May 22 (DM) As the Provincial Council election for war ravaged Northern Province is nearing, various political parties have expressed various opinons on the 13th Amendment and Provincial Council system while some allies in the government have threatened to break away if the election is held. The Daily Mirror spoke to former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva on the historical settings for the 13th Amendment, its present role and its validity after 26 years of its implementation. more..

May 22 (SL) Many young Tamil girls and boys having grown up with the war that plagued the country for over three decades have been idolising the terrorist outfit � the LTTE. Young Jayawardhani was no different, and her mind was poisoned with hatred propagated by the terrorists since it was so easy for the LTTE because she was an orphan at the Sencholai home for orphans. Ayawardhani never felt the warmth of a loving mother�s hug more..

May 22 (ENS) It was certainly a well-planned campaign. Put in a tight corner for its handling of the Sri Lankan Tamils� issue, desperate Congressmen in Tamil Nadu thought it fit to use the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to recall the party�s contributions to the cause. On Tuesday, the city saw a deluge of posters, sponsored by the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC), that reminded people more..

May 22 (ST) With just a few days for Vesak, people all over the country are busy with preparations for the great day � even the inmates behind the forbidding high walls of the Welikada prison are busy colouring their lives with the spirit of the festival. A 50-foot pandal depicting the Swarna Mayura Jathakaya is taking beautiful shape under the craftsmanship of talented inmates. One of them, isolated from the others and engrossed in more..

May 22 (PTI) Sri Lanka Army has said that it would reduce the number of military camps in former rebel stronghold of northern Jaffna and hand over lands back to their original owners. "We will reduce the existing 17 military camps in Jaffna to just three," Army chief Lt Gen Jagath Jayasuriya said. The fourteen camps pulled out from different parts in Jaffna would be relocated in the main Palaly cantonment, he said yesterday. more..

May 22 (Island) UNP MP Mangala Samaraweera told Parliament that the next CHOGM should not be held in Sri Lanka, unless the govt was willing to change t its autocratic agenda. "Despite the optimism of the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Kamlesh Sharma about holding CHOGM in Sri Lanka, there is a discrepancy between the core values of the Commonwealth and the agenda of the incoming Chairperson," more..

May 22 (SLA) Sri Lanka Army-managed �L�ya Leisure� Hotel at Kukuleganga is to run one of its new outlets, now open in the new state-of-the-art mega cafeteria complex at Welipenna service area on E-1 Colombo-Galle Expressway. The ceremonial opening of the new �L�ya Seafood Restaurant� outlet by Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, Commander of the Army, took place on Tuesday during a brief ceremony as more..

May 22 (Island) Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said that whatever the differences among members of a particular political party were, it would be a grave mistake on their part to switch sides. Switching allegiance to another party would be beneficial to individuals, but it could cause debilitating setback to that particular political party, he said. He was addressing a ceremony held at the BMICH to felicitate him. more..

May 22 (LT) The token strike launched today was successful and the govt, whatever lies it comes out, has been shaken states the Coordinating Committee for Trade Union Alliance that organized the token strike today (21) against increased electricity tariffs. They said despite false propaganda of the govt more than 200 private establishments including seven private establishments that are around the residence more..

May 22 (Island) The TNA yesterday requested the govt to take action to "genuinely implement" the UNHRC resolution on "Promoting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka and to reverse the latter�s current actions pertaining to the land issues in the North and East. TNA Leader R. Sampanthan, moving an adjournment motion in Parliament, said that the govt�s actions had resulted in deterioration of more..

May 22 (Xinhua) The Sri Lankan government denied plans to roll back power sharing mechanisms with the Tamil minority on Wednesday despite ruling coalition parties' attempting to stop long overdue elections in the former war-torn north. JHU MP and Technology and Research Minister Champika Ranawaka announced on Tuesday plans to present an act in parliament next week to abolish provincial councils and the 13th Amendment. more..

