Apr 10 (Island) A recommendation by the Constitutional Council to accommodate TNA leader R. Sampanthan as a member of the decision making body is subject to formal approval by Prez Sirisena. The CC, on April 5, at a meeting chaired by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya recommended Sampanthan to fill vacancy created by the resignation of Hambantota District MP Chamal Rajapaksa. more..

Apr 10 (AD) Cabinet of Ministers has approved a proposal to assign the project to replace traditional street lamps with LED lamps to the Korea Telecom Company. The proposal to assign the project under the Korea Telecom Company has been presented to the Cabinet by the Minister Vajira Abeywardana. This proposal was previously forwarded by the Korea Telecom Company in order to make the street lighting more efficient and the Cabinet appointed an official committee to study relevant proposal. more..

Apr 10 (TP) Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, has lauded the speech by Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the opening of the 140th Assembly of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), saying that it highlighted the commitment of the leadership towards solving pressing issues across the world. He said that the speech advocated the need to promote dialogue, peace and cooperation among nations and importance of social justice and education, which are essential in today’s world. more..

Apr 10 (KT) A SL maid was sentenced to six months in prison and fined Dh5,000 by the Sharjah Criminal Court for setting ablaze the car of her sponsor's wife parked in his house in Sharjah's Al Seeyoh area. The convict will be deported after serving the jail term. During the court hearing, Sultan Mohamed, the Emirati sponsor who is the complainant, said that on the day of the incident, he had gone out to the market when more..

Apr 10 (HCI) High Commission of India Colombo announces scholarships to SL nationals under the Ayush Scholarship Scheme for UG/PG/PhD courses in Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy for the academic year 2019-20. Govt of India selects meritorious SL nationals for award of these scholarships in consultation with the Ministry of Higher Education, Govt of SL. These scholarships cover full tuition fees and a monthly sustenance allowance for the entire duration of course. more..

Apr 10 (AD) The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a proposal to make necessary amendments to update the Sports Act No.25 of 1973. The proposal was presented to the Cabinet by Minister Harin Fernando. The Sports Act No: 25 of 1973 which provides guidelines for the development of the sports sector has been revised in the years 1993, 1998, and 2005 over timely requirements. Minister Fernando has forwarded the following suggestions to amend the Act: more..

Apr 10 (EN) Sri Lanka has kept fuel prices stable, halting a pricing formula for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year season, Minister Mangala Samaraweera said. "Although fuel prices should be increased to reflect the rising global prices, local rates will not be increased to give the people relief during the festive season," a statement from the minister said. He said world oil prices have been consistently rising, reaching US$ 74 per more..

Apr 10 (Island) China and Sri Lanka are looking at the possibility of establishing a joint study group to identify critical success factors that would have to be put into place to take the economic, investment and trade relationship between the two countries to the next level. A senior delegation from the China Institutes of Contemporary Int'l Relations (CICIR) led by Dr Fu Mengzi, Vice President, visited the Pathfinder Foundation Office at Riverpoint on Monday to continue more..

Apr 10 (GDI) A five-member Ministerial Committee headed by PM Ranil Wickremesinghe has been appointed to resolve the existing power crisis. Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of Power, Energy and Business Development Ravi Karunanayake, Minister of Highways & Road Development and Petroleum Resources Development Kabir Hashim and Minister of Ports and Shipping and Southern Development Sagala Ratnayaka have been appointed as more..

Apr 10 (AD) The SLFP and SLPP discussion held on a possible alliance between the two parties has concluded a short while ago. Agreements have been made to meet up for the fourth round of talks on the 9th of May. Representatives of the SLFP and the SLPP have commenced the third round of their discussion on the proposed alliance between the two parties, stated Ada Derana reporter. more..

Apr 10 (AD) Nazeem Mohamed Faizer, who was arrested in Dubai with Makandure Madush and deported to SL, has been remanded. As per the order of the Colombo Additional Magistrate Thanuja Jayatunga, he has been remanded until the 24th of April. When he was deported from Dubai, he was taken under the custody of the CID for interrogation. He was then arrested and handed over to the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD). The CCD produced him before the courts yesterday more..

Apr 10 (Island) Over 250 Youth from the Alliance of Youth to End Violence Against Children (AYEVAC) gathered at the Vihara Maha Devi park on Sunday to join forces against corporal punishment and psychological aggression. The gathering was part of the JUST SAY NO campaign organized by Stop Child Cruelty and supported by ChildFund Sri Lanka as part of its own advocacy efforts to ban corporal punishment by 2020. ChildFund Sri Lanka said that research indicate that corporal punishment more..

Apr 10 (NR) Constitutional expert Lal Wijenayake says President Maithripala Sirisena’s first term will officially end on the 8th of Jan 2020. Chairman of the Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reform Attorney Lal Wijenayake said the term of the Executive has been limited to five years following the enactment of the 19th Amendment and therefore Prez should not violate the country’s Constitution to more..

Apr 11 (CT) Four Muslim teachers from a Hindu majority Govt School in Trincomalee suddenly realised one day that their Islamic religiosity appeared devalued because of the saree they were wearing and therefore decided to revalue their piety by switching to the black coloured abaya, which is a recently adopted Arab cultural dress and spreading no doubt in many parts of the Muslim world. That there is a correlation between the spread of this dress and a religious ideology that supports more..

