Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered formulation of a procedure to prevent distortion of Buddhist scripts and granted financial help to Daham Paasals, the religious schools in the country.

<P>The Export-Import Bank of India on Wednesday signed an agreement with the Sri Lankan government to provide credit of USD 67.4 million for upgrading the Island nation's southern rail line.</P>

It was dusk when I checked into Bastion hotel in Jaffna. I had left Colombo at dawn. Layers of red dust had settled on me in spite of the car’s determinedly rolled-up windows.

India's external intelligence agency tried to undermine Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse at polls in January and wanted him defeated, a minister said in an interview published on Monday.

India today assured Sri Lanka of its support to the process of resettlement and rehabilitation of Tamil civilians displaced due to the war and pushed for a political solution to the decades-old ethnic question.

<P>Sri Lanka has rejected the UN proposal to set up an advisory panel in the wake of alleged human rights abuse during the final phase of armed battle between the government forces and the LTTE rebels in the country.</P>

<P>Sri Lanka on Saturday said that the decision of the UN Secretary General to constitute a special committee to advise him on the island nation's accountability issues was unwarranted and the aid agency should not interfere with the internal affairs of any country.</P>

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's police used batons to disperse hundreds of supporters of losing presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka on Thursday, police and a Reuters witness said, in a second day of protests against his arrest.