June 28 (Island) The JVP alleged that the govt was making an attempt to settle war displaced families away from their original villages. JVP MP Vijitha Herath yesterday accused the govt of trying to take over fertile land belonging to the war affected and push them to barren land in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. He alleged that the govt had forcibly taken back a group of displaced families to Menik Farm after they refused to accept more..

June 28 (Island) Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs Ministry Secretary H.P.C. Herath said that his Ministry would act impartially over the incident at Wanduramba last Sunday. He denied allegations made by Buddhist Cultural Centre Director Ven. Kirama Wimalajothi Thera on Tuesday . The Thera accused the Buddhist Affairs Ministry of failing to perform its duty. A protest was held in Wanduramba, Galle on June 24 against a person who claimed he had attained Enlightenment. more..

June 28 (Island) The Ministry of Culture and Arts, in collaboration with UNESCO, will organize the first national training workshop on the Implementation of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, in Colombo from June 25 to 29. The workshop will be attended by national as well as internationals professionals in the field. The closing ceremony on June 29 will be attended by senior government officials. In an effort to ensure that more..

June 28 (FT) On the direction of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Controller of Import and Export has banned the exportation of paddy/rice until the 2012/13 Maha production is harvested. “This decision was taken to ensure country will have adequate rice stock at affordable prices till Maha production is available for consumption,” the Finance Ministry said. At present, the Govt commands the rice stock of 204,260 tons with Paddy Marketing Board and more..

June 28 (Island) NFF Politburo member Piyasiri Wijenayaka yesterday said that he had requested President Mahinda Rajapaksa to remove Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayaka and Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena from their present portfolios for causing numerous problems in the education sector. He said that he had requested the President to remove UGC chairman Prof. A. Samaranayaka, too. Wijenayaka said that when President Mahinda Rajapaksa asked for more..

June 28 (FT) The Court of Appeal yesterday (27) permitted two applications for intervention filed by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) and the Govt Medical Officers Association (GMOA) into the Writ application of Ayurveda Doctors seeking that they be permitted to use and dispense several allopathic medicines and devices. The Bench comprised Justices S.Sriskandarajah (President) and Deepali Wijesundera. The original Petitioner Ayurvedic Doctors Washington Nanayakkara and Shrinath Senerath Paranayapa in more..

June 28 (Island) The EPF is making some handsome gains from investments in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) but controversies continue with the UNP vowing to take appropriate action at the appropriate time against the Central Bank for accusing and abusing MPs instead of answering questions raised by the opposition over EPF investments in the CSE, particularly in banking sector stocks, which S&P’s said raised a possible conflict of interest. more..

June 28 (CT) Colombo Chief Magistrate Rashmi Singappuli remanded two police officers attached to the Colombo Fraud Bureau (CFB) yesterday for accepting a bribe of Rs. 2.1 million from a businessman in Dam street. The two police officers taken into custody have been identified as Inspector Janaka Chaminda and Sergeant Priyantha de Silva of the CFB. They were arrested by the Commercial Crime Unit of the CID in Fort last Tuesday. The suspects were supposed to have told the businessmen that he was involved in more..

June 28 (DN) Adequate revisions and amendments need to be enforced to the existing National Social Protection Policy to avoid any future crisis as Sri Lanka's population is aging rapidly, said Senior Minister D E W Gunasekera. He was speaking as the chief guest at a workshop entitled, Promoting Productive Social Protection and Labour Systems in Sri Lanka for Inclusive Growth: Developing an Integrated Social Protection and Labour Strategy, organised jointly by the more..

June 28 (AFP) Canadian prosecutors announced they were forgoing a preliminary hearing and proceeding to trial for six men charged with smuggling hundreds of Tamils aboard a rickety ship into Canada. No reason was given for the expedited process, but the case is politically charged and prosecutors may opt to go directly to trial if they deem the rush to be in the public interest. Direct indictments were filed against two Canadians more..

June 28 (DN) The salaries of university academic staff will be increased by over 70% with effect from Oct 1, UGC chairman Gamini Samaranayaka said. He said salaries of the academic staff have been increased to a great degree from time to time compared to the salaries of the parallel services. The academic staff have already been receiving a certain portion of the salary increment but the final stage of the increment will be implemented from Oct 1, this year. “Accordingly, the salary of a senior professor will be Rs 140,721 per month more..

June 28 (Island) Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said yesterday that there was no need for him to resign as he did not commit any wrong. He was responding to the JVP’s and teacher trade unions’ demand for him to resign over the ‘Z–score’ fiasco. "I was the third respondent in the ‘Z–score’ case and the examinations chief was the first respondent," Gunawardena said adding that the Supreme Court cleared them without any punishment. Gunawardena said that the Examination more..

June 28 (BBC) Without a national identity card, many Tamils in Sri Lanka cannot avail of basic services and it makes them suspect in the eyes of the police, writes Ponniah Manikavasagam of the BBC's Tamil service. In a remote and dusty part of Kilinochchi district in the Tamil-dominated northern Sri Lanka, people gather around a group of officials working with an election monitoring service called the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (Paffrel). more..

