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EU considering taking action against LTTE
Monday, 5 September 2005 - 8:47 AM SL Time
The European Union is considering a move to outlaw Sri Lanka`s Tamil Tiger rebels, who are already banned in India, the US and Britain, a media report said here today. `An official committee of the EU meets in Brussels mid-week to consider whether the LTTE should be added to the list of terrorist organisations,` the Sunday Times said. Britain, as the current holder of the EU presidency, has already circulated a note among member states on Sri Lanka`s concerns about the LTTE, it added. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has invited the United Nations to send an envoy here as part of a possible effort to seek a greater UN role in resolving the island`s festering ethnic conflict. The Sunday Times here said President Chandrika Kumaratunga made two urgent calls to Secretary General Kofi Annan seeking his support. Annan had on Friday sent top UN diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi on a four-day mission to the island nation for talks with Sri Lankan leaders. Although Colombo has in the past resisted any moves to involve the UN in the peace process fearing that it would lead to internationalisation of the conflict, it has finally turned to the world body for help, the newspaper said. The Norwegian-backed peace initiative in Sri Lanka remains deadlocked.
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LTTE in the dark about UN role
Monday, 5 September 2005 - 8:16 AM SL Time
The LTTE says it has not been informed of any move to replace Norway with the United Nations as peace facilitator in Sri Lanka or remove the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and install a UN observer team.
LTTE media spokesman Daya Master said that such a move would have to have the consent of the LTTE leadership who are an integral part of the conflict and signatories to the current peace agreement. He was responding to speculation that UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is here on an invitation extended by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to UN Secretary General Koffi Annan to play an active role in the country`s peace process.The government has long been unhappy with Norway as facilitator and the SLMM`s failure to prevent the LTTE from breaching the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA).
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Imprisoned politico in fresh move? - SB`s brother supports PM
Monday, 5 September 2005 - 7:51 AM SL Time
Imprisoned UNP heavyweight S. B. Dissanayake`s younger brother, Saliya Bandara, has joined Premier Mahinda Rajapakse`s presidential election campaign.This comes hot on heels of the JVP pledging its backing for his candidature at the forthcoming presidential election.
The Chief Opposition Whip of the UPFA-run Central Provincial Council on Sunday met the premier at Temple Trees fuelling speculation that S.B. Dissanayake, now serving a two-year prison sentence for contempt of Court is making a fresh bid to secure his release.
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Politics
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Stop harassing political opponents: Sajith
Tuesday, 6 September 2005 - 2:29 AM SL Time
Hambantota UNP MP Sajith Premadasa making a special statement on the bomb attack on the house of the Tangalle Urban Council Member P.P.G. Newton said Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse who speaks about establishing a law abiding, a justifiable and a peaceful society should strive to at least do so in the Hambantota district.
MP Premadasa requested the Prime Minister to stop the ever increasing harassment of political opponents in the Hambantota district. 'The current `bheeshanaya` in the district is a pointer to the victory of the UNP at the coming elections,' he said.
Mr. Premadasa said that the security of Mr. Newton and his family is the responsibility of the Prime Minister and the government.
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Presidential polls, last phase in Ranil`s politics
Tuesday, 6 September 2005 - 1:45 AM SL Time
`The only politician who publicly apologised for Black July was none other than President Chandrika Kumaratunge. But the UNP which was responsible for killing innocent Tamils and looting their belongings never said sorry to the Tamils. But now they are trying to canvass votes to elect Ranil as the President of Sri Lanka. Ranil`s last phase in politics is his contest in the presidential election. Thereafter he will vanish from the political arena. The president and her government is confident that estate workers would stand by them in the presidential election and vote for the premier and achieve their remaining demands,` Deputy Minister of Finance and Kegalla District UPFA MP, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.
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UNP gives Mahinda two weeks to state policy on PTOMS, devolution
Tuesday, 6 September 2005 - 1:44 AM SL Time
The UNP yesterday called on the SLFP`s Presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapakse to make known within two weeks his policy on the PTOMS agreement and devolution of power.
Kegalle district parliamentarian Mano Wijeratne addressing a media briefing said that the UNP had clear and consistent policies on the peace process, unitary state and economy but the same cannot be said about the SLFP and its coalition partners .
`The time has come for Mr. Rjapakse as the SLFP`s presidential candidate to tell the country what his stand is on the PTOMS, peace process and the North-East interim council that was proposed by President Chandrika Kumaratunga.`
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Editorial News
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Rathu Sahodarayas for a blue president
Tuesday, 6 September 2005 - 1:50 AM SL Time
Many a political observer expected Chandrika to return from China and do a `Katrina` in the SLFP. They anticipated fireworks at the party`s Central Committee meeting on Sunday with some party heavyweights taking on one another. But nothing of the sort happened. She has exuded political maturity in handling the Mahinda-JVP alliance. Although the JVP left the UPFA in a huff and is disparaging her in public, she was not so na`EFve as to oppose a political pact between Mahinda and her bete noire, whose support is vital for the SLFP at the presidential election.
