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Our pictures show supplies being loaded to a US aircraft to be taken from the Bandaranaike International Airport to the aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis which is anchored off Trincomalee. The supplies were brought to the BIA by a US military cargo plane from Bahrain, in terms of a cargo transfer initiative agreement between [...]
Artificial rain: Climatologist urges Govt. to conduct a trial first
A senior climatologist in the committee that studied a proposal to produce artificial rain for hydropower generation has urged the Government to conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis and environmental impact study before taking the project beyond its trial stage. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) this week signed an [...]
Cancer patients hit by delays in appointments
State-run hospitals are facing a crisis due to the delays in appointing chairpersons and directors to state institutions. Hospitals do not have adequate drugs to treat cancer patients and are not sure when the drugs will arrive. The reason: The delay in appointments to tender boards because of the vetting process by the committee appointed [...]
India likely to get 70 percent stake to airlift Mattala
Sri Lanka is to give India 70 percent of the stake in the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) in a move that appears to strike a balance with the Hambantota Port being given to China. In terms of a Cabinet Paper now being prepared for approval, the new deal is to be a joint venture [...]
President to visit Thailand
President Maithripala Sirisena will visit Thailand on February 19. He is expected to take along with him a Bo-sapling to be presented to the Thai government. Four days after his return to Colombo following a visit to the Philippines, President Sirisena left last Tuesday for Singapore. He returned yesterday.
British court seeks clarification of Lankan Brigadier’s DPL status
Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been contacted by the Westminster Magistrate’s Court seeking clarification of Brigadier Priyanka Fernando’s diplomatic status in Britain at the time he made controversial gestures at pro-LTTE demonstrators outside the Sri Lanka High Commission in London last year. “The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which is not a party to these [...]
Estate worker’s daily wage increased by Rs 200, to Rs 700
Sri Lanka’s plantation workers have been granted a basic wage of Rs 700, an increase of Rs.200, following discussions held on Friday at the Labour Ministry. The government will support the plantation companies to pay the arrears. The intense round of negotiations were carried out with the participation of Plantations Minister Navin Dissanayake, Labour Minister [...]
TN trawlers: Govt.’s arrest-and-release policy decried
The Government has started releasing Tamil Nadu fishing trawlers caught poaching in Sri Lankan waters between 2013 and last year, with the latest batch of 13 being returned to their owners yesterday. This brings the total number of trawlers returned this year alone to 27. The moves have attracted widespread condemnation from Northern fishermen who [...]
Cost of Living Sub-Committee to meet to discuss milk powder crisis
The Cost of Living Sub-Committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss a solution to the milk powder crisis, Industries and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen told the Sunday Times. Due to the depreciation of the Rupee, traders have been forced to reduce the import of milk powder from Australia and New Zealand over the past few [...]
Career diplomats petition SC for ‘Ambassador’ title
Career diplomats have petitioned the Supreme Court against the Foreign Ministry’s failure to implement a service minute provision which allows Grade 1 officers who are Deputy Chiefs of Mission, Deputy High Commissioners, Consuls General and Ministers to receive the title of “Ambassador”. Appointment of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Heads of Mission remains the prerogative of the [...]
‘Uttara Devi’ to take off from Fort with a brand new S-13 locomotive power set
The newly imported S-13 locomotive power set will be formally vested with the public by being used for the ‘Uttara Devi’ Colombo-Kankesanthurai train today (27). The ‘Uttara Devi,’ with the new power set, will commence its maiden journey from the Colombo Fort Railway Station to Kankesanthurai at 6 a.m. Before the maiden journey, a ceremony [...]
Smoking, drinking ban at Gov’s office dos
The Northern Province Governor Suren Raghavan has instructed his office employees to avoid alcohol and cigarette during social functions in the office premises. The directive came soon after President Maithri-pala Sirisena inaugurated an anti-drug week at the Mulliyawalai Vidyananda Vidyalaya in Mullaitivu.
