Mar 26 (Island) Cyril Dharmawardana Foundation (CDF) will donate two ambulances and 50 wheel chairs to the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, Galle today. Chairman of Mihindu Cultural Foundation (MCF), Kalasuri Sathischandra Edirisinghe said that the Governor and Chief Minister of the Southern Province, and the Minister of Justice and Media would participate along with several film and teledrama personalities. Edirisinghe said that the CDF had been formed in memory of more..

Mar 26 (EN) Sri Lanka's tea exports grew in volume in the first two months of 2015 but earnings fell, especially for tea bags where margins are better. Tea exports in February grew by 1.2 million kilos to 23.5 million kilos from the same month in 2014. But in value terms however total February revenue fell by 800,000 rupees to 14.3 billion rupees from a year ago, Tea Brokers said. "Tea in bulk has shown a significant growth in volume whilst packeted tea and tea bags have shown a marginal decline," more..

Mar 26 (CI) Four months ago, India arrived in Australia as holders of both the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the World Cup. Then they ran into Steven Smith, who ensured they will fly home with neither. Smith tormented India with a century in every Test of the summer, and like the ghost of series past, returned to haunt them with another hundred in this World Cup semi-final. The summer of Steve just keeps rolling on. more..

Mar 26 (Island) Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has faulte the new govt for lacking credible strategy for eliminating corruption. The new govt has not yet seriously contemplated an effective strategy that could achieve the successful results some other countries have achieved, AHRC says. As Albert Einstein once said, it is foolish to do the same thing and expect different results. However, this is exactly what the new Govt is engaged in, the AHRC said in a press release yesterday. more..

Mar 26 (WG) A Sri Lankan asylum seeker has appeared in court charged with an alleged card scam at a Langport cash point. Jasintkan Kunaskarem, of Morden in Surrey, was brought before Somerset Magistrates in custody after being arrested by police. He was charged that on March 18 at Langport, he had in his possession or under his control a card tracking device or video recording device and two bank cards, for use in the course of or in connection with fraud. more..

Mar 26 (AM) Galle Magistrate ordered CID to investigate into the bank accounts of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa today. This order was given when the case regarding the Avant Garde floating armory was taken up at courts. The Magistrate also ordered investigation into the bank accounts of former Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Defence D.M.S. Jayaratne and the directors of Avant Garde Maritime Services. more..

Mar 26 (BS) Earlier this month, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena announced a domestic inquiry into the alleged war crimes committed � both by the army and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) � during the 26-year civil war, which ended in 2009. In that context, Padma Rao Sundarji�s Sri Lanka: The New Country is a timely book. Sundarji was the South Asia bureau chief of Der Spiegel till 2012; Sri Lanka was a part of her beat for two decades. more..

Mar 26 (NS) SLFP MP Dilan Perera challenged the UNP to prove allegations that several MPs had imported ethanol without paying taxes. MP Perera said that the UNP keeps making allegations regarding ethanol and drugs but pointed out no action had been taken thus far. According to the MP, the allegations are made only to bring political mileage to the party. The MP made this remark when queried about the allegation made by Minister Ravi Karunananayake in Parliament that more..

Mar 26 (CG) Four ships from the Indian Navy�s First Training Squadron will arrive in the country tomorrow and will visit Trincomalee from March 27-29. The naval ships that will be arriving are TIR and KESARI, Indian Coast Guard Ship VARUNA and Sail Training Ship SUDARSHINI. During their stay in Trincomalee, a series of professional, training, cultural and sports interactions will take place between the ships� crew and more..

Mar 26 (CT) Inter-University Students' Federation (IUSF) will be organizing a series of protests and marches against the legalizing of charging fees in schools, establishment of private universities and undemocratic Acts being reinforced. IUSF Convener, Najith Indika said that the Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provisions) Act which allows suspects of certain crimes to be detained for 48 hours was against the tenets of democracy. Undergraduates will be conducting an more..

