Sri Lanka’s trade deficit will top USD 10 billion in 2011 and will continue growing in 2012. The reason being while Sri Lanka’s largest export markets, the US and EU suffer from weak or no growth, its imports are inelastic; i.e. not sensitive to changes in price. Sri Lanka imports all its essential goods from food, e.g. wheat and sugar, to its energy needs. Even coal and oil needed to generate electricity are imported. Inputs into its largest export, textiles, are imported – it does not manufacture the yarn or the capital goods necessary to produce the finished good. Defending the rupee at its current level while its export competitors have devalued their currencies by as much as 40 percent makes its produce expensive.

The present Diyawadana Nilame of the Kandy Dalada Maligawa , Pradeep Neelanga Dhela Bandara is the brother of Dixon Dhela Bandara who was appointed as the Sri Lanka(SL) High Commissioner to the Maldives. The father Dixon and the regime chief were School classmates . The Diyawadana Nilame is the son of regime chief ’s friend and classmate. This son , the Diyawadane Nilame,who is holding a most revered and sacred position in the Dalada Maligawa Temple has had fun even with the sacred duties he is saddled with .

The screening of ‘Silenced Voices’, which is about journalists, who contributed to international exposure of the internationally abetted genocidal war without witnesses, will be followed by a debate featuring journalists Bashana Abeywardane, the former chief editor of Hiru weekly, Frances Harrison, the former BBC foreign correspondent to Sri Lanka and Sverre Tom Radøy, a Norwegian journalist. The film features Mr. Bashana Abeywardene, his wife Sharmila Logeswaram, Sonali Wickrematunge and A. Lokeesan, TamilNet wartime correspondent, who was reporting from 2005 to April 2009 from Vanni.

Most of the nearly 300,000 displaced persons illegally confined in military-controlled detention centers after the war were able to leave by early 2010, but many have still not been able to return to their previous homes or communities. About 57,000 people live with host families, and another roughly 53,000 remain in the camps, in part because de-mining activities have not yet been completed in their original home areas.

Earlier, one of the inmates told the BBC Sinhala service that three prisoners had been killed when officers at the gates shot at a large group in the compound. The prisoners had gunshot wounds, mostly below the knee. The officers had head or leg injuries after being assaulted. Ambulances have been taking the wounded to Colombo’s National Hospital. A senior staff member there told the BBC that 26 inmates and five officers were being treated, although the injuries were not serious.Several guards were also hurt in the clashes.

A collective of media rights groups is scheduled to stage a massive protest, Black January, tomorrow in Colombo against attacks on journalists. All right-minded people will readily pledge their solidarity with the campaigners for media freedom and protection of journalists. The past few years have seen a spate of attacks on the media. Journalists have been intimidated, assaulted, abducted and murdered; media institutions have been set on fire.

 Ambassador stressed that the reconciliation phase must include two vital components: the humanitarian side – providing the IDPs with what they need and resettling them expeditiously – and the political side – power-sharing arrangements to give Tamils assurance of a future with hope and dignity. This was the way to defeat terrorism for good. The Ambassador encouraged the GSL to think about how to engage with Tamil representatives. Ambassador said it was particularly important to reach out to the Tamil Diaspora so they would stop supporting the LTTE. The President said the basis of his devolution plan would be the “13th amendment plus 1″ – meaning implementation of the existing constitutional provisions for provincial councils, but adding an upper house to Parliament, modeled on the U.S. Senate.”

Staff member of the Viluthu told NfR, Sri Lankathey do not have any enemies and they didn’t receive any threats beforethis incident. According the staff member it is clear that attackers werelooking for information.Office files had been checked, and the pen drive of the Ms. Shanthi ASachithanandam, chief executive officer ofViluthu was found out side theoffice.  Police has expressed the opinion that this was an act ofexperienced group.

Any which way one looks at a Fonseka pardon, he is between the devil and the deep blue sea. Speculation is rife whether the former army commander Sarath Fonseka will be given a presidential pardon before the March 2012 United Nations Human Rights Council sessions. Even if he is pardoned, it looks like he will be faced with a war crimes trial abroad. Fonseka is a Legal Permanent Resident in the United States and has family and property in Oklahoma.

It’s December 2010, and two young law students are sitting for their exam. One is in a hall full of students, who are being monitored closely by the examiner to make sure they’re following the rules:  no phones, no electronic devices, no cheating. The other, meanwhile, is taken to a private, air-conditioned room with a computer with internet access, and is allowed to keep his phone.  As an added bonus, he has two teachers from the college sitting by his side. Perhaps simply for moral support, or perhaps for slightly more.