Aug 20 (Island) Handle with care is a warning that we get on packages containing glass, silverware or other valuable electronic items. In other words, fragile items. Same label should be pasted on the locker room of Lahiru Kumara, the fast bowler who has failed to realize his potential due to a series of injuries. The thing with fast bowlers is that you can teach them to swing the ball away from a batsman or into a batsman, or other key elements of the trade. However, what can not be taught is pace. more..

Aug 20 (ST) Exactly 21 years ago, on August 6 of 2002 Lieutenant Keerthi Kanaheraarachchi met with a near fatal accident that would change his whole life upside down. Kanaheraarachchi was part of Sri Lanka Air Force’s first batch of skydivers, who would grace the opening ceremony of the 14th Asian Athletic Championship at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo. But, Keerthi who overcame the greatest challenge of his life–’the fear of heights’ to become an Airman and a skydiver, more..

Aug 20 (ST) It was the clash of titans in the showdown for the Dialog Schools Rugby League 2023 title as St. Peter’s Colllege fended off a late charge from defending champs Isipathana College to record a 28-17 win and regain the crown after a dearth of 13 years at Bambalapitiya yesterday. It was a St. Peter’s game to lose as the eventual winners out-rucked and outkicked the Green Machine, who seemed to be lacking confidence especially after their defeat to Royal College more..

Aug 20 (ST) World Rugby (WR) has demanded the resignation of Rizly Illyas–the President of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) immediately respecting the suspension imposed on him by Asia Rugby (AR) in the best interest of rugby players in SL. Illyas remained suspended by AR since last year after he was found guilty of breaching Asia Rugby’s Code of Conduct by the Executive Committee based on a thorough investigation by a judicial officer. Asia Rugby Appeal Panel rejected Illyas’ appeal as it upheld more..

Aug 20 (TM) The CEB is prepared to procure 120 MW of power from Ace Power Embilipitiya (100 MW) and Matara (20 MW) under an emergency power purchase approval. While negotiations with Ace Power Matara for the procurement of 20 MW have been successfully concluded, talks with the Ace power plant in Embilipitiya for the purchase of 100 MW are ongoing, it is learnt. more..

Aug 20 (FT) Nawaloka Hospitals PLC has recorded a stellar growth during the first quarter for FY23/24, with a Rs.120 million profit-before-tax (PBT) in its interim financial statement for the quarter which ended on 30 June, marking a 158% increase over the previous year for the same period. The report highlighted the Group’s recent restructuring and increased activity in key areas such as medical innovation and patient-care excellence, accounting for a swift recovery and positive turnover. more..

Aug 20 (CI) Lasith Malinga will return to Mumbai Indians for IPL 2024, this time as their fast-bowling coach. He will replace Shane Bond, who had held that position for the past nine seasons. After retiring in 2021, Malinga had joined Rajasthan Royals in 2022 as their fast-bowling coach, a position he served for two seasons. This will be Malinga's second stint in Mumbai's support staff, having served as their mentor in 2018. A year later, Malinga returned to the field to share the bowling more..

Aug 20 (AD) President Ranil Wickremesinghe says a comprehensive national security review will be conducted to formulate modern security policies for the National Security Council. He said a dedicated team has been appointed to carry out the review, with a focus on a broad range of factors including emerging economic trends and implications of climate change. Wickremesinghe made these remarks more..

Aug 20 (AD) Mirihana Police on Friday night arrested the businessman, who was reported ‘missing’ in Kolonna for the past few days. He was found hiding inside a three-wheeler in the Delkanda area. On Wednesday, Kolonna Police had received a complaint that a businessman who was traveling in a van in the Kolonna area had been attacked with chili powder and abducted. Later, police recovered the van in which the businessman was traveling, near the Anilkanda Public Cemetery. more..

Aug 20 (AD) Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) has announced that it has received sufficient financial allocations for paddy purchasing. The PMB, stating that the government has spent Rs. 13 billion on paddy purchasing last year, also mentioned that steps have been taken to convert the purchased paddy stocks into rice and distribute them to 2.9 million low-income families across the island free of charge. In addition, the govt, through the Farmers’ Trust Fund, has provided more..

Aug 20 (ST) For the first time in its history spanning more than 150 years, Dept of Census and Statistics is to use digital tablet computers, alongside traditional printed documents, for data collection for the 15th Census of Population and Housing 2023-2024. The listing phase of the census is set to begin later this year, followed by the enumeration phase next year. Population and Housing Census consists of a comprehensive tally of all individuals and existing residences more..

