Aug 2 (CT) Army Commander, Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake testifying before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) at the Parliament Complex on Bloody Easter Sunday on Wednesday said that there was mistrust between the Army and the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) in sharing and acting on intelligence information. The Army's intelligence service is known as Military Intelligence (MI), while the TID is one of several of Police's intelligence arms. more..

Aug 2 (AD) All licensed liquor shops in Kandy and surrounding areas are to be closed from the 5th to 15th of August in view of the historic Kandy Esala Perahera, says the Department of Excise. Accordingly, all licensed liquor shops at Kandy Four Gravets and Gangawata Korale Divisional Secretariat, Peradeniya, Katugastota, Aladeniya, Ambatenna, Madawala, Menikhinna, Digana and Talatuoya areas will be closed for the time being. Commissioner-General of Excise Dept said more..

Aug 2 (SLN) A haul of 36kg of Beedi leaves which were floating in the Northern seas were recovered by fishermen on 2nd Aug and they hand over that haul of Beedi leaves to SLNS Wasaba in Delft Island. Accordingly, the haul of Beedi leaves which were handed over to the Navy by fishermen, was handed over to Customs Office-Jaffna for onward investigation. Also, Navy found 50 kg of Beedi leaves during patrols carried out by naval personnel in the seas off Kachchativu island and more..

Aug 2 (RN) Minister Harin Fernando discussed the proposed reforms to Sri Lanka’s cricket administration with ICC Chairman Shashanth Manohar in New Delhi yesterday. The reforms are to be integrated into a new constitution for SLC which Fernando presented as a Bill in Parliament last week. The ICC disagrees with govts having any role in the administration of cricket. The reforms are based on recommendations made by more..

Aug 2 (EN) Sri Lanka is planning to raise at least 500 million US dollar equivalent from a yen denominated bond, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe has said. "From Japan bond markets we are trying to get at least 500 million from Samurai bonds," he said at a forum in Colombo on August 01. Sri Lanka wants to raise extra money in 2018 to repay debt since 2019 is an election year, CB Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy said. SL sold US dollar denominated sovereign bonds twice this year. more..

Aug 2 (AD) Sri Lanka’s foreign affairs minister Tilak Marapana today held a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar in Bangkok on Friday. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the annual meeting of foreign ministers at Asean (Association of South-east Asian Nations) in the Thai capital. Jaishankar is in the Thai capital to attend a number of conferences, including the ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting, the 9th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, more..

Aug 2 (AD) UNP Chairman Kabir Hashim says that the UNP’s presidential candidate will be a member of the party and that they will not be fielding a candidate from another party this time. Responding to questions from reporters following an event in Kegalle, he said that views have been expressed within the party regarding its Presidential Candidate and the party stands ready for the election. more..

Aug 2 (Island) Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) MP Mohamed Harees says he has no intention of joining the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). Responding queries, he told The Island that since he was the party’s Deputy Leader he did not need to cross over. However, informed sources said that he would support former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at future elections. An official said that SLMC Deputy Leader already held discussions with SLPP strategist Basil Rajapaksa. more..

Aug 2 (EN) A path breaking initiative for SL-based renewable energy firms to move into Africa has been laid in Addis Ababa through a program backed by the United National Development Program (UNDP) and China, island's embassy in Ethiopia said. UNDP and Ministry of Irrigation and Energy in Ethiopia have supported a forum in Addis Ababa, with the participation of African business chambers to showcase SL's capabilities in deploying renewable energy solutions in solar & biogas. more..

Aug 2 (RN) Colombo High Court today issued arrest warrants against Nissanka Senadipathi and Palitha Fernando as they did not appear before court over the case filed against them for allegedly giving and accepting a bribe of Rs. 35.5 million in connection with the floating armoury of Avant Garde Maritime Services. Gamini Marapana, PC appearing for the suspects informed the Court that first suspect Senadipathi is residing in Singapore and more..

Aug 2 (AD) Samarappulige Niraj Roshan alias Ali Roshan and seven others have been granted bail over the case on alleged illegal possession of five elephants. The case was taken up today before the Permanent High Court at Bar consisting Judges Vikum Kaluarachchi, Dhammika Ganepola and Adithya Patabendi. Senior State Counsel Janaka Bandara, presenting submissions before the 3-judge bench, said the AG has no objections over granting bail to the eight suspects in the case. more..

Aug 2 (AD) Department of Examinations has announced the list of schools which will remain closed due to them being used for paper marking activities of the 2019 G.C.E. A/L examination and the Grade 5 Scholarship exam. The paper marking of the A/L exam is be carried out under three phases with the first phase continuing from August 28 to Sept 13, the second phase from Sept 15 to Oct 01 and the final phase to commence on Sept 24 and continue till Oct 08. more..

Aug 2 (Island) Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith in an intervenient petition submitted to the Supreme Court has supported the Bill titled Holidays Amendment. He has said that the Bill does not violate the Constitution, which guarantees equality and freedom from discrimination. The holding of tuition classes on Sunday morning between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. hampers the attendance of more..