May 22 (CT) The usual polarised debate is on again, on the issue of the Victory Day commemoration. This time there are three sides, not the usual pair of suspects. One side denounces the commemorations as divisive, upholds the right of the Tamil people to commemorate their dead and calls for a national day of remembrance or mourning. Another commemorates the Tamil side, uses the occasion to denounce as �genocidal� the Sri Lanka state, govt, leadership, armed forces and the climax of more..

May 22 (CT) Minister Maithripala Sirisena, who also happens to be the General Secretary of the SLFP, in his mighty haste to grab headlines, has let the cat out of the bag. By declaring that Party of the so-called 'commoner' has to be cleansed of all the dirt and debris it has been collecting since the assassination of its leader, late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the Health Minister has openly admitted his Party, which is the premier component of the current coalition that is supposed to be more..

May 22 (CT) �Unions affiliated with the JVP have warned of a strike and country-wide blackout on May 23 in protest of govt moves to present electricity reforms to Parliament, which they fear would lead to privatization of the state electrical utility. However, the strike may be ineffective (i.e. unable to produce a blackout or force the govt to give in to union demands) as technical staff, including engineers, will not be joining the protest. more..

May 22 (Island) In a bid to protect people from food-borne diseases during the Vesak season, the Health Ministry�s Public Health Unit will conduct a country wide surveillance on food served at Dansalas and other eateries during the festive season. It was found last year that some food items in some Dansals had turned rancid and as a result the people had developed bowel diseases, the Health Ministry said. Health Secretary Dr. Nihal Jayathilaka said that during the Vesak season, more..

May 22 (AA) Uganda signed a bilateral trade partnership with Sri Lanka last week. President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in Uganda to hold talks with President Yoweri Museveni and meet a cross section of the business community. He also officially opened the new Sri Lanka High Commission in Kampala. This is expected to strengthen the diplomatic and business relationship between the two countries. During his three-day stay, Rajapaksa gave the keynote speech to the more..

May 22 (CG) The French Naval Ship �Jacques Cartier� arrived at the port of Colombo today. The ship carries a complement of 53 naval personnel on board and will be docked at the port of Colombo during the Vesak celebrations in Sri Lanka. The ship�s commanding officer paid a courtesy call on Commander Western Naval Area, Rear Admiral Sirimevan Ranasinghe of the Sri Lanka Navy at the Western Naval Command Headquarters more..

May 22 (Island) The Special Task Force (STF) on Monday night took into custody a consignment of herbs, valued at Rs. 20 million, during a raid in the Kolonnawa area. The herbs included 13,489 kilos of Gyrinops walla, which was used to manufacture high cost perfumes and six kilos of Sandalwood. The valuable herbs were found, in houses situated on Munidasa Kumaratunga Mawatha and Samaranayake Mawatha, on a tip off received by its Headquarters. more..

May 22 (LBO) Stock closed up 0.31% on Tuesday with market driven by heavy interest in the property sector and retail trading. All Share Index closed 19.98 points higher at 6,461.62 and the S&P SL 20 Index closed 08.71 points higher at 3,669.65 up 0.08%. Turnover was 767 miliion rupees down from 2.1 billion rupees day earlier. 100 stocks contributed positively to the index while 97 were negative. Foreigners brought 766 million rupees worth shares while selling 47 million rupees of shares. more..

May 22 (Xinhua) The Sri Lankan govt on Wednesday said that it will use a key Commonwealth summit in November to showcase the post-war developments in the country. The CHOGM will be held in Sri Lanka in November this year, and heads of state from almost all the Commonwealth countries, including Britain's Prince Charles, will attend the summit. The Ministry of External Affairs said that Sri Lanka will be able to show more..

May 22 (Island) The Attorney General, yesterday told the Supreme Court that the CEB Act No. 20, of 2009 and the Supreme Court Judgment of 2008, in respect of guidelines for tariff revisions, had been followed in introducing the new tariff rates. The respondent parties, the CEB and the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), had not been notified of the fundamental rights violation application filed by the Lawyers for Human Rights and Development (LHRD) against more..

