The Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) representatives who travelled to Jaffna to distribute wheel chairs, crutches and stationary among 43 disabled Jaffna University students were prevented from entering the University premises yesterday. Convenor of the IUSF Udul Premaratne told LAKBIMAnEWS that the Vice Chancellor and police have threatened Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) officials on the arrival of IUSF.... More >>

The Sri Lanka Police is currently going full throttle in their efforts to find the whereabouts of Danuna Tillakaratne - son-in-law of detained retired General Sarath Fonseka.The police are also on the lookout for disappeared newspaperman Pradeep Ekneligoda whose whereabouts are still unknown. Police are not leaving any stone unturned in an effort to apprehend Danuna or locating the whereabouts of Ekneligoda.
All investigations to nab Danuna are being carried out by the CID and deal with his involvement in the Hicorp scandal. More >>

This just a detail: the UNP leader, resisting tooth and nail any bids to change the party constitution, is now however, planning a massive agitation campaign against the president’s bid to change the country’s constitution. It’s funny in a way —- what’s sauce for the goose, they say, is not sauce for the gander?
However, there is more fun. The JVP with the UNP’s active connivance this time, wants to nominate General Sarath Fonseka for a parliamentarians’ conference in Kenya.
The speaker would have to accept the nomination as there are no grounds to reject a parliamentarian, More >>

Sri Lankan Government submitted an appropriation bill for 2010 last week outlining spending estimates ahead of the annual budget which is to be presented on June 29. The government expenditure increased to 1.78 trillion rupees from 1.75 trillion rupees last year. Nearly 50% of the budget is directly channeled to the institutions controlled by the Rajapsksa family which includes Ministry of Defence (202 billion,) Ministry of Finance and Planning (63 billion,) Ministry of Highways (83 billion,) Ports and Aviation (32 billion,) Ministry of Economic Development (60 billion) More >>

In a game marked by superb goal-kicking and ferocious play from the forwards, Royal College, Colombo and Trinity College, Kandy produced an epic rugby battle before the home side edged out the visitors 38-37 in a pulsating first-leg of the 66th Bradby Shield ended at the Royal Sports Complex yesterday. The game went down to the wire as Trinity reduced to 14 men, (through a red card) 15 minutes from full-time, took the fight to the Royalists and scored a try in stoppage time, but outside centre Kanchana Ramanayake failed to bisect the posts for the match-winning conversion. More >>

Goals from Lee Jung-soo and captain Park-Ji-sung early in each half gave South Korea only their second World Cup win on foreign soil and left Greece with a massive task to advance from a group that includes Nigeria and Argentina.
The Koreans defended solidly against the ariel threat of the taller Greek players, who bombarded their opponents with lofted passes that yielded few chances for a country that has lost every World Cup game they have played in.
The 2004 European champions struggled against a torrent of South Korean attacks, More >>

The IIFAs finally came to town last week. Models strutted down the runway in gorgeous designs, business leaders hob-nobbed over Cinnamon tea and lunch, while others played limited over cricket matches to screaming crowds, and finally the awards were handed over in a night that was so much more noteworthy for the notable absences than the big names who did touch down on local soil. And now, over a week later, even Vivek Oberoi who played media darling, graciously answering questions and delighting everyone with a new Sinhala phrase everyday, More >>

The other day I was wondering what I should write of for this week’s LAKBIMAnEWS and happened to take a look at Aysha Aseef’s article on anti-raggers. And it so happened, ironically, I too had an urge to write of this horrendous phenomenon of ragging; a much talked about yet not much ‘done about’ topic of current relevance. It is indeed absolutely disheartening to read of the atrocities that students have to go through daily, at the hands of this breed of raggers who most ironically claim to stand for the rights of various people. Wherever you turn in the campus premises, More >>

Hamid Karzai’s three-day “peace jirga” has ended, and the Afghan president is calling it a success. “Now the path is clear, the path that has been shown and chosen by you,” he told the roughly 1,600 delegates at the gathering on Friday. “We will go on that, step by step, and this path will, God willing, take us to our destination.” Really? No active Taliban members-not even former ones of any stature-took part, unless you count two suicide attackers who showed up on Wednesday, one of them disguised as a woman, More >>

A man in a remote Brazilian fishing village is said to have kept his daughter imprisoned for 12 years, raped her repeatedly and had seven children with her, in a case resembling that of Josef Fritzl. Jose Agostinho Pereira is also accused of abusing a young girl he had with his daughter. Police allege the 54-year-old kept his daughter, now 28, under virtual house arrest in a two-room, thatched-roof hut near a tiny fishing village in northeastern Brazil. More >>

The government recently reduced vehicle import taxes by 50 percent as a measure to increase car imports to the country, as the high taxes levied have reduced the number of vehicle imports during the last three years. Certain quarters are of the view that this move is a prerequisite to obtaining the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) third tranche of the loan facility amounting to 318 million dollars.
Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal emphasized that there is no link at all between IMF conditions and tariff reductions. More >>

Japan is at “risk of collapse” under its huge debt mountain, the country’s new prime minister has said.
Naoto Kan, in his first major speech since taking over, said Japan needed a financial restructuring to avert a Greece-style crisis.“Our country’s outstanding public debt is huge... our public finances have become the worst of any developed country,” he said. After years of borrowing, Japan’s debt is twice its gross domestic product.“It is difficult to continue our fiscal policies by heavily relying on the issuance of government bonds,” More >>

Tissamaharama is one of the most pleasant towns in the southern coast. The beautiful man-made tank (reservoir) in Tissamaharama, Tissa Wewa with its remarkable bird life provides the scenic backdrop to the town. Tissamaharama was the sanctuary in the Deep South, where Sinhalese patriots fled to rally support against marauding Dravidian invaders from Southern India. Known by the name of Mahagama (great town), it was one of the principal settlements of the southern province of Ruhuna. More >>

John Davison Rockefeller was an American industrialist and philanthropist. As founder of the Standard Oil Company, he amassed such a fortune that the Rockefeller name came to stand for wealth and power. He was born near Richford, New York, on July 8, 1839, the second of six children. In 1853 the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. After mandatory school, More >>