Sep 12 (LT) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to expel Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Japan Jayanthe Palipane and recall him immediately. Steps have been taken to recall Mr. Jayanthe Palipane owing to the incident Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake had to face at Narita Airport in Kobe in Japan. Studies regarding the incident indicate Sri Lankan Embassy is partially responsible for the ordeal Prime Minister Wickremanayake went through at the airport. more..

Sep 12 (LBO) Talks between Sri Lankan plantations companies and labour unions on a pay hike were unsuccessful Friday and are likely to be resumed next week, although the gap seems to have narrowed, union officials said. O A Ramiah,.Secretary General of the Joint Plantation Trade Union Centre, one of the three main unions involved in the talks, said they were still demanding a daily wage of 500 rupees a worker. more..

Sep 12 (CI) In a manner that does not bode well for India ahead of Monday's final, Sanath Jayasuriya eased back into form with a solid half-century on a warm Saturday afternoon. He was made to earn his runs as India snapped a good opening stand and then dismissed Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara in succession, but showed a real appetite for a scrap. Harrying to and fro between the wickets like a man possessed, Jayasuriya gnawed away at India and never let them take the advantage. more..

Sep 12 (PTI) A high-level Pakistani investigation team will travel to Sri Lanka next week to probe reports that elements in the island nation were linked to the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. The team has already been constituted, Mr. Malik told a TV news channel on Friday. The Sri Lankan government has handed over some important clues that are being examined and these leads are expected to help nab more..

Sep 12 (Bernama) The onset of the rainy season is likely to hamper de-mining of landmines at former war zones in northern Sri Lanka, once controlled by the now-defeated LTTE. Sri Lanka military spokesman said the de-mining works were underway but the monsoon could slow down works. "De-mining is progressing speedily, we have employed more experts and de-mining equipment to clear the mines...but the rain could delay de-mining works. more..

Sep 12 (IPS) The Sri Lankan government, accused of keeping the refugees who fled fighting between the military and Tamil rebels against their will, is preparing to resettle these minority civilians ahead of next month’s monsoon period, officials from non-government agencies said Friday. "We have been told that a large number (of Tamil civilians) would be released or returned to their homes by October 15 before the monsoon season," more..

Sep 13 (AT) In a major foreign policy address to an academic audience here in Washington Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs of the U.S. State Department expressed the Obama administration’s disappointment of the manner in which Sri Lanka is handling the issue of IDPs, ethnic reconciliation and press freedom. “The Government of Sri Lanka has made only very modest progress on more..

Sep 13 (TC) The decision of the Government to release displaced civilians in the welfare camps in the North to relatives willing to house them is a very welcome move. This positive pronouncement follows discussions that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had with leaders of the TNA. There has recently been a heightened concern regarding the conditions in the camp and the inadequate resources available to prepare for the monsoon rains which are imminent. more..

Sep 13 (LBO) Sri Lanka should resist calls by special interest groups to increase trade protection and reverse outward oriented policies amid the current downturn, an Australian based economist said. "We all know that the market economy of course combined with the rule of law and civil liberties have obvious advantages assuring tolerable level of material well-being and security," Premachandra Athukorala from more..

Sep 13 (CI) Like the bad guy in any number of horror flicks, who keeps coming back no matter how many times you hurt him, Sanath Jayasuriya just refuses to go away. Asked by a journalist going into this series about the disappointing failures of Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara replied matter-of-factly: "We all know what Sanath can do and what he has done. We have to give him every chance to get back in there and score runs." more..

Sep 13 (CI) This was a game India could afford to lose, but the manner in which they did was discouraging. History was against them - no side has successfully chased over 300 in the 93 one-day matches played here - and facing a towering target, India collapsed spectacularly. In a big chase, India never got partnerships going. Sachin Tendulkar was briefly impressive but didn't dominate the bowling; more..

Sep 13 (CI) India's stay at No. 1 in the ICC rankings lasted all of 24 hours. Sri Lanka reasserted their superiority at home, scoring 307, and then strangled wickets at regular intervals to completely rout India in the dress rehearsal for Monday's final. Sanath Jayasuriya and Thilina Kandamby scored brilliant nineties after which the Premadasa reaffirmed its status as one of Sri Lanka's safe houses. more..

Sep 13 (AT) Sri Lanka government has declared a National Dengue Prevention Week Programme from 21st to 27th September 2009. This programme is sponsored by Sri Lanka Telecom Ltd. According to Dr. Nihal Jayatilleke, the Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Healthcare & Nutrition, from January 2009 to date, Dengue patients numbering 25,301 have been reported throughout the country and 249 patients have died due to this disease. more..

