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ADB:The rich get richer and the poor, poorer in Lanka Friday, 10 August 2007 - 3:54 AM SL Time The Asian Development Bank said that Sri Lanka was one of the countries where the rich had got richer and the poor poorer over the last decade and a half.
`Relative inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient has risen significantly in Bangladesh, Cambodia, the People`s Republic of China (PRC), Lao PDR, Nepal and Sri Lanka the ADB said in a report. It warns that in such societies there is a danger of policy levers being captured by the rich for their own benefit and a weakening of the institutional foundations of the growth process. 
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`Casablanca` on Sri Lankan conflict Thursday, 9 August 2007 - 4:48 AM SL Time An Indian filmmaker is remaking `Casablanca`, swapping the Rick`s Cafe of the Oscar-winning classic for a restaurant in south India, and the World War Two backdrop for the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.
In the 1942 film, Humphrey Bogart played a club owner who romances a married Ingrid Bergman and helps her escape the Nazis with her husband, a resistance leader. `My film will be a tribute to the original,` said Rajeev Nath, the director who plans to premiere his Malayalam language remake, `Ezham Mudra` (The Seventh Seal), in the coastal Moroccan city where the original was set. `As a student of films, I had watched this great classic 20 times.` Nath`s protagonist is an Indian diplomat-turned restaurateur who helps his lover and her husband, both Tamil separatist rebels fighting the Sri Lankan government, escape from India.
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Karuna to disarm once safe from Tigers Wednesday, 8 August 2007 - 8:56 PM SL Time A breakaway faction of Sri Lanka`s Tamil Tigers seen allied to the state said on Wednesday it would dissolve its military wing once its security was ensured, the first such offer since it was set up three years ago.
Aid workers say members of the Karuna group, which split from the mainstream Tigers in 2004 and who analysts say are helping the military to fight the Tigers, are roaming armed in the eastern district of Batticaloa, unimpeded by the state. The group, accused of rights abuses such as abductions and forced recruitment, had earlier refused to lay down arms until their Tamil Tiger foes do so. `We are compelled to have a military unit for our self- defense. Once our security is ensured we are ready to dissolve that unit,` the Karuna group, otherwise known as Tamileela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal, said in a statement.
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| Security
Security Forum
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Controversy over Holmes` Jaffna meet Saturday, 11 August 2007 - 5:53 AM SL Time A leading Jaffna based civil society organisation was yesterday denied access to a meeting with UN Humanitarian Chief John Holmes, placing further doubt regarding the transparency of the meeting, after the Centre for Policy Alternatives condemned the event for its heavy military presence. The People`s Council for Peace and Goodwill (PCPG), an organisation headed by religious and community leaders in Jaffna, was not given an invitation for a meeting on humanitarian affairs with Mr. Holmes, which took place at the Jaffna Public library amidst military presence. The UN said the government organised the event and was responsible for inviting humanitarian and civil society groups for the meeting. `The UN played no role in this`, UN Chief Communicator, Gordon Weiss told the Daily Mirror yesterday.
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Civil Groups Silenced On Raising Ri.. Saturday, 11 August 2007 - 5:52 AM SL Time Sri Lanka`s Jaffna Military commander had instructed the NGOs and civil society representatives `not to refer to human rights issues and to restrict themselves to issues of humanitarian assistance,` before the meeting with United Nations Under Secretary General, Humanitarian Affairs Mr. John Holmes, charged a group of Rights groups including Free Media Movement (FMM) and Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), in a letter to Mr Holmes, and in a press release issued Thursday. `The steps taken by the military in Jaffna to restrict your access to information can only reaffirm concerns in the international community that there is no transparency and accountability of the government and of the military when it comes to both human rights and humanitarian issues in the conflict-affected areas of Sri Lanka,` the press release further said.
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Hrw`s Dirty War And The Clean Recor.. Friday, 10 August 2007 - 4:04 AM SL Time Amongst the more outrageous statements of the Human Rights Watch in its recent statement headlined `Sri Lanka: Government Abuses Intensify` was the claim that `The Sri Lankan government has apparently given its security forces a green light to use `dirty war` tactics`. This was said by Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. The release claims that `President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, have pursued military operations in the country`s north and east , with little regard for the security of the civilian population ... Security forces have subjected civilians to indiscriminate attacks`. Astonishingly, the body of the report carries hardly any substantiation of the latter claim. There is just over a page (along with an illustration of an IDP) in the Summary subtitled `Abuses during armed conflict` which begins `Some of the most serious international law violations have taken place during armed hostilities, when civilians have died in unlawful attacks and others were displaced. Both the government and the LTTE have shown a brazen disregard for the well-being of non-combatants`.
