Jan 13 (TW) An awe-inspiring sight greets you as you step out of Kandy railway station—an 88-foot-tall, white statue of the Buddha. It is 6km away from the railway station, atop the Bahirawa Kanda (Devil’s Hill) and shows the Buddha seated in the nirvana pose. A smaller golden-coloured statue of the Buddha sits below it. It has white lotuses and purple flowers etched on it; photos of the most important Buddhist temples in SL flank it. more..

Jan 13 (ST) A new sugar tax is just around the corner, and this time it will target sweets and confectionery in addition to a fizzy levy on sugary beverages. Despite the assurance given by Prez Sirisena to the SL Confectionery Manufacturers’ Association (SLCMA), this tax based on sugar content is likely to be introduced from the upcoming budget 2019, Health Ministry sources confirmed. The move could affect 50,000 direct and 150,000 indirect employees in confectionery industry, more..

Jan 13 (ST) Five trade unions are urging the Govt to increase the minimum monthly wage in the private sector to Rs. 25,000 from a current Rs. 13,000 (which includes Rs. 3,500 budgetary allowance). “We hope to make representations to the Govt shortly,” said veteran unionist Palitha Atukorale, President, National Union of Seafarers SL. He was speaking in response to a Finance Ministry announcement on Wednesday stating that basic salaries of state-sector employees will be more..

Jan 13 (PMD) President Sirisena says that his desire is to see the children of this country make use of all the modern technological equipment for the betterment of their future as well as the future of the country, as at present the benefits of the modern technology is available to all the children of the country, irrespective of rural and urban differences. Prez said that even at the present time, the students of the rural schools also, more..

Jan 13 (SO) The apparel sector which is one of the industries catering heavily to the UK market, attaches extreme importance to immediately commence a dialogue with the UK, for preferential bilateral arrangements without which it will be difficult for the industry to survive in the UK market, following Brexit. The UK will rely on WTO rules to deal with all countries, in the absence of a bilateral preferential agreement where exporters will be subject to MFN duty rates, more..

Jan 13 (Hindu) The top layer couldn’t have been crispier or the core softer. Shining in its golden-brown, crumbly skin, the keera vadai — an everyday snack in Sri Lanka — acquired new respect at the Ammachi café in Mannar, in Northern Province. “I don’t add any ajinomoto salt or colouring agent. It’s just ulundu [black gram], and simply ground like we do in our homes,” said P. Jayakumari, a member of the women’s crew running the eatery. Homely is precisely how meals served here taste. more..

Jan 13 (ST) Sri Lanka’s top cricketers are allegedly being honey trapped and blackmailed into match-fixing, Sunday Times reliably learns, amidst unprecedented ICC intervention to, at the very least, reduce corruption in the sport here. The ICC is now investigating what they term serious allegations of corruption in Sri Lanka. Three players have been charged, including former Chairman of Selectors and top cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya. more..

Jan 13 (ST) Road Development Authority (RDA) is to seek a share from the revenue gained by the sale of fuel for vehicles to boost its funds to maintain the road network in the country. A proposal to this effect will be submitted to the Cabinet by the Highways, Road Development and Petroleum Resources Development Ministry to allocate 50 cts to the Road Management Trust Fund from each litre of petrol or diesel sold. Road Management Trust Fund allocations are used to maintain RDA roads more..

Jan 13 (SO) Local Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) exporters will take part in Int'l Green Week from Jan 18-20 in Berlin, Germany for the first time. Delegation, under the sponsorship of HNB PLC in partnership with 27th Lane Business Hub (27LBH), will showcase locally manufactured organic products at the int'l trade fair, which attracts over 400,000 visitors from 150 countries annually. “SL is blessed with produce such as fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices & other organic produce. more..

Jan 13 (ST) Respondents to a survey asking whether the presidential system should be continued or scrapped and if so, to provide more power to Parliament, have provided a clear verdict: The presidential system should be scrapped. However respondents in the poll conducted on the street (working class) and email (mostly intelligentsia) were divided on the kind of powers to be given to the PM and Parliament. Poll was conducted amongst 400 respondents, more..

Jan 13 (AD) UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam says that several leaders of the SLFP as well as the SLPP, that no one expects, will be stand with the UNP at the next national election. He said that the presidential poll is the most favorable election for the UNP and that they can win the voter base of the entire country at any time in a presidential election. He said that UNP will definitely win the next presidential election and that supporters should have no doubt regarding that. more..

Jan 13 (ST) The first-ever study, not just in Sri Lanka but in the world, on the psychological impact on families of missing persons has been conducted by two local psychiatrists. Family members of missing individuals unsure whether their loved ones are alive or dead are at a higher risk of psychological illness, the evidence-based landmark study carried out in the south has found. Mothers and wives were particularly vulnerable, the study has unearthed, with psychological morbidity more..

Jan 13 (ST) Parliamentarians who have been identified for creating chaos within the Chamber, during two days of sittings last year, as the 52-day-long political turmoil unfolded, may face Supreme Court action. The Attorney General is to be called upon to examine if there is sufficient evidence to warrant the Supreme Court to go into their conduct and take action against them for a breach of the Parliament (Powers and Privileges) Act. more..

