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Home » News600 public hospitals paralysed, thousands of patients suffer
Public health services were paralysed yesterday as nurses continued their strike and doctors accused them of hiding drugs to impose further hardships on patients. More than 600 public hospitals are affected by the strike where nurses are demanding midwife training for themselves though doctors are opposed to it.Nurses kept away from their duties yesterday with [...]
Cabinet ban ignored as Betel nut racket goes on
A Cabinet decision to revoke licences for the import and re-export of betel nuts to protect Sri Lanka’s plants is being ignored and consignments are being cleared due to political and business influence, Customs sources revealed yesterday. The Cabinet decision was taken on March 20, but documents available with the Sunday Times reveal that as many [...]
Casino games: Govt. says no, Packer yes
The website of Australian casino mogul James Packer’s local company, Crown Sri Lanka, still says his resort in Colombo will contain “world class gaming facilities”, though government leaders claim that there will be no casinos. The website also carries a caveat at the bottom which reads, “Crown is in detailed discussions with the Sri Lankan Government [...]
Hangman to be hanged; search for better name
The name of the hangman’s post is to be changed to a more humane one to encourage applicants for the job, Prisons Department spokesman Thushara Upuldeniya said yesterday. He said they would seek advice from language experts to get a more respectable name for those operating the gallows. This move comes after four persons who were recruited [...]
Pay your light bill at reload shop
The Ceylon Electricity Board, though refusing to reduce the huge fuel adjustment surcharge is to connect up with phone companies to make it easier for consumers to make payments. CEB Chairman W.B. Ganegala said they were holding talks whereby the people would be able to pay their bills at the nearest reload shop. He said that [...]
Terror of a wife whose grave was dug in her own living room
After the last argument Amali Fernando had with her husband she feared for her life and that of her newborn baby. When she saw her husband digging what seemed to be a grave in the living room her worst fears were being confirmed. It seemed as if Ravindra K. Perera was going to act on his [...]
Valikamam residents’FR cases against Army to be heard on Aug. 7
Six fundamental rights petitions of 160 petitioners filed in the Supreme Court challenging the alleged unlawful occupation by the Sri Lanka Army of 6,381 acres of land belonging to the residents of Valikamam North Division in the Jaffna peninsula were listed for hearing on August 7. The petitioners cited Lands and Land Development Minister Janaka Bandara [...]
World Conference on Youth in Colombo and Hambantota from May 6-10
The 2014 World Conference on Youth, themed “Mainstreaming Youth in the Post-2015 Development Agenda” will be held from May 6 to 10, in Colombo and Hambantota. The Outcome Document from this Conference would be an asset to change the opinion of UN agencies about the development process in Sri Lanka, a member of the International Youth [...]
Enough rain in catchment areas, but CEB wants more to remove surcharge
Despite showers in the catchment areas, hydropower supplies only around 10 to 12 per cent of the total power generated, officials said yesterday.The Meteorology Department’s duty officer, Jeewan Karunaratna, said last night there could be heavy rainfall in the catchment areas. “Rains are expected throughout the month in these areas,” he said. However, Ceylon Electricity Board [...]
Minister Dinesh protests issue of liquor licence in Maharagama area
Minister of Water Supply and Drainage Dinesh Gunawardena yesterday protested against the issue of a new liquor licence in the Maharagama-Wijerama area Mr. Gunawardena who heads the Maharagama Development Committee said that, this being a predominantly Buddhist area, the excise authorities had overstepped their authority by issuing a licence for this area. Ven. Nikapotha Chandrajothi [...]
CAA co-opts ITI, City Analyst in war against errant traders
The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) will seek support from the Industrial Institute of Technology (ITI) and city analyst to step-up raids on contaminated and outdated food and other items. This year so far about 8,000 raids have been conducted island-wide, according to an official of the Ministry of Cooperatives and Internal Trade. “A majority of the [...]
Hambantota incident: UNP wants action
A group of UNP MPs, Provincial Council members and supporters staged a protest in Hambantota yesterday against Police inaction in the wake of the attack on a group of parliamentarians from the Party when they were on an inspection tour of the Mattala airport and Hambantota port recently. Among those present was the UNP Acting [...]
Kidney trade: Raid on private hospitals
A top Health Ministry team is to visit several private hospitals this week to check out what is happening at ground level, following allegations of irregular kidney transplants on foreigners. The two-member team from the Directorate of Private Health Sector Development will comprise its Director Dr. Kanthi Ariyaratne and Deputy Director Dr. A.I. Jagoda. Indian [...]
Victoria injured when a suspect threw piece of a broken bottle at her: Witness
A guest present at ‘The Nature’ hotel Tangalle when British national Khuram Shaikh was gunned down on Christmas Day in 2011, this week told the Colombo High Court how the victim’s fiancé Victoria was beaten up by the suspects in the case.In his evidence a private sector employee, B. Samarasinha who stayed overnight at the [...]
Chop, chop – and our rivers die, farmers starve and elephants are lost
Relentless deforestation of the Sinharaja by private interests has brought drought to the farming hamlets of the area and threatens the survival of the remaining Sinharaja elephants whose last hideout is vanishing – and the government says it is helpless. For centuries the springs and streams of the Sinharaja Forest have flowed into the fields [...]
The rights we enjoyed decades ago have disappeared now: FMM
The Free Media Movement (FMM) in a statement to mark World Press Freedom Day yesterday, expressed dismay at the decline of media freedom in the country, but said it remains unwavering in its commitment to press freedom and democracy. “Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka, we are regressing into backwardness; the rights we used to enjoy decades [...]
