Colombo stops construction of cricket stadium in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 October 2010, 03:13 GMT]
The Sri Lanka’s Department of Archaeology has instructed the Divisional Secretary of the Trincomalee Town and Gravets to stop work immediately on the construction of a cricket stadium in the Trincomalee esplanade. The directive was issued by the Department of Archaeology following the finding of a stone inscription from the site while the leveling of the ground was in progress.
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Fonseka not prepared to ask for pardon from Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 October 2010, 18:14 GMT]
Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, Monday told journalists in Colombo that he would prefer to serve life imprisonment and die in prison rather than asking for a pardon from “gangsters”. Mr. Fonseka talked to journalists when he was brought to Colombo High Court Monday by prison officials from Welikada prison for making his presence in “white flag” case.
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Rajapaksa to take oaths for second term in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 October 2010, 10:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to be sworn in for the second term on November 19 and the venue of the ceremony will be Colombo and not Anuradhapura in the North Central Province as earlier stated in the media quoting some ministerial sources. The reason for the change of the venue is not revealed by the authorities concerned.
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Indian naval ships arrive in Trincomalee for joint training

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 October 2010, 10:30 GMT]
Three ships of the Indian Navy arrived in Trincomalee harbour Saturday morning around 10:30 a.m on a goodwill and training mission between Indian Navy and Sri Lanka Navy (SLN). INS Dheer, INS Shardul and INS Coast Guard vessel Varuna are anchored in Trincomalee harbour. The fourth vessel INS Tarangini has arrived in Colombo harbour. The four ships with 160 Indian naval officer cadets are scheduled to stay in Sri Lanka till 15th October, naval sources said.
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Fonseka instructs wife not to appeal for pardon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 October 2010, 04:59 GMT]
Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, has instructed his wife Anoma and his children not to appeal for pardon on behalf of him as he had done nothing wrong, media reports in Colombo said. He had issued this instruction to Anoma Fonseka when she visited him in Welikada prison Friday where her husband is serving a rigorous imprisonment. Sarath Fonseka had told his wife that there was no necessity to apologize on his behalf as he had done nothing wrong, the report said.
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Pakistan joins Sri Lanka in execution video storm

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 October 2010, 01:16 GMT]
In the wake of criticism on Pakistan's human rights abuses by key US Congressmen, Pakistan's military Friday ordered an investigation into a video, widely available in the internet, showing Pakistani soldiers summarily executing blindfolded men in civilan dress, Washington Post reported. A similar, but more horrendous, video showing Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers extra-judicially executing blindfolded men, stripped naked with hands tied back was shown by British Channel-4 news in August 25th and declared authentic after a UN investigation, but no attempts have yet been made by Colombo to investigate the crime to identify the perpetrators.
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Parliamentarian Radhakrishnan to lead UPF political wing

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 October 2010, 17:18 GMT]
V.Radhakrishnan, a senior parliamentarian of the Ceylon Workers Congress, one of the constituent parties of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) is to lead the political wing of the Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) which was founded and led by late Mr. Periyasamy Chandrasekaran.
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Fonseka loses parliamentary seat

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 October 2010, 12:34 GMT]
Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Leader, parliamentarian and former Sri Lanka Army commander Sarath Fonseka has lost his seat in the Sri Lankan Parliament on Thursday, according to the Parliamentary Secretary General Dhammika Dissanayake, sources in Colombo said. Sarath Fonseka, who challenged Mahinda Rajapaksa in the presidential election, was sentenced for 30 months rigorous imprisonment last week after he was found guilty at the first Military Court Martial.
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Colombo takes control of historic Kanniyaa hot wells in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 October 2010, 06:08 GMT]
The Government Agent of Trincomalee Major General (retired) Ranjith de Silva Tuesday stopped the Trincomalee Town and Gravets Pradesya Saba (PS) from maintaining the historic Kanniyaa Hot Wells stating that it belongs to the Department of Archaeology. The Government Agent (GA) also directed his men to remove the name board put up by the Pradesya Saba stating that the ancient King Raava'nan founded the hot wells and constructed the Pi’l’laiyaar temple to conduct the 31st day ritual ('Anthiraddi' rites) to his deceased mother. The Hindus in this region conduct "Anthiraddi" rites in memory of their deceased kith and kin.
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SLA opens ‘luxury’ resort in occupied Tamil land

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 October 2010, 18:31 GMT]
A ‘tourist resort’ owned and managed by Sri Lanka Army was opened at Kaangkeasanthu’rai in the occupied ‘High Security Zone’ in the Jaffna Peninsula on Monday by Colombo’s Army commander Jagath Jayasuriya. The resort bears a Sinhala name ‘Thalsevana’. The HSZ there was created after evacuating several ancient villages of Tamils. On Sunday, the Army rejected all possibilities of resettling the displaced. The Army didn’t permit the re-opening of a Central College in the zone either. If a tourist resort could be opened there by the army, what is the meaning of continuing the area as HSZ, asked a person who is unable to even visit his house and land there. While Sri Lanka teaches new lessons to the world on genocide, there are some ‘responsible’ global bigwigs who advise Tamils not to call a spade, a spade, he further said.
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Colombo shuns Eastern province TNA parliamentarians

