Nov 18 (ST) The STF has been deployed to thirty ministries to enhance security, Police Hq said last week. STF deployment will supplement Police officers already assigned to the ministries. The move comes in the wake of information that some MPs who held ministerial portfolios were making attempts to return and resume duties. “They are deployed as a preventive measure,” SP Ruwan Gunasekara said. Several STF teams are also on standby to respond to any necessity around Colombo more..

Nov 18 (ST) SL’s public administration has been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea due to worsening political uncertainty prevailing in the country during the past three weeks. Officials of state institutions are reluctant to carry out orders of new superiors due to doubts of legitimacy of their appointments under the present political environment, a veteran public official said. Top bureaucracy comprised mostly of political more..

Nov 18 (Island) Senior politician and leading businessman Milinda Moragoda suggested, in the context of the ongoing political crisis, that the caretaker govt in the run-up to the next election should be headed by a respected senior statesman or similar personality and should comprise members of all political parties represented in parliament. Moragoda who has held senior cabinet appointments both in the Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa govts and more..

Nov 18 (DM) UPFA MP Kumara Welgama said yesterday that it was questionable for the UPFA to remain in the govt by force without the support of 113 members of the House. Speaking to the media while leaving the Parliament where pandemonium reigned, Welgama said the UPFA must leave the govt if it did not have the support of the majority members of the House. “we are used to sit in the Govt as well as the Opposition. then why should we stay in the govt by force?” he asked. more..

Nov 18 (SO) In the wake of the tense situation in Parliament and to bring an end to the political instability in the country, President Sirisena has summoned a special meeting of all party leaders and Speaker Karu Jayasuriya at 5 p.m. today (18), at the Presidential Secretariat. President had communicated this to all parties represented in the current Parliament, to arrive at a final and conclusive ending to this prolonged political deadlock. more..

Nov 18 (ST) Treasury has been pushed into a catch-22 situation relating to the 2019 budgetary process following three weeks of political uncertainty without clear direction. The 2015 history is going to be repeated once again, as the Finance Ministry officials have been compelled to prepare a 3-month vote on account under the present situation of political instability, a senior Treasury official disclosed. If the political impasse continues further without a settlement for few more weeks, more..

Nov 18 (ST) The Treasury will shuffle around funds of Ministries to complete some of the existing projects and to allocate funds required to buy medicines until the end of the year. Finance Ministry Secretary S.R. Attygalle said that funds from Ministries which do not have urgent projects would be used to complete urgent functions. The move came as allocations of funds for some of the sectors were affected due to the disruption of Parliamentary activities in the past three weeks. more..

Nov 18 (ST) Be it for good or bad, right or wrong, there is perhaps no other political leader in independent Sri Lanka, than Prez Sirisena, who has touched the lives of almost all his compatriots in so short a span of just three weeks. With the stroke of a proclamation on Oct 26, he fell his onetime PM Ranil Wickremesinghe and foisted his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa. That galvanised a UNP, which has long been in dissension mode more..

Nov 18 (Island) We Sri Lankans have gone through a rough and island-wide worrying, tumultuous fortnight ever since Prez Sirisena pulled a metaphorical rabbit out of his presidential hat in the form of a new PM while the other was still very much in office on that fateful Friday (Oct 26). Then on the next Friday, he performed another, proroguing Parliament after appointing a Cabinet and deputies by dribs and drabs. Ludicrous if it was not the very life of the country that presidential pandu more..

Nov 18 (Island) Not only in Sri Lanka is there a visible meltdown of govt. Sometimes the implosion is triggered by energisation of social discontent that has long been voiceless (Trump’s America) and sometimes it is manmade - which is not to deny underlying social causes – but it surfaces at particular times when someone in a cardinal position goes berserk (SL and the Philippines). Mostly, chaos spills out of a stewing pot of poverty, corruption and economic failure (Venezuela, Brazil, Burma more..

Nov 18 (ST) Bad memories were revived and the image of PM Mahinda Rajapaksa took a beating. It was over an announcement that the former controversial CEO Kapila Chandrasena had been named the Chairman of SriLankan Airlines. One source said the move came on the recommendation of MP Namal Rajapaksa, though this could not be confirmed. However, when PM Rajapaksa, received a howl of protests, more..

Nov 18 (Island) Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of the American Constitution, described the judiciary as the weakest of the three branches of govt, because it carries neither the sword that only the executive wields, nor the purse that the legislature keeps. In the current constitutional circus in Sri Lanka, the judiciary is standing tall as the sanest and the most reliable branch of govt. Last week three judges of the Supreme Court more..

Nov 18 (Roar) PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. In very simple terms, it refers to an information standard by which organizations which handle the branded credit cards of prominent card schemes are measured, like Visa and Mastercard. Administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, it is a mandatory standard applied by all card brands. But why? more..

Nov 18 (CT) The Sri Lankan version of The Game of Thrones has seemingly reached its climax, showing the ugly side of the battle between the Executive Presidency and the Legislature to the entire world. The behaviour of Sri Lankan MPs, who are expected to solve any crisis in a democratic manner inside the House, for three consecutive days of the past week, is the best example to prove how far the political turmoil has gone. more..

