News
Home » NewsSharp drop in turnout at PC polls
A low voter turnout was the highlight of yesterday’s polls for the Southern and Western Provincial Councils. Whilst the average polling for most districts was around 55 per cent, the biggest district of Colombo recorded a drastic low, according to figures from the Department of Elections. Barring one clash in Beruwala between supporters of the [...]
CEB in blackout crisis
A severe financial crisis caused by drought and inadequate low-cost power generation options has forced the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to introduce contingency measures, including the expediting of revenue collection from ministries, departments and other public institutions. Internal accounts show that the CEB made a loss of Rs. 8 billion in January alone. The losses [...]
No civic rights, but Fonseka votes
Former General and Democratic Party leader Sarath Fonseka whose civic rights remain withdrawn still cast his vote at the Western Provincial Council elections yesterday. Mr. Fonseka turned up at the Sumanasekera Batakeththarama Vidyalaya in Piliyandala with a valid polling card. Officials read his name out and later issued a ballot paper. There were no objections from [...]
Govt. slow in resuming dual citizenship
Sri Lankan authorities continue to receive a spate of inquiries about the status of dual citizenship, the granting of which was suspended by the Government more than two years ago. A notice on the official website of the Department of Immigration and Emigration has remained unchanged for many months: “Acceptance of Dual Citizenship applications are [...]
Monks break up US-sponsored seminar for journalists
A journalist training programme — funded by an international non-governmental organisation based in the United States – was abandoned on Friday after Buddhist monks disrupted it in the wake of the US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka in Geneva. The two-day in-house programme for 30 journalists was being held in Polonnaruwa on the theme of ‘search for [...]
Major outflow at stock market, but Geneva connection ruled out
The Colombo Stock Exchange on Friday recorded an outflow of 2.7 billion rupees with a foreign fund selling its shares in John Keells Holdings, a blue chip company. The fund divested of its 12.5 million shares in JKH. The outflow led to speculation that foreign investors were exiting the market due to the passing of [...]
Briton dies of heart attack after motor accident
A British motorist suffered a heart attack and died after he knocked down a pedestrian on the Puttalam-Kurunegala Road yesterday, police said. They said Nicholas Anton Tone, 65, collapsed and died when he rushed to help the fallen pedestrian. The pedestrian suffered minor injuries and was treated at the Puttalam Hospital. Police and hospital officials said [...]
US company to build multibillion rupee oil pipeline here
A United States-based company has been selected to build a multibillion rupee project to lay a pipeline from the Colombo Port to the Kolonnawa fuel storage facility to expedite unloading of fuel from ships, a senior official said yesterday.Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminal Ltd (SPSTL) Chairman M.R.W.de Soysa said the US company had been picked by [...]
Staff of reputed auction house allegedly assault customer
The Narahenpita police are inquiring into an incident where the manager and staff of a well-known auction house allegedly assaulted a customer as he was taking photos of the goods he had purchased. The incident is reported to have taken place last Sunday afternoon at a branch office of the auction house located at Colombo 5. [...]
Know your enemy – it’s not Facebook, it’s you
Facebook is not the enemy, said Manoj Jinadasa, senior lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication in the University of Kelaniya. Lack of computer literacy, communication and breakage in family relationships were the real causes for the current surge in new media-related tragedies. “New media is a tool in modern society and should be treated [...]
Tempers heat up over burnt transformer
Irate residents and business owners in Udahamulla, Nugegoda, Wijerama and adjoining areas complain of ice-cream melting in their fridges, New Year work orders falling behind and sweltering conditions during power cuts caused by a transformer grid in Jayawardenapura Kotte which was burnt out six months ago. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has been juggling the [...]
Weeping and wailing as 10 men indicted for murdering a three-wheeler driver
Weeping relatives disturbed the quiet of the Kandy Courts when death sentence was passed on ten accused in the murder of a three-wheeler driver by a gang of fourteen originally accused. This is the first time that the death sentence was passed on ten persons in the Kandy Courts. In a grim atmosphere, with lawyers [...]
New spin to Mahapola Fund
An online lottery launched by a private company to raise money for the Mahapola Education Fund will begin this week. The booths from which the lottery would operate were being installed from last week. Pic by Ranjith Perera
Owner seeks return of unutilised land acquired by UDA 30 years ago
A land acquired by the Urban Development Authority for a development project is likely to be returned to the owner as it has not been utilized for any public purpose for the past 30 years. The two-and-a-half-acre land at Kirulapone Station Road has remained unutilised for any public purpose, though the UDA claimed that a road [...]
Murmurings of discontent against SF grow louder
Former army commander Sarath Fonseka’s Democratic Party (DP) was hit by a string of resignations on the eve of the provincial council elections, with at least four candidates included in the exodus. The party’s former media secretary, Sanjeewa Samarasinghe, told The Sunday Times many DP members had been quitting the party over a period as they [...]
