Bank robbery complainants abducted, assaulted in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 11:19 GMT]
Two men abducted and assaulted two employees of the National Savings Bank in Ka'luvaagnchik-kudi in Batticaloa district Thursday evening who had complained to police of the robbery of three million rupees Thursday morning by armed men who had grabbed the bag from the person who had just withdrawn the cash, sources in Batticaloa said. Ka’luvaangchik-kudi police had instructed the two complainants to report at the police station Thursday evening and the two men who had abducted and assaulted the bank employees were near the police station in civil clothes when the complainants went to the police station, according to complaints made to Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, K. Selvarajah.
Full story >>

US landing-ship visits Trincomalee for 'community work'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 09:13 GMT]
Sailors and marines from the amphibious dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbour, visiting Trincomalee last week were engaged in repairing broken bathroom sinks and toilets at the base hospital in Moothoor, said the official website of the United States Navy Thursday. Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan media reported Sunday that Sri Lanka shared her experience in fighting Sea Tigers with the US Navy during the three-day visit of the US Pearl Harbour. While some Sailors and Marines are planning to help with military-to-military training on board Pearl Harbor, others are planning on volunteering for medical assistance events ashore, The Sunday Island said.
Full story >>

Pathmini Sithamparanathan injured in road accident

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 15:50 GMT]
Ms. Pathmini Sithamparanathan, former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian of Jaffna district and her husband Sithamparanathan, lecturer at Jaffna University and two others were injured Saturday around 2:30 p.m when the van in which they were returning from Colombo to Jaffna collided with another vehicle on A9 road in Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi. The injured are admitted in the Intensive Care Unit in Jaffna Teaching Hospital.
Full story >>

SLA installs Buddha statute in Tamil village in Mannaar district

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 15:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers have installed a Buddha statute in Pa’ndivirichchaan, a traditional Tamil village two km from Madu St. Mary’s Church in Madu Assistant Government Agent division in Mannaar district. Residents uprooted during SLA offensive two year back have been recently resettled in Pa’ndivirichchaan.
Full story >>

Upcountry woman found dead in a flat in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 14:59 GMT]
A forty-year-old house maid employed in a flat in New Chetty Street in Kotahena area in Colombo city was found dead. The owner of the flat and her employer had told Kotahena Police that she had committed suicide by hanging. However, the police arrested her employer and detained the for further inquiry as they suspect foul play, police sources said.
Full story >>

Rajapaksa to invite TNA for constitutional talks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 00:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa led government has decided to extend an invitation to both the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) for discussions with regard to proposed constitutional reforms. The invitation follows a reported successful round of talks with the country’s main opposition, the United National Party (UNP).
Full story >>

Mahinda Rajapaksa fears loosing chance of extension of term as SL president - UNP spokesman

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2010, 11:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa due to fear of loosing chance to extend his term as president has invited the main opposition United National Party (UNP) to talks when he realized that talks with the main Tamil political group Tamil National Alliance (TNA) would not yield positive results, Dayasiri Jayasekara, UNP media spokesman and parliamentarian said Thursday in a press briefing held in the UNP office in Colombo. “UNP will never betray the country and the party by holding talks with Mahinda Rajapaksa,” Dayasiri Jayasekara said.
Full story >>

Weiss: Colombo dominated by racist ideologues

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 23:28 GMT]
Arguing the reasons why Sri Lanka is making "fanciful" claims that "as many as half of all Tamil boatpeople have "links" to the Tigers," Gordon Weiss, UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka during the war, says "Its [Sri Lanka's] government is dominated by racist ideologues who promote the notion of the Sinhalese as a "chosen people." Government death squads have snatched thousands of people from the streets over the years. The country's highest court has explicitly rejected the role of international human rights instruments in Sri Lanka's affairs. And the government continues to deny that it killed civilians during the recent war, that there were battlefield executions, that it bombed hospitals, or that there is anything wrong with the sham democratic machinery of the state. The repressive creature of extreme nationalism is alive and well in Sri Lanka."
Full story >>

Naakappaduvan-ku’lam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 18:47 GMT]
The pond named after Naakan of the Paduvar community
Full story >>

Verdict on Sri Lanka should be warning to others: Pakistan Newspaper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 18:07 GMT]
“The verdict on Sri Lanka should come as a warning to other armies fighting on their own soil”, says Thursday’s editorial of Pakistan’s influential newspaper Dawn, commenting on UN’s efforts of war crimes investigation and Sri Lanka’s opposition to it. “The war was conducted by the army but had the full backing of the president who believed that Tamil Eelam was an intractable problem which could not be resolved through political means”, the Dawn said. Meanwhile, Tamil circles were commenting on the war crimes of peace brokers. The former peace facilitator Erik Solheim made a statement last month that lives would have been saved and the UN, the USA and India would have taken over the situation had the LTTE surrendered. Why didn’t he tell this possibility when hundreds of thousands took to street to stop the war, asks Dr. T. Sivakanesan, a member of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam.
Full story >>

