Apr 2 (NZH) Touring on two wheels, Stephanie Holmes takes in Sri Lanka's smaller details to find a true sense of place. We pass women picking tea leaves in their beautiful bright saris and, at times, the scent of fresh tea overpowers the air. On a clear day you can see forever, but today Lion Rock is hiding its mysterious beauty behind a heavy shroud of mist. From the bottom, we can't see the top of this famous Sri Lankan monolith, also known as Sigiriya. From the top, it's impossible to see further than more..

Apr 2 (EN) SL's renewable power sector is not paying a single cent as taxes, while levies have gone up in many other sectors, ex-Deputy Minister for Power and Energy Ajith Perera said. Most sectors have seen a hike in taxes, including personal income tax with the people called upon to help repay national debt. "In many sectors taxes have gone up," Perera told parliament. "But in renewable, especially solar and wind, taxes are zero. more..

Apr 2 (DN) Sri Lanka’s one-day fast bowler Lasith Malinga is due to return from his IPL commitments with Mumbai Indians and lead Galle in the Super Provincial limited-over cricket tournament starting on April 4. The veteran cricketer is currently representing Mumbai Indians but is due to return on April 3 to participate in the Super Provincial which will be the criterion for selection of the Sri Lanka squad of 15 for the upcoming World Cup in England. Chief selector Ashantha de Mel said more..

Apr 2 (FT) A Quality Assurance and Accreditation Commission will be set up soon to supervise the higher education functions in Sri Lanka, Minister Rauff Hakeem said in Colombo on 26 March. He was inaugurating the 15th International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) Biennial Conference, held at the BMICH, Colombo. The Conference, was hosted by the UGC with the support of the Ministry of City Planning, Water Supply & Higher Education. more..

Apr 2 (Island) There was a dire need to bring in new laws to make the Attorney General’s Department an independent institution. It was not easy to make constitutional changes but certain laws could be changed. It was the President who suggested the names for the post of AG and generally the AG was bound to represent the President in any case. Then invariably there was a suspicion regarding the independence of AG, more..

Apr 2 (DN) Chairman of Ceylon National Chamber of Industries Raja Hewabowala said that the National Budget 2019 has many plus points since it has touched all segments of society and the country’s economy. Among the proposals, the continuation of Enterprise Sri Lanka is certainly a good move which would help improve income distribution and buying power particularly, among the country’s masses with employment generation which was a grave problem in rural areas. more..

Apr 2 (SLN) Naval personnel attached to a Coastal Patrol Vessel (CPV) belonging to the Northern Naval Command, during their patrol to curb illegal smuggling attempts in the territorial waters of the island, apprehended 4 Nigerian persons and 2 Sri Lankan nationals onboard a suspicious trawler plying in the Northern seas of Sri Lanka yesterday (31). The CPV on patrol had spotted the suspicious trawler in the seas about 12 nautical miles North of Thalaimannar lighthouse and accordingly, more..

Apr 2 (FT) CEB yesterday signed a power purchase agreement with one independent power producer to the grid, while issuing a Letter of Intent (LOI) for three successful bidders in supplementary power tender, highly placed sources confirmed. CEB signed procurement agreement with Ace Matara to add 20MW and has invited Asia Power which has capacity for 50MW and is likely to sign the purchase agreement as well. more..

Apr 2 (EN) State-owned Bank of Ceylon said its net profits for the December 2018 quarter fell 1.9% to 6.65 billion rupees with higher bad loan provisioning. Earnings per share for the quarter were 332.69 rupees. BOC's net profits for 2018 fell 9% to 19.53 billion, with earnings per share of 1047.68 rupees, due to rising interest costs and provisioning for bad loans. Interest income for the December quarter grew 15.5% from a year earlier to 55.1 billion rupees, while more..

