Apr 8 (DM) SL India Society (SLIS) commemorated 75th independence day of SL along with the 74th republic day of India, at an elegant sit down dinner in the presence of a large gathering of members and guests. SLIS President Kishore Reddy was honoured with the presence of Minister Kanchana Wijesekera as the chief guest and High Commissioner of India to SL Gopal Baglay, who also is the patron of the society, to celebrate an evening of togetherness and strengthen the bond more..

Apr 8 (Island) As the SL economy continues to grapple with the effects of the recent economic crisis and the slow pace of recovery, the country�s real estate market is also struggling to cope, particularly since the upcoming housing crunch in Colombo is now starting to raise concerns for both developers and prospective homeowners alike. Colombo�s current inventory of apartments is expected to sell out soon, and contrary to popular belief, only a handful of new projects are currently more..

Apr 8 (CT) The national Aluth Sahal Mangalya, was held at the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura last Sunday (2), under the patronage of Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe. The festival is a longstanding tradition where the first harvested paddy of the Maha Season is offered to the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi. The event was organised for the 56th time by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Services, under the guidance of more..

Apr 8 (EN) Sri Lanka has gazetted a ban on the importation of single-use items including drinking straws, stirrers, plates, cups and plastic garlands, among others. According to the gazette issued Friday April 07, the importation of the following items will be banned effective June 01. Single-use drinking straws, Single-use stirrers, single-use plates, single-use cups excluding yoghurt cups, single-use spoons, single-use forks, single-use knives and stringhopper trays Plastic garlands more..

Apr 8 (AD) A preschool teacher was murdered early this morning (7) in the Kobbekaduwa area in Peradeniya. The deceased has been identified as 25-year-old Anjali Chapa, a resident of Muruthalawa. Chapa was pronounced dead upon admission to the Ilukthanna Hospital after she was attacked with a sharp weapon on a road in the Ginihena area in Kobbekaduwa, Peradeniya. She was attacked while on her way to school this morning, No suspects have been arrested thus far. more..

Apr 8 (EN) SL govt has included trousers and skirts as legally accepted dress codes in courts for female judges and Attorneys-at-Laws through a new gazette published last week while removing the initially permitted frocks from the list. Accordingly, lawyers and judges are now permitted to wear a saree and jacket in white, black, off-white, grey or mauve, black trouser or skirt with white blouse, black coat and shoes. more..

Apr 8 (AD) During the upcoming Sinhala & Tamil New Year celebrations, an environment would be created for the pavement hawkers to engage in their business in a way that would not obstruct the public, Chief of Staff of the President, Sagala Ratnayake says. Ratnayake made this observation during a meeting with the representatives of the Kolomthota Eksath Welenda Sangamaya and other pavement hawkers� associations at the President�s Office last evening (April 06). more..

Apr 8 (DM) Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera has decided not to grant approval for long-term overseas travelling abroad for officials attached to the agriculture sector. He said this covers the Central Government's Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Department of Agrarian Development and Provincial Council agriculture sector officials. A lengthy discussion on this matter was held yesterday at the Provincial Agricultural Conference at the Ministry. more..

Apr 8 (AD) Priyani Soysa, professor emerita of paediatrics at the Uni of Colombo, has passed away. Prof. Soysa was aged 97 at the time of her demise. From 1966-1991, she served as the Professor of Paediatrics at the Uni of Ceylon (Uni of Colombo), becoming the first woman in SL to be appointed to a professorial chair. Hailing from Moratuwa, Prof. Soysa was educated at the Princess of Wales College, following which she completed her MBBS at the Faculty of Medicine at Uni of Colombo. more..

Apr 8 (CT) Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Aviation is awaiting a report from the int'l financial advisory firm Lazard in the US to determine the best way to restructure SriLankan Airlines, whether to sell stakes in both the ground handling arm and catering wing separately or include SriLankan Airlines as well. �We are waiting for their report to decide how to proceed,� Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said. According to him, it will take at least another three months to finalise and more..

Apr 8 (BBC) SL's national carrier has been struggling against even more headwinds than many of its rivals. Airlines around the world have been buffeted by the impact of countries closing their borders during the pandemic and soaring fuel prices due to the Ukraine war. SriLankan Airlines is also facing the worst economic crisis for decades in its home country. Its British-born boss told the BBC how he plans to turn the firm around. more..

Apr 8 (Island) Environmentalists on Thursday urged the government not to abandon the wind power project to be carried out by India�s Adani Group in Mannar.They have also called upon the govt to halt the proposed ilmenite extraction operation. Protect Mannar�s Environment (PME), an environmental organisation based in Pesalai, said that while they were supportive of renewable energy, the proposed wind farm would have a devastating impact on the fishermen and farmers. more..

