After 14 years voted for local government election in northern Batticoloa district

Voting in the Batticaloa District in Northern province Local Government polls has ended peacefully. A notable feature was the conduct of the polls sans violence. Election officials said polling was satisfactory. People voted after 14 years for local government election.
Counting Centers have received the ballot boxes. Counting is now in progress. Our correspondents said voters enthusiastically exercised their franchise. 270,471 were eligible to vote.50% voted at the polls. Polling took place at 287 booths. Six recognized political parties and 22 independent groups fielded 831 candidates. 101 members will be elected to the nine local bodies.

TNA MP dead following claymore attack

SRI LANKA

TNA Jaffna district MP K. Sivanesan died following a claymore attack targeting his vehicle at Kanagarayakulam in Wanni this afternoon. His driver also died in the attack. He was on his way to Killinochchi at the time of the blast.

SRI LANKA RUPAVAHINI COOPERATION female employee slashed

MEDIA
SRI LANKA RUPAVAHINI COOPERATION female employee slashed

A female employee of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation was slashed on her back with a razor blade by an unidentified man in Peliyagoda, while traveling in a bus after work last evening -- just weeks after Minister Mervin Silva stormed the SLRC premises.

Ranjani Herath, the Assistant Director of the SLRC Library, was on her way home, seated in a Kadawatha bound bus. As it was passing Kelaniya Bridge she had felt a pain in her back. “I had dozed off, and when I turned, a young man in an orange T-Shirt who was seated just behind me was doing something with his hand,” she said.

She added that, as she turned around further, the man had cut her again. “I did not see what sort of weapon he used, but as soon as he cut me he ran and jumped out of the bus,” she said; adding that she had cried out for someone to stop him, yet no one in the bus come to her aid.

Soon afterwards, Herath, the mother of a nine-year-old girl, was rushed to the Colombo National Hospital, where she was given the necessary treatment.

She described her assailant as being about 28 years of age and wearing a white cap pulled down over his face. Police are conducting further investigations into the incident.

Meanwhile, five media organizations condemned the attack, saying that this was the fourth incident in which SLRC employees had been subjected to various ordeals since January 26, when a Senior SLRC Producer was hacked by two unidentified persons. After that the houses of two SLRC employees, Duleep Dushantha and Piyal Ranjith, were broken into by armed gangs who had threatened them.

The media organizations held the government responsible for not taking any action against the intruders, including Mr. Mervin Silva, who had stormed the SLRC premises and created disorder.

Spokesman for the five media organizations, Mr. Sanath Balasuriya, said, “the fact that no police action had been taken against Minister Mervin Silva and his supporters makes us disbelieve that these incidents are the result personal disputes”.

71 rescued from human smuggling vessel, 20 dead

71 rescued from human smuggling vessel, 20 dead Sri Lanka Navy has rescued 71 people from a large trawler which was engaged in human smuggling and went disabled at sea off Mullaitivu. This was revealed after the suspicious ship was towed to Trincomalee. There had been 91 nationals from Burma and Bangladesh and 20 had died due to hunger and the bodies had been thrown into the sea. Navy to the rescue...

One of the survivors who was rescued from a drifting vessel today is pictured here being fed by a sailor on board a Sri Lanka Navy Ship in the middle of the high seas off Mullativu. Pic courtesy Sri Lanka Navy

HRW urges UNHRC to intensify engagement on Sri Lanka

NEWS UPDATING 24 HOURS -- FROM SRI LANKA HRW urges UNHRC to intensify engagement on Sri Lanka

Human Rights Watch says the UN Human Rights Council which is meeting in Geneva today, should intensify its engagement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sri Lanka and Burma. Several reports in the session will draw attention to the deteriorating situation in Sri Lanka, HRW said adding that among them the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances will present its 2007 report in which Sri Lanka has the highest number of new cases of “disappearances” reported in the world.