May 22 (LBO) Web searching in Sri Lanka for consumer products have rocketed with rapidly falling device and access prices, giving opportunities for radically different ways of doing business, a Google official said. "The search trends for all categories in Sri Lanka have increased anywhere between 12 to 25 times, be it automobile category be it computers and electronics," Anand Tilak, regional manager - agency business and sales development at Google, a search engine said at a business forum more..

May 22 (ABC) A Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seeker has become the second person to have an adverse security assessment overturned by ASIO. Manokala Jenaddarsan, 41, was in the final stages of getting her refugee claim processed in 2011 when ASIO issued her with the adverse assessment. She was held in indefinite detention in Villawood, but will now be released into the community along with her son. more..

May 22 (Island) Former Matugama MP Daya T. Pasqual passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 102. Pasqual, who was elected to the Matugama seat, without a break from 1956 to 1977 on the SLFP ticket, also served as the Deputy Minister of Justice in the 1970 to �77 United Front govt of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Prior to that, he was the Deputy Minister of Finance in the short lived govt of PM W. Dahanayake and Deputy Minister of Local Govt and Housing and Industries and Trade more..

May 22 (CG) A tense situation developed outside the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) office in Thunmulla this morning after a group of monks attempted to stage a demonstration against the BBS. The police were called in to disperse the demonstrators while members of the BBS were seen verbally abusing the monks who were attempting to stage the demonstration. In April the BBS, with the assistance of the police, prevented a peaceful candle lit vigil from taking place outside the BBS more..

May 22 (CG) The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) says the govt has no intention of importing Rolls Royce and BMW cars for the forthcoming CHOGM in Sri Lanka. MEA said that reports saying there was such a move is baseless and fictitious, as no importation of cars is being contemplated by the Govt for the Conference. �All expenditure in relation to CHOGM 2013 will be met from existing budgetary provisions, and more..

May 22 (Island) Minister Bandula Gunawardena told Parliament that ousted CJ Shirani Bandaranayake should be held responsible for the 2011 GCE A/L �Z-score� crisis. He said that when the �Z-score� issue turned controversial, the ministry had appointed a committee of five professors and they were ready to present their opinion to the Supreme Court. But, CJ Bandaranayake had allowed only Prof R.O. Thattil to present observations before the Court and the Supreme Court verdict was given on more..

May 22 (GDI) Coast Guard personnel of the visiting Japanese Marine Defence Force ships joined their Sri Lankan counterparts in a beach beach clean up campaign in Nilaweli, Tuesday (21). A group of 35 Japanese Coast Guards from the two ships 'Suzunami' and 'Kirisame' which arrived in the Island on a goodwill visit took time to clean up the Nilaweli beach in the Eastern coast. The Nilaweli beach, for years has been considered as one of Sri Lanka's most perfect beaches. more..

May 22 (CI) Chanaka Welegedara is unlikely to travel to England for the Champions Trophy, after failing to recover sufficiently from an ankle injury he sustained on May 18. Welegedara failed a fitness test on Wednesday morning, and Sri Lanka Cricket have since named seam bowler Dilhara Lokuhettige as a replacement. The selection was cleared by the sports minister, but has not yet been approved by the ICC. more..

May 22 (ST) Minister G.L.Peries blamed Canada for relentlessly trying to stop the CHOGM being held in Sri Lanka and hinted that it was due to the influence of LTTE sympathizers which was the reason behind it. �Why is Sri Lanka is pursued relentlessly and castigated by some representatives of the govt of Canada. Even though the LTTE is not presented physically their influence is still there,� he said. He said that since October 2011, Canada has attempted to stop CHOGM being held in SL more..

