Nov 4 (CT) Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara said that the govt should take responsibility for the procedures that are followed when apprehending suspects in criminal cases such as large-scale fraud. Speaking at a public rally in Bingiriya he opined that by interrogating artistes the actual people behind these large-scale corruption and fraud cannot be arrested. He made this statement responding to the public reaction to several veteran and popular artistes being summoned to more..

Nov 4 (CT) The European economy's slow growth could have an impact on the Sri Lankan economy, unless the island nation gets the GSP plus trade concessions and the ban on fisheries exports to the EU region lifted, Central Bank Deputy Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe has said. Quoted in a statement released by the country's main business body, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) on Tuesday, Weerasinghe, however, said the U.S. economy and India's growth prospects were more..

Nov 4 (FT) JVP created Ethera Api Organisation yesterday, stressing the importance of offering pension plans and voting rights for Sri Lankan expatriates. Its head and JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti said the JVP requested for a parliamentary committee into this issue. �We urge the Govt to provide a pension plan and voting right for all Sri Lankan foreign workers. We have collected signatures of Sri Lankan expatriates to lodge more..

Nov 4 (CT) As YoY bilateral trade jumped by 59%, Sri Lanka, looking to boost its trade with the fifth largest ASEAN nation, called for reactivation of its 1980 landmark agreement on 26 October in Metro Manila's Pasaya City. "We have no doubts that the Philippines could become a key East Asian trade partner for us. It is here that I believe that we need to jointly re-activate, the landmark 1980 Trade Agreement between both countries" said Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen. more..

Nov 4 (FT) Ceylon Chamber of Commerce yesterday expressed its deep concern over the brutality of the Police action to disperse the HNDA students who were agitating to present their grievances to the authorities. In a statement it said whilst underscoring the need for the students to deal with such matters in a peaceful and a more responsible manner, without being misled by a few extremist and politically-motivated elements. CCC believes that it is the responsibility of govt more..

Nov 4 (EN) Thousands of undergraduates marched through the streets of Colombo Tuesday while 2,000 unarmed constables watched peacefully in sharp contrast to their vicious baton charge to disperse a smaller protest five days earlier. Acting police chief Pujitha Jayasundera, who tried to defend the brutal police assault of fleeing students last week at Town Hall, took special care on Tuesday to ensure there was no breach more..

Nov 4 (DM) Former UPFA MP, Sajin De Vass Gunawardana, who has a case for allegedly failing to reveal his assets, surrendered his passport today to Colombo Chief Magistrate�s Court after his return from abroad. Earlier the Magistrate permitted to release the impounded passport of the former MP and allowed to travel to Singapore for a five-day visit to seek medical treatment and ordered to return the passport following his return to Sri Lanka. Appearing for Sajin, Counsel Kamal Gunawardane more..

Nov 4 (FT) Asoka Obeyesekere, a barrister and a political scientist, has assumed duties as Executive Director of Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL). Prior to joining TISL, Asoka was a Governance Consultant at Verit� Research, where he led the Manthri.lk team that runs Sri Lanka�s only parliamentary performance monitoring platform. In this capacity he has been involved in broad ranging work spanning electoral reforms to MP asset disclosure standards. more..

Nov 4 (CT) Condemning the tactics of force used by the Police to suppress student protesters last week, Leader of the Opposition R. Sampanthan said the incident was the very 'antithesis of good governance'. Sampanthan said in a special statement that the police had used brutal methods to suppress unarmed protesters who had legitimate demands. "The entire nation saw how the police treated a peaceful protest by students. more..

Nov 4 (EN) Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals rose 8.8% from a year earlier to 132,280 in October 2015, with strong growth from India, China and Western Europe. Arrivals in the first 10 months of the year were up 17.9% to 1.448 million. Arrivals from China rose 44.4% in October taking total visitors to 182,110. Visitors from East Asia rose 21.5%, 27,516 despite most generating markets, including Japan, (-3.6%), Singapore (-7.8%), Indonesia (-34%) and Korea (-9.4%), faltering. more..

Nov 4 (DN) Nachchaduwa tank is at spill level following recent heavy rains and six spill gates have been opened by a foot to discharge excess water, Irrigation Engineer Lasiru Kotawilaarachchi said. The tank is discharging 3,500 cubic feet of water per second. Heen Ela and Maha Ela areas have also been subjected to floods due to heavy rain. Nearly 100 families in Nachchaduwa have been displaced by floods and arrangements have been made to prepare refugee camps to house them, more..

Nov 4 (FT) Govt has decided to reinstate the Public Administration Circular 46/90, which was repealed by the Rajapaksa regime, and to recognise Higher National Diploma in Accountancy (HNDA) as equal to a Bachelor of Commerce degree program. PM Ranil Wickremesinghe turned down opposition allegations of charging the demonstration of unarmed university students, alleging that political forces behind more..