Apr 11 (CT) Sri Lankans have been trying to abolish the executive presidential system for a long time. Ever since the system was introduced in 1977, a segment of the populace and many political parties were in the forefront of the campaign to do away with the system. Promises, proposals & campaigns failed to produce results partly because many of the attempts were not entirely sincere. Many political leaders love the system obviously due to unlimited powers it confers on the govt of the day. more..

Apr 11 (Roar) In each of our smartphones, there are myriad elements, each with a specific function that allows the device to operate. The chemicals that make up each of these elements are harmless in small quantities, but as more and more electronics are produced—and more thrown away—they pose a risk to our environment and health. In the last two decades, the global growth in electrical & electronic equipment production more..

Apr 11 (DN) Last week we discussed the Proclamation and Preliminary Planning on the fourth presidential election held on Dec 21, 1999. Nominations were accepted on Nov 16, CBK and RW were nominated by Governing PA and UNP respectively, while Nandana Gunathilake contested from JVP along with few others. It was the height of Northern war. Kumaratunga wanted to continue action against LTTE, while her opponent Wickremesinghe campaigned under more..

Apr 11 (CT) Most people in Sri Lanka are unhappy (SL has dropped from the 116th place to the 130th place in the UN global Happiness Index, out of 156 countries, this year), deeply concerned and bewildered by what is going on in our country. They keep asking what is happening, what is going to happen?. The Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW) Administration is breaking down, and instead of the promised good governance there is a failure of governance, featured by open corruption more..

Apr 11 (SO) When post-modernist, award winning novelist Shakthika Sathkumara walked into the Polgahawela Police Station on 1st April morning along with his lawyer and two other associates, what followed was completely unforeseen. About four Buddhist monks were at the station already. Sathkumara, a 33-year-old father of two, was hoping to avoid a confrontation with the monks. When he was first called to provide more..

Apr 11 (DN) 38-year-old Sivasidambaram Vasugi is the General Manager of one of the first cooperative-owned seed paddy processing centres in Killinochchi. Integrated Farmers Thrift and Credit Cooperative Society provides local farmers with high-quality seeds, but these days, there are no buyers walking in the door. Her community is facing a crippling water shortage following many months of drought. Nearly 18,000 kg of processed paddy seed stock sits unclaimed on Vasugi’s factory floor, more..

Apr 11 (Island) Road accidents snuff out about seven or eight lives daily. The proliferation of CCTV cameras has helped us witness, on television, many shocking scenes where vehicles collide head-on or knock down pedestrians. The worst culprits are the private bus and truck drivers who are notorious for their callous disregard for human lives. They behave as if they alone had a right to use public roads and others were at their mercy. The same goes for undisciplined trishaw drivers & motorcyclists, more..

Apr 11 (GV) Nadaraja Devakrishnan stumbled on the gravity of the microfinance debt issue purely by chance. He was attempting to begin community gardening in a small village, to respond to rising cases of CKDu in the district. On returning to check the progress of cultivation, he found none, as all the people had been physically and monetarily drained trying to pay back their microfinance loans. Through the People’s Movement for Community Awareness, he has been grappling with more..

Apr 11 (BI) In what was seen as a political earthquake at the time, Mahinda Rajapaksa, president of SL since 2005, unexpectedly lost his bid for a third term to Maithripala Sirisena in Jan 2015 elections. Sirisena and a supportive parliamentary majority (elected later in 2015) adopted an ambitious agenda to reverse the nearly autocratic powers Rajapaksa had amassed and to address the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s 25-year civil war, including the question of accountability over alleged more..

Apr 11 (CT) A few weeks ago Ceylon Today interviewed the occupants of Sirisara Uyana; a high-rise building constructed by UDA to house former residents of underserved settlements−commonly known as slums. A few of these occupants commented on how they thought Sahaspura; a high rise for slum dwellers under the Urban Settlement Development Authority, had more space and convenience in comparison. more..

Apr 11 (CT) Airtel introduced the Airtel Fastest in February 2019 with a view to identifying Sri Lanka’s undiscovered fast bowling talent to enrich the national fast bowling pool. Travelling the length and breadth of the country to unearth grass-root talent, Airtel Fastest spanned 11 trial locations across the country. The talent hunt was initially conducted in Jaffna, Polonnaruwa, Batticaloa, Matara, Badulla, Ruwanwella, Gampaha, Kurunegala, Kandy, Horana and Colombo. more..

Apr 11 (Island) I was sadly reminded about the brutal murder of my uncle, my father’s only brother, when I read Death Penalty for brutal killers, a critique by Jayman of my article No alternatives to the noose?, wherein it is stated "Fortunately for him, he or his loved ones have obviously not been the victims of brutish murders …". Indeed, we are very unfortunate; more so, because his body has never been found and the family could, therefore, not even have a funeral. more..

