Aug 4 (ST) A tainted South African oil trader has intervened to settle a pricing dispute between the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and Fujairah Petroleum Company where the former has been billed twice the original fuel cost for six different shipments. After the first shipment was received, the CPC found that the price of US $ 54 per ton has been increased by a further US$ 54. The additional amount has been entered into more..

Aug 4 (GDI) Pure Gold Jewellers, the reputed and award winning multinational jeweller based in Dubai, is planning to enter Sri Lanka. “International award winning Pure Gold’s arrival can boost our gem and jewelleries sector exports. We will be able to link our jewellery sector’s value addition directly to exports” said Minister Rishad Bathiudeen. He was responding on 02 August to strong interest expressed by more..

Aug 4 (Island) Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya has taken steps to prevent possible election irregularities by deploying his staff for postal voting duties, especially in the Eastern Province, instead of members of the Civil Defence Force. Additional Elections Commissioner U. Amaradasa said that they had received several complaints, from various political parties, that Civil Defence Force had influenced postal voters in previous elections. more..

Aug 4 (Hindu) India will work with Sri Lanka for the modernisation of closed textile mills, Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma announced in Colombo on Saturday. India will also establish manufacturing units in apparel and textiles sector, he added. “Sri Lanka imports yarn and fabric from India. We feel that cooperation in the textiles sector is very important from the perspective of both the countries,” Mr. Sharma told the media more..

Aug 4 (GDI) The countdown to the Army-organized international Defence Seminar on 5Rs (Reconstruction, Resettlement, Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Reconciliation) has begun as more and more invitees continue to confirm their participation. High-profile foreign statesmen and experts, diplomats, secretaries, policy makers, foreign defence chiefs, foreign service commanders, state officials, academics and more..

Aug 4 (CT) The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has temporarily withheld its dealings with the Vitol Group of Companies due to complaints of substandard fuel being supplied by the company, Ceylon Today learns. A senior ministry official told Ceylon Today that transactions with the company are temporarily suspended, until a report detailing the fuel issue is handed over to the Minister Susil Premajayantha. “We received several complaints that the fuel caused damages to more..

Aug 4 (BBC) North-eastern Sri Lanka has been off-limits to journalists and most other outsiders since the civil war ended in 2009, but the authorities have now granted BBC correspondent Charles Haviland access to much of the area. I was with the army as they detonated left-over munitions near a major battle scene. "Here, crouch behind these sandbags," they told me as we stood, in protective clothing, a few hundred more..

Aug 4 (PTI) India today expressed its keenness to invest in development of war-torn Sri Lanka in a big way for which it promised to rope in private players in sectors like ports and exploration of oil and gas. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, who is here on an official visit, also reaffirmed India's commitment to building infrastructure and institutions in Sri Lanka during his talks with the country's leadership here. more..

Aug 4 (UN) A senior United Nations relief official today praised the progress made by the Sri Lankan Govt in resettling over 440,000 people since the end of the civil war three years ago, and called for continued donor support for the country, where many people still lack basic services. “The scale of what Sri Lanka has accomplished over the past three years, the pace of resettlement and the development of infrastructure is remarkable more..

Aug 4 (DM) A university students’ union yesterday claimed that it would not hesitate to take legal action against university lecturers engaging in trade union action. The ‘Sisu Herawuma’ student union claimed the university lecturers were violating the students’ rights by engaging in trade union action for over a month and vowed to seek court intervention if the strike continued to hinder their academic activities. ‘Sisu Herawuma’ Convener Yukthi Ekadeera told journalists that more..

Aug 4 (LT) A meeting of the candidates contesting the Eastern Provincial Council election for Batticaloa District from the JVP was held at Rivera Resort hall at Kalladi today chaired by MP Sunil Handunneththi. The meeting that commenced at about 3.00 p.m. was attended by candidates of the JVP and a stranger. The stranger had come in a motorcycle having reg. no. EP XQ 0948. Only candidates of the JVP contesting from Batticaloa District had been invited for more..

