Sept 27 (CT) At a meeting of the Executive Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), Exco ratified some important issues as follows: SLC will recruit Nick Lee as the National Team Trainer with effect from October 2016. He is a prolific run-scorer who was a key member of the Suffolk Minor Counties Squad scoring over 1,500 runs. In all cricket since 2007, including First Class, Second Eleven, Minor County and Premier League, Lee has scored well over 10,000 runs, including 23 hundreds. more..

Sept 27 (IPS) Sri Lanka is witnessing a rise in tourism since the end of the war. An important aspect that needs consideration in the country’s post-war tourism development is making tourism accessible for all, which is also the theme of this year’s World Tourism Day.  This year, the day aims to generate awareness on Promoting Universal Accessibility.  Awareness is being created to give special attention to the needs of disabled (permanent or temporary), more..

Sept 27 (EN) Perpetual Treasuries Limited, a primary gilt dealership, connected the family of controversial former central bank governor, has reported a record profit of 5.1 billion rupees for the year to March 2016 up 481% from a year earlier. The firm reported capital gains of 5.2 billion rupees from bond trading in the year to March 2016, up 581% from 767 million rupees a year earlier, accounts published in Sun Observer showed. more..

Sept 27 (Island) OPPO Sri Lanka joined up with the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce at University of Sri J'pura as the Official Mobile Partner in a trilogy of grand events hosted by Marketing Management Association of Department of Marketing Management in line with OPPO’s unwavering commitment towards supporting and connecting with youth. The first in the trilogy of events, Roo Sand Rae – 2016 live in concert held at Musaeus College during the weekend. more..

Sept 27 (CT) Over 105 acres of forest cover was destroyed due to wild fires that erupted in Ella and Yatiyantota last Sunday. Sources said that at least 100 acres of land in the Ravana-Ella Forest Reserve were scorched in the blaze that erupted on the Sunday and was brought under control in the early hours of yesterday. Fire was brought under control by the combined effort of members of Police, STF, Badulla fire brigade, Disaster Management Centre and the general public. more..

Sept 27 (DN) The Bar notes with alarm the recent attempts by officers of Auditor General’s Department purporting to exercise powers over the administration and functions of courts, President of Bar Association of Sri Lanka Geoffrey Alagaratnam observed at the ceremonial sitting of the Court of Appeal to welcome the new Judge of the Court of Appeal Justice S. Thurairaja. He said such a purported exercise of powers by AG more..

Sept 27 (Island) 2016 marks a special year for Sri Lanka as the scenic beauty and the rich heritage of Sri Lanka draws to its shores the most beautiful women from all continents, all aspiring to claim the prestigious title of Miss Intercontinental 2016. This glamorous event is the first of its kind to be held in Sri Lanka, and it is also the first time in 20 years, that a South Asian country has been selected to host a pageant of int'l repute. Biona, with their trusted heritage in health & beauty category more..

Sept 27 (FT) NPC Opposition Leader Sinnadurai Thavarajah issued a clarification about the article titled Uduvil School crisis raised at NPC. Thavarajah takes issue with the opening paragraph of the article, which states that NPC on Thursday denied an opposition motion requesting Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran to intervene in the Uduvil Girls’ College crisis, where students and parents have been protesting against the appointment of a new principal for the school. more..

Sept 27 (DN) The govt totally condemns the conduct of Northern Province CM C.V. Vigneswaren’s attempts to damage the ongoing reconciliation efforts by arousing communal passions in the North, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said. He said attempts made to create division and disunity in the country by raising communalism and issuing various statements to such effect during a time when the govt was earnestly involved in promoting more..

Sept 27 (CT) Representatives of Customs Department trade unions expressed hope that the govt will respond favourably at discussions to be held today to solve their issues with respect to the Customs Ordinance. These discussions are scheduled to be held between Minister Ravi Karunanayake and leaders of the nine joint trade unions of the Customs Department; and intend to explain in detail about their action to Fin. Ministry officials and to dispel any misconceptions more..

Sept 27 (FT) The most effective method of reducing delays in cases is for trials and hearings to be handled on a day-to-day basis. This was the recommendation of Justice Sithampbarampillai Thurairaja, who has been appointed as a judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice S. Thurairaja, a product of Pussellawa Saraswathi Maha Vidyalayam, is the first Tamil judge appointed to the August Superior Court from the hill country region. The following is the address he delivered during more..

Sept 27 (Island) Veteran lawyer Hemantha Warnakulasuriya, who has been openly criticising attempts at intimidation of judiciary, has complained to Bar Council over the weekend of an alleged instance of a worst kind of judicial interference whereby the CID bugged the telephones of a senior judge and also hacked his personal email. While Bar Council, at its meeting, Chaired by President Geoffrey Alagaratnam, more..

Sept 27 (DM) Recording the most expensive car imported to Sri Lanka, a leading businessman has imported a Rolls Royce super luxury car, worth over Rs. 158 million, customs sources said. They said a private company in Sangharaja Mawatha, Colombo had imported the car - Rolls Royce Wraith- and removed it yesterday after paying Rs. 93 million as duty to the Sri Lanka Customs. The 2.4 tonne super luxury car has two-door and is made by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars of Goodwood, England. more..

