Jul 22 (CT) GMOA reiterated its call for the management of the prevailing shortage of medicinal drugs and pharmaceuticals in the island. GMOA Media Committee Member, Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe, when contacted, said timely management of pharmaceuticals would prevent a further medicinal drug crisis in the country during the next few months. He lamented that there was a shortage of medicinal drugs and consumables from medical institutions in the peripheries to large more..

Jul 22 (TM) Railway Department has planned to implement the recently announced train fare hike announced from midnight today, while the SL Railway Station Master’s Union (SLRSMU), which has been assigned a leading role in the implementation of the said fare hike, has decided not to implement it from midnight today. Railway Dept General Manager Dhammika Jayasundara said that the recently announced hike of train fares would be implemented from midnight today. more..

Jul 22 (EN) US Ambassador to SL Julie Chung met President Ranil Wickremesinghe after a military raid of a peaceful protest site in Colombo left nine people injured. Ambassador Chung tweeted Friday July 22 evening that she had expressed her grave concern over the “unnecessary and deeply troubling escalation of violence against protestors overnight”. “Prez and cabinet have an opportunity and an obligation to respond to the calls of Sri Lankans for a better future,” she said. more..

Jul 22 (FT) Feed a Child, Build a Future – A bold statement undertaken by the Colombo Expats Cultural Association during the need of the hour came with a lot of determination and vision. CECA, which is group of Expats Community in SL comprising of Indian, Bangladeshi, Nepali nationality as well as Sri Lankans, immediately stood up to the unforeseen challenge of the current economic crisis prevailing in the Island. In the wake of this growing economic crisis & anticipated food shortage, more..

Jul 22 (TM) Whilst a new National Fuel Pass system has been introduced to ease the procurement of fuel for the public, no mechanism has been put in place under the said system to prioritise health care workers, at a time when they are faced with great opposition from those in queues when obtaining fuel at designated fuel sheds on their designated day of the week. 16 incidents were reported last week across the island where more..

Jul 22 (ANI) China, which turned a blind eye to SL while it struggled with the economic and political crisis, is now looking forward to advancing bilateral ties and traditional friendship between the two countries, as evident from President Xi Jinping's congratulatory note to newly-elected Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe. "It is hoped that we carry forward the traditional friendship, consolidate political mutual trust, and push forward the strategic cooperative partnership of sincere mutual assistance more..

Jul 22 (CT) Archdiocesan Social Communication and Cultural Centre (ASCCC) warned of an alleged fake Facebook page being maintained under Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith’s name, by parties who wished to promote their narrow political goals. Director of the ASCCC, Fr. Jude Chrysantha Fernando said a FB page in the name of Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and the Archdiocese of Colombo were being maintained. “These two pages were being maintained without Cardinal’s more..

Jul 22 (TM) Ministry of Public Security has stated that a request should be made at the diplomatic level for the assistance of the police authorities of the UK to be sought in order to complete the investigation into the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 21 April 2019, as stated by Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe. A Ministry official said: “As of now, Wickremesinghe has only made a statement that he wishes to obtain support of UK police more..

Jul 22 (ANI) India has extended 8 Lines of Credit (LOCs) to SL amounting to USD 1850.64 million in the past 10 years, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar said. "Govt of India has extended 08 Lines of Credit (LOCs) to SL amounting to USD 1850.64 million in sectors including railways, infrastructure, defence, renewable energy, petroleum and fertilizers in the past 10 years," EAM Jaishankar said in a written reply to question put by DMK Lok Sabha MP S Ramalingam. more..

Jul 22 (TM) While congratulating newly appointed President Ranil Wickremesinghe, former Prez Chandrika Kumaratunga has stated that Wickremesinghe is assigned to perform the difficult task of establishing a system of governance in which the rule of law, honesty, and good governance will reign supreme, and which requires the active participation of political and civil society leaders, and the establishment of new institutions. Making a statement on appointment of the new Prez, more..

Jul 23 (DM) With Sri Lankans focusing their attention on the unprecedented and historic public uprising, which forced Prez Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign and Parliament on Wednesday electing PM Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prez with a majority of 52 votes, the UN later this month marks the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. The prophetic Pope Francis has described trafficking in persons as a crime against humanity. To mark the day the UN in a statement says this year’s theme more..

Jul 23 (DM) UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s victory in Wednesday’s Parliamentary vote for the election of the Prez was a victory for the Rajapaksas as well. With this victory Wickremesinghe saved the Rajapaksas from being pushed to the political wilderness for the second time within a little longer than two months. First, he, by accepting the Prime Ministerial portfolio on May 12 gave a helping hand to the beleaguered Prez Rajapaksa who then seemed to be about to give up his position more..

