The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

Columns

Political Column

Rajapaksa-Ranil meeting adds to UNP splits

It was near midnight last Monday when Opposition United National Party Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe boarded his car to return home after attending an oaths party of young lawyer at a Kirulapone residence. His mobile phone rang. A security officer answered and handed it over to him. It was a staffer in his secretariat. He said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa would like to meet Wickremesinghe the next morning at Janadipathi Mandiraya (President's House).

5th Column

Sword of Damocles hanging over his head!

“Thaaththa,” Bindu Udagedera asked, “what is all this fuss about Aacharya Mervyn again?”
“Well, Bindu,” Bindu’s father Percy said, “it looks as if all the fuss about him was not really necessary...”
“Why do you say that, thaaththa?” Bindu asked.

The Economic Analysis

Inadequate progress in poverty reduction

There is a serious apprehension that the country is unlikely to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of poverty reduction by 2015. A UN background briefing prepared for the World Summit on the Millennium targets at the United Nations in New York next month said 11 Asian countries with poverty rates above five per cent were "likely to miss the income-poverty target”.

Lobby

Not issued with this week

Focus on Rights

Are we becoming pariahs in South Asia?

Bangalore, August 11, 2010 - India's Right to Information (RTI) Law which has been hailed as pathbreaking in the region has recently been in the centre of news in that country for the right as well as the wrong reasons. Since the enactment of the law in 2005, the information regime has been significantly expanded, public officers have been put more on the defensive in arbitrarily denying information and a pro-activist attitude of judges in the lower courts has resulted in the application of the law to the judiciary, in disclosing their assets to the public.

Talk at the Cafe Spectator

Cader's biriyani for President

The United National Party's Kandy District parliamentarian, Abdul Cader, has become a staunch supporter of the UPFA government. So much so, speculation is rife he will soon join its ranks. Just two weeks ago, when President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in Kandy, Mr. Cader was one of the visitors to call on him at the 'President's House' there. He did not go there empty handed.