Aug 28 (AM) Minister Basil Rajapaksa has said that he will not allow external forces to enter the country and disrupt its peace. Speaking at a meeting in Jaffna, he said that external forces trying to interfere with Sri Lanka's affairs in the name of democracy are attempting to jeopardize the stability of the country. The minister requested people of Jaffna to not to give in to external forces or to assist them in any way. He maintained that in the past external forces who entered Sri Lanka forcibly more..

Aug 28 (DM) NGO activist and Attorney Nimalka Fernando has complained to the Fort police seeking an inquiry against a poster campaign by unknown persons indicating that puppies were to be sold, giving her contact number in the posters. Ms. Fernando had told police that the posters had emerged outside the Colombo Fort railway station indicating that puppies are to be sold, after displaying two mobile phone numbers more..

Aug 28 (SM) FACETS Sri Lanka 2014, the International Gem and Jewellery Show, that showcases hundreds of local and foreign exhibitors held the final stall holders meeting, at the Sri Lanka Gem and Jewellery Association Secretariat in Colombo recently. The meeting was preceded by The FACETS organizing committee and the board members of Sri Lanka Gem and Jewellery Association including, Past Chairman Deshabandu Macky Hashim, Current Chairman more..

Aug 28 (LP) Govt Printer Lalith De Silva said the UNP or any other opposition political party could get their material printed at the govt press on payment. He said this referring to the tense situation erupted at the govt press yesterday after the confrontation that took place between the members of Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya and the organizers of a meeting of the trade union collective. Govt Press Trade Union Collective which is comprised of UNP and JVP workers charged that more..

Aug 28 (PTI) The first meeting of a joint committee between India and Sri Lanka is scheduled to be held tomorrow to discuss about institutionalising cooperation in the fisheries sector and address concerns of fishermen. In January, both countries had agreed to set up a joint committee of senior fisheries officials to finalise the draft MoU in the field of fisheries. "The first meeting of India-Sri Lanka joint committee is going to be held tomorrow. more..

Aug 28 (GN) When a self-effacing Angelo Mathews was named as Sri Lanka’s Test captain early last year, the move seemed borne out of desperation to groom a successor to the two iconic figures of their cricket than anything else. Mahela and Sangakkara had, by then, taken turns to lead the island nation in all formats of the game a number of times and it was high time for a new incumbent. A year and a half down the line, the Lankan management must be breathing a huge sigh of relief more..

Aug 28 (DM) Two new detention centres have been established by the Department of Immigration and Emigration to detain foreigners overstaying their visas after seeking refugee status with the UNHCR. A Department official said one detention centre was established at Boossa and the other at Negombo. Foreigners who overstay and violate Visa conditions are at the moment detained at the Mirihana detention centre and since this facility is inadequate to house the large number from more..

Aug 28 (ST) The govt is grappling with overspending for CHOGM held in Colombo on Nov 15–17, 2013. According to a second supplementary estimate, a sum of Rs. 353.5 million has been sought from the Treasury to settle CHOGM expenses in addition to earlier allocations made for summit expenses. First supplementary estimate for CHOGM spending was submitted last year seeking over Rs. 1 billion to cover the expenses. more..

Aug 29 (CT) There need not be any shred of doubt to compare Benjamin Netanyahu Prime Minister of Israel and President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka as their hands are bloodied with the blood of their victims, innocent women, children, infants, young and old alike. Their total disregard, disrespect and defiance of all international norms of conduct, humanism and United Nations conventions, human rights, laws relating to war is shocking and disgraceful to the World community at large. more..

Aug 29 (CT) Angela Woollacott wrote about “Australian Women’s Voyage Home” during the colonial period to the American Historical Review (AHR) in 1997. What she meant by ‘voyage home’ was Australian women going to England with some nostalgia. On their way to the West from Sydney, Melbourne or Perth, they encountered the East. This was before air travel became popular or cheap. As a result, they had to stop over mostly Colombo before they touched on Cape Town or Aden, more..

