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Home » News200 inventions destroyed in BMICH fire
A BMICH building that served as the media centre during the Commonwealth Summit went up in flames yesterday destroying some 200 inventions that had been brought for an exhibition that was about to begin. Technology and Research Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka had arrived to declare open the ‘Sahasak Nimevum 2013’, an exhibition organised by the Sri [...]
Cut trees to pay EPF, ETF dues
The Government will cut down trees in state-owned plantations and sell the timber to pay statutory dues of thousands of employees. A proposal to this effect has been approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on a recommendation by State Resources and Enterprise Development Minister Dayasritha Tissera The proceeds are to be utilised to pay overdue [...]
Geoffrey Dobbs leaves country amidst probe on national flag fiasco
The chief architect of the annual Galle Literary Festival (GLF), British born naturalised Australian Geoffrey Dobbs has been identified as the foreigner who slipped out of the country amidst a probe for disrespecting the national flag inside the Galle Fort during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) earlier this month. A senior official with [...]
CPC pins hopes on Geneva deal
The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has expressed hope that last Sunday’s Geneva deal between Iran and world powers will pave the way for the lifting of the sanctions which have had adverse effects on Sri Lanka. “Not only Iran, even Sri Lanka has been under sanctions,” CPC Managing Director Susantha Silva told the Sunday Times. He said [...]
‘New look’ Colombo fails rain test
Colombo city’s roads, pavements and culverts that were renovated for the recently concluded Commonwealth summit (CHOGM) were put to test last evening when heavy rains plummeted the city. Some of the roads including Reid Avenue near the Race Course and pavements were submerged for a couple of hours making it difficult for both pedestrians and [...]
Huge cooking oil fraud by three companies
An alleged one-billion-rupee fraud involving false declarations by three major palm oil importing companies has been detected by the Customs, a senior official said yesterday. The three importers had been declaring their consignments as ‘unrefined oil’ though they had been importing ‘refined oil’, thereby depriving the Government of Rs 30 a kilogram in taxes, the official [...]
Poaching crisis: President again appeals to India
Sri Lanka has reiterated its call to India to end a deadlock on a fishing dispute between the two countries as more fishermen from both sides were taken into custody for allegedly intruding into each other’s territorial waters. The call was made when India’s Navy Chief D.K. Joshi met President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Fisheries Minister Rajitha [...]
Casino raiding police officers transferred without due process, Police Dept. admits
The Police Dept did not hold inquiries before transferring 23 Organised Crime Division (OCD) policemen for what it called ‘inefficiency’ days after they carried out a raid on an illegal Colombo casino, Police spokesman Ajith Rohana confirmed yesterday. “We didn’t have an inquiry,” SSP Rohana said. “They had been at the OCD for a long [...]
Jaliya for Canada, diplomatic tussle for post in Washington
Jaliya Wickremesuriya, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States, will be the country’s new High Commissioner in Canada. He has served in Washington D.C. a full term of five years (2008-2013). Before that, he also served for two years as Sri Lanka’s Consul General in Los Angeles (2006-2008). External Affairs Ministry sources said yesterday Mr. [...]
COPE chief asks Speaker to name new members to replace regular absentees
Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) Chairman D.E.W.Gunasekera has written to Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa asking him to consider appointing new members to the Committee in place of some existing members, some of whom have put in less than five per cent attendance in the past two years. Mr.Gunasekera who attached a copy of the attendance record [...]
UPFA to probe budget setbacks in councils
A UPFA committee overlooking local councils will probe the recent defeats of budgets in six local councils controlled by the alliance, Minister C.B. Ratnayake, a member of the committee, said. He said the defeat of the budgets pointed to a power struggle among councillors for the chairman’s post with some members putting their personal interest before [...]
News in pictures
President Mahinda Rajapaksa pays his respect to a senior member of the Maha Sangha. Pic by Indika Handuwala A traffic policeman goes down on his knees in front of former DIG Gamini Silva at the Mankulam Police Station. Pic by Aila Prabodha He may be in remand but the family of the Arachchikattua Predeshiya Sabha [...]