Aug 4 (DM) The govt is considering the possibility of issuing Z scores separately after the release of the GCE A/L exam results. Accordingly, it is being considered to release the Z-score after the re-correction of the results. With the implementation of this method it is expected to avoid difficulties that arise relating to the examination results. The tentative decision had been arrived at during a discussion held with the more..

Aug 4 (LT) A foreign consultant has been employed by Sri Lanka Cricket with an agreement to pay him a monthly remuneration of US$100,000 (Rs. 13 million). SLC that is already in debt to the tune of US$70 million (Rs.9100 million) enrolled Haroon Lorgat who stepped down as the ICC CEO in June 2012. Lorgat, a Chartered Accountant, is of Indian descent, his family originating from a small village in north western India called Manekpore. Despite SLC stating they were looking for means to more..

Aug 4 (CI) Players' associations have insisted on pre-emptive measures to ensure cricketers playing in the Sri Lanka Premier League are paid on time, Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA) chief executive Tim May has revealed. 

The Sri Lankan Cricketers' Association and FICA were successful in pushing for the inclusion of new clauses in player contracts, drawn up specifically for the tournament. Under these clauses, players must be paid 25% of their tournament salary upon arrival in the SLPL, another 25% upon completion of more..

Aug 4 (IL) President Mahinda Rajapaksa instructed officials of the Urban Development Authority (UDA) to expedite the development of Dambulla town and Dambulla sacred area project immediately. The President who visited at the Rangiri Dambulu Raja Maha Vihara gave these instructions to the UDA yesterday. The President called on the Chief Incumbent of the Vihara, Venerable Inamaluwe Sri Sumangala more..

Aug 4 (CT) Three suspects who were taken into custody at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) for misbehaving inside a plane under the influence of alcohol were remanded by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court, today. The suspects were remanded till tomorrow after the police officers attached to the BIA police post produced them before Colombo Additional Magistrate Tikiri. K. Jayathilaka. The suspects who were inside the plane coming to Colombo from Dubai more..

Aug 4 (SM) Although there is a law prohibiting the use of torture in Sri Lanka which was promulgated eighteen years ago, still it has not been properly implemented. There are also well documented cases done by Human Rights organizations which all show the prevalence of practice of torture. Proper implementation of this law requires the allocation of funds for police reforms, said MP Eran Wickramaratne. The MP was being interviewed for the weekly radio broadcast on Human Rights more..

Aug 4 (DM) In a bid to make all Sri Lankans bilingual within the next five years, the National Languages and Social Integration Ministry has taken measures to decentralise its services and set up Provincial Language Centers in all nine provinces. “Our objective is to create a bilingual Sri Lanka within the next five to ten years to eliminate the language barriers and pave the way for inter-ethnic harmony and peace among all more..

Aug 4 (DM) The Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union (CTSU) yesterday said more than 100,000 people had signed a petition expressing their solidarity with its demand to oust Education and Higher Education Ministers Bandula Gunawardena and S. B. Dissanayake. CTSU General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe told the Daily Mirror that the signatures were accumulated from Ratnapura, Kurunegala, Gampaha and Colombo during the past week while it planned to visit Embilipitiya, Kandy more..

Aug 4 (Hindu) An agreement will be signed between India and Sri Lanka on Customs cooperation, to resolve all matters related to delays in clearances, Indian Union Commerce Secretary Anand Sharma said. The issue of delay in customs clearances came up in the meeting between Mr. Sharma and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris on Friday. “We are sending a draft agreement [to Sri Lanka]. Once a response is received we will take it forward and have an agreement in place, more..

Aug 4 (PTI) Sri Lanka has sought some relaxation on employment visa from India and both countries are engaged in negotiations to simplify the visa regime, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said on Saturday. Sharma, who is here on an official visit, met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa over lunch today and discussed bilateral ties and the purpose of his visit to the island nation. The Minister also apprised Rajapaksa of the decisions taken during more..

