President praises health workers of Sri Lanka on International Family Health Day

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa said today the family health workers should be honored for bringing down the country's mortality rate among children and expectant mothers.

Sri Lanka President arrives in Bangladesh

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who left the island for Bangladesh on a special SriLankan flight this morning for a three-day official visit, received a warm welcome at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka this afternoon.

Sri Lanka President promotes extracurricular activities in schools

Sri Lanka's schools should focus on producing a disciplined and patriotic generation who would be committed to build the nation and to achieve that country's children should be guided spiritually while providing them with a good education, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

Sri Lankan President congratulates UNP Leader on re-appointment, wishes happy birthday

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has today wished Opposition and United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe on his 62nd birthday and congratulated him for his reappointment as the party leader.

Sri Lankan President says government wanted to win at least half of the Tamil Diaspora members

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa today told editors of media institutions in the country that the government wanted to win over at least half of the Tamil Diaspora that has been critical of the government.

Sri Lanka launches ambitious housing project to build one million houses

Pursuing another promise in the Mahinda Chintanaya policy statement to provide a home for every homeless family, the Sri Lankan government today launched an ambitious project to build one million houses within the next five years.

Finance Ministry has a decisive task for country's development, Sri Lanka President says

In the New Year Sri Lanka is to realize the expectations of development launched during the humanitarian operations and the Finance Ministry has a decisive task in the journey towards the development, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said.

One Law for all

President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared open the newly Constructed Tangalla Court Complex at a cost of Rs. 385 million this morning on 06 November. The new Judicial Complex comprises the High Court, District Court, Magistrate Courts, Legal Aid office and Labour Tribunal.

Sri Lanka President attends graduation ceremony of Defense Academy

Sri Lanka's Commander-In-Chief, President Mahinda Rajapaksa Thursday participated in the graduation ceremony of the Sir John Kothalawela Defense University held at the BMICH.

Sri Lanka President returns from India

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to the country Friday after participating in the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi yesterday.

Sri Lanka President initiates several development projects in South

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is now on a visit in his native Southern Province has initiated a number of development work in Matara district today.

Sri Lanka President enjoys car racing at Fox Hill Super Cross

 President Mahinda Rajapaksa today attended the Sri Lanka's grandest motor racing event, 18th annual Fox Hill Super Cross 2010 in Diyathalawa.

Sri Lanka leader rejects UN panel on rights abuses

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka's president has rejected the U.N. secretary-general's plan to appoint a panel of experts to look into alleged rights abuses in the island nation's civil war, a statement from the president's office said Saturday.

In a Friday evening phone conversation with Ban Ki-moon, President Mahinda Rajapaksa described the step as "totally uncalled for and unwarranted," the statement said.

In New York, Ban's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, confirmed the secretary-general had told Rajapaksa of his intention to form a panel of experts that would "advise him on the way forward on accountability issues related to Sri Lanka."

Sri Lanka has faced growing international criticism for not examining alleged abuses committed during the war, in which tens of thousands of combatants and civilians died. The United Nations has reported that more than 7,000 civilians were killed in the final fighting against the Tamil Tigers last year as government forces closed in and crushed the rebellion.


Rights groups and some countries have called for war crime investigations. The government has been accused of firing heavy weapons into civilian areas, and the Tamil rebels accused of holding civilians as human shields and shooting those who tried to flee. Both sides have denied the allegations.

On Thursday, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay criticized Sri Lanka for failing to examine abuses committed in the war.

Rajapaksa's statement said the allegations of rights abuses were "misrepresentations" by supporters of the Tamil Tigers and private groups working against Sri Lanka.

The appointment of a U.N. panel would "certainly be perceived as an interference with the current general election campaign," the statement said, adding that Sri Lanka would take "necessary and appropriate action" - without specifying what that would be.

Rajapaksa, who won a second term as president by a big margin in Jan. 26 elections, has called parliamentary polls on April 8, hoping to further tighten his grip on power by securing a majority in the 225-member legislature.

Since his re-election, Rajapaksa's government has arrested his former army chief and rival presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka on accusations of sedition.

Before the two men fell out, Fonseka led the military in defeating the Tamil rebels, who fought for a separate state, claiming decades of discrimination by the Sinhalese majority. The U.N. says between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed during the war.

Rajapaksa holds talks with Prachanda

KATHMANDU: In an unusual turn of events, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose government this year crushed a nearly three-decade-old

Tamil insurgency, arrived in Nepal on Thursday and held a 30-minute-long discussion with Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, whose guerrilla army led a successful 10-year-old civil war in the Himalayan nation.

After the meeting in the tightly guarded Soaltee Crowne Plaza hotel in Kathmandu, where Rajapaksa is staying with his wife, Shiranthi Rajapaksa, Prachanda told the media that his party wished to learn from the Sri Lankan experience in the wake of the LTTE movement, especially about the rehabilitation of the Tamil Tigers.

Prachanda's Maoist party is currently at loggerheads with the coalition government of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal over the rehabilitation of over near 20,000 combatants of the People's Liberation Army, who want to join the national army but are being opposed by the army as well as some of the ruling parties. The delay in the rehabilitation as well as the Maoist failure to discharge child soldiers, has caused the UN to express repeated concern especially as the UN agency supervising the PLA faces the end of its tenure in January.

From November 1, Prachanda's party, once underground like the LTTE, has announced it would start anti-government protests, including a day-long blockade of Kathmandu valley and the country's only international airport, in a bid to force the dissolution of the ruling alliance and form a new one under their leadership.

Prachanda also said that his party was interested in learning about education and healthcare from Sri Lanka.

Rajapaksa, whose May visit in Nepal had to be terminated abruptly due to the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, has returned to Nepal to undergo the abandoned visit to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha. He will fly to the southern city Friday to inaugurate a monastery in Lumbini built by the Sri Lankan government.

The 70-member jumbo delegation will return to Colombo on Saturday.