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Did LTTE miss intended target? Wednesday, 9 January 2008 - 10:10 AM SL Time Minister of Nation Building D. M. Dasanayake may not have been the intended target of yesterday`s claymore mine blast close to the Ja-ela police station.
`It could be a case of mistaken identity or an opportunity target,` a security official said asserting that the Chief Government Whip and Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, who regularly used the Colombo-Negombo road, would have been definitely high on the LTTE hit list. The Island learns that Dasanayake is not among the ruling coalition members who had been provided with large security contingents depending on the threat faced from the LTTE. The 54-year-old politician, who first entered Parliament in August 1994 on the PA ticket, was on his way to Parliament to attend the inaugural sessions of the House for 2008 when the blast hit his vehicle (HI 4968) at 10.35 am. 
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Blast near Lake House Press in Sri Lanka Tuesday, 8 January 2008 - 8:56 PM SL Time An explosion has taken place next to the Regent flats, close to the Lake House roundabout, short while ago. According to the defence.lk sources, the bomb has been exploded in a public phone booth this evening (January 08) at around 7.50.p.m.
However, the bomb seemed to have a minimal effect on the civilians using the road, sources added. Defence sources reporting from the site say, that no damages were caused to civilians. Police request from the general public to avoid from gathering at such locations as terrorists may await to cause more mayhem. Search operations are underway, security sources said.
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Sri Lankan minister dies in blast Tuesday, 8 January 2008 - 7:35 PM SL Time A Sri Lankan government minister, DM Dassanayake, has died in hospital after a roadside bomb attack on his convoy.
The minister for nation-building was travelling between Colombo and the island`s international airport when the bomb went off. One other person died and about 10 were wounded in the blast in Ja-Ela town, some 12 miles (19km) north of Colombo. Tamil Tiger rebels have been blamed for the attack. Fighting between troops and rebels has worsened in recent months. There has been no comment from the Tamil Tigers. Mr Dassanayake died while undergoing surgery for severe head wounds, according to reports from the hospital in the nearby town of Ragama where he was taken. `The minister was on his way to parliament when his white Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle was hit by a claymore [mine],` military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said.
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| Security
Security Forum
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Senior Ltte Leader Shankar Gunned D.. Thursday, 10 January 2008 - 12:26 PM SL Time Police Special Task Force (STF) personnel gunned down an area leader of LTTE terrorists at Saukade in Batticaloa this afternoon (January 9), defence sources said. Terrorist leader in charge of Batticaloa district, Shankar was killed in the shooting incident that occurred around 12.45.p.m, sources added. The incident occurred when the police commandos acting on civilian information were engaged in a cordon and search operation in the area. The STF personnel have shot the terrorist leader when he had attempted to escape the cordon throwing a hand grenade. No STF casualties have been reported due to the explosion of the hand grenade. STF has found one micro pistol with nine rounds and one hand grenade in the possession of the slain LTTE leader.
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Police Commandos Bag Top Ltte Intel.. Thursday, 10 January 2008 - 11:40 AM SL Time Shankar, a senior military leader of the LTTE in the Batticaloa district, was shot dead at noon yesterday by the Special Task Force (STF) in Chaukadi, Eravur. `Shankar was head of the Pistol Gang of the Tigers for many years in Batticaloa. His group had been responsible for the killing of many of their opponents, mainly Karuna cadres,` DIG Nimal Lewke, Commandant of the STF said. The slain Tiger leader has been responsible for extorting several millions of rupees from businessman and had been in the habit of demanding money even from vendors, he said Two recent victims of his Pistol Gang were two Pingo traders from Moratuwa selling furniture. LTTE had demanded money from them and when they said they didn`t have any money to give them they were shot dead without any provocation, Lewke said.
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14 Sri Lanka Army Killed In Mannaar.. Wednesday, 9 January 2008 - 10:15 AM SL Time Liberation Tigers Operations Command of Maanaar told media Tuesday that a ground movement by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was thwarted at Mu`l`ikku`lam in Mannaar after 3 hours stiff resistance by the Tigers. Four more SLA soldiers were killed, trapped in a booby trap, while they were retreating with their casualties around 11:00 a.m., the Tigers said. Around 40 SLA troops were wounded, according to the LTTE claim. There were no Tiger casualties, they said. But, the SLA claimed that they had killed six LTTE fighters when the Tigers attempted to enter an area under SLA control. The SLA claimed to have thwarted `pockets of LTTE resistance` in the area. The Tigers said the SLA used heavy artillery, including Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir fighters also engaged in air strikes in support of the SLA troop movement.
