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Home » NewsSuperhero Kusal carries Lanka to spectacular victory
What appeared to be yet another debacle for Sri Lanka eventually turned out to be a miracle in Durban yesterday. Cricket’s glorious uncertainties were splashed across the Kingsmead Stadium in Durban, when the superhero, Kusal Perera, and last man Vishwa Fernando in a spectacular and nail-biting partnership carried Sri Lanka to one of their most [...]
Ratgama abductions: Senior DIG transferred
Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) for Southern Range Ravi Wijegunewardene has been transferred to Police Headquarters, as CID detectives are probing the abduction and alleged murder of two persons. Police sources said last night that he may face arrest together with a group of other police officers over the incident. According to initial [...]
Sinharaja plunder: Slovak Govt. pays biggest ever fine of Rs. 10.85m
The Slovak Government paid a fine of Rs 10.85 million imposed on five Slovak nationals found guilty of illegally collecting endemic animal and plant species from the Sinharaja Rainforest. Environmentalists say the fine is the largest ever imposed under the Fauna & Flora Protection Ordinance. Slovak Government Officials, who were present in court on behalf [...]
US$ 1b in sovereign bonds from Panda and Samurai
Sri Lanka is set to go for an international sovereign bond issue to raise US$ 1 billion through Panda (China) and Samurai (Japan) bonds after receiving Cabinet approval for the proposal. Treasury and Central Bank officials will shortly visit Japan and China before the implementation of the plan aimed at easing the current economic crisis. [...]
CSE halts trading of MTD Walkers’ shares
The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) halted trading of MTD Walkers’ shares on Thursday after calling for clarification—albeit belatedly—about recent events at the troubled conglomerate. Separately, the Commercial High Court issued enjoining orders in favour of eight banks, restraining MTD Walkers PLC from transferring any of its shares in any of its subsidiaries to its Malaysian [...]
Conflicting reports on Madush: CID officers fly to Dubai
Two senior Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials will fly to Dubai on a fact-finding mission over the arrest of millionaire drug lord Makandure Madush. A senior Police official who did not want to be identified said the visit was strictly to determine facts since there had been a series of conflicting reports. The official made [...]
200 kilo stone to test new hangman’s noose
The strength of the hangman’s noose which is slated to be imported will be tested with a 200 kilogramme stone, Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI) Director General Dr. Siddhika Senaratne told the Sunday Times. “The existing noose was found to be damaged and unusable,” she said. It is 12 years old and had been imported [...]
One-and-a-half-year-old dies after drinking battery acid
A one-and-a-half-year-old child died after mistakenly drinking battery acid at its residence in the Kiriella area in Ratnapura, yesterday (16). The incident had taken place on Friday (15) when both parents of the child had left for work in the morning. The child was under the care of its aunt at the time of the [...]
GSP+ talks: EU tells Lanka not to implement death penalty
The European Union (EU) has once again called on Sri Lanka not to implement the death penalty, during talks in Brussels centering on the GSP+, a concession narrowly tied to a recipient’s implementation of labour and human rights conventions. The message was conveyed during a segment on the GSP+ at the 22nd EU-Sri Lanka Joint [...]
Lanka lacks laws to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, says EC
The European Commission (EC) has named Sri Lanka a “high-risk third country” with strategic deficiencies in anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws. It is the only other South Asian nation to be flagged apart from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sri Lanka is also among 11 nations identified by the intergovernmental Financial Action Task [...]
Disappeared love
Marking Valentines Day on Thursday, Colombo-based NGOs brought families of the disappeared from across the country to an event called ‘Missing Lovers’ held in Colombo to remember those who went missing during war time. Pic by Sameera Weerasekera
Japan trains Sri Lanka on oil spill management
Specialists from Japan’s Coastguard (JCG) trained 50 Sri Lanka officials on Oil Spill Incident Management, from February 5-15, at the Advance Training Centre in Mirissa, to further strengthen maritime safety in Sri Lanka. The Chief Guest at the closing ceremony of the training programme held on Friday (15), at the Colombo Port, was Special Advisor [...]
Mannar mass graves: US forensic reports before magistrate on Wednesday
Key forensic reports of carbon dating compiled by a US-based forensic agency, on the human skeletons recovered from Sri Lanka’s largest mass grave are to be submitted to the Mannar Magistrate’s court on Wednesday, Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) Saminda Rajapaksha said. The JMO, who is overseeing the excavation process of the mass grave close to [...]
HRC probes arrest of husband accused of ‘abducting’ wife
The Human Rights Commission (HRC) is investigating a case in Vavuniya, where a 27-year-old man who married a 19-year-old girl, was arrested by the Police and produced in court on ‘abduction’ charges. The youth was arrested by the Vavuniya Police last Sunday, after he called over at the Police Station to lodge a complaint that [...]
Motorcyclist fined again for drunk riding
A motorcyclist, whose licence had been suspended for riding under the influence of liquor, was fined on Thursday for repeating the offence. Mahara Chief Magistrate Heshan de Mel imposed a fine of Rs. 29,500 on 26-year-old T.A. Ratnagamage Indu, a businessman, and suspended his licence for another six months. The motorcyclist was arrested by the [...]
From bumper harvest blooms a pumpkin festival as farmer aid
the humble pumpkin is in the news once again due to the bumper crop which has resulted in farmers struggling to get a reasonable price for their produce. In the Ampara, Anuradhapura and Moneragala districts, where pumpkins grow in abundance during this time of the year, farmers have been hard hit by falling prices, with [...]