Chandrika herself did likewise in 1994, by getting the JVP to pull out of the race. In 1999, she failed to secure their support and the JVP Presidential Candidate Nandana Gunathilake entered the fray. The results were as follows:
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Katrina: Nature`s carrier pigeon
Monday, 5 September 2005 - 7:54 AM SL Time
Nature has humbled humanity as never before. The mightiest of all nations lies supine in the aftermath of a ferocious hurricane. As much as little Sri Lanka is still reeling from the Boxing Day tsunami, which pummelled its littoral, America has been shocked out of its usual sang-froid by Hurricane Katrina. It is groping in the dark. President Bush has gone on record that it will take years for the US to recover fully.
Questions are being raised from the effectiveness of New Orleans`s levees to the efficiency of the White House. If President Bush made a hero of himself following 9/11 attacks, this time around he has cut a pathetic figure. The New York Times lambasted Bush editorially'Waiting for a new leader (reproduced in The Island on Saturday)'for his administration`s failure to respond appropriately to the disaster and the manner in which he treated the disaster in his address to the nation. The Bush administration also drew flak from The Washington Post for systematic downgrading, by the Department of Homeland Security, of the FEMA, which had earlier been tasked with dealing with such disasters.
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The chips are down
Sunday, 4 September 2005 - 5:19 AM SL Time
Although the conclusion was foregone, that the JVP despite all its rhetoric, claimed principles and the rest of it will support Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, the formal news was broken only yesterday morning, significantly before the return to the country of President Chandrika Kumaratunga. The tacticians of the Rajapakse campaign obviously wanted to present the SLFP leader with a fait acompli, and that too before this weekend`s SLFP convention at which the premier is to be formally anointed the candidate. We will have to wait and see whether he will run under true blue SLFP colours, under the banner of the People`s Alliance (PA) which is still up and running although the once formidable old left is today only a caricature of what it was or the United People`s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), best known as the Sandhanaya which exists only in name after the JVP`s exit from the government earlier this year.
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| Security |
Torrential rains cause havoc in Ratnapura, Nuwara Eliya districts
Tuesday, 6 September 2005 - 2:26 AM SL Time
Two major landslides that struck in the wake of torrential rains which lashed the Ratnapura and Nuwara Eliya districts on Sunday night killed at least five people and the floods displaced about 8000 families.
With continuous rain and gale-force winds being forecast, the authorities have advised people living in low-lying areas and on hill slopes to move to safer locations.
Sabaragamuwa DIG Neville Wijesinghe said around midnight on Sunday four people including an infant of the same family were buried alive due to a landslide at Rassagala estate in Ratnapura . 'When the police and other rescue teams arrived at the scene, the house was buried in thick layers of mud and the rescue team had to dig for several hours to retrieve the four bodies,' the DIG said.
The victims were identified as Thiruchelvam (38), Sumila Devy (26), S. Vicky (4) and Jesmine (3 months). The family had come to the area from Bogawantalawa and worked as labours in the estate, he said.
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Kadirgamar killing is LTTE`s gain - India needs to get involved now- General Satish Nambiar
Tuesday, 6 September 2005 - 1:49 AM SL Time
General Satish Nambiar a former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Indian Army, Force Commander and Head of Mission of the UN forces in former Yugoslavia and formerly a advisor to the Government of Sri Lanka on certain aspects of the peace process says that India needs to get involved in the Sri Lankan process now because India is also responsible for what has happened in Sri Lanka.
He told The Island `I cannot speak for the Indian establishment. But, I have always been of the view that India needs to play a more active role in this process. After all we have common interests, affiliations and we are neighbours. I will also be the first to admit that we owe a responsibility to the people of Sri Lanka because in part we were also responsible for what had happened in Sri Lanka`
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Thondaman`s security tightened
Tuesday, 6 September 2005 - 1:44 AM SL Time
The security provide to Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) Leader Arumugam Thondaman has been increased after intelligence operatives found that there was a threat to his life, senior vice President of the party R. Yogarajan said yesterday.
Thondaman`s security has been strengthened with personnel from the Air Force and the police, he said adding that the security threat had been exposed after several Tamil youths were found loitering hear the CWC headquarters `Sayuma Bawan` at Green Path in Collpetty, Thondaman`s country Bungalow `Wawendon` in Ramboda and the Technical Institute at Kotagala.
After questioning these youths the state intelligence had advised that extra personnel from Air Force and Police be deployed to provide security to Thondaman. When asked about UNP MP T. Maheswaran`s accusation that Thondaman had demanded 181 million rupees to extend the CWC`s support to UNP presidential candidate Ranil Wickremasinghe, Yogaragan denied the accusation, asking how any party could afford to give such a large sum of money.
