Jul 23 (AD) Postal trade unions stated that they would engage in continuous strike action from the next month if the authorities fail to provide proper solutions for their demands. General Secretary of the Postal and Telecom Officers’ Association, H.K. Kariyawasam stated the 24-hour token trade union action was concluded at midnight yesterday. Postal workers launched a sick-leave trade union action for 24 hours from midnight July 21 over several demands including resolving of salary issues. more..

Jul 23 (DN) Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya stressed the urgent need for laws to regulate election campaign financing in order to prevent election campaign-related corruption. He said that SL had a comprehensive law on election campaign financing earlier. With the enactment of this law, political parties and candidates were made to declare how much money they spend on election related activities. more..

Jul 23 (DM) The Holidays (Amendment) Bill, which prohibits tuition classes on Poya Days and Sundays, was presented to Parliament today. The Bill was presented by Opposition MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe who said it would be in the form of a private member’s Bill. According to the proposed Bill -- conducting tuition classes and facilitating such classes at any premises or any location will be prohibited till 3.00 pm on Full Moon Poya Days and on Sundays. more..

Jul 23 (AD) Removing fuel from the cargo vessel ‘Sri Lanka Glory’, which was in distress off Rumassala coast recently due to gusty winds, has reached the final phase. The Marine Environment Protection Authority (or MEPA) stated that the ship agent has been informed to take preliminary measures to remove the vessel from where it is anchored at present. Deputy General Manager of MEPA Jagath Gunasekara stated that fuel is currently being pumped to the tanks on the beach. more..

Jul 23 (EN) Minister Vajira Abeywardene tabled a motion in parliament to add 446 hectares of land reclaimed by China to the land area of the island. The reclaimed land named Port City will form part of the Divisional Secretary of Colombo, he said. The land was reclaimed by CHEC Port City, a unit of China Communications and Construction Corporation. The land is shared between Sri Lanka and CHEC who will more..

Jul 23 (AD) Department of Examinations stated that measures will be taken to issue the Exam Admission Cards for the private applicants of the GCE A/L Exam through the official website of the Department. The Commissioner General of Examinations Sanath Pujitha states that Admission Cards for all students facing the 2019 A/L Exam have already been issued. Admissions of all school applicants have been issued to their schools and the Admissions of all private applicants have been mailed to more..

Jul 23 (AD) Acting IGP C.D. Wickramaratne has decided to provide a reward of Rs 5 million to the individual who had provided the information which led to the discovery of explosives at two safe houses in Samanthurai used by the terrorists responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks. Ada Derana recently revealed to the public the story about a lorry driver who assisted the security forces to avoid any possible further attacks in the aftermath of the suicide bombings on April 21, more..

Jul 23 (Island) Forty five UNP members who were recruited to the Road Development Authority (RDA) in October 2015 had been assigned to advise project officers of the RDA and liaise with the public when issues arose in land acquisition, the PCoI was informed, yesterday.Questioning Head of Legal at RDA, Jeevananda Waidyasara, Chairperson of the PCoI, Justice Upali Abeyratne inquired about more..

Jul 23 (Island) The Court of Appeal yesterday instructed the State Counsel to submit a copy of assurance given by Director General Forest Conservation that he would not grant former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen permission for cleaning Kallaru reserve to settle people. The Forest Conservation Department, yesterday, informed court in writing that permission would not be granted for clearing forest lands in the Kallaru reserve surrounding the Wilpattu National Park. more..

Jul 23 (RN) Minister Wajira Abeywardhana said that if the Mattala airport and Hambantota harbour were built in a suitable location like Galle we would not have suffered these huge losses. Addressing Parliament today, the minister said that the Galle district is the most populated district in the Southern province with a population of 1.3 million, 280,000 houses and 320,000 families, and he said that if we look back to our history people know about Galle and not Mattala. more..

Jul 23 (PMD) In order to retain billions of Rupees that we spent annually to import milk powder and to create a healthy young generation it is imperative to empower and strengthen local dairy farmers, President Sirisena said. He made these comments at the launching ceremony of Kiren Sapiri Dayak, aims at providing a pack of liquid milk to every child at Kajugaswatte Shasthrodaya Vidyalaya in Nivitigala, Ratnapura today. more..

Jul 23 (DM) While urging the govt to reveal the number of containers of garbage imported to Sri Lanka, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake also urged the govt to cancel the Gazette notice issued in 2013 which had permitted such imports. He told parliament that the Customs department had revealed that the gazette notice 1818/30 dated July 11, 2013, had provided the legal basis to import garbage. The MP said the govt should reveal the number of containers of garbage imported, more..

Jul 23 (AD) Minister Champika Ranawaka says that the issue of Dr. Mohamed Shafi can be resolved within a week. He states that this is not an issue that should be resolved through legal arguments and years in courts, but an issue that can be solved by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) and the govt. The issue can be resolved by collecting data on other Sinhala and Tamil doctors who perform Caesarian surgeries and compare and analyze the data alongside data collected on Dr. Shafi, more..

