Apr 23 (SO) Sri Lanka’s economy could grow beyond 4.5% this year, the current projection for this year, IMF Mission Chief for Sri Lanka Jaewoo Lee said in Washington. The IMF initially forecast the economy to grow to 4.5% this year up from 4.4% last year. “We expect the economy to strengthen this year relative to 2016 which was a challenging year due to floods in the first half, followed by drought in the second,” more..

Apr 23 (Island) It was US author James Fennimore Cooper (1789 – 1851) who wrote the Last of the Mohicans in 1826; A historical treatise referring to life in the American frontier during the 18th century. Cooper relates the tragic story of Hawkeye (nothing do with DRS!) growing up with the native American Mohican people – after his own parents were killed- and who were fast diminishing in numbers and hence the title of his book. Reginald Bertram Wijesinha (best known as Bertie), more..

Apr 23 (ST) A 16-year-old girl working at a restaurant in the Aluthgama area succumbed to injuries sustained in an accident that occurred while she was using the service elevator, a coroner’s court inquiry was told. On April 9, Jesudasan Chandani from Karawela, Welipanna was taking shorteats to the fourth floor of the restaurant when a bar in the service lift fell on to her neck, her brother, Prasanna Kumara, who also worked at the same restaurant  told court. more..

Apr 23 (SO) Committee appointed to look into the revision of traffic fines, headed by Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, Nihal Somaweera will meet the Secretary to the President, P.B. Abeykoon this week to discuss the progress of the report submitted to the President. The report including the proposed amendments to existing traffic fines was submitted to President Sirisena recently. Final report was compiled by the committee following more..

Apr 23 (SO) The Army working on the Meetotamulla garbage dump site to stabilise its mbankment, is expected to complete its task before the onset of the rains to avoid further catastrophe, Landslide and Risk Management Division Head of National Building Research Organization (NBRO), R.M.S Bandara said. He said the Army had completed 90% of the soil stabilisation work at the site. Experts have warned the trash mountain could slide again if the area experiences heavy rain in coming days. more..

Apr 23 (SO) One of the landmark hotels in Asia, Galle Face Hotel will be the only hotel from Sri Lanka at the Destination Wedding Planners (DWP) Congress from the May 2-4 in Phuket, Thailand. The event is a luxury boutique congress which brings together high-end destination wedding planners under one roof to meet with a lavish spread of organisations that push the boundaries of industry excellence. From Greece to Mauritius to Florence, the DWP Congress has grown over more..

Apr 23 (ST) In a note presented by President Sirisena and approved by the Cabinet recently, the President has informed all Ministers that all Cabinet decisions and Memoranda not falling within excepted categories under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, No 12 of 2016, have to be made available to a citizen upon request. In terms of this note, the Cabinet has also been formally apprised of the appointment of an Information Officer (IO) more..

Apr 23 (Island) Vice President of the Association of Professional Sri Lankans in the UK, Dr. Chesmal Siriwardhana was killed by a double-decker bus in Oxford Street in Central London around 2 am on Sunday, April 9. His body, lying in a morgue in London, will be flown to Sri Lanka to perform last rites after the postmortem. Dr. Siriwardhana, 38, was returning home to Greenwich after a night out when he was hit by the night bus N98. At the time of his death, he was serving as more..

Apr 23 (ST) Salvation Army’s global head, General André Cox, on Friday  met with survivors of the Meethotamulla rubbish dump collapse and gave encouragement to them and relief workers – including police, military and medical personnel. General Cox and a team of Salvation Army officers visited both the disaster site and a local school that has been turned into a temporary shelter for more than 200 people whose homes have been destroyed. more..

Apr 23 (CT) Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has decided to take legal action against the Gazette (Extraordinary) issued on orders of President declaring the collection and disposal of garbage as an essential service. BASL says that public interest litigation will be initiated in Supreme Court alleging violation of fundamental rights by this Gazette notification. Secretary of BASL said, govt had no right to dump garbage wherever it wished, more..

Apr 23 (ENS) In a bid to put an end to cartelisation by cement manufacturing companies in the State builders’ Joint Action Committee, which includes APREDA, CREDAI & CRBA, has decided to import cement from SL, China and Bangladesh in protest against the abnormal hike of cement prices by the manufacturers. Importing cement from the eastern countries will help in reducing the per bag price by about `30, which will eventually benefit consumers as construction prices will come down more..

Apr 23 (Island) Germany believes its time for urgent action to implement the changes promised by the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe govt in 2015. The govt needed more focus and should  invest in political will to move forward with its announced reform agenda, the German Ambassador to SL Jorn Rohde said. "Its time for urgent action to implement the changes promised in 2015." Acknowledging that successful steps had been  taken with regard to the Office of Missing Persons, Right  to Information more..

Apr 23 (ST) Contingent Commander of SL Army’s peace keeping force in Haiti was sacked for bringing disrepute to the organisation whilst a Major and four soldiers were discharged for having consensual sexual relationships with females. The incident, a senior Army official who spoke on grounds of anonymity said, took place in 2008 and involved the sixth Sri Lankan Peace Keeping Battalion stationed in Haiti. more..