Mar 26 (CT) Three petitioners filed petitions challenging the 19th Amendment to the Constitution Bill yesterday in the Supreme Court (SC). Attorney-at-Law Gomin Kavinda Dayasiri, Western Provincial Councillor, Udaya Gammanpila and L.P.I. Perera of Nugegoda are the three petitioners who filed petitions under terms of Article 121 of the Constitution. In his petition, Provincial Councillor, Gammanpila requested the Court to determine clauses 1-54 of the Bill and declare that more..

Mar 26 (AD) Over 26 SLFP MPs attend a public rally currently being held in Ratnapura urging Mahinda Rajapaksa to be nominated as the party�s Prime Ministerial candidate. Former Ministers Dinesh Gunawardena, Wimal Weerawansa, Vasudewa Nanayakkara and WPC member Udaya Gammanpila addressed the meeting. In addition to this Western Province Chief Minister Prasanna Ranatunga, former North Central Chief more..

Mar 26 (CT) Academic and social activist Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri says the recently awarded Field Marshall title to Sarath Fonseka is a �politically motivated move� and says it is a symbolic act of militarization. Dr. Dewasiri points out although there is no doubt over the fact that Fonseka was subjected to great injustice under the Rajapaksa regime, the question however remains as to whether awarding this title was the best way to compensate for the injustice he faced. more..

Mar 26 (GDI) Education Ministry is mulling over the adoption of a new mechanism of issuing permits annually after examining the standards of international schools. A Committee is already in place for the observation and regulation of international schools, Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said. Education Minister pointed out that an opportunity would be granted for the maintenance of international schools targeting as a business venture or earning profits. more..

Mar 26 (DN) Group of 26 SLFP MPs who accepted ministerial portfolios recently, have decided to abstain from meetings convened by the Opposition and may even boycott those of UPFA in future. New State Minister of Finance, Mahinda Samarasinghe said that 26 member team may not attend meetings convened by the opposition in future but said they will attend those of the SLFP. Meanwhile, A.H.M. Fowzie who accepted more..

Mar 26 (CT) The Society Seeking the Release of Political Detainees yesterday handed over an appeal addressed to President Maithripala Sirisena to the Northern Province Governor H.M.G.S. Palihakkara, urging the release of political detainees. President of the Society Azhwar Sivalingam said parents, relatives and friends of political detainees appealed to President Sirisena to release them on a general pardon. "We tried several times to approach the former govt to examine the release of more..

Mar 26 (AM) Govt is yet to inform the Navy on a move to relocate the Naval Recruit Training Center in Sampur from its present location, a local newspaper reported citing internal sources of Sri Lanka Navy. At a recent meeting held in Trincomalee, Eastern Province Governor Asutin Fernando recently said that 234 acres of land which was under the Sri Lanka Navy as a Naval Recruit Training Centre will be released back to its original owners, local media reports said. more..

Mar 26 (PTI) Former president Chandrika Kumaratunga will head a special presidential task force to identify urgent reconciliation needs of the minority Tamil community, MP Ranil Wickremesinghe said. �We are focused in achieving communal and religious harmony,� he said. New govt has set up a dedicated office for reconciliation under the Chair of 69-year-old Ms. Kumaratunga, country�s first woman president. more..

Mar 26 (Island) UPFA Ratnapura District MP Janaka Wakkumbura said that there was no meaning in having an Opposition leader whose own MPs were holding ministerial positions in the govt. He said that it was wrong for the UPFA members to accept ministerial portfolios in the new govt. "The so-called 100-day programme is in a shambles. It seems that our colleagues who accepted ministerial portfolios in the new govt will have to whitewash the current regime and they will be employed to justify more..

Mar 26 (PTI) The Chinese and Sri Lankan presidents on Thursday discussed prospects of trilateral cooperation with India to address New Delhi's security concerns in the Indian Ocean besides ways to boost defence cooperation including personnel training and providing military hardware to Colombo. Making his first visit to China to re-balance pro-Beijing policies pursued by the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, new SL President Maithripala Sirisena held talks for more..

