Investigations into missing journalist Pradeep Eknaligoda have come to a sudden halt and suspects detained for questioning have also been released.
Police teams had been able to disclose many important details about Eknaligoda by checking phone lines of suspects who were detained and questioned. On this information, the police detained some suspects from Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa for questioning about the missing journalist, but police sources say that all the suspects have now been released. More >>

Neil Buhne, the UN resident coordinator, will return to Colombo shortly to convey UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s “strong expectations for better treatment of the UN family in Sri Lanka”.
A statement from the UN secretary-general said Friday that Buhne will also express Ban Ki-moon’s desire for progress on Sri Lanka’s commitments regarding the resettlement of IDP’s, political reconciliation and accountability. Accountability has been a sensitive and volatile issue between the UN secretary-general and the government. More >>

If it is true this is revolutionary in one way — but the fact is that people believe it is too good to be true:
Last week’s UNP-President talks are said to have reached a consensus on the issue of replacing the executive presidency with the executive premiership.
Of course the obvious catch for the UNP with the proposed new reforms was the fact that the newly mooted executive premiership is NOT to have term limits. Therefore if the new constitutional reforms go through, More >>

“Only a few years ago the UN was a well respected organization in Sri Lanka and a lot of our citizens thought of it only as a benevolent entity, but things have changed. Because of some incidents which happened during the final phase of the war a lot of the common people look at the UN with suspicion,” a senior UN official serving in Colombo told us last week. He added that in 2008, a protest was carried out against the UN on a statement made by one of the spokesman of a UN office, More >>

Sri Lanka and India will contest their third Test-series in two years when the two neighbours begin the Micromax three Test-series here at the Galle International Stadium this morning. However the game is expected to take a melancholic flavour with world record-breaking off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan set to bring the curtain down on his colourful and eventful 133 match Test career at the end of this game. Muralitharan, who announced his intention to quit the longer-version of the game at the end of this Test due to ever increasing workload, More >>

Sri Lanka has planned a grand farewell to world’s leading spinner Muttiah Muralitharan when he takes the field for the final time in his Test career today. To make the event memorable, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is rolling out the red carpet to ensure Murali gets a grand farewell.
“We are keen to give him a good send-off and we will ensure that the event is memorable. We have planned a small ceremony before the first Test and then after the match we will have another ceremony to give Murali a fitting farewell from Test cricket. More >>

It was at the height of colonialism, immediate pre independence. It was a time when rain trees lined Bullers’ Road, reaching up high and joining to form natural arches. Here could be found Charles Henry Alfred Pieris, better known as Harry Pieris, his car parked to the side, easel out and working assiduously. (The Harry Pieris, who according to his friend Margaret Gooneratne, enrolled at the Royal College of Art in preference to The Slade, for no better reason, than that the gown worn by its graduates being an attractive cerise pink.) More >>

Teenagers with earphones plugged to their ears, children chiding their computers for taking a second too long to “log on”, toddlers toddling with their miniature ‘phones for toddlers’; these are but common scenes that one sees wherever one looks. Members of a previous generation may undoubtedly wonder at such spectacles, confused by the ever-increasing amount of “needs” that seem to be piling in, in the present century.
Whenever my mother told me that “her days” were much “simpler” than the modern times, More >>

The spat between India and Pakistan over yesterday’s meeting of its foreign ministers in Islamabad shows no signs of abating. External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, on his return to New Delhi, was peppered with questions from reporters for his reactions to Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s complaints about India at the meeting.
For starters, Mr. Qureshi at a press conference late yesterday termed as “uncalled for” allegations made this week by Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai that Pakistan’s military spy agency had directed the Mumbai attacks in 2008. More >>

Facebook has been warned that Muslims will leave unless certain pages are reinstated More than 2.5million users will leave Facebook unless certain Islamic pages are reinstated, it has been claimed. A template letter that has been pasted into numerous Facebook pages accuses founder Mark Zuckerberg and other senior members of Facebook of ‘ignoring the feelings of more than 2.5million Muslims’. The Muslim community is angry that four extremely popular Islamic pages were removed from the site and the letter warns that unless its demands are met Facebook’s Muslim users will move to an Islamic alternative. More >>

The Director General of the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission said that a price floor of Rs.2 will be imposed on all voice calls, as a measure to prevent unhealthy competition among service providers.
Consensus was reached by the service providers, as they faced losses in the last quarter of year 2009. It is said that the total industry loss amounted to Rs. 23 million last year. More >>

Tea production in India’s biggest growing region will decline this year because of pest attacks, driving prices higher, the state-run Tea Board of India said. Output in Assam, which accounts for more than half of the country’s production, may drop 30 per cent to 40 per cent during the so- called second flush, Basudeb Banerjee, Chairman of the board, said in an interview from Kolkata last week.
A smaller crop may widen a shortage in the world’s largest user of the beverage after China, More >>

Venice (Italian: Venezi), is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, with a population of 271,367 (census estimate 1 January 2004). Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area (population 1,600,000). The city historically was the capital of an independent nation. Venice has been known as the “La Dominante”, “Serenissima”, “Queen of the Adriatic”, “City of Water”, “City of Bridges”, “City of Canals” and “The City of Light”.
The city stretches across 118 small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy. More >>

Although France was left in an economic state similar to that before his rule, Napoleon Bonaparte was a revered military genius and rose in rank to become Emperor of France and King of Italy. The Little Corporal, as he was known, was to have great might in all his endeavors and has become one of the most studied personages of the 18 th and 19 th centuries.
Childhood
Young Napoleon was born on August 15, 1769 in Corsica. During his military training in France and while serving as a lieutenant and captain in the forces, he often returned to Corsica to be with family and friends. More >>