Apr 11 (DN) SL’s hero of their 1996 World Cup win Aravinda de Silva and Coca Cola have a lot in common. It was Coca Cola who sponsored his brainchild Cricket Pathway for a decade and moreover it was when Coca Cola was a sponsor of the World Cup that SL won the coveted title in 1996 where De Silva played the leading role in helping his country to win the most prized trophy in cricket with a blazing century in the final more..

Apr 11 (SO) World Cup champion turned welfare crusader Roshan Mahanama has thrown his fame and weight behind a push to sustain the healthcare of one of Sri Lanka’s most charismatic sporting icons Chandrishan Perera who is currently undergoing medical therapy in a wheelchair. Mahanama, now an ambassador for several humanitarian organisations, wasted no time after hearing that rugby veteran was struck down with Parkinson’s disease, a brain bleed and a weakened spine. more..

Apr 11 (CT) gamer.lk has announced the first ever Women’s Cyber Games eSports tournament dedicated to female eSports athletes in SL. The event is sponsored by Sri Lanka Telecom, who join as the title partner of the event to empower female athletes in what is the fastest growing sport in SL. An increasing number of female gamers have taken to eSports, and the Women’s Cyber Games is organised with the intention of giving them a dedicated platform to showcase their skills. more..

Apr 11 (Island) Veteran Angelo Mathews smashed a hundred to help Dambulla to a consolation win in the Super Four Provincial tournament third place playoff game yesterday at Rangiri Dambulla Int'l Cricket Stadium. Dambulla had struggled throughout the competition and edged out Kandy by 94 runs thanks to the big fourth wicket partnership between Mathews and Bhanuka Rajapaksa. Dambulla were off to a poor start more..

Apr 11 (CT) To curb drunk driving during the festive season, 25,000 additional breathalysers have been brought down. This comes in the wake of a rise in fatal accidents due to drunk driving during the festive season. Statistically it has been found that, “The most number of fatal road accidents occur in April. Last year, there were 296 fatal accidents in April and a majority was due to drunk driving, so we will take necessary precautions,” Police Media Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said. more..

Apr 11 (DN) Buwaneka Gunatilleka and Thilini Hendahewa emerged open men’s and women’s singles champions at the inaugural Defenders Open Badminton championships which concluded at Army Indoor Stadium Panagoda. Buwaneka completed the double by winning the men’s singles and doubles partnered by Sachin Dias but missed the triple crown losing the mixed doubles final. Buwaneka who upset Dinuka Karunaratna in the semifinals earlier won in straight sets more..

Apr 11 (FT) Govt has kicked off discussions on amalgamating as many as 40 different labour laws into one comprehensive legislative framework, to simplify employment among different sectors and improve economic competitiveness. Labour Minister Ravindra Samaraweera said Govt was moving forward to create one comprehensive labour law and talks had already begun between different departments within the Ministry. more..

Apr 11 (DM) SL’s tourism earnings grew by 5.9% YoY to US$ 1.39 billion in the first quarter of the year. The growth in tourist arrivals averaged to 4.6% in the first quarter with 740,600 foreigners travelling to the island nation. In March, the country earned US$ 458.6 million from tourism, up 6% from US$ 432.8 million a year earlier. Tourist arrivals grew moderately at 4.7% YoY in March to 244,328 visitors amidst a notable decline in arrivals from Northern & Western European countries. more..

Apr 11 (DM) Ava Group had put up notices in the Jaffna University premises warning that the students who were involved in ragging newcomers will be punished and calling for immediate stop of any ragging activities in the university. Several posters had been put up in a building of the arts faculty on Tuesday night and in reply, students unions of the Jaffna and Eastern University had also put up notices saying that no such ragging is carried out on the newcomers in the university. more..

Apr 11 (FT) PM Ranil Wickremesinghe announced new measures to reduce lending rates, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), but stopped short of putting a cap on lending interest rates. PM, announcing the new measures that were adopted after recommendations were made by a group of experts, said Govt would review the procedures over the next few weeks & make adjustments if necessary. more..

Apr 11 (Island) Cricketing star Kumar Sangakkara addressed the staff of the BOI and spoke of the importance of the concept of leadership in an organization like Sri Lanka’s investment promotion and facilitation agency. The address was titled Reach the Peak 2019. This was an opportunity for the popular sporting personality to share his experiences on the sporting field and to express his ideas on "the importance of believing in something bigger than yourself". more..

Apr 11 (DN) All top seeds in the respective Divisions for the different Age Groups qualified for the semifinal stage with top seeded Haroon Aslam receiving a walk-over in the Gold Division for Boys from Jestin Robinson from Kilinochchi. Robinson grabbed the opportunity to win the Plate Division on a count-back from Lidurshan, who didn’t qualify for the match-play stage. Aslam will meet Dilshan Malinda who overcame 4th seeded T. Vikash in a nail-biting finish on the 19th hole more..

Apr 11 (DM) A group of SLFPers cheated the party by joining the SLPP soon after Prez Sirisena sacked PM Ranil Wickremesinghe and formed a govt with opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa as the PM, General Secretary of the SLFP, Dayasiri Jayasekara said. He asked whether abstaining in Parliament and not to vote in favour of the budget 2019 was a bigger offence than the betrayal of the party on Nov 11, on which more..