June 28 (ST) An agreement on the Exemption from Visa requirements for holders of diplomatic and official /service passports between the Govt of Sri Lanka and the Govt of Chile was signed on Tuesday in Colombo. Mr. K. Amunugama, Secretary/External Affairs and Mr. Christian Barros, Ambassador of Chile for Sri Lanka resident in New Delhi signed the agreement on behalf of the two countries. Mr. W.A.C. Perera, Controller General of more..

June 28 (Island) The JVP was most likely to contest the next provincial council elections alone, its General Secretary Vijitha Herath, MP said. He said that the people should unite to teach a lesson to the govt that could not find solutions to their problems. "The people did not ask for these elections which are being thrust upon them for the govt to remain entrenched in power," Herath said. The SLMC yesterday reiterated its stand that it would align itself with any party that would undertake more..

June 28 (IL) Sri Lanka’s latest population is 20,277,597 as of 20 March 2012 revealed within the preliminary report issued by the Department of Census and Statistics. The preliminary publication related to the 14th Population and Housing Census handed over to President Mahinda Rajapaksa by Superintendent of Census and Director General of Census and Statistics, Mrs Suranjana Vidyaratne at Temple Trees on 25 June. more..

June 28 (Island) Intellectuals and trade unions yesterday expressed concern over the recent intimidation and suspicious actions against FUTA President, Dr. Nimal Ranjith Devasiri, who is also the Secretary of the Arts Faculty Teachers Union of the Colombo University. Executive Editor of the Subavitha Magazine Mahinda Rathnayake told The Island yesterday that such tactics were clearly against democracy. He said that the method of approach to more..

June 28 (CG) A petition to repeal Sri Lanka’s colonial laws that are used to criminalize homosexual sex has been started by Equal Ground rights group. Sections 365 and 365A of Sri Lanka’s penal code criminalize ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’ and ‘gross indecency’ respectively. They have been historically used to penalize gay people but no one has been convicted by them for 50 years. The petition on Change.org was started by Equal Ground, more..

June 28 (AT) Tamils only wanted reasonable and acceptable political solutions within an undivided country. India a regional power is against the concept of a divided country. Therefore what is the fear and why the govt is foot-dragging in coming up with an acceptable political solution, asked Mano Ganeshan. He said the solution to the Tamil issue is long overdue and the Govt must come forward with an more..

June 28 (CT) The FUTA vowed they would not call off trade union action scheduled for 4 July unless a favourable response is given to all of FUTA’s concerns which have been notified to the Minster of Higher Education S.B.Dissanayake. President of FUTA Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri made this statement in the backdrop of Dissanayake’s promise to increase salaries of University academics. However Dr. Devasiri speaking to Ceylon Today said getting a salary hike is not their only concern. more..

June 28 (GDI) Two inaugural ceremonies were held in Kilinochchi and Jaffna recently to mark the distribution of 10,000 bicycles donated by the Indian Govt amongst the low income earning families in these two districts, under the patronage of minister Douglas Devananda. The Minister extended his gratitude to the Indian Government on behalf of the government and the people of the North for their unstinted contributions made towards more..

June 28 (DM) UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said today the govt was acting no different to the LTTE, which was led by Prabhakaran. He told a joint common opposition news conference that the govt should hold provincial council elections in the North as promised by the President earlier. “The war is over now, and as promised president Rajapaksa must hold PC elections in the North. They held the General Elections and the Presidential Elections but why more..

June 28 (Island) Demilitarisation of the Northern Province, particularly the Jaffna Peninsula, couldn’t be an issue any longer due to re-deployment of troops since the conclusion of the conflict in May, 2009, a senior government official said. The strength of the army in the Jaffna peninsula was now down to three Divisions comprising 15,600 officers and men deployed in the Jaffna, Elephant Pass and Vadamaratchchy sectors, the official said. more..

June 28 (Guardian) Three years after its civil war, Sri Lanka has emerged as a middle-income country on course to meet most of the millennium development goals. GDP rose by around 8% during 2011 and tourism is set to bring in more than $1bn this year. Yet this national success story obscures the tale of an unsettled north that remains under military control. The northern Tamil districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya lost three decades to conflict, more..

June 28 (Hindu) Observing that Indian fishermen hailing from Tamil Nadu have been “traditionally fishing” in contentious Katchatheevu, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ask Colombo to stop its navy from harassing them. Referring to the latest incident, she said fishermen in 45 boats fishing near Katchatheevu on June 26 were harassed by Sri Lankan Navy personnel. more..

June 28 (DM) Free education is not a personal property of anyone. Be it the Minister of Education/ Higher Education or the Commissioner of Examinations their ultimate responsibility is for the children of this country, who will one day become adults and serve people in return. Yet, with the type of examples set by the adults, who are supposed to be looking into the smooth-running of the system, it won’t be surprising if the continual confusions breed more..

