Oct 8 (FT) Driven by its overarching goal of enhancing SL�s potential in terms of ICT talent, SLASSCOM recently launched a comprehensive training program for ICT instructors in collaboration with Vocational Training Authority (VTA) and YouLead. With the objective of improving teaching standards and skills in order to deliver superior learning experiences to existing and prospective students, this Transformative Teacher Training program initiated by the SLASSCOM more..

Oct 8 (CT) Melbn Western Warriors and Dimo Southern Warriors recorded their second wins yesterday and are top of the points table in the inaugural Army Commander�s T20 League tournament being played at the Army grounds Dombagoda. Western Warriors beat Prima Stella Eastern Warriors in the 5th match and Southern Warriors beat Super Fashion North Warriors by 5 wickets in the 6th match on day three. Western Warriors Avishka Fernando scored 86 runs more..

Oct 8 (Island) No school in the country has dominated schools netball like the way teams of Holy Family Convent, Kurunegala have done during the last one and half decades. The name of Holy Family Convent, Kurunegala has been so synonymous with the All Island Schools Netball Championships and the Milo Schools Championship titles to such an extent that one cannot remember a single year when they had settled for a trophy lower than the runner up title during last decade. more..

Oct 8 (FT) Given the sudden spike in COVID-19 local infections, the Govt yesterday decided to postpone all repatriation flights until further notice. �All repatriation flights have been rescheduled to a future date. Once the local condition is under control, we will resume the repatriation operations immediately,� Foreign Ministry on COVID-19 Action and Dir General East Asia Kandeepan Balasubramaniam said. more..

Oct 8 (FT) When the case of the arrest of Hejaaz Hizbullah was taken up yesterday, the Counsel alleged that the CID had misled the Cardinal and the public with regard to Hizbullah. �They lied to His Eminence the Cardinal and the public. The real culprits were never caught and they have instead found a scapegoat in Hejaaz,� the Counsel said. The CID submitting a report said that they were awaiting a Govt Analyst report on three phones used by Hizbullah. �This is how they lied throughout. more..

Oct 8 (Island) National Institute of Sports Science (NISS) is conducting a Sports Science Certificate Level 1 course for boxing coaches on a request made by Upali Bandara, President of the Boxing Coaches Association of SL (BCASL). The course, which began on September 24 will run until Nov 6 covering a duration of 60 hours, attended by 60 coaches. The main objective of this course is to provide boxing coaches with an extensive knowledge of sports science and to direct more..

Oct 8 (FT) The removal of Dr. Jayaruwan Bandara from the post of Acting Director of the Medical Research Institute (MRI) was in keeping with due procedure in place at MRI, Parliament was told yesterday. State Minister of Prison, Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle said that Dr. Bandara had been acting as the Head of the MRI, while the doctor who had previously held the post had gone overseas for training. more..

Oct 8 (Island) Minister of Trade, Bandula Gunawardena visited the LAUGFS Corporation (Rubber) Plant in Horana on Oct 6. The minister was welcomed by the Group Chairman of LAUGFS Holdings Limited, W.K.H. Wegapitiya, Group Deputy Chairman, Thilak De Silva and CEO, Piyadasa Kudabalage. Sri Lanka has been able to become a significant player among global rubber exporters with rubber being a key agriculture product and economic export crop. more..

Oct 8 (ST) Three hundred and three govt contractors and suppliers kept waiting for a long period to get their payments for outstanding bills for the Rs. 9.6 billion worth of work done in state development projects will be getting liquidity facilities from banks soon. But commercial banks expressed concern on liquidity issues when getting refinancing facility from the Central Bank by pledging liquid government securities as collateral to provide loans for cash- strapped contractors. more..

Oct 8 (AD) It was revealed at the COPE held yesterday that a loss of Rs. 1.1 billion has been incurred as a result of not specifying the quantity of coal required when calling for tenders for the purchase of coal by the Ceylon Coal Company (Pvt) Limited. It was also revealed that the Ceylon Coal Company (Pvt) Limited had purchased coal under the short-term method, without following the proper procurement process. more..

Oct 8 (FT) Considering the current COVID-19 outbreak situation in the country, Health Ministry issued a directive to the Board of Investment (BOI) requiring all approved ventures to comply with new requirements. In a memorandum to BOI Chairman Susantha Ratnayake, Health Services Acting Director General Dr. S. Sridharan said the Health Ministry had taken a policy decision to monitor all the workers in export-oriented manufacturing industries under the purview of the BOI, more..

Oct 8 (Island) Hambantota International Port was the venue sponsor of the SME Development Conference 2020, held under the auspices of PM Mahinda Rajapaksa who was Chief Guest at the event, and special dignitaries Minister Wimal Weerawansa and State Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal. The aim of the conference was to help small and medium-scale enterprises meet challenges faced in financial management, entrepreneurial leadership and bank funding more..

Oct 8 (FT) Govt has initiated discussions to take back a majority of the Trincomalee oil tanks which were given to the Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC) on a 35-year lease, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila told Parliament. Responding to a question, the Minister said that the Govt had commenced talks with the LIOC and Indian Govt to acquire some tanks which remained unutilised more..

