Sep 29 (MFA) Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with SLT Mobitel will launch an e-channeling appointment system. This will facilitate the public to receive effective services at the Authentication Section of the Consular Affairs Division. The e-channeling appointment system will enable the public to obtain online appointments for authentication of documents at the Consular Affairs Division and its Regional Consular Offices in Jaffna, Trincomalee, Kandy, Kurunegala and Matara. more..

Sep 29 (AD) The Court of Appeal has issued summons on State Minister Sanath Nishantha to make an appearance before the court on October 13. The MP has been ordered to show cause over the contempt of court charges levelled against him. The order was issued by the Appeals Court bench consisting of Judges Nishshanka Karunaratne and R. Gurusinghe. The Appeals Court bench served the summons today, announcing the verdict in concern to the initial consideration of the petitions more..

Sep 29 (EN) Nearly one in three adult Sri Lankans have high blood pressure and require antihypertensive treatment, a study has found. The study, conducted by the SL Health and Ageing Study (SLHAS) consortium, has found that the estimated prevalence of hypertension (HTN) in all SL adults was 28.2% using the traditional definition of HTN. This nearly doubled to 51.3% when applying a revised 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association more..

Sep 29 (AD) Litro Gas Lanka Ltd. says the company has repaid the General Treasury a tranche of the credit facility of USD 70 million received from the World Bank to maintain an uninterrupted LP gas supply. Chairman of the company, Muditha Peiris, stated that the entire credit facility is expected to be settled to the General Treasury by December this year. �We received the credit facility from the World Bank in July. Having achieved the first tranche, we are now in the second phase. more..

Sep 29 (DM) The police have launched extensive investigations over the involvement of some politicians who had encouraged some protester groups to overthrow the govt by forcefully occupying Parliament and preventing a vote to elect a new Prez following the resignation of former Prez Rajapaksa in July. Highly placed sources said that these politicians had even brokered talks with the parties involved more..

Sep 29 (DM) A lawyer in a petition before Supreme Court today alleged that the bill titled Bureau of Rehabilitation has been brought with an ulterior motive of further harassing Aragalaya protestors as this Bureau is vested with powers to send persons to rehabilitation without a judicial order. Attorney-at-law Amila Egodamahawatta who actively involved in the public protest called Aragalaya has filed a Special Determination petition challenging the constitutionality of this bill more..

Sep 29 (CT) Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda said he has directed Cey-Nor entity officials to take the necessary steps to produce caustic soda at the Cey-Nor�s Karainagar plant, in addition to boat manufacturing. Devananda added that he would take steps to improve the production capacity of the Cey-Nor entity under his jurisdiction. On 26 Sept, Devananda met Cey-Nor Chairman, Raj Chandralal, General Manager Nadee Punchihewa, and other officials at the Fisheries Ministry more..

Sep 29 (AD) SL�s govt appears increasingly upbeat about its chances of receiving IMF board approval for a USD 2.9 billion bailout by December, but the multilateral lender has cautioned that the time frame remains uncertain, and much depends on discussions with the heavily indebted country�s creditors. Peter Breuer, senior mission chief for SL, and Masahiro Nozaki, mission chief for SL, in written comments to more..

Sep 29 (Island) National Peace Council (NPC) has strongly criticized declaration of High Security Zones (HSZs) in Colombo at a time the country is under fire at the Geneva -based UNHRC. The following is the text of the statement issued by Dr. Jehan Perera on behalf of the NPC: �The declaration of High Security Zones in Colombo and the requirement that police should be given prior notice of public protests are indicators that the govt is giving priority to quelling public protests. more..

Sep 29 (Island) Wild Life Dept has challenged Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Minister Mahinda Amaraweera�s claim that a staggering Rs 1,921 mn had been spent so far this year on thunder flashes used to chase away wild elephants. Dept said that particular allocation was Rs 14-15 mn. The previous year�s expenditure had been estimated at Rs 149 mm. Wildlife Dept officials said that the amount claimed by the Minister was puzzling and it had to be found out who had received the money. more..

Sep 29 (EN) JICA said it will provide 300 million rupees of supplies to several hospitals to tackle Coronavirus and infectious diseases as the country suffers forex shortages. Tetsuya Yamada, Chief Representative of JICA SL office aid emergency aid will enable lifesaving medicines to be acquired quickly. �SL is still facing serious shortages of medicine due to the ongoing crisis,� Japanese aid agency said. �Some hospitals need to suspend their surgeries because of lack of medicines and more..

