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Home » NewsSanta Claus has come to town
Instead of the tallest Christmas tree that entered the Guinness Book of Records, the Galle Face Green’s centre of attraction this Christmas is a giant Santa sock overflowing with gifts. It has been a Christmas tradition among little children to keep a sock outside their room window on Christmas eve for Santa to drop a [...]
Superpowers fight it out over Russian hacker in Colombo
A Russian wanted for extradition from Sri Lanka by a US Grand Jury has sparked a row in Colombo with Russia also asking for his extradition – and the man’s whereabouts are now unknown after he obtained bail from the Court of Appeal earlier this month. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has launched a manhunt [...]
Controversy continues over deduction of Rs. 100 from low-income elders’ allowance
Low income senior citizens have raised concerns about the continued deduction of Rs 100 from the Rs 2,000 monthly allowance paid to them by the Ministry of Social Empowerment and Welfare and alleged the money collected is not used for the benefit of elders. Social Empowerment and Welfare Minister S.B.Dissanayaka, however, defended the decision to [...]
Tough new Trust laws to prevent money laundering, other crimes
The Trusts Ordinance will be amended to empower the Central Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit and other government authorities dealing with money laundering and terrorism financing to obtain information relating to any trust. The new provisions will enable the Registrar General to maintain a register of trusts, information from which he will be required to provide [...]
EAP group holds talks with Malaysian investor to sell its companies
The EAP Group is in negotiations to sell its businesses–including its broadcast and media arms–to a Malaysian investor, multiple sources confirmed. The prospective buyer, Straits Grid Pte Ltd, has been in talks over the past few months, the sources said, adding that negotiations were fronted for the Malaysian party by a businessman named Jaya Sudhir [...]
41 strikes last year, 104,327 work days lost
The total number of man-days lost to labour strikes reached a ten-year high last year, Central Bank (CBSL) data reveal. An overall 104,327 man-days were squandered in 41 strikes, the worst tally since 2007. A man-day or man-day is defined as “an industrial unit of production equal to the work one person can produce in [...]
Govt to relax laws against bottom trawling by Sri Lankans
In a policy review, the Government is to permit what it calls a ‘less destructive’ trawler fishing practice for Sri Lankans in selected sea areas.Fisheries Department Director General M.C.L. Fernando who is vested with powers to issue fishing licences told the Sunday Times the ministry had taken a decision to introduce an effective fishing mechanism [...]
Golden bed inquiry: CCF director fails to turn up for inquiries for the third time
The Central Cultural Fund’s (CCF) Sigiriya Project Director has failed to turn up on three occasions for a hearing conducted by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) regarding an alleged theft of valuable artefacts. The HRCSL began an inquiry in September after activist Deemon Ananda lodged a complaint, alleging that a team engaged [...]
PM on a surprise visit to Ella; directs study on tourism development
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has directed officials to conduct a detailed survey regarding hotel rooms in the Ella area after it emerged that there is a discrepancy between the numbers given by regional officials and statistics compiled by the Tourist Board. The Premier gave the directive on Friday during a surprise observation visit to the [...]
Airline Pilots Guild goes to the RTI Commission
In the wake of the Alliance of Unions of SriLankan Airlines alleging that the Chairman, CEO and members of the Board of Directors of the national carrier were political appointees with no experience or capacity to perform their tasks competently while wasting public funds by claiming ‘exorbitant’ salaries and other perks, the Airline Pilots Guild [...]
Lanka readies formal application for ASEAN partnership
Sri Lanka is preparing a formal submission to the ASEAN Secretariat, in a bid to establish a sectoral dialogue partnership with ASEAN, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday. Once the formal submission is presented, it will be considered by the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN and, thereafter, move through the various levels of ASEAN [...]
SriaLankan flight divert from Abu Dhabi to Al Ain
A SriLankan Airlines flight was among many that were affected by thick ground fog in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday night. The fog caused the closure of the Abu Dhabi Airport. SriLankan Airlines said that unforeseen thick ground fog led to the closure of the airport and the diversion of [...]
