Oct 27 (CT) Sri Lanka Rugby are to send their national rugby players to take part in the Nicholson Family Memorial Rugby 10's on Nov 5 at the Singapore Cricket Club Padang, Singapore. Three teams to take part in the tournament are Sri Lanka Select, Singapore Select and Devata of Fiji. This Memorial Fund has been set up by Ben Nicholson in memory of his wife Anita and their two children Alex and Annabel, who tragically lost their lives in the Sri Lanka bombings on Easter Sunday 2019. more..

Oct 27 (ST) Even though SLC is yet to officially part ways with Chandika Hathurusingha–the suspended Head Coach of the National Men’s team months before his contract expires in December next year, they are in the process of signing former English cricketer Mark Ramprakash as Head Coach. The ex-Middlesex and Surrey cricketer, who played 52 Tests between 1991 and 2002, was part of England’s coaching set up until June this year and was shortlisted to take over position of batting more..

Oct 27 (CI) Australia's men begin their international summer with eyes firmly on a year from now: the T20 World Cup on home soil. It is the global prize that has eluded them, in a format they have struggled to grasp. With the next 50-over World Cup four years away and the Test side rebuilding steadily after a difficult year, there is a sense they are now going to give T20 cricket a proper focus. Whether it works remains to be seen, more..

Oct 27 (SO) The sky is the limit for go-getting club Saracens who have set its eyes on acquiring a home ground in the near future. At its AGM held last Sunday, Saracens Sports Club President Nuski Mohamed said he has been in discussion with SLC to get a permanent home for his roving band of cricketers led by former SL all-rounder Milinda Siriwardana. Despite the lack of facilities, Saracens bucked the odds when they upstaged the more fancied Colombo rivals to finish runners-up more..

Oct 27 (TM) India’s Vistara, on Friday announced a daily (except Wednesdays) direct service to Colombo, Sri Lanka from 25 Nov 2019 onwards, making it the fourth international destination in its fast-expanding network. The airline will fly its Airbus A320neo aircraft with three-class cabin configuration between Mumbai and Colombo, which makes Vistara the first airline to offer the choice of premium economy class for travel on the India-SL route, in addition to economy and business class, more..

Oct 27 (SO) Despite playing below par in the recently concluded World Cup, Angelo Mathews has become the top earner for the ensuing year (2020) that makes him earn Rs.23.5 million which is only a retainer according to the new contracts for players. In addition he is entitled to Rs. 900,000 for a single Test match and Rs. 630,000 for a single ODI match. Mathews was also one of the 10 players who refused to tour Pakistan letting down more..

Oct 27 (ST) SL athletes Nimali Liyanaarachchi, Sumedha Ransinghe and Nadeeka Lakmali achieved world class milestones, winning a silver and a bronze medal each respectively at the 7th World Military Games now in progress in Wuhan, China. Middle-distance runner Nimali Liyanaarachchi clocked 2:06.14 minutes to win the silver medal in the Women’s 800m event. SL record holder for Women’s 800m Gayanthika Abeyratne, whose record timing was 2:2.55 minutes, more..

Oct 27 (CT) National Sports Festival 2019 continued for the second day with its athletics competition with some further disappointing performances as athletes found it hard to compete on the muddy grass track here at the Vincent Dias Stadium, Badulla. Once again rain was in favour of athletes but the wet ground condition did not help their performing. Triple Jumper Hashini Balasooriya, Best Female Athlete from the last edition of the National Sports Festival wasn't happy coming into the competition more..

Oct 27 (TM) The upcoming prez election is expected to exacerbate issues faced by SL’s already struggling construction industry and drag them into the middle of 2020, according to the Chamber of Construction Industry of SL (CCISL). CCISL President Ranjith Gunatilleke said that this challenging period may extend even further depending on the outcome of the election. The industry has started to witness the impact of more..

