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The Appeals Court has decided to postpone the hearing of former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka’s petition against the appointing of the jury in the first Court Martial until March 14. The petition was filed under the grounds that the jury was politically biased and that a fair judgment was not given.

The Ministry of Health in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF have recommenced the National Immunization Programme for vaccine-preventable diseases and have requested the public to get themselves immunized without fail to prevent its spread.

Four persons have been placed in remand custody in regard to the death of Neelagiri, a 32 year-old elephant at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. Acting Magistrate Malani Jayawardena ordered that the suspects be remanded till January 28 when they were presented to Kegalle Magistrate’s Court today. While the elephant is said to have suffered several injuries caused by three mahouts, he passed away on January 17 even after receiving treatment for the wounds. Seven workers of the Pinnawala Orphanage, including the Assistant Directress have been suspended so far in connection to Neelagiri’s death. The Rambukkana police are conducting further investigations.

The JVP accuses that even though Local Government institutions have been dissolved the former public representatives of those institutions are still using the official vehicles provided to them. It’s against election laws to utilize state property in this manner when an election has already been announced, JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva said. He pointed out that the government has to take immediate action in order to hold a free and fair election by intervening into such activities.

The Galle Literary festival due to take place between January 26 and January 30 has sold a record number of tickets this time around where over 3000 participants are expected to join the event. The festival which is being held for the fifth consecutive year will see the participation of around 65 acclaimed authors from all continents as hotels have been fully booked in Galle, the organizers revealed. Media freedom group Reporters Without Borders on Thursday accused Nobel-winning author Orhan Pamuk and other writers of legitimizing repression in Sri Lanka by attending the festival and claimed that it was ‘disturbing’ that such a celebration would take place in a country where freedom of expression is being suppressed and independent journalists are being attacked. Commenting on this Founder of the Galle Literary Festival Geoffrey Dobbs said, ‘It is unfortunate and ridiculous that some writers are appealing for a boycott. Action such as this does not help as we are trying to build bri

The Power and Energy Ministry has decided to repair all electricity lines that were damaged due to heavy rains for free. The Ministry will assess the widespread damage before directing the various departments to handle the repairs. It also revealed that around losses of around Rs.10 million have been incurred due to the damages caused by the floods.

Members of the Sri Lankan LTTE allegedly extorted millions from ethnic Tamils in Switzerland to fund their armed revolt against the government in Colombo, Swiss newspapers reported. The allegations formed the basis for a series of police raids on Tuesday against Tamil individuals and companies across Switzerland, Zurich weeklies NZZ am Sonntag and SonntagsBlick said. Prosecutors announced earlier this week that 10 people were arrested in the raids, of whom eight are still being detained. Walburga Bur, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors office in Bern, declined to comment on reports in Swiss media that those arrested included the head, the finance chief and other senior members in Switzerland of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the group is formally called. SonntagsBlick quoted the lawyer for one alleged victim today as saying his client was forced to take out an 80,000 Swiss-franc (USD 83,000) loan and give the money to the rebel group’s office in Switzerland. Swiss

The Indian Air Force Commander, Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik is set to visit Sri Lanka tomorrow (January 16) to conduct talks regarding the Sri Lankan security. He is set to meet President Mahinda Rajapakse, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse and top Military Officials during his visit.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs says that a circular will be issued briskly in order to provide public servants who have been affected by the prevailing natural disaster situation with special holidays. The Public Administration Ministry during natural disasters situations in the past had issued a circular to provide public sector employees that were affected with special holidays, a Ministry official reminisced.

Leader of the Muslim Congress and Minister of Justice, Rauf Hakeem stated that he will conduct talks with the party Leaders regarding extending the deadline to hand over the nominations for the Local Government elections in view of the heavy flooding in many areas in the country. Minister Hakeem told Ada Derana that he hopes to hand in this proposal at a meeting today between the SLFP coalition party Leaders. He has proposed that the deadline be extended from January 20 to midnight on January 27.

Bookmark and Share The Elections Department has decided to extend the duration in which postal voters can send their applications as the Elections Commissioner, Dayananda Dissanayake stated that the ten day period which is implemented now is not long enough. This will be implemented for the upcoming Local Government elections as the deadline of January 16 will be extended.

