The counter terrorist offensive operation launched to liberate Wanni region from LTTE clutches has reached to a significant milestone as the troops of Task Force-2 and 59 Division captured the Palamoddai Town, west of A-9 Road, near Omanthai, and Ulathuvely beach area, 4 km to the north of Kokkutuduvai in the Welioya front, respectively this afternoon, 28 August, the latest report received from battlefront said.

The blurb 'Station to the Nation' - SLBC English Service will be re-launched with a new vision from today (1^st September). The oldest English radio channel will offer more local material for its fast growing listenership, with more credibility, program content, established character, accuracy, and credible dependency for news including wide spectrum in entertainment. Effective from September 1, the SLBC English Services would attain new image in Radio listening, yet maintain its rich tradition built over the years. The current nine-hour daily airtime allocated to the BBC will now be reduced to three and a half hours, giving listeners an opportunity to enjoy more local programs and music.

by: Dilanthi Jayamanne

Children of the Eastern Province – many of them from internally displaced families - will receive psycho-social support under a proposal by the National Child Protection Authority. Chairman National Child Protection Authority Jagath Wellawatte told ‘The Island’ yesterday: "Children of the East have lived for over twenty to thirty years under an LTTE rule – in other words they have grown up with terrorism.

It is time to create a better environment for the future generation. They have hardly had the opportunity to live a normal life while none of the good opportunities afforded to the children of the South have been given to them," he said.

Colombo Dockyard has secured local as well as foreign orders up to the year 2011.

Its Managing Director and Chief Executive, Mangala P.B .Yapa said the Dockyard discharged a major task earning international praise since its inception on 1st August 1974. A heavy workload had to be executed this year as ships are under repair in all docks. He made special mention of repairs undertaken to several large fuel cargo vessels of the Indian Shipping Corporation.

By Jason Motlagh 

AGGRESSIVE Sri Lankan government forces continue to push deeper into the Tamil Tiger heartland and are now within reach of their administrative capital, raising hopes that the end of a brutal 25-year civil war may be near.The military campaign has benefited from an international crackdown on the Tigers' fundraising and smuggling networks, and high-level defections that have undermined grassroots Tamil support for its iron-willed chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Since January, when it scrap- ped a Norway-brokered ceasefire and vowed to crush the Tigers by the end of the year, the government has poured some £821 million into an all-out, multiple-front offensive that has killed about 6,000 rebels and reduced their last stronghold in the island's northern Wanni region by nearly 75 per cent, according to the Ministry of Defence.

Colombo, 28 August, (Asiantribune.com): The Provincial Council election results are, without a shadow of doubt, a ringing endorsement of President Rajapaksa’s policy to finally rid this country of the scourge of terrorism, which has blighted the lives of millions of our people for more than two decades, and pushed back the country’s forward march to achieve rapid economic and sustainable development.  

Today, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister in a briefing to the Diplomatic corps pointed out that all the three election monitoring committees have almost endorsed that the provincial elections were held free and fair and were ‘relatively incident free.’

United Nations, 29 August, (Asiantribune.com):

The new Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations - New York , Hewa M.G.S. Palihakkara, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.Mr. Palihakkara, who currently serves on the Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, retired as the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka on 31 December 2006 after 38 years of civil and diplomatic service.Since the 1990s, he has served his Government on a number of assignments to the United Nations in Geneva and New York, covering work related to the General Assembly’s First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), and later the Conference on Disarmament, as well as on human rights, humanitarian and economic and social affairs. He either led or participated as a member of Sri Lanka’s delegation in several peace and security/ disarmament-related conferences and meetings, including the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

With the objective of preserving cultural heritage sites of archaeological value in the Eastern province, the Central Cultural Fund (CCF), under the directives of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has initiated a programme named “Eastern Heritage Belt”. Director General of the Central Cultural Fund (CCF), Prof Sudharshana Seneviratne addressing the media at the Government Information Department said today (26) that up to now sites with archaeological importance have already been identified in areas from Seruwawila to Katharagama.

A PROTEST rally calling upon the Swiss Government to take stern action against the LTTE and its front organisations will be held on September 6 at Waisenhausplatz, near the Swiss Parliament in Bern, Switzerland. According to the organising committee the protest rally is scheduled between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., Swiss local time.

The SAARC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters is one of the most significant and tangible outcomes of the 15th SAARC Summit, held in Colombo recently, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday.

 According to the Foreign Ministry, the Convention will be of paramount importance in establishing a legal basis for regional cooperation within SAARC in seeking and providing assistance in criminal matters, bolstering the existing regional legal framework and preventing and suppressing crime as well as terrorism in the region. It is also expected to play a crucial role in suppressing terrorist financing and in combating terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, to enhance peace, stability and security in the region.