Mar 3 (SO) If we sing to Mother Lanka in our national anthem, then, why is it that Sri Lankan mothers continue to be beaten and sexually abused even in their own homes? How is it that men can rape women � often their own kin � and then blame it on the clothes women wear? And, why is it that women are abused by men but not the other way around? As we celebrate International Women�s Day this week on March 8, these are just some of the questions that need to be asked of ourselves. more..

Mar 3 (CT) IMF has given the Govt a second chance. In a statement released on Thursday, it said, ��Programme performance suffered a setback in the second half of 2018, delaying the completion of the fifth review under the IMF-supported programme. The primary fiscal surplus fell short of programe targets in December, largely due to weak revenues. The foreign exchange reserve target was also missed by a sizeable margin, as market pressures from tight global financial more..

Mar 3 (SO) Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda inched closer to arrest last Thursday, with the Supreme Court delaying the consideration of a petition filed by the former Navy Commander seeking to prevent his arrest by the CID in connection with the murder of 11 young men alleged to have been abducted for ransom by the Navy in late 2008. Just one day after he failed to present himself at the CID having been summoned more..

Mar 3 (Island) It was Dr. N.M. Perera, unarguably the best qualified finance minister that Sri Lanka has had in its post-Independence history, who was responsible for utilizing the device of the gazette rather than the budget as a method of announcing tax measures. The LSSP leader, a remarkably able politician, who had ambitions of becoming the prime minister of then Ceylon, had to be content with the finance ministry under Mrs. Bandaranaike�s wing. Perera, an accomplished parliamentarian more..

Mar 3 (ST) 2019 Budget that the Govt postponed due to last October�s attempted palace coup will finally see the light of day on Tuesday. Annual Budgets are no longer awaited with bated breath like some decades ago because price revisions, always upward through dreaded midnight Gazettes, mid-term, have devalued the significance of Budgets for the ordinary citizen. However, Budgets outline an incumbent Govt�s fiscal direction and many expect Tuesday�s Budget to be a populist one more..

Mar 3 (CT) A report on Religious Freedom Survey conducted across the 22 districts in the country based on public experts namely the religious leaders of all five religious groups (Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Roman Catholic, Christian), govt officials, Police, and local community leaders� (823 of them in total) - opinion on the status of religious freedom in their respective areas, suggests that an overwhelming majority live peacefully in the country, yet, more..

Mar 3 (ST) My dear Sanath, I thought I must write to you when I heard the worrying news that you had been suspended from all forms of cricket for the next two years � and more disturbingly, that you had accepted those charges without challenging them or defending yourself, because of your love for the game of cricket. We have all heard of the glorious uncertainties of cricket. We saw that recently when young Kusal � who, ironically, is called Podi Sana � blasted his way to an improbable win more..

Mar 3 (Island) The FCID which is incorrectly referred to by everybody as the Financial Crimes Invstigation Division but is acutally the Fraud and Corruption Investigation Division, has ended up like the Kobbekaduwa Commission of the 1990s which was set up by the Chandrika Kumaratunga government to investigate the death of Maj Gen Denzil Kobbekaduwa, Brigadier Vijaya Wimalaratne and others in a landmine blast at Araly Point in Jaffna. The chief witness in that Commission more..

Mar 3 (SO) Months after the country�s worst ever constitutional crisis, a report detailing offences committed during unruly incidents in Parliament have been released and recommends action against 59 MPs, the vast majority of them being from the UPFA. In response, we hear opposition voices saying that these errant MPs should not be dealt with according to the law of the land. Their argument is that whatever happened and whatever anyone did would be covered by parliamentary privileges more..

Mar 3 (ST) Karapincha Perera, the tea-kade gossip, laughed aloud when he was told that inflation was below 5%. You must be joking or someone is joking, he said, laughing aloud again. He was discussing the cost of living with a friend who had mentioned inflation figures reported by the Central Bank. There is no single inflation rate given by the banking regulator. According to the bank�s latest inflation measurement, core inflation (which reflects the underlying inflation in the economy) more..

