Jan 18 (DM) Over the last year, SL was suffocating under a debt crisis and a so-called IMF solution, with little bargaining power to negotiate with the powerful creditors and the IMF to find a sustainable path out of the crisis. Indeed, SL’s economic establishment has no vision for an alternative future. Not even an attempt to challenge the dictates of creditors and the IMF. They have all but surrendered to the austerity measures with devastating consequences for working people. more..

Jan 18 (DM) So far it has been a few of his family members and colleagues who have taken upon themselves to seek justice and to keep his memory alive. What do we tell the generation after us as to who he was? What he stood for? When the inspirational and the fearless are taken from you, suddenly and brutally, it gnaws at you. As the years pass, the memories become distant, the pain inconsistent. It becomes a scar, indelible. How do you preserve their memories? more..

Jan 18 (TM) A low maternal mortality rate and a low infant mortality rate are two of the healthcare achievements SL has historically been best known for. However, a report compiled by Ministry of Health in Oct 2022 highlighted that malnutrition among children under five years of age in SL has increased up to 15%. The report also shows that 43.4% of children under five years of age exhibit some form of nutrition-related problem. more..

Jan 18 (CT) Rarely has a verdict of any Court, been so universally hailed, as the recent one of a full bench of the Supreme Court. Never has such verdict, won such universal respect and plaudits. Apart from its cathartic value at a time when all-pervading gloom engulfs the nation. It should not be viewed only as a mere rap of the knuckles of fraud and incompetence, but one of much greater significance. There is always jubilance when the high and mighty are shaken off their perches, more..

Jan 18 (Island) The SLPP-UNP govt has proved its rivals’ claim that it has failed. Its grandees never miss an opportunity to boast that their efforts to tackle the economic crisis have shown signs of reaching fruition soon. But Minister Bandula Gunawardena has revealed the truth. Announcing some Cabinet decisions, at yesterday’s press briefing, he disclosed that for the first time in the history of SL the payment of salaries of some state workers would be delayed for want of funds. more..

Jan 18 (ST) Last Thursday’s historic judgment of the 7-member bench of the SC in favour of the fundamental rights petitions filed by the aggrieved and the concerned over the 2019 Easter Sunday terrorist attack is a stark lesson to politicians and the bureaucracy that they are not immune from responsibility and accountability for their actions. Politicians, especially those in the highest office, believe they are eternally immune from the abuse & misuse of law because they hold that office. more..

Jan 18 (FT) SL’s Tea exports for 2022 earned a record Rs. 411 billion but posted a dip of $ 65.7 million as against previous year’s performance. SL Tea Board said export revenue for 2022 was $ 1.259 billion compared with $ 1.324 billion in 2021. “Although the volume exported last year was only 250.2 million kilos, recording a 12.5% decline in comparison to 285.9 million kilos shipped in 2021, netting a revenue marginally less than 2021 shows the continued high demand for Ceylon Tea,” more..

Jan 18 (TM) Although there have been appeals to the Election Commission (EC) by political parties and election monitors to seek legal advice in regard to a letter by a Ministry Secretary ordering the halt of the collection of Local Govt (LG) electoral deposits, there will be no action taken by the EC against said Ministry Secretary, as he had tendered an apology in person, The Morning learnt. When contacted by The Morning to confirm more..

Jan 18 (Island) State Minister Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon could have disclosed a decisive decision taken by the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa govt to reduce the approved cadre of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at the launch of Story of the World: Geopolitical Alliances and Rivalries Set in Stone authored by Col. Nalin Herath, at Rock House Army camp, on January 12. State Minister Tennakoon was the Chief Guest at the event, attended by Defence Secretary Gen. Kamal Gunaratne, more..

Jan 18 (FT) In a bid to boost exports and investments, Govt has decided to draft necessary laws and regulations to establish the proposed Int'l Trade Office. The new office is being set up to facilitate the free-trade agreements and to deal with all sorts of int'l trade negotiations, to boost foreign direct investments and exports. Cabinet of Ministers at its meeting on Monday approved instructing the legal draftsman to prepare the Int'l Trade Office Bill based on preliminary draft already prepared. more..

Jan 18 (CT) Former President of Football SL (FSL) Jaswar Umar filed an application before the Court of Appeal against the Minister Roshan Ranasinghe and several others for depriving him of his rights to re-contest for the post of President. Umar said that there would be some other intervening parties to file six other actions against those who manipulated the election process. Umar said he had announced his intention to contest the 14 Jan election to elect new office bearers of FSL. more..

Jan 18 (FT) CIC Holdings’ subsidiary Link Natural is reviving ancient beauty secrets through modern science with launch of a range of natural beauty care under the brand Earth Essence. The brand promises natural nourishment of skin and hair with the use of standardised natural actives of medicinal herbs. Earth Essence has an extensive range of products, providing care from head-to-toe and facilitates self-care at home. For example, the Earth Essence herbal face care range consists of more..