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| Politics
Political News Forum
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Sergeant killed with Minister in Sri Lanka promoted posthumously Thursday, 10 January 2008 - 12:32 PM SL Time Sergeant K.P. Ratnayake who was killed along with Minister D.M. Dassanayake in the ltte claymore attack has been posthumously promoted to the rank of Sub Inspector. He served as a sergeant of the Ministerial Security Division at the time of his death. Born in 1969, he is a father of two children. The body is lying at his residence at Kumbukwewa in Nikerwaratiya. The funeral will take place at the family burial grounds on Friday.
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Tight security for Sri Lankan MPs Thursday, 10 January 2008 - 11:42 AM SL Time Sri Lanka has increased security for members of parliament a day after the assassination of a government minister. The minister for nation-building, DM Dassanayake, was killed after a roadside bomb attack on his convoy near Colombo. A bodyguard also died. Tamil Tiger rebels have been blamed for the attack. Fighting between troops and rebels has worsened in recent months. The military says 38 rebels and one soldier were killed in battles in the north of the country on Tuesday. The figure could not be independently confirmed. There has been no comment from the Tigers. The number of bodyguards and security vehicles assigned to lawmakers has been increased, news agency AFP quoted parliament Speaker WJM Lokubandara as saying. `The government has agreed to increase the security of MPs with immediate effect,` he said.
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UNPers protest in Parliament Wednesday, 9 January 2008 - 10:27 AM SL Time UNP Parliamentarians yesterday morning disrupted the normal business of the House by displaying a large green banner: `Is VIP security only for bosses of the Government?` and large posters bearing the photograph of assassinated UNP Parliamentarian T. Maheswaran which said: `Murderers who silenced Maheswaran cannot still his voice.` `Mahinda Chintana murders parliamentarians.` This took place immediately after SLMC member Shafeek Rajabdeen was sworn in as an MP before the Speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara. The UNP members wore black saatakas over their shoulders except for the Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe who wore a black tie.
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| Business / Economy News
Business News Forum
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Three ministries fork out over Rs 28 mn as rent Thursday, 10 January 2008 - 11:41 AM SL Time Three State Ministries are paying an accrued annual rent of over 28 million rupees to the private sector for the buildings they occupy. This was revealed in answers to questions in Parliament raised by R. P. A. Ranaweera Pathirana, Anuradhapura District MP yesterday (9). According to the reply, the Ministry of Water Supply and Drainage Board was paying an annual rent of Rs.6,624,000 for one building and an additional Rs. 1,134,000 for a second building. The Ministry of Community Development and Social Inequity Eradication pays an annual rent of Rs.14,400,000 and the Ministry of Youth Empowerment and Socio Economic Development pays Rs.6,000,000. MP Pathirana queried whether such a large sum of money could not have been saved if such a large number of ministries were not created, splitting one ministry into a number of new ministries. This vast sum of money could have been spent on employment of at least to 20 to 25 people under each ministry.
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Rs 100 million gone to the dogs of Sri Lanka Monday, 7 January 2008 - 10:34 AM SL Time The government intends to spend a staggering Rs. 100 million to control the growing stray dog population through a countrywide vaccination and sterilization programme. The project got underway last week. The initial programme will be implemented around hospitals and healthcare institutions with plans to cover the other places subsequently. Health Ministry last year reported 730,000 cases of dog bites, approximately 2,000 bites per day. The government spends about Rs 14,500 to treat a single victim. A senior official said that Rs 500 million is set aside for treatment alone on annually. `This is a staggering cost. We now plan to control growth of the dog population through a sterilization programme. This would help tackle the problem,` Ministry spokesman said.
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Top doc opposes finger print register prescribes attitudinal change Monday, 7 January 2008 - 10:33 AM SL Time The public administration system that is in operation is rigid. However, there is no proper implementation of the existing system. The best way to tackle this problem is to effect changes to it, Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe told The Island yesterday. Political interference, he said, had had a detrimental impact on the public administration system rendering it inefficient and ineffectual. He challenged the assertion that public servants were not honest, hard working, irresponsible and simply not interested in doing any work. `This is not entirely true, because there are dedicated officers in the government sector. We need to make tangible changes. The heads of department should be responsible for the conduct of our staff members,` he said. Dr. Abeysinghe is one of the senior administrators who strongly resisted the introduction of the finger print attendance register for health workers. It would not improve the efficiency of the service, he said, pointing out that it would antagonise a section of the staff as it could not be implemented at all levels in the health sector.
