Sri Lanka lawyers protest against threats to Mannar Magistrate, government promises to punish guilty

Amid protests by the lawyers against the threats on a judge continued, the Sri Lankan government promised to investigate the incident and punish the guilty regardless of their status. Hundreds of lawyers staged another protest today outside the Hultsdorf Courts Complex against the threats made on the Magistrate of Mannar allegedly by the Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiyutheen.

Main party of Sri Lankan government appoints committee to propose mechanism to implement LLRC recommendations

The key collation party of Sri Lanka's governing United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has appointed a four-member committee to propose the mechanism to implement recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). SLFP General Secretary, Minister Maithripala Sirisena said

Sri Lanka's ruling party confident of a landslide victory in Colombo

Sri Lanka's governing United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) says it is confident of a landslide victory for the first time in Colombo at the upcoming local government elections on October 8.

Sri Lanka constitutional reforms next month

Sri Lankan government plans to present the proposals for the constitutional reforms to the parliament next month, a government minister said.
Minister of Health Maithripala Sirisena said the government is in the process of preparing the amendments to the Constitution now and they will be presented to the Cabinet for their approval before presenting to the parliament.

West using Sarath Fonseka to bring regime change in Lanka: Minister

Former top General Sarath Fonseka, who led the army to victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has now become a pawn in the hands of some western nations "conspiring" to bring "regime change" in Sri Lanka, a top minister has allegedThe general secretary of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and agriculture development minister Maithripala Sirisena also alleged that many of the foreign dignitaries who visited Sri Lanka during the last phase of the Eelam War IV tried to save the slain LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.

"Certain Western nations were trying to bring about a regime change here since the government have never given into their pressure in its fight against terrorism," the Daily Mirror newspaper quoted Sirisena as saying.

He described Fonseka as a brave military leader. "We recognise it. We regret the fact that he has become a pawn of this Western conspiracy against the government,"he said.

Many foreign dignitaries who visited Sri Lanka during the last leg of the nearly 30-year-old war were interested in salvaging Prabhakaran through the cessation of humanitarian operations, the senior minister said. There was pressure applied by them to save the LTTE supremo. "Almost all of them wanted to save the life of Prabhakaran by applying pressure on the government to stop military operations," the paper quoted Sirisena yesterday.

"There must be an invisible foreign force behind the UNP-JVP combine to defeat this government,"Sirisena told reporters.

Commenting on the presidential election, he said that the government had started electioneering successfully all over the country.

"In the campaign, we are ahead of the Opposition. We are working for a historic victory for pPresident Mahinda Rajapaksa," he said.