News
Home » NewsTight security for religious and cultural festivals
Thousands of military and police personnel have been deployed to provide tight security for a series of religious and cultural festivals being held this month. The move came as the United States embassy issued a fresh security warning to US citizens to take precautions. An intelligence source said yesterday that the security measures were essentially [...]
DNF formation on hold
The formation of the Democratic National Front (DNF) under the leadership of the United National Party (UNP) scheduled for tomorrow (Aug 5) is in doubt. The move comes as at least three constituent partners of the proposed alliance – the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the Democratic Liberation Front and the National Union of Workers [...]
NEC wants court order before Aug 15 for PC polls this year
The National Election Commission has ruled out the possibility of holding provincial elections this year if no court order is received before August 15. NEC Chairman Mahinda Deshpriya told the Sunday Times that if any order for PC elections was not received within the next 10 days, it would clash with the preparations for the [...]
AG pulls plug from Ravi’s plans: Two new committees to buy power
The Government has set up two committees to procure 500mw of electricity after the Attorney General (AG) shot down an earlier proposal to buy 200mw of “emergency power” from a barge-mounted plant without following tender procedures. The appointment of the new technical evaluation committee (TEC) and Standing Cabinet appointed procurement committee (SCAPC) is the continuation [...]
SLAF’s high security equipment goes missing en route to China for repairs
The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) lost a radar receiver and antenna scanner when they were being sent to China for repairs in 2014, documents presented this week to Parliament reveal. The missing items — estimated to be worth more than Rs. 98 million — were from an F-7 aircraft and could be a threat [...]
Colombo Stamp Show 2019 draws large crowds
Large crowds, including foreigners, are visiting the Sri Lanka Post (SLP) headquarters at DR Wijewardena Mawatha, to see the Colombo Stamp Show (CSS) 2019, which is on from August 2-4. The SLP has a special unit to provide a personalized stamp service for visitors to have their bust with a valid stamp, at the CSS. [...]
CEB union: Rishad eyeing wind farm land
The Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) has protested over an alleged request made by Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen to release a section of land set aside for a 100 MegaWatt (MW) wind farm project in Mannar. The CEBEU lodged a protest with Power and Energy Minister Ravi Karunanayake this week over the [...]
Liquor poisoning: Relatives call for probe as seven die
Family members of seven people who died in hospital after being taken ill are calling for an investigation into claims that they died of natural causes, although they believed the deaths were linked to the liquor they consumed from a place at Pallewela in Mirigama. By last night, seven persons who are said to have [...]
Senior jailor shot dead
A senior jailor in charge of the training school at Welikada Prison was shot dead near Kuligoda Junction in Ambalangoda last night. Two men who came in a motorcycle shot at 44-year-old Thilina Ruwan Thihara Jayaratne, a resident of Ambalangoda, when he was returning home in his motorcycle after he reached Ambalangoda by train, Police [...]
Mayor gets five-year jail term for threatening MPs
Hambantota Mayor Eraj Ravindra Fernando and an accomplice were sentenced to five years Rigorous Imprisonment on Friday (2) by the Hambantota High Court after they were found guilty of threatening a group of United National Party parliamentarians and journalists during a fact-finding mission to the Hambantota Port in 2014. Mayor Fernando and Premasiri Paranamana had [...]
SLAF’s Helitours not on Auditor General’s radar for ten years
Shares of Helitours (Pvt) Ltd, the Sri Lanka Air Force’s (SLAF) commercial passenger service, will be transferred to the Treasury after the Auditor General queried how the company was registered as a private entity but sustained by tax money with public officials on its board of directors. “The Air Force and Treasury are in discussions [...]
GMOA, IUSF plan joint action against Quality Assurance Bill, SAITM
The Government Medical Officers Association and the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) are planning joint action against what they called a string of irregularities in the education sector affecting doctors and students. GMOA Secretary Haritha Aluthge said they met IUSF representative to discuss a common programme aimed at resolving the irregularities. Among the matters discussed [...]
Two members of extremist group arrested
A person described by the Police as an Eastern Military Wing Leader of the now banned Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem (JMI) and a student of Oluvil University accused of promoting the JMI’s ideology within the university were taken into custody by the Ampara Police yesterday. The so-called Eastern Military Wing Leader was identified by police as [...]
RDA seeks Rs. 30 billion from Treasury to complete Central Expressway
The Road Development Authority (RDA) is to appeal to the Treasury for funds amounting to Rs 30 billion to complete section II of the Central Expressway before January next year. The funds are to be used to pay local contractors involved in stage two of the project from Mirigama to Kurunegala spanning a distance of [...]
CARDINAL AND POLITICS
While reading last week’s Sunday Times newspaper (28th July 2019), I was shocked to read the title “The Cardinal’s New Creed: Politics” by the columnist “Don Manu” (DM). With the word ‘go’ it was an outright attack on the Archbishop of Colombo, His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith for what he preached at the re-consecration of [...]
Concerted global efforts needed to counter traditional and non-traditional security concerns : FM Marapana
Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana recently highlighted the necessity for concerted global efforts to counter traditional and non-traditional security concerns including terrorism, violent extremism and cybercrime. Foreign Mister Marapan was addressing the 26th session of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) held on August 2 in Bangkok, Thailand. Mr Marapana underscored the need for a deepened resolve [...]
Witnesses expose lack of coordination in counter-terror moves
Officers from the Attorney General’s Department appeared before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) investigating the Easter Sunday attacks this week to defend the department’s position. They said they came to clear a wrong impression created in society over the department’s role with regard to a file related to the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ). The documents [...]
