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Home » NewsPaddy harvest drops, rice prices rise
An estimated 35 per cent drop in the paddy harvest expected in the current season is showing an upward trend in the prices of rice, Agriculture Ministry Secretary, R.M.D.B. Meegasmulla said yesterday. He said the prevailing drought conditions had affected the harvest in some of the main paddy growing districts including, Anuradhapura, Kurunegala and Ampara. “We [...]
Foot-and-mouth in five districts
Amid an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease spreading in five districts — Anuradhapura, Puttalam, Trincomalee, Ampara and Vavuniya — health authorities have been directed to ban all forms of meat other than poultry and introduce other stringent measures. Also brought under the ban is the Divisional Secretary’s Division in the Mullaitivu District. All meat stalls selling [...]
Duty-free vehicles filled with black money
Money launderers are paying premium prices and buying up duty-free vehicle permits. The trend, which came to light at a top level conference of Central Bank and Customs officials, had prompted them to examine whether advertising of such permits should be banned. A duty-free permit to import a vehicle now fetches a profit of between Rs. 800,000 [...]
Employment Authority to regulate foreign jobs
The Government is to set up an Employment Migration Authority to regulate the foreign employment sector – the single largest source of foreign exchange for the country. A new law setting up this body will replace the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment Act which has been in force for the past 28 years. During this [...]
Karzai here today
Afghan President Hamid Karzai will arrive in Sri Lanka today for a three-day official visit intended to strengthen bilateral ties, an External Affairs Ministry official said. Mr. Karzai will meet with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, other ministers, senior government officials and opposition leaders during his stay. The visiting president will also open the Afghanistan Embassy in [...]
Emergency service found wanting following fires on buses using the CKE
Two separate incidents on the Colombo-Katunayaka Expressway (CKE) where two fires were reported within a span of five days, has put to test the security and emergency arrangements on a road used by thousands every day, with the majority of them travelling to and from the Airport. An SLTB bus travelling along the CKE last [...]
CID questions CIFL depositor on Geneva issue
The Criminal Investigations Department has recorded a statement from an official of the CIFL Deposit Holders’ Association about a letter in which he reportedly said he would take the woes of depositors to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The association’s Secretary P.K. Mahindapala was summoned by the CID on Tuesday. He was shown two [...]
Ironically it is from the scrap heap that the displaced salvage their lives
One man’s misery is sometimes another’s gain, and this is what is taking place these days at a location in and around Slave Island. The bulldozers and other heavy machinery are out in full force as the Urban Development Authority (UDA) thunders its way across 500 homes to make way for upmarket residences and shopping [...]
Perks given to Dehiwela-Galkissa Municipal Council overseer irk residents
A section of residents in Dehiwala-Galkissa are up in arms over the conduct of an ordinary overseer at the Dehiwala-Galkissa Municipal Council who has allegedly amassed a fortune. Angered residents have forwarded petitions to President Rajapaksa, the Police Department and the Office of the Commissioner of Bribery and Corruption with copies to the private media. The [...]
SriLankan to bring home passengers stranded in Frankfurt
SriLankan Airlines has made arrangements to fly to Colombo some 240 passengers stranded at Frankfurt airport in Germany, due to trade union action, the airline said in a press release. It said SriLankan Airlines and all other airlines operating from terminal two of Frankfurt Airport were compelled to depart without passengers, due to trade union action [...]
Global TU official pledges to get GSP+ restored
A global trade unionist yesterday pledged to campaign for the re-instatement of the European GSP+ concessions but at the same time called on the Government to shift its position on several issues such as workers’ and human rights and working environment. Ruik Raina General Secretary of IndustriALL, an international trade union with some 50 million members [...]
Enabling the differently-abled
A group of parents whose children are differently-abled have joined hands to set up a vocational training institute for their children at Katubedda in Moratuwa. The organization hopes to extend the facility to include other parents whose children are differently-abled in the future. The children receive training in the production of envelopes, hand bags and boxes. [...]
Robberies: Retreat on full-face helmets causes mayhem
It was a busy day at a popular foreign currency exchange centre cum jewellery shop on Main Street, Negombo last Monday. About 15 employees were attending to a similar number of customers changing currency and buying jewellery.Shortly after 1.30pm, two men wearing full-face helmets walked up; the security guard welcomed them in, opening the door. [...]
Municipal lab employees go to HRC over payment issue
Colombo Municipal Council’s Microbiology and City Analyst Laboratory employees, including technicians, have complained to the Human Rights Commission (HRC), saying a special payment made to them in lieu of private tests conducted at the lab has been stopped.“Private investigation on food and water and food handlers’ sample tests (urine and stool) have been carried out [...]
Facelift for Giragama Walauwa and old Kandy buildings
After years of haggling over heritage sites in Kandy, the Central Cultural Fund, together with the Kandy Municipal Council and the Urban Development Authority, is to restore Kandy’s old buildings, starting from Giragama Walauwa, which dates back to the Kandyan kingdom.The authorities have allocated Rs. 7.2 million to rehabilitate the building at Yatinuwara Veediya, formerly [...]
Lanka to tell India: Catch fish in our waters, but use our ports to export it
TRINCOMALEE – Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen would be able to fish in waters belonging to the two countries if a new idea mooted by the Government makes headway at the next round of talks between the two sides next month in Colombo. On the sidelines of the opening of a new aqua culture project in [...]