Aug 4 (DM) The judicial duties had resumed in all courts in the Northern Province except the Mannar Court after a break of about fifteen days. After considering the inconvenience caused to the people due to the delay in court activities we decided to resume judicial proceedings, the Vavuniya Lawyers Association said. Lawyers in the Northern Province refused to attend court following the alleged political interference exerted on Mannar District Judge A. Judeson followed by the stoning more..

Aug 4 (DM) The Eravur police had defied a request made by the Department of Elections to hand over the Key of the Eravur Post Office which had been used by a ruling UPFA candidate contesting for the Eastern Provincial Council, Campaign for Free and Fair Election (CAFFE) alleged yesterday. CAFFE Executive Director Keerthi Tennakoon in a letter addressed to the Commissioner of Elections Mahinda Deshapriya said that the police had refused to hand over the keys tating that it was a complex issue. more..

Aug 4 (CI) It was a low-key series that was overshadowed by the Olympics, but there was a dramatic change in the rankings as India climbed up to No. 2 after shutting out Sri Lanka 4-1. India seemed to have the final one-dayer in the bag after running up 294 and then reducing Sri Lanka to 102 for 5, but a spirited stand between youngster Lahiru Thirimanne and Jeevan Mendis kept the visitors sweating till the end. more..

Aug 5 (SO) The three-wheelers, popularly known as trishaws or tuk-tuks, are ubiquitous not only in the heart of the capital city, but also in far-flung corners of the country. Since their entry to the local market following the open market economy in 1977, three-wheeler taxis became exceedingly popular among the urban as well as the rural masses due to their relatively cheaper costs. Low fuel consumption and affordable maintenance costs created a big demand for these Indian three-wheelers. more..

Aug 5 (SL) Those are the words in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Persian astronomer, poet, mathematician and philosopher which some have interpreted to be a statement on the irreversibility of the consequences of follies committed by rulers or ordinary mortals. Poets and philosophers like Omar Khayyam tend to take a along term view of consequences of one’s actions but in today’s world, a person particularly one wielding power, can get way with blue murder more..

Aug 5 (SO) The agriculture, health and education sectors should be developed. Then only the province will achieve sustainable development. The state of each of these sectors will affect the other," North Central Province Chief UNP candidate, Kasthuri Anuradhanayaka said. Q: Certain paddy purchasers take undue advantage, how can farmers be protected? A: There is no proper mechanism in the cultivation and more..

Aug 5 (NS) There’s something strange about the mainstream Indian media, or else the Indian political establishment. Recently, after a high-ranking personality from Delhi visited Sri Lanka, all kinds of claims were made about what the individual had told the high-ranking Sri Lankans he had met. Maybe it has to do with demand and supply: what the public (or political interests) demand and tailoring appropriately that which is to be supplied. It smacks of the worst kind of patriotism though. more..

Aug 5 (LB) ‘Ranil ta dikkara ganna be’ (Ranil can’t get it up) reads a news story in a Sinhala Sunday weekly. A lone maverick, Maithri Gunaratne, UNP provincial council member has stated, as he stated to our own newspaper last week, that Ranil Wickremesinghe’s recent move to hold elections for the party leadership once in six years, was in violation of the party Constitution — or at least the Sinhala version of it. Gunaratna says that Wickremesinghe conveniently used the more..

Aug 5 (LB) “I don’t ‘become’ an anti Sri Lankan, LTTEer or a separatist because people call me so. I cannot waste my time thinking of the ‘names’ given to me or stop them from calling me so, but I will continue to be a voice against injustice and will not tolerate violation of human rights,” says, Mannar Bishop Dr Rayappu Joseph. A: You have been called the ‘Controversial Bishop’ and recently Minister Rishad Bathiudeen claimed more..

Aug 5 (Island) Tissa Devendra wrote a thought provoking piece in this page last Sunday saying that an Independent Public Service is a 'myth' then and now and rubs in his point with the assertion that he and his colleagues served the govt and not the public, "who at best could be described as collateral beneficiaries of our actions." The writer who held many senior positions in govt service and served as Chairman of the Public Service Commission post-retirement is either more..