Apr 23 (SL) SLFP has warned that action may be taken on SLFP members who attend the Joint Opposition May Day rally. UPFA General Secretary Mahinda Amaraweera said that the SLFP Central Committee will decide if any action must be taken on SLFP member who attend the JO May Day rally. JO is to stage its May Day rally at Galle Face green while the SLFP will hold it in Kandy. He said there was no decision on cancelling the membership of SLFP members who go on stage at JO rally. more..

Apr 23 (ST) The All-Island Federation of Farmers (AIFF) National Organiser Namal Karunaratne has called upon the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) to investigate the misappropriation of the Crop & Loan Protection Fund meant to pay farmers for crop damage. He said the Plantation Tax Fund created in 2013, under the National Insurance Trust Fund, had been misappropriated. He added that the Fund which had not been used for years, had Rs 60 million, but only Rs 15 million remained now. more..

Apr 23 (CT) The reinstating of the GSP+ to Sri Lanka was yesterday put in the balance following a damning report from a European Union delegation that was in the country last week. In addition to that, the EU delegation has demanded that 50% of the GSP+ trade concession benefits be handed over to the workers, before this facility is to be reinstated to Sri Lanka, an international trade union said yesterday. more..

Apr 23 (Hindu) Residents of the Colombo neighbourhood of Meethotamula had little idea that the urban-waste monster in their backyard would choose the Sinhala and Tamil New Year’s Day to collapse. No tourist who has ever visited Colombo would associate the word garbage with the city. Possibly the cleanest capital city in south Asia, the sea-facing metropolis has for long been setting high benchmarks for the region. That is why last week’s garbage landslide near Colombo more..

Apr 23 (SL) Minister Faizer Mustapha denied claims that there was a move to kill street dogs ahead of Vesak. He said that a social media campaign had been launched claiming that street dogs are to be killed. Activists disturbed by reports of attempts to kill street dogs have urged the public to take photographs of anyone seen rounding up dogs on the street. Mustapha insisted that the allegation that he was involved in moves to kill stray dogs is an attempt to create racial disharmony more..

Apr 23 (ST) President Maithripala Sirisena was upbeat last Tuesday, despite the tragedy at Meethotamulla garbage dump a few days earlier. Speaking to SLFP Ministers and Chief Ministers of provinces, he made two significant points in a speech on plans for the party’s May Day rally. One: He declared that it was he who was responsible for ensuring that Galle Face Green was given to the Joint Opposition for its May Day. more..

Apr 23 (Island) The shame of Meetotamulla is that for 40 years successive Sri Lankan govts have not been able to find a location for an engineered, or sanitary, landfill to deposit Colombo’s garbage. Its tragedy is that people had to die because a makeshift mountain of garbage came crashing down on their dwellings. The problem, in its simplest formulation, is that Colombo has no place to bury its garbage and nobody else wants to bury Colombo’s garbage in their backyard. more..

Apr 23 (Island) Some people’s minds are really weirdly wired; a gift that defies explanation. Ramanujan’s way with numbers bewildered his Cambridge mentors Godfrey Harold Hardy and John Edensor Littlewood, both outstanding mathematicians. The way theorems and theories of numbers, sometimes far ahead of their time, floated into his mind led some to suggest that The mind of god was speaking to the mind of young Sirinivasa. Magnus Carlsen, born in 1990, more..

Apr 23 (Island) In 1979, residents of Northwood Manor in Texas, USA, sought judicial intervention to prevent the creation of a garbage dump in their neighbourhood. The court agreed that the dump would do irreparable harm to the residents by affecting "the entire nature of the community, its land values, its tax base, its aesthetics, the health and safety of its inhabitants" However the residents were not granted relief they sought. more..

Apr 23 (SO) The unexpected rainfall last month and this month has somewhat mitigated the risk of the country facing an acute shortfall in power generation, and a series of emergency power purchases at prices ranging above 28 cents a unit has averted a possible crisis. Even though the Lakvijaya Power Plant at Norochcholai shut down one of its turbines due to a steam leak, the availability of emergency power meant more..

Apr 23 (SL) The Army came under fire last week over its alleged failure to deal with the soldiers accused of rape in Haiti. However the military insisted that all those accused and found guilty have been dealt with, including the contingent commander. Associated Press, in a detailed report revealed several incidents of rape involving SL peacekeepers in Haiti. while 134 SL peacekeepers had been accused in the report, more..

Apr 23 (ST) The Meethotamulla Avurudu tragedy where a fire at the mountainous garbage dump snuffed out more than 30 lives and left several missing has laid bare some incredible stories. One such instance was how a food importer had dumped a large stock of outdated sausages there. A group picked up the stocks, washed them, re-packed them and sold them to smaller grocery outlets. There is little doubt they ended up on more..

