Lanka News – Lanka Gazette – Sri Lanka News Portal

Maskeliya Police found an infant abandoned on a road side near the Maskeliya Post Office yesterday. The baby girl had been dumped there within two hours of her birth, the police said.

A 30 year old woman was arrested in this connection. She was being interrogated. The infant was admitted to the Nawalapitiya Hospital. Continue Reading

Minister Karaliyadde on Wednesday pledged to strengthen the financial position of women affected by war. He said he would introduce self-employment schemes for them so that they would be able to support themselves and their families.

Handing over cattle to eleven women in the Anuradhapura Rajanganaya Divisional Secretariat area, on Wednesday (26), Minister Karaliyadde said that women having lived in the war torn North and East had suffered financially as well. The Ministry would take steps to re-strengthen their earning capacity by introducing self employment schemes, he said. Continue Reading

Acknowledging that the LTTE rump is no longer capable of disrupting civil life, the US has quashed its travel warning targeting Sri Lanka over a year after the collapse of the LTTE.

A senior government official, while welcoming the US move pointed out that the Obama administration had issued the travel advisory at issue on November 19, 2009 six months after the killing of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon on May 19, 2009. Continue Reading

New York - External Affairs Minister G L Peiris said Sri Lanka could still avoid the withdrawal of European Union trade concessions following two rounds of talks with Brussels.

The Minister said a team of Sri Lankan officials had made two trips to Brussels, the second of them at the end of last week, to discuss the trade preference and Sri Lanka’s rights record.

“It’s an ongoing discussion,” he was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.

“There’s no final decision and it is still possible that the parties will be able to agree on a set of measures to be implemented to prevent the withdrawal of these trade concessions later this year.” Continue Reading

Chennai: After mega star Amitabh Bachchan and film direct Mani Ratnam, it is actor Kamal Haasan who is now the target of pro-Lankan Tamil groups on the IIFA Awards 2010 issue.

Kamal Haasan, who had earlier refused the invitation to participate in the upcoming IIFA extravaganza in Colombo, said on Sunday he would not return his Padma Shri award. Continue Reading

Around 8,100 LTTE cadres, who surrendered, including 1,200 women cadres, are currently undergoing the process of re-integration into society, a top official said.

Sudantha Ranasinghe, the Commissioner-General of Rehabilitation, said that the re-integration with society would be gradual.

“We have provided them with courses in English and Information Technology,” he said. Continue Reading

A team of 25 men led by Asst. Excise Commissioner Southern Province B. A. Dayaratne last week conducted a series of raids on ganja cultivations in an area covering 25 acres in the Zone 3 of the Yala Wildlife Sanctuary and arrested 22 suspects.

A total of 93,800 ganja plants 6-7ft in height ready for harvesting were destroyed.

The plants had been well tended, sprayed with insecticides, manured with chemical fertiliser and mechanically watered. An excise official said. Continue Reading

An IMF mission to Sri Lanka says it has seen the kind of budget the government intends to present to parliament in June and the team is happy with the fiscal measures the government hopes to introduce to contain high budget deficits.

The IMF mission said it would report favourably on Sri Lanka’s progress under the US$ 2.6 billion standby arrangement programme to their management in Washington, who would then decide whether to submit a recommendation to the IMF executive board for the release the third US$ 326 million tranche.

This tranche was due last February but withheld as the budget deficit for 2009 shot up to 9.8 percent of GDP, instead of the targeted 7 percent. Continue Reading

Despite a steady increase in the number of child abuse cases reported over the years, the government is yet to take tangible measures to overcome inordinate delays in the judicial process as well as weakness in the prosecution by the police.

Of 14,966 cases pending before the High Court last year, 4032 (26.94 percent) were child abuse trials, officials said.

Badulla recorded 32.27 percent of pending cases while the corresponding figure for Kegalle was 24 percent.

Embilipitiya recorded a staggering 51 percent or more than half the total number of cases that are awaiting final determination. Continue Reading

The Court of Appeal yesterday allowed the Army to resume the proceedings of first court martial against General (retd) Sarath Fonseka, MP. Early this month the Court suspended the proceedings.

The first court martial is probing charges that Fonseka conspired against the President and his family.

The Court of Appeal refused an application, by Counsel for General Sarath Fonseka, to extend an earlier order against the continuation of the proceedings of the first court martial given on March 16, 2010. Continue Reading