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12 Muslim houses torched in Akkaraippatu Wednesday, 5 September 2007 - 10:24 AM SL Time A gang of ten Sinhala thugs armed with sharp instruments entered through the borders of Oluvil, and Pa`l`lakkaadu and set fire to 12 Muslim homes in Ashraff town in Akkaraippattu police division in Amparai district Monday evening around 6:00 p.m., local residents said.
The mob rushed into the Muslim area and after chasing out the occupants set the houses on fire and fled from the scene. The occupants of these houses are homeless and are seeking help from the local NGOs to provide the basic necessities and shelter. Tension grips Ashraff town, and the victims fear for their lives. The mob had threatened the residents and warned that the area was the Holy Land of Sinhalese and no one else should live in the area. Police had commenced investigation but no arrests have been made, Akkaraippattu police said. 
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Sri Lanka mulls cost of carrying its fight to Tamil heartland Tuesday, 4 September 2007 - 8:45 PM SL Time Sri Lanka`s government has denied it is preparing to launch an offensive to drive Tamil rebels out of their fortified heartland in the north ? a move analysts warns would exact a heavy death toll.
Speculation has been mounting that the military might push into the dense jungles of the Vanni ? as the rebel stronghold is known ? after soldiers captured a sliver of rebel territory over the weekend. Analysts warned, however, that a move to retake the Vanni would be far more difficult ? and bloodier ? than the army`s recent campaign against the rebels in the east, and the government may not have the military or political strength to pull it off, analysts say. The government has been sending mixed signals about its intentions in recent days, with Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse saying, `the government is determined to liberate the remainder of the uncleared areas in the Vanni ... the same way it liberated the east,` the government-owned Daily News reported last week.
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Independence comes only after ridding of debt burden and rising COL- President Tuesday, 4 September 2007 - 11:49 AM SL Time True independence could be achieved only if we could release ourselves from the burden of debt and the high cost of living created by the rising food costs. We are still paying for loans obtained more than two decades ago for wheat flour and food imports although we have the capacity to produce most of the 100 billion rupees worth of food we import annually President Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday (3).
The President was speaking at the ceremony held to start the National Campaign to motivate domestic food production organized by the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Agrarian Services at the National Youth Council Auditorium, Maharagamaa. President Rajapaksa said the government was aware that food production was not an easy task but it had deliberately chosen it to free the country from the burden of debts and draining out of billions of rupees for imports. Though it was difficult it will serve twin purposes, one in saving valuable foreign exchange and two producing a healthy nation by consuming healthy foods grown with natural fertilizer instead of agrochemicals which created health problems.
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| Security
Security Forum
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Mysterious death of German youth at Royal Park Wednesday, 5 September 2007 - 10:23 AM SL Time A 17-year-old German youth was found dead at the Royal Park condominium, Rajagiriya early morning yesterday. Police are probing the cause of death. Police said the victim had been a frequent visitor to Royal Park. His body was found by a Security Guard outside block `B` of the luxury apartment complex around 6.00 am. OIC Welikada CI Sagara Liyanage said they suspect the victim may have either been murdered or had committed suicide. He had either been pushed out of the apartment or he had jumped, CI Liyanage said. Preliminary investigations revealed that the victim was a frequent visitor to the Royal Park condominium and police are investigating to ascertain who he was visiting at the apartment. The victim Reto Carl Joseph Steurer has been identified as the son of a Director of the German Tech and schooling at an international school in Colombo.
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Tigers planning to use chemical weapons - PM Wednesday, 5 September 2007 - 10:21 AM SL Time Presenting the Motion to extend the State of Emergency in Parliament yesterday (4), Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake said the LTTE had in the past month attempted to penetrate the army`s forward defence lines in the North and had inflicted casualties on the police, the armed forces and the civilians. There was an even more dangerous attempt by the LTTE to use chemicals in warfare. The Asian Tribune Website had revealed the intentions of the LTTE. In addition, recently the police were able to seize a lorry load of chemicals that were being transported to the North and other intelligence reports also point to the fact that the LTTE was preparing for such a destructive course in violation of the international agreements on warfare.
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Police probe German youth`s death Wednesday, 5 September 2007 - 10:20 AM SL Time The Welikada Police yesterday commenced investigations into the death of a German youth at the Royal Park in Rajagiriya. The deceased was identified as Tosaki Joseph (17). He was suspected to have fallen from his apartment window on the 6th floor of the 23 storeyed flat on Monday night. A senior police officer of the Welikada police said they were conducting investigations to find out whether the youth had committed suicide or someone had pushed him out. The body was first seen by the security men of the luxury housing scheme around 6.00 am yesterday and they had reported the incident to the police. The youth was a son of a German director attached to the Ceylon German Technical Training Institute in Ratmalana, police said adding that he had left home on Monday evening to visit one of his friends.
