Mar 25 (TM) State Intelligence Services (SIS) Director Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay has sent a Letter of Demand (LoD) to SJB MP Nalin Bandara today for allegedly making defamatory remarks against Sallay over alleged links to the mastermind of Easter Sunday attacks. The SIS Chief earlier lodged a complaint with the CID against the MP over the statements he has made to media, falsely accusing Sallay of being linked to the Easter Sunday bombings. more..

Mar 25 (SLN) Sri Lanka Navy in the dark hours on 24th March 2021 apprehended 05 Indian fishing vessels along with 54 Indian nationals while poaching close to Sri Lanka. Having considered the impact of foreign fishermen poaching in Sri Lankan waters on the local fishing community and the sustainability of fishery resources of SL, the Navy is conducting regular patrols to curb illegal fishing activities in SL waters. During similar patrols, naval units attached to Northern Naval Command more..

Mar 25 (DN) German Govt has extended financial assistance worth 8 million Euros for the implementation of a 7-year project titled Supporting Wilpattu National Park and influencing Zone Management in Sri Lanka. Project commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is being successfully implemented with the cooperation of the Wildlife Conservation Ministry and the Wildlife Conservation Dept. more..

Mar 25 (AD) Administration of the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines in SL will not be affected by India�s decision to temporarily halt the exports of Oxford-AstraZeneca�s COVISHIELD jabs manufactured by the Serum Institute, State Minister Prof. Channa Jayasumana assures. He explained that Sri Lanka is expecting another consignment of 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines which have already been ordered from India. more..

Mar 25 (DM) The people should keep in mind to follow the basic health guidelines strictly when preparing to celebrate the upcoming Sinhala/Tamil New year festival, GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr. Naveen de Zoysa said. He said after the New year celebrations, the COVID pandemic situation could become critical, if the public does not follow the health guidelines. "The country still witnesses a considerable spike in COVID positive cases, as we are part of global COVID pandemic situation. more..

Mar 25 (DM) Responding to the apprehension of 54 Indian fishermen in SL waters today, the Indian High Commission has reiterated that issues associated with Indian fishermen should be dealt in a humanitarian manner. A Spokesman for the HC said it had been informed about the apprehension of the 54 fishermen and five boats from India by SL Navy on Wednesday night. �We reiterate that issues associated with Indian fishermen are to be dealt in a humanitarian manner. more..

Mar 25 (Island) The Kelanitissa Dual Cycle Power Plant, which was out of operations for more than a year due to technical faults, would be re-connected to the national grid on April 4, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Chairman Vijitha Herath said yesterday. Herath said the Dual Power Plant was currently undergoing restoration and was in the testing phase. The power plant, which is fully owned by the CEB, commenced generating more..

Mar 25 (IFEX) SL's Media Organisations Collective said the recent statement by Prez Rajapaksa about the media gave a dangerous signal of an ominous threat to the freedom of media and expression in the country. The statement made by Prez regarding the media, while participating in a Discussion with the village programme held on March 20 in the Yombuweltenna village in Nuwara Eliya District, gives a dangerous signal of an ominous threat to freedom of media and expression. more..

Mar 25 (Island) The outcome of Tuesday�s vote on the UNHRC resolution against SL, in Geneva, is being interpreted in different ways. The SL govt has claimed it to be a victory in that the US and its allies could muster only 22 votes in the 47-member UNHRC. True, the US, which is not a member of the UNHRC, and the UK should have been able to obtain at least 24 votes, given the frantic efforts they made to rally support for their resolution, but the fact remains that what is needed for resolutions more..

Mar 25 (DM) While claiming that all the Madrasas will not be banned, Minister Sarath Weerasekara today reiterated that Madrasas that taught only religion and Arabic for children between the ages of five and 16 should be banned as they were against the National Education Policy. He told Parliament that the Muslim society and organisations had already granted their approval to ban the Madrasas. more..

Mar 25 (CT) The case filed against cricketer Kusal Mendis in connection with the death of a person in an accident on the old road in Moratuwa, Panadura was taken up in the Panadura Magistrate's Court this morning (24). Panadura Additional Magistrate Chandana Kalansuriya ordered that a temporary driver's license be issued on a cash bail of Rs. 50,000 to replace Kusal Mendis' driver's license which was in the custody of the court. The accident took place on the morning of June 6, 2020, more..

Mar 25 (DM) Under the programme titled power plant to the village, the govt has planned to complete installing 7,000 solar power plants within three years and contribute 700 MW to the national grid, Power Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said. Addressing the media to announce the plans to launch the first phase of the 7,000 Solar Power Plant project to be constructed islandwide in association with 7,000 selected transformers. Accordingly, 880 power plants will be constructed as more..

Mar 25 (EN) JVP has questioned the 10-year lease of a govt shopping arcade to a private firm for management, asking to reveal whether open tenders were called. JVP legislator Anura Kumara Dissanayake told parliament that the Independence Square Arcade was built at the cost of 700 million rupees in tax payer money as part of beautifying Colombo city. However it was now making losses and it was being given on more..