Mar 3 (CT) �I remember that day (27 Feb 2015) very well. At about 12:30 p.m., I began to receive several calls from People�s Bank, Bank of Ceylon (BoC), National Saving Bank (NSB) and the CBSL itself. Different people from these institutions told me that something was going on inside the CBSL and they asked me to look for it. Probably they wanted to bring it to my notice as I was the COPE Chairman at that time,� D.E.W Gunasekara said more..

Mar 3 (SO) Santhush Gunatilleke was just the man that St. Peter�s College would have wanted as he came to their rescue when they needed him most with a solid and match-saving 161 as their 85th Battle of the Saints big match against St. Joseph�s College ended in a draw at the P Sara Oval yesterday. Gunatilleke was at the crease when the Peterites were staring at a possible defeat at 106 for 6 in their second essay after the Joes declared at 286 for 8 in their 1st innings, lead of 67 runs. more..

Mar 3 (SO) Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year has always been the prime target of many schoolboy cricketers. Winning such a mega event would definitely change the destiny of a deserving personality. This year�s Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year is going great guns with the all-important first team matches reaching its peak with the annual big matches also being played. We have been talking about some of the top schoolboy cricketers of yesteryear from Madugalle, more..

Mar 3 (CI) What a difference two weeks can make. Before the first Test, in mid-February, the question was not whether Sri Lanka might surprise their hosts, but by how much South Africa were going to beat a touring team who arrived battling multiple crises. SL have, of course, made history since then, setting up their Test series with that miraculous 10th wicket stand in Durban and then taking it home in Port Elizabeth to more..

Mar 3 (CT) The Athletics Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) will send a 13-member Youth Athletics team for the Third Asian Youth (Under-18) Athletic Championships to be held in Hong Kong from March 15-17. The Championships conducted by the Asian Athletics Association will have Athletes from over 35 countries participating. The Sri Lanka contingent will comprise 7 Boys and 6 Girls. The AASL is yet to decide on the captain of the team. The Team Manager cum Coach is Neville Rodrigo, more..

Mar 3 (ST) A masterful century by opener and Nalanda deputy skipper Avishka Perera (120) and a menacing spell of left arm seam bowling by Dineth Samaraweera (3 for 22) placed Nalanda in the box seat at the end of the first day�s play in the 90th Battle of the Maroons cricket encounter between Ananda and Nalanda which commenced at the SSC Grounds yesterday. Nalanda declared their innings at 269 for 7 and in reply Ananda were struggling at 54 for 4 wickets at close. more..

Mar 3 (Island) You wonder whether a better knock has been played by a Sri Lankan in Test cricket than the master class that Kusal Perera produced a fortnight ago in Durban. It�s a big statement as over the last 37 years the likes of Duleep Mendis, Aravinda de Silva, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawadene and Tillakaratne Dilshan have produced some terrific knocks. But given the circumstances, conditions and more..

Mar 3 (SO) Sri Lanka�s Eshan Pieris did his country proud by winning the final race in the inaugural Asian Winter Series (AWS) held over the weekend at the Sepang Int'l Circuit in Malaysia. The win was even more impressive given that this was Eshan�s first season in the F3 category. Driving for Absolute Racing, Eshan got off to a great start qualifying second for the first race of the weekend. He kept up this great run by posting the fifth best time in the second qualifying session. more..

Mar 3 (ST) Armed forces earned major honours as SL Army made their presence felt at the 34th National Rowing Championship ended at the Diyawanna Rowing Centre yesterday. However SL Navy and SL Air Force were declared joint winners of the Men�s Open category while SL Army went on to make a clean sweep by clinching the Women�s Open category.Army won the Men�s Open Quadruple Scull, Men�s Under-23 Single Scull, Men�s Under-23 Double Scull and more..