Jul 23 (DM) The India – Sri Lanka Accord was signed by former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi and ex-SL president Junius Richard (JR) Jayewardene on July 29, 1987 in Colombo. The 35th anniversary of the pact known generally as the Indo-Lanka Accord will be observed this Friday (29). The Rajiv-JR accord was signed with the laudable objective of bringing peace to Sri Lanka by ending the war between the SL armed forces and more..

Jul 23 (CT) Ranil Wickremesinghe is a leader without any popular vote; a ruler without a mandate; a ruler without legitimacy. And yet he seeks to crush the citizens using military and police force. Aragalaya 3.0 must be born as the Resistance against Ranil’s rule and can only end with his political retrenchment. Actions speak louder than words, as the old saying goes. The actions came from Ranil. Speech is also an action. He sounded belligerent for days. more..

Jul 23 (GV) Without warning, heavily armed military and police in riot gear descended on the Galle Face protest site, chasing away the activists, dismantling tents and attacking media personnel. Several of the protesters were badly injured. The state led violence brought instant local and international condemnation as videos of the brutality were widely shared on social media. The attacks were ordered despite the fact that the protesters had agreed to vacate the Prez Secretariat building in the afternoon. more..

Jul 23 (CT) Ranil Shriyan Wickremesinghe, a man who had absolutely no adequate mandate to enter the Legislator, but who yet somehow made it by finally naming himself to fill the only National List seat awarded to the UNP at the 2020 General Election, after keeping it vacant for more than a year, has today become the 8th Executive Prez of SL and what more than the stanzas in Rudyard Kipling’s ‘IF’ is suitable more..

Jul 23 (ST) What a hare-brained scheme – the plan to bar SL domestic workers from going abroad if they have failed to send remittances through official channels on a previous term of employment! This is what my friend, human resource pundit H.R. Perera, popularly known as HR, was referring to when we spoke on Thursday. Thankfully, Minister Manusha Nanayakkara resigned earlier this week, for, his rash proposal would have triggered many fundamental rights petitions if the authorities went through more..

Jul 23 (ST) While the peaceful and disciplined nature of the public protest has been gradually fading away, SL’s rate of inflation was reported to be 54.6% for the last month, June 2022. It is the highest rate of inflation among all Asian countries; even in the world, SL is among the top-10 inflationary countries, all having the rate of inflation over 50%. Achieving over 50% rate of year-on-year inflation for a single month means that, within a period of 12 months – that is from June last year to June more..

Jul 23 (ST) In a move to further improve the standards of the maritime and shipping industry in SL, SL Logistics & Freight Forwarders Association (SLFFA) has signed a key initiative with YoungShip Sri Lanka recently. This signifies the two organisations’ commitment to working towards advancing the future of the industry by creating a younger, more inclusive, and collaborative professional atmosphere that allows young maritime professionals to actively participate in more..

Jul 23 (ST) In a fresh fiscal policy stance of austerity measures, the Finance Ministry has cut down non-essential capital expenditure in ministries, depts and state institutions in a bid to save money during this economic crisis. Treasury Secretary Mahinda Siriwardene in a circular to govt departments, provincial councils and statutory boards has ordered to cut controllable expenditure by at least 30% with suggestions to curb spending, ranging from development projects, advertisement and more..

Jul 23 (ST) SL’s poultry farmers are alarmed that animal feed production in the country is only enough for one month and imports should resume. There is a shortage of cereal grain and corn, in the country. From March to June, the production of broiler meat decreased by 30% to 12,000 metric tonnes a month from 18,000 metric tonnes, and prices had risen sharply. Daily egg production, which used to be between 700,000 and 800,000, more..

Jul 23 (Island) If true, this observation attributed to PM SWRD Bandaranaike, is quite chilling in its cynicism. Excitement is a political emotion here and SWRD appears to take a distance from it, observing somewhat clinically, how this language issue stirs up the people. Politicians are especially crafty, cunning, when they know how to excite people with ideas that they themselves may or may not truly believe in. Born an Anglican, at first privately home-schooled and then at S. Thomas’ College, more..

Jul 23 (Island) The wee hours of Friday saw a massive shock and awe operation carried out by heavily armed troops and police commandos in Colombo. They descended on the unarmed Galle Face protesters, destroying as they did a large number of tents and other makeshift structures that had been there for more than 100 days. The special operation was launched close on the heels of the swearing-in of Prez Wickremesinghe. This dastardly act of politico-military muscle flexing must more..

