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President Maithripala Sirisena and India’s High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandhu performing Yoga exercises at Independence Square yesterday to mark the Fourth International Day of Yoga. The event was organized by the Indian High Commission and the Swami Vivekananda Centre, Colombo. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Cleanup of Beira Lake and its environs on July 21, 22
A major ‘Cleanup’ project of the Beira Lake and its environs will take place on July 21 and 22, on the initiative of a civic minded group backed by the Colombo Municipal Council and several State agencies. Chief Prelate of the Gangaramaya Temple, the Ven. Galaboda Gnanissara Thera will provide leadership to the project. Residents [...]
India expresses concern over huge Chinese housing project in NE
India has raised concern at the highest levels of the Sri Lankan Government about the manner in which a contract to build 40,000 houses in the North and East was recently awarded without tender to a Chinese company that has no history of building houses in the country. The Resettlement Ministry last month secured Cabinet [...]
Lanka disallows entertainment island near Hambantota Port
Sri Lanka has turned down a proposal by China Merchant Port Holdings Ltd (CMPort) to use a four-acre artificial island around the Hambantota Port for entertainment projects, Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said. He said the proposal was ruled out on the grounds that the original agreement had stated that the island could be [...]
Uncertainty over timing of PC elections
Uncertainty hovers over the prospects of early Provincial Council elections, while Parliament prepares to conduct an adjournment debate on this subject on July 6. The debate will focus on the electoral system under which the polls should be conducted. While the Government wants it under a changed electoral system, smaller parties are strongly opposed to [...]
Committees say postal and SLAS officers’ demands will cost billions
Sri Lanka Administrative Service officers and Postal Department unions are demanding increased allowances and salaries but two committees say the demands cannot be granted fully in view of the complications arising in other sectors. Two separate committees are studying the demands of the postal unions which are continuing their strike and the demands of SLAS [...]
Mangala: Enterprising Sri Lanka programme will fast forward economic development
Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said on Friday that the country must develop a comprehensive entrepreneurship structure that encourages people, especially graduates, to embark on building their own businesses. He was speaking at the ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’ (ESL) programme which saw the launch of 15 tailor-made schemes, one especially for the youth. A new loan scheme, [...]
WIPO unveils Kirinde masterpiece to honour Lakshman Kadirgamar
To honour former Foreign Affairs Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and in memory of the rich legacy he left behind, a famous painting was unveiled at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva on Thursday. The painting gifted to WIPO by Suganthi Kadirgamar, the late Minister’s spouse is one of the masterpieces of renowned Sri Lankan [...]
Immigration Officer nabbed with 60 Gold biscuits valued over Rs 60m
Airport Customs yesterday imposed a Rs 3 million fine on an Immigration Officer who attempted to smuggle in 60 Gold biscuits valued at over Rs 60 million. The Immigration Officer had concealed the Gold biscuits in his trouser pockets and attempted to leave the building, Customs sources said. Investigations revealed that an organized gang smuggling [...]
Govt. names five new Ambassador designates
The Government has named five new Ambassador designates and their names referred to the High Post Committee of Parliament, to examine their suitability for the post. They are M.A.K. Girihagama as High Commissioner designate to Canada, C.A.H.M. Wijeratne as Ambassador designate to Poland, S.S. Ganegama Arachchi as Ambassador designate to Sweden, Ms S.S. Premawardena as [...]
SAITM crisis: KDU operation successful
The long drawn controversy over the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) medical degree was apparently settled with Parliament passing the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (Special Provisions) Act which lays down the national policy relating to the admission of students registered with SAITM to the KDU . Most stakeholders said they [...]
Asgiriya Anunayake urges critics not to misinterpret his sermon
Ven Vendaruwe Upali Thera, the Anunayaka of the Asgiriya Chapter, yesterday urged critics not to politicise or misinterpret his Anushasanawa (sermon) given at the almsgiving to mark the 69th birthday of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. In a statement, the Anunayake said it was regrettable that the words ‘Hitler’ and ‘military’ used in his 30-minute [...]
Motor Traffic Dept’s approval necessary for vehicle imports
Vehicle importers will be required to obtain the Motor Traffic Department’s approval for import by submitting the specifications of the vehicles even before they arrive in the country, a senior official said. Transport Ministry Secretary G.S. Withanage told the Sunday Times that regulations were to be gazetted soon and the department would not register a [...]
Visiting Norwegian State Foreign Minister laments US withdrawal from UNHRC
Norway, while expressing concern and worry over last week’s “angry” withdrawal by the United States from the UN Human Rights Council, has reiterated its support for the Geneva-based organisation. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Times on Friday, visiting Norwegian State Foreign Minister Jens Frølich Holte described the UN HRC as an important tool [...]
Sangha courts mooted to deal with convicted monks
The Buddha Sasana Ministry is proposing to set up special courts to hear cases involving Buddhist monks. The move comes in the wake of the imprisonment of Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera and the controversy over whether he can continue to wear his monk’s robes while in prison instead of [...]
