Jul 27 (Island) Chinese people around the world await the arrival of their New Year to celebrate the change of the year from one zodiacal sign to another. This is serious business, sacred and solemn, and hundreds of traditions are followed to begin the dawn of the New Year. Usually the New Year begins between Jan and Feb and the start date is when the new moon appears in the eastern sky. Currently we are well settled on the Year of the Pig, and this is last zodiac in Chinese calendar more..

Jul 27 (Island) Maithripala Sirisena may be playing Jokers from his pack in dealing with the politics and governance in SL. But he has now got a really good card in his game on Capital Punishment. He need not be limited to the Filipino Duterte card anymore. He�s got the Trump Card for his killer game. US has decided to resume the Death Penalty for federal crimes, after a 16-year hiatus; and going one better than our man has said more..

Jul 27 (CI) Maaali, Maaali, Maaali, Maaali. Colombo was roaring. There were cardboard cut-outs of the man all over the place. And he was right in the middle with a white ball in hand and an endless supply of batsmen to feast on. Lasith Malinga was as good as he ever was playing the final ODI of a 15-year career, and Varun Shetty had a lot of fun describing all of it on cricinfo's ball-by-ball commentary. 0.5 Malinga to Tamim Iqbal, OUT, welcome to the last chapter! more..

Jul 27 (DN) Dr. Borja Garcia, a PhD holder in Politics, International Relation and European from Loughborough University, UK, called the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka, to continue developing educational programs, to build capability, in Sri Lankan sports. It was a take home message and call-to-action point, by Dr. Garcia, during his session titled, �Good Governance in Sport: Why do we need it?� worked-off at the National Olympic Committee, on Thursday. more..

Jul 27 (CI) Lasith Malinga took matters into his own hands, and gave himself a proper farewell with his classic yorker blitz, as he unnerved Bangladesh and helped Sri Lanka to a 91-run win in Colombo. The home side, thanks to Kusal Perera's ton, put up a challenging total, and were then lifted by Malinga's spell, as they dominated the first ODI. A packed R Premadasa Stadium had an evening to remember as they cheered more..

Jul 27 (EN) Teejay Lanka Plc, one of South Asia's largest fabric mills, is eyeing sales to new apparel factories being set up in the region and Africa. "The increasing trend of locating apparel manufacturing plants in South Asia and the African continent, offer a landscape of many opportunities for the SL fabric industry," Chairman Bill Lam told shareholders in the firm's annual report. He said many global apparel manufacturers are relocating their apparel plants to South Asia from China, more..

Jul 27 (ST) Plans are afoot to rehabilitate 7500 km of the road network including 700 national roads across the country. �We started the programme in most provinces except in the Uva, Eastern and the Northern Provinces which we hope to commence soon,� said the Director General of the External Resources Department of the Ministry of Finance, Priyantha Ratnayake addressing an Asian Development Bank (ADB) media conference held at Jetwing Lighthouse Hotel, at Galle recently. more..

Jul 27 (AD) The AG filed indictment in the Colombo High Court against Navindu Ratnayake, the driver of the vehicle involved in the road accident that caused the death of the Traffic OIC of the Borella Police. IP Sarathchandra (51), was critically injured in the hit-and-run accident at Bambalapitiya in February this year while he succumbed to injuries at the Colombo National Hospital a few days later. Traffic OIC had been en route to more..

Jul 27 (Island) Old mobile phone batteries were put into the containers in which artifical toddy, used for making arrack and vinegar, was fermented, says consumer watchdog National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection. President of the Movement Ranjith Withanage said a countrywide survey conducted by his organisation had revealed that discarded mobile phone batteries and power banks and chemicals such as urea were used to produced artificial toddy. more..