Jan 18 (TM) Following SC judgement which ruled that former Prez Maithripala Sirisena had violated fundamental human rights by not preventing the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019, the Sarwapaakshika Aragalakaruwo organisation, which was active in the aragalaya, has requested the IGP Chandana Wickramaratne in writing to arrest Sirisena, while the Catholic Church is considering filing a criminal case against him. more..

Jan 18 (FT) A delegation of investors from the United Arab Emirates, led by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum, visited Port City Colombo on 14 January, during a special visit to Sri Lanka for the purpose. Discussions were held between the members of the delegation, representatives from the Colombo Port City Economic Commission (Commission) and Port City Colombo (PCC) with a view to attracting foreign direct investments to the project. more..

Jan 18 (DN) Our girls will go out with confidence as they take on Australia in their third league game today after rectifying their mistakes in the last Bangladesh game, said Shashikala Siriwardena the National under 19 women’s team coach yesterday from South Africa before their training session. The match will start at 1.30 pm (SL time). We defeated USA in the first game in a low-scoring game and put up a good fight against Bangladesh on Monday but finally lost by a narrow margin of nine runs. more..

Jan 18 (TM) Claiming that there is a great danger of the small- and medium-scale industries being destroyed through the FTA, which is to be signed between SL and China, NPP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the Govt should discuss its contents in Parliament before proceeding with the rest of the process. He said: “Prez Wickremesinghe said that there is some progress in the talks with China on debt restructuring. more..

Jan 18 (Island) Bank of Ceylon (BOC), the leader of inward remittance business in SL, is confident that it will be able to regain its past glorious levels of foreign exchange remittances by the end of 2023 or within 2024. The new GM/CEO of Bank of Ceylon, Russel Fonseka made these comments after officially assuming duties in the crucial post of the Bank. “If I remember correctly, BOC recorded its highest foreign remittances of US$ 4 billion in 2019, and at the rate things are improving currently, more..

Jan 18 (TM) Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe has assured that measures would be taken to purchase medicines required for the year 2023, despite the difficult economic conditions that SL is facing at present. Accordingly, an allocation of at least Rs. 30-40 billion would be made for this purpose, the Head of State mentioned while addressing Parliament yesterday. In response to the accusations levelled at the Govt for not making sufficient allocations for the procurement of medicines, more..

Jan 18 (CT) Wicketkeeper/batter Kusal Janith Perera and pace spearhead Dushmantha Chameera have recovered from their injuries and will be available for selection for SL’s tour of NZ scheduled to begin in March 2023, confirmed Professor Arjuna de Silva, Head of SL Cricket’s Medical Committee. “Kusal and Dushmantha have fully recovered from their injuries and the duo are available for selection for the NZ tour,” said the Professor when contacted him to ask about their progress. more..

Jan 18 (FT) Twist and turns were observed during the inquiry into the IUSF Convener Wasantha Mudalige’s case before an additional Magistrate of Colombo yesterday. It was observed that while Presiding Magistrate of the case Tharanga Mahawatte of Court No. 8 of Colombo Chief Magistrate Court on the previous inquiry date had ordered the TID to file a report before court on their progress of the investigations and to submit court a summary report on evidence of witnesses. more..

Jan 18 (PTI) China on Tuesday opposed a suggested visit by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to Sri Lanka, saying the bankrupt island nation must safeguard the bilateral relationship. A top Chinese embassy official here met the powerful Buddhist prelates in the central town of Kandy to express opposition to the visit for which no dates have been fixed yet, a statement from the embassy said. more..

Jan 18 (BP) Thailand has vowed to accelerate negotiations on a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka, aiming to finish the talks by the beginning of 2024. According to Auramon Supthaweethum, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Dept, during the third round of FTA talks held during Jan 9-10 in Colombo, the two countries agreed on a timeframe to conclude the negotiations by the beginning of 2024. The third round of negotiations was supposed to take place in 2018, more..

Jan 18 (FT) NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake warns the newly imposed PAYE tax will lead to the greatest brain drain Sri Lanka has seen in its history. Speaking in parliament yesterday, the NPP leader said it was unjust to impose a heavy tax burden on the people as those who caused the economic collapse remain free without consequence. Dissanayake called on the Govt to rethink its recent policy decisions which would lead to a significant brain drain in the country. more..

Jan 18 (DM) The govt yesterday claimed that the Cabinet of Ministers are yet to receive a response from the power regulator Public Utilities Commission of SL (PUCSL) on the Cabinet decision to increase electricity tariff with effect from 1st of this month. The Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Bandula Gunawardana stressed that PUCSL has so far failed to respond to the Cabinet decision which was taken last week, which requested inputs from PUCSL to implement the electricity tariff hike. more..