Jul 23 (Island) Nagananda Kodituwakku, who intends to contest the next presidential election as an independent candidate, acknowledged that tough measures were required to regulate the INGO/NGO/civil society sector, which received foreign funding. Former Customs revenue chief Kodituwakku said that efficient regulatory mechanism would be necessary. Kodituwakku said so in response to The Island more..

Jul 24 (CT) The re-election of Rizvi Moulavi, despite his reputation for frequent controversies and repeated blunders which caused immense damage to the community, as the president of All Ceylon Jamiathul Uema, ACJU, reflects the religious and moral bankruptcy of the Muslim community. This was expected as the ACJU has been a one man show, ever since Rizvi Mufthi who, kicked out ACJU President Riyal Moulavi under questionable circumstance 20 yrs ago and grabbed power. more..

Jul 24 (CT) The Anglican Communion consists of several national sister Provinces, each made of 4 or more dioceses. We were a single diocese – under the Church of India, Burma, Pakistan, and Ceylon. With independence, we broke into Provinces (Church of Burma, Church of Pakistan and India into South- and North-Indian Churches). Unfortunately, the Church of Ceylon, CoC, had only one diocese – the Diocese of Colombo – and remained under Canterbury. more..

Jul 24 (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 Prez 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 & juice in exchange for sex, more..

Jul 24 (CT) In Jaffna recently, UNP PM Ranil Wickremesinghe promised the Tamils once again that they would have a political solution to the ethnic issue, two years from now. He blamed it on the lack of parliamentary majority for his Govt in the current Parliament, but did not say how he hoped to muster those numbers even in a future House, post-Presidential Polls, post-Parliamentary Polls, as and when held. If anything, this Govt had that majority, two-thirds to be precise, at the induction of more..

Jul 24 (GV) Batticaloa and Kattankudy are 318 and 317 km away from Colombo, respectively. They are, however, just under 10 kilometers away from each other. The relationships and experience, that have been shaped by the devastation of both the war and the tsunami, now deeply influence the impact of and response to the bomb blast at Zion Church, which was one of the targets of the Easter Sunday terror attacks on April 21st, 2019. The authors are thankful to individuals in Batticaloa & Kattankudy more..

Jul 24 (CT) A few years ago, a kilo of pepper could have been sold in the local market for between Rs 1,800 to Rs 2,000 and at present it has dropped drastically to about Rs 450. Pepper, one of the minor export crops that Sri Lanka exported to the international market, was in high demand in the overseas market, which enabled local pepper farmers to sell their produce at higher prices. SL pepper was ranked high and was in demand more..

Jul 24 (CT) I return this week to the question of the service functions of govt, since it seems to me vital that the new Prez makes crystal clear to his Ministers what they should be doing, and what they should avoid doing. For the last few weeks have made it clear that there is no understanding of this at all, and that Ministers rather see Cabinet portfolios as designed principally to increase their own popularity. Or rather, they see them as instruments to ensure their continuing influence in politics. more..

Jul 24 (Roar) In an increasingly connected world reveling in the digital age, the need for the right tools to overcome modern obstacles is a challenge that can only be met with the aid of technology. One such field that leverages technology to overcome the most insistent of challenges is data science. Data science is an interdisciplinary field which incorporates elements from various other fields, like computer science, information science, statistics, and mathematics. more..

Jul 24 (Island) Australian High Commissioner, David Holly, must have been quite surprised by the unprecedented controversial advice he received from Northern Province Governor, Dr. Suren Raghavan, when they met at the Northern Province Governor’s official residence, at Chundikuli, in Jaffna, on July 16, 2019. Holly succeeded Bryce Hutchesson, in late Jan 2019. Hutchesson took over the Colombo mission in Feb 2016. His predecessor was Robyn Mudie (Jan 2012 to Feb 2016). more..

Jul 24 (Island) Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith’s recent swipe at the yahapalana leaders has had the desired impact. They are as agitated as rat snakes doused with kerosene, as the local saying goes. Calling them a bunch of backboneless politicians, he called upon them to step down and let those capable of running the country take over the reins of govt. He has struck a responsive chord with the people who fear for their safety and are fed up with present sorry state more..

Jul 24 (Island) Are we a nation of puppets? The answer to this question is simply YES! Why? It is because we have been behaving (or should we say performing?) according to the scenarios dictated by alien elements, in other words like puppets on strings being handled by foreigners and their local henchmen, according to their own agendas. And the most disheartening fact is that we seem not only to allow it, but also to have adjusted our lifestyles more..

Jul 24 (DN) Dasun Shanaka hit a rapid 86 off 63 balls inclusive of six sixes but was upstaged by a steady knock of 91 off 100 balls (11 fours, 1 six) by Mohammad Mithun as Bangladesh began their short tour of Sri Lanka with a comfortable five-wicket win over a Sri Lanka Board President’s XI in a one-day warm-up match played at the P Sara Oval yesterday. Board XI winning the toss and batting first lost their first three wickets for 32 runs but recovered to 282-8 courtesy of a sound half-century more..