Sep 13 (AT) Minorities referred to here are not ethnic minorities. This needs to be made clear at the outset before anyone allows their imagination and even anger, to take the better of them. What are referred to as minorities are few individuals or small groups within minority and majority communities who, through their strong influence on either minority or majority community groups, more..

Sep 13 (AT) Sri Lankan Government accelerated its development process as the country has been freed from a 30 years long civil war. Accordingly, the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka has granted investment approval to another five companies for investments in the country. A manufacturing plant of aluminium extrusions for the local market, two Export Trading Houses at Katunayake, a project to modernize the existing tea estates more..

Sep 13 (TC) The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) volume on power sharing is an indispensable work not only for the researcher but also for thinking Sri Lankans and non-Lankans thinking about Sri Lanka. Choose whichever metaphor: it maps the landmarks along one of three axial routes of the Lankan crisis; it catches the contours of one of the three pillars between which Lankan political development takes place and the crisis continues. more..

Sep 13 (MoD) Sri Lanka will discuss the Government's plans in the post conflict scenario and the controversial Channel 4 issue at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) which commences tomorrow in Geneva. This is the first session that Sri Lanka is taking part in after eradicating LTTE terrorism. Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said that he would place more emphasis on the steps taken by the Government to resettle IDPs, more..

Sep 13 (LB) Last week saw tremendous focus on the Tissainayagam judgment, and there have been several journalistic post-mortems on it that have been carried in various newspapers. However, some of these articles did claim that Tissainayagam was basically indicted for what he wrote, and not for the money he is supposed to have taken from the LTTE, which it has been alleged, was negligible. more..

Sep 13 (LB) While hospitals are complaining of a drug shortage, over Rs.500 million worth of date-expired drugs, stored in 17 containers, are to be destroyed immediately. The chairman of the All Ceylon Government Medical Officers Association, Dr. Gishantha Dissanayaka said that 14 containers of date expired, damaged and sub-standard medicine are stored at the Ratmalana stores complex of the State Pharmaceuticals Company, and 03 other containers are being retained in a private land. more..

Sep 13 (LB) Predictably, the week threw up some interesting political questions that we are unlikely to ever receive satisfactory answers to. Let us explore four of them out of sheer boredom (there is so little we can write about without risking the wrath of the gods or the monarchs... whichever comes first). Why does the UNP want to ban actresses from contesting the Southern provincial council election? They are pretty. They wear nice clothes. more..

Sep 13 (LB) LAKBIMAnEWS highlighted last week about CTB buses, government office premises and lands being misused for election campaigns by the UPFA Provincial Council candidates in the Southern Province. However, election related abuse is rising exponentially. Today LAKBIMAnEWS highlights how state funds and property is being misused not only in the forthcoming Southern PC election, but were also misused at the recently held Uva PC. more..

Sep 13 (LB) What putrid luck, may have thought Mahinda Rajapaksa. When Sri Lanka's press freedom record was increasingly subject to scrutiny, the intelligence services took three 'Lanka' newspaper journalists into custody in Deniyaya last week for "allegedly forcibly photographing the president's sister's mansion there." The president told his cabinet later that the three journalists were being nosey about his movements, and had asked people "when the president would visit Deniyaya?" more..

Sep 13 (SG) Many non-Muslim housemaids enter Saudi Arabia without revealing their religion and tend to keep it hidden if being from faiths other than Islam. Shanti, a Hindu Sri Lankan housemaid presented herself as a Muslim under the name ‘Fatima Bibi’. Also, she did worse by teaching her faith to the son of her Muslim Saudi sponsor. “I was shocked when I saw my 6-year-old son Naif imitating the Hindu praying rituals,” said Umm Naif. more..

Sep 13 (SL) Last week this newspaper exposed Defence Affairs Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella’s involvement in a multi million rupee fraud. A government owned agency has been defrauded of over Rs. 100 million and the Minister himself stands culpable of having stolen the monies. This week we have proof that the current Minister for Health, Sports and IT Education in the Eastern Provincial Council M. L. A. M. Hizbullah also stands guilty of more..

Sep 13 (SL) Last week The Sunday Leader reported that Defence Spokesman and Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion Keheliya Rambukwella was implicated in a massive fraud at the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Agency (SLFEA). A court case has now been filed by employees at the SLFEA accusing Rambukwella amongst other things; of allocating vehicles to his personal aides and family members, engineering unnecessary transactions more..

Sep 13 (SL) Allegations of bribery and corruption have been levelled against former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva in relation to his role in the formation of The Buddhist Broadcasting Services. The involvement of the main investor of The Buddhist channel launched by The Buddhist Broadcasting Services, Muhunthan Canagey in 2007 soon after Silva passed judgment on cases filed by him in the Supreme Court in 2006 has revealed a suspicious link between the duo. more..

