Jun 7 (Island) During the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, several former greats who had turned expert television commentators were highly impressed by young Avishka Fernando. With an exceptional skill to pick up the loose balls early and put them away, Avishka was waiting to cash in when the bowlers erred with their line and length. He was quite handful in England where wickets in one-day games are batsmen friendly. What made him special was that he punished even the not so bad balls. more..

Jun 7 (GV) SL is currently experiencing the greatest marine disaster in its history caused by the burning and sinking of the MV X-Press Pearl in the shallow waters less than 10 nautical miles north of Colombo Harbour. It is the second calamity in less than a year, both similar nature, involving ships carrying dangerous materials. Almost a week passed before the list of materials onboard was shared with the public. Was it given to the firefighting team, and if so, at what point was it given? more..

Jun 7 (TM) As the ongoing player-board dispute over the newly-introduced player contract scheme for 24 national cricketers, the players in unison have told Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) yesterday (5), through their lawyer Nishan Premathiratne, that they are not going to sign the contracts until there is change in the unsystematic and unrealistic player categorisation which has not been transparent. more..

Jun 7 (ST) The dispute over national cricket contracts took a fresh turn yesterday with players standing firm on a refusal to sign any form of agreement�central or tour�until their demand for transparency is met. Their decision came just three days before team�s scheduled departure to England for the six match limited-over series (3 ODIs and 3 T20Is). It now casts doubt over the series as SLC says players must at least sign a tour contract to go. �We have not received anything officially more..

Jun 7 (ST) The findings of a study by the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry, Sunday Times learnt, have caused serious concerns at the highest levels of the Govt. The main finding � 91 percent of the tests for COVID-19 victims were Exit PCRs. The process is explained by health officials as follow-up tests ten days after a person in a household is confirmed afflicted with the coronavirus. Such tests, they point out, should have been carried out in 21 days instead, more..

Jun 7 (ST) SL postal services during the pandemic, has come to a near standstill although post offices and sub-post offices countrywide have been reopened for limited services including elders� payments, and distribution of medicines, officials said. This has resulted in a loss of income of between Rs. 1 to 2 billion for the year ending Mar 31, 2021. Normally the Postal Department incurs an annual loss of around Rs. 6 billion while more..

Jun 7 (ST) As far back as one would recall, the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has had a net foreign outflow. While foreign investors are cashing out, non-resident Sri Lankans keep on buying, albeit in small quantities. For a Rs. 3 billion a day turnover, their contribution is a mere 2% but stockbrokers said that something is better than nothing. �Many are salaried professionals from West Asia. Those in countries like Qatar, Oman, and Dubai are sending money to SL regularly now and more..

Jun 7 (Island) Sri Lanka Tourism will be one of the key sectors highlighted at the upcoming SL Investment Forum (SLIF) 2021, the first and largest virtual investor forum in the region scheduled to be held from 7th to 9th June 2021. Opportunities for investments in the tourism sector will be one of the key areas of the forum among 50+ sessions scheduled to reach across two time zones. SL Tourism is participating in the forum to promote and position the island as the perfect destination more..

Jun 7 (AD) Ministry of Health today (6) announced the revised quarantine measures for Sri Lankans and dual citizens arriving in the country. The new quarantine measures specified in the guidelines will accordingly be effective for Sri Lankans and dual citizens who departs for SL two weeks after obtaining the recommended doses of COVID-19 vaccines (fully vaccinated) and for those who own a residence in Sri Lanka to undergo more..

Jun 7 (AP) Experts recovered the data recorder of a fire-ravaged ship carrying chemicals that is slowly sinking off SL�s capital, as salvage crews stood by to head off a possible environmental disaster, officials said Sunday. Singapore-flagged MV X-Press Pearl started sinking Wednesday, a day after authorities extinguished a fire that raged on the vessel for 12 days. Efforts to tow the ship into deeper waters away from the port in Colombo had failed after the ship�s stern became submerged/rested on seabed. more..