Aug 29 (SO) "Through re-branding the BOI, the image of BOI can be built to international standard. We hope to provide information to investors through the BOI. Our website will be used to attract investment. Investment opportunities available in Sri Lanka and the changes taking places in the industrial sector will be added to the website from time to time", BOI sources said. "We also hope to introduce a tax incentive scheme soon. more..

Aug 29 (CT) What the dictionary does not describe is how traitors and betrayers work. Both these categories, in the sense of the true meaning of those words are the same. They both use the trust placed on them to achieve their personal goals. Well, it runs counter to the interest of an entity which they represent. It is a known fact that human history is stained with self-serving traitors and betrayers. Such men have betrayed political parties and even nations. more..

Aug 29 (NS) There are parties and there are coalitions. We’ve seen both rise and fall, falter and prosper. There are party candidates and there are common candidates. We’ve seen both types and both have tasted success and failure. Common fronts were not uncommon in the period before J R Jayewardene came up with the Second Republican Constitution in 1978 with proportional representation, executive presidency and a lot of other things that are part and parcel of more..

Aug 29 (GV) Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. I do so with trepidation since speaking to captains of industry is quite outside my zone of comfort. My brother Indrajit Coomaraswamy, with whom you are more familiar, once told me in the middle of a political argument- you must realize, in society there are different roles that everyone must play. He said he was a civil servant and his job is to more..

Aug 29 (FT) Being given the post of Minister of Finance at a young age is certainly a career milestone one can be excited about, but given that responsibility when the world economy is crumbling is more than challenging. Former Finance Minister and Secretary of State for Finance of Netherlands Jan Kees de Jager was one of the many politicians who took up the key role in keeping the country moving forward at the time when the world was in turmoil. Sharing his experience and more..

Aug 29 (Island) We have witnessed high octane performance on the part of the police once again. On Wednesday, with the aid of a video clip posted on the Internet they arrested a woman who had repeatedly slapped a man in public in Wariyapola recently allegedly because the latter had made an indecent proposal. In days of yore when mobile phones fitted with cameras and the Internet were unheard of an incident of that nature would not have developed into a mega issue and the victim more..

Aug 29 (CT) Intrigued by those big ships he saw closer to the horizon every day since childhood, Vijitha Rohana just six months before his GCE A/L Exam dropped out from formal education to join the Navy as an electrical technician on 19 April 1985 for a service period of 12 years. Born in Boossa, Rohana was just another member of the SLN until that fateful day of 30 July 1987, the day he decided to attack the PM of the largest more..

Aug 29 (Island) A few weeks ago, when I wrote ‘It’s a mad, mad world’ I did not imagine things could get any worse; how wrong was I! Things seem to get crazier by the day or is it that with increasing age I am getting more and more pessimistic? Am I becoming a grumpy old man? Hope not! The world I was born to, seems so distant from what it is today. In my childhood, in spite of the strong anti-colonial feeling with a yearning for Independence, we did not have hatred; our politicians did not make us more..

Aug 29 (ST) The presentation by Dr Subramanian Swamy, chairman of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Committee on Strategic Action at the Defence Seminar 2014 this week brought no surprises in relation to Sri Lanka, reinforcing the message that India, in its own national interest, gave high priority to having good relations with Sri Lanka. It was during the question and answer session following his talk on Wednesday – the final day of the conference held at the Galadari Hotel – that sparks flew. more..

Aug 29 (Wired) In Steve McCurry’s famous photo of Sri Lankan stilt fisherman, men sit perched far from shore atop crude crucifixes of sticks and twine, dangling fishing rods into schools of fish. The approach looks prehistoric, a common misconception. “It’s some 70 years old…so it’s not really ancient,” says photographer Florian Müller, who photographed the stilt fisherman himself in 2010. “Still, it’s a beautiful way that more..