Lanka’s disabled public cheated of full access to public resources
Despite strong laws, little has been done to make public buildings and transportation accessible to people with disabilities. “Laws regarding disability accessibility exist but through inspection, the Human Rights Commission (HRC) found buildings that failed to fulfill the requirement,” commission Chairperson Dr. Deepika Udagama said. The question was, how had those buildings been given a [...]
India’s 70th Republic Day celebrations in Colombo
The Indian High Commission in Colombo, yesterday celebrated India’s 70th Republic Day at India House in Colombo, with Indian High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandu presiding over the event. The address of the President of India, Sri Ram Nath Kovind was read out by Deputy Commissioner Dr Shilpak N. Ambulle. The ceremonial hoisting of the national [...]
Editors resolve 243 complaints directly under the ‘Right of Reply’ option
National newspaper editors resolved 243 complaints made directly to them by aggrieved readers last year, while the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka (PCCSL) received seventy-nine (79) public complaints, of which 19 were outside its scope, according to the 2018 annual report of the PCCSL. The complaints resolved by the editors came under the ‘Right [...]
Chinese in the city: From petti kade to projects and posh restaurants
A board at the Kollupitiya market carries images of different cuts of meat. What is striking is not the English description. They are now in the Chinese language, too. “The Chinese are coming in large numbers, some wealthy and others more economy-minded,” said Mohammad Sajahan (47), a butcher. His remarks underscore the growing Chinese population [...]
More than 90 percent of military acquired lands returned to owners in the North
The Sri Lanka Army has released more than 90 percent of military acquired lands in the Northern Province to the original owners under the direction of President Maithripala Sirisena, the Presidential Secretariat said. The Secretariat said that, on January 21, the army delivered documents to release 1201.88 acres, including state and private land, which was [...]
Drugs in the lap of luxury
Foreign drug traffickers are increasingly using luxury apartments as ‘safe houses’ to store large quantities of heroin, moving their operations from one apartment to another every few months to avoid detection, a senior officer at the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) revealed. Compared to individual houses, such luxury apartments are advantages to foreign traffickers, said Deputy [...]
300 foreign medical students blocked from work cry foul
Delays in the exam that allows foreign medical graduates to practise in Sri Lanka, and the granting of subsequent internship appointments, have left around 300 such students without a job for almost a year to date. The Examination for Registration to Practise Medicine (ERPM) is a requirement for medical students from foreign universities, to obtain [...]
SriLanka purchased 8 aircraft sans Cabinet approval: COPE
The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) will submit a special report to Parliament, pertaining to the acquisition of 8 aircraft and cancellation of their Lease agreements, based on two comprehensive reports it commissioned the Auditor General’s (AG) Department, said Chairman Sunil Handunnetti, while submitting its quarterly report this week in Parliament. COPE has directed the [...]
Will it be DF or DHF – answer from our antibody response to the NS1 toxin
Tropical countries including Sri Lanka have been battered and bruised by dengue for a long time in recent memory. The tiny mosquito with white-striped legs has gone into homes and schools, spreading death and disease through this viral disease. Dengue has turned into the plague of recent times coming in all its fury as the [...]
‘HR division ditched rules to make recruitment’
Administrative lapses and lack of professionalism at the Human Resources division of the national carrier, SriLankan Airlines, led to losses of billions of rupees while adding to the financial burden of the Airline. This was revealed this week by a witness appearing before the the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) probing allegations of large scale frauds [...]
UK court seeks clarification of Lankan Brigadier’s DPL status
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been contacted by the Westminster Magistrate’s Court seeking clarification of Brigadier Priyanka Fernando’s diplomatic status in Britain at the time he made controversial gestures at pro-LTTE demonstrators outside the Sri Lanka High Commission in London last year. “The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which is not a party to these [...]
Husband remanded over wife’s killing
A man who allegedly stabbed his wife to death over her alleged infidelity, has been remanded till February 2, after he surrendered to the Ragama Police. Police said that, initial investigations revealed that the victim, a nurse at a private hospital in Colombo, had allegedly, been having an affair with a doctor engaged in private [...]
