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Home » ColumnsQueues at BIA: Roster tightened for immigration officers
The Presidential Secretariat’s attention has been drawn to photographs and statements about long queues at immigration counters at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) this week. Not that there are no long queues at other airports abroad, but some Sri Lankans, especially those who have emigrated, are the first to complain when they come ‘home’ on vacation, [...]
Will watered down Security Council Resolution be enough to stave off starvation in Gaza
The United Nations Security Council on Friday finally adopted a resolution which was intended to ramp up humanitarian aid to Gaza. The watered down resolution culminated a week and a half of high-level diplomacy in order to ensure that it would not be vetoed by the United States. The vote, initially scheduled for last Monday, [...]
A blank cheque
My dear Dhammika, I thought of writing to you this week since you seem to be the focus of attention everywhere, ever since you made an appearance at the ill-fated convention of the ‘pohottuwa’ party last week. Seeing you there, seated in the front row appears to have set off a flurry of rumours and [...]
Celebrating Christmas amidst death and destruction abroad and increasing poverty at home
“If Jesus was born today, he would be born under rubble.”- A Christian priest at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem On Christmas Eve, two wars are causing untold misery and death to thousands of people. The long-drawn-out Russian-Ukrainian war has destroyed buildings and injured and killed large numbers of people in the two [...]
Santa stuffs my Christmas stocking with hopes of miracles yet to come
SUNDAY PUNCH WISHES A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL Long time ago in Bethlehem, it may have been a silent night, indeed, but here on the western seaboard of Lanka’s coast in the year of the Lord two thousand twenty-three AD, it was anything but silent. Nature’s resounding orchestra, accompanied by a dynamic percussion section, which had [...]
How dirty will our dirty war get
Israel’s dirty and devastating attack on Gaza in an attempt to wipe out much of its enemy Hamas and, in the process, killing thousands of Palestinian civilian men, women and children, is surely one of the dirtiest of the Israeli-Arab conflicts since they began at the butt end of 1940s. While regional and international efforts [...]
Presidential poll: Wickremesinghe faces challenging task
SLPP flies Dhammika Perera kite Mahinda blames Yahapalana government for economic woes GL wooing Dulles Group to join SJB Harsha says no entry for the corrupt in SJB By Our Political Editor Last week’s annual convention of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), seemingly a routine event, had many takeaways of political significance. Most importantly, [...]
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