Jan 13 (DM) The computer-based test for obtaining driving licences would be introduced to the other 25 districts in the country by the end of this year which would be networked with the DMT head office, Department of Motor Traffic (DMT) Commissioner General A.H.K. Jagath Chandrasiri said. DMT Werahera Branch had already started conducting the computer-based examination for driving licence applicants last Nov. New system would be linked to all District Secretariats in the country. more..

Jan 13 (ST) The deaths of two foreign tourists were reported this week. On Jan 11, a British national died in Mirissa and an Indian national died the following day in Hambantota. In the first incident, a 52-year-old British national identified as Michelle Wienburg had died on admission to the Matara Hospital after she collapsed at a beach carnival at Mirissa. The postmortem examination revealed she suffered a heart attack. Ms Wienburg and her husband were staying at a hotel in the area more..

Jan 13 (ST) Prez Sirisena appears to be testing the waters for a presidential election this year. However, dim prospects are also prompting him to embark on other measures simultaneously — a move which reveals he would, either way, be a presidential candidate contrary to his earlier public declarations to quit politics after being a one-term President. The first effort, which he prefers, is based on the premise that more..

Jan 13 (Island) On Friday, the current parliament and the govt showed themselves to be utterly unworthy beneficiaries of the Supreme Court’s ruling against the unconstitutional dissolution of parliament by an overreaching President. Only 28 UNF govt MPs showed up when the House met as a Constitutional Assembly after an interval of over one year, to hear their PM present the proposals for a new constitution prepared by a panel experts. All total there were 56 MPs, with UPFA (17), more..

Jan 13 (Island) In fifty-one weeks at most Sirisena will be history but it will be a long and trying fifty-one because what capers he may get up to in the interim are unforeseeable. People speak of Trump as idiosyncratic, erratic and gaga but there is method in his madness. You know what he wants though his devices are sordid. With our man no one knows what processes have taken hold of the befuddled recesses of his head nor of the dark regions of the crania of the weirdos advising him. more..

Jan 13 (ST) Authorities have disbanded a special unit which operated under the Kilinochchi DIG and conducted raids to crack down on drugs, illicit liquor and other criminal activity in his area of authority. The personnel attached to this unit have been transferred to other police stations. There will be no such unit which has been keeping tabs on how effectively the area’s police stations tackle vice by conducting their own raids. more..

Jan 13 (SO) State-owned vehicles will be exempted from the newly introduced Carbon tax, said a senior official, despite criticism against the move. Tax was introduced this week for vehicles running on fossil fuel but excluded govt vehicles and hybrid varieties. Low-income groups have also criticised the move as those who owned older vehicles would have to pay more while the affluent with brand new vehicles are charged less. more..

Jan 13 (ST) Forest fires more than doubled last year, stretching the Forest Department’s resources as it can only place fire lines around selected forests, lacking the ability to protect them all. At least 156 forest fires were reported islandwide last year, with 80 of them in the Badulla district, the department said. In 2017, there were 70 forest fires half of them in the Badulla district. Forest fires in SL are man-made and, during the dry season, more..

Jan 13 (CT) Newly appointed Northern Province Governor Dr. Suren Raghavan said Buddhisisation in the North and East with political motives should be stopped and that he would be meeting the Mahanayaka Theras to discuss the issue soon. He said the practice was un-Buddhistic and undemocratic. He also noted he would engage in serious dialogue with those promoting these activities. more..

Jan 13 (Island) Thousands of Lanka Broadband Networks (LBN) subscribers were left staring into their blank television screens last week after the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) moved in to temporarily suspend the services of the leading cable TV provider over what was described as a long overdue payments issue. Akin to a bolt from the blue, LBN customers were informed via more..

Jan 13 (Island) Deputy Leader of UNP and Minister Sajith Premadasa revealed that President Sirisena had offered him the post of PM on 71 occasions - ten times prior to Oct 26 and 61 times after that. "However, I declined on a matter of principle as I opposed the President’s action of removing the legitimate PM Ranil Wickremesinghe on Oct 26 and the unconstitutional dissolution of Parliament on Nov 9, which was more..

Jan 13 (CT) Anti-Malaria Campaign (AMC) Director, Dr. Hemantha Herath, cautioned that there were possibilities of an influx of Malaria patients, despite the country receiving certification of having eradicated Malaria. A concerned Dr. Herath explained that a majority of cases were imported. Either foreign nationals or locals travelling abroad – especially in countries where the disease was still rampant – had brought it to Sri Lanka. more..

Jan 13 (EN) SL's confectioners are fearing a new European-style tax on sweets, on top of a renewed tax on sweet drinks a media report said, amid a rise in illiberal economic policy making under the current administration. New sugar tax may come in the 2019 budget, pushed by the Ministry of Health. SL Confectionary Manufacturers Association has feared new taxes, involving and industry which employed 50,000 people directly and more..