Mar 25 (FT) Cabinet has approved Rs. 28.2 billion worth of investments for the Anuradhapura pharmaceutical zone. Cabinet Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said that a committee of experts have selected 24 companies who are expected to invest about Rs. 28.2 billion on the project. �Land plots will be leased to selected local investors for a period of 35 years with a release period for the first five years. This is part of the Govt�s efforts to promote local production and safeguard reserves. more..

Mar 25 (DM) Five dogs at a house in Kaldemulla in Moratuwa, that had been starving for more than a week had killed and eaten one of them. The police raided the house on information from the Society to Protect the Rights of Animals and the Environment, to find three dogs, two pregnant bitches of the breed of American pit bull and the partly eaten carcass of another. Police said the owner had been away from home for more than a week regardless of the suffering of the poor animals and more..

Mar 25 (ANI) MDMK General Secretary Vaiko has said that Indian govt has betrayed SL Tamils following their abstention from the UNHRC vote on the resolution on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in SL. "This is a complete betrayal done by the Indian govt on the SL Tamils. Only because of elections in Tamil Nadu, Indian govt walked out of the voting otherwise they would have voted in favour of SL. more..

Mar 25 (ANI) Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that the central govt has betrayed Tamils following India's abstention from the UNHRC vote on the resolution on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in SL. In a series of tweets, Chidambaram said that the AIADMK-BJP alliance will be punished in the upcoming Tamil Nadu polls. "India abstained from voting on the resolution on SL in the UNHRC. This is a gross betrayal of the Tamil people and more..

Mar 25 (CT) The CID arrested a 29-year-old resident of Vavuniya for fraud amounting to Rs 17.2 million, said DIG Ajith Rohana. He added the suspect is connected to a large-scale racket in Sri Lanka worth Rs 1.4 billion. According to DIG Rohana, the suspect was arrested on 23 March under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Investigations by the CID found that Rs 17.2 million has been deposited into an account maintained by the suspect in a private bank in Sri Lanka. more..

Mar 25 (EN) Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) is calling for urgent action to reform the Arts stream in the country�s universities as more than half of the graduates are unemployed. COPA members pointed out that the unemployment rate of Art�s graduates should be looked at and appropriate remedial action should be taken. COPA was discussing an audit report on the Propensity to tend Education more..

Mar 25 (DM) Chief Opposition whip Lakshman Kiriella said the resolution adopted by the UNHRC mainly focused on the anti-democratic governance of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He told Parliament that only two-and-a-half pages were focused on the war out of 17.5 pages of the resolution. �Many areas in the resolution focused on anti-democratic actions, a threat to media freedom and issues concerning the minority communities,� he said. Leader of the House and more..

Mar 25 (DM) The Arcade Independence Square was leased out to Softlogic Holdings for a period of 10 years after following due tender procedures, State Minister Nalaka Godahewa told Parliament today. He said the Board of Directors of the UDA decided to lease out this building as it was running at a loss. He said it was leased out after following the stringent tender procedure where notices calling for bidders were published in the Newspapers by a procurement committee appointed by the Cabinet. more..

Mar 25 (Island) The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) on Tuesday said that by making a public statement before the vote on an accountability resolution on Sri Lanka at the UNHRC and then skipping the vote, India had clearly shown its displeasure at the lack of progress on addressing the alleged violations of human rights and international laws and the non-implementation of Sri Lanka�s numerous public commitments of the past in addressing more..

Mar 25 (EN) The result of the passing of a resolution concerning Sri Lanka in Geneva at the UNHRC has left many of our citizens asking questions as to how it will impact the country and its future. Here are some of the questions we have been asked and the answers we gathered. Question: Will there be sanctions against Sri Lanka as a result of the passing of the Resolution? Answer: No. As Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo Bhavani Fonseka points out more..

Mar 25 (TM) A special circular has been issued by the Education Ministry regarding the commencement of the schools in the Western Province on March 29. Ministry Secretary Prof. Kapila Perera has issued the circular addressing the Zonal Directors of Education, Divisional Directors of Education, Parivenadhipathi Theras and Principals. Accordingly, all schools in the Western Province will be reopened on March 29, for the grades that have not been started so far. more..

Mar 25 (EN) SL is controlling the price of the rupee with great difficulty and the it could fall to as much 300 to 350 to the US dollar, given past trends, Trade Minister Bandula Gunewardene told parliament without giving a time frame for the target. �Now it is with the greatest difficulty (ithar visharler amaruwen) that the exchange rate is controlled at 200 levels (to the US dollar),� Minister told parliament this week. more..