CHENNAI: A 40-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil, a resident of the special camp at Poonamallee, has sought the permission of the authorities to go on fast from January 15 demanding speedy trial. The residents have also demanded an enhancement of their daily allowance from Rs 45 to Rs 70. The representation, submitted to the jurisdictional tahsildar, has been referred to the state government through the Kancheepuram district collector. According to sources, Muthanna has submitted a representation to the Poonamallee Tahsildar, S Padmavathy, requesting permission to sit on fast inside the camp from January 15 onwards. Muthanna and other inmates are demanding expeditious trial of cases against them pending in special courts. Tamil Nadu has two special camps -- one is at Chengalpattu and the other at Poonamallee. As of now, only nine Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are in the Poonamallee camp. Nine others have got conditional permission from courts to stay at their relatives’ house in the city. Terming t

The Railway Control Room announced that trains traveling in the Trincomalee, Batticaloa railway line will only travel until Kekirawa. Due to prevailing weather conditions several areas in the railway route have been flooded, Railway Controller Nihal Fernandez stated. Presently the Gal Oya railway station is under two feet of water. Meanwhile locomotion in the Manampitiya, Polonnaruwa railway track is also hindered due to the tracks between Eravur and Walachchena being under water, Mr. Fernandez expressed.

Minister Wimal Weerawansa says that the main reason the Local Government elections is not being held at the same time is due to the request made by Parliamentarian Arjuna Ranatunga. Some groups are releasing various false statements in regard to this matter, he stressed. The Minister of Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities emphasized that the government has the ability to win the upcoming election without any obstructions. He made these statements today after visiting the Mahanayake of the Asgiriya Chapter Most Venerable Udugama Sri Buddharakkitha thera and receiving his blessings.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas have been excluded from the final 15 member Sri Lankan squad for the ICC World Cup 2011, the SLC Media Manager confirmed to Ada Derana. The Sports Ministry approved the final 15 member squad today

Sri Lanka is expected to achieve an accelerated economic growth within the next two years. The target for 2011 is to reap an economic growth of 8.5% and increase this rate to 9.5% by 2013. The target set for 2012 is an economic growth of 9%. The Governor of the Central Bank disclosing the monetary policy road map for 2011 said that the overall budget deficit is expected to decline further to 6.8 percent of gross domestic product and to around five percent of GDP in the medium term. Accordingly the expected balance of payments surplus in 2011 will be around 350 million dollars. He said the Government revenue and grants are expected to increase to 15.6 percent of GDP while expenditure and net lending is expected to decrease to 22.4 percent of GDP. Similarly the recurrent expenditure is estimated to decrease to 16.1 percent of GDP and public investment is expected to be maintained at 6.5 percent of GDP. Mr. Cabraal further said that the gross foreign exchange reserves reached 6.6 b

Nimal Rubasinghe, secretary of the Cultural Affairs Ministry, said the government had received representations calling for a ban on wearing revealing clothing in public, though he declined to name the groups involved. “There have been complaints from various quarters about mini-skirts, but we are only considering them and no final decision has been taken,” Rubasinghe told AFP. Rubasinghe was responding to a media report that said the government had asked a committee to prepare a dress code for public places to ensure that mini-skirts were outlawed. President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government has recently ordered the removal of billboards featuring scantily-clad women and also launched a campaign to discourage the use of alcohol and tobacco. Last year, US singer Akon was denied a visa to perform in Sri Lanka after Buddhist monks took offence at one of his videos that featured women in bikinis dancing around a pool in front of a Buddha statue, AFP reports.

KUWAIT CITY: The Criminal Court acquitted a resident accused of sexually assaulting his Sri Lankan housemaid. The case file indicates the maid was hired from a domestic recruitment agency, and the suspect had gone with his wife to buy clothing and asked the maid to wear them. The housemaid claimed she refused to put the clothes on, and she went into her room but the man followed her into the room, tore her clothes and raped her. Later, the suspect reportedly sent her back to the recruitment agency to terminate her service. The maid said she couldn’t report the case to the secretary at the recruitment agency because she was afraid, and she reported it to the Sri Lankan embassy. Lawyer of the suspect Faisal Al-Otaibi argued there were lots of unsolved puzzles in the maid’s account, which points to the fact that the case was fabricated. He stressed the suspect’s wife had requested the maid should be sent back to the agency because she couldn’t communicate with her. – (Arab Times)

Newly installed Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) cameras helped detect many number of traffic offences and wanted persons in the Colombo city on New Year’s Eve, said Senior Deputy Inspector General Gamini Nawaratna. The relevant records of offences captured by the CCTV cameras have been sent to the City Traffic Police to initiate legal actions against those offenders in courts, he said. According to the Senior DIG, the minimum fine usually imposed would be Rs.1000 and Magistrate is permitted to enhance the fine. The DIG further said that the majority had violated the traffic light regulations while there were others who had crossed the traffic lines and parked in no parking zones. He further emphasized that the wanted persons had also been identified via the images of CCTV cameras installed in vantage points in the city. Therefore, public is warned to be extra cautious about traffic regulations since they are being monitored around the clock by those invisible spy eyes in the city. - Ministry