Lanka News – Lanka Gazette – Sri Lanka News Portal

A retired soldier, Upul Vithanage aged 58 years was killed on the spot and his pillion rider injured when the motorcycle they were riding crashed into a van on Thursday night at Kaluwella, Galle.
The retired serviceman from Galle had been delivering some goods to a friend in Gintota and returning when the accident took place around 7:30 p.m. They crashed into a van going in the opposite direction. The pillion rider was admitted to the Karapitiya Hospital with a fractured leg. Continue Reading

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) led by the Norway-based Nediyavan is the real reincarnation of the LTTE, and not the US-based outfit led by Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, which is trying to establish a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), says Prof. Rohan Gunaratna, the Singapore-based expert on terrorism.
Gunaratna, who heads the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism at Nanyang University in Singapore, told Express that Rudrakumaran has a better understanding of politics and is therefore more likely to negotiate a settlement with the Sri Lankan Government than Nediyavan, who is a hardcore LTTE. Continue Reading

Wars are invariably fought for the acquisition of land. The separatist war between the LTTE and the security forces in our country is no exception. However, a false claim to acquire territory cannot and will not succeed just as much as falsehood cannot and will not succeed to overshadow the truth in the long-term. With regard to territorial claims made by the LTTE the word ILAM (Eelam), comes into much prominence. It is, apparently, being used to connote the impression of “a land of the Tamils”. Indeed, the Tamil word ILAM was never before used in that sense. On the contrary, this Tamil word ILAM did not refer to Tamil land but to the “Land of the Sinhala people”. Continue Reading

Retired Supreme Court Judge P. Edussuriya, who was a member of the Independent Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption, which wound up in March, breaks his silence on the grave shortcomings they had to work with, which resulted in the Commission failing to live up to its expectations. The other members of the Commission were retired Supreme Court Judge Ameer Ismail (Chairman) and retired Inspector General of Police Indra de Silva. Continue Reading

Ahead of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Kollam, India on Monday, 36 Tamils from Sri Lanka have been detained and questioned to know how they reached Kerala, an official said Saturday.
They were staying in a lodge in Kollam since Wednesday. On Friday, they were spotted in areas where fishing boats are berthed.
Kollam Superintendent of Police Harshita Ataloori told IANS that they have not found anything of concern so far.
“We do not want to take any chances. They are being questioned on how they reached here. So far it appears there is nothing suspicious,” she said. Continue Reading

Physicist says phones emitting high frequency is an impossibility

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) will begin investigations into the hoax text message that circulated on Friday and Saturday. Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Anusha Palpita said that once the in-house investigations are over, the TRC will hand over the case to CID on Monday.
A hoax text message which circulated through mobile service networks on Friday and Saturday created panic among many mobile users. The message cited a series of numbers saying that if anyone were to answer calls from those numbers a high frequency would emit causing sudden death. Continue Reading

The hardcore criminal suspect who had his head smashed after being hit by a falling branch of a tree in the compound of the Galle Court Complex on April 30, that we reported last Sunday under the heading “Hardcore justice?” succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old unmarried man hailing from Talpe died while being treated in the ICU of the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, Galle. JMO of Karapitiya Hospital Dr. W.A.M. Mahinda has stated that death was due to the head being severely damaged in the incident. He was wanted over a number of grave crimes including rape and robbery. Continue Reading

A businessman from Yakkalamulla was robbed at gun point in the early hours of May 7 of Rs.120,000 near the Galle Bus Terminal.
The victim, the owner of a drapery and clothing store had left Yakkalamulla around 4:30 a.m. to purchase material for his store in Colombo. When he reached Galle at around 5:30 a.m. to take the bus to Colombo, he was approached by two men with a bogus complaint about a faulty material they had purchased from his store and taken him to a lonely spot at gun point. He had been made to take out the money he had been carrying in his underwear for greater safety. The Galle Police is investigating. Continue Reading

One of the suspects is a 15-year-old boy
The sun rose to brighten up another day in Kekirawa, but it was a gloomy day for the residents of Wedinigama, a village situated six miles away from the Kekirawa town.
Wedinagama, a typical village hardly known to the outside world, has now come into limelight, because of a heinous crime committed on a deaf and dumb middle-aged woman and her 10-year-old daughter about a week ago. Continue Reading

The court martial panel to preside the second court martial against General Sarath Fonseka has been nominated by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Military spokesperson Major General Prasad Samarasinghe said that the President had appointed three new officials to hear the case. “Major General M.P. Peiris, Major General S.W.L. Daulagala, and Major General
M. Hathurusinghe will sit for the tribunal.
Rear Admiral W.W.J.S. Fernando will serve as Judge Advocate,” he said.
The court martial has been fixed to start in the afternoon of April 6. It will hear charges against General Fonseka’s contravention of military procurement procedures. Continue Reading