Mar 3 (ST) Several firms, both new and more established are gearing to venture into more lucrative markets overseas due to the dicey macroeconomic situation in the country. The currency depreciation and the result of rising fuel prices have increased inflation. While exports recovered on regaining GSP+ to the European Union, the steadily growing fuel bill and large imports of vehicles widened the trade deficit in Sri Lanka. more..

Mar 3 (Island) Sterling Capital Investments (Private) Ltd. (SCIPL), one of the largest vehicle exporters from Japan to Sri Lanka, has entered into an agreement with the People�s Bank subsidiary, People�s Merchant Finance PLC (PMF), to invest substantially into the deeply troubled PMF through a private placement of shares and a rights issue, a Stock Exchange filing last week revealed. Sterling will initially take up 16.85 million private placement shares at a price of Rs. 9.50 a share, more..

Mar 3 (DC) PM Ranil Wickremesinghe and his wife Maitree Wickremesinghe were among the ministers and some of the top officials on Saturday who reached the temple city of Tirupati to offer worship to Lord Venkateswara. Mr Wickremesinghe and his wife along with other officials, earlier arrived at Chennai airport where they were received by the officials concerned. From there they were flown to Tirupati airport by a special helicopter where they reached by 4.35 pm. more..

Mar 3 (DW) Olivia Ramya Tanner traveled to Sri Lanka to find her birth mother. Then the Swiss woman discovered that everything � from her birth certificate on up � was a lie. She's not alone. Alison Langley reports from Zurich. Having booked her dream vacation to Sri Lanka complete with an Ayurvedic retreat, Olivia, who grew up in a Zurich suburb, thought it might be fun to use the opportunity to find her birth mother. more..

Mar 3 (Island) In June the iconic Orion Towers at the Orion City IT Park will be home to Elyon Colombo, a hotel to be branded and managed by Elyon Hotels. This 3+ star hotel, the first hotel when approaching Colombo from the airport, will serve a growing class of seasoned and discerning business travellers in the regions of Kelaniya, Colombo, Dematagoda, and Fort. "Elyon Colombo Hotel will cater to the tech savvy business traveller and the MICE travel sector in this locality. more..

Mar 3 (CT) Over 100 apparel buyers and 59 members of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce visited the Sri Lanka stall and participated in a networking breakfast meet at New York, respectively, at an apparel show in the US in January, Commerce Department said. The breakfast meet included the screening of two short films on Sri Lankan Apparel. The occasion was the Apparel Sourcing USA exhibition held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Centre, New York, USA, more..

Mar 3 (Island) President Maithripala Sirisena has failed to secure crucial support of the breakaway faction of his SLFP dimming prospects of a snap re-election bid, according to seniors on both sides. Sirisena had hoped to seek a second term no sooner he completed four out of his 5-year term on Jan 9, but with no support forthcoming from the SLPP he has had to look for a plan B, political sources said. more..

Mar 3 (SO) The country aims at notching the 70th position in the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) index by 2020 improving from last year�s ranking which moved up 11 notches in the country index of World Bank, a top official said. Sri Lanka was ranked 100 among 190 economies behind India and Bhutan which were ranked 77 and 81 in the EODB index last year. The country�s rating averaged 100 from 2008 to 2018 reaching an all time low of 113 in 2004 and a record high of 83 in 2012. more..

Mar 3 (AD) A police officer and his daughter were killed following a collision involving a three-wheeler and a car near the Saragama Wewa in Kurunegala. Police said that driver of the three-wheeler had lost control of the vehicle causing it to collide with the car. A 30-year-old Police Constable attached to the Mawanella Police Station and his two-year-old daughter died in the crash. Meanwhile the policeman�s wife, father-in-law and mother-in-law have been admitted to more..

Mar 3 (ST) A jigsaw puzzle in the Shangri-la Galle face land deal has been unveiled following the emergence of details of missing money after almost seven years of a brainteaser to govt authorities. Treasury has now been able to unravel this mystery payment made more than two years ago. In August 2016, a sum of Rs. 157 million was transferred to the Central Bank following an order issued by Kaduwela Magistrate more..

