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TODAY'S
TOP STORY |
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Chelvam threatens Bala with
violence over ‘sexposure’
Last week, there had been a serious political
fallout between the chief of the LTTE's political division,
Tamilchelvam, who is based in the Vanni and Prabhakaran's chief
speech writer and LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham, who is
based in London.
Full
story |
...but who will bell the cat?
Women take a
break whilst painting slogans against domestic violence
on T-shirts as part of a campaign to create awareness
among local women to resist sexual and physical abuse at
home. Organisers say up to 60 percent of Sri Lankan
women experience violence in their own homes. AFP
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| NEWS |
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Claymore blasts claim six soldiers in Jaffna
Six soldiers were killed yesterday afternoon at Kondavil on
the Palaly-Jaffna Road. They were on board a tractor trailer
when it was hit by two claymore mines on the road controlled
by the military. It was the highest number of soldiers killed
in a single mine blast since the government and the LTTE
entered into a truce in February 2002 and comes a day before
the change of command of the army. Army Chief Lt. Gen. Shantha
Kottegoda will step down today. President Mahinda Rajapakse
has named Maj. Gen. Sarath Fonseka as Kottegoda's successor.
- SLFP,
JVP unions clash over Langama revival plans
The All Ceylon Transport Workers Union
has warned that the recent restoration of the Sri Lanka
Transport Board would be futile unless corrupt officials in
charge of cluster bus companies were immediately replaced.
The union, affiliated to the JVP, has
urged the newly appointed Transport Minister A. H. M. Fowzie to
take immediate action in this regard. Spokesman Sepala Liyanage
has requested Fowzie to prevent the Sri Lanka Nidahas Jathika
Pravahana Sevaka Samithiya from interfering with the
appointments.
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| FEATURES |
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Disfachisement of electors
- According to clause 2 of our constitution, in
the Republic of Sri Lanka sovereignty is vested in the people
and is inalienable. Sovereignty includes the power of
Government, fundamental rights and the franchise. That being the
case how can we say that an election is free and fair and
represents the will of the people if, as alleged, a very large
number of electors have been disfranchised? This has not
happened before on such a large scale. If this state of affairs
is allowed to continue it will inevitably destroy the
fundamental right of the people to elect the government of their
choice. What has happened has given cause for the gravest
concern that if it is allowed to continue unabated it will
reduce democracy in this country to an utter farce.
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Playing the ball, not the man
The Island of Thursday 24 November
carried an article by former Ambassador K. Godage titled:
"Challenges before the new FM".
My purpose here is not a general
critique of the Ambassador’s presentation. Rather, it is to
focus readers’ attention on what I see to be a couple of
important lacunae in it. I shall deal with them seriatim, as
they arise in the article itself.
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| BUSINESS |
- Sept tea exports
Ceylon Tea exports to Russia dip 4
percent
 Black
tea exports to Russia, or CIS countries declined to 49.3 mn
metric tons to September 2005. To September last year the figure
stood at 50.7 mn metric tons. This was indicated in the Asia
Siyaka weekly Tea Update last week. The physical impact of this
somewhat gloomy perspective for the tea industry underscored the
alarming indications when in the same report Russian imports
from Kenya, China, Viet Nam, and Indonesia have all indicated
average increases of approximately 3 to 4 percent.
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Skilled worker shortage affects
tsunami reconstruction
As the country is short of 40,000
skilled construction workers, a project was launched this week
to set up three specialised vocational training centres to train
unemployed youth in skills demanded by the construction
industry.
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| SPORTS |
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Rain wipes out
three days of India-Sri Lanka Test
CHENNAI, India, Dec 4 (AFP) - Bad weather
continued to play havoc with the first cricket Test between
India and Sri Lanka as play was cancelled for the third
successive day here on Sunday.
Cyclone Baaz, which had weakened into a
depression over the Bay of Bengal, brought more rain to the
southeast coast of India and drenched this southern metropolis.
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England
still far from being No. 1: Vaughan
LAHORE, Pakistan, Dec 3 (AFP) -
Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan conceded Saturday that
England needed to learn and improve if they wanted to realise
their dream of becoming the number-one side in Test
cricket.
More
Sports
 LAHORE
PAKISTAN: Pakistani cricketers surround the winning
trophy after defeating England during the fifth and
last day of their third and final Test match at the
Gaddafi Cricket Stadium in Lahore, on Saturday.
Pakistan whipped England by an innings and 100 runs in
the third Test to clinch the series 2-0.
– Pic. Aamir Qureshi, AFP.
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