“Though the Anuradhapura airbase attack by the LTTE is a major incident, it must not be used to belittle the military successes in the recent past,” the Agriculture Minister, told the media.

Addressing the media at Seth Sevana in Kirillapone on Wednesday, Minister Hemakumara Nanayakkara said the LTTE has resorted to acts of sabotage to rebuild the morale of its cadres who are desperate to regain lost ground.

While appreciating the Government of the United States’ goodwill and interest in relation to “improving human rights, accountability, and the rule of law, and ultimately resolving the conflict in Sri Lanka,” the government in a letter to the US Ambassador in Colombo Robert Blake has reiterated that an international monitoring mission in Sri Lanka is at the moment unwarranted and unacceptable.
Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe has in the letter, stressed that the government would actively engage with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in seeking technical advice and support in order to strengthen capacities of its local institutional framework for the better protection of human rights in the country.

Six Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and four wounded in a mine blast at Kalmadu in Vavuniyaa Friday around 12:30 p.m., initial reports from Vavuniyaa said. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense officials told media said the explosion was “accidental”. The soldiers were blown to pieces when they were cheking the pressure mines, which were cleared from the Northern FDL and brought to Kalmadu, according to the military officials in Colombo

A 27-year-old employee of a popular Insurance Corporation in Jaffna was shot dead by unknown gunmen riding a motorbike near Brown Road within Jaffna Municipal boundary at 8:45 a.m. Friday, sources in Jaffna said. The victim, Kanagarajah Pratheepan, is the brother of journalist, Kanagarajah Prasaanth.Pratheepan is from Vithaanaiyaar Road, Kokuvil East Jaffna. He was on his way to work when he was shot dead.

Pratheepan body is in Jaffna Teaching Hospital waiting postmortem examinations.

. Sporadic clashes in northern Sri Lanka continued yesterday killing at least 15 Tiger rebels including a female LTTE leader as the government vowed to continue the military operations in the North.

The rebels were killed as they attempted to enter a military-controlled area in Kaduruvitankulam in Vavuniya yesterday evening.

In a separate incident earlier in the day ten Tigers were killed when the troops on a foot patrol accidentally discovered an LTTE bunker in the same general area at Narikulam.

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 The shortage of milk powder is still prevailing in Sri Lanka markets. Milk powder industry sources says that the distributors for comparatively smaller markets are keeping away from importing due to lack of profits caused by price control.

There were some 13 players in the market earlier but only six major companies remain now. They say that the price of a 400 grams milk powder packet needed to be raised further at least by Rs. 90.

Sri Lanka government has controlled milk powder price and the maximum price for a 400 grams packet is Rs. 195. Government waived the Rs. 50 per kilo import duty for milk powder as a last straw to keep the prices down.

Unidentified armed men Monday night around 8:00 p.m. abducted a Tamil farmer from his house in Iluppaikulam, Sambaltivu village, about 7 km off north of Trincomalee town, civil sources in Trincomalee said. The area comes under the Uppuveli police division. The abducted has been identified as 37 year-old Sinnathurai Sithiravelautham, according to a complaint lodged with the Uppuveli police by his relatives.

Eight armed persons went in a white van to Iluppaikulam, entered the house of Sithiravelautham and took him forcibly, relatives said in their complaint.

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Sri Lankan security forces Tuesday paraded the bodies of Tamil Tiger commandos killed during their devastating attack on a key northern airbase in the early hours Monday, agency reports said. The authorities stripped the bodies of the LTTE troopers before putting them on display for the mainly Sinhalese residents near Anuradhapura airbase.Two farm tractors pulled trailers loaded with the naked corpses and mutilated body parts to the Anuradhapura hospital mortuary, local journalists and residents told AFP.

Liberation Tigers Monday night released the details of Black Tiger commandos who took part in the raid on Anuradhapura air base. Two Lieutenant Colonels, six Majors, 12 Captains and one Lieutenant rank Black Tiger members have taken part in the operation. A Lieutenant Colonel who led an attack team was from Trincomalee, two of the members, a Major and a Captain were from Batticaloa, one from Mullaiththeevu, one from Mannaar, three from Ki’linochchi and eleven members from Jaffna which has been under the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control since 1995. Three Captains were female Black Tigers.

Oct 22, Colombo: Sri Lanka’s civil society organizations say that recently killed Mannar Diocesan Priest Rev. Fr. Nicholaspillai Packiaranjith is the fourth religious leader to be killed or subjected to enforced disappearance since August 2006 in the North and East of Sri Lanka.

He is also the 58th humanitarian worker to be killed or subjected to enforced disappearance during the period, says a communiqué issued by Christian Alliance for Social Action (CASA) and Centre for Society and Religion (CSR) in collaboration with Law & Society Trust (LST) to remember the slain religious leader.