Aug 8 (ST) The govt has selected a bidder from China for the import of organic-based fertiliser inputs initially for paddy cultivation alone with tests expected to commence ahead of the Maha season. The selection of bidders has already been finalised and the cabinet memorandum will be submitted tomorrow on the intention of the award to selected bidder, State Fertiliser Ministry Additional Secretary Mahesh Gammanpila said. more..

Aug 8 (AD) The govt will not allow a shortage of milk powder to ensue in the country, State Minister D.B. Herath assured. He said measures are already afoot to promote liquid milk to the consumers. The state minister pointed out that 40 percent of the country’s demand for milk powder is met through the local manufacturers. However, the country must be self-sufficient to meet the 100% of the demand, he added. “If we become self-sufficient, we can stop importing milk. more..

Aug 8 (ST) SL factories are currently faced with a surge in infections from COVID-19 as the care centres located within the premises of the zones are filling up. The number of infections last month had more than doubled compared to April, Free Trade Zone Manufacturers Association Secretary General Dhammika Fernando said. In April the infections recorded from all zones were only 550. He noted that while May recorded a spike in cases at 6200 this number had subsequently decreased to more..

Aug 8 (ST) US company has expressed interest in developing a Trincomalee Harbour site and its precincts by setting up a mega oil refinery at an investment of US$ 3 billion, an Energy Ministry’s memorandum has revealed. Company, whose name is not revealed in the memorandum, has submitted an unsolicited proposal to develop the site near the port along with land area, 10 times greater than Colombo Harbour, more..

Aug 8 (AD) The validity period of all types of visas currently obtained by foreigners residing in SL has been extended by 30 days until Sept 7, 2021. Only Visa fees applicable for that period will be charged for the Visas expire within this period and exempted from charging overstay penalty, Dept of Immigration and Emigration issuing a notice. Accordingly, Tourist Visa holders can follow one of the methodologies to make payment for the extension of the visa and to get visa endorsement. more..

Aug 8 (SO) SL Test captain Dimuth Karunaratna is lined-up to represent Nottinghamshire in the ongoing English County Championship. Karunaratne said it was a good opportunity to play in the English County season at a crucial stage of his career where he could gain valuable experience for the future. Karunaratne has been sideline by the selectors and was not part of the SL squad picked to play against India in the recent home ODI series. He was the captain of SL ODI team at the last World Cup more..

Aug 8 (TM) T China Development Bank (CDB) is expected to expand the pending $ 200 million, which it agreed to provide to SL as part of a $ 500 million loan extended to the country in the first half of this year, to $ 350 million based on a request made by the Sri Lankan authorities. Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle stated that Sri Lanka has already received a sum of $ 500 million under the agreement signed between Central Bank more..

Aug 8 (SO) Notwithstanding the damage done by Covid-19 preventing travellers from visiting SL, the exorbitant high airfares from Europe to the Island are contributing to bring the tourism sector to a near total collapse, said Social Scientist and tourism expert Dr. Dietmar Doering. He said the Asian German Sports Exchange Program (AGSEP) Research institute in a recent survey identified that SL remains to be the most expensive destination - airfares concerned - even though more..

Aug 8 (EN) A batch of 727,380 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine made in Japan had arrived in Colombo on July 7, Japanese embassy said. With this delivery, the total quantity of AstraZeneca vaccines donated from Japan to SL has reached 1,455,840 doses,. “Govt of Japan highly commends the efficient roll-out of vaccines by Govt of SL and welcomes the prompt inoculation of the first batch of 728,460 doses, which arrived on 31 July…” “Japan believes this second batch delivered today more..

Aug 8 (ST) A number of crematoriums close to hospitals in heavily populated areas have started operating round-the-clock to clear a backlog of bodies, health authorities said. Meanwhile, morgues are struggling to find space to store remains as their limited freezer facilities rapidly fill up. The deceased are not exclusively COVID-infected. But the pandemic has significantly increased the number of remains received more..

Aug 8 (TM) With the rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 patients being reported in the country, a severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been reported from hospitals around the country over the course of last week. As alleged by the healthcare unions, the shortage was mainly due to the sudden spike in the number of Covid-19 patients reported within a short period of time. All-Ceylon Nurses Union (ACNU) President S.B. Mediwatta stressed that there was a severe more..

Aug 8 (ST) The Govt is to extend the period of granting Permanent Resident (PR) visas from the existing five years to ten years while vesting the power of determining the period to the Minister in charge — Minister of Defence. According to a bill published this week by the Ministry of Defence to amend the Immigrants and Emigrants Act, the Minister in Charge is vested with powers to extend the period from five years up to ten years. The Immigration & Emigration Controller General, more..