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Business / Economy News
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Rail crisis continues on two tracks
Tuesday, 6 September 2005 - 2:27 AM SL Time
The ongoing train strike entered its second week, yesterday with no compromise reached between the Railways Ministry and The Locomotive Operating Engineers Union (LOEU).
Railways Ministry Secretary K. Saputantri said during talks on Sunday, Union leaders had agreed to the conditions put forward by him.
'We told them they would not be penalised for not attending work while the emergency was in force and that a meeting would be arranged to discuss the salary anomalies along with a high powered committee to oversee it. They agreed to the proposals but did not sign any document. Later in the day they refused to acknowledge anything without the intervention of the Minister', he said. '
Mr Saputantri said the Minister was ready for talks with the LOEU only if the strike was called off.
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For a few rupees more, private buses race each other
Monday, 5 September 2005 - 7:54 AM SL Time
Most private buses plying along the Akuressa-Matara route are now driving at unbelievably high speed competing with each other buses on the same route for earning quick money. If early action is not taken by the responsible authorities to nab this harmful practice it would result in occurring a serious accident s causing injuries to many innocent passengers on board and even losing their lives.
Commuters complain that attention of the Road Transport Authority (Margasta Magee Pravahana Adikariya) and the police should be paid to check the high speeding and over loading of private buses.
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Unofficial talks to end rail strike
Sunday, 4 September 2005 - 5:33 AM SL Time
Unofficial discussions were underway yesterday to end the six-day long railway strike yesterday as authorities maintained skeleton services with standby drivers.
Trains Controller (arrangements) Nihal Fernandez told The Sunday Times that efforts were being made to end the strike by Monday, but it would depend on the discussions that are underway.'We have around 39 trains running in the morning and 40 in the evening in addition to the supply trains,' he said.
However, the number of trains that operated were far below the required amount. The trade union members maintained that 430 engine drivers were on strike and this had seriously affected the rail services. The strike has caused severe inconvenience to the public and some of them were risking their lives riding on footboards in the few trains that ran.
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| Sports News
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S. Thomas` second best in school rugby
Tuesday, 6 September 2005 - 1:51 AM SL Time
S. Thomas` have emerged the runners-up of the schools rugby league tournament behind the champions Kingswood. The Thomians, who had four victories under their belt, last week held a resurgent Ananda outfit to a 10-all draw and avoided any damage to their reputation. Meanwhile, St. Peter`s by virtue of their 11-8 win over Royal, which came after a 14-year wait, has secured the third slot in the table. Wesley, who were placed third in the last week, suffered an unexpected reversal of fortunes when they went down to St. Joseph`s 5-12. This has clearly helped St. Peter`s cause. In the final analysis, Wesley is placed fourth followed by Ananda, Royal and St. Joseph`s.
In Group `B`, St. Anthony`s have emerged champions, making a clean sweep. They last week beat the home town rivals Trinity 31-19 in their annual encounter. That incidentally was the highest score by an Antonian team against Trinity. Isipatana, who thrashed Zahira 30-0 last week are placed second. They are followed by Thurstan and Science College. Although, there is another game left for Isipatana, they will not be able to make any upset in top of their group.
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Darsha, Manjula earn Lanka gold
Tuesday, 6 September 2005 - 1:50 AM SL Time
Sri Lankan athletes performed well to hoist the lion flag high on two occasions at the Incheon Munhak Stadium when they grabbed two gold medals along with a silver and a bronze on the final day of the 16th Asian Athletic Championships here in Incheon, Korea on Sunday. But a sloppy performance by the men`s 4x400m relay quartet cost Sri Lanka yet another possible gold.
Sri Lanka thus finished sixth in the 16th edition of the C`ship with two gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals having a tally of six medals. On Saturday, Prasanna Amarasekera and Rohan Pardeep Kumara shared a silver and a bronze in the 400m dash respectively.
Darsha in memorable win '
Sprint-queen Damayanthi Darsha answered her critics with a blistering performance in the 200m dash which brought back her lost reputation while high-jumper Manjula Kumara Wijesekara got off to a perfect start to his budding career with a gold medal yesterday.
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Atapattu says Bangladesh easier than expected
Monday, 5 September 2005 - 8:21 AM SL Time
Cricket captain Marvan Atapattu said that Sri Lanka has reached a high pitch at the moment, performing very well and hoped to maintain that level in the future too.
'We exposed a few more players in this game (third one-dayer against Bangladesh) to offer them more experience and reach a level that is expected of them. We expected to beat Bangladesh but we did not think it was this easy,' added Atapattu.
'We know that we are doing well on home soil, but now we want to continue with our good form overseas. Our future task is to concentrate on performing well against other teams on their soil in different conditions,' observed Atapattu. About new coach Tom Moody, Atapattu said that he has taught them new things about the game which is having good effects on their performances.
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