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| Politics
Political News Forum
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Sri Lanka government to appoint parliamentary select committee to probe dissident MPs` allegations against President Saturday, 11 August 2007 - 6:09 AM SL Time Sri Lanka Minister of Health and Nutrition Nimal Siripala de Silva addressing a government media briefing today said that a parliamentary select committee would be appointed to probe Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) dissident Sripathi Suriyaarachchi`s allegations against the President. The Minister said that the parties in the parliament would be consulted and a vote would be called if necessary before appointing the parliamentary select committee. A one-day debate will be held in this regard in the parliament, the Minister said. Ousted Minister and SLFP ? People`s Wing leader Sripathi Suriyaarachchi accused in the parliament that the President Mahinda Rajapaksa granted money to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE).
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Sethu Samudram comes to Parliament Saturday, 11 August 2007 - 5:54 AM SL Time The Sethu Samdurdam project became a point of discussion in Parliament yesterday with the main opposition UNP charging that the government was keeping silent as India had already started dredging the Palk Strait while the government assured that frequent discussions were taking place between the two countries on the project. Minister Rauff Hakeem said the initial study done on the project had over looked salient features that should have been looked into. Foreign Affairs Minister Rohitha Bogollagama responded saying the environment impact on the project was currently being assessed by the government and the study had included factors on marine life in the Palk Strait.
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Escapee family says Wanni people yearn to flee to South Saturday, 11 August 2007 - 5:51 AM SL Time A family of five who fled the oppression of the LTTE in the Wanni wants the Government to clear the North as it did in the East if they were to enjoy lasting peace. `We want the Government to clear the North as it did in the East and establish peace. Only then we will be able to go back to our homes and lead a secure life,` the family of father, mother and three children living under the protection of the Navy told the media yesterday. They said they witnessed on television how the Navy rescued their people and that is why they decided to travel in a dingy boat risking the elements. They said they got to know that the Navy rescued people travelling by sea who display a flag. That is why they sneaked around 2.00 a.m. in a dingy boat.
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| Business / Economy News
Business News Forum
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SriLankan Airlines a runner-up in Best Asian Airline survey Saturday, 11 August 2007 - 6:36 AM SL Time A latest survey conducted by UK`s Daily telegraph revealed that the national carrier of Sri Lanka, SriLankan Airlines has been voted one of four runners up in Best Asian Airline survey. The Best Asian Airline category was won by Singapore Airlines, with runners up including Thai Airways, Malaysian Airlines, Cathay Pacific and SriLankan Airlines. The Telegraph carried out the `Ultratravel 100` survey on reader`s experiences in luxury travel. In the past SriLankan Airlines has been awarded Best Airline in Central Asia for four consecutive years and Best Airline in South Asia three times.
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Opposition alleges `suspicious` activities in the port Saturday, 11 August 2007 - 6:02 AM SL Time UNP yesterday informed Parliament that any future government which the party would form will cease to honour the $ 400 Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan offered for the Colombo South Port Terminal Project or any other loan that may be raised by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) for the purpose if any corrupt or unlawful practice is observed in the tender process to select a contractor. The party informed this decision just hours before the tender Board was to meet to make the final selection. Tender Board was due to meet last evening. UNP MP John Amaratunga who moved an adjournment motion on the South Port Terminal Project and the Breakwater project in the House yesterday charged that some fraudulent and corrupt practices have taken place in the evaluation stages to accommodate a `favoured` tenderer without taking into due consideration the core requirement of generating adequate income to repay the loan.
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Gypsies to get special village in Vakarai Friday, 10 August 2007 - 4:12 AM SL Time Social Services and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Lionel Premasiri has made arrangements to provide permanent homes for Vakarai`s gypsy community, Ministry sources said. The sources said the Deputy Minister took this decision following discussions with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and some members of the gypsy community living in Moratuwa. During discussions, President Rajapaksa had pointed out that the term `under-privileged social classes` should be totally eradicated. It has been decided to establish a special village for the gypsy community in Vakarai area and provide them vocational training. The Minister also promised to provide identity cards for adults and medical camp for their children. Premasiri handed them lanterns, dry rations and candles during an inspection tour to Moratuwa where some members of the gypsy community are living. According to members of the gypsy community they do not have identity cards and registration in the electoral registry.
