Oct 2 (GDI) Salaries of University Lecturers have been increased with effect from yesterday. Accordingly the salary of a Senior Professor has been increased to Rs. 140,721, Senior Lecturer to Rs. 98,761 and the salary of an Assistant Lecturer has been increased to Rs. 55,775. On percentage wise the salary of a Senior Professor has been increased by 16.8% and an Assistant Lecturer has been increased by 3.25%. The Ministry of more..

Oct 2 (Island) Hundreds of patients who seek treatment daily at the District Hospital Ja-Ela and the hospital’s staff have benefitted by a comprehensive renovation of the hospital’s sanitation facilities under a community project funded by Brandix Lanka Limited. The project involved the replacement or repair of fittings, tiling and doors of 19 toilets in the hospital’s wards, OPD and staff areas, addressing a long-felt need. Thanking Brandix for coming more..

Oct 2 (DN) Poet and novelist Yasmine Gooneratne has been awarded the prestigious Premchand Fellowship 2012 by SahityaAkademi, New Delhi, India. Sahitya Akademi, India instituted the Fellowship in the name of the Indian writer on the 125th birth anniversary to be annually offered to persons of eminence in the field of culture and literature from SAARC countries. more..

Oct 2 (CI) Kevin Pietersen and Ajantha Mendis are the leading batsman and bowler in Twenty20 internationals, according to a study conducted by ESPNcricinfo. The study, which also looked at each individual batting and bowling performance, rated Brendon McCullum's 123 off 58 balls against Bangladesh in the ongoing World Twenty as the best in batting, while Umar Gul's 4 for 8 against Australia was the best bowling effort. The analyses looked at every batting and bowling more..

Oct 2 (Island) The Sri Lankan elephant will be the focal point of a colourful and engaging awareness campaign to be conducted by Odel this month, as part of the department store’s commitment to World Animal Day, celebrated around the world on 4th Oct. Themed ‘Nothing can replace the real thing,’ the campaign will run from 1st to 20th October, and Odel has created an eye-catching limited edition collection of merchandise exclusively to more..

Oct 2 (AP) Sri Lanka switched the captaincy in its last World Twenty20 group match against England on Monday to avoid Mahela Jayawardene being banned for slow bowling again. Mahela was fined on Saturday for a slow over-rate in the win over West Indies, and faced a one-match ban if the team was slow again against England, and he was in charge. To ensure Mahela was more..

Oct 2 (DN) Hundreds of representative soldier-turned multi-coloured flag-bearers of the Sri Lanka Army, as a precursor to the forthcoming Army Day (October 10) and 63rd Army Anniversary, made their presence felt at Sacred Anuradhapura Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi precincts yesterday morning and marked the commencement of a whole string of commemorative ceremonies. The symbolic Flag Blessing ceremony of the Army at more..

Oct 2 (LBO) Stocks closed down 0.60% Tuesday with some of the blue chip stocks losing ground. The Colombo All Share Index closed at 5,928.53 down 35.76 points and the S&P SL 20 Index closed 14.21 points lower at 3,222.40 down 0.44%. Turnover was 748 million rupees. Top contributors to the day's turnover were Touchwood Investments with 114 million rupees, LOLC with 105 million and Royal Ceramics with 36 million rupees. Aitken Spence gained 3.50 rupees to close at more..

Oct 2 (DM) The sorry performance of the so called cheerleaders at the ICC World T20 is not only a disgraceful eyesore but has showcased Sri Lanka in a poor light to the entire world judging by the disparaging comments they have drawn from the international media. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is furious at the way the country has been made the laughing stock of the world but feel helpless as it was the ICC and its local directorate which more..

Oct 2 (Island) A 60-year-old man committed suicide by swallowing poison after killing an 8-year-old girl and raping her 11-year-old sister at Tiriyaya in Trincomalee. The children had been dragged from their house, by the elderly neighbour, to a nearby jungle and molested. He had then hacked the 8-year-old girl to death. After that he had gagged and tied her sister before raping her and then severing her limbs. Later, thinking that the girl was dead, more..

Oct 2 (CT) Undergraduates of the Science Faculty of the University of Colombo have been informed to attend lectures from today, Colombo University Registrar, Lal Silva said. He said the Medical Faculty was functioning already, but students, except for first year undergraduates following other courses within the science faculty, have been told to return to the university for lectures. However, the university authorities and the Higher Education Ministry are unsure of the lecturers’ attendance, more..

Oct 2 (DM) Hirunika Premachandra the daughter of late Baratha Lakshman Premachandra said, that she has not changed despite the obstacles she has faced during the year after the death of her father. “It’s been close to a year since my father was murdered and Hirunika that spoke to you a year ago is still unchanged.It is the same Hirunika that speaks before you today. I will continue to fight until my father is given justice,” more..

Oct 2 (Island) President of the Joint Plantation Trade Union Centre (JPTUC) and General-Secretary of the Lanka Estate Workers’ Union (LEWU) S. Ramanathan yesterday expressed confidence that President Mahinda Rajapaksa would look into the grievances of plantation workers and grant relief. Ramanathan said that the JPTUC had forwarded proposals for Budget 2013, including industrial zones in estate areas to create employment for unemployed youth in plantations. more..