Masks for Mid-East virus threat
The Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) is to distribute 50,000 face and nose masks for those travelling to Saudi Arabia and conduct awareness programmes for families of migrant workers and pilgrims on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), a viral outbreak in Saudi Arabia that claimed about 40 lives last month alone. Last [...]
Indian doc. has new approach to treating kidney disease
With kidney disease on the increase in the country, an Indian doctor with a different approach to the treatment for the condition has taken on the task of helping Sri Lankan patients. Homeopathy combined with a holistic approach is what the Indian doctorSiddharth M. Jondhale is using to treat his patients. He has already started [...]
Recipe for disaster if Indo-Pak rift is not resolved: Ranil
Opposition and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said this week that both India and Pakistan must resolve their differences if India is to ensure double-digit growth and become a powerful nation, and Pakistan was not to collapse due to unsustainable defence expenditure. He said that both countries were nuclear powers and the security of the entire [...]
Police guard remains while case still remains a mystery
Nearly two months after the private residence of Excise Commissioner- D.G.M.V. Hapuarachchi was shot up by unidentified gunmen, the police are yet to make a breakthrough in their investigations. Mr Happuaarchchi told the Sunday Times that investigators were yet to inform him of any progess in their probe, adding that, however, the police guard posted [...]
Brutal killings on the rise in bloody month of April
Twenty killings have been reported in April alone, marking an increasing wave of crime around the country. A common feature in all these cases was that the victims were in their 20s and 30s. The killings were reported from Giriulla in Kurunegala, Moneragala, Elpitiya, Maha-Oya, Ambalangoda, Buttala, Wellampitiya in Colombo, Killinochchi, Hikkaduwa, Rideegama, Kuruvita in [...]
Religious complaints: Police in unholy mess
Members of the police unit dealing with complaints related to religious activities have no special training in their assigned field and are still uninformed about the types of offences they are expected to investigate. Officials admitted that the answers will only become clearer as the weeks progress. Critics say the task delegated to the unit [...]
Heroin and the helmet heists – how police cracked the case
This week’s breakthrough in the string of island-wide robberies carried out by armed gangs in full-face helmets came from police who had been tracking a drug addict. That investigation started after two armed men on February 24 stormed the Nations Trust Bank in Kohuwela and got away with Rs 1.5 million, leaving hardly any clues. [...]
Workers islandwide rally on May Day for their day in the sun
Thousands of people came out in force on Thursday to celebrate International Workers’ Day popularly known as May Day, with political parties, trade unions and civil society organisations holding marches and meetings to rekindle the spirit of the working masses in the country. The largest May Day rally was led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, where [...]
Potuhera: Railway safety measures on shaky track
The Railway Department’s safety precautions are under sharp scrutiny after a head-on collision between two trains in Potuhera this week left 68 injured. After a series of train accidents as well as near collisions during the past few years, questions are being raised over how safe the country’s railways are for travel. The cause of [...]
Mystery clouds accident of luxury car sans number plates
Mystery surrounds the circumstances of a luxury motorcar that was involved in a May Day accident at Narahenpita. The American-built Shelby Ford Cobra struck a pavement block before hitting a three-wheeler.The car, minus registeration number plates, was moving at an excessive speed when the incident took place, eye witnesses said. They said that the first to [...]
Hop in for a ride through Pera Gardens
Battery-operated cars have become a popular mode of transport among foreign and local visitors to view the world-renowned Peradeniya Botanical Gardens. Gardens Director General Cyril Wijesundera said although bullock-driven carts were introduced long years ago for this purpose they failed to fall in trot, but the hi-tech eco-friendly cars have probably come to stay. He [...]
Marxism and Buddhism have shown me the path to say ‘no’ to anti-people policies
When Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) MP Ven. Aturaliye Ratana Thera raised a lone voice from within the ranks of the ruling coalition in Parliament, to oppose the controversial regulations that many allege pave the way for large scale casino operations in the country, the Opposition reacted with applause, while those on the Government benches maintained [...]
Little action against big menace on roads
Private bus drivers are one of the main traffic offenders in Colombo city and its suburbs, but police appear to be unable to rein them in. Private buses blocking the flow of traffic in main towns and busy roads are a common sight with little or no action being taken against the drivers. Despite instructions [...]
SLFEB to seek better deal for expatriate workers at int’l meet held in Colombo
Sri Lanka will join some 10 other countries in calling for better wages and welfare benefits that include insurance cover, etc for local expatriate workers taking up employment in West Asia and other foreign capitals, Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLFEB) Additional General Manager, Mangala Randeniya said yesterday. “The matter will be taken up for [...]
39-year-old father of 2 dies of burns from kerosene-lamp fire
A 39-year-old father of two succumbed to burn injuries he sustained from a kerosene lamp fire at his residence in Dolkadeniya.The victim, Patabedige Sarath Wijeratne, a carpenter employed in a matchbox factory in Dummalasooriya, was initially admitted to Marawila hospital and later transferred to the National Hospital.His 16-year-old son, Sajith Madhushan giving evidence, said that, [...]
NFF annual convention tomorrow
The National Freedom Front (NFF) headed by Minister Wimal weerawansa will hold its second annual convention tomorrow at the Sugathadasa indoor Stadium at 2.30 p.m.
Unknown trio allegedly assaults Chief Incumbent of Mahawewa temple
An unidentified group is alleged to have assaulted a Buddhist monk in Mahawewa after dusk yesterday, after they failed to abduct him, police said. The victim, Ven. Yatiyana Sri Siddhaloka Thera, Chief Incumbent of the Galamuna Sri Vardanaramaya in Mahawewa, is currently undergoing treatment at the Marawila Hospital, police said. In a statement to police, [...]