Aug 29 (CT) Thin trades dominated the foreign exchange (FX) and secondary market trading in govt securities yesterday, with sources telling Ceylon FT a policy rate cut is needed to rejuvenate markets. The exchange rate (ER) in interbank spot trading of the US dollar closed unchanged at Rs 130.18/23 in two way quotes. Central Bank last cut its policy rates seven months ago in January, that is, its standing lending facility (SDF) by 50 basis points (bps) to 8%, whilst keeping its SDF unchanged at 6.5%. more..

Aug 29 (OI) Sri Lankan Tamil issue has been on boiling point with Tamils of India in suppressed anger. To assuage this, members of the Chennai based Civil Society Coalition for Justice and Peace including former union health minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, met Sushma Swaraj, union minister of external affairs in mid-July and presented a Memorandum requesting re-setting of India’s foreign policy on Sri Lanka. Inter alia, we submitted that UPA govt had not been following a more..

Aug 29 (Island) It is possible that one may find my title to be exaggerated: this is not the first time that we are hearing the words ‘international film festival’ in a Sri Lankan context. Over the years, we have had many events of this nature where films made by non-Sri Lankans were shown together. True, those words may have been used before for some of those, no doubt important, efforts to bring in those cinephiles and other art enthusiasts more..

Aug 29 (MoD) Chairman of the Ceylon Shipping Corporation and Former Commander of the Navy, Admiral Jayanath Colombage has been appointed as the Adviser to the President on Maritime and Naval Hub, with effect from 15th Aug. In accordance with the "Mahinda Chinthana Policy Manifesto-Vision for the Future" country envisages to be a regional Maritime Hub on her way forward to be the Wonder of Asia. Maritime and Naval Hub takes a prominent place among those 5 sectors. more..

Aug 29 (CT) Senkadagala Finance, keeping up with the consolidation efforts of the Central Bank, has entered into an agreement with Newest Capital Limited to acquire 100% stake in the company. Senkadagala Finance told the CSE that the company entered into an agreement with Newest Capital to acquire 100% stake in Newest Capital at Rs 300 million. And according to the Stock Exchange filing Newest Capital would become a subsidiary of Senkadagala Finance more..

Aug 29 (Island) Despite achieving locally set qualifying standards, several leading track and field athletes, including this year’s best athlete at the Nationals have been axed from the country’s athletics team for the forthcoming 17th Asian Games to be held from Sept 19–Oct 4 in South Korea. The Athletics Association of Sri Lanka selectors picked a team of 21 athletes, who reached qualifying standards at the recently held more..

Aug 29 (HNS) Pubudu Dassanayake finally arrived here today ending the three-month-long speculation about the fate of his coaching job with the Nepali national cricket team. Dassanayake, who had returned back to Canada on June 4 after Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) failed to decide on his contract, has been hired by the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) for one year. The final deal was possible after Cabinet approved the MoYS proposal to extend the coach’s contract last month. more..

Aug 29 (CI) Janak Gamage, the former Sri Lanka medium-pacer, has taken over as head coach of the Bangladesh women's team. Gamage, who has accepted a one-year contract with the BCB, arrived in Dhaka on Thursday. Gamage, who represented Sri Lanka in four ODIs, played in the Dhaka League between 1987 and 2000. He returned to the country to coach Mohammedan in the Dhaka Premier Division League in 2006. "This is a country that holds magical memories for me," more..

Aug 29 (CT) The Ministry of Investment Promotion and the country's investment promotion agency have decided to introduce an exit route through the capital market to foreign investors present in Sri Lanka. This would allow major investors to exit from Sri Lanka without any hassle by trading their holding in the relevant companies to others as well as seek capital for future expansions. more..

Aug 29 (DN) FIFA Regional Development Seminar for President, Secretary and Technical Directors of Member Associations of South and Central Asia will be held from August 31 to September 2 at Galadari Hotel, Colombo. FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke This is a periodical seminar FIFA conducts with a vision of up-grading the standards in both Technical and Administrative aspects of the game. FIFA obliged the request from Ranjith Rodrigo who heads the Football Administration more..

