Source

Severe property damage has been caused due to the storm that hit several areas of the country on Monday evening. 681 houses have been damaged and 234 houses partially damaged.

The Disaster Management Centre informed several villages in the North Central, Uva, East and Central provinces have been affected by the storm. It said that due to fall of trees several roads have been obstructed and electricity has been disconnected.

Saturday, May 05, 2012 - 02.11 GMT

The governments of Sri Lanka and Australia in the interest of both countries have pledged to cooperate on curtailing illegal migration and human trafficking.

The two countries have agreed to keep a vigil on the people smuggling activities during bilateral discussions held Thursday between the Australian Minister of Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen, who was in Sri Lanka on an official visit from May 02 -04, and the acting Minister of External Affairs Neomal Perera.

The government of India has taken action to initiate a programme to rehabilitate war widows in the Eastern Province.

CPM Member of Parliament T K Rangarajan who was part of the 15-member Indian Parliamentary delegation who visited war-ravage areas in Sri Lanka and other places told reporters in Chennai on Sunday that they were saddened by the fact that 13,000 of those widows were under 23 years of age.

A group of inmates of the Sri Lankan refugee camp at Chengalpattu in Kancheepuram district [India] are on an indefinite hunger strike seeking a transfer to ‘open camps’ and some to return to Sri Lanka.

‘Q’ Branch and Revenue Department sources told Indian Express that the refugees were on the sixth day of their hunger strike. The sources said the demands have been forwarded to the collector, who will later forward it to the government.

The remaining Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) will be resettled within next six months, Resettlement Minister Gunaratne Weerakoon said.

Resettlement Minister told Xinhua that the construction of permanent houses for some 1,700 families living in a camp for the displaced in Vavuniya in the north has already begun.

"We will need at least six months to fully complete the resettlement process. Last month we completed 206 houses and we have begun constructing another 200 houses and that should be completed in three months," the minister said.

The Kalmadu Irrigation Tank in the Kilinochchi district, renovated under the Uthuru Wasanthaya programme was declared open yesterday by Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa.

This tank bund was exploded by the LTTE at the last stage of terrorism destroying the livelihood of 4,650 farmer families in the Kandawalai DS Division in Kilinochchi.

Kalmadu is an earthen dam across the Nethali Aru basin, located 18 km East of Kilinochchi. Its water storage capacity is 11.7 mcm impounded by a 1.575km long earth embankment with a maximum height of 8m.

Hon. Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development was the chief guest at the occasion of handing over cheques for Tsunami-affected families in Karawahuvattei in Kalmunai electorate division.

This financial assistance, worth of Rs. 110 million, was provided to 200 tsunami affected families to reconstruct their homes. Under this program each beneficiaries was received a grant of Rs. 550000 to build their homes. Funds were allocated by the Ministry of Economic Development.

A team of dengue experts from the European Union has arrived in Sri Lanka to conduct a surveillance study on the dengue epidemic. According to the Ministry of Health, the team led by Prof. J. Gubler of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore includes specialists from Heidelberg University in Germany, Umea University in Sweden, and Boston University in USA.

The team of specialists had held discussions with the officials of the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry on the European Union -funded Dengue Disease Surveillance Project (DDSP).