Russia ties: Anniversary stamp issue deferred
Sri Lanka has put on hold the issue of a first day cover commemorative stamp to mark the 60 anniversary of the establishments of diplomatic relations with Russia. Post Master General Rohana Abeyratne told the Sunday Times the plans issue the stamp in Colombo were suspended on the advice of the Foreign Ministry, but declined [...]
CPC fuel crisis: Experts’ report next week
The three-member experts committee appointed to identify officials responsible for last month’s fuel shortage will submit its report next week. Petroleum Ministry Secretary Upali Marasinghe said the committee’s report would likely be handed in either on Wednesday or Thursday. The three-member committee comprises two senior Government officials and one outside technical expert. The technical experts’ [...]
Kalutara Bodhi Trust provides aid for flood victims; Tamils in London also contribute
Financial assistance for 112 families affected by the 2017 floods was handed over at the Kalutara Bodhi premises yesterday. The event was jointly organised by the Kalutra Bodhi Trust, the Ratnam Foundation and National Savings Bank (NSB). The two associations provided Rs.1 million each while the NSB provided Rs 500,000. The selected families were those [...]
Urea import saga reaches president
The Government is set to make a loss of US$2.7mn (Rs412mn) in importing – outside of tender procedure – a massive consignment of granular urea at the same price as the more expensive prilled urea, a group of fertiliser importers has warned. They point out that two associated companies of the Agriculture Ministry – Ceylon [...]
Seeing through big tobacco’s smokescreen
GENEVA – We all know how bad tobacco is, that it kills millions of people every year, and that it harms many more. We also know that tobacco companies have consistently lied about how much damage their products cause. But now, even Big Tobacco has been forced to state the facts publicly. After losing a [...]
Thousands attend funeral of people’s monk in India
The funeral with state honours provided by the Central Government of India for Sri Lankan born monk Ven. Galagedera Pannananda Thera was held at Sravasti in Uttar Pradesh last Sunday amidst a large gathering, including 500 Buddhist monks from 14 countries, including India, Thailand, China, Korea, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Some 15,000 Indian Buddhists were [...]
Ferry from north to Chennai for devotees
India and Sri Lanka are to facilitate pilgrimages for Hindu devotees through a ferry service from the north to participate in “Maarkazhi Thiruvaathirai” or the Arudra Dharshana festival at the Thillai Nataraja temple in Chidambaram, Chennai from December 24 to January 3. Following a request from Siva Senai, a Hindu religious organisation from the North, [...]
Election campaign picks up tempo, heavyweights join the fray
Local council elections are considered a third tier political contest, yet the campaign for the February 10 polls have picked up tempo even before the nominations ended on Thursday — with major political parties fielding heavyweights in what is seen as the first test of strength after the new government came into office in January [...]
EC acts on complaints to stop public sector recruitment, promotions, transfers
The Elections Commission (EC) is taking strict action regarding recruitment, promotions or transfers of officers in the State Service at the national or provincial level as they violate election laws, a senior official said. Elections Commissioner General R.M.A.L. Rathnayake told the Sunday Times that they had already stopped several such moves following investigations on complaints [...]
No silver bells for festive shoppers and traders
Bargain sales are galore and the colourful decorations gave a festive mood to the city and suburbs in the weeks leading upto Christmas — but the rising cost of living also had its impact on shoppers. Traders said business was less compared to last year with prices rising and competition also more severe. Pettah, considered [...]
Christmas messages
Let us strive to become catalyst for mercy and reconciliation: Catholic Bishops’ Conference The Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Sri Lanka said: Jesus has shown us that by his coming into our midst he wants us to share in the fullness of life which God alone can give. He wants us to live our lives as [...]
Drug price hike essential to avoid quality cuts: NMRA
The National Medicinal Regulatory Authority (NMRA) last week defended its move to increase the price of pharmaceutical drugs by five per cent and said that the move was warranted in view of the fluctuating US dollar. NMRA, Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Kamal Jayasinghe said that the pharmaceutical industry has been requesting an increase in the [...]
Spotlight on alternative care for vulnerable children; Govt. plans national policy
Sri Lanka has enacted several laws to eliminate child abuse, but much needs to be done to protect vulnerable children such as juvenile offenders. To overcome the shortcoming, the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs has prepared a draft national policy on Alternative Care for Children with a range of alternative care options. The new [...]