Sep 13 (SL) Employment of under-aged children may come under the purview of the Department of Labour, but with the first angry slap, the first wring of the ear lobe or the first perverted stroke, the ‘servant’ is pushed under the crowded roof of the National Child Protection Authority. “The National Child Protection Authority will from now on conduct a survey in the estate areas to find out how many children under 14 of age actually reside in the area, more..

Sep 13 (SL) An effective parliament is one that is successful at holding the government to account. Parliament, as the keeper of the public purse, is charged with the task of ensuring the proper utilization of public funds. Money allocated for government expenditure, whether by way of budgetary estimate, grant or even foreign aid, should be accurately accounted for, and the public has every right to know whether it has been honestly and prudently spent. more..

Sep 13 (LP) Much speculation, fiction and wanton accusations of the unreal, human rights violations in Sri Lanka has become the talk of the day of some who have nothing else to do but shed a tear on behalf of humanity the very quality they lacked when so many innocent children were made homeless, parentless, seeing bloodshed in the guise of liberation. Where were these HR activists when places of public interest, mode of travel, more..

Sep 13 (LNP) The government yesterday said that the US was rapidly making a case of war crimes against Sri Lanka on the basis of the conduct of her armed forces, police as well as the political leadership during the recently concluded war. Ministerial and Defence sources told The Sunday Island that former Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Robert Blake, now based at the State Department was behind the move. more..

Sep 13 (GDI) A French company has informed Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris that 5000 tourists will arrive in Sri Lanka within the next three months. In addition,several leading French firms have expressed their willingness to invest in Sri Lanka with the peaceful situation prevailing in the island. Authorities of these firms who met the Minister in the French Commercial City of Lyon expressed their desire to go ahead with investments in Sri Lanka and expand their trade. more..

Sep 13 (LT) A bogus association calling themselves the 'Pibidena Kelaniya Sanwardena Padanama' or 'society for developing Kelaniya city' under the patronage of non-Cabinet Minister of Labour Mervyn Silva, is continuing to charge a levy of 150 to 300 rupees each from drivers of heavy vehicles on recently repaired roads in Kelaniya. A driver of such a vehicle spoke on condition of anonymity and said that this practice of levying a toll on heavy vehicles was unlawful, more..

Sep 13 (LB) Lakbima News correspondent Saman Samarakkody has received death threats, subsequent to a story exposing the career story of former Agulana OIC Newton Fernando who is now in custody for allegedly killing two youth. Samarakkody headlined "Balu SI, crazy pet poodle" in a story for Lakbima News August 16 edition. He exposed top political players responsible for bringing back SI Fernando to the Police service after he was more..

Sep 13 (LNP) A Chinese company under the guidance of the Chinese Government has shown an interest on investing in a large charcoal factory in Sri Lanka in the Southern province. The investment for the project is Rs. 200 million and it is located out of the coconut Triangle. Sri Lanka can compete with other countries such as Vietnam, China, Indonesia and India to produce coconuts, if there is a proper mechanism to collect coconut shells that are otherwise discarded, more..

Sep 13 (AT) As a Buddhist monk engaged in various dhammaduta activities, I have lived primarily in the United States for the past eleven years, and before that I was living in Japan. I always return to Sri Lanka each year, and I recently returned to Los Angeles from a two-month visit, where I had the opportunity to observe first-hand many of the changes that are taking place in our post-war country. more..

Sep 13 (LNP) Sri Lanka s Under-20 rugby players did the country proud by beating South Korea 31-15 in the third place play-off in the Olympus Capital Asia Rugby Junior Championships worked off at the Hong Kong Rugby Football Club, Hong Kong, yesterday. Sri Lanka had achieved a memorable victory despite the losing side fielding as many as 14 non nationals. This is the first occasion that Sri Lanka has beaten South Korea in 15-a-side rugby, at any level. more..

Sep 13 (LNP) Time was when Mrs. Indira Gandhi was widely considered `the Empress of India with Western journals gleefully seizing a descriptive tag that once belonged to Queen Victoria in the heyday of the Empire. Though not prime minister, Sonia Gandhi has inherited that mantle and we would urge President Mahinda Rajapaksa, often described as Maha Rajjuruwo (Great King) on wayside banners the police did not tear down, more..

Sep 13 (AT) The LTTE is defeated. Vellupillai Pirapaharan and his top lieutenants (including Pottu Amman) are no more. These are incontrovertible, immutable facts. Why, then, is Sri Lanka acting as if the Tigers are still around, in all their strength, and the war is still raging, in all its ferocity? Why the unremitting search for enemies, the pathological proclivity to see threats and conspiracies and the structural inability to resist the lure of extremism, even in peace time? more..