Nov 4 (CT) Political parties associated with the Old Left movement claim there was no basis for the communal campaign that was presently being carried out by forces which were rejected by the people on 8 Jan and 17 Aug. The Majority Group of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and the Alternative Group of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) noted that these forces were attempting to create communal tensions to sabotage reconciliation process at this crucial juncture. more..

Nov 4 (DM) The fifth forum of the Ease of Doing Business, organized by the Ministry of Finance will be held at 2 pm on Nov 12 at the Miloda Centre in Colombo. This was earlier scheduled to be held on November 05, has now been postponed due to the scheduled policy speech to be made by the Prime Minister on that date. Ease of Doing Business Forum was initiated by the Ministry of Finance, on the instruction of the Minister Ravi Karunanayake in May 2015, to provide on the spot solutions to more..

Nov 4 (CT) Minister of Law and Order and Prisons Reform, Tilak Marapana, told Parliament that although the people have the democratic right to stage peaceful protests, law enforcement officials. While making a ministerial statement on the suppression of students reading for the Higher National Diploma in Accountancy by the Police, he said, the actions of the Police had grabbed the attention of those in all walks of society. more..

Nov 4 (CT) Disaster Management Centre has issued a landslide warning to three districts following heavy showers experienced islandwide. The landslide warnings have been issued to Kegalle, Ratnapura and Nuwara-Eliya Districts, Deputy Director of the Disaster Management Centre Pradeep Kodippili said. The Anuradhapura District has been identified as the potentially most landslide prone district due to incessant heavy thundershowers experienced since Monday (2) night. more..

Nov 4 (DM) Former navy commander Somathilake Dissanayake has been asked to report to PRECIFAC today to record a statement on the controversy with regard to the floating armoury belonging to Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Ltd. A senior official of the PRECIFAC said that the former navy commander was summoned to clarify certain matters that had arisen with regard to the evidence recorded earlier in this connection. Former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, more..

Nov 4 (DN) CID filed charge sheets in Court against six accused including three Navy personnel and two ex-LTTE cadres affiliated to the Karuna faction for allegedly conspiring to commit the murder of former TNA Jaffna district MP Nadaraja Raviraj. Filing the charge sheets before Colombo Additional Magistrate, CID informed that Attorney General had given instructions to conduct a non-summary inquiry in respect of the six accused more..

Nov 4 (DM) In a democracy, the representation of the people is the foremost duty of parliamentarians. In the past few decades or so did they perform their primary function satisfactorily or live up to the expectations of the citizens? Their performance has been unethical, disgraceful, un-parliamentary and disorderly. They did bring in immense shame and disrepute to the august assembly. The parliament therefore, in order to ensure orderly business of the house, needs to upgrade its quality more..

Nov 4 (DM) By A child�s world is innocent and full of colour and imagination. They live in a world of their own, curious to learn new things, and fascinated by colourful objects and experimenting with what they get. It is from these elements that a child gradually learns about nature and the world around him. Children�s literature too, plays a crucial role in bringing up a child�s personality, creativity and intelligence. In the modern world, we hardly see any storytelling in the way more..

Nov 4 (DM) Higher Education Minister Lakshman Kiriella in an interview with Dailymirror over the phone, spelt out the Higher Education policy of the new Govt, an approach different to the previous Govt in some aspects. Q: What is your assessment on the present status of the higher education in the country? A: Today, the higher education institutions are centrally controlled by the Govt. As a result, all these institutions more..

Nov 4 (Island) UPFA MP Lohan Ratwatte alleged that those SLFPers who hadn�t accepted portfolios from the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe govt were deprived of an opportunity to address parliament. Kandy District MP Ratwatte said that they really didn�t know how to overcome the obstacles created by the new coalition in power. The SLFPer was on live Sirasa political programme Pethikada hosted by Bandula Jayasekera. more..

Nov 4 (ST) The chilly weather caused by winds blowing over the island from the north�east during the monsoon is set to continue for the next two weeks, the Met. Dept. said. This would result in chilly weather during the day and night, Duty Meteorologist Dharshana Premathileka said. Explaining the phenomenon, Met. Dept�s former Director K.R. Abeysinghe said �usually the weather during the North-East-Monsoon depends on more..

Nov 4 (SL) With the appointment of three new commissioners to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, (CIABOC) everyone now focuses on them expecting that they will recommence all stalled investigations. The new govt after the January 8 election appointed Senior State Counsel Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe as the Director General of the Commission. more..

Nov 4 (Island) Opposition MPs shouting slogans and holding placards inside the chamber against last week�s attack on a group of protesting students in Colombo threw Parliament into turmoil yesterday. All hell broke loose when MEP leader Dinesh Gunawardena got up, demanding to know why the government had prevented university students from visiting Parliament yesterday. more..

Nov 4 (Island) NFF leader Wimal Weerawansa, MP alleged that the Maithripala Sirisena-Wickremesinghe govt had failed to defend the Sri Lankan military against war crimes accusations made by the UN on the basis of UNSG Ban Ki-moon�s Panel of Experts� (PoE) findings. MP Weerawansa has, in a hard-hitting letter dated Nov. 3 to President Maithripala Sirisena, condemned the new govt for co-sponsoring a US sponsored more..