Navam Perahera tomorrow
Preparations to hold the annual Nawam Perahera organised by the Gangaramaya Temple in Hunupitiya, Colombo, are underway. The Perahera will be held tomorrow and on Tuesday, Navam Poya day, from 7 p.m. onwards. Pic by Ishanka Sunimal
Govt. launches programme to rescue women from microfinance debt traps
The government has started writing off loans taken by some 45,000 women who are caught in ‘debt traps’ after borrowing money from microfinance credit companies operating in conflict and drought-affected areas in three provinces. With the government allocation of Rs 1.4 billion as debt relief, thousands of women-headed households in the former war-torn areas and [...]
Blind spots allow drugs to pour into Lanka
thousands of unmonitored high-seas vessels are weak points in Sri Lanka’s maritime security, buoying a multi-billion-rupee drug smuggling trade despite an increase in interceptions and detections by authorities. Poor border management and rampant bribery and corruption have proved to be major stumbling blocks in curbing smugglers. Police estimate that nearly 95 per cent of illicit [...]
Sri Lanka Cancer Research Group set up to do more country-specific studies
The Sri Lanka Cancer Research Group has been formed to conduct in-depth studies on cancer in the country. Lamenting that in Sri Lanka minimal research has been conducted on outcomes of cancer treatment, Consultant Paediatric & Adolescent Oncologist Dr. Sanjeeva Gunasekera, who is the Convener of the group, says that up to now the country [...]
Monthly fuel price formula ignites prices of food and COL
Monthly fuel price increases according to a much-derided ‘“formula’’ continue to ignite the prices of food and living costs. On Monday, in keeping with its fuel price formula, the government increased the price of octane 92 petrol by Rs. 6, octane 95 petrol by Rs. 5 , diesel by Rs 4 and super diesel by [...]
New drift in human smuggling takes boats to Reunion Island
Human smugglers are turning their boats in the southwest direction to take scores of people — lured by the promise of highly paid jobs — on a 4,238 km journey across the rough seas to Reunion Island, a French overseas territory near Madagascar in Africa. In recent weeks, at least two botched attempts to reach [...]
Two years after Emirates left, SriLankan’s liabilities flew over assets
When, in the afterglow of the war victory, the national carrier, Sri Lankan Airlines, embarked on its ambitious Business Strategic Plan-2010, targeting the booming tourism industry in the region, its “liabilities were greater than its assets,” it was revealed on Friday. The revelation was made when the airline’s Finance Department Head Yasantha Dissanayake testified before [...]
Waiting, waiting and waiting for a roof above their heads
It’s been 10 years since the war ended, four years since this Government came into power, but promised housing for the war-torn people have not materialised Saga of dubious tenders and interested parties trying to foist pre-fabricated housing Four years ago, the Government promised mass-scale housing for the North and East’s war-displaced. It has [...]
Dengue patrols find hundreds of breeding places in Colombo
More than 7,000 inspections have been done over two days in the Colombo city to help end killer dengue, health officials, said. The chief medical officer of health at the Colombo Municipal Council, Dr Ruwan Wijeyamuni, said inspections were a part of a dengue eradication efforts on two days of every month. Raids were done [...]
Mother’s murder of child reveals dark trend of child cruelty
A 21-year-old mother has spent this week under arrest over the mysterious disappearance of her child after confessing that she had assaulted her four-year-old daughter and thrown her into the Kala Oya tank. The little girl, from the Neelambemma area in Puttalam, has been missing since January 30 and has still not been found despite [...]
Institutional religion and mixed messages
The arrest of Makandure Madush in Dubai, along with 30 other Sri Lankans at a party in Dubai, has given the media in the country much to write about and the opportunity for politicians to make allegations against one another. It has also activated the Sri Lanka Police to go after and probe the activities [...]
Computerised Medical Certificates for driving/riding licences
Plans are afoot for a computerised system for Medical Certificates (MC) for drivers, said National Transport Medical Institute (NTMI) Chairman W.S. Perera. This system would link all 25 District offices of the NTMI with its headquarters, thereby assisting in the quick registration of the driver and the issuance of the MCs. Approximately 700 people obtain [...]
Pick of the Pix
Pix by Priyantha Wickramarachchi, Sameera Weerasekera and Ishanka Sunimal and Sunil S. Thanthiriarachchi. From OUR READERS The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. So shutterbugs out there, here’s your chance to send in your contributions to this picture corner. Please send your captioned photograph to pictures@sundaytimes.wnl.lk
Kandy city cleaners live in squalor
Housing and lands officials have ignored providing permanent homes with basic facilities to some 750 families who have been living in Mahaiyawa in Kandy near the main burial grounds for decades in shacks in unsanitary, inhuman conditions. Many are unskilled workers of the Kandy Municipal Council. Some are descendants of those municipal workers. Some of [...]
Nuwara Eliya losing its iconic colonial era buildings
Nestled in the hills, the town of Nuwara Eliya resembles a quaint old town in the English countryside. Yet, one- by-one, its iconic old buildings which gave it the air of an English countryside have been pulled down. Today the Nuwara Eliya town is on the verge of losing another of its historic old buildings.’ [...]
Count the birds: Public urged to join global initiative
As the annual initiative, Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) from Febrary 15-18–where birdwatchers around the world are invited to count and report details of birds in the area in which they live– marks its last day tomorrow, a veteran ornithologist here has said it was important to keep a tab on what are regarded as [...]