Aug 20 (SO) If Sri Lanka can invest around Euro 15 to 20 billion in the energy sector, the country could be totally powered by green energy, said European Union (EU) Ambassador to SL, Denis Chaibi. He was speaking at the SL Motor Trader Association (CMTA) organised breakfast meeting last week. He said that SL has enough and more natural energy producing sources such as water, sun, wind and what is needed are investments and direction to extract energy from these sources. more..

Aug 20 (Island) A recent report by AidData, a research lab at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, claimed that China might establish a naval base in Hambantota Port in the next two to five years. This can be expected to increase Indian concerns over Chinese presence so close to its southern coastline. The AidData report, titled Harboring Global Ambitions: China’s Ports Footprint and Implications for more..

Aug 20 (EN) Finance Ministry has ordered line ministries not to start projects coming in the guise of Public Private Partnerships where the full cost has to be settled over time through annuities (instalment payments) in making spending plans for 2024. Public Private Partnerships are usually expected to cover their entire expenditure through revenues, though in some cases, only a part of the infrastructure may be possible to be covered through business revenues. more..

Aug 20 (ST) SL and Iran have set the tea for oil deal in motion with the first payment made in August and tea shipments scheduled for early September. SL and Iran have been in talks to engage in a tea-for-oil deal whereby SL tea exporters will sell their teas to Iran and the payment of which will be made by the CPC as its debts to Iran (for oil purchases) are deducted accordingly. The monthly payments from the CPC are to be made to the SL Tea Board to the value of US$5 million in rupee equivalent. more..

Aug 20 (FT) Transparency International SL (TISL) hosted the grand finale of Integrity Icon SL (IISL) 2022/23 honouring exemplary public servants. The event served as a platform to acknowledge and applaud civil servants who demonstrate exceptional integrity, unwavering dedication, and strong moral values in their professional undertakings. In collaboration with Accountability Lab, the fifth consecutive instalment of IISL was organised, felicitating honest public officials more..

Aug 20 (DM) In a concerning development showcasing the severe shortage of medical specialists, it has been revealed that six out of the eleven Paediatric Cardiologists have migrated sparking grave concerns over the management of Paediatric Cardiology services, Daily Mirror learns. According to reliable sources, the standard number of fully qualified Pediatric Cardiologists should be twenty. However, the current count stands at only eleven, with six of them having migrated. more..

Aug 20 (TM) Mass migration of qualified teachers by way of a Govt-introduced leave scheme has forced the Ministry of Education to seek Cabinet approval to hire new teachers to the public schools system, amidst curtailed Govt spending and a State sector-wide recruitment freeze. Thousands of vacancies remain unfilled in the public school system due to teachers applying for a 5-year no-pay leave under a Govt circular issued last yr, more..

Aug 20 (TM) Colombo Lotus Tower Company plans to commemorate the first anniversary of the Colombo Lotus Tower on 15 Sept by unveiling several new revenue-generating ventures and hosting an extravagant light show and fireworks display. Colombo Lotus Tower Business Development and Marketing Head Bimsara Rozairo revealed that plans were underway to celebrate the first anniversary of South Asia’s tallest tower, towering at 350 metres, more..

Aug 20 (TM) The faulty Unit 2 of the coal-fired Lakvijaya Power Plant (LVPP) in Norochcholai was brought back online last week, injecting a much-needed 300 MW of power to a national grid starved of capacity due to rapidly eroding hydropower generation. Unit 2 failed suddenly amidst a worsening power crisis earlier this month, once again raising concerns about the chequered service history of the controversial Norochcholai power plant. Unit 2’s failure came following the more..

Aug 20 (ST) Major political parties are re-positioning to gear themselves for parliamentary elections though when such an event would take place is uncertain. Prompting the exercise are developments in each other’s backyard. Days earlier, SJB leader Sajith Premadasa held an important round of talks with SLPP’s breakaway faction led by Dullas Allahapperuma and G.L. Peiris among others. SJB is on the verge of forming more..

Aug 21 (DM) Our population is ageing and ageing rapidly. Old age is a very sensitive and fragile period in life where elderly people need extra care and comfort. The elderly population in Sri Lanka reached 3.6 million in 2019. It is a time the elderly in our care are prone to accidents. Parents, relatives or those whom we give care to age. They require more and more help because they lose their natural ability to take care of themselves and most times growing old presents its challenges. more..

Aug 21 (DM) Seemingly isolated incidents are related to larger events which concluded years ago. They concluded, but with loose ends. That’s why these isolated incidents which take place years later are so significant. A young elephant (12 years old) is killed by a land mine. Interestingly, the Sinhala daily which reported this along with a photo of the badly burnt carcass, didn’t say where this happened. One can assume it’s somewhere in the eastern province. The civil war concluded in May 2009, more..