Rundown Soysa Building in Slave Island to be pulled down, facade to be replicated
The Soysa building in Slave Island will be pulled down and a new one with the same facade erected a short distance away to allow for road expansion, the Urban Development Authority (UDA) and land developers Tata Housing have decided. The beautiful Victorian edifice opposite the Slave Island railway station has, at 200 yards, the [...]
Muddled electric vehicle plans running on low battery
Years after bombastic promises were made by the Government about introducing electric vehicles, more than 5,000 owners are still waiting for the day when charging infrastructure will be widely developed. After all, shallow, knee-jerk statements have been made by various finance ministers and their policy pundits without first planning and developing the electric vehicle charging [...]
Kataragama seven in the net for Kiri Vehera shooting
Seven suspects, including a woman, have been arrested over the shooting of the chief incumbent of the Kataragama Kiri Vehera Rajamaha Viharaya, Venerable Kobawaka Damminda Thero. All seven have been remanded in custody by the Tissamaharama Additional Magistrate until July 4. Among the arrested is Asela Lakmal Bandara, 40, the former lay priest (kapu mahattaya) [...]
Gangster gunned down after Matara jewellery shop raid
An organised crime gang suspect Chamara Jayasundara, the bearded key figure in the Matara jewellery shop robbery, was shot dead in the early hours of yesterday by the police. The police claimed he had tried to lob a hand grenade during an attempt to show them a bag that had been hidden in a jungle. [...]
Driver’s speed and fatigue took life of Aussie mum and child
A driver who appeared to be too tired to drive and was speeding on the Southern Expressway was allegedly responsible for the death of a young Australian woman and her daughter, police and official investigations have revealed. Louise Monica Collins, 37, along with her husband, Patrick, a flying Instructor of a foreign airline based in [...]
Deceased shot from behind at close range: JMO
When Pakiyarajah Sutharsan, a mason from Kulamangaal, Mallakam, returned from Qatar 3 months ago, he wouldn’t have thought his life would end shortly in his own village. He was killed last Sunday when police fired during an attempt to control two gangs fighting each other with swords. As the breadwinner to a family of four, [...]
Mob-style leopard killing – Lanka’s day of shame
As right-thinking people cringed at Sri Lanka’s day of shame over the brutal killing of a leopard in Kilinochchi, strident were the calls to the authorities to take stringent action against the perpetrators. Stern action is the need of the hour, was the overwhelming demand not only from conservationists but also from the public, which [...]
Hunt on for large leopard in Nuwara Eliya
A fresh operation is under way to capture a large leopard which recently moved into Galway’s national park in the vicinity of Nuwara Eliya town, Wildlife officials said. They explained the operation is conducted for the safety of the area residents, as the five-hectare bird park is in close proximity to Nuwara Eliya town. Wildlife [...]
Parliament debates human-wildlife conflict as death toll rises
The growing conflict between wild animals and humans, particularly in districts where the communities’ livelihood is agriculture-based, was debated in Parliament on Friday. UPFA Digamadulla District MP Wimalaweera Dissanayaka moved an adjournment motion on the issue and spoke on the worsening situation in several districts where encroachment and attacks by wild animals including elephants, monkeys, [...]
Postal strike continues to stamp its disruption on public services
Thousands of mail items piled up as the public continued to face difficulties with the ongoing postal strike. The postal trade unions have promised to report to work only after the National Salaries & Cadre Commission (NSCC) approves the new salary scheme. The Minister of Post and Postal Services and Muslim Religious Affairs, M.H.Abdul Haleem [...]
Spoon-billed Sandpiper found in Sri Lanka!
The last record of a sighting in Sri Lanka was 40 years ago in 1978 and for many years, birdwatchers in the country have been on the look-out for it here. As afternoon was slowly fading into evening, around 5 p.m. on June 6, an Executive in a finance company, Ravi Darshana, was returning home [...]
Deaths piling up at level crossings
The CCTV camera at the Peralanda railway level crossing in Kandana area bore witness to a horrific accident captured the moment two friends on a motorbike ignored a railway traffic signal and went through the rail gates – to be hit hard by a speeding train. At about 3pm on June 17, Senaka Wickremasinghe, 41, [...]
Rural talent to the fore as BPO goes to the villages
The collective capabilities of Sri Lanka’s rural youth in dealing with highly professional Business Accounting and Data Processing services and their reputed knowledge of the English language, have opened new vistas for them in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), by taking the industry to Sri Lanka’s villages. With these professional services being diverted from Colombo to [...]
Pick of the Pix
Pics by M A Pushpakumara, Indika Handuwala, Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa, Neil Siriweera, Ratnasiri Premalal
Schoolboy attacked and killed by fellow students
A 16-year-old schoolboy from a leading school in Chilaw succumbed to injuries sustained in an attack by his school mates, police said. The grade 11 student identified as Mohomad Rifsy Faizoor, who was a prefect of Sawarana Muslim School, Chilaw was assaulted on Sunday, June 10 when he was returning to his aunt and uncle’s [...]
Colombo’s cluttered pavements
Jay walking is an offence. But pedestrians who use Colombo’s streets have no choice but to walk along the middle of the road despite the heavy flow of traffic. Our cameramen captured pictures showing how heavy construction work in Colombo is forcing pedestrians to walk along the centre of the roads even during peak traffic [...]