June 28 (Reuters) The Sri Lankan rupee hit a record low on Thursday on importer demand for the U.S. currency, but a state bank intervention helped the local unit to recover, dealers said. The rupee hit a new low of 134.30 to the dollar, surpassing its previous low of 134.10 hit on Wednesday. "The highest deal was done at 134.30 on light trade due to importer dollar demand. But it eased after the state bank started selling dollars around the 133 level," a currency dealer said more..

June 28 (CT) “Rajapaksa reportedly went on to say that the investigation of the Noyahr incident would lead nowhere. ‘There will be no investigation. It will reach a certain point and stop. No one will be able to find out what happened.’ He castigated journalists in general for focusing attention on Sri Lanka’s human rights record. ‘Human rights mean nothing. We do not want to be bothered about it more..

June 28 (Hindu) India thrashed Sri Lanka 16-0 to start its campaign in emphatic fashion at the Junior Women’s Asia Cup hockey tournament here. For India, as many as four players - Anupa Barla, Vandana Katariya, Poonam Rani and Ritu Rani - scored three goals each in the Group A match yesterday. Navneet Kaur opened the floodgates with a field goal in the sixth minute before Anupa and Vandana added to the tally. Vice-captain Poonam became the first Indian player to more..

June 28 (LBO) Sri Lanka's ports agency will lease land to three companies to build warehouses at a new industrial port in Hambantota in the island's south, minister Keheliya Rambukwelle said. A cabinet appointed negotiation committee has selected three bidder to operate warehouses at the port, which has been approved by the cabinet of ministers, he said. Sri Lanka Ports Authority has been promoting Hambantota as an industrial, bulk processing and transshipment port. more..

June 28 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's annual inflation rate may have risen to a 13-month high in June as the weakening rupee raised prices of imported goods and a local drought pushed up food prices. Annual inflation is expected to have accelerated in June to 7.6 percent, its highest since May 2011, a Reuters poll of 14 analysts showed. In May, prices rose 7.0 percent from a year earlier. "Prices of many commodities went up, more..

June 28 (CT) A monk who allegedly assaulted Attorney-at Law Sumith Silva in front of the Gangodawila Magistrate’s Court was issued a warrant for his arrest in a breach of trust case by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court, today. The arrest warrant was issued by Colombo Additional Magistrate Tikiri K. Jayatilaka after the Police Fraud Bureau (PFB) informed the Court that Witarandheniye Nanda, a monk attached to the Buddhist center of Kirulapone, Colombo, is refusing to return a car which more..

June 28 (DM) Minister Wimal Weerawansa said today the recent Z- Score fiasco was not the fault of the government but instead the eminent person who devised it should take the blame. “Who devised the Z score? It was not the ministers neither was it a decision of the cabinet. It was devised by intellectuals, therefore if something goes wrong with it why do the ministers have to be blamed? Instead it is those who devised it who should be blamed,” he said. more..

June 28 (IANS) More than 100,000 tickets have been sold for the ICC World Twenty20 Cup in Sri Lanka, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a statement here Thursday. The majority of these tickets have been sold in the Sri Lankan market, ICC said. Around 55 percent of the sales generated are from the local market and nearly 40 percent of the tickets sold were purchased by fans over the internet, reported Xinhua. more..

June 28 (CI) Winning the first Test in Galle was a result of the improvements from our previous Test series and we need to continue the same effort. We need to be consistent in all departments to beat Pakistan. Obviously the weather was playing at the back of my mind, but we still had two and a half days left. If a full day's play was washed out, we wouldn't have been able to win this Test match, even if I had enforced the follow-on. Those are things I cannot control. more..

June 28 (GDI) Malaysia Airlines, in recognizing the vibrant growth of the Sri Lankan economy and its tourism sector, has decided to expand its operations and visibility, by opening its second branch office in Matara, in the Southern Province. Malaysia Airlines, represented by Hemas Air Service, its General Sales Agent in Sri Lanka, also has a branch office in Kandy and is the only foreign carrier in Sri Lanka represented at two branch offices. "This is a major milestone for us as more..

June 28 (LBO) Sri Lankan shipbuilder Colombo Dockyard has launched the hull of a new supply vessel it is building for a Singapore customer supplying the growing global offshore oil and gas industry. Greatship Rachna is the second of a series of three Multipurpose Platform Supply Vessels being built for Greatship Global Offshore Services of Singapore, Colombo Dockyard said. "The vessel will now proceed to the next step in the shipbuilding process which is more..

June 28 (AD) The High Court today set dates for the case to be taken put against former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka’sson-in-law Danuna Tilakaratne over the charges brought against him in the Hicorp fraud case. Today Attorney Ananda Wijesekara representing Danuna Tilakaratne was present in court. The Colombo High Court set November 12 to hear the case. On March 15 Sarath Fonseka was acquitted by the Colombo High Court of the charges brought against him in the Hicorp fraud case. more..

June 28 (DM) Following the announcement that three provincial councils would be dissolved prematurely, the TNA said yesterday the govt was scared of holding elections to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC). TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran said the govt had not declared elections in the North knowing very well that it would lose. “The govt has announced elections to three councils long before their term of office has been completed. But they are scared of conducting elections more..