Oct 2 (Island) Chief of the Public Service United Nurses Union (PSUNU) Ven. Murettettuwe Ananda Thera yesterday warned that his union would resort to a strike if the government did not increase the salaries of nurses in next month’s budget. Ven. Ananda said that nurses were dedicated to their service and were even susceptible to germs and various other risks while providing a service to patients. Nurses had even sacrificed the duties to their families to serve the public, he said. more..

Oct 2 (MoD) Secretary Defence and Urban Development Gotabaya Rajapaksa made a sudden inspection visit to review the progress of the housing complexes which are under construction in the Colombo Metropolitan area today (1). Under the first phase of the housing project for low income families nearly 10,000 houses are being built. These housing units will be distributed among the slum dwellers that live under more..

Oct 2 (CG) A former Buddhist monk, who became notorious for the telephone conversations he had with women, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison over a rape case. Ruwanwella Sobitha alias Sunil Shantha was sentenced by a court in Kegalle today after he was found guilty of the crime involving a 28 year old woman. The former monk used to operate a telephone service where he gave advice to the caller over various issues. However recorded telephone conversations surfaced where more..

Oct 2 (CG) The Norwegian Embassy in Colombo today signed an agreement with the UN country office through which the UN team in Sri Lanka is hoping to work closely with its national partners in Sri Lanka to address issues linked to gender based violence. The UN office in Colombo said that Sri Lanka boasts of strong development indicators and is often hailed as a model in the South Asian context when it comes to its achievements on more..

Oct 2 (DM) The US Embassy in Colombo announced that the 2014 Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery Program, popularly known as the Green Card Lottery, will be accepting on-line applications starting on Oct 2, 2012. Issuing a statement, the embassy said that the Diversity Visa Lottery allows 50,000 randomly selected applicants an opportunity to legally live and work or study in the United States each year, so long as they more..

Oct 2 (CI) Pakistan spun a web around Australia's batsmen to grant themselves a strong chance of qualification for the World Twenty20 semi-finals. Though sobered by defeat, the Australians managed to reach the 112 they required to make their qualification for the semis a certainty, while the result also ensures that South Africa are knocked out, regardless of what happens in their final Super Eights match against India. more..

Oct 2 (GN) Ask any fan here to explain how the small island nation of Sri Lanka is one of the leading cricket nations in the world and almost everyone will attribute it to the contribution of schools’ cricket in the country. Every school takes pride in proclaiming its status in the school cricket league and some parents even enrol their children in a particular school based on its cricket team’s standards. Some of the schools here are over 100 years old and they take pride in letting people know more..

Oct 2 (AFP) A Briton on Tuesday pleaded guilty to stealing tickets for a crunch World Twenty20 cricket match between hosts Sri Lanka and defending champions England. Police said Caesar Buller, 54, had gone to a sales booth in the capital Colombo on Sunday and pocketed four books of tickets for Monday's game, which Sri Lanka won, eliminating England from the tournament. He was arrested after sales staff raised the alarm. more..

Oct 2 (DM) UPFA North-Central provincial councillor R.M. Siripala who was nominated by the UNP for the post of NCP Chairman was elected by a majority of 11 votes at the sessions today. Mr. Siripalaha a loyalist of former Chief Minister Berty Premalal Dissanayake obtained 21 votes while his rival Amarakeerthi Athukorala who is also a UPFA member received 10 votes. It is speculated that Mr. Dissanayake and his loyalists had voted for Mr. Siripala but Opposition Leader of more..

Oct 2 (NF) Colombo Additional Magistrate Prasanna Alwis ordered the CID to remind the Attorney General, to issue the necessary instructions for the arrest of MP Duminda Silva. The order was given when the inquiry, pertaining to the assassination of three people including former MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra was taken up today. The sixteen suspects who have been remanded in connection with the assassination more..

Oct 2 (DM) UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has warned that the people would take to the streets unless the salary was increased in next month’s budget. He said this govt had increased prices of everything except increased the salary. “People find it difficult to live today. Everyone knows this except the Cabinet. The prices of electricity, fuel and most commodities have been increased. Everyone is in debt,” he said more..

Oct 3 (NS) Those who have gone through the country’s university education system know very well that the lecturers and professors, who shout for transparency, democracy and justice, are not the paragons of virtue they claim to be. The pages of so-called anti-govt newspapers these days are filled with articles focussed on “Mahinda Bashing”. The main themes of these articles deal with issues such as Mahinda’s nepotism, the excesses of his sons, and his anti-democratic agenda. more..

Oct 3 (NS) In the early hours of March 3, 1999, three men brutally assaulted Asitha Fernando with baseball bats while he was walking home from his restaurant, beating him to within an inch of his life. At the time of the attack, Asitha was living and working in Japan, and was only saved by the timely arrival of the Japanese police. However, by that time, he had already been badly beaten and regained consciousness in hospital nearly five months later. As a result of the attack, more..