Nov 18 (ST) Since Oct 26, Temple Trees has been a camping ground for UNP supporters who see themselves as defenders of its beleaguered resident, Ranil Wickremesighe. “Why am I here?” said 62-year-old Manel Jayasuriya from Maharagama. “To protect the PM.” “To lessen my pain,” interjected 68-year-old Chandrasena Waduge, also from the same area. “We are ready to die to prevent the PM from being evicted,” more..

Nov 18 (TG) The dangers of a return to power of Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot be overstated. When he was president, torture in Sri Lanka was routine. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in just a few months at the end of the civil war in 2009, in what his govt cynically referred to as a no-fire zone. It was, as the UN later noted, a grave assault on the entire regime of int'l law. President Sirisena, his successor, more..

Nov 18 (SO) Officials of the SL Mission in Israel will meet the group of suspected SL asylum seekers currently being held at the Givon Prison, today, a senior official said. The exact date of the group’s arrival in Tel Aviv remains unconfirmed. 13 Sri Lankans were detained by the Israeli law enforcement agencies after they arrived in Israel on tourist visas and thereafter, claimed political asylum, over a week ago. more..

Nov 18 (CI) A 5-wicket haul from Jack Leach has helped England secure a 57-run victory over Sri Lanka in Kandy to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. This is England's first series win in Asia since the 2012 victory over India and the first in SL since 2001 besides being their first series win away from home since they defeated South Africa three years ago. When play resumed on the fifth day, SL were 7 down more..

Nov 18 (CT) In the light of President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to dissolve Parliament and appoint a new Govt and Cabinet, there were mixed reactions across the board. A cross section who spoke to us were of the view that the Extraordinary gazette issued by Prez Sirisena to dismiss the 225 MPs and call for a snap general election on 5 Jan 2019 was laudable whereas there were reactions which opposed this view. more..

Nov 18 (CT) In a strongly-worded letter to President Maithripala Sirisena, the JVP has said the party does not wish to discuss the current political crisis with the President, as the latter has to demonstrate his resolve to address the issue by action. The JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in his letter, has explained why it decided to boycott the all-party meeting convened by President Sirisena this evening. more..

Nov 19 (CT) Sri Lanka over the last few weeks has experienced a twin crisis. One is political provoked by its constitution, and the other economic engendered by its politics. However, this crisis is the combined effect of two previous presidencies, those of JR Jayewardene (1978-89) and Mahinda Rajapaksa (2005-15). I prefer to call it the JR-MR-Effect. This effect is destroying the island’s proud democratic heritage and debilitating its struggling economy and peoples’ welfare. more..

Nov 19 (CT) How you interpret the title of this article depends on where you put a comma. So, given the current situation in Sri Lanka, where would you put a comma; where would you pause? Would you say, kill, not be killed, or kill not, be killed. I am not trying to promote violence. When the lawmakers of a country commit violence openly in their parliament, attack their own members, attack policemen, and commit crime with impunity, while the entire world is aghast, what would the citizens do? more..

Nov 19 (Roar) As a young boy of ten in the remote village of Vankalai, Mannar, Professor Augustine Sosai would hear the sounds of dynamites detonating out at sea. He knew what it meant — fishermen from the neighbouring villages were using explosives to illegally catch indiscriminate numbers of fish. “I’m 65 years old now,” he tells us. “When I am back at home in my village, I still hear dynamite explosions in the area. more..

Nov 19 (ST) Democracy rose from the ashes this Tuesday evening when the Supreme Court salvaged its moribund corpus from the flames the Executive had engulfed it in, only to be plunged into worse hellfire on Thursday morn when an unruly parliamentary mob turned the bleak House to a house of bedlam, in their attempt to gain, through mayhem and brute force, what had been denied to them unequivocally by the apex court of the land. But if Thursday’s parliamentary fracas more..

Nov 19 (ST) As pro-Rajapaksa MPs threw water lethally spiced with red chillie into the eyes of unarmed police officers valiantly guarding Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, the seventy-eight year old Speaker may take heart that his grace under fire will stand out as the most remarkable example of steadfastness in SL’s parliamentary history. Images of him resolutely facing down parts of a chair, a copy of the Bible and the Constitution aimed at his head, as the House (euphemistically) more..

Nov 19 (CT) An entire country is watching bewildered the political chaos that is heating up daily from 26 Oct, turning democratic political traditions upside down in Sri Lanka, which is one of the oldest democratic countries in Asia. No citizen in the capital Colombo to the remote villages can assess what is happening in the country at the moment. Even political predictions have no value at this juncture. more..

Nov 19 (SO) The three-day Parliamentary sittings turned into chaos owing to the stance taken by the Speaker to pass a No Confidence Motion (NCM) against the Govt on Wednesday through a vote taken by voice which the Govt legislators claimed is a violation of Standing Orders, Parliamentary Traditions and the Constitution. The tense situation in the House was aggravated the following day when the UNP led Opposition called for a vote on the statement made by PM Mahinda Rajapaksa. more..