US Navy trials Temporary Cargo Transport Initiative
The US Navy carried out its third cargo transfer out of Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) this week, using two C-2 Greyhound carrier borne transport aicraft and a US Navy C-40 transport aircraft to fly in supplies to US aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis which was anchored in international waters off Sri Lanka. It follows [...]
Govt. extends war on Fall Army Worm
The Government has extended the campaign to eliminate the Fall Army Worm (Sena Dalambuwa), a senior official of the Agriculture Department said. Agriculture Department Director General W M W Weerakoon said they had extended the campaign as they were concerned the worm would turn to paddy crops after destroying the maize. “We are deploying field [...]
JVP plays vital role in filling vacuum left by leftist parties
Current debates on national issues are greatly diminished by the absence of sufficient traditional Leftist parties in Parliament. In the past, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and the Communist Party (CP) lifted the quality of debate to a very high level and helped shape the national discourse on any matter of significance in a [...]
Third Sri Lankan peacekeeper injured in Mali in serious condition
One Sri Lankan peacekeeper of the six injured in the attack in Mali is currently in serious condition. A Chinook medical evacuation helicopter airlifted the wounded to a medical facility where they are currently being treated. The mine attack on Friday (25) left two Sri Lankan Peacekeepers dead when a Remote Controlled Improvised Explosive Device [...]
O/L English examiners get an ‘A’ for bungling from student denied grade
A student of Visakha Vidyalaya who had been denied a grade A in the English paper of the GCE Ordinary Level exam in 2013, has successfully challenged the blundering examiners of the Department of Examinations in the Supreme Court, which has ruled in her favour. The Supreme Court last week ruled that her result be [...]
Residents in the vicinity of high rise buildings left in the lurch
Residents around a high rise building coming up in the Slave Island area are in a dilemma regarding the lack of interest in problems caused by construction materials falling on their homes. Residents claim that despite, complaints to the police and concerned authorities, no action has been taken to resolve the issue. They said on [...]
The wretched of the earth
Some of the most vulnerable persons in our country endure untold struggles to keep body and soul together on a daily basis. One cannot help but notice many such persons ranging from the elderly to those with various disabilities striving to make a living. Yet, they strive hard to earn an honest living. Street cleaners, [...]
More rules to make trishaws safer
Concerned by mounting accidents, the government is adding more stipulations to planned laws that would compel three-wheelers to be equipped with fare meters and speedometers. Three-wheelers would not be able to go faster than 40kph and carry no more than the equivalent of three adult passengers according to planned new laws, a Transport Ministry official [...]
Dispensation sans delay and haste ensures optimal justice: Priyantha Fernando J.
“Dispensation of justice at optimal level means doing justice without undue delay and without undue hurry. The Bench and the Bar must be equal partners in performing this noble task,” said Justice Priyantha Fernando, speaking at the ceremonial sitting held at the Supreme Court to welcome him as a Judge of the Court of Appeal, [...]
Pick of the Pix
Pix by Sameera Weerasekera, Ishanka Sunimal, Priyantha Wickramarachchi and Jayarathna Wickramarachchi
Nesting reptile protected from predators
A clutch of eggs laid by a marine turtle in Matara’s Polhena beach is in the custody of the Coast Conservation Department following the efforts of a concerned youth. Dishan Theekshana had witnessed the egg-laying female on a full moon night, waited for its departure, erased its tracks back to the ocean to foil neighbourhood [...]
Bumper paddy harvest but farmers left in the lurch
Fears of an escalation in rice prices as the Avurudu season approaches have been dispelled by the abundance of the Maha harvest this year, officials said. “Around 700,000 hectares of paddy fields have yielded a bountiful harvest this Maha season,” Duminda Priyadarshana, Senior Research Officer at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute (HARTI) [...]
Political forces clear more Hanthana land
An environmental group campaigning to protect the Hanthana mountain range is raising objections to the latest attempt to clear land in the ecologically important area in Kandy, which is an environmental protection area. The Hanthana Reservation Committee has found that the Central Environment Authority’s central region office in Polgolla had written to the authority’s head [...]