Aug 2 (CT) Railway trade unions warned the Govt that a strike will be launched from 15 August if the Govt failed to meet their demands within two weeks to make permanent 1,455 employees, abolish the decision to appoint a Board of Directors to the Railway service, and reverse the Gazette stating the Railway service is an essential service. The Co-Convener of the trade Unions S.P. Vithanage said that former Ministers of Transport Kumara Welgama and Ranjith Madduma Bandara were trying to more..

Aug 2 (EN) Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals for July were down 46.9% to 115,701 from a year earlier following the Easter Sunday attacks, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said. The arrivals in July were an improvement from a 57% fall in June and a 71% fall in May. “The market has significantly shown progress over the past few weeks and we are happy to notice that the occupancy rates are increasing in hotels across Sri Lanka," SLTDA Director General Upali Ratnayake said. more..

Aug 2 (EN) Hotels in Sri Lanka's cultural city Kandy are only half full during the annual Esala Perahera pageant season which runs from August 05 to 15, following the April bombings, a hotelier said. "Bookings in Kandy are around 50-60% including locals and foreigners during the Perahera season, compared to last year’s 80-90 percent," Kandy Hoteliers Association President Samantha Rathnayake, who represents the Amaya chain, said. more..

Aug 2 (Island) Ministry of Health had given medicine worth Rs. 154 million to Dr. Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital between July 2017 and 1st Aug 2019, Chief Accountant at the Ministry’s Medical Supplies Division told the PCoI. Although the Cabinet had approved a Rs. 50 million limit to supply medicines per month, NFTH had never requested over Rs. 16 million a month. "In July 2019 they obtained medicines worth Rs. 15.02 million. That’s the highest they have asked for so far," more..

Aug 2 (NDTV) Sri Lanka produced a clinical performance to claim a 122-run win in the third and final One-day International (ODI) and complete a clean sweep over Bangladesh in Colombo on Wednesday. Former captain Angelo Mathews led Sri Lanka with 87 off 90 balls, guiding the side to 294/8 before Dasun Shanaka backed his 30 off 14 with three wickets for 27 runs to complete the rout. The winning team were presented with a motorbike and the players took turns to take rides. more..

Aug 2 (Island) Terrorists’ only ideology was to spread hatred among communities and even Muslims were targeted by such radical groups, a top Muslim scholar said when he met Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith. Secretary General of the Muslim World League and Chairman of the Board of the Int'l Organization of Muslim Scholars Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Bin Abdulkarim Alissa visited more..

Aug 3 (CT) Post independence Sri Lanka brought in several official dispositions that gave preference to the Sinhalese majority. The Sinhala Only Act introduced by the SLFP govt of SWRD Bandaranaike in 1956, for example, recognized Sinhalese as the only official language of the country. The 1950s also saw the launching of several development projects by the govt. Many of these were irrigation projects, such as the Gal Oya, Kantale and Mahaweli, more..

Aug 3 (SO) Early this week, Tamil political prisoner Thevathasan Kanagasabai (62) alias Nadan incarcerated in the high-security Welikada Prison agreed to suspend his fast unto death protest following the intervention of Minister Mano Ganesan. He was into the ninth day of a hunger strike demanding that he be granted bail to fight his case or be released on humanitarian grounds when his health had taken a turn for the worse. Intervention by the Minister perhaps had saved his life. more..

Aug 3 (CT) UPFA MP Roshan Ranasinghe says Maithripala Sirisena is the most unsuccessful President to come into office, since 1948. Q: On the 11th you are set to announce the Presidential Candidate. Will it happen with an alliance between SLFP and SLPP? A: It is like this, I saw MP Dayasiri Jayasekara of the SLFP boasting about it. He always argues that they have a voter base of about 1.4 million to 1.5 million. more..

Aug 3 (Island) When I read the letter written by Dr Upul Wijayawardhana on April, 2019 in The Island newspaper I felt like sharing with your readers some of my memoirs also on the above subject. I also recall, with shock, the brutal killing of his uncle by the militants during the second JVP uprising in 1987-89. Unlike his father Justin Wijayawardhana , his uncle was not involved in politics but he wanted to give some support as a family obligation to his nephew Ranjan, who contested more..

Aug 3 (SO) Left out of the hysterical public debate is the fact that SL and the US have been operating under the terms of a SOFA for 25 years – signed during President Kumaratunga’s tenure, and maintained during the entirety of the Rajapaksa presidency and this Govt’s term. In 2007, a group of Haitian orphans identified over a hundred SL soldiers on a UN peacekeeping mission who gave them cookies and juice in exchange for sex, revealing a chilling child sex ring spanning a more..

Aug 3 (CT) In the last few weeks there has been hype about reforming the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA). Irrespective of three decades of struggle to reform this archaic Act by Muslim women, Muslim MPs have only now come forward to iron out differences in the two sets of recommendations given by Justice Saleem Marsoof’s committee early last year. In my opinion, in the wake of various rhetoric around MMDA more..