Aug 29 (FT) The local handicraft artisans will see greater earning prospects if it increases emphasis on targeting the fast-growing tourism sector as its main segment, the National Craft Council (NCC) Chief said yesterday. With tourism currently being the third biggest revenue contributor to the local handicraft market, after exports and local purchases, NCC Chairman Buddhi Keerthisena said much has to be done to make the most of this promising sector. "Tourism is the next big market for us; more..

Aug 29 (GDI) Achieving another remarkable milestone in the country’s booming tourism industry, Sri Lanka Tourism welcomed the arrival of 1,000,000th tourist in year 2014 at the BIA today (28). Sri Lanka Tourism officials including Managing Director SLTPB, Rumy Jauffer along with representatives from travel and tourism industry including Mervyan Fernandopulle (Board Member SLTPB), Kumuda Eramudugolla (SLITO), more..

Aug 29 (Island) Deputy Postal Services Minister Sanath Jayasuriya said that he would recommend that a stamp be issued to honour Sri Lanka’s cricketing sensation Mahela Jayewardene. Jayewardene retired recently from Test cricket after scoring more than 10,000 runs and he is currently among the 10 leading run getters in the world with his teammate Kumar Sangakkara. Jayasuriya quoted Postal Services Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga as having said that if more..

Aug 29 (Island) Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), announced the successful upgrade of the LEARN (Lanka Education And Research Network) of Sri Lanka. LEARN upgrade consists of enhancing both Internet Access Bandwidth up to 1.65 Gbps and the interconnecting wide area network (WAN) with island wide Universities and Research institutes. LEARN interconnects all the UGC funded state universities, a number of public universities that function under other ministries, the UGC, more..

Aug 29 (Island) 5 heads of local govt bodies and 80 technical officers attached to them have recently been on foreign jaunts to Thailand and Malaysia utilising public funds. Local govt institutions they represent are the Negombo MC, the Katana UC, the Ja-Ela UC and Panduwanuwara and Hettipola PS. Deputy Minister Pandu Bandaranayake denied a claim by some LG heads claimed that every year members of more..

Aug 29 (Island) The continuous strike by the Joint Council of Professions Supplementary to Medicine (JPSM) entered the third day yesterday and sources revealed that drugs available at Osu Sala outlets were sufficient only for three days. The Society for Govt Pharmacists, one of the striking unions, that State Pharmaceutical Corporation outlet, Osu Sala, only provided a three day quota of drugs to patients. Spokesman for the union, said the majority of patients who were used to receiving more..

Aug 29 (DN) The Joint Services Language Training Centre established by former National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali in 1986 has provided Tamil language training to over 80 officers and 7,338 personnel of other ranks by 2014. This training centre provides language training to members of the Tri Forces and the Police. The centre is aimed at developing Tamil language proficiency among members of Security Forces and the police. A number of programs are also organised to more..

Aug 29 (DT) Still unable to comprehend how the 31-year-old died sometime on Tuesday night, Sahan Rajapakse said his sister had gone out to buy food around 7.30pm but never returned. The pair lived at the Absolute Waterfront Apartments Monarco Westmead with their father. Ms Rajapakse was last seen pacing the foyer of her unit block looking agitated and using a thin scarf to keep secured door open as she came in and out. more..

Aug 29 (CG) Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, Chief of the Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force had discussions with the Secretary of Defence and Urban Development Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Defence Ministry today. Air Chief Marshal Butt arrived in the island yesterday on an official visit to Sri Lanka. During today’s meeting, a cordial discussion was held between Secretary Defence and Air Chief Marshal Butt on matters of bilateral cooperation and mutual interest. more..

Aug 29 (CT) North Western Province Chief Minister, Dayasiri Jayasekara has been advised by doctors to take a break from the hectic election campaign after he fell sick while campaigning in Badulla Wednesday night. Jayasekara, who was engaged in election campaign work, in Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva's electorate, continuously for three days, was rushed to the Badulla General Hospital with breathing difficulties and giddiness, hospital sources said. more..