzzle. Have a look at the two scorecards at Pune and it will tell you the story. This happens with the new ICC rule of the `super sub` and the team that`s not going to make the full use of their 12th player, generally called as the super sub, is bound to hit the rock. This is exactly what happened to Sri Lanka during the 4th ODI against India at Pune last Thursday.
Sri Lanka`s super sub, Thilan Samaraweera, was totally wasted. He neither batted nor bowled. He watched the match at players` enclosure without being told what to do.
In contrast to this, Suresh Raina, the Indian super sub, scored an unbeaten 39 to put a match winning partnership of 82 runs with Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Raina replaced medium pacer Sree Santh, who bowled eight overs to claim a wicket for 49 runs.
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