Jul 24 (Island) Union Bank concluded a strong first half, recording significant growth in core banking revenue with resultant profits before all taxes of Rs. 849 mn, amidst challenging market conditions that tested the resilience of businesses across all sectors. The second quarter of 2019 carried unforeseen challenges for the banking sector, which was under demanding economic conditions caused by the unfortunate events that unfolded in April 2019. more..

Jul 24 (FT) Govt plans to bring in new laws in Sept to enhance the scope and the independent decision-making ability of the Central Bank to further regulate the banking and the non-banking sectors, a top official said. State Minister Eran Wickramaratne, referring to ETI Finance in Parliament on Tuesday, held CBSL has played its role in supporting the struggling company to find an investor who has invested $ 70 m, more..

Jul 24 (DN) Unbeaten Team Colombo emerged champions of the SLC Under 19 Super Provincial 50 over Tournament at Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket stadium yesterday. Team Colombo beat Team Dambulla by 61 runs in the final. Team Colombo won the toss and elected to bat. Team Colombo scored 303 runs for 6 wickets in 50 overs. No. 3 right hand batsman Ahan Wickramasinghe scored an unbeaten 127 runs in 116 deliveries with 10 boundaries and a six. more..

Jul 24 (DN) The suspension of Zimbabwe by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for failing to ensure there is no government interference in its running of the sport is a good eye-opener for Sri Lanka whose cricket administration has been wavering between elected bodies and interim committees over the past two decades. Successive governments have reacted in different ways towards the administration of the richest sports body in this country Sri Lanka Cricket. more..

Jul 24 (DM) SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara said party leaders like Prez Sirisena, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa must arrive at a compromise on the policies of the proposed alliance. He said the other leaders of the proposed alliance like Dinesh, Wimal and Gammanpila could come in later. MP said SLFP had prepared a set of policies to be adopted when an SLPP-SLFP alliance is formed more..

Jul 24 (FT) UNP will select its Presidential candidate for the upcoming election with the agreement of the parties who come aboard in a broader alliance, which is to be formed early next month. Refuting claims that a decision has already been made on the Party candidate, highly placed sources in the party said that the decision will only be taken after a discussion between the Party Working Committee and member parties of the alliance, set to be formed on 5 August. more..

Jul 24 (FT) Leading tyre brand CEAT has unveiled a new series of radial tyres in SL following an investment of Rs. 350 million to further upgrade the quality of a product category that had already captured a dominant 33% share of the market. The improvements, achieved with the installation of new state-of-the-art machinery and the use of new compounds with advanced polymers and new tread patterns, translate to lower tyre noise and vibration & better handling with shorter braking times, more..

Jul 24 (TM) Sri Lanka’s export earnings in the first 6 months of 2019 surpassed US$ 8 billion, a record for the first half of a year, the Export Development Board announced. However, the full year target of US $ 20 billion appears increasingly unlikely, with EDB Chairperson Indira Malwatta saying that US$ 18.5 billion was a more realistic revenue target for the year at the halfway stage. more..

Jul 24 (FT) Air India has announced the launch of Mumbai-Colombo from September and will resume its second daily flight to Colombo from New Delhi. For business travellers to New Delhi, second frequency enables them greater flexibility in their business schedules. “These flights also will now offer a spectrum of both International and Domestic flight connections to many destinations via New Delhi and Mumbai. Air India passengers with onward travel from Delhi or Mumbai can experience more..

Jul 24 (DN) The newly revised Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) constitution proposal which was developed with views and suggestions from former SL cricketers Mahela Jayawardene, Kumara Sangakkara, Roshan Mahanama and Sidath Wettimuny was presented in Parliament by Minister of Sports Harin Fernando, yesterday. Minister handed over the report to general secretary of Parliament Dhammika Dassanayake in Parliament and said the former Ministry of Sports and more..

Jul 24 (Island) There was no termination clause in the lease agreement signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and D.P. Jayasinghe Company in 2016 on renting a building for the Ministry, the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) was informed yesterday. Attorney-at-law Fatima Abeywardena Gunawardana, who prepared the lease agreement said that both parties had agreed not to have a termination clause. more..

Jul 24 (DN) The grand finale of Inter-University Esports Championship 2019, powered by SLT’s ultra-high speed fibre and organized by Gamer.LK came to a successful conclusion recently at Stein Studios, Rathmalana. The grand finale was held between Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) and SL Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) who qualified from the first segment of championship held on 15th and 16th June 2019. Over 50 leading govt and private universities as well as more..

Jul 24 (CT) The final ODI against Bangladesh which is scheduled to be played on 31 July will be named after pace bowler Nuwan Kulasekara as a tribute to his services to Sri Lanka Cricket, Sports Minister Harin Fernando stated. He said: We requested SLC to consider about Nuwan Kulasekara but he (Nuwan Kulasekara) hasn’t played domestic cricket for a long time so we cannot give him a chance to play but we have named the final ODI after him as a tribute to his services. more..