Aug 8 (ST) With hospitals not only in Colombo but even in Ratnapura and Karapitiya tumbling like dominoes under the onslaught of COVID-19 and the weight of hapless patients who are taking up lodging in the garden, the Sunday Times felt the COVID pulse in many outstation areas. Reached saturation or close to reaching saturation was what we heard over and over again. Here are chilling findings of Sunday Times more..

Aug 8 (ST) Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange crisis has taken a new turn with exporters lobbying the govt to depreciate the rupee in a bid to become competitive in their respective exports markets amid international settlements becoming a virtual nightmare for banks. “We have requested the govt to depreciate the rupee to stand at Rs. 230 for a US dollar within this year to become competitive in the export markets,” a CEO of a large exporting company said on Monday. more..

Aug 8 (Island) As hospitals and allied medical facilities reached breaking point in the backdrop of the virulent Delta strain of the Coronavirus wreaking havoc across the country, Sri Lanka’s top national professional medical body, called for the re-imposition of travel restrictions to curb the rapid transmission of the deadly variant. “That’s the only solution to combat surging caseloads in the short term”, says the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA). more..

Aug 8 (ST) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an unprecedented move, has turned to the private sector to recruit mid-career diplomats. This major change in procedure is the result of the Ministry being struck by debacles due to the lack of professional expertise. Is this the real situation in the Ministry, or does the fault lie in the hands of the administration and the political leadership? It is a question over whether this once august more..

Aug 9 (CT) The govt, rather the country, is in the grip of three mutually aggravating crises – involving public health, people’s lives and the economy. And every one of them has gotten critical. Covid-19 has morphed or mutated into a dreadful Delta scare. Even the suddenly impressive vaccine rollout is being outrun by surges in infections and deaths. If vaccination is picking up four paces, Delta is overtaking by eight paces and more. That is the reality. Last Thursday, two major hospitals, more..

Aug 9 (CT) Much hype has been suddenly generated over the employment of children as domestic aides. The reason for this sudden awakening is the suspicious death of a 16-year-old girl who was a domestic aide employed at MP Rishad Bathiudeen’s residence. Investigations are underway and hopefully those responsible will be brought to book. But what about those who were tasked with the responsibility of preventing employment of children? more..

Aug 9 (ST) Majestic and dignified, they crossed the main road, as ooh and aahs of thava enawa greeted them, unperturbed by a few humans even revving motorcycle engines to taunt them. Some, however, were not so dignified – the babies naughtily gambolling across, while a tall and handsome tusker halted awhile to cast his eyes this way and that and a few getayas stopped short once more..

Aug 9 (ST) The Court of Appeal’s issuance of an interim injunction this Tuesday preventing further action being taken against a senior state counsel caught in the purposeful cross hairs of a Commission of Inquiry purportedly tasked with remedying past cases of alleged political victimisation, points to acutely painful realities that Sri Lanka faces today. These are matters that the Bench and the Bar need to be cognisant of, irrespective of political differences. more..

Aug 9 (DM) The Middle East as we know it today (awash with its vast reserves of petroleum resources), was once part of the Ottoman Empire. The redrawing of borders that determines the territories of today’s Middle Eastern nation states, lie in the1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, secretly made during the First World War, to distribute the Arab provinces of the former Ottoman Empire between colonial powers Britain and France. The region has been in turmoil ever since. more..

Aug 9 (CT) What was once significantly associated with werewolves and candy have now taken a more sinister and deadlier appearance as viral variants; sending chills down the spines of us insignificant humans. Having been seriously affected by the alpha variant - better known as the British variant, following April’s New Year celebration, the cases being recorded had barely reduced below 1,000 when new cases, more..

Aug 9 (GV) SL student activists have been arrested for protesting against militarisation and privatisation in higher education. This is yet another example of misuse of laws supposedly aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 in order to increase state power and crush dissent. After a protest near Parliament on August 3, five people were arrested a few days later on charges of violating inter-provincial travel restrictions. They included IUSF convenor Wasantha Mudalige and president of the Sri J'pura more..

Aug 9 (TM) A forward-thinking nation always identifies and acknowledges its roots, and sees to it that in moving forward, it does not leave behind who and what formed its foundations. To reiterate one vital aspect of this duty, every year on 9 August, the world celebrates the Int'l Day of Indigenous Peoples, in a context where their rights and value are being forgotten in modernisation and politics. This day was dedicated for indigenous peoples in 1994 at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, more..

Aug 9 (DM) The continued mismanagement and mishandling of vital issues by the govt is causing chaos and disorder. The contradictory announcements, imposing unrealistic rules and regulations and reversing them overnight is adding to the instability and confusion. However, the silver line is the excellent manner the vaccination drive progresses spearheaded by the military and to a lesser degree by the state health sector. WHO Director General Adnom Ghebreyesus more..