Apr 23 (CT) The people of the North and East came to the street protesting and urging the release of their lands that were taken by the military. Their daring protests have been heard and several lands occupied by the security forces are being released gradually paving the way for Tamils to resettle. However, in the Mannar District there lies confusion over the releasing of lands to the people, especially in the Wilpattu border and voice of more..

Apr 23 (EN) Police chief Pujith Jayasundara said he wants to drop the khaki coloured uniform of his men and women and replace it with a deep blue as part of a major reorganisation of the 85,000-strong department. "I want to take the police in a new direction very soon this uniform will be dark blue," he said adding that blue was already a colour in the police flag. Any make-over of SL's police uniform could cost a huge amount of money more..

Apr 23 (ST) The GMOA is expecting an official announcement from the President’s office with regard to the solution given to the SAITM issue. “Currently, we do not agree with the decision made because, we are not certain the decision was made by the President, until they officially convey it, as Minister Rajitha Senaratne or Minister Lakshman Kirella would have intervened,” said GMOA Spokesman Dr Nalinda Herath. more..

Apr 23 (ST) A three-month extension has been sought by the Commission of Inquiry appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena to look into irregularities in respect of issuance of treasury bonds including the controversial Central Bank bond issue of February 2015. The Commission was given three months from its date of appointment on January 27, 2017 to submit its report, setting out its findings and recommendations. more..

Apr 23 (AD) Seven trade unions attached to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) will launch a strike over three issues including the move to sign a pact with India regarding the oil tanks in the Eastern port city of Trincomalee. CPC Sri Lanka Freedom Workers Union President said the decision was made since the authorities have yet failed to address their issues. Strike will be staged from midnight tomorrow (24), more..

Apr 23 (SL) A video has emerged showing IGP Pujith Jayasundara assaulting an employee inside the west side elevator of the new secretariat building of the Police Headquarters. The assault took place at approximately 8:40 AM on April 12, 2017, according to the time-stamp on the video. Prior to the assault the video shows the IGP extending his hand and raising his tone at several officers in the lobby, and more..

Apr 24 (CT) In the 70 year history of the UN, there has not been a Secretary General worse than Ban Ki-moon. UN Office of Internal Oversight Services said that the UN Secretariat under Ban Ki-moon was drifting into irrelevance He has damaged the standing of the UN so much that Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations believes that Antonio Guterres, who succeeded Ban Ki-moon on 1 Jan 2017, could give the UN the kick up the backside it needs. more..

Apr 24 (SO) Reading about the very unfortunate garbage slide in Meethotamulla, its aftermath and watching the entirety of it on several TV news channels, one was horrified and extremely sorry for those unfortunates who suffered not only loss of material possessions but family members. This cat avoided watching the funerals and all the loud weeping and wailing. Yet for all, she could not blame the govt high-ups entirely. Of course, she agreed with her friends that without getting luxury more..

Apr 24 (SO) Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa says, tragedies like Meethotamulla are national catastrophes and as politicians we should never look at it in a narrow political perspective. The Minister said, when we face a natural calamity or catastrophe, like in other countries, we have to get together as true national leaders to find a lasting solution without getting into narrow political tracks. more..

Apr 24 (CT) Refined, sophisticated and articulate Dr Sashi Tharoo (ST), an accomplished and skilled int'l civil servant from India, was in SL a few days prior the customary shut down for Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations. The official purpose was to deliver the key note address at Dinesh Weerakkody’s book Ranil Wickremesinghe: A Life. Yet, his address smacked of a veiled caveat to Sri Lanka of its dealings with China. After serving the UN for 29 years, he returned to India in 2006. more..

Apr 24 (ST) Surrounded by an army contingent and a police task force to boot, Lankan PM Ranil Wicremesinghe visits the scene of national carnage wearing a medical face mask to ward off the stench of piled up garbage and rotting corpses still to be exhumed from the trash crash of Mount Garbage which blew its top and slipped its disk on Aluth Avurudhu day under the sheer weight of a nation’s negligence. The PM’s face mask to muffle the raging stink – the scandalous stench more..

Apr 24 (CT) Accusations are hauled chiefly at the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development and the Western Provincial Council for the culpable negligence in taking pre-emptive actions to transfer the garbage dump at Meethotamulla which killed approximately 40 people. Many are of the view that the tragedy could have been averted if relevant authorities cooperated to find an empirical solution to shift more..

Apr 24 (SO) The law and the Constitution are of relevance not only in regard to sensational struggles between the citizen and the State when the security of the country is said to be at stake. Instead, when we refer to the breakdown of the Rule of Law, this is also reflected in the most mundane failures of ordinary civic life. And the point here is that, in Sri Lanka, the failure does not occur as a result of incapacity or lack of knowledge. Rather, it is through the deliberate subversion of the law, more..

Apr 24 (Island) Those who voted for the incumbent administration may not have expected others’ garbage to be shoved down their throats––so to speak––in this savage manner. They were promised the sun and the moon, but, today, they have their villages being turned into stinking rubbish dumps. Their protests are violently crushed. The much-touted yahapalanaya has become kunu (rubbish) palanaya! Rajapaksa govt had villagers who protested against a factory polluting their more..