HINDUSTAN TIMES: Prabhakaran’s Jaffna house demolished
Posted: April 30, 2010 | Leave a CommentSlain Tamil Tiger chief Vellupillai Prabhakran’s ancestral house in the Jaffna peninsula has been demolished, a Tamil politician said on Thursday. M K Sivajilingam from the Tamil National Liberation Alliance told HT over phone from Jaffna that Prabhakaran’s house, located in Valvettithurai, about 30 km from Jaffna town, was “gradually” demolished in the last few weeks.
Prabhakaran was killed on May 18. “The house was slowly demolished by security forces in the last few weeks as it was becoming a tourist attraction. I saw it on April 21 and again today. It is a pile of rubble,” Sivajilingam said. Full Story
FORBES: Sri Lanka: Ready For Business
Posted: April 30, 2010 | Leave a CommentForbes: What are you doing to put the economic fundamentals in place now that the war is finally over?
Ajith Nirvad Cabraal: Inflation is down from a high of 28.6% in June 2008 to 3-4% last year. We’re taking a prudent approach and going forward we will keep a close tab on it. We didn’t allow the [Sri Lankan] rupee to depreciate and we targeted reserve money strongly. Even the IMF told us that we were [perhaps] too strong but we wanted to get into shape quickly. One problem was high food prices and 2.5 years ago we took a fairly significant decision to double our paddy crop. Sixty percent of the population is in rural areas so we took care of the farmers and shifted income of 54 billion rupees ($475 million) from urban to rural [pockets]. Rice prices are down now [after initially going up in urban areas] because of higher yields. Full Story
DAILY NEWS: Facelift for Colombo ahead of Indian Film Festival
Posted: April 30, 2010 | Leave a CommentColombo City is to receive model roads and a facelift coinciding with the 11th International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA). Colombo Municipal Council Chief City Administrator Omar Kamil said during the last eight months there were some fast tracking in the services of CMC such as road construction, garbage removal etc.
Rs.75 million was allocated to provide a facelift to the Colombo city roads. “The 11th IIFA film festival will be held in Colombo from June 3 to 5. Many main roads which were prepared for reconstruction will be upgraded coinciding with the IIFA. These roads will be reconstructed as model roads,” Kamil said. Full Story
DAILY MIRROR: TID occupied our premises illegally: Petitioners
Posted: April 30, 2010 | Leave a CommentThe Supreme Court yesterday (29) granted leave to proceed with the rights petition filed by two expatriate Sri Lankans complaining that their premises at Wellawatte was being unlawfully occupied by Officers of the Terrorist Investigation Department.
The Bench comprising Justices Shirani Tilakawardane, K.Sripavan and P.A.Ratnayake also made order that the present status quo (existing state of affairs) should remain. Court granted leave for the alleged infringement of their fundamental right to equality. Objections are to be filed within six weeks and counter affidavits within three weeks. The case was listed for hearing on August 25. Saliya Peiris instructed by Gowry Shangary Thavarasha appeared for the Petitioners. Full Story
LBO: Sri Lanka Shree FM wins international broadcasting award
Posted: April 29, 2010 | Leave a CommentSri Lankan radio channel Shree FM, owned and operated by the E A P Edirisinghe group, has won the 2010 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) International Broadcasting Excellence Award, a statement said.
The award is in recognition of Shree FM’s “outstanding commitment” to serving its audience and the public through its community service programme, Shree Sathkaraka Rohala (Shree Mobile Medical Camp). Full Story
NATIONAL POST: A way forward for Sri Lankan Canadians
Posted: April 28, 2010 | Leave a CommentSri Lanka: To many, it is a small island off the Indian coast, torn asunder by decades of civil war. Yet few understand the complexity of its conflicts or its people. Sri Lanka’s demography is both Tamil and Sinhalese (along with a number of other significant subcultures). The ethnic profile of the Sri Lankan diaspora in Canada is representative of this diversity, but there has been very little interaction or dialogue amongst them, even here.
On April 11, a mixed group of Sri Lankan Canadian young professionals and business leaders met at the Holiday Inn in Markham, Ont., to change precisely that. Full Story
NEWS.LK: Build new structures to achieve full potential of SAARC - President
Posted: April 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment“Let us within our own grouping be bold enough to introspect. We must take measures to improve the existing mechanisms through review, rationalization and re-invigoration. If there is a need, we should not hesitate to build new structures and mechanisms, to enable SAARC to reach its full potential,” said President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his address to 16th SAARC Summit at Thimphu, Bhutan today. Full Story
THE ISLAND: Gota wants police reformed
Posted: April 28, 2010 | Leave a CommentDefence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa demands urgent remedial action to restore public confidence in the police. “Now that the war against the LTTE is over, their priorities should change without further delay to meet people’s aspirations,” he said.
In his first public criticism of the police department, Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said that the police had been accused of failing to investigate complaints or delaying inquiries. He referred to weakness on the part of the police in prosecuting cases, while calling for corrective measures. Full Story
TIME: The Long Reach of Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa Dynasty
Posted: April 28, 2010 | Leave a CommentHe won his first presidential election in 2005 by a razor thin margin of 180,000 votes. Five years later, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was re-elected, by a victory margin of over 1.8 million votes.
Since then, the man hailing from the deep south of the country has proved countless detracters and arm-chair critics wrong.There were doubters who did not think he could get his own party’s candidacy for the 2005 presidential race to replace Chandrika Kumaratunga. Ever fewer gave him any chance of victory when he launched military operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2005 to end the island’s long years of bloody civil war. Full Story
DAILY MIRROR: 125th Anniversary First hoisting of Buddhist flag in the country
Posted: April 28, 2010 | Leave a CommentToday marks the occasion of the 125th Anniversary of the first hoisting of the Buddhist Flag. To commemorate this historic event, special religious ceremonies have been organized around the world. Full Story