Homicides on the rise despite state of emergency
A rise in the number of murders has been reported despite a state of emergency in the country and firearms have been used in many of the killings. According to Police, 271 murders had been reported in the first six months of this year, averaging 45 a month. Last year, on an average 41 killings [...]
Advanced level student duped by sex attacker and killed
A 20-year-old student was killed by an alleged sex attacker days before she sat next week’s Advanced Level examination. She fell prey to a trap set by her attacker. He had sought her help to reunite with his ‘girlfriend’. Her body was found in a hotel room in Melsiripura (between Kurunegala and Galewela) last Tuesday. [...]
Lanka’s tryst with microfinance creates high-interest monster
For years, activists have warned that “microfinance” in Sri Lanka is not really “microfinance” at all — just high interest loans being hawked like merchandise to poor villagers, whose financial literacy was, at best, minimal. Now, researchers are providing evidence to prove Sri Lanka went in the path of other countries that experimented with–and failed [...]
Maha Oya new bridge poses dangers to life and limb
The risk of death to pedestrians including children and dangers of road traffic accidents are ever present at the new, 103 metre, dual-carriageway, Kochchikade Maha Oya steel bridge on the Peliyagoda-Puttlam road in the Gampaha District, residents say. Substantial complaints by residents such as lack of traffic lights, bus stops at either end, have not [...]
Utilities move sideways to cut down road digs
The Road Development Authority (RDA) together with the other stakeholders have taken measures to relocate utilities to the sides of roads to avoid probable road excavations. According to the RDA, ‘utility corridors’ should be adopted because when there are leaks in underground pipes, which is the case mostly with PVC pipes, roads have to be [...]
Major oil spill averted after ship crashes onto reef off Galle
The Rumassala coastline, including a coral reef off Galle, has been protected through immediate action to siphon out 22 metric tonnes of oil from the ‘Sri Lanka Glory’, a vessel which recently crashed into the rocks in adverse weather conditions. ‘Sri Lanka Glory’ had drifted towards the Rumassala coastal line from the Galle Port due [...]
Aimless recruitment stuffs public sector with under-performers
With thousands of arts graduates flocking onto the streets demanding state jobs, it has become a herculean task for government, recruiting 16,800 unemployed graduates this week, to fit them into posts requiring widely varying skill sets. One graduate, who completed his major in Fine Arts, has been assigned to report to work at the Irrigation [...]
Despite ‘Civil War’s end its core issues remain unresolved
The ‘Civil War’ that raged in the country for over three decades, came to an end in May 2009. Yet, the core issues surrounding the conflict have remained unresolved to date. This is a fact that cannot be brushed aside, and needs the attention of the political leaders as well as the country as a [...]
Request for seating along Queen’s Hotel corridor
Senior Kandy Municipal Councillor Vipula Ranasinghe called on the Mayor of Kandy to permit seating arrangements along the corridor of Queen’s Hotel for public viewing of the Esala Perahera. He complained that this year, police had banned seating arrangements in the area. He added that on earlier occasions the area was used to seat visitors [...]
‘Made for mating’ giant moth causes stir
A huge, butterfly-like creature sitting calmly inside a house in Ratnapura surprised its owners earlier this week and, as news spread, curious neighbours flocked in to see a beautiful creature none of them had ever seen before – one of the largest moths in the world. It was an Atlas moth (Attacus taprobanis) – the [...]
Colombo Stamp Show 2019 draws large crowds
Large crowds, including foreigners, are visiting the Sri Lanka Post (SLP) headquarters at DR Wijewardena Mawatha, to see the Colombo Stamp Show (CSS) 2019, which is on from August 2-4. The SLP has a special unit to provide a personalized stamp service for visitors to have their bust with a valid stamp, at the CSS. [...]
Magistrate dismisses Police case against PS Member
Mullaitivu Magistrate S. Leninkumar this week dismissed a case filed by the Mulliyavalai Police, against a Karaithurai Paththu Pradeshiya Sabha (PS) Member T. Amalan, for allegedly disturbing the peace, by organising a protest against the Army collecting water from a public tube well in Thaniyoottu, Mullaitivu, in 2018. Counsel for the PS Member informed court [...]
Uma Oya Project: Rs. 1.5b compensation paid but complaints pour in
The Government has so far paid more than Rs 1.5 billion as compensation to those affected by the construction of the Uma Oya multi-purpose project which has been delayed by about two years, officials said. Badulla District Secretary Damayanthi Paranagama told the Sunday Times that though they were paying compensation, they were receiving complaints that [...]
Clarify the truth to the world through living testimony- Muslim World League Sec.Gen.
As the country still struggles to cope with the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings that shook the nation, a peace conference attended by religious scholars, government leaders, including a senior official from the Arab world, asserted solidarity and goodwill for lasting peace and coexistence among the various communities. The National Conference on Peace, Harmony [...]
No development in rail transport
The railway services have been operating in the country for the past one-hundred-and-fifty-five years. Unfortunately it is the self-same network first introduced to the country by the British in 1864, that is operating today. Strangely the rail network has hardly been extended and development of the sector has come to a standstill. The ancient entrances [...]
All Female Sri Lankan delegation visits Germany
Recently an all female delegation from Sri lanka participated in the Guest Programme of the Federal Republic of Germany. The five-day visit focused on women’s rights, reconciliation, and the culture of remembrance. The high ranking Sri Lankan delegation led by Justice Minister Thalatha Athukorale included Colombo’s Mayor Rosy Senanayake, Human Rights Commission Chairperson Dr Deepika [...]