Aug 9 (Island) We have got what we asked for. The viral tsunami has made landfall. A surge in Covid-19 infections is snuffing out lives at the rate of about 100 a day. Hospitals are facing a capacity crunch, and mortuaries are packed to the rafters. Unclaimed remains of Covid victims are being buried/cremated by the state. Crematoria in some parts of the country are kept open round the clock. The prognosis of morbidity and mortality rates is even gloomier. Unless stern action is taken to contain more..

Aug 9 (ST) Under floodlights and against a stiff evening breeze Mathilda Karlsson and her horse Chopin VA rode out to the Equestrian Park in Tokyo on Tuesday in the Individual Jumping event, the last of SL’s nine athletes to compete at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In the time between Karlsson becoming the first Sri Lankan to qualify for the games and the last to participate, the entirety of SL’s Olympic campaign unravelled too much more..

Aug 9 (Island) Isn’t that strange on the year we celebrate the silver jubilee of winning the ICC Cricket World Cup, that we are in the brink of qualifying for the sport’s showpiece event in 2023. The wheels have come off faster in the T20 format as six years after winning the World T20, we will be playing a qualifying round. There are some genuine efforts made to revive the sport and we can certainly do without some egoist know-it-alls. The invitation T20 league comprising four teams more..

Aug 9 (ST) The glossy rainbow of hope that had briefly lit the highest echelons of state last week, with the Government intending to lift the last travel restriction between the provinces on Monday and the Public Services Ministry ordering all public servants to report to work from August 2, dissipated in the darkening mist when medical experts sounded the warning of an impending storm that stood poised to unleash an unprecedented wave of COVID infections and deaths. more..

Aug 9 (ST) A mistimed jump trying to cross the steeplechase hurdle hurts when you fall flat on the face in the track. What makes matters worse is that, tripping and tumbling before the cameras and all watching from all over, taking that embarrassment in your stride and completing the race. But how about the – hurt – of being all set to make the cut for the Olympics, only for it to be so close; yet so far? Steeplechase runner Nilani Ratnayaka more..

Aug 9 (NBC) It took until the final few medal events of the Tokyo Olympics, but the United States pushed ahead of China to close the 2020 Games as the big winners. The U.S. took home more gold medals than any other country (39) as well as more total medals than any other country (113). USA and China were locked at 38 golds apiece with only a few final medals to be decided. It was the U.S. women's volleyball team that earned the Games' decisive gold with a clean, three-set sweep over Brazil. more..

Aug 9 (Island) In cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH SL, Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in SL (AHK SL) and Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC), leading logistic companies in SL such as Aitken Spence, EFL Global, Hayleys Advantis, Hellmann MAS, John Keells joined the training initiative. They will provide practical in-company training for 35 trainees to become officially according to German more..

Aug 9 (FT) The country’s cinema industry is furious over the National Film Corporation’s (NFC) move to shut out the private sector by going back on the industry’s partial liberalisation and taking up a larger role in distributing films. Cinema owners and private sector importers and distributors warned that the move would be disastrous and put millions of investments made since 2001’s partial deregulation, and more..

Aug 9 (ST) Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has got approval from the Central Bank to permit local companies intending to go public on the Multi Currency Board to open foreign currency accounts for transactions. A circular issued on July 30 by the Department of Foreign Exchange of the Central Bank has authorised companies incorporated here and publicly listed on the CSE to open Special Foreign Currency Accounts to facilitate foreign currency denominated investments on CSE. more..

Aug 9 (TM) Chief Negotiator for the China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka will be State Minister of Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya, Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena, said said. “We have appointed the State Minister of Foreign Affairs as the chief negotiator for the China FTA,” he said, adding that the appointment of a chief negotiator for the overall FTAs was still pending. The Morning Business attempted to contact the state minister for a comment but he was unavailable. more..

Aug 9 (ST) The million dollar cable car project proposed under the govt’s ambitious Nuwara Eliya tourism zone development initiative after receiving the cabinet approval, has got stuck in financial and environmental issues, according to official assessment reports and relevant documents. Cabinet approved the project in 2019 during the previous regime and it was re-introduced under the present govt’s tourism zone more..

Aug 9 (FT) Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa expects to save foreign exchange by reducing the import of goods and increasing domestic production. He made these remarks at the launch of two locally manufactured drugs by the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) at the Ratmalana Pharmaceutical Corporation recently. The painkiller drugs — Tramadol and Levothyroxine – used to treat thyroxin deficiency, are now being produced locally at the Ratmalana facility. more..

Aug 9 (FT) Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 fatalities rose to 5,111 with the confirmation of 94 more COVID-19 deaths on Saturday. 69 deaths confirmed on Saturday were male and 25 were female. Of the total fatalities, 2,969 are male and 2,142 are female. The majority of the COVID-19 deaths are from the Over-60 age category, with 71 persons over the age of 60, 22 persons between ages 30 and 59, and one person below the age of 30 among the fatalities confirmed on Saturday. more..