Treasury passes the pension gratuity buck to State banks
The decision by the Government to effect pension Gratuity Payments (GP) to public sector retirees via State banks will pave the way for the Government to utilise the money for development work, said Public Administration Minister, W.D.J. Seneviratne. “The Treasury, annually, has to allocate billions for GPs. But, by allowing State banks to release GPs, [...]
Fishermen cry foul over Govt. sellout by unconditional release of Indian poachers
Local fishermen reacted with anger and concern at the Government’s decision to release all the Indian fishermen along with their vessels. They fear that the poaching crisis in the North will worsen with this move, as more and more foreign vessels will feel encouraged to move into the area.The Government on Friday released all 98 [...]
Sri Lanka fast ‘developing’ into TB hub of Asia
Inbound migrant populations from high TB prevalent countries have increased the risk of the spread of Tuberculosis (TB) within local communities in the country, in addition to the indigenous TB patients. Sri Lanka is fast becoming a labour-receiving country, especially from India and China, due to the country’s ongoing major development projects. Consequently, risk of [...]
NPC CM’s directives put on hold after Chief Secretary moves Supreme Court
The administrative instructions sent out by Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran have been put on hold following a Supreme Court order in a fundamental rights application filed this week by Chief Secretary Wijeledchumi Ramesh. Accordingly the instructions that all staff officers who are required to attend programmes outside their work stations shall work on [...]
Higher Ed. Minister seeks SLMA nod for revised gazette for private degrees
The Higher Education Ministry has sought the observations of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) before submitting to the Legal Draftsman’s Dept, revisions to the controversial gazette notification allowing private institutions to award Degrees without proper safeguards. The proposed gazette would make it compulsory for such private Degree-awarding institutions to seek compliance certification from the [...]
Man who allegedly killed father for want of a light, gets six years RI
A man who had allegedly killed his 73- year old father because he could not find a box of matches to light a lamp was sentenced to six years rigorous imprisonment by Kandy High Court Judge. On an earlier date, the accused was sent to a psychiatrist for medical examination. In this case the family [...]
Court issues notices to TCK Board
The District Judge of Colombo issued notices on Colonel Gamini Kumara Ariyaratne, Principal of Trinity College, Kandy and other members of the Board of Governors to appear in Court on Friday over an action filed by a parent. The parent had come before Court alleging that the present Principal of the College does not have [...]
Free and fair WPC, SPC elections sans incidents amidst apparent voter apathy
Elections to the Western and Southern Provincial Councils took off to a slow start and picked up by noon, but voter participation was lower than in the past. Brisk voting was however noted in areas where the related candidates conducted very visible campaigns, but the situation was otherwise elsewhere. This trend was prevalent in all [...]
‘Is this a govt. of laws or a govt. of men?’
Speakers at a crammed public forum this week denounced increasing military encroachment into various aspects of civilian life and warned that it boded ill for the country’s future. The gathering was held by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute auditorium to analyse the implications of a gazette vesting [...]
Awareness day to sensitise people about Autism
The city of Colombo will turn blue on Wednesday (April 2) to show that Sri Lanka cares for those families striving to bring up a child affected by autism. This is the colour which will twinkle on World Autism Awareness Day worldwide which Colombo city will don to shine a light of hope on the [...]
Sexual assaults on foreign women on the rise as tourist numbers increase
Recent cases of harassment and rape of foreign women have raised concerns regarding the safety of tourists arriving in the country. Last week, a former Chairman of the Weligama Pradeshiya Sabha was arrested, produced in Court and remanded for sexually harassing a 22-year-old Swedish woman at a resort in Weligama. Earlier this month two police [...]
New rules coming to ensure captive jumbos are cared for
New rules to enable the proper management and monitoring of captive elephants are being drafted to stop the increasing number of thefts of these animals, Wildlife Resources Conservation Minister Vijith Wijithamuni Soysa said. The legislation will be in line with the South Indian state of Kerala’s Captive Elephants (Management and Maintenance) Rules and will also [...]
Trailblazing clot-retrieval procedure saves septuagenarian’s life
She walks gingerly down the steps of her daughter’s home at Battaramulla, giving us a big smile. Princy Perera, 76, has had a close-call and as her daughter Mangalika Ranaweera looks at her, she shudders at the thought of “what might have been”.What might of have been is incapacitation through paralysis due to a massive [...]
Re-load racket
Two prisoners on death row were caught operating a racket in re-loading money for mobile phones from their cells, using relatives as their agents. Police have arrested the sister of one prisoner and another described as the mistress of the other. Unsuspecting mobile phone users were given calls by friends and relatives of the two [...]
Fiancee recounts brutal assault on her and says she regained consciousness only in hospital
Tkacheva Victoria Alexandra, the Russian fiancee of the British national killed in Tangalle on Christmas Day three years ago, told the Colombo High Court this week that she was brutally assaulted and pushed into the swimming pool as her would-be husband lay dead close by.She was testifying at the trial which commenced on Wednesday into [...]