Sept 27 (ENS) The 2013 Asian Athletics Championships was supposed to be held in Chennai but was moved out to Pune because of the presence of Sri Lanka. Cricketers from the same country weren’t allowed to play in the city whenever the IPL caravan came to Chidambaram Stadium in the last few years. However, Director, Professional Golf Tour of India, expects no such trouble to befall the Chennai Open, the city’s first professional golf championship in more than six years. more..

Sept 27 (DN) President Sirisena has suspended the Russian tour for the 2nd group of Central Provincial Councilors and officials. Second batch of Councilors and officials were scheduled to leave the country on Oct 5. 28 members of CPC and officials left for Russia on a familiarisation tour this morning. President inquired from Governor Niluka Ekanayake as to why she allowed them to participate in this tour spending millions of rupees in public money. more..

Sept 27 (CT) All Ceylon Bank Employees' Union said that participating in protests will only harm the reputation of People's Bank further and will not benefit the bank in any way. It thus requests the members to avoid taking part in such protests. Statement, signed by General Secretary of All Ceylon Bank Employees' Union, Gamini Ratnasiri. "An anonymous letter has been sent to all branches, summoning People's Bank employees to Colombo to take part in a protest to be held today. more..

Sept 27 (CG) Govt raised fears of an attempt to instigate ethnic clashes one again in the country. Minister Lakshman Kiriella said that some in the opposition are attempting to block moves to create a new Constitution in the country. He said that those opposing a new Constitution are attempting to create instability in the country and instigate ethnic clashes. “When all parties in Parliament are attempting to resolve the issues there are those attempting to scuttle the process,” he said. more..

Sept 27 (CT) People's Bank management, in a bid to cover-up the alleged Rs 700 million fraud in purchasing hardware to digitize the bank, have urged employees to join a planned protest in front of People's Bank Headquarters, in Colombo today. Several powerful figures of the Bank's top management are said to be organizing this protest, behind the scene, on the pretext that it is to safeguard the reputation of the bank. more..

Sept 12 (DM) Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, speaking at the Senaka Bibile Commemoration meeting last Friday, proclaimed that after some 40 years the spirit of Bibile had come alive with the decision to slash the prices of 47 drugs. The National Medicines Regulatory Authority’s (NMRA) new Chairman Asita de Silva whose appointment has been challenged by some Bibile policy movements, also spoke at Friday’s event to explain the price reduction formula. more..

Sept 12 (DM) Watching the evening news on Catastrophic TV, Shelton Perera the proprietor of the Wallside Restaurant and Bar nearly jumped out of his favourite chair. “This is preposterous, listen to this news piece,” he called out to his wife Joy cooking something in her customised pantry. “I am busy, Shelley, besides I am not interested in local news; they give me migraine headaches. You can tell me about it as a bedtime story.” Shelton grimaced as he imagined a knowing smirk on more..

Sept 12 (DM) Z-score cut off marks were released last week. While some students cried in jubilation some others were heartbroken as they weren’t admitted to the University of their Choice though they believed they were qualified. There has been a change in the Z-score procedure which certain parties allege to be unfair on the basis that the method adopted to ascertain the Z-score had not been announced beforehand. more..

Sept 12 (EN) Over 61% of trains were late in 2015, with nearly 80% of long distance and intercity journeys were also behind schedule, as state-run Sri Lanka railways struggled with 30-year old locomotives and speed restrictions despite tens of billions of rupees tax payer money being spent, data show. About 44.4% of suburban trains operated were on time and another 17.9% were less than ten minutes late. more..

Sept 12 (ST) I got a text message to my mobile phone on September 11, stating: Your auto-renewal is due in one day. It was from an application called DZone which I had not subscribed to. This was not the first instance such a text had been received, followed by a notification that the renewal had automatically–and explicitly without request–been carried out. A call to the mobile company revealed that via the DZone application, more..

Sept 27 (SL) The Sunday Leader during the past few weeks reported serious and grave lapses in several finance companies. The newspaper recently reported one of SL’s oldest finance houses and an ex-Ceylinco company being engaged in a dubious scheme right under the nose of the regulator. It has been found through our investigations that one of the biggest and oldest financial institutions is in the near verge of more..

Sept 12 (LBO) Sri Lanka is pushing ahead with ambitious Megapolis development plans keeping in mind the need to strengthen public sector capacity. The Western region Megapolis is being designed around clusters in financial services, industry and manufacturing, airport related activity, technology, logistics, forestry and tourism, said Sumedha Ratnayake, director general of the Urban Development Authority (UDA). more..

Sept 12 (Island) PM Ranil Wickremesinghe’s official visit to New Zealand commencing this week, the first by a Sri Lankan leader, comes at a time that the country is pursuing a regional free trade agreement, which would also include India. New Zealand has longstanding Commonwealth, migrant and sporting ties with Sri Lanka, with relations dating back to the 1800s. The PM of New Zealand John Key has described more..