Oct 8 (FT) National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) had spent over Rs. 472 million on advertising and publicity campaigns during the previous Govt, PM Mahinda Rajapaksa told Parliament. He said that the Finance Ministry had already commenced an audit regarding those expenses. PM said this in response to a query by SLPP MP Sampath Authukorala, during PM Question Time in the House. Rs. 85 million had been spent for printing posters, invitation cards more..

Oct 8 (FT) Colombo stock market bounced back yesterday as bargain hunters stepped up activity after the spread of local COVID-19 positive cases wiped out over Rs. 200 billion in value. The bourse ended on a positive note as the ASPI increased by 0.34% or 18.61 points to close at 5,553.22 points, while the S&P SL20 Index also increased by 0.03% or 0.67 points to close at 2,272.89. Turnover increased by 38.4% relative to Tuesday to Rs. 3.9 billion while Expolanka accounted for 6.2% of more..

Oct 8 (CT) Former Commandant of the Police Special Task Force (STF), Senior DIG (SDIG) M.R. Latheef who earlier said he came to know about the National Thowheed Jama�ath (NTJ) and its Leader Zaharan Hashim only after the 21 April 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, yesterday (7) admitted that he was aware of Zaharan and the NTJ even before the attack. He was testifying before the PCoI) into the Easter Sunday bombings. more..

Oct 8 (Island) Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi said that the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital in Malabe would be used to treat COVID-19 patients as one of the measures to face the current resurgence of the disease in the country. Minister said that on Oct 6, a total of 4,800 PCR tests had been conducted on the employees of Brandix Apparel Limited in Minuwangoda, close contacts of the employees and other associates related to them. Besides, another 1,800 PCR tests had been more..

Oct 8 (CT) Prez Rajapaksa instructed officials to expedite and streamline sending skilled labour with internationally recognised qualifications and certificates for foreign employment. A mechanism of this nature will be instrumental in securing higher benefits to both the employee and the country, Prez pointed out. Prez made these remarks at a meeting to discuss the future activities of State Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotions & Market Diversification held at Prez Secretariat more..

Oct 8 (CT) In the backdrop of authorities failing to ascertain the original source of the rapidly growing Brandix cluster, a document citing flight details that indicated 60 persons had arrived from India raised concerns last afternoon. These flight details surfaced at a time when speculations were ripe that there had been some Indian workers present at the Minuwangoda Brandix factory. However, such speculations were put to rest more..

Oct 8 (DM) A woman (68) who was among the associates of the Minuwangoda garment factory employees died while being transported to the Galkanda quarantine centre in Welikanda today. Her body has now been placed in the Galkanda quarantine centre for the postmortem, and it hasn�t been confirmed if she was COVID-19 positive. The victim A.M. Aruna Kanthi, mother of four was a resident at No 81, Warapalana Udapitiya Gampaha, according to police investigating the incident. more..

Oct 8 (AD) The Foreign Ministry has decided to suspend all services offered by the Consular Affairs Division of the Ministry on 08th and 09th October, to restrict the congregation of the general public and thereby to prevent the spreading of COVID-19 virus. Accordingly, the Consular Affairs Division situated at the Ceylinco Building in Colombo will remain closed for visitors in the upcoming two days 08th and 9th Oct. The office will only accept queries related to death cases of Sri Lankans overseas more..

Oct 8 (FT) Divulapitiya cluster has expanded to 1,034 with 202 more persons connected to the garment manufacturing facility testing positive for COVID-19 yesterday. This makes it the largest cluster identified in the island thus far, with the Welisara Naval Camp cluster affecting 950 Navy personnel and their contacts and the Kandakadu Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre cluster affecting 651 persons. more..

Oct 8 (FT) COVID-19 is having a second surge (as the GMOA and Dr. Ravindra Ranan-Eliya and his team warned, interpreting the Johns Hopkins data with graphs), just as the Shanghai-based YICAI Research Institute placed Sri Lanka�s COVID-19 performance as the second best of 108 countries, next only to China, streets ahead of Vietnam, South Korea and New Zealand, and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa devoted eight paragraphs of his address to diligently inform the world�s leaders at more..

Oct 8 (FT) Humanity is now going through unprecedented turbulent times in its journey. The coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, has already affected more nations than any of the previous world wars. Sri Lanka has largely been able to curb the spread of COVID-19 due to early lockdown, efficient contact tracing and quarantine measures, quick call to action and a robust public health infrastructure. Yet, the pandemic is certain to leave its mark on the island-nation�s economy. more..

Oct 8 (SLN) Special operations conducted by the Navy in Punapitiya, Udappuwa and Sinnapadu, Kalpitiya on 06th and 07th October 2020 made way to apprehend 03 suspects with over 1700kg of smuggled dried turmeric as well as to arrest 03 more suspects with over 344kg of dried turmeric and a lorry in Wankaleipadu, Mannar, during another operation carried out with the Police. Accordingly, the Northwestern Naval Command during a special operation conducted in the beach area more..