Aug 5 (ST) Last week marked the 25th anniversary of a controversial agreement officially known as the ‘Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement to establish Peace and Normalcy in Sri Lanka’, more commonly called the Indo-Lanka Accord. In a few months, we will mark, though not necessarily celebrate, the 25th anniversary of the 13A (the 13th Amendment to the Constitution) and the creation of Provincial Councils in the country. That India forced this system of administration on Sri Lanka is not just history more..

Aug 5 (LB) Sarath Fonseka, the former army commander and the presidential contender says the govt is robbing the sovereignty of the people in broad daylight by manipulating the election time table. “We cannot accept a person who is flouting the very tenets of democracy as the leader of the country. He is robbing the people of their sovereignty, just like a 18th Century pirate more..

Aug 5 (Island) University academic staff have now been on strike for one month. This is now the longest strike engaged in by university teachers in this country. Minister Basil Rajapaksa has been called upon to settle the matter. Last Wednesday, a meeting was held between representatives of the Federation of University Teacher’s Associations (FUTA) and Rajapaksa whose team of negotiators comprised of Charitha Herath, Anura Siriwardene, Damma Dissanayake among others. more..

Aug 5 (SL) The govt has been granted an extended deadline by the UNHRC in Geneva to submit its report for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on human rights in November. The deadline to submit Sri Lanka’s report, which was initially July 23rd, was extended to August 9th by the UNHRC in order to allow Sri Lanka to include its progress made in implementing the recommendations of the LLRC. Sri Lanka’s report for the UPR was prepared by a committee headed by Special Envoy for Human Rights, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and more..

Aug 5 (ST) The Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee Maxwell de Silva rejected the accusation of the Lankan contingent is without any coaches for their athletic contingent. De Silva explaining matters, said “The Lankan contingent had only two qualified athletes for the 2012 London Olympics. First, Niluka Karunaratne the team captain who qualified, clearly wanted his manager Rohan de Silva with him and the slot of Niluka’s coach went to him. more..

Aug 5 (NS) A number of political parties in Sri Lanka have received invitation to attend the Tamil Eelam conference to be held in Chennai on August 12 under the aegis of Tamil Eelam Solidarity Organization (TESO) headed by DMK leader Karunanidhi. It has already been confirmed that Democratic People’s Party leader Mano Ganesan, New Leftist Front leader Dr. Wickramabahu Karunaratne and United Socialist party leader Siritunga Jayasuriya will attend more..

Aug 5 (NS) The ‘official’ photograph of the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord twenty five years ago tells a story: although it is customary on such occasions for everyone to smile for the cameras no one in this picture is smiling. Sri Lanka today isn’t smiling either despite the Accord and the end of its war against terrorism. Also, almost all of the recognizable faces in the photograph, J.R. Jayewardene, Rajiv Gandhi, Gamini Dissanayake, A.C.S. Hameed, E.L.B. Hurulle, K.W.Devanayagam, more..

Aug 5 (Island) Pelwatte Sugar Industries PLC is gearing for legal action about the acquisition of its business last year under terms of the Revival of Underperforming Enterprises or Underutilized Assets Act and shareholders have been summoned to an Extraordinary General Meeting on Aug. 18 for consultations. The notice convening the EGM, to be held at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka more..

Aug 5 (ST) “Thaaththa,” Bindu Udagedera asked, “isn’t it time for the Olympics again?” “Yes, it is,” Bindu’s father Percy said, “but I’m afraid we may not be winning any medals at these games as well.” “And why is it that we have won only two silver medals from all the Olympics that we have participated in, thaaththa?” Bindu wondered. “That is because they don’t have the sports that we excel in at the Olympics, Bindu,” Percy suggested. “Why do you say that, thaaththa?” Bindu asked, “do you think cricket should be included as an more..