Mar 25 (AD) Former Minister Ravi Karunanayake and 07 others, who were recently taken into custody over the Central Bank bond scam, have been remanded until tomorrow (March 26). The suspects were served indictments after being produced before the Trial-at-Bar hearing the legal matters on Central Bank Treasury Bond auctions held between March 29 and March 31, 2016. They are accused of criminal misappropriation of bonds valued at Rs. 1.5 billion during CB�s 2016 bond auction. more..

Mar 25 (EN) India�s decision to temporarily hold all exports of the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine will not immediately affect Sri Lanka as the island has enough doses till the end of May, State Minister Prof Channa Jayasumana said. A further 500,000 doses owed to SL are expected to arrive in the near future, he added. He said starting April 11, SL�s Covishield stocks will be administered as the second dose for frontline workers that received their first jab in late January and early February. more..

Mar 25 (DM) An artificial beach created along Kalutara's Calido Beach, the Ratmalana-Angulana stretch and in Mount Lavinia, which raised strong protests from activists, has been successful, Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management Dept Chief Engineer Sujeewa Ranawaka said. He said that the project was implemented to build an artificial beach, stretching 2km along Kalutara's Calido Beach more..

Mar 26 (DM) The adoption of the resolution L.1/Rev.1 by the UNHRC on Tuesday has paved the way for enhanced UN monitoring on SL. UNHRC has adopted resolutions critical of SL since 2012, but the latest one is the strongest even with provisions seeking to enhance the capacity for the OHCHR to increase monitoring and reporting on the situation of SL. It calls for the establishment of a mechanism for gathering, preserving and analysing evidence related to human rights & accountability more..

Mar 26 (DM) In the name of security people and governments have taken actions where there have been intended and unintended outcomes. Security is quite an elusive concept, and due to this seeming lack of conceptual boundary, it is used to entice and whip up patronage for many political agendas both at the state and international levels of politicking. Vague justifications on how the burqa and niqab constitute a threat to national security such as the statements quoted above, cannot be more..

Mar 26 (CT) State funeral of the Mahanayaka of Sri Lanka Amarapura Maha Nikaya, Most Venerable Aggamahapanditha Kotugoda Dhammawasa Thera was held yesterday at the Independence Square Colombo. The ceremony held under the patronage of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was attended by the Maha Sangha, Christian, Hindu and Islamic clergy, State officials, foreign delegates, more..

Mar 26 (CT) In one of America�s best court room dramas and films made ever in 1957, Henry Fonda delivers a scintillating performance as the eighth juror in Sidney Lumet�s 12 Angry Men. The film demonstrates two social psychological concepts, minority influence and group polarisation, which are among many other techniques the film employs in social consensus building. It also demonstrates the power a person has when justifiable, to educe change. Astoundingly, 90% of the film uses more..

Mar 26 (GV) On March 24, 1980, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador was saying mass in his church when he was brutally gunned down in front of a horrified congregation. The Archbishop of San Salvador had been a staunch supporter of his country�s poor and oppressed, speaking out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture amid an escalating war between leftwing and right wing forces in his country. He is believed to have been murdered by a right wing assassination more..

Mar 26 (TM) Sri Lankans take religious freedom extremely seriously, and any act they deem to be an insult to their religion or religious beliefs has the potential to lead to major issues. SL has, in fact, witnessed a number of such incidents. Even though it is true that religion is a sensitive matter affecting people in many ways, people have a natural tendency to question what does not resonate with their own beliefs, and in this context, more..

Mar 26 (ST) This week, many Sri Lankans remembered the 25th anniversary of winning the Wills Cricket World Cup by the SL cricket team on March 17, 1996. The winning match was played against Australia at the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore, Pakistan. It was attended by over 60,000 cricket fans, mostly from Pakistan, who cheered for a SL victory. The journey to the finals was full of exciting events & circumstances. Teams had their first match of the tournament scheduled in Colombo, more..

Mar 26 (CT) Independent of what the UNHRC vote is all about, there are clear messages for all sections in the country. To cut the long story short, the UK-sponsored resolution aimed also at giving time for Govt to revisit its prevalent position and come up with a compromise position by next year, giving the West a face-saving exit. It is much different from a compromised Sri Lanka position, which is what most of past resolutions, including the so-called co-authored versions, were all about. more..

Mar 26 (DM) The resolution on SL passed at the 46th regular session of the UNHRC was different from the previous resolution except for the one adopted by the council on the country in 2014. The resolutions adopted in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 had always stressed that SL govt investigate allegations of human rights in the country. However, the 2014 resolution called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct an investigation into allegations of human rights more..

Mar 26 (Island) A ceremony to mark the completion of the Katana Water Supply Project, funded by China Development Bank and implemented by China National Aero-Technology International Engineering Corporation (AVIC-ENG), was held at Negombo, on Tuesday. The ceremonial plaque was unveiled by Minister of Water Supply Vasudeva Nanayakkara, State Minister Sudarshani Fernandopulle and State Minister Sanath Nishantha. Executive Deputy General Manager of more..