Oct 8 (SLN) In an attempt to arrest the spread of coronavirus among the public, SL Navy today (7) carried out a disinfection programme at the Provincial Main Passenger Bus Terminal, Colombo Fort which is frequented by a large number of commuters on daily basis. This sterilization effort was undertaken by the Navy�s Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Unit, following the directives of Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Nishantha Ulugetenne. more..

Oct 8 (DM) To support education excellence among children, business magnate and philanthropist Dhammika Perera and his wife Priscilla Perera have launched another initiative. The platform, DP Kids, aims to provide free access to pre-school education to a minimum of 264,000 children between the ages of 2 and 7 years old, which amounts to 20% of the 1.32 million children in Sri Lanka. more..

Oct 8 (Island) Less than 10% of children continuously engaged in their studies as before following their victimization in cases of child abuse, parliament was told. Responding to a question by JVP-led NPP MP Dr Harini Amarasuriya, Education Minister Prof GL Peiris said from Jan 1 this year upto Sept 23, the National Child Protection Authority had received 6,063 complaints of child abuse incidents. Out of those complaints only 3,900 of which the investigations were completed. more..

Oct 8 (AD) A team of senior representatives from the MarCom Collective and Ernst & Young Sri Lanka met with Ajith Nivard Cabraal, State Minister for Money and Capital Market and State Enterprise Reforms, recently. This meeting was the latest in the Collective�s ongoing engagements with stakeholders in the government and the industry to apprise them of the marketing communications sector�s contribution to the economy, which has largely gone unnoticed. more..

Oct 8 (EN) SL�s gross domestic product is forecasted to shrink 6.7% in 2020, Maldives by 19.5% and India 9.6 percent in 2020, the World Bank said in a report. �The COVID-19 crisis has substantially clouded the outlook and exacerbated an already challenging macroeconomic situation,� the World Bank in a report on South Asia. �The economy is expected to contract by 6.7% in 2020, with all key drivers of demand affected: more..

Oct 8 (EN) Sri Lanka�s Airport & Aviation Services claimed today that a chartered flight organised by Brandix carried 48 workers of Sri Lankan origin from India following all health guideline protocols and were sent to quarantine immediately. The flight UL 1160 had arrived at Mattala airport on 22 September, a spokesman said. �We would like to reiterate that all passengers of the subjected flight carrying 48 passengers were of Sri Lankan origin and none were of Indian origin,� more..

Oct 8 (AD) There is no truth in the rumors circulating on social media that a family member of the Parliament�s staff has tested positive with COVID-19, states the Parliament�s Communication Department. Issuing a press release the Department points out that the circulation of this news was based on a statement made by the Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena in response to a concern raised by Parliamentarian Shan Wijayalal De Silva at the Parliament today (08). more..

Oct 8 (DM) The people living outside the curfew areas had been requested to be watchful when travelling or visiting public places as next seven days would be crucial in terms of reporting novel Covid-19 cases from society, Army Commander Shavendra Silva said. �The focus in coming days would be paid on tracing the movements of the Minuwangoda Apparel Factory workers including places they had visited. more..

Oct 8 (NR) Officers of Minuwangoda Police Station have been directed to undergo quarantine at the Police Station premises. The development comes following the individual managing the canteen of the Police Station testing positive for the coronavirus. Outsiders have been prohibited from entering the Police Station. It has been determined that the canteen owner�s son, employed at the Minuwangoda apparel factory, where a large number of coronavirus cases have been detected, also contracted more..

Oct 8 (Island) Perhaps, nothing has dealt the govt�s 20th Amendment (20A) project a bigger blow than SLPP MP Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe�s recent letter to Prez Rajapaksa. He has pulled no punches in his missive, which says the Prez�s manifesto, Vistas for Prosperity and Splendor, did not say the laws introduced by the 19th Amendment (19A) would be abolished. Subscribing to the view that 20A should be approved by the people at a referendum in addition to being passed with a 2/3rds more..

Oct 8 (EN) Over 50,000 of Free Trade Zone (FTZ) workers are at risk of exposure to COVID-19 as a result of the unexpected Brandix apparel factory cluster which at last count was at 1,034 confirmed cases. Programme Coordinator of Dabindu Collective Chamila Thushari said that despite the prevalent situation in the country, factories in the Katunayake FTZ have pressured employees into reporting to work. more..

Oct 8 (AD) Department of Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs has issued a communiqu� to all trustees and persons in charge of mosques with regard to restrictions on maximum attendance for prayers and health directives in relation to the prevailing Covid-19 situation. It states that in view of the Health Ministry Regulation No. DGHS / COVID-19 / 2020-347 dated 06.10.2020 and the timeline thereto, The Wakfs Board of SL, has decided; 1. To permit ONLY five time and Jummah more..

Oct 8 (CT) Symptoms of COVID-19 first started appearing among workers at the Brandix facility in Minuwangoda from 20 Sept, Brandix sources said. The medical centre at Brandix had given only pain relief medication to a majority of employees who had complained of fever, colds and cough. By 27 Sept, a considerable number of employees had fallen sick. However, certain officials of the organisation had not made any effort to provide proper medical care. Today, as a result of not being farsighted, more..