Apr 2 (DN) The entire nation will take a National Pledge to eradicate the drug menace (Bak Maha Divuruma) tomorrow committing themselves to building a country free from the drug menace. The main ceremony will be held at Independence Square tomorrow at 8.15 a.m. under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena with the blessings of the all religious leaders. All MPs representing the Govt and the Opposition are expected to participate in this ceremony, the PMD said. more..

Apr 2 (HRW) The SL govt should drop plans to resume executions, which would end an unofficial 43-year moratorium in the country, Human Rights Watch said. On March 31, 2019, Prez Maithripala Sirisena said that a date had been set to resume carrying out the death penalty in drug trafficking cases. Sirisena renewed calls for the death penalty following a visit to the Philippines in January, during which he called more..

Apr 2 (GN) More than 30,000 children in Sri Lanka will benefit from the new literacy programme launched in their districts, thanks to the partnership of Dubai Cares and Save the Children. A delegation from Dubai Cares recently visited Sri Lanka to launch the programme that aims to improve children’s literacy levels in the Northern and Southern Provinces where there is a critical need to improve the quality of education. The $1 million (Dh3.6 million) project has three main pillars more..

Apr 2 (FT) Last week SL and Australian disaster management experts exchanged experiences on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR). The four-day program, attended by civilian and military representatives from both countries, included representatives from SL NGOs and UN organisations who partner with the SL and Australian Govts on HADR in Sri Lanka. The HADR program was part of the visit to SL by Australia’s Indo Pacific Endeavour 2019 Task Force more..

Apr 2 (FT) Govt accused the Opposition in Parliament of going against the decision reached at the Party Leaders’ meeting to refrain from seeking a vote during the committee stage debates of the Budget. “The decisions reached the Party Leaders’ meeting would be honoured if there are gentlemen in the Parliament. They should have kept their word,” Minister Lakshman Kiriella said. He said that the recent defeat of expenditure more..

Apr 2 (CT) Minister Tilak Marapana said in Parliament that the Bail Act should be amended to make the bail procedure easy and flexible. He made this remark during the Committee Stage Debate of the Appropriation Bill 2019 on the Expenditure Heads of the Ministry of Justice and Prison Reforms and the Ministry of Public Administration and Disaster Management. He added that because of the loopholes in this procedure, prisons are overcrowded at the moment. more..

Apr 2 (DM) A top pharmacist said today that 80% of pharmaceuticals imported by Sri Lanka are not imported by any other country in the world. Pharmacist of National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) Gopi de Silva informed this to the PCoI to probe allegations of large scale corruption between Jan 15, 2015 and Dec 31, 2018. Responding to him, Chairman of PCoI justice Upaly Abeyrathne directed the Commission to investigate it to identify the reason. more..

Apr 2 (FT) The SLPP yesterday warned the SLFP that if its MPs do not vote against the Budget on Friday, finding common ground to form a broad political alliance against UNP would be difficult. “We want to continue talks with the SLFP to form an alliance against UNP but we cannot clap with one hand. Therefore, the SLFP also has a role to play in this. We believe SLFP can correct themselves on 5 April,” more..

Apr 2 (DM) The present power crisis is not the first of its kind in the country. We have been running into such crises occasionally for the past several decades including long drawn power cuts in the late 1990s and in 2001, during the height of the ethnic war. The irony and the pathetic side of the story is that the country has not found a lasting solution to the problem, despite it possessing a range of rivers flowing from the central highlands of the island to the periphery and being a tropical country more..

Apr 2 (DM) When the Second State Council met for the first time on March 17, 1936, the 30-year-old Double Doctor N. M. Perera, who defeated Molamure Kumarihamy of the Meedeniya Walauwa in Ruwanwella, seconded the name of Duraiswamy for the post of Speaker. W. Duraiswamy secured 30 votes defeating Francis de Zoysa who got 28 votes. The very next day allocation of members among the Donoughmore Commission created Executive Committee, [which enabled representatives more..