4 upcountry women commit suicide in two days

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 16:15 GMT]
Four upcountry Tamil women have committed suicide Wednesday and Thursday according to reports from Bogawanthalawa. Three of them are residents of Bogawanthalawa and one from Pusselawa, police said.
Full story >>

High Security Zones will not be dismantled says SL Minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 15:32 GMT]
Sri Lankan Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella on Thursday said High Security Zones of the Sri Lankan military in strategic locations will remain although the war had ended and people have been claiming ownership of their land. The Sri Lankan minister said even super powers such as the USA were having High Security Zones. Colombo's decision comes while Indian assistance was provided to revive the KKS Harbour, the cement factory and Palaali airstrip, all of which are located inside High Security Zone. The Sri Lankan military is also setting up new bases along the coastal areas of North and East in recent weeks. Tamil circles, commenting on the controversial announcement by Mr. Rambukwella said Colombo was preparing the ground for large-scale Sinhalicisation of strategic Tamil areas
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu Police detains Vaiko, Nedumaran, Rajendran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 15:13 GMT]
Tamil Nadu police arrested Wednesday Vaiko, the leader of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam, Pazha Nedumaran of Tamil Nationalist Movement, Viduthalai Rajendran of Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam and 160 activists including 23 females as they marched in protest towards the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai demanding the closure of it. Mr. Pazha Nedumaran, in a statement issued Friday, had condemned the Indian state for lack of response as Sri Lanka Navy continues to kill Tamil Nadu fishermen while the Sri Lankan government which has been waging a genocidal onslaught on Tamils has gone to the extent of propping up a campaign against the UN office in Colombo, sources in Chennai said.
Full story >>

Drinking water shortage hits resettled families in Maanthai west

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 08:55 GMT]
Resettled uprooted Tamil families in Maanthai west DS division in Mannaar district have been experiencing acute shortage of drinking water as the Sri Lankan government has stopped non-governmental organizations earlier engaged in such humanitarian services. No NGOs or other social service organizations are involved in supplying drinking water to the resettled villagers, civil officials told media.
Full story >>

SLA soldiers sexually harass Tamil women in Paduvaankarai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 08:47 GMT]
Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army are reported to be engaged in sexually harassing resettled Tamil women in the Batticaloa district, according to residents of several resettled villages. SLA soldiers camped in small sentry points located in Thikiliveddai in Ea'raavoor police division have been harassing the women, civil sources say.
Full story >>

SLN constructs big base in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 15:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has begun the preliminary work on the construction of a big base in a 1200 acre land in Koa’ra’laippattu North Divisional Secretariat division in Batticaloa district denying the people of this area their livelihoods besides affecting them socially and economically, sources in Batticaloa said. The Minister of Economic Development who presided over the recent District Development meeting said that the land in question had not been made use of when Batticaloa district Tamil MPs, members of Provincial Council members and local government bodies of Batticaloa raised protest over the encroachment of public land, the sources added.
Full story >>

Thampanaik-ku'lam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 09:28 GMT]
The reservoir in the locality of Thampanai trees (Mischodon zeylanicus)
Full story >>

No peace without justice, says Obama's envoy to Srebrenica

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 03:24 GMT]
On the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, Samantha Power, Director of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the National Security Council in the Obama administration on her way to deliver message from President Obama in Srebrenica-Potocari memorial said, "as a factual matter, as a historical matter – it is very difficult to see lasting peace and stability without this kind of justice. So the more Serbia recognizes, the Bosnian government recognizes what atrocities were committed by its forces, the Croatian government grapples as well, more progress you will see and the more forward we move."
Full story >>

Male body recovered from Thalaimannaar sea coast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 17:34 GMT]
A decomposed corpse of a male was recovered from Nadukkudaa in Thalaimannaar coast Monday by the Thalaimannaar Police. The corpse was later handed to the Mannaar general hospital for further investigation.
Full story >>

Madu uprooted Tamil families abandoned at school without food

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 17:19 GMT]
257 members of 110 uprooted Tamil families have been staying in Periyapa’ndivirichchaan Maha Viththiyaalayam buildings in Madu AGA division in Mannaar district since Saturday without food to elders and milk food to children. They were brought down from temporary shelters in Vavuniyaa and were left in the school building by civil authorities to find their own way to reach their abandoned houses in their villages, sources in Mannaar said.
Full story >>