Sep 13 (DC) The Indian visa of Dr Ellyn Sue Shander, a US-based humanitarian worker and a strong critic of Sri Lankan government, was cancelled by the Indian mission at New York, her Indian host M. Natarajan alleged here. The Stanford-based American woman activist was scheduled to tour India from September 13 and deliver talks on alleged human rights violations in the island country. The India mission in New York informed Ms Shander on Thursday about the cancellation of her visa. more..

Sep 13 (SO) The UNP and certain Trade Unions were trying to take undue advantage over the plantation wage increase issue, said CWC President and Deputy Minister of Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure Development Muthu Sivalingam. Negotiations between three major plantation trade unions and the Planters’ Association of Ceylon, representing 22 Regional Plantation Companies were deadlocked as no agreement was reached at the last round of talks on Friday afternoon. more..

Sep 13 (SO) "Chuti duwa, Chuti duwa, Do you hear me? Why are you crying every night? I can hear you are weeping so much? Do you think I have gone without telling you? Can you remember the last time we met? I promised you I would return home in three days. It is true; I couldn't keep my promise this time. This was the only broken promise my beloved father ever made to me. I will never forget the date, September 19, 2004. more..

Sep 13 (SO) In 2007, in my capacity as the Minister of Environment & Natural Resources, I had to attend a function as its chief guest, to mark the launching of the National Wetland Directory of Sri Lanka. At this meeting, the well known Environmentalist, Dr. Sarath Kotagama pointed out that our wetlands were rapidly shrinking due to human activities. Prior to that observation, it was my perception that the main cause for shrinking of wetlands had been more..

Sep 13 (SO) It was a rare meeting of three of the greatest Sri Lanka cricketers who had achieved a rare 'first' in their cricketing careers. The 31st Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year awards ceremony at the BMICH recently paved way for this historic meeting of the bowler who captured the first Test wicket for Sri Lanka, the batsman who scored the first Test century for Sri Lanka and the batsman who scored the first ever Test half century for Sri Lanka. more..

Sep 13 (NS) The nests of the edible nest Swiftlet has been considered a delicacy by the Chinese for millennia and people have been collecting the nests of the Edible-nest Swiftlets for centuries in Sri Lanka. Many references on the collection of these nests by Veddas can be found in many of Dr. R.L. Spittel’s books. Although this trade was halted due to tough environmental laws in the 1960s, there has been a resurgence in the illegal collection of birds nests, more..

Sep 13 (NS) Vavuniya and Jaffna District Secretariats have received more than 2,000 applications from the relatives of the IDPs, after the Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Ministry informed the general public that the relatives of the IDPs can apply for the release of those residing in camps.“Many people have been handing forms over to us since September 10 and so far we have received approximately 1,000 applications,” more..

Sep 13 (NS) Sri Lankan Ambassador in Japan, Jayantha Palipana has been made the scapegoat for the harassment caused to Premier Ratnasiri Wickramanayake at the Narita International Airport in Kobe the previous Saturday, and has been ordered home even though at the time the envoy had been on approved leave and he had assigned two senior diplomats to attend to the Prime Minister on his arrival in Japan. more..

Sep 13 (NS) On the face of it, this trade union action may appear to be yet another campaign for higher wages, but there is more to it than meets the eye, for the political ramifications of the issue run deep-and indeed, that may be the very reason why the strike is dragging on, while the country is losing billions in revenue. The role of the CWC, led by Minister Arumugam Thondaman, in this strike is getting curiouser and curiouser. more..

Sep 13 (NS) The JVP once again has threatened to launch a general strike demanding a salary increase to employees of the government and the semi-government institutions in view of the forthcoming budget. Leader of the JVP trade union wing K.D. Lalkantha who is also the president of National Trade Union Centre said that the country’s entire working class would launch an indefinite general strike if their eight demands were not met. more..

Sep 13 (SO) Among few politicians who ruled our country in the yesteryear, former President J.R. Jayewardene's name is still in the minds of people, when considering the invaluable service he rendered towards the development of the Sri Lankan economy during his 12 year tenure between 1977 to 1989. Born on September 17, 1907 and educated at Royal College, Colombo, Junius Richard Jayewardene, a lawyer turned politician, more..

Sep 13 (Island) In Sri Lanka, nepotistic governance is the norm. When a provision in the Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance impeded Presidential nephew Shasheendra Rajapakse from holding the posts of the Chief Minister of Uva and the Basnayake Nilame (Chief Custodian) of Kataramagama Devale simultaneously, the President exempted the Kataragama Devale from the obstructive provision via a Gazette Extraordinary. more..