Up, up and away … new taxes send prices sky-high
Consumers are set to face more increases in the prices of food, clothing, hardware items and toiletries. Imported food items such as sprats, canned fish, chicken, beef and dairy products will become more expensive as new taxes are imposed on them. Most other consumer products such as oils, coffee, tea, vinegar, bakery products and cut flowers [...]
Budget 2014 debate with a heads-I-win-tails-you-lose Govt. an exercise in futility
Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa The Economic Development Ministry invested a massive amount in the North during 2009-2011. It spent Rs. 7,075 million on resettlement and houses, Rs. 2,750 million on irrigation channels, Rs. 5,247 million on major irrigation channels, Rs. 2,611 million on social infrastructure, education and health, Rs. 686 million on livelihood programmes, [...]
Thundershowers, strong winds, lightning in the next few days: Met. Dept.
Showers and thundershowers accompanied by strong winds will be experienced in several places in the country during the next few days, a Meteorology (Met.) Dept official said yesterday (30). The Met. Dept warned of these adverse weather conditions during the day and night, in the Western, Northern, North-Central, Eastern and Uva Provinces. Fairly heavy rainfall of [...]
Lanka reassures support for Palestinian statehood
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has reassured Sri Lanka’s support for the freedom struggle of the Palestinian people who on Friday marked the United Nations Palestine Day. The President, who had for a long time been a patron of the Sri Lanka-Palestine Solidarity Committee, in a message said Sri Lanka had stood by Palestine and would continue to [...]
Brutal crimes on the rise
It was a grey morning that promised rain later on when the 49-year-old housewife-Anula Herath along with her 10-year-old daughter left their home in Kahatuduwa and headed for the Dhaham Pasala at the local temple last IL Poya Day little realizing that it would be her final moments. The woman dropped her daughter at the Dhaham [...]
Pistol-packing police high on power and corruption
An ugly string of police crimes – the latest being the interdiction of a senior officer over the murder of a child – has been blamed by a high-ranking official on a gun-toting war mentality in the force. Last Sunday Nuwara Eliya Police OIC P. Jayaweera was interdicted over the unsolved killing of seven-year-old Niveda in [...]
Uthayan wins Press Freedom Award
The Jaffna-based Tamil daily –Uthayan– and imprisoned Uzbek journalist Muhammad Bekjanov are joint winners of Monde and TV5Monde 2013 Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Prize. The names of the winners were announced during a ceremony at Strasbourg’s City Hall in France. The awards were presented to Uthayan editor Vallipuram Kaanamylnaathan, the owner Eswarapatham Saravanapavan, and to [...]
Entering the world beyond lecture halls
Three young men — vocal, confident, passionate and rational – representing many others. Kasun Silva, (23) from Kottawa, Laksan Yasaratne (25) from Balangoda and Abdul Malik (24) from Slave Island, are talking enthusiastically about “life-changing” experiences. Two projects relating to the water crisis faced by many people across the country and the third linked to malnutrition [...]
Skyped evidence set to revolutionise courts
Skype and other technology could become a routine part of courtroom process under plans by the Ministry of Justice – including in the high-profile Khuram Shaikh trial – but gaps in law and expertise need urgent remedy. Secretary to the Ministry of Justice Kamalini de Silva said the ministry was willing to provide courts with any [...]
India’s fishing tit-for-tat is revenge most foul
Sathiya Madhureka (27), a mother of two, sat aimlessly in front of her partially built house, on the Wennappuwa coast, looking at the ocean for any signs of a multi-day fishing trawler. As night fell, she switches on the small television set. Between news bulletins, she would hurriedly tune in on a radio. She is [...]
Ministry internal audit advises tender procedure for granting mining licences
The Internal Audit Division (IAD) of the Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy has recommended that mining exploration licences be granted on tender and not on the “first come, first served” basis now followed. A Sunday Times ‘Insight’ recently revealed that some business entities were setting up front companies expressly to acquire large numbers of [...]
Galle Dialogue 2013 makes waves for maritime peace and security
‘Cooperation on fighting sea piracy to protect the environment’, figured during this week’s international maritime conference, “Galle Dialogue 2013”, organised by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence with representatives of some 35 countries in attendance. The event saw the highest number of countries represented at the event, since [...]