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| Editorial News
Editorial News Forum
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A question of tweedledum and tweedledee Saturday, 11 August 2007 - 6:33 AM SL Time Karuna Amman must be regretting that he ever left the LTTE. For, had he been committing what he is accused of?abductions, child recruitment, killings, intimidation and extortion?under Prabhakran, no one would ever have demanded that he be disarmed. He became a bad guy only after March 2004, when he broke ranks with Prabhakaran. UN Humanitarian Affairs chief John Holmes, who was here briefly the other day, called upon the government to disarm the Karuna Group, as it was operating in the government held areas. Is it that the UN doesn`t mind the human rights violations in the other areas that are currently being held by the LTTE? Or, is it that the UN recognizes those areas as being separate from the rest of the country?
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Not smiles but tears! Thursday, 9 August 2007 - 4:49 AM SL Time `Enna sinasenna? negenahiru dekaganna ?` goes the sweet melody repeated regularly over the state media that invite people to smile and come to view the liberated East! However, it is not smiles that would come to any one`s lips on seeing the conditions prevailing there, but tears to their eyes. The report this newspaper carried on Monday Under the heading ` `Liberation` and the human tragedy of the East` is sufficient proof that the hapless people in that area, far from being liberated and their normal life restored, they seem condemned to languish longer under trying conditions. The people there have rightly refused, as our report says, to be interviewed or photographed saying that it would be another story for the newspaper but their condition would remain unchanged. This attitude demonstrates the depths of their frustration and hopelessness. One may recall that we in these columns commended the work done by the authorities to resettle some 95,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) following government reports on the matter. But our present report is clear about the pathetic condition of their existence, even their most essential and basic needs such as potable water denied to them.
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Prabhakaran`s luck Wednesday, 8 August 2007 - 5:52 AM SL Time Prabhakaran has always been lucky. Whenever he fights his way into a cul-de-sac and is about to be done for, someone rushes to his rescue. In 1987, when he was trapped in Vadamarachchi, where he would definitely have perished, India intervened, dropped parippu and whisked him away in a chopper thus ensuring the protraction of her neighbour`s conflict, which has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths ever since. Then the late President Premadasa saved him from the IPKF, which had reduced the LTTE to about six hundred cadres. Prabhakaran showed gratitude to Rajiv Gandhi and President Premadasa for the services rendered in his inimitable style. Both were blown to smithereens!
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| Sports News
Sports News Forum
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Grow up, England! Saturday, 11 August 2007 - 6:34 AM SL Time Hardly a week gets by without some lid lifting off somewhere in the cricket world and heralding another controversy of sorts. It is the sort of thing which keeps us commentators in business. Gone are the days when a vacation was thrust upon us because there was no cricket being played. Now we need to seek it ourselves if we so wish, because cricket goes on, unworried, unhindered, unabated, uncovering controversy at every turn. And the latest has been the jelly bean saga. The culprits being England, and the whole episode looking silly enough to be shoo shooed by even kindergarten kids as unworthy of consideration even as a diversion to an afternoon`s boredom. Kids occasionally try to behave like grown ups and that is tolerable. But when grown ups behave like kids, it looks downright silly the attendant humour - if any - almost delinquent. More so, when it is in the middle of a Test match. And even more so, when condemnation from the hierarchy within the camp concerned is totally absent, even after good sense has dawned.
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Sri Lanka pack Twenty20 squad with all-rounders Friday, 10 August 2007 - 4:09 AM SL Time Sri Lanka have picked three seam bowling all-rounders in a strong-looking 15-man squad for the ICC Twenty20 World Championship. Sri Lanka`s selectors chose to keep faith with the core of the squad that lost the World Cup final to Australia in April, but added several utility players well suited to the shorter 20-over game. Left-hander Jehan Mubarak replaces Russel Arnold who retired after the World Cup. All-rounders Hasantha Fernando and Gayan Wijekoon were included in place of fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekera and former captain Marvan Atapattu, who has been released from his central contract. All-rounder Kaushal Lokuarachchi was preferred to leg spinner Malinga Bandara because of his greater batting qualities in addition to his ability to bowl leg spin.
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Bedi labels Murali a `Monster` Thursday, 9 August 2007 - 4:56 AM SL Time Lashing out at the ICC for bending rules to aid `chuckers` like Muttiah Muralitharan, former Indian spin legend Bishan Singh Bedi said the Sri Lankan off-spinner is a `monster` who is killing the game by setting a wrong precedent for youngsters. `That man (Muralitharan) is the best shot-putter in the history of cricket. People like him are just killing the game and nobody is doing anything about it,` Bedi said at a function here. `The most worrying thing is that young boys are trying to emulate him. So the ICC have ended up creating a monster with all their technological nonsense to help him continue,` he added. Bedi, who has been quite vocal in his criticism of the Lankan bowler`s action in the past, said Muralitharan had been allowed to take advantage of a physical deformity which was unfair on the batsmen.
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