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 October 2010, 17:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has failed to invite Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Eastern Province parliamentarians to the Eastern Provincial Development review meeting held Monday in the Naval Headquarters auditorium in Trincomalee presided by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa, P. Selvarasa, Batticaloa distirct TNA parliamentarian said. Shunning the representatives democratically elected by the people to participate in decision making meetings by Sri Lanka government reveals how very much it discriminates the Tamils, he added.
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Swindler from South arrested in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 October 2010, 04:30 GMT]
A person from southern Sri Lanka who tried to cheat the war-affected women in Changkaanai in Valikaamam Jaffna was caught by local government officers and handed over to Maanippaay police. He had announced in the local media that he would help to get compensation money from Sri Lanka government and that the applicants should pay an amount of money for registration. He was caught when he was about to organize a meeting for the registration of applicants in Changkaanai. The person is detained in Maanippay police station for interrogation.
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Sunday Leader Editor first witness in ‘white flag’ case

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 October 2010, 15:22 GMT]
Ms. Fredica Janz, Editor of the Sunday Leader, is listed as the first witness in the case against Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), related to the ‘White Flag’ issue. Fonseka, in an interview to the Sunday Leader, had alleged that Sri Lanka Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse had ordered not to spare any Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres surrendering with white flags but to shoot all of them dead. The case is scheduled to be taken up for inquiry before a three-member bench of the Colombo High Court presided by Deepali Wijesundera Monday.
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Lightening kills 5 in southern Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 October 2010, 15:05 GMT]
Lightening claimed the lives of five persons within twenty-four hours in the districts of Moneragala, Gampaha and Ratnapura in southern Sri Lanka. Some persons are missing due to floods following torrential rain. The number of missing persons has not been officially released by the Disaster Management Centre in Colombo. Sri Lanka has been experiencing heavy rains since Friday.
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Acute shortage for wheat flour in Colombo due to price hike

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 October 2010, 12:57 GMT]
An acute shortage for wheat flour prevails in Colombo as traders have hoarded their stocks expecting price of wheat flour to be increased by Sri Lanka government, sources in Colombo said. SL government had raised the price of wheat flour twice in the recent past and the price of 450 gm bread has shot up from 40 rupees to 44 rupees with the price hike of 8 rupees per kilo wheat flour enforced from Saturday midnight. The people hit most by the rise of price of bread are the plantation workers in the central hills who eat bread for all three meals of the day. Most of the people in Colombo who eat bread for breakfast and dinner too are badly affected, the sources added.
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EPDP Thinamurasu published as daily paper in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 October 2010, 03:14 GMT]
Thinamurasu, the Eealam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) weekly that was published in Colombo and issued in Jaffna peninsula by EPDP leader and Sri Lanka minister Douglas Devananda was released in Jaffna Friday as a daily when he opened his press located in Chu’ndikkuzhi on Jaffna main road. It is alleged that Douglas Devananda had coerced the editors and workers of former ‘Namathu Eezhanaadu’ daily which had stopped publishing, into working in his newly opened press, local media sources said.
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Kuruwita, Kurunægala

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 October 2010, 02:57 GMT]
The small hill
The small rocky hill
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Mahinda Rajapakse ratifies Second Court Martial findings against Fonseka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 September 2010, 16:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse as the Commander-in-Chief ratified the Second Court Martial recommendation against Sarath Fonseka Thursday with an endorsement that he should serve only thirty months in prison instead of thirty-six months. The Second Court Martial had recommended that Fonseka should serve thirty-six months in prison on being found guilty for irregularities violating tender procedures in purchasing arms to Sri Lanka Army. Meanwhile, military spokesman Major General Ubaya Medawala said that Sarath Fonseka would be serving a rigorous imprisonment.
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Sarath Fonseka appears in court on ‘white flag issue’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 September 2010, 20:36 GMT]
The trial-at-bar in Colombo High Court Tuesday re-fixed the inquiry for October 4 and 5 in the case against former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Sarath Fonseka. Fonseka is charged for disclosing military secrets that the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse had issued orders not to spare any of the LTTE cadres surrendering with white flags in the final battle and that the surendees should be shot dead.
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Court dismisses petition against Fonseka's election to parliament

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 September 2010, 20:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal Tuesday rejected a petition challenging the election of Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army to Sri Lanka parliament from the Colombo district in the last general election held on April 8. The petition came up for inquiry before a three member bench. The petitioner Anandan Mohandas of Haputale sought the Court of Appeal to declare the election of Fonseka as null and void as he was not a registered voter in Sri Lanka.
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