Jan 18 (FT) SL’s foreign borrowings in the past seven years were valued at $ 30 billion, Parliament was told yesterday by State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe. He made this revelation in response to a question raised in Parliament by SLPP MP Premanath C. Dolawatte. Semasinghe said the amount of loans received by the SL Govt from 1 Jan 2015 to 31 Dec 2022 from foreign countries, agencies and banks was $ 29.92 billion. Value of grants received was $ 349 million. more..

Jan 18 (FT) Signalling a major breakthrough Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday informed Parliament that debt restructuring talks with China and India have been successful and invited all Opposition MPs to join hands through a new political system to provide relief to the people. Prez also said despite the difficult economic background in the country, the Govt is working to provide relief to the people, more..

Jan 18 (AD) Accepting nominations for the upcoming local govt (LG) election begins at 8.30 a.m. today (18), the Election Commission says. Accordingly, nominations will be accepted until 12 p.m. on Jan 21. Commissioner-General of Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake stated that the date for the LG election would be announced on Jan 21 after concluding the acceptance of nominations. Meanwhile, accepting election deposits of the candidates began on Jan 4 and will continue until 12 p.m. on Jan 20. more..

Jan 18 (DM) Initial investigations revealed that a science faculty student of Colombo Uni was murdered by her fellow student at the Race Course Ground yesterday, fearing that she would love someone else after breaking up the love affair. 24-year old suspect, also a science faculty undergrad, believed to be the boyfriend of the 23-year-old fellow undergrad, was arrested at his residence over the murder. Investigations revealed that the murder was the result of a love affair. more..

Jan 18 (FT) With the Govt grappling to manage its finances, Cabinet of Ministers at its meeting on Monday approved delaying the monthly salaries of staff grade officers by a few days from the due date. “For the first time in SL’s history, Cabinet has decided to delay the State-sector employees’ salaries and pension, given the dire financial situation at the Govt coffers. We have now reached a level where there is no financial more..

Jan18 (FT) These are trying times for Gotabaya Rajapaksa, SL’s former Prez and ex-Defence Secretary. Faced with a massive widespread people’s protest last year, the then Prez known popularly as Gota, deserted post and went abroad from where he relinquished office. Finding himself unwelcome in most countries, Gota returned home. Thereafter he has been trying hard to go to the USA, the country of which he had been a naturalised citizen until 2019. His efforts to re-enter the US have proven futile so far. more..

Jan18 (FT) Prospect of any economic revival in 2023 is evaporating by the day if one understands the implications of what the Standard Chartered Bank has revealed lately. IMF’s $ 2.9 billion, which hinges on successful debt restructuring, and further funding from other multilateral aid agencies seems to be at least six months if not a year away. Accordingly, the economy is expected to contract by one more percent to 8 in 2023, although WB with even worse prediction expects positive growth in 2024. more..

Jan 18 (MFA) Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Aruni Wijewardane and Permanent Under Secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom Sir Philip Barton held discussions at the Foreign Ministry in Colombo on Tuesday (17). The constructive bilateral engagement took place in the 75th year of UK-SL diplomatic relations. Foreign Secretary Wijewardane briefed the UK Permanent Under Secretary on current developments in the country and more..

Jan 18 (PMD) In support of the govt’s National Combined Mechanism for Food Security and Nutrition, Fonterra will provide free milk powder to 70,000 low-income families. Joining the National Combined Mechanism for Food Security and Nutrition programme, set up under the patronage of Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe, Fonterra Brands Lanka Company has donated milk powder worth Rs174 million to 70,000 low-income families experiencing financial hardships. The donation was made symbolically at more..

Jan 18 (EN) Chinese embassy in Colombo has taken umbrage at what it called the hypocrisy of US Ambassador Julie Chung for an alleged China China China mantra and for calling Beijing a spoiler in SL’s negotiations with the IMF. In a statement issued in not-uncharacteristically scathing and borderline undiplomatic language, the Chinese embassy chastised their US colleague for remarks she had made in a recent interview given to the BBC on SL’s ongoing currency crisis. more..

Jan 18 (EN) Sri Lanka will likely meet its tourism target of 105,000 arrivals for January having already recorded 47,358 tourist arrivals as at Jan 15 and is hopeful of meeting an end-of-year revenue target of US$ 2.8 billion from an anticipated 1.55 million arrivals, an official said. SLTDA Chairman Priyantha Fernando said that tourist arrivals for 2022 was at a satisfactory 719,978, which marked a 270% increase from the 194,495 tourists who travelled to Sri Lanka in 2021. more..