Jun 7 (FT) The SL Shippers� Council (SLSC) has expressed concerns over the X-Press Pearl catastrophe, the extent of which is so far said to be minimal to trade but significant overall to the country. It also called for a thorough and impartial investigation into this incident, particularly one that keeps politics and geopolitics aside, so that justice will prevail. In a statement, SLSC Chairman Suren Abeysekera said the ill-fated ship was carrying many imports to the country, including more..

Jun 7 (ST) A Govt proposal for State-owned Litro Gas Lanka Ltd to buy 40% equity in the private LAUGFS Gas Terminal Int'l Company (LGTIC) that operates a tank farm in Hambantota will go to Cabinet for approval tomorrow amidst controversy. The public-private partnership (PPP) deal reported exclusively in the Sunday Times last week, is seen by critics as the Govt bailing out LAUGFS whose terminal project has incurred more..

Jun 7 (ST) Remember the mass outpouring of support to the beleaguered men, women and children living along the coastal belt soon after the tsunami struck in December 2004! As the country is battered by a different kind of tsunami � COVID-19 � that fount of generosity came to the fore once again. Here the Sunday Times turns the spotlight on Gampaha which aptly blossomed and bore fruit on the thrice-blessed day of Vesak � Wednesday, May 26. The project to upgrade the HDU more..

Jun 7 (AD) Sri Lanka Police has announced a colour coded sticker system to mark essential service personnel, as a means to fast-track vehicle checks being carried out at checkpoints at all entry points into Colombo. As such 11 differently coloured stickers will be used from tomorrow (June 07) to designate the different sectors engaged in essential services. The stickers will be valid until the end of the travel restriction period allowing only the number of persons specified in the stickers to travel. more..

Jun 7 (DM) UNP leader and former PM Ranil Wickremesinghe called for the appointment of a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to look into the fire on the X-Press Pearl. "The ship arrived in the outer harbor of Colombo on the night of May 19. On the 20th of May our crew entered the ship. There they learned that there was a fire in the container boxes containing the chemicals stored on the ship. By May 25, the MEPA had informed more..

Jun 7 (FT) Minister Prasanna Ranatunga has appointed a five-member Working Committee to ensure smoother arrangements when revising entry and exit rules due to COVID-19. The members are Tourism and Aviation Ministry Secretary S. Hettiarachchi, Aviation State Ministry Secretary Madhawa Devasurendra, Civil Aviation Authority (CAASL) Director-General Themiya Abeywickrama, SL Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Director-General Dhammika Wijayasinghe, more..

Jun 7 (FT) Following the rise in COVID-19 cases towards the end of April, the LMD-Nielsen Business Confidence Index (BCI) plunged by 49 basis points to 89 in May, registering a five-month low. Business magazine LMD notes that this decline largely negates the gains witnessed this year and marks the highest fall since April 2020 when the Govt imposed an islandwide curfew. Nielsen Director - Consumer Insights Therica Miyanadeniya explained: �Predi-ctions of the possibility of a third wave more..

Jun 7 (FT) The country�s total COVID-19 patient count crossed the 200,000 mark over the weekend with 2,976 patients detected yesterday � all linked to the New Year cluster � and 3,103 patients detected on Saturday. Since the onset of the pandemic early last year, 205,333 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in SL. On Saturday, 2,854 persons linked to the New Year cluster, 240 persons linked to Prisons cluster, more..

Jun 7 (AD) President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in a message of greetings for the 24th anniversary of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), reiterated that Sri Lanka will remain committed to all of the organization�s initiatives. The President stated that the Sri Lankan govt, as the current BIMSTEC chair, is considering hosting the 5th summit of the organization later this year, but only if the pandemic situation improves. more..