Nov 19 (Island) There is a flipside to what has been another extraordinary week. Mahinda Rajapaksa untouchable veneer as saviour has taken multiple blows. Maithripala Sirisena stands confirmed, as of Friday night if not well before, a very small, mediocre man. And as with men of his diminutive stature, the over-compensation for what one lacks comes by way of a vaulting ambition that drives one into, first, blindness, and very soon, to madness. That all this unfolded in three weeks, more..

Nov 19 (Island) No party could muster a working majority in the House on its own at the 2015 general election; the UNP had 107 seats including one MP, who contested on the SLMC ticket, the UPFA 95, the TNA 16, the JVP 06 and the EPDP 01. Neither the UNP nor the UPFA can secure 113 seats without resorting to horse trading and bribery to engineer defections. Prez Sirisena has gone on record as saying that some MPs were paid huge sums of money, ranging from Rs. 100 m to Rs. 500 m, more..

Nov 19 (Island) Sovereignty in broad terms means supreme power or authority. National sovereignty accordingly, is the autonomy or the independence of a State based on this supreme power or authority. In history wars were fought to preserve sovereignty of nations and sometimes to make sovereign nations subservient or to break them up. When sovereignty is lost, as has been our experience, it often takes several centuries to recover it. When force of arms was used against the sovereignty more..

Nov 19 (CI) Yet another SL loss, influenced by yet another round of missed chances and poor fielding, has led to yet another coach putting forth yet another plan to correct this long-standing woe. SL's fielding, and their catching in particular, has been awful since 2015, with a substantial proportion of losses since then having been put down to dropped catches and bad ground fielding. Against England at Pallekele, more..

Nov 19 (CT) Test skipper Dinesh Chandimal, who was ruled out of the second Test due to a groin injury, will undergo a fitness test today, said coach Chandika Hathurusinghe. “He’s doing a fitness test tomorrow. After we get the results - and if he passes - most likely he will be available for selection.” If Chandimal is available for selection, SL will have to drop either Kusal Mendis or opener Kaushal Silva to accommodate him, as Roshen Silva who replaced Chandimal in the 2nd Test proved his worth more..

Nov 19 (DM) At least 51 people including 42 women were arrested following an eight-hour raid on brothels carried out in several areas in the Gampaha district on Saturday. Police said the suspects were arrested on charges of operating brothels in the guise of spas in Kelaniya, Gampaha and Negombo police areas. The raid was conducted between 12 p.m to 8 p.m on Saturday by the officials of the Divisional Intelligence Unit and crimes prevention officers on a court order. more..

Nov 19 (FT) Former Minister and MP Milinda Moragoda in a statement called for an all-party caretaker govt to hold elections as a means of a way out of the current political crisis. Following is the full statement. Our society has perhaps never been as acutely polarised along class, ethnic, religious, party and regional fault lines as it has now become with recent events. Political developments over the last couple of weeks have further more..

Nov 19 (CI) Having challenged his players to play bold, courageous cricket on their tour of Sri Lanka, England's captain Joe Root said that he would take immense pride in the manner in which his players backed up their words with deeds to secure their first series win in Asia for six years. Root himself was named Man of the Match for his superb second-innings 124, a performance that epitomised his team's positive approach to batting in challenging conditions, and he admitted that more..

Nov 19 (ST) Two employees of a funeral parlour were released on Rs 500,000 personal bail by Mahara Chief Magistrate Heshan De Mel this week, after they were produced in court in connection with the theft of goods from the parlour, including two artificial tusks and vases. The two men who had allegedly stolen goods from their workplace and sold them to another place, were apprehended by Police after the owner of the funeral parlour lodged a complaint. more..

Nov 19 (Island) Former State Minister Kaheliya Rambukwella said in Kandy on Saturday that the govt was ready to respond positively if the UNP-JVP-TNA presented a no-confidence motion against the PM Mahinda Rajapaska in a proper manner. "If the motion of no-confidence is presented in a proper manner we will not run away; we will face it," he said at the meeting of the Senkadagala Balamandalaya of the SLPP. more..

Nov 19 (Island) Officers of the Wellawatte Division Anti Vice Squad arrested a person who was transporting heroin with a street value of Rs. 30 million, near Paradise Ground, Kotahena in the early hours of yesterday. The suspect was traveling in an SUV. He had in his possession two kilos and 79 grams of heroin, at the time of arrest. The suspect, a resident of Grandpass was operating from Maligawatte. The police acted on a tip-off that the suspect was on his way to hand over more..

Nov 19 (FT) The unprecedented political crisis continues to weaken the rupee, reducing its value by over 13% year to date, with developments since 26 October contributing to over 15% of the overall dip. The rupee on spot contracts closed last week lower at Rs. 176.50/65 subsequent to hitting an intra-week low of Rs. 176.80 and a high of Rs. 175.60. Wealth Trust Securities attributed the dip to importer demand and buying interest by banks. In the previous week, prevailing political uncertainty more..