Apr 8 (CT) Teachers� trade unions have conveyed a positive response towards the Education Ministry�s effort to provide alternative solutions to their agitations when it comes to marking answer scripts of GCE A/L Exam, Minister Susil Premajayantha said. A/L paper marking was postponed indefinitely owing to the lack of interest by teachers to apply for the task citing low allowances. As a result, there could be a delay in holding other critical school examinations scheduled for this year as well. more..

Apr 8 (Island) Govt makes 13 rupees from each egg imported from India, All-Island Poultry Farmers� Association (AIPA) chairman Ajith Gunasekara said. The real benefits of importing these eggs have not been felt by the people, he said. Gunasekara said that most shops still do not have eggs despite imports. STC said that imported Indian eggs will be sold to bakeries and confectioneries at 35 rupees each. AlPA chairman said that the govt could have sold an imported Indian egg at 25 rupees. more..

Apr 8 (Island) COVID vaccine phobia was still prevalent among the people and this might cause serious issues in a future pandemic unless it is addressed, Dr. Ruwan Wijayamuni of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) said during a seminar in Colombo this week. The seminar was organised by the Institute of Health Policy (IHP) to publicize the findings from the Gates Ventures Johns Hopkins University, and IHP study on the SL�s health system�s response to COVID-19 pandemic. more..

Apr 8 (EN) Supreme Court has temporarily suspended importation of Indian pharmaceuticals under its credit line until a further court order amid concerns over quality and safety as well as question over the legality of the procurement. SC granted leave-to-proceed in Fundamental Rights petition filed by TISL, which stated serious doubts regarding the quality, safety, and efficacy of the pharmaceuticals purchased under Indian more..

Apr 8 (DM) The sun is expected to be directly over SL from April 5 to April 15, as a result of its apparent northward relative motion. Accordingly, the nearest areas where the sun is overhead today are Koralawella, Ingiriya, Kiriella, Embuldeniya, Haldummulla, Rathmalwehera and Waradeniyawa at around 12:13 noon. Meanwhile, thundershowers are expected to occur at several places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Uva, Central, North-Western, and North-Central Provinces and more..

Apr 8 (WN) China has proposed setting up of a radar base in SL, aiming to counter India's naval presence and strategic oversight in the Indian Ocean region, a report has claimed. The proposed radar base will focus on monitoring the activities of the Indian Navy while also evaluating New Delhi's strategic assets in the region, Economic Times reported. The paper reported that Aerospace Information Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the likely agency which is steering this project more..

Apr 8 (CT) On the Cabinet decisions to file a case in a Singapore Court against the X-Press Pearl vessel owners, an expert in Law of the Sea and Maritime Law Dr. Dan Malika Gunasekera said, going to Singapore has its disadvantages for SL as there are many International Conventions that apply in Singapore, as opposed to SL. Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) warned last week that if legal action is not taken in connection with more..

Apr 9 (SO) The Sinhala and Hindu New Year, the main national festival for the majority of Sri Lankans, is around the corner. Sri Lankans could not celebrate this important national event for three years in a row, due to the Covid pandemic (2020, 2021) and the debilitating economic crisis (2022). In fact, by this time last year the entire country was facing an upheaval, with lengthy queues for most essentials and growing discontent against the Govt among the populace. more..

Apr 9 (TM) It was on this day, 9 April exactly one year ago, that ordinary people who had had enough with lengthening power cuts, fuel queues, food shortages, and the rising cost of living decided to combine their protests at street corners at Galle Face, ultimately heralding a peaceful people�s revolution. Well, at least that was what most of us were made to believe up until now. One year on, things suddenly no longer appear to be what they seemed all this time, with various political more..

Apr 9 (TM) While the country prepares to celebrate yet another Sinhala and Tamil New Year with many being in holiday mode with the second consecutive long weekend for the month, Wickremesinghe Govt has entered the most crucial phase of the debt restructuring programme as well as the deal reached with the IMF. Discussions to finalise the debt restructuring plan with bilateral creditors are continuing. more..

Apr 9 (CT) Ever since SL gained independence in 1948, the country has been governed by a well-entrenched political class known as political elites. They have close connections to big business, families associated with the British colonial rulers and accumulated immense wealth, those who prospered through the plantation economy, and borrowing from international donors. The political class shared power among themselves through the two-party system which later became more..

Apr 9 (ST) This week marks the first anniversary of what was a momentous, if slightly controversial, chapter of contemporary SL history: the Aragalaya or the Struggle. Aragalaya was a spontaneous mass uprising � like the French and Russian revolutions of yore and the Arab Spring of recent times which succeeded in having the powerful sitting President ingloriously flee the country. But it stopped short of what some of its later masterminds hoped for � the complete overthrow of parliamentary more..