Jun 7 (AD) The immunity is built up only after taking the second dose of inactive vaccines such as Sinopharm and Sinovac, says State Minister Prof. Channa Jayasumana. Thereby, those who have received the first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine must definitely receive the second dose as well, he said. State Minister said, �Chinese Sinopharm company has informed us that another one million doses of the vaccine will be received by Sri Lanka within the next week. more..

Jun 7 (CT) Sixteen persons died and three were reported missing, while another five were injured due to floods, landslides and earthslips, the DMC, issuing a report at 6:30 p.m. yesterday, said. Four were killed in a landslide at Aranayaka, Kegalle on Saturday. Among the balance 12 reported dead, three each were from the Gampaha and Ratnapura Districts, two from the Puttalam District, one each from the Colombo, Galle & Kalutara Districts more..

Jun 7 (ST) Cabinet approval has been sought to pull down the almost half a century old Summit flats in Keppetipola Mawatha, Colombo 7 and make use of the land to put up an apartment complex for 500 staff officers and offer 10 acres of the land for a mixed development project. The entire land is around 14 acres and two acres are to be used to put up the apartment complex and about one and half acres for common amenities including a playground. UDA Director General more..

Jun 7 (TM) NOCPCO Task Force announced over the weekend that members of the public over the age of 60 would be prioritised for Covid-19 vaccination in the future. �Following the Covid-19 Task Force meeting, we have decided to vaccinate those over 60 years of age with the remaining and incoming batches of vaccines. They will be followed by those living in elders� homes, pregnant mothers, govt officers, and factory workers in at-risk GN divisions,� said Dir General, Health Services more..

Jun 7 (Island) The Catholic Church was quite concerned about the long-term impact of the sinking of the container carrier X-Press Pearl off the Colombo port, Rev. Father Cyril Gamini Fernando said. The ecological disaster the ill-fated ship had caused couldn�t be compensated for with a one-off payment, Rev Father Fernando said, urging the govt to set the record straight. Responding to The Island queries, parish priest of Kurana more..

Jun 7 (FT) People of Sri Lanka from time immemorial have been cultivating and eating rice. According to SL�s Great Chronicle, Mahavansa, when Prince Vijaya and his retinue landed at Thammanna beach some 2,500 years ago, fully exhausted and famished, they were treated with a meal of cooked rice by Princess Kuveni using the rice procured from the wrecked ships. Though Mahavansa is silent about whether that rice was being exported from SL or being imported more..

Jun 7 (Island) A recent meeting between Prez Rajapaksa and British High Commissioner Sarah Hulton has received much publicity. They reportedly discussed the Geneva resolution against SL, among other things. Interestingly, their meeting took place close on the heels of Germany�s apology for the colonial-era genocide in Namibia, and France�s admission of its role in the 1994 ethnic cleansing campaign in Rwanda, where about 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutus perished; more..

Jun 7 (DM) Whilst confirming that the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) will begin providing the second dose of Sinopharm vaccines from Tuesday, June 8, Colombo Mayor Rosy Senanayake expressed her sadness for the non-availability of Astrazeneca vaccines for the dwellers of Colombo City. She said that the Sinopharm will be provided from Tuesday from the same locations where the first dose was given. �We will be sending an SMS to all who received the vaccine earlier. more..

Jun 7 (AD) Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has instructed authorities to bring MPs Rishad Bathiudeen and Premalal Jayasekara to attend tomorrow�s parliamentary sitting. SJB MP Bathiudeen is currently being held under detention orders. He was taken into custody over his alleged links with the perpetrators of the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks. Meanwhile SLPP MP Premalal Jayasekara is currently serving a death sentence. Party leaders have decided to more..

Jun 7 (DN) Supreme Court has ordered six police personnel at the Kandaketiya Police Station to pay compensation of Rs.300,000 to a mother of a 17-year-old deceased son who died after being assaulted by police personnel in 2014. Supreme Court further ordered the six respondents to pay Rs.60,000 to the petitioner in lieu of litigation costs. The six respondents have been found guilty of murder of the deceased, being members of more..

