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May 28, Washington, D.C.: The United States today reiterated its support for the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission established by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to study the causes that led to the three-decade long conflict and measures to prevent such future occurrences.

The Asian Development Bank on Friday asked Sri Lanka to prune the size of its budget to sustain economic stability as the island emerges from decades of ethnic conflict.

The Asian Development Bank has praised efforts of the government to develop infrastructure in the war affected areas.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Sri Lanka Friday to ensure a new panel investigating possible rights abuses be given powers to probe any allegations of war crimes during its long civil conflict.

Source: Reuters WASHINGTON, May 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Sri Lanka on Friday to ensure a new panel investigating possible rights abuses be given powers to probe any allegations of …

Sri Lanka government failed to reveal the deaths of four Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and others injured by lightning at Galle Face Green in Colombo while decorating the area for the War Victory Day celebrations, on 17, 18 April, two days prior to the event, sources in Colombo said. Though the government had concealed [...]

Special Task Force (STF) commandos on road patrol arrested a Tamil youth in Ka’luvaangchchikkudi and another in Kalmunai Wednesday evening claiming that the youths had mobile phones containing recent Channel-4 photos and other such film clips from some other websites, the relatives of the arrestees said. STF had told Kalmunai police where the two youths [...]

May 28, Colombo: A top priority for Sri Lanka is to ensure that rapid reconstruction continues in the conflict-affected areas and the benefits of development reach everyone in the country, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda said today concluding his three-day visit to the island.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday the Sri Lankan post-war reconciliation panel “holds promise,” hoping it will have a broad mandate and resources to pursue claims of wartime atrocities.

Welcome back to 101 East.
This week we are in Sri Lanka as the nation marks its first annivers..

May 28, Colombo: Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa this evening (28) took part in the opening of the Vesak Zone at the Seemamalakaya of the Gangarama Temple in Colombo.

The Sri lankan Governments lack accountability for “one of the worst human rights crises of recent times” and the complicity of global powers and the United Nations in protecting the Sri Lankan Government highlights a failure of the international instruments of justice said Amnesty International Asia Pacific director, Sam Zafiri in an interview with Austrlian [...]

Over 100 Sri Lankan maids in Kuwait who were stranded and living in safe houses operated by the Sri Lankan embassy in Kuwait, are to return to the country on Sunday, the Sri Lankan Foreign Employment bureau said.

Sri Lanka says some of its patent rights have been “stolen” by western countries that have created medicine and antibiotics using extracts of local Ayurvedic products, animals, reptiles and insects.

A year after the crushing of Tamil Tiger rebels, the Sri Lankan government is contemplating to hold local elections in the Northern Province which had been controlled by the rebels for decades.

The Irrigation and Water Resource Management Ministry has ordered the removal of six factories along the banks of the Dandugam Oya in Ja-Ela. The factories release their waste to Dandugam Oya, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, who visited Ja-Ela on…

Fisheries Minister Rajitha Senaratne said yesterday the Fisheries Corporation was financially bankrupt to such an extent that Rs.200 million had been obtained recently on a bank overdraft to pay salaries of employees.

The suicide rate in Sri Lanka has decreased during the last decade, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health.

COLOMBO, May 28 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka will grow at 6 percent this year, but its high fiscal deficit will threaten sustained high economic growth and the nation is vulnerable to external shocks, the Asian Development Bank’s president said on Friday.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa completed 40 years in politics yesterday (27). He entered the then National State Assembly as the youngest member by winning his ancestral Beliatta constituency for the United Front coalition at the May 27,1970 election.

May 28, Colombo: Sri Lanka Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa launched four major development projects in the Northern Province yesterday.

(Lanka-e-News, May 28, 2010, 7.45PM) Fauziah Ibrahim:
Welcome back to 101 East.
This week we are in Sri Lanka as the nation marks its first anniversary after the end of the near 30 year civil war…

The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) yesterday said that they were against a decision taken by the Cabinet to allow Grade one admissions for the following year (2011) to be done the same way it was carried out last year (2009)…

May 28, Colombo: A recent survey has found that electricity circuits in many Sri Lanka schools are not properly set up and maintained, subjecting the students to hazardous conditions.

May 28, Colombo: Sri Lanka government has commenced reconstruction of the bridge from Pooneryn to Jaffna peninsula under the instructions of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

May 28, Colombo: For the first time, a multinational IT company is to open a major production center in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province.

Source: IRIN Residents in southern and western Sri Lanka displaced by heavy flooding last week are returning to their homes, authorities say.

COLOMBO, May 28 (IRIN) - The recent death of a French de-miner in northern Sri Lanka highlights the ongoing threat of landmines in preventing the safe return of tens of thousands of conflict-displaced.

(Lanka-e-News, May 28, 2010, 4.05 PM) The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday that it was lifting its travel advisory on Sri Lanka, citing the peaceful atmosphere that has take…

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has reiterated its support for the nomination process which has drawn widespread opposition to former Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s ascent to the governing body’s presidency.