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| Politics
Political News Forum
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Govt has roadmap to end conflict - FM Wednesday, 5 September 2007 - 10:25 AM SL Time Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Monday assured the EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Mrs. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, that ?the Government has a road map in seeking to bring the conflict in Sri Lanka to an end?. Minister Bogollagama also assured that working out the parameters of a political settlement for the process of constitutional reform, was being finalised by a group headed by the Prime Minister, together with leaders of the Political Parties participating in the All Party Representative Committee (APRC). He said the final proposals that would emanate from the APRC would be comprehensive, sustainable and satisfy the concerns of all parties.
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LTTE in France use intimidatory tactics Monday, 3 September 2007 - 11:15 AM SL Time LTTE agents in France in the early hours of Sunday morning destroyed the flag pole and the national flag at the Sri Lanka Embassy and caused damage to the Embassy premises. The Embassy is located at no 16 rue Spontini, Paris 75016, and the flag pole was mounted on the 1st floor of the building which is occupied by the Embassy, Foreign Ministry said yesterday. This attack on the Embassy took place hours before Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama arrived in Paris at the start of an official visit to Europe where he would engage in talks in Paris, Brussels and Frankfurt.
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`Secret agenda` against Sri Lanka Saturday, 1 September 2007 - 8:20 AM SL Time An `invisible hand` is working on a secret agenda to tarnish the good name of Sri Lanka, the chairman of a powerful Presidential Commission said. Mahanama Thilakeratne, chairman of the Commission to investigate killings, disappearances, abductions and unidentified dead bodies said many who were reported disappeared have come back to their relatives unnoticed. `I urge those involved in publicising these events to come to Sri Lanka and seek correct information from the police,` he told journalists in Colombo http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2007/08/070831_commission_conspiracy.shtml
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| Business / Economy News
Business News Forum
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Maldives calls for tourism tie up Wednesday, 5 September 2007 - 10:28 AM SL Time Sri Lanka and the Maldives will jointly promote the emerging tourism markets like China, said the visiting Maldivian Deputy Minister of Tourism, Abdul Hameed Zakariyya. Speaking after the formation of a Sri Lanka Maldives Joint Task Force on Tourism at Sri Lanka Tourist Board yesterday he said that both countries have different produces to offer and a duel destination packages could be easily marketed. The Deputy Minister said that while Sri Lanka offer nature culture, adventure, the Maldives offers beach. `We are not competitors and hence a two way destination package could be easily offered,` he said. Lanka offers attractive Ayurveda therapy. The Minister also said that many Maldivian Hoteliers are keen to invest in Sri Lanka. `Already an investor had leased a land in the eastern province to construct a hotel,` he said. In addition, universal hotels in the Maldives too are looking at investing in Sri Lanka.
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JVP to vote against new tax bills Wednesday, 5 September 2007 - 10:26 AM SL Time The JVP said yesterday it would vote against several finance and tax bills to be taken up in Parliament tomorrow, claiming the bills would cause a `massive burden` on the public. JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake told a news conference yesterday that these finance and tax bills could be compared to a mini-budget as the government was attempting to raise millions of rupees through the introduction of more taxes. Mr. Dissanayake said the government was planning to increase the tab rate charge on mobile phone users from 2.5 to five percent in addition to the fixed charge of Rs. 50. He said mobile phones could no longer be considered a luxury item. `It is a convenient mode of communication. There are five million mobile phone users today`, he added.
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Most of those who disappeared have re-appeared Saturday, 1 September 2007 - 8:23 AM SL Time While claiming that reports on disappearances have dropped significantly in recent months, former High Court Judge Mahanama Tilakaratne, who heads the one-man Commission on abductions and disappearances yesterday said of the 1,992 thought to have disappeared from September last year to June this year, 1,425 had returned. `Since last March, abductions and disappearances have significantly dropped mainly because of the government`s move to prevent such acts,` the former High Court Judge told journalists at the Information Department in Colombo. He said the committee was still probing the cases relating to the remaining 567 who had disappeared and the outcome of the probe would be made known within the next two months. The High Court Judge also said the highest number of abductions and disappearances had been reported between last December and January this year.
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| Editorial News
Editorial News Forum
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Problem of being SB Wednesday, 5 September 2007 - 10:30 AM SL Time Former SLFP heavyweight and present UNP National Organiser S. B. Dissanayake is obviously at the end of his tether. He is being forced into an uneasy cohabitation with his political enemies. Hence, his diatribe against his former boss turned bete noire Chandrika Bandaranaiake Kumaratunga, who has now joined forces with the UNP to topple the government. She will, he has said, certainly ruin the UNP. In taking up that position, he has flown in the face of his leader Ranil Wickremesinghe`s decision to make her a partner in his oust-the-government campaign.