Sep 29 (AD) Prices of vehicles are dropping rapidly in the country due to the sharp downfall in demand for vehicles, the Vehicle Importers� Association of SL (VIASL) says. President of the association, Indika Merenchige expressed that a situation has emerged where it is impossible to sell expensive vehicles. �Demand and supply affect all trades within the country. The demand has rapidly decreased as people are not able to afford the prices. As a result, vehicle prices have dropped rapidly�, more..

Sep 29 (DM) With media reports filled with accounts of human-wildlife conflicts, rampant deforestation and increased poaching, the wilderness of SL is undoubtedly under great threat. Poaching and wildlife trafficking are one of the biggest illegal businesses worldwide, with a total worth between 7 and 23 billion USD per year according to a widely-cited 2014 UNEP report. SL too is a lucrative target for poachers because more..

Sep 29 (AD) All except three police officers attached to Kandy Police Headquarters have reportedly been transferred to other police stations and units with immediate effect. Accordingly, the Kandy Divisional Senior Superintendent of Police has decided to transfer all the police officers except for the Officer In-charge of the Miscellaneous Complaints Division and two sergeants involved in judicial-related affairs. The decision was taken in accord with the complaints that the expected public service more..

Sep 29 (EN) SL�s China backed Port City�s regulator has issued rules for businesses to get operating licenses paying an annual fee of 2000 US dollars, in gazette notice under the signature of Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe. �An application for a licence to qualify as an Authorised Person and to be permitted to carry on business in and from the Area of Authority of the Colombo Port City may be made by the person proposing to engage in business in and from Area of Authority of Colombo Port City,� more..

Sep 29 (EN) Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe, speaking at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) governor�s session, blamed growing geopolitical rivalry for the global leadership for the looming global economic crisis �Asia has still to overcome the present global economic crisis. Unlike the financial crisis of 2008, in this instance, the economic levers alone are insufficient to stimulate global economic recovery,� more..

Sep 29 (AD) It has been decided to appoint two sub-committees related to national policies and economic stabilization in the inaugural meeting of the National Council, held with the participation of the ruling party and the opposition MPs. The purpose of setting up the Sub-Committee on National Policy is to set the common priorities of Parliament to guide the formulation of medium and long-term national policies. Also, the purpose of establishing the Sub-Committee on more..

Sep 29 (MFA) Secretary, Foreign Affairs Aruni Wijewardane met the Permanent Representative of the UN to the United Nations Agencies in Rome Ambassador Cindy McCain at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo on Monday (26). Ambassador McCain is the U.S. Representative to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the Int'l Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). U.S. is the largest financial contributor to the budgets of more..

Sep 30 (DM) It was reported the other day that SL is set to change the legal definition of youth so that in future individuals who are young and coming under the age of 18 and below would be referred to as children. A Parliament Select Committee headed by Sudarshini Fernandopulle has recommended this change. Hence the Child and Young Persons� Ordinance would be in future changed to Children�s Ordinance and any reference to children and young person will be referred to as Children. more..

Sep 30 (DM) Reporting on the meeting between the SL Foreign Minister Ali Sabry and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, last Friday on the sidelines of the 71st UN General Assembly session in New York, the Chinese embassy in Colombo said that the two sides had �agreed to speed up the negotiation process and strive for an early conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), thereby boosting the confidence in and stabilizing the expectations for their economic and trade cooperation.� more..

Sep 30 (TM) One reality that became a topic of discussion with the economic crisis is that SL has been delaying many important steps that could have improved the country�s economic and social situation and that this crisis may perhaps be a second chance to look into those. One such step that came to attention recently, but has been mentioned several times during the past few years, is how beneficial a nightlife culture, or more..

Sep 30 (CT) When Prez Rajapaksa (GR) won the presidency a Sinhalese journalist and author of Gota�s War captured the spirit of the celebrations in Nov 2019. What we saw, he rejoiced, was the reaction of a down trodden, persecuted, humiliated majority community to all the suffering and indignities they had undergone for the past five [Yahapalanaya] years, 2015 to 2019; and, he explained, this is what happens when the majority community of a nation is used as a doormat more..

Sep 30 (GV) The govt�s designation of public streets and govt buildings in central Colombo as High Security Zones (HSZs) by invoking the Official Secrets Act has led to widespread condemnation at home and abroad with several fundamental rights petitions already filed or being filed against the order. The areas are the Parliament (Schedule A), Supreme Court, High Court, Magistrate Court, AG�s Department (Schedule B), Prez Secretariat, Prez�s House, Police, Navy, and Army hq more..