Death bells for festive season: 50 road deaths in eight days
A major increase in accidents has been reported during the festive season — with more than 50 deaths in the past eight days. In the latest incident, two people were killed and 45 wounded when a Matara-Colombo bus allegedly driven by the conductor ran off the road and into a precipice at Eheliyagoda. According to [...]
IT pro Gajan’s holiday dream ends in pyre
An Australian IT professional, 33-year-old Gajan Karunanandan and his wife Sumudu were looking forward to spending the end of the year holiday season with family and friends in Colombo. They had arrived in Sri Lanka two days earlier. But their lives took a tragic turn on the night of December 19, when Gajan was killed [...]
Come January 1, Colombo’s beggars will be rehabilitated, says Megapolis Ministry
A project to keep beggars away from the city of Colombo will be launched by the Megapolis and Western Development Ministry from January 1. The ministry’s additional secretary S.K.A.P.Devarajah said Megapolis Minister Champika Ranawaka’s aim is to dissuade people from begging and instead direct them to a state-run centre. The centre would provide, among other [...]
New Year cheers for northern heart patients
With open heart surgery being performed with the latest technology for the first time at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital this week, the New Year will bring hope to numerous patients in the Northern Province. “We performed open heart surgery on two patients on Wednesday and Thursday,” Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr. Mugunthan Sithamparanathan told the Sunday [...]
Making-maths difficult policy: Teachers, students give zero marks to Examinations Dept.
The Examinations Department will have a review on the marking of the G.C.E.(Ordinary Level) Maths paper amidst complaints that the paper was difficult for most students. Commissioner General of Examinations Sanath Poojitha told the Sunday Times after the Examination is concluded they have a programmme known as ‘controlled marking’ for each paper where samples from [...]
Parks, monitoring and elephant corridors for safety
The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) has decided to monitor elephants, demarcate parks and create corridors as another measure to minimise the human-elephant conflict and protect the animals, a senior official said. The decision was made after the Wildlife Department conceded that a trans-location was not a successful method to address the elephant issue after [...]
Jerusalem: Lanka joins ‘collective defiance’ against Trump’s move
When the UN General Assembly condemned the United States for its decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the vote was described as a “collective defiance” of the international community against public threats against the United Nations and its member states by a politically unpredictable and predictably wavering US President—described by his critics [...]
Lankan experts study room-for-river and other flood mitigation systems in the Netherlands
A team of Sri Lankan experts has gone to the Netherlands to study flood mitigation systems there and acquire the Dutch expertise in flood management. During the visit, facilitated by the Netherlands embassy in Colombo, the Sri Lankan experts made some crucial comparisons between the flash flood prevention and management in Sri Lanka and the [...]
Telwatta tsunami museum: Rs. 400M building that’s still a mere building
The tsunami museum and cultural centre at Telwatta in Peraliya, the scene of the world’s worst train disaster, were built spending about Rs 400 million. But for the past six years, they have remained mere buildings. The centre was built on 530-perches of land which had been donated by pensioner and social service activist Ariyaratne [...]
After the tsunami, wave of official apathy throws public fair vendors into the street
It has been 13 years since the tsunami devastated the coastal town of Galle where the public fair building was one of the structures destroyed in the catastrophe, but it is yet to see any rehabilitation with the valuable public property remaining as a monument to official apathy. Prior to the 2004 disaster, more than [...]
Pick of the Pix
Pics by Ranjith Perera, Amila Gamage, Indika Handuwala, M.A. Pushpakumara, Sameera Weerasekera and Karuwalagaswewa Jayarathna
A sheltered space for art
The street artists at the open air art gallery along Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha who braved adverse weather in the past to exhibit and sell their art work were provided with an open display location by the President on Wednesday (20) for their creations. The boards were put up at a cost of Rs.7 million by [...]
Ticket vending machine at Maligawa
The Dalada Maligawa has introduced ticket vending machines for the convenience of foreign visitors to the historic temple. Diyawdana Nilame Pradeep Nilanga Dela said the machine was user-friendly. Visitors from SAARC nations and Buddhist majority Thailand and Myanmar could buy a ticket by inserting currency notes — of one hundred rupee denomination or above — [...]