Jul 23 (FT) New Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe-administration came under a barrage of vehement condemnation locally and globally for unleashing a brutal attack on peaceful anti-Govt protestors near the Prez Secretariat in Fort. The incident took place in the early hours of Friday and less than 24 hours since Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the interim Prez. Army soldiers and STF personnel used excessive force which more..

Jul 23 (DN) The left-hander Uvindu Weerasekara played an unbeaten 62 in 95 balls with 9 fours as Royal College, Colombo made a bold reply by making 136/4 as bad weather stopped play on the second day of the 143rd Battle of the Blues Big Match against S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, played at SSC grounds yesterday. Rain interrupted the morning session at the beginning one hour later at 11 am. The Thomians continued at 207 for 6 wickets while overnight batsman more..

Jul 23 (ST) Education Ministry has decided to resume all schools next week. However, it will not be on Monday as scheduled but on Thursday, Ministry Secretary M. N. Ranasinghe said. All schools countrywide will resume when the political situation returns to normalcy. He hopes the fuel distribution will improve and public transport will be back to normal by then. The ministry will watch the situation on Thursday and Friday and then decide on the number of days in a week that schools more..

Jul 23 (DN) SL’s medical staff for the XXII Commonwealth Games is drawing up contingency plans to create awareness and combat the heatwave experienced in the United Kingdom and spreading across Europe. UK hit its highest ever temperature of 40.3 Celsius, according to provisional Met Office figures, and forecasters warned temperatures were still climbing, BBC reported. “Temperature is fluctuating and unpredictable. We have advised athletes to stay hydrated and more..

Jul 23 (CNBC) SL will need to emerge from its current state of chaos before the IMF can step in with a bailout, according to a professor from Johns Hopkins University. “The IMF cannot… interact with the govt when things are in a continuing crisis mode. So until the govt stabilizes, until they have a minister of finance, there’s no one for the IMF to talk with,” Deborah Brautigam said. SL has been wracked by months of protests and is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence. more..

Jul 23 (CT) Warsan Shire, a Somali British author and poet, once said, No one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land. This is a fact of life for one type of refugees amongst many, and SL is known for producing refugees borne out of political, ethnic, religious, and economic crises. Refugees are those forced to migrate abandoning their places of birth out of fear, suffering, & mental anguish, climate change more..

Jul 23 (Island) There will be at least one debutant when Sri Lanka take the field in the second Test match against Pakistan staring in Galle on Sunday. There were similar scenes during the Australian series, after an embarrassing ten wicket loss in the first Test and with several players sidelined by Covid the selectors had to keep their pride aside and call up Prabath Jayasuriya, someone who had been sidelined on fitness grounds. Jayasuriya is a veteran in domestic cricket and this seasoned more..

Jul 23 (Island) Pubudu Dassanayake has submitted his resignation as Nepal head coach citing family reasons with almost a year and a half left on his current contract in order to take up the same position with Canada. His contract with Canada will run until the end of 2023. Dassanayake, 52, played Test cricket for SL in the mid-1990s before migrating to Ontario in 2001. He eventually made his debut for Canada at the 2005 ICC Trophy in Ireland and helped them qualify for the 2007 World Cup. more..

Jul 23 (Island) Veteran politician DEW Gunasekera said that there must have been a tacit understanding between the new SL administration and the Western camp, regarding the deployment of the military and the police to remove Galle Face protesters in the early hours of yesterday. The former General Secretary of the Communist Party said so when The Island sought reconfirmation as regards his sensational declaration more..

Jul 23 (EN) Stocks fell on Friday (22) for the first time in six consecutive sessions after the new Prez Ranil Wickrememesinghe ordered the military and police in an emergency order to clear protesters from the Presidential Secretariat, brokers said. The main All Share Price Index (ASPI) closed 0.19% or 14.59 points down at 7,721.78. “This violence could have been avoided. Market now expects more protests to build up like in the past and create more uncertainty,” a broker said. more..

Jul 23 (FT) Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith yesterday slammed President Ranil Wickremesinghe over the attack on innocent civilians yesterday and warned the latter will be held responsible for any resultant reprisals and future disasters. Cardinal described that it was an unprovoked attack on unarmed protesters and civilians. “We are very sorry and totally condemn this high-handed act of the Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe even before 24 hours had passed after his swearing in,” he said. more..

Jul 23 (Island) Seylan Bank PLC recently announced the appointment of Lakshman Silva as an Independent Non-Executive Director to its Board of Directors with effect from 18 July 2022. No stranger to the banking industry, Silva is well-known for his invaluable service leading DFCC Bank PLC and its subsidiaries for over three decades. He also served as the Chairman of Sri Lanka Banks’ Association, guiding the banking community, through challenging times in 2020/21. more..