Jan 13 (SO) The unedited footage of an interview with former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa aired on a private television channel just over a year before Lasantha Wickrematunge’s assassination, was ordered into CID custody by the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court last week, as friends and colleagues marked a decade since the senior journalist was assassinated in broad daylight. OIC of the CID Gang Robbery Branch more..

Jan 13 (ST) The Int'l Air Transport Association (IATA) has not renewed SriLankan Airlines’ registration for 2018-2019 under its Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), prompting several foreign operators to suspend code-sharing with the beleaguered national carrier until it complies with IATA strictures. SriLankan Airlines was tight-lipped about what companies have suspended code-sharing with it until IOSA registration is restored. more..

Jan 14 (CT) TNA leader R Sampanthan rarely if ever misses an opportunity to carry his tale of woe to visiting foreign officials. The latest was during his meeting with visiting member of European Parliament Geoffrey Van Orden. In his previous avatar, TNA leader from around 2000 stood by LTTE Supremo Prabhakaran till the last day on May 18, 2009, when the terrorist leader was eliminated by the armed forces. He acknowledged the terrorist group as sole representative of Tamil more..

Jan 14 (CT) It’s difficult to agree with a person when the point he/she makes is made in a wrong way. And yet, I agree with Bandula Gunawardane. Not because I believe international schools should be shut down, not because I believe that equating students from these schools with those from govt/private schools in terms of examination results is wrong, but because the issue he spoke about makes evident some unpalatable truths about our education system. more..

Jan 14 (CT) Newly-elected Northern Province Governor, Dr. Suren Raghavan says war crimes allegations should be investigated so that there will be no recurrences of war or an uprising. He also noted that Prez Sirisena never uttered racist statements, nor did he use it as a political tool as was done by previous leaders who were trying to come to the same position. Q: Many do not know your background and the religious practices more..

Jan 14 (ST) White vans and black media aside (which I will return to later), Sri Lanka has seen politicians insulting judges in Parliament under cover of parliamentary privilege in the past. Each time, these attacks have been discomfiting, indicating the extent to which the ancient law of privilege can be abused for partisan political advantage. Even so and notwithstanding that unpleasant history, this week’s attack on particular judges by a Rajapaksa frontline supporter in the House on the basis that more..

Jan 14 (Island) The appointment of a new Army Chief of Staff. A fresh denial around the use of chemical weapons. The denunciation of a civil society protest against mainstream media supportive of the constitutional coup, not by members of the SLPP, but by those in the UNP and govt. A photograph of a former President, the incumbent and the PM, comfortably seated next to each other, enjoying or at least at a musical show. Newspaper headlines and reports framing dire warnings more..

Jan 14 (CT) UNP MP Hesha Withanage says some people are trying to reverse the victory they achieved, after fighting for 51 days. “Champika Ranawaka wants to set up an extensive alliance, but UNP members in villages do not like this,” he said. Q: UNP achieved a big victory after fighting for 50 to 60 days. However, it seems that there is a problem as to whether the UNP has actually been able to enjoy this victory properly. more..

Jan 14 (CT) Foreign intervention during the October Revolution were unprecedented in SL history. Instead of regional powers such as China and India, Western powers such as USA and EU played a dominant role in defending the ousted UNP Govt. A chronological analysis of Western activities reflects how important it is for them to have a UNP govt in SL. Let us go along the calendar to revisit every single event. On 27 Oct 2018, within 24 hours of the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as PM, more..

Jan 14 (CT) Sri Lanka’s tour of New Zealand has just ended. One could add an adjective to the said sentence and call it Sri Lanka’s disastrous tour of New Zealand. On face value and on the surface the achievement is nothing less than dreadful, considering the fact that the Lankans never won anything! In the Test matches the visitors weren’t anywhere close to even a remote possibility of a win, though in the ODI’s it’s just the third game where the Lankans were beaten comprehensively. more..

Jan 14 (ST) It is the fundamental right of every citizen of this country to freely exercise his franchise and vote the person of his or her choice to represent him or her in the House of Parliament. Apart from those disqualified to vote as specifically listed in the Constitution, provisions that make them ineligible to cast their vote at any election, all of Lanka enjoy this privilege as part and parcel of their untrammeled birthright: The right to vote. Nowhere in the Constitution or in the general law of more..

Jan 14 (SO) Big claims are being made by both the new Sports Minister Harin Fernando and the Football Federation of Sri Lanka that football will be developed and popularised all over the country after the sport took root in the island more than 200 years ago. Minister Harin Fernando like his predecessors of the past made the remarks when he met Anura de Silva and Jaswar Umar the two men who are running football today as president and secretary of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL). more..

Jan 14 (CT) Railroads were the greatest gift given to Sri Lankans during the colonial era, and yet railroads were not built to serve the needs of the common man. The fact that they did so, and continues to do so, was almost incidental. Railways were constructed in SL in 1864 to transport coffee from plantations in the hill country to the port city of Colombo on its way to European markets. Matara-Beliatta Railway Line is the first more..