Source: IRIN The recent death of a French de-miner in northern Sri Lanka highlights the ongoing threat of landmines in
preventing the safe return of tens of thousands of conflict-displaced.

Australian ex-PM’s candidature in trouble

While Tamil demonstrators plan to protest in front of the State Department during Sri Lanka’s Minister of External Affairs Gamini Lakshman Peiris’s meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton Friday, reports covering Peiris’s US visit indicate an uncomfortable minister facing hostile press and questioners, and the resulting damage to the Minister’s mission to block [...]

(Lanka-e-News, May 28, 2010, 11.25 AM) Even though the LTTE war which raged for 30 years to create another state was defeated, the Tamil Diaspora across the world is still making various attempts to achieve that political goal…

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse has rejected international calls for a war crimes probe into the final offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels last year.

May 28, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government commenced a new project yesterday to provide electricity to the war-torn Northern region with the assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Japan.

May 28, Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Minister Rajitha Senarathna has vowed to streamline the country’s local fisheries sector and provide cheap fish to the local consumers.

May 28, Colombo: The 61 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, who launched a hunger strike at a detention centre in Malaysia were continuing their fast for the third day yesterday, Australian media reports said.

India and Sri Lanka have sent youthful and inexperienced teams to Zimbabwe with an eye towards next year’s cricket World Cup for a triangular one-day international series beginning here on Friday.

May 28, Colombo: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that he would take action against those who have committed war crimes, but would not punish them for defeating terrorism.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa completed 40 years in politics yesterday.
He entered the then Nati..

senior Minister said, it is difficult to identify a Minister who is happy in the Rajapakse Govt.
b..

The Special Task Force (STF) of the police which is under the direct purview of the Inspector Genera..

Who says miracles are not possible on this blessed isle? We have seen quite a few of them happen of ..

UNICEF Representative Philippe Duamelle and Minister of Economic Development, Basil Rajapakse Thursday re-opened the new facility of emergency obstetric and pediatric care at the Kil’inochchi General Hospital. In addition to the Ki’linochchi hospital, Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Philippe Duamelle also opened the Musali maternity building in Mannar district constructed by UNICEF. “This project will serve [...]

Thousands of Southern Sinhalese labourers are engaged in excavating lime stone in the Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North where its residents had been evicted by SLA, Jaffna MP, Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy accused in a press meet held in Jaffna Thursday. The excavated limestone is taken to the cement factories in [...]

As Tamils world over mark one-year of Indian abetted genocidal war against Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, the Hindi film industry known as Bollywood and the major Indian conglomerate of trade unions, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) are joining hands with Rajapaksa regime in Colombo in staging 11th [...]

AI accused the UN Secretary General and the Human Rights Commission of not having the political will to set up a commission to investigate war crimes in Sri Lanka.

Six new bank branches are to be opened next week in the Northern
Province, according to a press release by the Central Bank of Sri
Lanka Wednesday. Of the six, three branches of the Peoples Bank - one in Kilinochchi, one in Maangku’lam and the third in Paranthan are to
be opened on June 7. The Commercial Bank, [...]

Sri Lanka is ahead of the United States and the whole world when considered as one unit, according to the Happy Planet Index (HPI) introduced by the New Economic Foundation, Energy Forum Executive Director Asoka Abeygunawardana said.

COLOMBO: Giving a fillip to the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, the United States has lifted the travel restrictions on its citizens.

May 27, Colombo: Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party General Secretary Tissa Attanayake says that he has no powers to take disciplinary action against the assailant of UNP Puttalam District parliamentarian Palitha Range Bandara.

May 27, Colombo: Sri Lanka police are now focusing on eliminating the illegal drug trade from the country.

Sri Lanka’s approach is not to find guilty parties and punish them but to deal with them in old Sri Lankan way say Sri Lanka Ambassador to United Nations

May 27, Colombo: The Asian Development Bank has commended the Sri Lankan government’s plans to accelerate development in the country following the end of the 30-year long conflict and promised to continue its support for the ongoing infrastructure development projects.

AI says if there is a political will the UN General Secretary or Human Rights Commission can set up a commission of enquiry.

Former JVP Parliamentarian Ramalingam Chandrasekar was questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials and Army Intelligence Personnel soon after he met parents of the disappeared persons from Jaffna at Narayana Mandapam in Grandpass in Colombo District on Wednesday morning.

(Lanka-e-News, May 27, 2010, 9.00PM) When we were informed that Harry Jayawardene has been taken back to MR’s inner circle and appointed to head the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation we knew something was up. Now here is the story behind this mysterious Chess game…

May 27, Washington, D.C.: Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris has reportedly left a meeting scheduled to address journalists at the National Press Club (NPC) this morning without speaking.

May 27, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government today welcomed the United States’ decision to cancel the travel warning it issued last year on Sri Lanka.