Oct 27 (TM) Despite the recent recall of thousands of Johnson & Johnson’s powder bottles from the US market due to the discovery of traces of asbestos, SL pharmaceutical and medicines authorities will take no action on Johnson’s imports to SL. National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) CEO Dr. Kamal Jayasinghe said that until asbestos traces were found in Johnson’s imports to Asia, it was absolutely unnecessary for Sri Lanka to take precautions or additional safety measures. more..

Oct 27 (ST) In the wake of infamous bond scam and ever growing public debt, a Public Debt Management Bureau will be set up under the purview of the Finance Ministry separating the institution from the Central Bank (CB) purview, officials said. The separation of debt and monetary management is aimed adopting professional debt management techniques to save cost and to provide policy signals to the market, a senior Treasury official said. more..

Oct 27 (ST) The govt has revised the luxury tax (LT) formula and is to introduce a LT based on the vehicle manufacturing cost in addition to custom duty if its manufacturing cost (Cost Insurance Freight/CIF value) exceeds Rs.3.5 million. Under this new formula, LT vehicle import duty will be levied on the basis of engine capacity and LT tax on CIF value. Revision of excise duty on motor vehicles and implementation of LT more..

Oct 27 (SO) The SL economic acceleration framework 2020-25 formulated by the CCC has also focused on issues faced by the financial sector and the capital market, recommending a set of policy actions to be taken by the authorities to make it a vibrant sector, former President Stock Brokers Association Ravi Abeysuriya said. “The financial sector and the capital market is grappling with several issues. Both need reforms in term of structural reforms and problems in the supply more..

Oct 27 (Island) International Schools of Sri Lanka (TISSL) will conduct their Int'l Conference for heads of schools in November this year, under the theme Leading and Learning in Turbulent Times. Founder Chairman, TISSL, and Chairman, Gateway College, Dr. Harsha Alles, stressed the need to host the forum for discussion and to consider the position of education in Sri Lanka, which was now at crossroads. "The existence of Int'l Schools, and the simultaneous education system more..

Oct 27 (ST) A widely-reported alleged bribery scandal related to a controversial Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) television rights deal in 1997 has taken a fresh turn with the ICC citing fresh evidence against Thilanga Sumathipala, the then Vice President and Chair of the relevant sponsorship committee, in a 12-page report released to the Ministry of Sports. After Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup victory, the BCCSL awarded more..

Oct 27 (AD) The number of complaints received with regard to the Prez Election 2019 has exceeded 1,700, according to the Elections Commission (EC). EC stated that 1,766 complaints have been lodged from the 8th to 25th of Oct. These include 1,672 complaints pertaining to violations of election laws, 16 complaints regarding incidents of election-related violence and 78 other complaints. 148 complaints, including 135 on election law violation were received between 4pm on Thur to 4pm yesterday (25). more..

Oct 27 (EN) SL parliament’s Committee on Public Enterprises has sought oversight over Lanka Hospital Corporation Plc, a publicly listed company that went to state hands after the ownership of its parent reverted to the state on a court order. “Although the Committee recommended that the account activities of this institution be subjected to the supervision of the AG, the institution did not provide the information necessary for supervision activities,” the COPE said in its latest report. more..

Oct 27 (SO) It is now evident that several top officials of the criminal justice system have been colluding with suspects and accused persons and aiding them to evade the long arm of the law, Justice Minister Thalatha Athukorale has charged. Responding to questions regarding a spate of interviews and public statements given by former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, former Solicitor General Suhada Gamlath and more..

Oct 27 (SO) Officials will commence excavating a site in a privately owned land in Suthanthira puram, Mullaitivu tomorrow subsequent to human skeletal remains being found on the site, including those believed to be of a 20-year-old youth, last week. Mullaitivu Magistrate S. Leninkumar visited the site on Friday. Following the visit the Magistrate advised the Police to carry out further excavations while declaring the site a crime scene. The skeletal remains were discovered by the land owner more..

