News
Home » NewsShielding the killer and gang rapist
Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sampath Vidanapathirana being shielded by prisons officers as he was being taken in a prisons vehicle after the Colombo High Court sentenced him to 20 years hard labour for the killing of British national Khuram Shaikh and the gang rape of his Russian girlfriend Victoria Alexandrovna at a Tangalle hotel in [...]
More taxes on employees
Trade unions are accusing the Government of trying to grab more taxes from employees through a gazette notification which directed that state and private sector employees receiving interest-free loans or loans at concessionary rates would be made liable to pay taxes retrospectively. In terms of the notification, employees will have to pay taxes on profit [...]
Govt. begins repatriation of Afghans
The Government yesterday started repatriating at state expense Afghan nationals who had claimed asylum in Sri Lanka, the Immigration Controller said. Controller Chulananda Perera said five Afghans were ‘voluntarily repatriated’ to their own country with more to follow.However, a spokesperson at the Colombo office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said they were [...]
Task Force abolished: New bureau for reconciliation
A new Bureau of Reconciliation is to be set up to handle matters earlier entrusted to the Presidential Task Force on Northern Development. A circular has been sent to ministries, government departments and state corporations among others that the Task Force is no longer operational. Resettlement Ministry Secretary Janaka Sugathadasa said they had been informed by [...]
Crisis over new Tax Chief
While grappling to meet revenue targets, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) is embroiled in a crisis over the appointment of the next Commissioner General. The Cabinet of Ministers has requested a five-member interview board chaired by Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga to pick the new Tax Chief. It has been tasked to pick a suitable officer [...]
Postal rates doubled from August 1
Postal charges are to be increased from August 1 – with the normal letter postage charge going up from Rs. 5 to Rs. 10 and the business mail (20 gram) rate from Rs. 5 to Rs. 15, Post Master General Rohana Abeysinha said yesterday. He said the postal rates had been not been revised for the [...]
Wheels within wheels as ex-employee takes company to courts
An ex-employer of a plantation company has gone to courts alleging that it had defrauded the Government to the tune of Rs. 50 million by engaging in a vehicle racket. Ajith Binal Stembo, who was employed at Kelani Valley Plantation PLC for 20 years before being asked to resign, has filed a writ application in the [...]
Kandy Secretariat toilets’ stink has authorities thumbing their noses
Stinking toilets, harmful to the health of public servants working on the ground floor of the Kandy Secretariat is a health hazard. The nauseating smell has made some of the lady public officers sick, of whom one had to be warded at Kandy General Hospital. The worst affected area is the office of Births and [...]
Kadawatha accident: Death toll rises to three
A six-year-old boy died while being treated at the Colombo National Hospital after he was seriously injured in an accident aton Mankada road in Kadawatha, a Coroner’s Court inquiry was told yesterday. The boy, Nimesha Thathsara, a Grade 1 student of Kadawatha Mahabodhi School, was travelling in a three-wheeler with his family and a teacher [...]
The long trek for drinking water
Drinking water has become one of the main concerns in several villages. Here two villagers in Habarana are seen with plastic containers of water, after having walked more than five kilometres to fetch them. Animals too are suffering due to the scarecity of water as seen in this inset picture. Pix by Kanchana Ariyadasa
Fires destroy Uva forest cover, latest in Dunhinda forest
A fire broke out in the Dunhinda Forest Reserve, Badulla, last afternoon, police said. The fire which spread across the forest close to the Dunhinda waterfalls, was put out in the evening, after the army, with assistance from the villagers, battled it for several hours. Fires throughout the Uva Province have destroyed over a thousand [...]
Death by hacksaw for man who falls from bridge
A man died after sustaining a cut injury on his neck from a hacksaw blade after he fell from a makeshift bridge into a river in Godakawela, the Colombo Coroner’s Court was told this week. On Wednesday (16), 32-year-old Somitige Athula Senaratne, a father of three from Godakawela in Ratnapura, was heading home from the [...]
BJP scholars here to explain India under Modi
A group of Indian intellectuals who support the political ideology of the Bharatiya Janatha Party will arrive in Sri Lanka today to take part in a panel discussion on the impact of the new Indian government on Sri Lanka, the region and the world at large. Organised by the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS), [...]
EU seeks meeting with BASL president over his personal safety
The European Union (EU) in Colombo has sought a meeting with Bar Association (BASL) President Upul Jayasuriya for a briefing over his personal safety as more organisations expressed concern over incidents where unknown persons had followed him. Mr. Jayasuriya was followed by known persons on two motor cycles while returning from courts at Hulftsdorp on [...]
Goodies to induce voters as nomination date nears
With Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya announcing dates for handing over of nominations to the Uva Provincial Council polls, political parties are not wasting any time to win over voters. Posters have sprung up in many areas in the Badulla and Moneragala Districts with photographs of prospective candidates while the distribution of various goods meant to [...]
