Aug 11 (Island) In responding to a question in Parliament by Charles Nirmalanathan on Wednesday (8), PM Ranil Wickremesinghe assured the country that all facilities and help were being and would be afforded to returning exiles, including airfare. He stated that from 2010 to date 9,509 persons had returned from India, and a further 3,815 exiles domiciled in India have expressed their desire to return. This Prime Ministerial policy of inviting exiles to return is not new. more..

Aug 11 (Island) Railway workers have once again demonstrated their callous disregard for the interests of the public, especially children. Their strike, which has put the entire labour movement to shame, left tens of thousands of commuters stranded, on Wednesday, when it commenced. They cannot be faulted for fighting for their rights, but what we have witnessed is trade union terrorism. Railway workers’ grievances are not of recent origin, and the warring trade unions should have given more..

Aug 11 (Island) At a time when Contempt of Court has hit the biggest headlines, it looks as if we will soon have a privilege petition for Contempt of the House. This is not a petition in any court of law about repeated Contempt of Parliament with No Quorum adjournments. We have just had three in a row. While it is the duty of the Govt to maintain a quorum for regular business, those in the JO, who claim to be The Opposition, don’t even more..

Aug 11 (Island) India Under-19 won the five-match Youth ODI series 3-2 with a crushing eight wicket win over SL Under-19 in the fifth and final match as some valuable knocks of hometown boys Nishan Madhushka and Nuwanindu Fernando went in vain at De Soysa Stadium, Moratuwa on Friday. Chasing a target of 213 runs to win, opening batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal scored an unbeaten 114 inclusive of eight fours and three sixes (128 balls) to guide the side to victory with seven overs to spare. more..

Aug 11 (SO) Ceylon Motor Traders Association (CMTA) which was established in 1920 and represents all major international motor manufacturers in Sri Lanka, says they understand the rationale behind govt’s policy decision on duty hike to stem imports of small cars but called for a dialogue on long term policies to reduce uncertainty among industry and consumers alike. The CMTA in a statement said, they look forward to participating in a long term policy dialogue with the govt. more..

Aug 11 (ST) Sri Lankans will face hardships in trying to renew or obtain passports for overseas travel within the next few months as a result of a delay in placing a fresh order to procure passport booklets from the current supplier due to an e-passport tender dispute, official sources confirmed. Dept of Immigration & Emigration has begun the basic activities of introducing an e-passport with an electronic chip more..

Aug 11 (DN) Former SL cricketers Mahela Jayawardene, Sidath Wettimuny and Roger Wijesuriya, along with Jayantha Seneviratne and Carlton Bernadus have been included into a committee set up by Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam to foster and develop junior school cricket. Minister made this disclosure at a Cricket Skills Development Programme organized by the Ministry of Sports yesterday. Jayawardene conducted the topic Graduation of a Youngster more..

Aug 11 (Island) Sri Lanka and Morocco have immense potential to promote trade and investment opportunities; this potential needs to be harnessed properly, Minister Faiszer Mustapha said. "At present the trade balance is in favor of Morocco and the need of the hour is to promote SL exports to Morocco, which is considered to be in the middle income category, he said at the 19th anniversary of the enthronement of King Mohammed V1 of the Kingdom of Morocco, which was held at more..

Aug 11 (DM) Marching ahead with plans to industrialise the Northern Province, Minister Rishad Bathiudeen said the next phase of the development of Achchuveli Industrial Zone is planned at a cost of Rs.100 million. He made this statement at the inauguration ceremony of the fifth edition of COMPLAST Sri Lanka 2018, the complete plastics exhibition held in parallel with COMEXPO 2018, the complete manufacturing expo, at BMICH, more..

Aug 11 (DN) The probable 12-man Sri Lanka men's sevens rugby squad for the 18th Asian Games to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia has been selected. The national sevens squad will be led by former S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia and present CH and FC third row forward Sudarshana Muthuthanthri. In 2014, when Sri Lanka men's sevens team made it to the Asian Games, Sri Lanka failed to win a medal finishing in fourth place after losing to South Korea 14-17 in the bronze medal clash. more..

Aug 11 (CT) Of Sri Lanka’s 20.4 million population 2.5 million are elderly, another two million are disabled and a further 650,000 are widows. “That means 20% of our population can’t work,” said Gamage. He, however, said that at his garment factory in Ampara, there are women who have hearing disability, “Their output is better than those women employed without disabilities,” he said. “They can’t hear so they don’t talk, so their productivity is high,” he said. more..

Aug 11 (CT) State Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva and Dy Minister Buddhika Pathirana clashed in Parliament yesterday, over disciplining children by using physical punishment. Pathirana, participating in the debate on the Private Member’s Bill, moved by MP Rohini Wijeratne, to implement a programme to carry out disciplinary inquiries by Student Discipline Committees in Schools, said it was okay for teachers to use more..