Aug 21 (GV) Patriotism, wrote Ambrose Bierce in The Devil’s Dictionary is The combustible rubbish ready to the torch of anyone ambitious to illuminate his name. Patriotism is not the last refuge of the scoundrel, as Samuel Johnson famously said, Bierce added, it is the first. In Sri Lanka, a group of politicians and political monks are making a concerted effort to inflame Sinhala-Buddhist patriotism to regain relevance. more..

Aug 21 (CT) Although some sort of semblance in terms of economic stability is being observed at present, digging through just the surface of it reveals that this stability is not sustainable as Sri Lanka has to address the debt it defaulted, honour international trade deals, abide by the strict rules and regulations stipulated by financial organisations, which granted some bailouts, prevent corruption within the country by at least a considerable margin, and pay attention to the illegitimate debt more..

Aug 21 (ST) For the starry-eyed among us, it must be repeated with force that Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe’s sharp admonition to the Supreme Court recently (ie; Parliament has powers over public finance, orders or instructions will not be tolerated from anyone else) is not a chance political remark tossed into public debate. Rather, this is a specific message with dire undertones for the people and the judiciary alike. As such, it cannot be taken lightly or shrugged away casually. more..

Aug 21 (ST) It is widely believed that SL is at a critical juncture considering the current social, political and economic challenges the country faces. To address the current challenges the country faces with policy developments, the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute organised an inaugural LKI Foreign Policy Forum, titled Changing Global Dynamics: Implications for SL, recently. Among the panellists at the discussion was the veteran more..

Aug 21 (TM) Over the past three months, Ministry of Agriculture has gone from celebrating enough rice stocks to feed Sri Lanka till December to grow crops on every inch of land available. Many would find this swift change laughable, except we are talking about food security of a bankrupt nation. Between June of last year, and May this year, Sri Lanka had a food security scare. Many food items were freely available, or were priced beyond reach inflation and racketeering soared. more..

Aug 21 (TM) A little publicised march wended its way from Talaimannar in North West coast to Matale in Central hills. March retraced the jungle track of 200 years ago that brought a flow of men and women in the tens of thousands from the South of India to work on the newly established tea plantations of SL. Symbolic reenactment of that journey took place over the past fortnight. But, only a handful could cope with the rigours of the long march; kept going from Talaimannar to Matale. more..

Aug 21 (Island) First, we should question whether the age-old notion of Free Healthcare in SL is valid anymore. Going by the Total Health Expenditure statistics of the country, one would realise it is a misnomer.According to healthcare spending in SL, from 1990 to 2019, published by the Institute for Health Policy, in SL Health Accounts: National Health Expenditure 1990 – 2019, when it comes to who pays for health, the people of the country bear the most of health spending. more..

Aug 21 (ST) After being left to idle for weeks, the Sri Lanka Men’s 7s rugby team has finally begun their training at a venue in Colombo, targeting the upcoming Asian Games 2023, scheduled to take place in Hangzhou, China. This was confirmed to the Sunday Times by Suresh Subramaniam, the President of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOC), under which the 7s team will be during the regional event that takes place from September 24 to 26. more..

Aug 21 (SO) Exploring the intricate web of nutritional struggles in SL, a dialogue with Retired Ministry Secretary, and Director of Food and Nutrition Policy Planning, Advisor on Food Policy, Dr. R.M.K. Ratnayake, unearths the truth behind the UNICEF Country Report and the nation’s resolute response to adversity. In the wake of UNICEF’s Country Report for 2023, a candid conversation with Dr. R.M.K. Ratnayake, distinguished authority more..

Aug 21 (Island) Much is being talked about pyramids and islands, of all things, these days. Another pyramid scheme has reportedly collapsed, and those who have lost their money are letting out howls of protests via social media. Central Bank, from time to time, issues severe warnings to the public about such frauds, but they go unheeded if the sheer number of people affected by the collapse of the fraudulent scheme in question is any indication. This issue has been eclipsed more..

Aug 21 (TM) Link Natural, a subsidiary of CIC Holdings, has expanded its presence in the Middle East by launching in Qatar. Link Natural Products Manager Chathurangi Perera expressing her views about the distribution operations in Qatar with Group Distribution company. She stated: “This marks another significant achievement and milestone in Link Natural’s journey. This collaboration promises to open new avenues for growth and further solidify Link Natural’s position in the global market.” more..

Aug 21 (FT) DP Education has kicked off an initiative of gigantic economic importance – to empower one million students free of charge with global IT knowledge and skills worth US$ 7.5 billion in five years. The estimated value of knowledge and skills transfer via the philanthropic gesture is on the basis of Rs. 2.5 million per student cost incurred by DP Education IT Campus or a total of Rs. 2,500 billion or US$ 7.5 billion over the five-year period. The open online platform championed by more..