Oct 27 (DM) Sources close to Minister Sagala Ratnayaka vehemently denied rumours that the Minister has decided to extend his support to SLPP prez candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Rumours are circulating on social media that Minister Ratnayaka is on the move to switch to the camp of Mr Rajapaksa. Sources close to the Minister told the Daily Mirror he had never made such a remark on any occasion and added he would surely not make such a decision in the long run as well. more..

Oct 27 (ST) Only a fraction of US$ 6.5mn–nearly Rs 1bn in today’s rates–paid by the previous regime in 2014 to an American fixer named Imaad Zuberi was spent on lobbying the US Govt on behalf of the SL Govt and a massive 87% of the fee was spent by the agent on himself and his wife, according to court papers filed this week. In July 2014, the Sunday Times exclusively exposed that the Govt had engaged Mr Zuberi, more..

Oct 27 (CT) An Army deserter was arrested yesterday in connection with the alleged rape and murder of a 24-year-old handicapped girl at Habaraduwa, but the discovery has led to more confusion, Police said. They said the suspect had led investigators to a latrine pit where the highly decomposed body was retrieved 20 days after the victim had gone missing from her family home in Weligama, Police said. The victim was employed as a factory hand in Habaraduwa at the time more..

Oct 27 (AD) The Information Technology Society SL (ITSSL) has cautioned the local internet users of ongoing organized activity for collecting personal data of voters under the facade of prez poll surveys. Certain unidentified groups have set up websites that claim to be prez election surveys, to lure social media users to submit their National Identity Card (NIC) number along with their political preferences. The ITSSL says it has observed one such website under the URL -- www.votesl.com more..

Oct 27 (ST) The passionate love of politicians for democracy is echoing far and wide with just 19 days for the prez election. Hardly a day passes without contenders shouting hoarsely from political platforms about their love for democratic values, loathe for corruption and faithful vows to voters for a new society without ills. Paradoxical enough, amidst this is the saga of Prez Maithripala Sirisena and PM Ranil Wickremesinghe. more..

Oct 27 (Island) The JVP has matured; its perspectives today are correct and we (ULF) have joined it in a progressive-democratic alliance for this presidential election, next year’s parliamentary elections, and beyond into the future to nurture a socialist, democratic, corruption-free alternative to the rotten political culture of today. Let that be said at the outset in no uncertain terms before I get on with the remainder of this essay which probes the JVP’s unhappy past. more..

Oct 27 (Island) Hold Me in Contempt is the title of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake’s memoir on the saga of her impeachment by parliament under the Rajapaksa regime. It is a reminder of the past that prez candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa cannot easily hide. He may not have been directly associated with the impeachment of the former Chief Justice, but he cannot plead even partial dissociation because he is now the official flag bearer of Rajapaksa political enterprise. more..

Oct 27 (ST) A senior State Department official told a Congress Sub Committee last Tuesday that Washington had made clear to Prez Maithripala Sirisena and other senior officials that Lt Gen. Shavendra Silva’s promotion to Commander will significantly curtail bi-lateral co-operation with the Sri Lanka Army under the US law. The reference was made by Alice G. Wells, Acting Assistant Secretary of Bureau of South & Central Asia more..

Oct 27 (ST) Sections of the Gem and Jewellery industry are up in arms over a Financial Intelligence Unit directive urging them to collect customer information. FIU, which comes under the CB, has requested gem & jewellery establishments to appoint compliance officers to take down the name, identity card or passport number of the clients. They are also required to question customers about their sources of income, more..

Oct 27 (CT) Sri Lanka's poverty rate at 37.3% as at last year is ranked 25th highest among 35 upper middle income countries as classified by the World Bank (WB), according to available data. The 24 upper middle income countries ahead of Sri Lanka with a lower poverty headcount rate in ascending order were Malaysia (5.1%), Belarus (5.6%), Maldives (6.6%), Bulgaria (7.1%), Kazakhstan (7.4%), Costa Rica (10.7%), more..