Aug 11 (DN) PM Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday that the Govt plans to launch a countrywide programme to provide financial assistance to women for the introduction of grassroots projects. These projects would be implemented with the direct contribution of women and the govt is presently studying the mechanism to be adopted for the implementation of this project,” he said. He added that this project is to be implemented around the country more..

Aug 11 (DM) Coca-Cola Beverages SL (CCBSL) partnered with Eco-Spindles Pvt Ltd and the Kataragama Committee in a PET plastic bottle clean-up and recycling programme during the Kataragama Festival of July 2018. Approximately 100,000 plastic bottles (approx.4,000 Kgs) were collected during the event. Utilizing advanced recycling technology, Eco-Spindles will transform the bottles into brooms and brushes. Kataragama clean-up is part of CCBSL’s Give Back Life more..

Aug 11 (Island) State Minister Wasantha Senanayake has sought Indian backing for what he calls a fresh approach to address the national question. Senanayake revealed that he submitted his proposal that dealt with the contentious issue of devolution to Indian High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandu. Senanayake said that he presented his proposal to President Maithripala Sirisena, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, Speaker Karu more..

Aug 11 (DN) The world’s largest community driven hospitality platform, Airbnb yesterday entered into a strategic partnership with SL Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) to bring more travellers to Sri Lanka by launching over 40 bookable experiences across Sri Lanka, designed and led by locals. Through this Asia-first partnership, Airbnb and SLTDA will work together to take local experience of hosts onto the Airbnb platform and help local people from across share their passion & interests more..

Aug 11 (FT) Colombo High Court upheld the preliminary objection raised by Defendant Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and dismissed the claim made by Plaintiff Dialog Broadband Network Ltd. (DBN) against it for Rs. 7.8 billion as a cause of action accrued to Plaintiff. High Court Judge Ratnapriya Gurusinghe gave this order in the litigation initiated by DBN against SLT. Dialog Broadband Network filed action on 18 July 2017 seeking reliefs against the Defendant, Sri Lanka Telecom PLC. more..

Aug 11 (Island) Foreign Ministry denied any knowledge of SL’s former Ambassador in Washington Jaliya Wickramasooriya’s efforts to return home from the US since late last year. "We are not privy to Mr. Wickramasooriya’s current status as per the US legal system," Senior Director General (Legal), C.A.H.M. Wijeratne said. Wijeratne said so in response to the following query: "Would it be possible to know the status of more..

Aug 11 (CT) Colombo Fort Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne yesterday, ordered the former President’s Chief of Staff Gamini Senarath and three others to appear before the Special three-judge Bench of the Colombo High Court when noticed, in connection with the alleged misappropriation of Rs 4 billon from public funds to construct the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Hambantota. When the case was taken up for hearing at the Colombo Fort Chief Magistrate’s Court, the FCID told Court that more..

Aug 11 (FT) All assistance will be extended to prospective entrepreneurs to start enterprises utilising their talents, potential and skills in their areas, said Minster Kabir Hashim when addressing a meeting held at People’s Bank, Kegalle, to introduce the Enterprise SL development loan scheme. He went on to highlight that a sum of Rs. 200 million has already been allocated to each electorate in respect of the Gamperaliya rural development project introduced by the Govt more..

Aug 11 (FT) PM Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday launched a program to empower women socially, economically, and politically, and to aspire them to contribute to the development drive of the country. A workshop was held at Temple Trees under the patronage of the Prime Minister to educate around 2,000 women on the Dhanabhimani Program, organised by the Ministry of Social Empowerment and Primary Industries. more..

Aug 11 (DN) SAITM students who are to be absorbed to Kotelawela Defence University (KDU) have been asked to pay Rs 1.3 million per year, JVP MP Dr Nalinda Jayatissa said. He pointed out this was unfair as these students had been paying money to SAITM for many years. He made this comment while moving a private member’s motion in Parliament. “When we passed the legislation to give effect to the transfer of the SAITM students, there was no mentioning of payment more..

Aug 11 (Hindu) Decks have been cleared for sending back A. Mariyadoss, 37, the SL Tamil fisherman who had been struggling to return home for nearly eight months after he was rescued and brought to the shore by Rameswaram fishermen in Dec 2017. District-level Joint Interrogating Committee (JIC) meeting, chaired by Collector S. Natarajan, here on Friday decided to recommend his repatriation to SL. “As no case has been made out against him, we have recommended to more..

Aug 11 (CT) Reference our story How come Rs 10 billion loan granted to People’s Bank Director’s Company? last Wednesday, Chairman of the People’s Bank, Hemasiri Fernando has sent his reply. We publish the reply in full: MTD Walkers PLC has been a customer of People’s Bank since 2004. Since that year MTD Walkers PLC has from time to time obtained loan facilities and these have been duly repaid and settled in full. more..