Jul 27 (ST) Third book of recipes from SL�s beloved TV chef Shantha Mayadunne was posthumously launched on Thursday in the presence of many local TV personalities, family and friends. Shantha and her eldest daughter Nisanga died tragically in the Easter Sunday bomb blast at Shangri-La hotel. She is survived by her husband Kumar and younger daughter Tharanga who felt that this book that Shantha had completed before her untimely death should be published in her memory. more..

Jul 27 (DH) PM Ranil Wickremesinghe and his wife Maitree performed Nava Chandi Homa and offered special prayers to Goddess Sri Mookambika at Kollur on Friday. Due to inclement weather, Wickremesinghe, accompanied by an eight-member team, had to travel by road from Mangalore Int'l Airport. The entourage was accorded a grand welcome on the Mookambika temple premises by Udupi Deputy Commissioner more..

Jul 27 (AD) A special traffic plan is to be implemented on a part of Bauddhaloka Mawatha owing to an excavation that is being carried out by the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC). Accordingly, traffic will be restricted on Bauddhaloka Road from Stanley Wijesundara Mawatha junction to Thummulla junction from July 26 to Oct 25. The police urge the motorists to use alternate routes during the aforesaid time period until the excavation activities conclude. more..

Jul 27 (CT) Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratna yesterday, sent a reminder to the Attorney General, as the latter had still not responded to the previous letter sent to him, seeking his instructions on the case filed by the Organised Crimes Prevention Division (OCPD) against the controversial statement made by former State Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran. Maheswaran has allegedly said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organisation should be resurrected. more..

Jul 27 (CI) The ball is curling late. It had come down straight for nearly 80% of the pitch. But then, suddenly, as if by magic, it started swinging in. The batsman is in trouble. He tries to block it but ends up losing so much of his balance that he basically falls face first onto the pitch. Tamim Iqbal is down. His stumps are shattered. And Lasith Malinga runs up to his team-mates with one of his hands up and a smirk on his face. It wasn't a smile. more..

Jul 27 (DN) In accordance with the Z�score ratings done by the UGC based on the A/L Exam 2018 results, 30,830 students have been selected for uni entrance for the 2018/2019 academic year. Under the Z-score, 6,992 students have been selected for Bio-science courses while 5,684 have been selected for the Physical Sciences. A further 6,015 students have been selected for Commerce and, the biggest number, amounting to 9,399 students, have been selected for the Arts stream. more..

Jul 27 (DM) Sri Vairavar Hindu temple located at Chundikuli in Jaffna and its statues were vandalized with some statues being taken away last nights by mobs. The residents in the vicinity said the incident might have been the result of a dispute between the Kovil's Chief Priest and a group of people. They demanded an immediate investigation and legal action against those found guilty of carrying out this vaunted destruction. The police said the suspects were yet to be identified more..

Jul 27 (FT) UNP MP Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne on Thursday called on Parliament to support the completion of the project to abolish the Executive Presidency, which started in 2014, as the best way to resolve the clashes between the Executive and Legislature. Referring to the 19th Amendment, which was passed at a time the Govt lacked a majority in the Parliament, Dr. Wickramaratne accepted that more more..

Jul 27 (DN) Ceylon Metal Processing Corporation (CEYMPCO) Pvt Ltd, Director S.Muthuramar yesterday refuted accusations levelled against his company that it had imported hazardous waste from UK and that human remains had been found in any containers imported to the country by them over the past two years. He said that all the speculation that appeared in local news media was consequent to a UK publication that reported that the British govt launched an investigation after SL authorities more..

Jul 27 (Island) Sri Lanka, which has recovered its status granted by Lonely Planet Magazine as the best tourist destination in the world, after it lost that rating following last October�s Maithripala-Mahinda coup, yesterday launched a promotional campaign in Singapore in its efforts to reach the target of over two million tourist arrivals, set at the beginning of this year. The event was organized in association with SL Tourism Promotion Bureau and SriLankan Airlines, with a view to restoring confidence more..