Aug 3 (CT) Following explanations to the effect that there was absolutely no plan to establish a US base in Sri Lanka recently, US envoy Alaina Teplitz came out once again a couple of days ago to state with some emphasis, that a rising tide lifts all boats. Addressing the annual get-together of the AMCHAM society, she dwelt on the fact that it will not surprise any of you that from the US perspective, a growing and thriving Sri Lanka will be a more dynamic market for US goods and services. more..

Aug 3 (DM) UNICEF World Children’s Report 2017 reveals that globally, more than 12 million girls marry below the age of 18 every year. An estimated 200,000 children in the US were married between 2000 to 2015. The UNICEF report on children in SL showed 2% of children married before the age of 15 and 12% were married at 18 years of age between 2010-2017. As a region, South Asia has the highest rate of child marriage -- 17% of women are married by the age of 15 and 45% by the age of 18. more..

Aug 3 (CT) The response to the subject query is that it has a little of each of these attributes. The reality of experience dictates that nothing is perfect in which there is human intervention. Here are some illustrations before delving into the crux of the matter. Very recently, it was reported that the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka had urged the Bar Association of Sri Lanka to take action against racist lawyers in certain regional courts. Unlike conjoined twins, more..

Aug 3 (Island) The UNP may have thought that it would be able to mount a political blitzkrieg, by way of a parliamentary probe into the Easter Sunday carnage, and lay the blame for the tragedy entirely at the feet of President Maithripala Sirisena, who is the Minister of Defence. Its plan to discredit him and absolve itself of the blame for the govt’s failure to prevent the terror attacks has gone awry to all intents and purposes. The UNP seems to have opened a can of worms. more..

Aug 3 (Island) This is certainly no wasteland - an uninhabited wilderness worthless for cultivation. It is a well inhabited worthy land for the purveyors of garbage. With all the lovely Sinhala lines to describe this island it now gains the name of Kunu Kasala Deepaya – the Isle of Dirt and Garbage. In a country so keen to have more and more imports, there is the special delight in the latest haul of garbage that has come from our more..

Aug 3 (FT) Pro Food, Pro Pack & Ag-biz 2019, Sri Lanka’s only comprehensive food, agriculture and packaging exhibition, spanning three days, kicked off yesterday at the BMICH. It was inaugurated by Industry and Commerce Ministry Industry Development Additional Secretary S. Balasubramaniam. The exhibition was organised by Sri Lanka Food Processors Association together with Lanka Exhibition and Conference Services (LECS). more..

Aug 3 (FT) LMD-Nielsen Business Confidence Index (BCI) fell by seven basis points to 74 in July, following an increase of 19 points in the preceding month. This places the barometer of business sentiment below its 12-month average of 89 and well below its all-time average of 127. Nielsen’s Managing Director Sharang Pant observes that “the repercussions of the Easter Sunday bombings continue to be on people’s minds and the country has already begun preparing for prez election more..

Aug 3 (PMD) Certain segments who did not heed to the concerns of society to formulate stronger and tougher laws to eradicate terrorism in the aftermath of tragic incidents that took place on April 21st are now in a rush to bring laws to repeal the death punishment, President Maithripala Sirisena said. Prez addressing a gathering today (2) at Sir John Central College in Kurunegala to presents awards & certificates more..

Aug 3 (Island) With the initiative of the Sri Lanka High Commission, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce led a two day business promotion mission to New Delhi on July 16, to continue establishing business and trade links with industry leaders in the Northern states of India. The mission was also organized to promote the Sri Lanka Investment and Business Conclave and the Sri Lanka Economic Summit scheduled to be held from 16th to 18th September 2019 in Colombo. more..

Aug 3 (EN) Interblocks Ltd, a SL-based fintech firm, which develops online payment and automated teller technology is to be by Japan's Hitachi-Omron Terminal Solutions for an undisclosed sum. Interblocks had been working with Hitachi-Omron from 2018. "Since we commenced our business alliance agreement last year, our teams have been jointly developing solutions for payment channels," Hitachi-Omron Terminal Solutions Representative Director and President, Tetsuya Yagi said more..

Aug 3 (ST) The govt is mulling to cancel the lease agreements of state owned-valuable estates, land and property leased out to plantation companies and private firms over its failure to pay accumulated lease rent running up to millions of rupees. Some 571 estates belonging to the Janatha Estate Development Board (JEDB) and State Plantation Corporation had been given on lease to 23 divisional plantation companies in 1995. more..

Aug 3 (ST) Mayacert S.A, a top-tier organic certifier in Central and Latin America, is soon to make its debut in Sri Lanka, as part of expanding its wings across Asia. Being accredited by DAkkS, Germany (Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle GmbH) according to DIN EN ISO/IEC 17065, Mayacert is also affiliated with IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement). With an unblemished track history with no major compliance deviations, their certificates are well received all over globe more..

Aug 3 (AD) Windy condition is likely to enhance over Northern province and over Northern sea areas. Several spells of showers will occur in Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern and Central provinces. Showers or thundershowers will occur at a few places in Eastern and Uva provinces district after 2.00 p.m. There may be temporary localized strong winds during thundershowers. The general public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by lightning. more..