8:12 AM

SL Air Force Attack to LTTE

According to military information, Sri Lanka Air force destroyed two LTTE boat today morning.

7:34 AM

Police after LTTE photo-journalist

The Colombo National Hospital police unit is looking for a photo-journalist of a leading electronic media organization who had hidden himself in a toilet of the Colombo National Hospital blood bank to photograph activities of the blood bank. Blood bank staff had arrested him, but he had escaped, the Health Ministry said yesterday.

A Health Ministry spokesman told 'News-Lanka' that when the intruder was caught by the blood bank staff he had told them that he had come to take some pictures in order to rectify a distorted news coverage by the media organization.

When asked him as to why he had come through the back door, the photojournalist had escaped from their grip, jumped over the wall of the hospital and escaped.

Dr. A. Manchnayaka of the blood bank had requested the staff complain to the National Hospital police unit.According to the doctors of the blood bank, a certain electronic media organization is trying to bring discredit to its functions.

7:11 AM

Lanka-UK talks on GSP plus

Lord Mark Malloch Brown, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the UK told Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama that his Government was sensitive to the issue of the extension of the GSP + and expressed hope that this preferential trading facility would be extended and outlined the areas which need to be addressed.

The two ministers met at the Minister Bogollagama’s official residence. Bogollagama highlighted the vital role of the GSP + facility as a mechanism to spread the development effort countrywide, especially in the Eastern Province.

Lord Brown visited Trincomalee prior to his meeting with Bogollagama. He acknowledged the achievements of the Sri Lankan Government in the field of human rights.

The two ministers also discussed Sri Lanka’s concerns on LTTE fund raising and propaganda activities in the UK. Bogollagama thanked the British Government for curbing LTTE activities and noted the ongoing legal process in respect of LTTE suspects who are under arrest.. Lord Brown’s attention was also drawn to the activities of the LTTE’s front organizations operating in the UK

7:08 AM

An Indian rescued by Sri Lanka Navy

An Indian national arrested in the mid-sea while escaping from the clutches of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was rescued by Sri Lanka Navy. Still the plight of three more Indian who were captured by the LTTE remains a mystery,

Indian national (aged 28) who had been incarcerated by LTTE and kept under their custody, had managed to escape and was rescued in mid-sea by the Sri Lanka Navy, while he was making an attempt to flee to India on a boat with seven other Sri Lankans, in the morning on 16th July.

According to Sri Lanka Navy sources, he had come to Sri Lanka on 10th January 2003, with three other Indian nationals holding Indian passports and had travelled to Kilinochchi with the hope of visiting some of their relatives.

But, denying their access to relatives, they had been arrested and questioned by the LTTE cadres, inflicting serious physical torture, and thereafter they had been made to shed physical labor. Whereabouts of the other three are not yet known.

He is said to be a resident in Madras, sources further say.However, about three months before, he had been assigned to work in a garage belonging to LTTE which paved way for him to escape.