Mar 26 (Reuters) China said on Thursday that Sri Lanka's visiting president had promised work would resume on a controversial Chinese-backed port development in Colombo that his administration had earlier suspended. Citing a lack of govt approvals, Sri Lanka halted the $1.4 billion port city project, straining ties with its biggest investor. China defends the project, saying it is in line with local laws and any cancellation more..

Mar 27 (CT) There are politically important and serious reasons why this piece of legislation called the 19 Amendment has to go before the people for their direct approval, before it becomes law. 1. There was no transparency, no accountability in the drafting process. It is an accepted democratic practise to have the process of drafting a constitution as an open, people based process. This left the people totally out of it in every way. 2. This parliament lacks any legitimacy more..

Mar 27 (CT) Blackadder fans will know what I mean when I say that Chandrika and Ranil have come up with a plan of truly Baldrickian cunning. They let it slip while speaking on separate occasions after the formation of the so-called National Government. Ranil said that the change that had been initiated, promised to take us back to 1948 or 1951 and reverse what had befallen us since. The uninitiated may wonder what the reference to 1951 was. It is all very simple. That�s the year SLFP was more..

Mar 27 (SO) Fast paced agricultural development in the Jaffna District is evolving into a serious health hazards because of the unchecked use of chemical fertilizers. Already there has been a marked increase in the number of kidney patients in the district, attributed to water being contaminated with chemicals. Researcher in Charge of Jaffna Agriculture Dept, T Karunainathan, confirmed that ground water has been contaminated more..

Mar 27 (GV) To write a piece of this nature while holding an academic position in a state university is quite a controversial move. Those who read this piece purely for the sake of critiquing it might find ample fuel in it to provoke the fires. Some may perceive this to be a nationalistic piece. Hence, I feel the need to explain a few basics before I delve into the topic at hand. Yes, I am a nationalist. But what is nationalism? For me, I am a Sri Lankan. Not a Sinhalese. more..

Mar 27 (Island) The contours of a national unity govt or a grand coalition govt of the two major parties took on more definition a few days ago when over twenty SLFP seniors were inducted as cabinet ministers, state and deputy ministers in the Administration of President Maithripala Sirisena. The move is a vivid picture of what a post election national govt would look like. President Sirisena and the NDF coalition promised a new Sri Lanka in one hundred days. more..

Mar 27 (CT) The Coordinating Secretary to the President, Attorney-at-Law Shiral Lakthilaka, in an interview spoke of two pressing issues - the need to prosecute cases of corruption with more vigour and to go for a national govt with a win-win situation. The country now has the latter, but now the question is whether a govt with the same old faces would be as interested in pursuing the corruption of the past. more..

Mar 27 (NS) There were two key decisions made by the new Govt with respect to long-standing complaints raised by elected representatives from areas populated by a majority of Tamils. The first was to appoint a civilian as the Governor of the Northern Provincial Council. The previous Governor was officially a civilian, but he was also an ex-soldier; highly decorated and by most accounts highly competent in handling civilian situations (he did a fantastic job at the Relief Camps more..

Mar 27 (NS) Every Sri Lankan govt since independence has had to deal with its counterpart in India. Sometimes, these relations reached dizzy heights and at other times, they deteriorated to the point where the two countries were engaged in a diplomatic war of words. Indo-Lanka relations were at their zenith when Sirima Bandaranaike and Indira Gandhi were at the helm of their countries. The two ladies, both daughters of two Prime Ministers, had a great personal chemistry between more..

Mar 27 (FT) Western Provincial Councillor S.M. Marikkar who polled highest votes at the last PC poll is upbeat of party�s prospects in the upcoming General Election. However he warned that expeditious fulfilment of the pledges made to people in the run up to Presidential election is key. In a no holds barred interview, Marikkar makes a critical assessment of the status of national politics so far. more..