Jul 27 (AD) The people of SL must act together to secure democracy, human rights and the rule of law, says the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Cl�ment Nyaletsossi Voule. �At the root of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association is the ability of people to come together to make their voices heard. It is important that the people of Sri Lanka unite more..

Jul 27 (CT) Northern Province Governor Dr. Suren Raghavan yesterday (26) said that they are working towards revitalising the Province�s cooperative system to provide credit for development work. �The biggest issue that cropped up after the war was the acquisition of micro loans. There had been several such institutions based in Colombo which had flooded the Northern Province after the war. Some of the institutions charged as much as 40% interest on micro loans. more..

Jul 27 (DM) The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) will take legal action against those who imported the containers of industrial waste without the proper a licence resulting in a public outcry, CEA Director General Hemantha Jayasinghe said. He said Hayleys Free Zone Ltd., ETL Colombo (Pvt) Limited and Ceylon Metal Processing Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, were responsible for the importing, reprocessing and re-exporting the consignment of industrial waste. more..

Jul 27 (Island) The AG�s Department had failed to provide instructions sought by police two years back to act against Mohamed Zahran and his group that carried out the Easter Sunday carnage. It was revealed before the PSC that AG�s Dept officials had taken two years to compile a report with regard to requests made by Terrorist Investigation Division of Police and the compilation had been completed one month after the attacks. more..

Jul 27 (Island) Power, Energy and Business Development Ministry is planning to dip into the consumers deposits to the tune of billions of rupees, says Electricity Consumer Rights Movement Convenor Kelum Amarasinghe. Amarasinghe said that they had been informed that the Ministry was planning to obtain permission to utilize the money of the electricity consumer deposits of the CEB to the tune of Rs. Rs. 1.45 billion and Rs. 500 million of electricity consumer deposits of LECO for more..

Jul 27 (DN) Millions of families were directly benefited from the measures taken by the govt for the welfare of the public. But they have not yet been satisfied with what they received, Transport and Civil Aviation State Minister Ashok Abeysinghe said. One million families were directly benefitted from the public sector salary increase and 500,000 persons were benefitted from the increase of pensions allowance. Another two million families were directly benefitted from Samurdhi allowances. more..

Jul 27 (Island) Those responsible for financial crimes revealed by the Panama papers leak had got away thanks to some loopholes in existing legal provisions, Central Bank officials told the PSC. Governor of CB Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Director of Financial Intelligence Unit D.M. Rupasinghe and Director of Department of Supervision of Non-Bank Financial Institutions R.R. Jayaratne testified before the PSC. more..

Jul 28 (SO) Some mistook the dark clouds along the horizon to be a frieze of incoming heavy monsoonal rain cloud that late Monday morning in July in Colombo. But it was something far more ominous. It was clouds of black smoke from the fires of July 1983. Galle Road from Bambalapitiya southwards was one long straight avenue of fire � flames flickering redly as shops and homes burned on the roadside with black smoke billowing upwards to form a dark archway over a road empty of vehicles more..

Jul 28 (CT) It is no secret that the UNP, one of the oldest political parties in the country which gave rise to a number of highly respected statesmen in its heyday, has been ailing for the past few decades. With the demise of charismatic leaders such as R. Premadasa, Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake, at the hands of LTTE suicide bombers, the party has been struggling to maintain its foothold in SL politics. D.B. Wijetunga, the third Executive Prez, appointed in the wake of more..

Jul 28 (SO) Bent in two, with his head in his hands in the tiny prison cell at the back of the courtroom last Thursday, all Seigu Sihabdeen Mohammed Shafi wanted was to go home to his wife and children. The man has been emaciated by his two month ordeal, spending nearly six weeks in detention at the CID in Colombo, and a further two weeks in the Kurunegala police remand while police conducted investigations into allegations that more..