Sept 12 (SL) The credibility of the Good Governance administration that pledged to act on those who are involved in bribery or corruption is now fast diminishing as the govt has failed to take action against those who are involved in corrupt activities. It is now understood that the corrupt are well protected by the govt and are even in the process of securing high posts in the govt despite having concrete evidence against more..

Sept 27 (AFP) Police on Tuesday exhumed the body of a prominent anti-establishment newspaper editor as part of an investigation into his murder, widely blamed on the regime of former strongman president Rajapakse. Lasantha Wickrematunga, a fierce critic of Rajapakse's govt, was killed by unidentified gunmen as he drove to work in Colombo seven years ago. New administration has reopened the investigation more..

Sept 12 (Island) JO member D.E.W. Gunasekera flayed Finance Minister Ravi Karunayake for pretending to know everything. "The country’s economy is in a shambles and Karunanayake is attempting to raise revenue by overtaxing the masses." Finance Minister acted in a manner which directly helped the vehicle importers, leasing companies and other businessmen for reasons best known to him, Gunasekera said. more..

Sept 12 (DM) A deputy minister is expected to be arrested soon because the investigations into his deals have been completed, State Minister Ranjan Ramanayake said. He said that this arrest would be historical because it would be the first instance where a deputy minister in office would be arrested on corruption charges. “This will prove that even a minister will not be able to get away with corruption under the present administration," more..

Sept 27 (CT) There's something always that sways for rebellion in the hearts of all of us when a crowd gathers under a common cause. That is why there's power in numbers and strength in unity. We are, inherently, creatures of passion that need to be motivated and driven toward a common goal and we have known our share of rebellions and revolutions. Last Saturday's Ezhuga Tamizh rally organized by the Tamil People's Council in Jaffna was no doubt a revolution. more..

Sept 27 (CT) Delineating the fault lines and events that generated the ethnic conflict between Tamils and Sinhalese Sri Lanka since 1948 will demand careful historical work that builds upon the many studies by a battery of scholars thus far — referring here to a whole line of intellectual work extending from Howard Wriggins through Robert Kearney, KM de Silva, SJ Tambiah and AJ Wilson to Nira Wickremasinghe. Historical causation is usually multi-factorial not singular. more..

June 27 (CT) Colombo Chief Magistrate fixed 7 Nov to hear the case filed by the Bribery Commission against the former Minister of Transport, Kumara Welgama. Welgama has been charged with having committed a corrupt act by appointing L. Wimalaratne to the non-existent post of Vice President of the SLTB. Bribery Commission has filed four charges against Welgama for having created the said post, on or before 23 Ja 2010, at the SLTB and thereby committing an act of corruption. more..

June 27 (Reuters) SL govt's decision to increase tax on diesel is likely to hit 2016/17 second-half earnings at fuel retailer Lanka IOC, its managing director said on Monday. Under pressure from the IMF to increase revenue, SL's finance ministry increased excise duty on diesel by 10 rupees to 13 rupees per litre from Aug. 20, stipulating that fuel retailers cannot pass on the cost to consumers. Subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation had previously been cushioned against losses more..

June 27 (DM) Northern Province CM C V Wigneswaran has started making radical, extremist statements because of his political bankruptcy, JVP charged. JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva said that Mr Wigneswaran has become politically bankrupt as Northern people have rejected him. “The people of the North have rejected him as he has done nothing for them for the past few years. Therefore he is out to gain political mileage more..

June 27 (EN) A top Sri Lankan exporter and head of the shippers’ association has called for urgent reforms to Customs to speed up and reduce the cost of transactions, saying competing exporters and hub ports were far ahead of the island. Sean van Dort, chairman of the Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council, said exporters and importers want to reduce the time taken to move cargo into and out of Colombo port and clear Customs in order to stay competitive in global markets. more..

June 27 (CI) A dominant Australia Women side thumped Sri Lanka Women by ten wickets in the one-off T20I in Colombo, chasing down a target of 60 with 71 balls to spare, the largest margin of victory (by balls remaining) in women's T20 cricket. Australia, who had swept the preceding ODI series 4-0, bettered the record of 70 balls set by New Zealand in 2010. Put in to bat, Sri Lanka struggled from the outset, extending their poor form shown during the one-day series. more..

June 27 (DM) Joint Opposition said that it would go to Supreme Court for the second time against Govt’s attempts to introduce the revised VAT, since the Gazette notification on the revision had been printed way before the Cabinet Approval was granted. MP Bandula Gunawardane said the Gazette notice had been printed on Sept 9 though the Cabinet of Ministers didn’t approve the VAT Bill till Sept 13. more..

June 27 (Xinhua) Sri Lanka will seek to promote ecotourism and protect the environment as part of its tourism agenda in the coming months, Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said. He said that while accessibility remains a key component of SL's tourism development strategy, sustainability of the industry is of equal importance. "We must ensure that our resources and attractions remain unharmed by the development activities which are currently taking place in this country," more..