Mar 27 (Island) 19th Amendment Bill currently before Parliament is likely to suffer the same fate as President Kumaratunga�s draft Constitution (2000) which was literally burnt in the House. It was alleged that Kumaratunga had incorporated some provisions into it without the concurrence of other stakeholders. JHU MP Ven. Ratana Thera said something similar about the 19th Amendment the other day in Parliament. JHU which went flat out to topple Rajapaksa administration more..

Mar 27 (Island) Do we have an India policy? Or are we merely dealing with situations ad hoc? Perhaps, I repeat �perhaps� the only time when we had a consistent �India policy� was under SWRD and Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike ��- Can we forget how India took back almost half a million people of recent Indian descent from our hill country and also withdrew her claim to Katchchtivu? How we related to India after 1978 is a story of absolute disaster. The price we have paid is enormous and more..

Mar 27 (NS) Last week The Nation quite appropriately said that the World Cup quarter-final clash with South Africa would be the Moment of truth for Sri Lanka of how good a team they were in the tournament. Their 9-wicket loss to the Proteas does not come as a surprise because for too long it has been their batting that has carried them thus far. On the day the batters failed to put up the expected numbers on the board, Sri Lanka were more..

Mar 27 (NS) Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has come out with a lengthy speech on the vexed matter of Treasury Bonds. He has defended Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, pledged an investigation in the interest of affirming that there was no wrongdoing, defended the composition of the panel appointed to investigate and cast aspersion on several individuals and groups. It is good that Wickremesinghe has broken his silence on this issue. more..

Mar 27 (NS) Despite the interim Budget 2015 presented by the Finance Minister in Parliament being passed almost six weeks ago, Sri Lanka�s research analysts last week pointed out that there is still a great amount of confusion and delay regarding several interim proposals affecting economic policy direction. In some cases, the analysts said that although the companies are following the guidelines provided in the interim budget, official gazettes are yet to be published. more..

Mar 27 (CT) Govt is currently probing the transaction of Central Bank's investments EPF in the Colombo Stock Exchange. "All these transactions are heavy probe in a true spirit of transparency and good governance and we are determined to complete the findings within these 100 days," top official and political sources said. A cloud of controversy was looming over these transactions of the previous regime which also prompted more..

Mar 27 (EN) A Sri Lankan angel investor group has called for fresh business proposals from start-ups looking for funding and mentoring support. It was launched by Blue Ocean Ventures and the Indian Angel Network (IAN) in partnership with the Lankan Angel Network (LAN), a statement said. �What sets Venture Engine apart is that entrepreneurs are granted the opportunity to interact directly with investors," said Prajeeth Balasubramaniam, Co-Founder of Blue Ocean Ventures. more..

Mar 27 (DN) Citi Sri Lanka took a pioneering turn in celebrating International Women's Day by inviting Mind Adventures� to perform an original theater production, Wonder Woman, scripted and directed by celebrated theatre personality Tracy Holsinger. Joining Citi worldwide to honor women in the forefront of progress and diversity under the theme Connecting Women. Inspiring Change. Making Progress, Citi Sri Lanka pushed the boundaries of theatre with Mind Adventures, more..

Mar 27 (ST) Two British Universities will be set up in SL next year under an overseas plan to enable SL students to pursue studies here and for those who cannot afford to proceed to UK for higher studies. Students will be able to read for a British degree while in Sri Lanka, said British High Commissioner John Rankin addressing British Scholars Association recently. There were 8000 SL students studying in UK some time ago, but more..

Mar 27 (CT) The first-ever official joint meet between Vietnam and Sri Lanka to be held in Colombo since the historic official trade linkages in Hanoi opened in August 2014, will commence tomorrow with a call to quadruple trade levels to US$ 1 Bn � and Vietnam has also announced the removal of its own regulatory lines that stymied eager Lankan tea exporters to its 90 million huge market, as revealed on 25 March. "When compared to the future target of one billion dollars bilateral trade that we want more..