Mar 3 (Island) Westminster Magistrate�s Court ruled that Brigadier Priyanka Fernando was not covered by diplomatic immunity when he made a throat-cutting gesture. When the case came up for hearing again in London on Friday, the judge said that his diplomatic immunity covered only what was in his job description, which was read out in open court during the hearing. Brigadier is accused of making a death threat to Tamil protesters in front of the SL High Commission in London during more..

Mar 3 (Island) Twelve-year-old, British born Sri Lankan student, Nishi Uggalle, entered the finals of the Child Genius competition telecast over Channel 4 television station. Nishi, who was described as having "higher IQ levels than Albert Einstien and Professor Stephen Hawking", stunned viewers with her maths skills by fast-tracking to day three. "Most people think that maths is specifically a boy�s subject, but I definitely think that�s not true. A big reason that I�d like to win is because more..

Mar 3 (ST) Sri Lanka, along with the Britain-led core group, will co-sponsor a fresh resolution at the UNHRC on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in the country, authoritative sources said. The Zero Draft Resolution on Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in SL is already in circulation. Among other things, it envisages continued involvement of OHCHR and more..

Mar 3 (SO) Politburo member of JVP K.D. Lalkantha who was arrested following a road accident was remanded till March 14 by the A'pura Additional Magistrate yesterday. Lal Kantha was arrested by the police after his cab collided with a motorcycle head-on near the Anuradhapura prison on the A'pura-Kurunegala road on Friday around 3pm. One of the two women who were riding the motor-cycle was injured. A leg and a hand of one victim was broken while other sustained minor injuries. more..

Mar 3 (ST) National Joint Committee (NJC) has written to Prez Sirisena requesting that the Govt withdraw from being a co-sponsor of the UNHRC Resolution 30/1. �The said resolution is being made use of by the treacherous politicians in the govt for a witch hunt to not only discredit the security forces but also to prosecute war heroes. The latest effort being to arrest the wartime SL Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda (Retd),� asserts the letter, signed by NJC Co-President more..

Mar 3 (ST) A relative lull in political activity this week does not mean woes are receding for Prez Sirisena, SLFP leader, and his UNF govt. They are now poles apart. On the contrary, some issues are exacerbating. One is threatening to explode. Paradoxical enough, this also involves the country�s same premier banking institution. In the former bond scandal, a forensic audit is yet to get under way despite Prez�s directives. more..

Mar 3 (Island) To pick up where I left last week � on the rise millennial socialism in America, there are quite a few historical and contemporary quirks that might be of interest to the curious. When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold was the stock phrase in the second half of the twentieth century when America was the dominant super power. The statement was a direct adaptation of what Prince Metternich had said of revolutionary France during age of revolution in Europe, more..

Mar 3 (Island) Two consecutive presentations on Saturday and today, Sunday, provided an opportunity to talk about the implications of social media on two significant and inter-related issues � electoral processes and constitutional reform. With nearly 700,000 voting for the first time at the LG election held just over a year ago, and just under a million at the presidential election held in Jan 2015, statistics from the EC reveals a young demographic is around 15% of the electorate. more..

Mar 3 (ST) Last week SL�s longstanding, much-touted UN proposal for an Indian Ocean Zone of Peace (IOPZ) got a much-needed boost as Mauritius�s claims over the decolonisation of the strategically important Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, was upheld by the Int'l Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague. ICJ said Britain must hand over to Mauritius the future control of Chagos Archipelago, where a US military base more..

Mar 3 (PMD) President Maithripala Sirisena lauded the immense services rendered by the Air Force during the last 68 years. �The SL Air Force, demonstrating its specific skills, weakened the enemy by attacking them directly when the Army and Navy were facing difficult situations in the operation to eradicate LTTE terrorism in the last few decades�, he said. President made these remarks participating at the 68th anniversary more..