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?Continuing hostilities in the region have seriously hampered the education of students in the region, and out of 762 students in the district only about 500 were able to sit for GCE Advanced Level examination,” M.Theivendiran, Mullaiththeevu Zonal Director of Education told TamilNet Friday.

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Sri Lanka Army (SLA) hierarchy in Mannaar blocked Friday Tamil Catholic devotees from taking part in the special mass of blessing from Our Lady of Madu. Tamil Catholic devotees from Mannaar and Vavuniyaa were deprived from taking part in the mass, according to sources associated with the Church. This year, Madu feast was not held due to the prevailing conditions in the surrounding area of the Madu shrine. Around 500 Catholic devotees from the South along with three Sri Lankan ministers were escorted by the Police to take part in Friday’s blessings at the Church.

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Three youths were seriously injured after coming into contact with live electric wires while forced to build a rampart around a live high voltage electricity transformer by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Friday in Chiruppiddi in Valikaamam East, sources in Jaffna said. One of the injured was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital Friday, the other two were treated for burn injuries. Sri Lanka Electricity Board officials in Jaffna declined to comment on the incident.

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Unidentified men riding a motorbike hurled a hand grenade inside the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) checkpoint located at the railway crossing along Naavalar Road, Jaffna at 12:00 noon Friday, sources in Jaffna said. SLA troopers manning the checkpoint escaped unhurt in the explosion. The checkpoint encompasses part of the railway track, and is located behind the EPDP headquarters Sridhar Theater building.

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Russia?s intervention over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, just like the Western intervention over Kosovo, amply demonstrates that ’sovereignty’ and ‘territorial integrity’ are not cast-iron principles, but fragile covers for pursuit of interests by powerful states, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued this week. ?Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, like those of Serbia, Georgia, and many others, has always been contingent on these being sufficiently useful to all the Great Powers, at the same time,? the paper said. ?The moment the emergence of Tamil Eelam becomes useful to any of the Great Powers, a new game will begin.?

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Refering to the conclusion of a research study by economists at the University of Sussex that “losing GSP Plus would lead to a 4% cut in Sri Lanka?s garment exports,” and “[o]verall, it would cost 2% of GDP,” the Economist in an article published in the 15th August edition, predicted dire economic future, and pointed out, “[a]nnual inflation is close to 30%. The rupee has appreciated against the dollar, further hurting exporters. By one estimate, economic growth?which was 7.6% in 2006?will be 4.3% this year. As elsewhere, inflation is being driven by high food and energy prices.”

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“The war against the LTTE will continue without a break until the capture of the Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu”, declared Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa while addressing a public meeting that followed the inauguration of an irrigation project in Polonnaruwa Thursday in the North Central Province, where he also proclaimed that the era of rulers who were dependent on the West was over with his regime. Meanwhile, Somawanse Amarasinghe, the leader of the Sinhala extreme nationalist JVP accused that Mr. Rajapaksa has ’surrendered the sovereignty of Sri Lanka’ to India.

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Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Friday around 11:45 a.m a person belonging to Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) while he was selling ‘Thinamurasu’ newspaper in front of Manchchanththoduvaay Technical College in Kaaththaankudi police division in Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said.

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The project to set up a Rehabilitation Centre in Kaarainakar for the persons placed in the protective custody of Jaffna Prison due to death threats by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and SLA-backed paramilitaries has stalled due to objections from Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry, civil society sources in Jaffna said. Colombo insists on housing the said persons in SLA’s Special Rehabilitation Centre located in the SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) in Thellippa?lai, sources added.

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Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the Sinhala nationalist party, alleged at a press briefing in Ratnapura Thursday that the government has unleashed anarchy in the Sabaragamuwa province against opposition parties contesting in Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council (SPC) election which is scheduled to be held on August 23

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