May 22 (MED) A two-week training course for the third batch our of 15,596 graduates the Economic Development Ministry recruited as Development Officers and assigned to Divisional Secretariats countrywide, commenced on May 8. Selected from 25 districts they are being successfully trained in 16 centres. The passing out parade of the third batch (3,361) will be held on May 23. The aim of this training course is to give them a basic knowledge of working as facilitators in implementing rural more..

May 22 (ST) flydubai, Dubai's low-cost airline, began flights to Mattala Rajapaksa international Airport today, officials of Jetwing Air, Sri Lankan general sales agent of flydubai said. flydubai operates flights to Mattala three-times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from today and daily from June 3, General Manager of Jetwing Air J.D. Wieman said. He expressed optimism that the number of passengers from Mattala will more..

May 22 (Island) A bus proceeding from Jaffna to Diyatalawa fell down a precipice near the Bloomfield Tea factory in Ramboda, on the Kandy � Nuwara Eliya Road, early yesterday morning injuring 26 passengers. The injured from the accident, which took place around 4:30 a.m., were admitted to Kotmale, Gampola, Pussellawa, and Nuwara Eliya hospitals. Out of 20 victims admitted to the Kotmale hospital, 16 were transferred to the Gampola hospital. Initial police investigations have more..

May 22 (Island) The UNP said that before the Petroleum Industries Ministry imported more oil from Singapore, it should find the missing ship that was carrying fuel to Sri Lanka. The Petroleum Industries Minister, Anura Priyadharashana Yapa, wanted to obtain more fuel from PV Oil Singapore, against which trade unions had levelled several allegations. But, he should first launch a high level probe to ascertain the whereabouts of the ship that was bound for the Colombo port, more..

May 22 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's sole refinery, which was closed last week due to a delayed crude oil delivery, will resume operations in two days with an expected 1 million barrels of Omani crude, Oil Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said. The decades-old 50,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) refinery, which is configured to run on Iranian crude, closed on Friday after a shipment failed to arrive on time. more..

May 23 (NS) Being surrounded by mountains and peaks, Kandy is rich in greenery. And has diverse natural reserves where life is never less than any other sanctuary in the country. Anyone living away from the congested busy town limits of Kandy experiences the morning dew drops, the cold breeze, and greenery that sooth the eye. Also, hear the lovely music of the morning birds. Simply the best medicine one could ask for. Speaking out of personal experience, the busy noise pollution more..

May 23 (NS) Contemporary dancer Kapila Palihawadana is very clear about what he has to offer his audience; a gripping dance session which has a mix of ballet, yoga and bharatanatyam. One can also see traces of Kandyan dancing in his moves when he performs with his troupe. What�s striking about Kapila is that his body movements are aesthetic even when gesturing. The other standout feature is that he doesn�t waste a word when communicating and drives the point more..

May 23 (SO) The panic among the people is creating more danger than infection by the Influenza A virus. The Health Ministry has already made arrangements to prevent the spread of the disease. Last week the Ministry advised the public to take precautionary measures to prevent the spread of Influenza A and rush patients in the risk category to hospitals if symptoms do not fade away in a day or two. The health officials have identified more..

May 23 (GV) Lord Buddha gave different meditation objects to different people. For some, just focusing on rubbing two pieces of material against each other worked, and for some others focusing on the breath worked. On Vesak poya day, we celebrate the birth, enlightenment, and the passing away of this great teacher. In Sri Lanka, almost every Buddhist family makes a lantern, or at least buys and lights up a lantern, or an oil lamp. One might think that this is a mundane way to celebrate Vesak. more..

May 23 (GV) Coming as it did at the end of 2012, The Sri Lankan Republic at 40: Reflections on Constitutional History, Theory and Practice, is much more than two edited volumes or an extensive anthology. Rather, on close reading it seems more a living embodiment of current and critical debate at the very heart of the Sri Lankan body politic. Here are voices and perspectives from the fields of law, politics, sociology, history, gender and religion (to name a few) that speak to the reader more..