Jun 7 (Island) Director General of Sevanagala Sugar Industries Gamini Rasaputhra said they had helped save Rs. 250 million by stopping the use of chemical fertilisers and the saving would be utilised to build a factory for organic fertiliser. Addressing the media following a visit by Minister Janaka Wakkumbura to the Sevanagala Sugar factory to inspect the progress of the construction of the new organic fertiliser factory, Rasaputra said that the company had spent Rs. 250 million annually on more..

Jun 7 (AD) A Cessna 150 aircraft used for basic training of pilots of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) had made an emergency landing at the Irakkandi area in Nilaveli, Trincomalee. The aircraft had made the emergency landing due to a technical difficulty, SLAF Media Spokesman said. The aircraft had taken off from the Trincomalee Air Force Base at around 10.22 am and made the emergency landing at around 10.48 am. There had been 02 pilots were on board and both are reported to be safe. more..

Jun 7 (Island) The health sector would be overwhelmed if dengue also reaches epidemic proportions, warns former Health Ministry Secretary Dr Anil Jasinghe. Statistics indicated that 7,674 suspected dengue cases had been reported countrywide from January 2021 to date, Dr. Jasinghe said. Nearly 28.5% of dengue cases were reported from the Western province. Dr. Jasinghe, now the Environment Ministry Secretary, more..

Jun 7 (EN) Sri Lanka�s central bank (CBSL) has urged private companies to borrow abroad and is also offering free foreign exchange cover through a zero-cost swap, in a bid to boost forex inflows to the country. �The CBSL, with a view of encouraging foreign currency inflows to the country, invites the private sector to pursue avenues to raise offshore funding leveraging on its strengths,� the monetary authority said. �In this regard, to hedge the foreign exchange risk of offshore borrowing, more..

Jun 7 (CT) Cheap and clean electricity powered by hydroelectricity and wind together provided more than half of SL�s electricity needs for 13 consecutive days to 5 Saturday for the first time in 579 days, CEB data showed. The last time hydro and wind together provided 13 consecutive days which met over 50% of SL�s electricity needs was a year and a half ago from 12 Oct 2019 to 4 Nov 2020. Meanwhile, on 5 Saturday, wind electricity and hydroelectricity together provided 72.89% of more..

Jun 7 (EN) X-Press Pearl, a container vessel that caught fire while carrying hundreds of tonnes of caustic soda and a leaking acid container continued to sink into shallows off Colombo Port, but no oil spill has been reported yet. X-Press Feeders, the owners said a team of salvors boarded the ships still floating forward section on June 06 for an assessment. The ships aft portion remains on the seabed at a depth of more..

Jun 7 (FT) Top maritime and logistics experts last week called for a reality check on the country�s ability to benefit from the global trade shift post-COVID and to become a logistic powerhouse in the Indian Ocean. They reiterated that Sri Lanka needs to intensify its capacity expansion, ease of business, policy consistency, export basket diversity and technology integration; to attract a sizeable chunk of the global trade shift to be able to maintain Colombo�s status as a maritime hub. more..

Jun 7 (SLN) To provide relief to the people affected by floods in the Western, Southern and Sabaragamuwa Provinces due to heavy rains, Sri Lanka Navy has deployed 32 relief teams in flood relief operations in the districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Galle and Rathnapura. Meanwhile, the Navy teams continue to attend urgent relief operations focusing the flood affected communities today (7) as well. With the rising water level in Gin Ganga following showery more..

Jun 7 (FT) Ceylon Motor Traders Association (CMTA) raised fresh concerns over the move to promote used vehicle assembly in the country. In a statement, the CMTA said it had been understanding of the Govt�s decision to restrict vehicle imports in order to safeguard foreign exchange reserves and keep the currency stable in the wake of COVID-19 from early 2020. However, the CMTA was disappointed to learn that a Cabinet proposal to allow assembly of vehicles with used parts more..