Traffic signals observed in the breach
Traffic lights are meant to be observed, both by motorists and pedestrians. It is an offence to drive through or cross the road when the signal light is red. However the traffic police do not seem to realize that this rule applies to pedestrians as well. Traffic lights have been installed at pedestrian crossings along [...]
Two youths painting atop a tower die of burns from lit-fag-and-thinner fire
The deaths of Gamage Ajith (28) from Warakapola and Sisira Kumara (22) from Kegalle, last week were as horrific as they were tragic, after their bodies were engulfed in flames, 65 feet above ground, two separate coroners inquiries were told. The young men had climbed up a telecommunications tower in Warapalana, Kirindiwela in the Gampaha [...]
Care for a bear? Villagers pluck terrified animal from tall tree
An epic rescue mission this week to save a sloth bear screaming in pain from a poacher’s wire trap stands in glad contrast to news of threatened species – such as the recent case of a black leopard – being killed by poachers. The sloth bear was first spotted by a villager in his chena in [...]
Waiting for loved ones
Family members wait on the seashore for information on eight fishermen who had gone missing without a trace last week, along with their two boats. Pic by Krishan Jeewaka Jayaruk.
CIFL depositors continue to file complaints with Fraud Investigation Bureau
The Police Fraud Investigation Bureau continues to receive complaints from depositors of Central Investments and Finance PLC (CIFL), several months after it became public that the company was in trouble. The Bureau has also started recording statements from the Finance company’s 10 directors. “On the instructions of the Fort Magistrate, we issued notices on them [...]
General Manager, Accountant remanded for contempt, then released on bail
Two employees of the controversial Serene Pavilions boutique hotel in Wadduwa were ordered to be remanded and subsequently granted bail by the Commercial High Court in Colombo on Friday on charges of contempt of court. During the last court date the two employees, P Kariyawasam (General Manager) and Kelum Keerthi (Accountant) had been directed by [...]
LARCs to decide on land acquisition compensation
The Government has reintroduced Land Acquisition and Re-settlement Committees (LARCs) to decide compensation for those losing private property in 18 major road-widening and construction projects. In regulations passed this month, the Land Ministry has laid down criteria for payments to property owners and tenants, to proprietors of businesses and even to encroachers. Those who object [...]
Sunil Wijesingha new Chairman of NDB
Chairman of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, Sunil Wijesingha, has been appointed Chairman of the National Development Bank (NDB), among two of the country’s largest development banks, banking sources said on Saturday. Mr Wijesinha who is already on the NDB Board, takes over from Mr Hemaka Amarasuriya whose term ended this month. [...]
Deshamanya Baku Mahadeva passes away
Deshamanya Baku Mahadeva, one of the oldest surviving members of the former Ceylon Civil Service passed away on Friday evening, at the age of 91. He is the grandson of the late Sir Ponnambalan Arunachalam and son of the late Sir Arunachalam Mahadeva. Mr. Baku Mahadeva was Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, [...]
DS founder’s funeral tomorrow
The funeral of R.I.T. Alles, Educationist and Founder Principal of D.S Senanayake College, Colombo takes place tomorrow evening at he General Cemetery in Borella. The remains lie at his residence in Borella and will be taken to D.S. Senanayake College at 8.30 a.m. tomorrow.(December 2). Students, staff and past students of D.S. will pay their last [...]
Roads to prosperity at Rs 98.4m to Rs 33m per km
The construction cost per km of road in several areas in the Trincomalee, Batticalao and Polonnaruwa Districts is costing between a high of Rs. 94.8 million and a low of Rs.. 33 million per km, according to documents made available to Parliament. Construction of the 89.6-km Habarana-Trincomalee Road has been the most expensive, with the [...]
Law on accessibility to come into force in a month’s time
The deadline for state and private sector to ensure accessibility to the disabled is just a month away, Social Services Ministry Secretary Emelda Sukumar said. “All persons with disabilities have the right to file fundamental rights petitions if they are not provided with access by 2014,”she said. Ms. Sukumar told the Sunday Times that the Supreme [...]
The day Colvin was outfoxed by Ukk
Justice H.N.G. Fernando was the Commissioner of Assizes and was holding sessions in Kalutara. He was one of the great judges we had produced. He excelled in law and was master of the facts. He was able to remember minute details involving complex civil or criminal cases that came before him. The judges were independent [...]
