It’s lonely at the top: The Sun and the Moon in the backdrop were symbolic of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s pledge in his swearing in speech on Friday. The President is seen on top of the steps of the Presidential Secretariat just before he came down to greet the special invitees after his inauguaration speech. Pic by Gemunu Wellage.
A wage rise of Rs. 2,500 for the state sector in two stages of Rs. 1,300 and Rs. 1,200 is expected to be a highlight of the budget that President Mahinda Rajapaksa will present in Parliament tomorrow as Minister of Finance.
The Government has told the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to shut down its operations in the Northern Province, a spokesperson said yesterday.“
A mix of Sri Lankan and Indonesian performing arts traditions, Ruukada Golek will be a novel theatrical experience for the Lankan audience when puppetry artistes and musicians from Sri Lanka and Indonesia appear on a common platform on November 28 at the Indonesian Embassy to present the show.
Global investor and emerging markets fund manager, Mark Mobius has invested in the recently concluded Laugfs Gas Ltd Rs 2.5 billion Initial Public offering (IPO) stockbrokers said, signaling possibly his Templeton fund’s second major foray into Sri Lanka. Earlier Mr. Mobius, in an interview with Business Times in November 2009, had said he would adopt a ‘wait and see’ policy in view of presidential/parliamentary elections and.
The Obama administration's Iraq policy is in chaos. Seven months after Iraq's national elections, the United States has publicly denied taking sides in the wrangling over who will be prime minister. Privately, however, the US is backing the incumbent.
We have received the most dramatic change of all times in Australian migration programme. Change of points test was announced a few days ago and this is still very new yet hard to absorb as it is not the most fantastic news for Sri Lankans.
Come Tuesday both the Lankans and the Windies will tread to the R. Premadasa Cricket Stadium to engage themselves in the Second Test. Just a minute, you have not entered the Coliseum in Rome, this is just the final preparation of a 2011 World Cup venue.
Now that the party is over, the prospects of a long and gruelling road towards economic prosperity for a somewhat impoverished though not entirely poverty-stricken nation lie ahead.
Legitimate questions have been raised about the expenses incurred for the inauguration of the President's second term.
The unprecedented political events culminating in the swearing-in of Percy Mahinda Rajapaksa for a second term as the President of Sri Lanka were not only contemporary history, but some were also sure additions to the Guinness Book of Records or Ripley's Believe it or Not.
Coronation euphoria, as one wag neatly termed it last week, has certainly gripped the less discerning among us. Erstwhile grumblers have now lapsed into what is commonly termed as the ‘if you cannot beat them you must join them’ mode. This most astounding transformation of a flawed but nevertheless functional democracy into a virtual monarchy has taken place with scarcely the proverbial whimper.
Fittingly, it featured a ‘jaj’ named Weeramantry who was called upon to settle a dispute that was the source of great rancour between two fairies and which had then forced all fairies to take sides, dividing the community. Unfortunately,
The colonial era saw commercial firms being established by British
businessmen who saw opportunities in Sri Lanka – then known as Ceylon. These opportunities arose with the expansion of the plantation sector – first
coffee followed by tea and rubber.