Oct 27 (TM) The COPE has revealed a costly deal reached between the CEB and a private power plant where, at the end of three years, the cost of power purchased will be higher than if the CEB had purchased the power plant. The CEB had reached a deal to purchase power from ACE Power Embiliptiya for three years starting from April 2018. Rs. 76 million is being paid monthly by the CEB to ACE Power at the rate of Rs. 1.29 per unit more..

Oct 27 (CI) A yawning victory for Australia, a pugilistic century for David Warner, Steven Smith not even required to bat? Do not adjust your browsers. Aaron Finch's team set down a brutal marker for the start of their 12-month run to next year's Twenty20 World Cup by swatting SL aside with their highest-ever total on home soil and fourth highest overall, as the captain and a promoted Glenn Maxwell provided perfect complement more..

Oct 27 (TM) Leader of the National Union of Workers and Minister Palani Digambaram is to give an ultimatum to NDF prez candidate Sajith Premadasa regarding the demands of estate sector workers. Minister Digambaram was likely to meet DNF prez candidate Premadasa this week and demand a pledge to increase the wages of the plantation sector workers failing which the former would resign from his portfolio. more..

Oct 27 (TM) SL’s telecom service providers are puzzled by the Govt’s recent announcement to exempt 5G towers from the cellular tower levy. None of the existing telecommunication services has commissioned a 5G tower in the country while a few are in the testing stage. Furthermore, 5G licenses have not been offered by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of SL (TRCSL) to any network yet. more..

Oct 27 (TM) The marking of postal votes for the upcoming presidential election will be held on 31 October and 1 November by certifying officers in 1,920 centres. The centres will function as regular polling booths and the necessary facilities will be made available similar to a regular polling booth. Elections monitoring teams will visit the centres, and an assistant returning officer will be posted to overlook the process. more..

Oct 27 (LM) As part of India’s strategy of creating a new energy ecosystem for the neighbourhood, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) govt is exploring to set up an overhead electricity link with Sri Lanka to supply power to the island nation. The change in strategy is being considered after the earlier proposed under-sea power transmission link plan turned out to be prohibitively expensive and comes in the backdrop of more..

Oct 27 (TM) The Election Commission (EC) is to conduct an investigation into state employees who have been found to be violating election laws. Local election monitors had complained that at least two state employees who were well known public figures had been seen at political events, and among them was the President of the GMOA Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya. Commissioner General of Elections more..

Oct 27 (TM) With campaigning for the 2019 presidential election reaching a climax with the launch of election manifestos by SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, NPP candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and NPM candidate Mahesh Senanayake last week, another topic that has been doing the rounds in political circles is the plans being discussed by SLFP patron and former Prez Chandrika Kumaratunga to form an alternative group of SLFPers opposed to SLPP. more..

Oct 27 (CT) In his classic narrative poem Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri chronicles his journey from the depths of hell to the splendors of heaven. The medieval poet describes punishments suffered by sinners with piercing precision. With his guide Virgil, the Poet discovers a group of dead souls outside the entrance to Hell. Hell wouldn’t let them in, and heaven will not accept them. These are individuals, when alive, remained neutral at a time of great moral decision. more..

Oct 27 (SO) The upcoming Prez Election seems far from the troubled mind of Pari Amma. Living in a partially built home on her land returned by govt forces three years ago, her thoughts these days are consumed by raising funds to dig a much needed well in her garden. Having struggled during the country’s long drawn conflict which mostly affected the country’s North, Pari Amma and her aging husband, more..

Oct 27 (CT) Policy honesty is an incumbent requirement associated with democracy and accountability to prevent deceiving poor voters particularly in a developing country like Sri Lanka by the unscrupulous politicians. When politicians give promises, those should be realistic and supported by reliable evidence, data and information. Otherwise the rival political parties and political leaders competitively give false promises inflating people’s expectations & hopes which cannot be met more..