Jul 28 (ST) Throwing your garbage over the backyard fence to keep your own property clean and tidy was an unsavoury old practice. With greater habitation and awareness of sanitation standards, it is now rightly condemned, whether in big cities and nation-states, or in households. Yet when Colombo decided to fix its mounting rubbish heaps, it was decided to dump all the garbage in Puttalam. The people of the north-west coastal town naturally were irate. more..

Jul 28 (ST) My dear Mali, It is very rarely that we write to cricketers for two weeks in a row, but it is difficult not to write to you this week. That is because of your match-winning performance on Friday, after announcing that it would be the last time you will be wearing a one-day international shirt for our country. You appeared larger than life that day with cut-outs everywhere that would have put a politician to shame. At a time when our cricketers do not attract huge crowds, stadium was packed more..

Jul 28 (CT) Garbage disposal is one of the biggest issues in the world as well as in SL. Last few months have made this apparent with the spotlight on the global waste trade; with many Asian countries shipping back imported garbage to countries of origin. A few weeks ago, SL was also revealed to be a part of that trade, the news of which sparked public uproar as the country is still struggling to tackle its own mounting garbage issues. more..

Jul 28 (Island) A startling revelation was made, the other day, before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), probing the 21 April terrorist bombings; AG�s Dept had taken about two years to prepare a report in response to a request made by the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) as regards Zaharan�s gang in 2017. The document was finally completed one month after the Easter attacks! AG�s Dept officials, questioned by the PSC, trotted out various excuses for the prolonged delay. more..

Jul 28 (SO) Mr. Speaker, Following the attempted coup and Easter Sunday bombings, many of our fellow citizens ask why our country continues to veer from one crisis to another. They are right to do so. The history of SL is a history of crisis. In the last 70 odd years, we experienced the assassination of a PM, the assassination of an Executive Prez, a failed coup, two youth insurgencies and a long, bloody civil war. With one or two exceptions, common thread uniting these crises is the national question more..

Jul 28 (Island) As we go to press, the newsrooms are abuzz with the rumour that Prez Sirisena is preparing to issue a gazette notification with regard to the holding of the long delayed Provincial Council elections (PC). Whatever the veracity of this gazette notification story is, that concerted efforts are being made in the presidential quarters to have the PC elections held before the presidential elections, is a certainty. The govt changed the electoral system for the PCs in 2017. more..

Jul 28 (ST) P edris Appo, short for Appuhamy who is a retired agriculture expert now involved in farming, was furious. �If we don�t pay the bills, CEB will cut our power. Now the CEB is not paying the bills (to CPC),� he said, one morning. His grouse was that there were intermittent power cuts which appeared to have been triggered by non-payment of bills by the CEB for the supply of fuel from the CPC. This was, however, strenuously denied by the authorities while the Treasury stepped in more..

Jul 28 (CT) Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith feared that the investigations into the 21 April Easter Sunday bombings would be swept under the carpet and added that the attacks were part of an international conspiracy. Cardinal Ranjith was addressing a special mass at the newly renovated Katuwapitiya Roman Catholic Church, where some 115 persons perished and scores of others were injured as more..

Jul 28 (ST) Going 1-0 up in a three-match ODI series following SL�s emphatic 91-run win against Bangladesh on Friday in the first game, which happened to be the farewell game for the legendary bowler Lasith Malinga, the home team would highly anticipate to record an early cleanup when the two teams meet again today, at the R. Premadasa Stadium (RPICS). From SL�s point of view, the hosts will be minus their match-winning bowler, Malinga, and are embarking on a whole new journey, more..

Jul 28 (Island) Despite retiring from the ODI format on Friday as the ninth highest wicket-taker in the overall list, Lasith Malinga will stay focused on the next year�s ICC T20 World Cup in Australia. Malinga is expected to lead Sri Lanka in the T20 format at least until next year before the 36-year-old fast bowler hangs up his boots completely. Malinga was stripped off from ODI captaincy before the recently-concluded World Cup but has received the guarantee from the selectors that more..