State assets misused, polls laws flouted, goodies given away as candidates fight for places
Candidates of the upcoming PC polls continue to misuse state assets and flout election regulations, say monitoring organisations. Monitoring organisations had advised candidates contesting seats in the Western and Southern Provincial Councils to refrain from misusing state assets during the pre-election period in order that a free and fair election is conducted. However all major [...]
UDA on a building spree within Colombo city
A string of development projects in Colombo, initiated by the Urban Development Authority (UDA), is under way, with some of them already under construction, while others are ready for launch. UDA Chairman Nimal Perera told the Sunday Times that the projects include mixed developments that will have hotels, apartments, shopping complexes and a floating market. [...]
Fake bomb threat on the President
A hunt is on for three students attending a school in Puttalam for allegedly writing a letter that said a bomb threat on President Mahinda Rajapaksa had been planned, a senior police official said. He said the letter stated that the bomb would be detonated inside the school premises today where the President was due [...]
Depositors made destitute by the callous greed of failed finance companies
Unconscious on her hospital bed in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) of a private hospital in Colombo, Marjorie David is oblivious to the predicament of her family. The 58-year-old had complained of difficulty in breathing and fainted while at work on February 17. Her brain was deprived of oxygen and she now lies motionless, [...]
Deadly drought drying up country’s water supplies
Despite intermittent rains last week, experts fear the three-month-long severe dry weather conditions will strangle power generation, agriculture and drinking water supplies as authorities struggle with limited water storage in reservoirs, rivers and water treatment plants. The Meteorology Department’s rain gauges remained close to zero for weeks while temperatures went up to 36 degrees, in [...]
Crimes today are more brutal and sudden, say experts
An army officer was found dead near the bus stand in Pasyala, Aththanagalla area around 1.30am on Friday (February 21) with his throat sliced open and stab wounds on his back. His mobile phone, National Identity Card and bank card were found near the body. The 25-year-old man, Ruwan Sameera Jayawickrema, a father of one, [...]
Paddy farmers in quagmire
Traditional farmer Gamini Rathnamalla was busy turning out flowerpots from cement when we met him in Anuradhapura, the heart of Sri Lanka’s rice bowl. Two lanes away, fellow farmer Nimal Senaratne was napping. Having switched from paddy farming to alternate crops long ago, he has less to worry about than Mr. Rathnamalla. With the little [...]
Keyhole heart surgery:Doors open for all Lankans
It was on the beating heart of Kanthi Perera that a pioneering team of the Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital performed keyhole bypass surgery for a blocked artery last Wednesday. Fifty-five-year-old Mrs. Perera from Panadura had waited more than seven months for this minimally-invasive or keyhole coronary bypass surgery, having heard that it had been tried out [...]
Dam it: 150,000 sand bags to stop sea water flowing into the Kalutara estuary
With the drought continuing, the Water Board is taking urgent measures to prevent sea water flowing into the Kalu Ganga estuary. One such measure is to build a dam of 150,000 sandbags at a cost of Rs. 9 million. The board has employed some 150 workers, including divers, for this task. Pic by Sarath Siriwardena.
Eye Hospital struck by lightning theft of its conductor
A section of the lightning conductor of the Colombo Eye Hospital is missing, officials said. The conductor worth over Rs 1.5 million was installed six months back. All Ceylon Nurses’ Union Convener, Gamini Kumarasinghe said that the conductor was installed in an enclosed area, which required special permission from the management to gain access. “The real [...]
Colombo Port City Project’s Chinese contractor defends record, denies corruption allegations
The uproar over the Colombo Port City Project (CPCP) has prompted the Chinese company undertaking the project to deny allegations of their involvement in any corrupt practices. “There is no sound basis for direct and/or indirect allegations made that Chinese companies, in particular CCCC or CHEC, may engage in corrupt practices. Specific legislative initiatives have been [...]
Ministry yet to rescind Gazette notification, despite Presidential order
Despite a Presidential order, the Higher Education Ministry is yet to rescind the gazette notification amending university regulation under Universities Act, making it optional for institutions awarding degrees such as Medicine, Engineering and Architecture, to obtain compliance certification from the relevant professional bodies. The Sri Lanka Medical Council, which strongly protested against the amendment, is [...]
Beaked whale with Sinhala name retakes its place in history
This week, an enigmatic whale first described studying a specimen found in Sri Lanka has been reclassified as a new marine mammal species. The whale species – member of a family known as beaked whales for their elongated beak-like snouts – bears an interesting history.On 26 January 1963 a specimen of a dying 4.5m-long, blue-grey [...]
New research on jungle giant
Dr. P.E.P.Deraniyagala, director of National Meuseum from 1939-63, was a pioneer in zoology and paleobiodiversity (the study of extinct animals in prehistoric time through studying of fossils) and his research led to the finding of clues of the existenceof species such as the lion, rhinoceros, hippopotamus and gaur (giant wild cow) in Sri Lanka. At [...]
Ranil rips Colombo Port City Project for its irrelevance and lack of transparency
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe this week criticised the proposed Colombo Port City Project (CPCP), saying the only beneficiary of this project will be the Chinese company constructing it, and a select group of people. The project which is to be carried out under the supervision of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and the Board of [...]