Nov 4 (DM) There is evidence to suggest that an outside force had influenced the students of the Higher National Diploma in Accountancy (HNDA) during the protest on October 29, Higher Education Minister Lakshman Kiriella told Parliament yesterday. He said there had been some people from Kandy among the students at the protest outside the University Grants Commission Office (UGC). more..

Nov 4 (AD) The chief incumbent of the Kotte Naga Vihara, Venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero, has been flown to Singapore last night for urgent medical treatment at a hospital there. He is expected to be admitted to the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, according to a source. Sobitha Thero recently underwent heart surgery and was receiving treatment at the Colombo National Hospital. more..

Nov 4 (AD) The Colombo Chief Magistrate today permitted the CID to detain and question former Eastern Province Chief Minister S Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, who was arrested in connection with the murder of ex-MP Joseph Pararajasingham, till Dec 10 under detention orders. Pillyan was arrested on Oct 11 when he arrived at the CID to give a statement in connection with the assassination of late Tamil politician, more..

Nov 4 (CG) The Govt says the efforts taken to fight corruption, from the time it took office, was not rhetorical. Addressing the high level segment of the Conference of State Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption in the Russian City of St. Petersburgh, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Harsha de Silva stated that the Govt of Sri Lanka, under the leadership of President Maithripala Sirisena and PM Ranil Wickramasinghe, more..

Nov 4 (Island) There are said to be only two good politicians, one dead and the other unborn. But, one shouldn�t be so cynical. There are some good politicians among the living and they are in the Opposition; they are good because they are without power to be bad. And, today, they are weeping buckets for the victims of last week�s police brutality. In a turn of events replete with irony some of them have even called upon the National Police Commission (NPC) to hold an impartial more..

Nov 4 (Island) The incumbent regime�s claims to righteousness over the former Rajapaksa govt are falling by the way side each passing day. Cases of nepotism and family rule of the Sirisena variety are bad enough to put the Rajapakse regime to shame. In essence, there is no discernible difference between the two govts in terms of their propensity to commit political and national sins. The only visible differences between the two dispensations are in the areas of managing the national economy more..

Nov 4 (Island) Deputy Minister of Social Empowerment and Welfare, Ranjan Ramanayake says his popularity as an actor has worked against him in politics. "This happened to me when I contested Ratnapura sometime back and also in Gampaha on Aug 17 this year." In a brief interview The outspoken Deputy Minister said he had polled the third highest number of preferential votes, having worked tirelessly for the party, but received only a deputy minister post. more..

Nov 4 (GDI) Bangladesh High Commissioner Tarik Ahsan paid a courtesy call on the Minister S.B. Navinne in Colombo. During the meeting, the Bangladesh High Commissioner sought support of the Minister in advancing the cooperation between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the cultural sector. While assuring his cooperation, Minister recalled the deep-rooted cultural affinity between the peoples of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka based on commonality of history, ethnicity, ethos and values. more..

Nov 4 (AFP) As an army of labourers churns out limestone bricks, archeologist Prashantha Mandawala reflects on the ambitious task of restoring Sri Lanka's centuries-old Jaffna fort, destroyed by ethnic war. The project has so far included the dangerous task of clearing unexploded mines and shells from the seafront site and scouring the northern Jaffna peninsula for scarce limestone bricks to use for the rebuilding. more..

Nov 4 (DM) Two iron rods that pierced through the face and the left arm of a 72-year-old retired military official were removed by a panel of surgeons at the Peradeniya Hospital in a surgery that lasted three hours today. The iron rods had pieced through his left arm and cheek when he fell face down on a broken concrete slab with iron rods while sweeping his garden. His relatives with the help of residents rushed him to the Peradeniya Hospital with the iron rods still in his body. more..

Nov 4 (CG) TNA today questioned where the remaining gold belonging to civilians from the North is. The former Govt had claimed that the gold stored in LTTE banks before the final stages of the war, had been recovered and handed back to its rightful owners. TNA MP M.A Sumanthiran told Parliament that the gold which was returned by the former Govt was given to the rightful owners. He said that the former Govt had stored the gold in sealed packs and had the details of the owners. more..

Nov 4 (AD) Frontline Socialists Party (FSP) political committee member Premakumar Gunaratnam has been arrested by police in Kegalle. ASP Ruwan Gunasekara stated that he was arrested by Kegalle Police in the Aguruwella area and that he is currently being taken to Kegalle. A spokesman for the immigration department�s media unit said that Gunaratnam would be deported to Australia after he is fined for over staying his visa. more..

Nov 4 (Island) A decision should be taken to withdraw the firearms which had been given to all MPs save those from the North and East, Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said yesterday. He told the media that Sri Lanka was very peaceful at present and there was no need for arming MPs. But, threats to the lives of some MPs in the Northern and Eastern provinces have been reported. Those MPs should be given firearms following a threat assessment, Dr. Senaratne said. more..