Apr 9 (Island) Indigenous Medicine State Minister Sisira Jayakody said new laws would be introduced to regularise ayurvedic spas. Ayurvedic spas have mushroomed throughout the country and a significant number are fronts for brothels. They only need to register with the local authority and are not subjected to supervision. Many spas do not register with the Tourism Board either, even though they are required to do so. more..

Apr 9 (Island) The political pot seems to be very much on the boil with speculative reports that defections from the opposition to the government are afoot. The Daily Mirror which waded into the story on Thursday with a front page headline Sajith loses grip on a dying SJB? crowed on Friday that SJB MPs (were) split following its previous day�s report. It added that some criticized the paper but others confirmed that talks with RW were on. Predictably, few of these worthies more..

Apr 9 (ST) My dear friends who were at the aragalaya, I thought of writing to you today because most people seem to have forgotten that it was exactly one year ago that you set up camp at Galle Face with the aim of sending Gota maama home. That was also when you christened Galle Face as Gota Go Gama and the slogan Gota go home became official. That was after several days of protests that began at Mirihana, near Gota maama�s private residence. more..

Apr 9 (ST) It is not often that both govt and opposition MPs find common ground on an issue. Parliament�s final sitting day before the National New Year holidays, however, was an exception as both sides stood united against what they saw as an attempt by SL Law College authorities to disregard an order made by the legislature. It was SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara who first brought the matter to the Speaker�s attention on Tuesday, noting that no action had been more..

Apr 9 (ST) Test skipper Dimuth Karunaratne has agreed to reconsider his decision to step down from captaincy following a request from cricket selectors. After SL were whitewashed in the recent two-match Test series in NZ, the southpaw announced his decision to step down at the conclusion of the two-match home series against Ireland starting next Sunday in Galle. After 4 years in the job, and with a fresh World Test Championship (WTC) cycle looming, Karunaratne wants to hand over more..

Apr 9 (CI) SL's death bowling nearly pulled it back from the brink, but NZ kept their cool to secure an ultimately comfortable four-wicket win in the third and final T20I in Queenstown and with it a 2-1 series victory. Tim Seifert anchored a successful chase of 183 with his 48-ball 88, which trumped Kusal Mendis' 73 off 43 earlier in the day, though Seifert might not have imagined how tense the finish would get when he was dismissed more..

Apr 9 (ST) Dushan Hemantha, the leg-break bowler from BRC who rose to fame during Sri Lanka �A� side�s home series against England Lions earlier this year, is likely to earn the Test call-up for the two-match Test series against Ireland. Both matches of the Ireland series will be played at the Galle Int'l Cricket Stadium, a traditionally spin-friendly wicket, starting on April 16. Hemantha, a former St. Peter�s College cricketer, also represents Team Dambulla in the National Super League. more..

Apr 9 (TM) Royal Turf Club (RTC) has made all arrangements to conduct the 2023 edition of the much anticipated Governor�s Cup horse racing event at the Racecourse in Nuwara Eliya on Saturday (15). The annual event takes place each year on the day following the New Year. RTC is set to hold its fourth race day lined up in the Visit SriLanka Horse Racing Season 2023, which consists of five race days. After three race days conducted monthly through January and March, all eyes will be on the new more..

Apr 9 (SO) SL is taking a lead role in addressing gender balance in boxing by encouraging the participation of more women in the sport aligning with the policies of the Int'l Boxing Association (IBA). A cross section of referee and judges, coaches and boxers attended a meeting convened by the Chairperson of the Diversity Commission (formerly Women�s Commission) of the Boxing Association of SL (BASL) Prabuddhika Lokuyaddehige on Friday graced by BASL president Dian Gomes and more..

Apr 9 (CI) There will be no DRS system in place for this year's 50-over World Cup qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe in June-July, but the ICC has confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that there will be a third umpire monitoring run-outs. The absence of DRS mirrors the 2019 World Cup qualifiers, also held in Zimbabwe in March 2018, but is an improvement on the availability of a third umpire. In 2018, the third umpire was deployed in only 10 of the 34 matches - those that were televised. more..

Apr 9 (TM) Delays have been reported in distributing organic fertiliser under the Govt�s new programme due to an issue regarding a circular issued by the Agriculture Ministry. It is learnt that following a recent Cabinet decision, powers have been vested with the District Secretary (DS) to purchase organic fertiliser in accordance with recommendations given by a committee appointed by the DS representing more..

Apr 9 (PMD) Easter Sunday celebrates the ability of Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, to transform lives by dispelling darkness in people�s minds and bringing hope to the world. With Easter commemorating the resurrection of Jesus, it is an occasion for us to reflect on the values of love, peace, and forgiveness as espoused by Him, which are at the core of Sri Lankan culture, and we must come together with family, friends and communities, to solemnize the blessings life has to offer. more..