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| Editorial News
Editorial News Forum
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Offering soya meat to Sri Lankan Tigers, the EU way Thursday, 10 January 2008 - 12:19 PM SL Time Tiger Chief Prabhakaran has no reason to be crestfallen, though he is badly cornered in the heart of his dark empire. He has true friends, who haven`t left him in the lurch. They are doing their damnedest to take him off the hook. They are bringing immense pressure to bear on the government to abandon the war effort and give him a breather. Their modi operandi hark back to gunboat diplomacy that India used to prevent Sri Lanka from finishing him off in 1987. Many are the nations `troubled` by the government`s decision to pull the plug on the moribund CFA, which was heavily biased towards the LTTE. Among them are the knights in shining armour on a much advertised crusade against global terrorism.
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Caravan of death trundles on Wednesday, 9 January 2008 - 10:11 AM SL Time It never rains but it pours. Yesterday`s assassination of Minister D. M. Dasanayake came close on the heels of the felling of UNP MP T. Maheswaran inside a Kovil on January 01 and the attack on a bus carrying injured soldiers in Colombo. The claymore mine blast that took the minister`s life had the trademark of the LTTE. That cowardly attack is, no doubt, condemned unreservedly by all right thinking people. Ironically, the deadly explosion occurred at Ja-Ela, while Parliament was in session and the UNP MPs were protesting against the tragic demise of their colleague Maheswaran. When Maheswaran was gunned down, his killing was blamed on lack of security. True, if he had been provided with more security personnel he might have been able to escape death on that day. But, his killer or killers wouldn`t have given up so easily. Pointing out in these columns on Jan. 02 that they would have used some other method like an ambush or a claymore mine attack to achieve their macabre end, we argued that no amount of security would be sufficient to protect anyone unless an end was put to the existing culture of violence.
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Of those troubled friends of Lanka Monday, 7 January 2008 - 10:37 AM SL Time India has announced that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will not grace Sri Lanka`s 60th Independence Day celebrations on Feb. 04. `Scheduling difficulties` and the Prime Minister`s health have been given as the reasons. However, it is being speculated in the diplomatic circles, as we reported yesterday, that the Indian government`s decision could have something to do with issues like the delay on the part of the Sri Lankan government to propose a political solution to the conflict. Dr. Singh is greatly admired by the people of this country and they would have loved to see him here. (They also adore former President Abdul Kalam and it is unfortunate that India failed to retain the Singh-Kalam combination!) But, if the great man cannot come for whatever reason, so be it! Life must go on. Sri Lanka will have to look for someone else to grace the occasion.
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| Sports News
Sports News Forum
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Cricket needs to recognise India as superpower Thursday, 10 January 2008 - 12:23 PM SL Time So it can be done, though it won`t be done this time. Like others before them, a competitive Indian team have been broken by the Australians in word and deed. And what a sad sight this latest Australian victory makes, for the game lies bleeding, with cricket-lovers everywhere, quite rightly, fearing for its future. Anger, while appropriate as an initial response to the general nastiness in Sydney, is ultimately self-defeating because it is corrosive. Which is not to say that it will not persist, because there are too many vested interests at stake in the rapidly changing world of international cricket. What has happened on this tour is the convergence of the modern game`s major fault lines: the arrogance that has accompanied Australia`s evergreen dominance on the field of play, the commercial importance of India off it (which, in turn, brings an arrogance of its own), and the chronic inability of the International Cricket Council to serve the game`s best interests.
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Sri Lanka Cricket sides with BCCI on racism row Wednesday, 9 January 2008 - 10:40 AM SL Time Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) got behind the BCCI on the racism row, saying the hearing into the charges against Harbhajan Singh was not conducted in a `proper manner`. The SLC secretary K Mathivanan said the ICC should initiate a proper enquiry into the matter. `I think the enquiry was not very fair. It should be done in a proper manner. There should be more evidence,` he told PTI. Harbhajan was accused by the Australians of racially abusing all-rounder Andrew Symonds during the second Test in Sydney, which led to a three-match ban on him. The BCCI appealed against the ban, which now stands suspended until the appeal the disposed. Mathivanan felt Ranjan Madugalle`s appointment, as a facilitator for the match will help control the volatile situation.
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Arjuna plans display a clear bold vision Monday, 7 January 2008 - 10:38 AM SL Time It is a fusty of cliché but even the allegory of how a new broom sweeps clean has its uses. Well, Yahaluweni, as long as the new broom doesn`t sweep old debris under the carpet and allow it to become forgotten. That is always a real danger. The International Cricket Council did that with the early warnings of the match-fixing malpractice in the 1990s and look how that blew up and left rotten egg on the ICC`s image. But Arjuna Ranatunga, aka `Cap`n Cool` could also soon find himself ladled with a new handle (not one of the broom variety either) in `Cap`n Clever` as he negotiates the first weeks of his tenure as chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket. He became an astute captain of the national side and as such earned much international respect.
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