News
Home » NewsDuraiappah’s nephew glad to be back home
Sri Lankan-born Nishan Duraiappah, a nephew of Jaffna’s former Mayor Alfred Duraiappah, who was assassinated by the LTTE in 1975, is now the head of the police service in Canada’s Peel region and is on a visit to Sri Lanka. He is seen here inspecting a guard of honour at Police headquarters where he met [...]
Blow after blow: After VAT new excise tax on fuel, other items
The government is considering how to implement an International Monetary Fund stricture to adjust all excisable taxes to reflect the annual rate of inflation, as it will further push up the prices of a host of items, including petrol and diesel, on the back of the VAT revision that comes into effect tomorrow. If the [...]
Immunoglobulin case: AG wants probe on Rs. 144.4mn money trail
The Attorney General’s Department has requested the Maligakanda Magistrate to order the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to investigate what happened to Rs. 144.4 million that was credited to a bank account of Isolez Biotech Pharma AG as payment for the counterfeit human immunoglobulin injections that it supplied the Health Ministry. Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) Lakmini [...]
Thai Premier expected here for Independence Day and to sign free trade deal
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin is expected to visit Sri Lanka to be the chief guest at the main Independence Day celebrations and sign the Sri Lanka-Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA), officials said. It will be Sri Lanka’s fourth FTA, after agreements with India, Pakistan and Singapore. The country will gain duty-free access to the [...]
Genocide in Gaza: S. Africa hauls Israel before ICJ
South Africa on Friday filed action before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, requesting it to declare on an urgent basis if Israel is in breach of its obligations in terms of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention of and Punishment of Genocide (Genocide Convention) over its continuing military attacks in the Gaza [...]
Tax hike likely to see surge in cheaper rail travel
When higher taxes are passed on to commuters from January, demand for rail travel is expected to rise, but the railways is not able to increase capacity. “We don’t have the capacity to extend our train services as the number of available seats and trains are limited,” said General Manager Railways (GMR) H.M.K.W Bandara. “We [...]
Investigations into patient’s death indicate CO2 administered during surgery at National Hospital
A preliminary investigation into the death of a female patient during surgery at the National Hospital on Thursday indicated that she had been administered carbon dioxide, said Deputy Director General of the Hospital Dr Kumara Wickremasinghe yesterday. Following this initial inquiry and the report being submitted to Health Ministry Secretary Dr Palitha Mahipala, a high-level [...]
Royal pardon for 44 Lankans in UAE prisons
Forty-four Sri Lankans who were in different prisons across the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been pardoned by a royal order, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday. They were expected to be released over the weekend and repatriated to Sri Lanka at the expense of the UAE Government in due course. The UAE Foreign Ministry formally [...]
Education and Foreign Ministries to launch art competition for school children to highlight Indian Ocean
The ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education have combined to launch an IORA Day in March next year with an art competition for school children that will showcase the importance of the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka took over the Chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) in October 2023 for the period 2023/2025. There [...]
Diseased Australian seed potatoes land northern farmers in a rotten deal
By S.Rubatheesan For decades, veteran vegetable farmer Selvaskantharajah Thusyanthan cultivated potatoes and red onions throughout the year, depending on the monsoons, in his small plot of fertile land in Punnalaikkadduvan North, Jaffna. But he could not go ahead as planned this time due to the unavailability of seed potatoes. Yet, he is among the 300 [...]
Underfunded services pile on indignities for disabled people in the North and East
By Mimi Alphonsus In the war-affected North and East, people with disabilities struggle to cope as NGOs exit and archaic state systems suffer from underfunding. R. Nirmala from Batticaloa has lived with disability since 1997, when shell pieces got embedded in her head, arm and waist. She suffered partial paralysis and could not speak for [...]
Use of dodgy documents on the rise
By Kasun Warakapitiya The Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau (CFIB) has observed a surge in forged documents presented to both state and non-state organisations, including paperwork given to foreign embassies to secure visas. The Registrar of Motor Vehicles, Registrar of Persons, Immigration and Emigration, Customs, Inland Revenue, Labour, Customs and the Department of Pensions are among [...]
2024: A year of rising prices and shrinking wallets
By Kasun Warakapitiya The looming fear of taxes has forced people to reconsider their plans for the upcoming year. Despite celebrations and gatherings held this year, people were uncertain how they would manage to survive financially in 2024. And while public sector employees received a boost in income via the last budget, they, too, were [...]
Op Yukthiya continues with police saying the hunt is on for 3000 key players
By Sandun Jayawardana While nearly 18,000 people have been arrested, two weeks into the ‘Yukthiya’ (Justice) countrywide law enforcement operation, authorities are hunting for more than 3,000 other suspected criminals seen as “key players” in domestic drug trafficking. Before it started, the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) and the Special Investigation Bureau (SIB) had identified 4,665 [...]
Audit report points to increase in imprisonments last year leading to major overcrowding of prisons
By S. Rubatheesan Overcrowding in Sri Lankan prisons is so dire that they hold twice the number of inmates than there is space for, while more than half of the inmates are being held over drug-related charges, a government audit has shown. Although the number of prisoners who can be housed according to capacity as [...]
Disappointments for Sri Lanka at climate talks
While OPEC members and some Global North nations exploit technicalities and grey wordings on international decision texts, countries like Sri Lanka bear the brunt of climate-induced weather events By Tharushi Weerasinghe The 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) closed to mixed reviews on December 13, twenty-three hours later than scheduled. The first Global Stocktake (GST) was adopted, [...]
Farmers fume over import plan to plug keeri samba shortfall
By Senuka Jayakody A Cabinet decision made at the height of a shortage to import 50,000 metric tonnes of GR11 rice as a substitute for the popular keeri samba came too late as stocks could not arrive in time to tide over the scarcity during the festive season. The Cabinet approved imports last week. The [...]