Oct 3 (DM) Marxism teaches us that law is the weapon of the ruling classes. During the feudal system, law was synonymous with the wish of the ruler. Capitalism could no longer ignore the people’s demands for the establishment of democracy during the mass struggles that erupted against feudalism. This is how the powers of the executive, legislative and the judiciary that had been heaped on one institution/individual were handed over to three institutions after the fall of more..

Oct 3 (DBS) Three episodic developments in as many weeks, and suddenly there is an ‘air of permissiveness’ in southern Tamil Nadu, as never before at least over the past decades. Independent of one another, street-protests over the post-war revival of the ‘Sri Lankan ethnic issue’, the re-launched ‘Koodamkulam anti-nuclear demonstrations’ and the Islamic/Islamist revival over the controversial movie, ‘Innocence of Muslims’ have all taken a violent turn, refusing to more..

Oct 3 (DBS) On Sept 28th, 2012, the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Paris held “ Sri Lanka in Bloom”, an international photographic exhibition arranged by Mr. Sudath Silva, Media Director to the President of Sri Lanka. The exhibition depicted Sri Lanka’s experience in combating terrorism, as well as the ongoing development activities in the North and East and the beauty of the island. Following the lighting of the traditional oil lamp, Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka delivered a speech in the more..

Oct 3 (CT) We went to Mullativu last week, and it was my first visit to this place. As we turned from the A9 road all indications were that we are entering a miserable area. The road was under construction and we had to move slowly. Fortunately it not raining, or we could have faced greater difficulties. I saw roughly assembled houses here and there. They were not even mud houses but assembled structures with tin foil to serve as a roof. We could see people struggling to survive. more..

Oct 3 (CT) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri, President of the Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA) came up with a classic re-quote (i.e. from Bertold Brecht): ‘Although the Govt accuses us of falling pretty to the designs of various political parties, our union action is not about regime-change but affecting democratic social transformation, not of bringing a new govt to power but to obtain a new public, a new people that can comprehend well the existing social injustice.’ more..

Oct 3 (SO) She dreams of stars. When she grows up she wants to be in astronomer. Stars have fascinated her. To us she has performed a miracle yet to her simple little mind it is just following in her dreams. With her gentle rays of inspiration Rashmi has touched and warmed hundreds of hearts, both young and old. Rashmi Gunawardane likes the colour white best and loves reading and these days she is reading T.B. Ilangarathne's classic Amba Yaluwo. more..

Oct 3 (Island) It was with shock and dismay that we watched a video footage of rowdy scenes at Vidyaloka College, Galle on Monday. Schoolchildren in uniform booed their new principal, smashed up his car and pelted stones. But for heavy police presence, the principal would have been assaulted. However, the police must take the blame for their failure to anticipate trouble and take precautions. Their response was appallingly slow. What we have just witnessed in Galle is a foretaste of far more serious trouble to come. more..

Oct 3 (Island) Every year, around this time, the Lankan media become engrossed with a phenomenon that I find distressing, if not downright annoying: the parade on TV and newspapers of the supposed high achievers at the Grade V Scholarship Exam. This year is no different and we have already been treated to the photographs, interviews and life stories of these kids flanked by their proud parents and/or teachers. Every year the phenomenon irritates me. It irritates me because more..

Oct 3 (ST) Sri Lankans can little resist water. Bathing in a waterfall, river or lake, going out to sea in a boat or having an impromptu sea bath are all an essential part of the Sri Lankan leisure itinerary – so much so that for most of us, it can be the most anticipated part of a holiday. Very few realise that sometimes, such ‘fun’ occasions may well end in disaster. Last week’s boat tragedy off Beruwela where five people drowned in the sea, left the entire country with the grave more..

Oct 3 (CI) South Africa have had a few of their parties cruelly crashed by teams world over, but today they spoiled India's when it was only a small gathering. Having been knocked out of the World Twenty20 because Pakistan beat Australia, South Africa won the toss India wanted to win most, kept India down to 152, and passed 121, ensuring India would be eliminated from the tournament on net run rate. India would have loved to chase and more..

Oct 3 (Island) Small and medium industries (SMIs), already struggling to gain access to bank credit facilities, are hit by high interest rates. In a brief interview with The Island Sri Lanka Chamber of Small and Medium Industries President Aloy Jayawardene said high interest rates were taking their toll on businesses while the chamber continues to lobby for assistance from the govt. "Access to credit is a problem we have highlighted for years but sadly authorities have done little. more..

Oct 3 (Island) Sri Lankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe said yesterday that the three day IATA Global Human Capital Summit to be held in Colombo from November 12 to 14 would attract top notches in the airline and aviation industry and expressed confidence that they would act as ambassadors to showcase Sri Lanka as a top tourist destination in Asia. "Most of the participants taking part in the summit to be held at the Hilton Colombo, would be afforded an opportunity more..

Oct 3 (DN) Country Director of UNICEF in Sri Lanka, Reza Husseini opened an English Activity Centre at Karandana Junior School in the Eheliyagoda Educational Division on World Children’s Day. The centre, which also includes two classrooms for Grade V students, was built with decentralised funds allocated by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha. After the welcome by the Principal, speakers at the event, in addition to Husseini, included the Zonal English Director Sarath Kumara and Ven more..