Apr 2 (DM) The anti-Muslim campaign of the fringe Sinhala Buddhist ultra-nationalist bigotry is regenerative. It is adept at finding a new ruse every now and then. The list ranges from Halal, cow slaughter, Muslim clothing stores, wada pethi (sterilizing tablets) and the latest Save Wilpattu. All the past campaigns culminated in a violent upheaval, after which it went through a period of hibernation only to resurface under a more..

Apr 2 (EN) Police commandos have been deployed at a state-owned beach mineral sands mine in north-eastern Sri Lanka to prevent illegal mining and sale of sand for construction by people with local political support, officials said. The sand was being taken from the site at Pulmoddai operated by Lanka Mineral Sands Ltd. (LMSL) which mines, processes and exports the heavy mineral beach sand. more..

Apr 2 (Island) Although over 3500 investors have submitted applications to build mini hydro power plants, only 75 such power stations could be built, Renewable Energy Director of Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority Athula Jayatunga said. Already a large number of mini hydro power plants were operating in Ratnapura, Kegalle, Nuwara-Eliya and other mountain areas in the wet zone. more..

Apr 2 (ST) The Malaysian shareholder of MTD Walkers is yet to sell its 90.8% controlling stake of troubled construction company to Sri Lanka’s Anunine Holdings. The Walkers share has been suspended from trading since February 13, 2019. No such controlling stake transaction took place between December 31 last year and that date, so MTD Capital Bhd of Malaysia is still the direct owner of that chunk. more..

Apr 2 (NR) Former skipper Angelo Mathews says he has fully recovered from the recurring injury which resulted in the National Team missing his services during several bilateral series in the recent past. Mathews has been injury-prone due to the heavy workload he had to endure following the retirement of Mahela and Sangakkara. Mathews also missed the recent Sri Lanka tour of South Africa and the national selectors were fretting over more..

Apr 2 (Island) The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture is set to carry out its first visit to Sri Lanka from today to the 12th to examine the treatment of people deprived of their liberty and the safeguards in place for their protection against torture and ill-treatment. UNHRC states that the four-member delegation will meet govt officials and hold discussions with relevant ministries, as well as meeting with the Human Rights Commission more..

Apr 2 (FT) Parliamentary Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) finds the Budget proposal presented in Parliament lacking accuracy, proper estimates, and basis for proposals not being included in the documents presented. Calling the proposals misleading using ambiguous terminology to propose changes CoPF Chairman TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran said the problem is a systematic issue which runs decades back. more..

Apr 2 (AD) The cabinet has granted approval to declare 15 of April a government holiday. Minister of Home Affairs, Vajira Abeywardena submitted a Cabinet paper seeking approval to grant April 15 th a government holiday. The secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Kamal Pathmasiri said that the decision was approved by the cabinet as the new year falls on a Sunday. April 15th has already been announced as a Bank holiday. more..

Apr 2 (NR) Indication of colour codes for Sugar, Salt & Fat content in all sweets including biscuits will be made mandatory from today. All packaging will bear the colour codes indicating respective levels of Sugar, Salt and Fat content. Accordingly more than 22 grams of sugar in a 100 gram sweet will be indicated in red, while sugar levels between 8 to 22 grams will be indicated in yellow and 8 grams and less in green. more..

Apr 2 (AD) Two more suspects, who were arrested in Dubai along with the notorious drug kingpin Makandure Madush at a party that involved drugs, have been deported to Sri Lanka last night (01), the Police Spokesperson said. Upon their arrival, the CID had taken them into custody at the BIA. The suspects are namely Mohammad Siddik Mohommad Shiyam(48) and Weerasinghage Lanka Sajitha Perera (40). more..

Apr 2 (FT) Through the entire period of independence SL experienced ethnic conflicts. The majority Sinhalese had conflicts with Tamils of Indian origin, SL Tamils and Muslims. After the independence, especially after 1956, the Burgher community of SL started migrating to various countries mainly to Australia. SL Tamils also started migrating later and created an influential diaspora now. A large number of Tamils of Indian origin were sent back to India under Sirima-Shastri pact. more..