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Aren`t children`s lives precious? Saturday, 1 September 2007 - 8:21 AM SL Time UNICEF is reported to have taken umbrage over the exposure by the government of the identities of some LTTE child combatants. It is doubtful whether the spin doctors of the government are au fait with the international standards as regards reporting on those unfortunate children. Or, they may have thrown caution to the winds in a bid to gain some mileage by exposing the LTTE`s cruelty to children in the on-going propaganda battle. The identification of child combatants is an offence which is perhaps second in severity only to their forcible conscription in that, once their identities are exposed, they have to live with the stigma attached to their past for the rest of their lives even after rehabilitation. They shouldn`t be made to suffer for no fault of theirs.
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Musings on a railway strike Wednesday, 29 August 2007 - 8:37 AM SL Time Rathu Sahodarayas must be nursing their derriere after Monday`s pratfall. If they sought to flex muscles through a railway strike, they had egg on their face in the end. It came a cropper! That is the price a political party has to pay for being cocky. The UNP trade union arm, which could have helped cripple the railway if it had joined forces with the strikers, let the JVP union which called the strike, stew in its own juice. Why? The JVP had not heeded the call by the Mangala-Ranil combine to join the Jana Rala protest campaign. It was tit for tat, as UNP strongman and MP Ravi Karunanayake told this newspaper. Last year, the JVP learnt a bitter lesson from the government, which didn`t agree to its conditions for forging an electoral alliance for the Local Government Polls. The JVP demanded too much and the government decided to go it alone. So did the JVP?only to face disastrous consequences. The problem with the JVP is that it is a poor learner with a massive ego. It never realises that it can neither capture state power on its own nor become the main Opposition in its own right. It has to ride either of the two main parties piggyback or remain what it is?a poor third force.
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| Sports News
Sports News Forum
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Thomian Gunasinghe stars on first day Wednesday, 5 September 2007 - 10:29 AM SL Time Two records were lowered and one meet record was equalled on the opening day of the Milo sponsored Sir John Tarbat Senior Athletic Championship commenced at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday. Ruwan Gunasinghe of S. Thomas` College, Mount Lavinia impressed in the Under-16 boys` long jump erasing a ten year old meet record established by Ashan Randika Fernando of Joseph Vas College Wennapuwa ten years ago. Fernando`s record of 6.64 meters was established in 1997 and that fell when Gunasinghe cleared a distance of 6.84 meters. Later, Gunasinghe stretched his dominance to track events completing the Boys` Under-16 200 meter semi final in 23.8 seconds. Earlier he clocked 23.7 in the 200 meter heats. Sonali Kumari Weerasekara of Sewamuktha Kandaura MV, Sewagama accounted for the other record to fall as she cleared a distance of 36.77 meters in Girls` Under-20 Discus Throw. Incidentally she erased her own record of 36.55 meters established last year.
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Mahela cautiously backs ICL Monday, 3 September 2007 - 11:15 AM SL Time Sri Lanka`s cricket captain Mahela Jayawardene was diplomatic in speaking about the Indian Cricket League, but having weighed the pros and cons of the now banned series, felt that it would be better if the players are given a free hand to play the tournaments, provided it didn`t clash with the international calendar. The national team leaves for South Africa this week for the Twenty-20 World Cup and `The Island` caught up with the Sri Lankan skipper for his views on the tournament and a host of other issues, with the controversial cricket league being high on the agenda. `It`s a sensitive issue and I don`t want to go into detail. It`s similar to playing county cricket and depending on the amount of cricket you play, players should be allowed to try and show their skills,` Jayawardene told `The Island`.
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Sussie proves critics wrong with 200m bronze Saturday, 1 September 2007 - 8:22 AM SL Time Repeated false starts in international athletic meets and pulling out from competition at the last moment citing fake injuries had attracted plenty of criticism on Sri Lanka`s sprint heroine Susanthika and her fast eroding image suffered a further setback when she was disqualified from the 100m sprint in the World Atheltics Championships in Osaka on Sunday. But Jayasinghe proved that she has got plenty to offer for Sri Lankan sport by winning the bronze medal in her pet event ? the 200m dash- yesterday at the Nagi Stadium. Competing in lane seven, Jayasinghe got off to a decent start and hanged on till the end to finish behind defending champion Allyson Felix of the United States and 100m World Champion Veronica Campbell with a timing of 22:63.
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