Aug 11 (Island) The STF on Thursday arrested a notorious criminal, known as Malwatte Manju at his home in Peliyagoda in connection with a spate of murders and drug related offences. The media reported that the suspect was an associate of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. The STF recovered a 9 mm pistol, cartridges, swords, knives, heroin, identity cards and passports belonging to others from his home. The suspect was handed over to the Organised Crime Investigations Unit for more..

Aug 11 (DM) Party leaders have decided to hold elections in six provinces in January next year and hold the debate on this matter on August 24 2018, informed sources said yesterday. They said the election to the six provincial councils in the Eastern, Sabaragamuwa, North-Central, Central, North-Western and Northern Provinces was likely to be held in January next year while holding elections to the PCs in the Western, Southern and Uva Provinces thereafter. more..

Aug 11 (FT) Resolute to not give in to the trade unions’ demands, Minister Mangala Samaraweera called on the private bus owners to help the Govt to provide transport for all rush hour commuters. “If this unjust trade union action continues, we will take measures to ensure the impact to the public is minimum. We are ready to face it,” he said, adding that the salary increase demand made by the railway trade unions is more..

Aug (DM) With Railway engine drivers and their assistants launching a fast-track or lightning strike which govt leaders and most people are describing as trade union terrorism, we wish to focus attention on a more important area, the medical field, which also has been hit by trade union terrorism. Sri Lanka Medical Council is supposed to be the highest governing body for medicine. Its President the eminent physician Professor Colvin Gunaratne resigned this week over a range of issues more..

Aug (DM) All this hullabaloo in Parliament by the joint opposition demanding the appointment of Dinesh Gunawardene as Opposition Leader leaves a window open for the island’s citizens to think deeply about the national question. When the current Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan was appointed to this post in September 2015 there was allround approval for him even by the hard-line Sinhala MPs in parliament. There was no question about his qualifications and experience and more..

Aug (DM) All this hullabaloo in Parliament by the JO demanding the appointment of Dinesh Gunawardene as Opposition Leader leaves a window open for the island’s citizens to think deeply about the national question. When the current Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan was appointed to this post in Sep 2015 there was allround approval for him even by the hard-line Sinhala MPs in parliament. more..

Aug (ST) A draft national plan for prevention of drowning that aims to cut deaths by five percent every year has been formulated by the Office of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) with contributions from other Govt partners. The proposals in the national plan include introducing – with the help of the Education Ministry – basic swimming and life saving skills as an extracurricular activity in the school curriculum, assigning to each national more..

Aug 11 (PAC) The US and Sri Lanka will conduct humanitarian assistance engagements during Pacific Angel 2018 (PAC ANGEL), Aug. 13-18, 2018. PAC ANGEL is an annual joint and combined humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) engagement that includes general health and engineering programs, as well as various subject-matter expert exchanges. During this exercise, approximately 65 U.S. military members will more..

Aug (ST) With only three months left before the Northern Provincial Council term expires, the council which took office in 2013 with much expectations and hopes, has achieved only little in developing the former war-torn region with the limited powers it is vested with. Recently, there were many allegations from cabinet ministers and politicians claiming that allocated funds have been returned to the Treasury due to more..

Aug (ST) Mixed are the reactions to Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne’s declaration this week that the prices of 15 more essential drugs are to be slashed with immediate effect. While the Pricing Committee of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) met, its member Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama said that the relevant Gazette indicating the 15 drugs would be out shortly. He, however, declined to name more..

Aug (Island) The country had enough laws to prevent ragging in universities, but many students still suffered at the hands of their seniors, MP Hirunika Premachandra told Parliament. Hemachandra moving a motion against ragging in universities said: Ragging in all forms in all universities should come to an end. Some students committed suicide because they could not bear up the pressure of ragging. There were laws in the country but more..

Aug (DM) The UNP, JO and the TNA, are of the view that the provincial council elections should be conducted under the previous system if it takes time for the new election laws to be operational. PM met representatives of the political parties on Thursday evening to discuss matters relating to the elections. There is a gridlock regarding the new electoral laws which are delaying the provincial councils elections based on more..

Aug 11 (Island) The students of the SAITM to be absorbed into the Kotelawala Defence University had been asked to pay Rs 1.3 million per year, JVP Kalutara District MP Dr Nalinda Jayatissa said. He pointed out that it was unfair as those students had been paying money to the SAITM for several years. He made the comment while moving a private member’s motion in Parliament yesterday. more..

Aug 11 (NR) The railway trade unions currently engaged in a strike action say the govt has failed to respond to their demands. Co-Convenor of Locomotive Engineers Union Lal Paranavithana said the railway employees are willing to solve their concerns through discussions. He said trains did not set off on journey this morning. The strike launched by several railway trade unions including drivers, controllers, station masters, more..

Aug 11 (AD) President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a committee of experts to study and compile a report on the Sri Lanka–Singapore Free Trade Agreement. The committee is headed by Professor W.D. Lakshman, the President’s Media Division said. Singapore and Sri Lanka signed a free trade agreement on January 23 seeking to deepen economic ties and facilitates greater trade flows between the two countries. more..