Apr 2 (DN) The driver of the Defender vehicle, Navindu Ratnayake who was arrested over the hit and run accident that killed Borella Traffic OIC, IP Sarathchandra was yesterday released on bail by Colombo Additional Magistrate Shalini Perera. The suspect was ordered to be released on two sureties of Rs.500,000. Superintendent of Police Chandana Kodithuwakku appearing on behalf of the Police informed court that the Attorney General has given instructions to file indictments against more..

Apr 2 (CT) Three of the most ardent cronies of the previous Rajapaksa regime have been given Ambassador posts by Prez Sirisena. Kshenuka Seneviratne who was Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and instigator of the infamous incident where Chris Nonis, then High Commissioner to the UK was assaulted by Sajin Vass Gunawardena, is to be SL’s Ambassador to the UN in New York. This position is currently been held by Dr. Rohan Perera an eminent legal more..

Apr 2 (CT) Minister Laksman Kiriella addressing a meeting at his electorate in Kandy on Sunday blamed Opposition backstabbing for the defeat of the votes of two ministries, Megapolis and Internal and Home Affairs and Provincial Councils and Local Govt, last week. He alleged that the failure of the Opposition to adhere to a party leaders’ agreement that no one should call for a division for Heads of Expenditure during the Committee Stage debate on Appropriation Bill 2019 led to these defeats. more..

Apr 2 (DM) The govt will complete the formulation of a set of fresh legislation by the middle of May to be applied only in the territory of landmass acquired under the Colombo Port City project or the international financial city. Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva who spearheads the steering committee appointed to look into this, said that there would be a set of new bills that would deal with the entire gamut of financial activities such as more..

Apr 2 (DN) Pradeep Amirthanayagam has been appointed as the Deputy Chief of Staff to the PM Ranil Wickramasinghe. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing UK (FCIM) and a reputed advertising and media personality in Sri Lanka with over 30 years' experience in the fields of journalism, advertising and administration. He is a media iconwho served as a news presenter for Rupavahini, ITN and SLBC and also an interviewer and a cricket commentator. more..

Apr 2 (AD) The son of former notorious underworld leader Soththi Upali has been arrested by police while in possession of over 2.5 kg of heroin and a weapon at Katubedda. Lakshitha Prasanna, 41, was arrested at around 10.15 a.m. this morning following a raid carried out by the Colombo district anti-vice unit at Thuduwamulla, Katubedda in the Moratumulla police division. Police officers seized 2 kg and 549 g of heroin as well as a foreign-manufactured repeater firearm more..

Apr 2 (EN) MAS Holdings, an apparel manufacturer, is working on wearable technology to make menstruation more bearable for Sri Lankan women, an official said. "Where we want to start work in Sri Lanka first is on periods," MAS Holdings Femtech Head Gayani Abeysinghe said. "We want to start in our own factories because we want to make sure our own backyard is clean before we try to solve everyone else's problem," she said. more..

Apr 2 (AD) 769kg of Cocaine seized by law enforcement agencies in the past have been destroyed in a cement kiln of 1800°C-2000°C at the INSEE cement factory in Puttalam. The procedure was conducted under the supervision of Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne and Mount Lavinia Chief Magistrate M.M.M. Niffar. The stock of Cocaine was liquefied last evening and brought to the INSEE cement factory under tight police security. more..

Apr 2 (NR) The case filed by the Bribery Commission against UPFA MP Kumara Welgama, has been fixed for trial on the 7th of May. The order was issued by Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne. Magistrate considered a request made by the CIABOC to file an amended charge sheet, and re-fixed the trial date. Bribery Commission charged that former Transport Minister Kumara Welgama caused an unlawful loss to the govt by appointing a Deputy Chairman to SL Transport Board more..