Sep 30 (TM) Right to Information (RTI) Act has gained a name as one of the most significant laws SL enacted, and during the past few years, it has gained popularity among citizens of diverse backgrounds. While there is room for improvement of the RTI Commission, officers, and the Act itself, so far, it has resulted in a large number of decisions pertaining to information that are of public interest and have led to more..

Sep 30 (Island) We are not short of conspiracy theorists who see more devils than vast hell can hold. They would have us believe that the whole world is conspiring against us as if it had nothing else to do. The question is whether we need any enemies when we have so many political dregs at all levels of govt doing their damnedest to destroy this country. They have apparently succeeded in their endeavour to a considerable extent; they have emptied the state coffers and bankrupted more..

Sep 30 (TM) Over the past few years, SL�s education system has faced a plethora of issues, resulting in a chaotic situation with regard to exams and academic activities. While the situation has improved somewhat, although not to the extent that the education authorities claim, it is yet to return to normalcy. However, as seen in the case of holding the GCE A/L Exam in December of this year, restoring education is not a mere matter of expediting or resuming a delayed process. more..

Sep 30 (CT) The cost of mitigating Human-Elephant Conflicts (HEC) in Sri Lanka could easily surpass the economic benefit that could be reaped by the increasing development activities carried out by clearing forests. These development activities have most inevitably been conducted without foreseeing long-term implications in terms of the environmental damage, compensation payable to those affected by HEC, and the mitigatory measures that have to be adopted for the HEC. more..

Sep 30 (Island) Does that apply to our President minus the common man�s vote? When he accepted the invitation to be Prez by poised-to-flee Prez Rajapaksa, we sighed and intoned he was the best person during this terribly severe crisis period. Of course, it delighted the R family then slunk away in hiding. We, the likes of Cassandra, hoped Ranil Wickremesinghe would take the reins over, form an all-party govt, bring order back to a chaotic country and use his dpl finesse & ability to stand tall, more..

Sep 30 (Island) The Veddah Chief, Uru Warige Wannila Aththo, has also called for a general election. With all the nonsense taking place in the Parliament these days, a general election is all the people must want in the hope of getting a good govt to face up to the many issues caused by the economic crisis the country has been forced into. But can a snap general election really help solve the problems of bad and corrupt governance more..

Sep 30 (CI) Melbourne Renegades have made a shock signing by adding uncapped Melbourne-based SL legspinner Ruwantha Kellapotha to their BBL squad as an overseas replacement player for the upcoming season. Kellapotha, 31, played 20 first-class matches and 12 List A matches in SL between 2010 and 2013 before moving to Australia to live. He played eight seasons in the lower-tier Dandenong District Cricket Association in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs more..

Sep 30 (ST) Junior Development Committee (JDC) appointed by the National Olympic Committee (NOC) is launching its operations under the programme Youth Awakening 2026 to identify and support young sportsmen and women of the highest calibre with a focus to produce star class athletes and increased success for the SL national team in the international arena. The Youth Awakening 2026, being the first of its kind looks to provide young athletes with consistent, continuous more..

Sep 30 (Island) President of the Yuthukama organisation MP Gevindu Cumaratunga yesterday said that despite all gloom and doom predictions and statistics of a crisis prevailing in the country there was still a way out of the present plight if the country attempts to find solutions through cultural norms and ancient wisdom. Cumaratunga said that there was evidence to prove that Lankans could still survive this crisis. The recent data pointed out that immunity of Lankans had gone up in post pandemic more..

Sep 30 (DN) Sri Lanka retained the South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Women�s Championship when they defeated giant killers and the host nation the Maldives 72-59 in the deciding encounter played at the Social Centre in Male City, Male on Wednesday. The 2016 inaugural champions were faced with a must-win situation to retain the crown and they delivered an outstanding performance to finish on top of the points table in this four-nation tournament. more..

Sep 30 (TM) SJB MP Mano Ganesan, participating in the inaugural National Council meeting held yesterday, proposed and urged that the chairs of two watchdog Parliamentary Committees, namely the COPA and COPE, should be appointed from among the Opposition. He noted that PM Dinesh Gunawardena almost looked convinced by this suggestion. Ganesan noted that extending the chairs of both these committees related to more..

Sep 30 (CT) Sri Lanka�s triumph in the recently held Asia Cup, where they lost to Afghanistan in the opener before stunning India and Pakistan to go on and win the tournament for the sixth time, wasn�t expected by many experts, but it didn�t surprise the cricket-mad country�s opening great Sanath Jayasuriya. �I wasn�t really surprised. We have quite a good bunch of cricketers. It�s the right time they peaked, you know. They lost the first game: anybody can lose a game and come back. more..