PCCSL received over 160 complaints in 2013, says CEO
The Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka (PCCSL) received 163 complaints last year and opened a branch office in Jaffna to receive complaints, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the PCCSL said in his annual report for 2013. He said the Jaffna office was opened on May 3, which is World Press Freedom Day, to [...]
Found guilty of double murder
The Colombo High Court this week sentenced a Ukrainian couple to death after they were found guilty of committing a double murder in 2010. The victims were a six-year-old child and a woman who worked as a maid in a house in Rajagiriya. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Authorities at sea while drowning claims more young lives
Water safety education should be made a priority in schools, a life saving official has pointed out as drowning continues to claim more young lives especially in inland waters.On July 6, 14 year-old Sandan Praveen and 15 year-old Selvathamby Selvarani from Eravur, were among a group of friends who were blissfully collecting conch shells near [...]
Drought in Hambantota is open season to kill animals
During the annual drought period in Hambantota, wild animals, such as deer, wild boar, monkeys, elephants and even some wandering cattle, gather around Meti Gaththa lake by the forests in Koholankala, near the Bundala National Park. In the severe heat the lake is reduced to clusters of little pools of water. Usually the animals satiate [...]
Young Lankan scientist makes life-saving snakebite discovery
A landmark discovery by a Sri Lankan scientist could save thousands of lives lost through snakebite the world over. A snakebite victim’s life often hangs in the balance in the minutes during which doctors watch for symptoms of poisoning before injecting the person with anti-venom as the remedy itself could cause severe allergic reactions that [...]
No closure for us, but judgment brings some peace—Victim’s brother
The trial of the murder of British national khuram Shaikh and gang rape and attempted murder of his partner Victoria Alexandrovna ended on Friday with Colombo High Court judge Rohini Walgama sentencing four of the six accused including the former Chairman of the Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha to 20 years Rigorous Imprisonment. She found them guilty [...]
No light shed on mystery of the lost and found albino snake
Animal trainer and zoo keeper Tilak Perera who reported to work last Thursday discovered something unusual near a gate – a tied up pillow case in which there was movement. Mr. Perera was explaining how a venomous albino snake that went missing from the Dehiwala Zoological Gardens was found four days later. “I was walking [...]
Get set for a wild weather ride, say climatologists
More than 2,000 houses and hundreds of acres of crops were damaged as gale force winds swept through the Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa provinces this week amidst warnings from weather experts to expect extreme erratic weather patterns in the coming months. They warn that the extreme weather patterns could be due to the El Nino [...]
Unique dengue management centre proudly completes one year
It is a year since it was opened and the celebrations on Tuesday were justified, for the ‘unique’ Centre for the Clinical Management of Dengue and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever at Negombo has seen many a critically-ill man, woman and child go back home after treatment. ‘Unique’ it is being called because it is the only [...]
Sexual predators run riot in schools
Last week, a Kegalle district primary school principal was arrested for sexually abusing eight schoolgirls. The father to two children, 52-year-old Swamivelu Sukumar is accused of showing pornography and then on several occasions sexually abusing the victims aged between 11 to 13 years. The principal was apprehended after a child who had dropped out of [...]
Accidents, derailments don’t deter train travellers
Around 6 p.m. on a working day evening, a tsunami of commuters overwhelmed the Colmbo Fort Railway Station. The women run towards the platform where the Colombo Fort-Polgahawela train was waiting; their hairdos askew, holding up their saris, pushing agaist each other trying to get on board. The men sprint towards the train, their leather [...]
Sacked public service officers regain pensions through House Petition Committee, says PSC
The Public Service Commission (PSC) has noted that there is a growing tendency among certain public service officers who have lost their jobs, to make appeals after retirement, to the Petitions Committee of Parliament seeking pension rights, ignoring the stringent punishment imposed on them for wrongdoing. “Most of such cases are appeals laid before the [...]
Hike in heroin detections with greater vigilance
A man was preparing for his wedding in two days time when policemen following up on the detection of three mg of heroin, arrested him in the Borella area. Twenty-six-year old Dinusha Madhuranga who police said confessed to having one more kilogram of heroin inside his music setup at home in Borella, was accompanied back [...]
Dengue battle costing millions but it’s starting to work, say officials
The anti-dengue drive in the Western province is costing millions but top officials point out that dengue cost the country almost Rs. 1 billion last year and gave heartening news that the current programs have helped to stem the spread of illness. Health Ministry Epidemiology Unit chief Dr. Paba Palihawadane said intensive efforts had more [...]
Ability cannot be judged by exams: Former Principal Ladies’ College
Addressing the gathering at the Annual Prize Giving of S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia held on Friday (18), Nirmali Wickremesinghe former Principal of Ladies’ College and Member of the Board of Governors of S. Thomas’ College said, “Examinations is a poor way of judging a person’s ability. Through it one fails to identify the ‘magic’ [...]
North or south, buses run on bribes: Old-time operators
A new system of issuing private bus permits has run into corruption allegations but the authorities have defended it saying it is designed to eliminate illegal activities. Private bus operators say the new system was designed to favour a new breed of politically connected people who run their buses on the Southern Expressway and on [...]