Feb 28 (CT) As long as there is no merger between the North and East, there is absolutely no necessity for a demand for a separate Muslim Province, Minister Faiszer Musthapha said yesterday. The minister made these comments in response to a statement made by Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Chairman and MP, Basheer Segu Dawood that Muslims will not give up their demand for a separate Muslim Province. Musthapha claimed that the statement lacked intellectual depth. more..

Feb 28 (DM) Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa�s elder son Namal Rajapaksa, his brother Basil Rajapaksa, MPs Wimal Weerawansa, Kumara Welgama, and Rohitha Abeygunawardene would be arrested very soon, he speculated speaking to the media at the Dalada Maligawa in Kandy said today. �I too will be arrested. We are closely watching the situation,� Rajapaksa said. He reiterated that he would not quit from SLFP more..

Feb 28 (SL) A former secretary of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka is to be questioned by the CID over the 2009 murder of Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge. A former member of the Army Intelligence Unit and a former intelligence chief are also to be questioned over the assassination. Once information surfaced that Wickrematunge was murdered based on information and directions provided by the intelligence officers, they have been removed from service, sources said. more..

Feb 28 (LBO) Govt should not impose a capital gains tax on the stock market as the market still runs on low trade volumes, Group CEO of Candor Group, Ravi Abeysuriya said. Capital gains are profits realized on a sale of a non-inventory asset that was purchased at a cost that was lower than the amount realized on the sale. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals and property. PM Ranil Wickremesinghe recently hinted that the govt would more..

Feb 28 (DM) One Individual was killed and two others injured after a group of unidentified men shot at them at Kirimatiyawa Junction in Weerakatiya this morning. ASP Ruwan Gunasekara said the gunmen, who arrived in a hybrid car, had used a T56 fire arm. When the incident occurred two victims were travelling in a van while other was on a motorcycle. The three were admitted to Tangalle Hospital in critical condition. more..

Feb 28 (SL) Ministry of Defence (MOD) has denied claims by NFF leader Wimal Weerawansa that the Air Force has been told not to fly over Northern areas. Military spokesman Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera said that the Ministry of Defence had not issued notice banning the Sri Lanka Air Force from flying its jets over the Northern peninsula. No such order had been issued by the Ministry of Defence nor has there been restrictions of that nature being imposed on the Air Force. more..

Feb 28 (DM) A 40-year old Briton was found dead in a house at Bellantara, Dehiwala today. Police said the mother of the deceased had informed the death to the police. Mathew Daniel Lawrence had arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday. His Sri Lankan born spouse Menaka Tharanga lives in the UK, police said. The body of the deceased is kept at the Colombo South Teaching Hospital morgue for the post mortem examination. more..

Feb 28 (ST) Both Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen will hold separate protests tomorrow in front of the diplomatic missions in Chennai and Jaffna calling for their demands to be met in the longstanding fishing issue between the two countries. Indian fishermen will demand that Sri Lanka stop arresting their fishermen and detaining their boats, while Lankan fishermen will demand an end to poaching by their Indian counterparts. more..

Feb 28 (LBO) Megapolis development project�s success depends on the establishment of a separate authority to govern the project while social change would also be a key, the president of the Chamber of Construction Industry said. �Megapolis Authority with the right expertise is a must if this project is to fly,� Surath Wickramasinghe, President, Chamber of Construction Industry said. �This is a challenging exercise, especially the financial side of it � it all needs to be generated to more..

Feb 28 (SL) The Wildlife Ministry has received information on over ten elephants being domesticated without a permit. However, according to information received by The Sunday Leader, although the information had been received regarding these illegally kept elephants, the authorities have not taken any action over it thus far.It was also revealed that several individuals including Ali Roshan are connected with the illegal possession of these elephants. more..

Feb 28 (ST) The COPE is to summon former Governor of the Central Bank (CB), Ajith Nivard Cabraal and its former Monetary Board, to answer how the CB engaged in several questionable transactions that do not come under its purview. The decision to summon Mr Cabraal and its former Monetary Board was consequent to COPE�s probe into CB�s audit and annual reports on Thursday. At least 70 CB officials including more..

Feb 28 (DM) A woman had died by swallowing heroin, when the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) attempted arrest her daughter on charges of processing heroin, during a raid at Niwathidiya in Piliyandala on Friday. Police said the deceased fainted when the PNB officers tried to record her statement over her daughter�s connection with the heroin peddling. The victim died while being admitted to the hospital. Police said the post-mortem examination into the death had revealed more..

Feb 28 (ST) An 11-year-old girl was the little trailblazer in the first-ever paediatric kidney transplant performed at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) for Children in Colombo on Thursday. The girl from the south had gone into renal failure following a severe infection and needed a transplant, and it was her mother�s kidney that was donated to her. The operation lasting about 2� hours was performed with varied medical specialties and nursing and minor staff working in tandem more..

Feb 28 (ST) Refusal to admit a 6-year-old boy to a school in the Kurunegala district, because his parents are suspected to be HIV positive, has brought home the need to change people�s attitudes towards the disease. Health Ministry now intends to take the message to the villages, educating people of AIDS and the need to include AIDS patients in society. National STD/AIDS Control Programme said the incident has more..

Feb 28 (EN) Sri Lanka�s tea exports in January 2016 fell to their lowest level in US dollar terms in six years because of the commodity price slump, brokers said. Ceylon tea exports fell one percent to 24.1 million kilos in January 2016 from a year ago with earnings down 4% to 14.3 billion rupees. �US dollar value of exports has dropped sharply by 12% year-on-year 2015,� they said. �Earnings at 99.4 million dollars is the lowest since 2010 when a much lower quantity of 21 million kilos more..

Feb 28 (ST) UDA has ordered the temporary residents of Ferguson Road Thotalanga to vacate the place by the end of this month. Defying threats from residents that they would stage a protest similar to one that brought Colombo traffic to a virtual halt on Feb 16, UDA Project Director said the UDA, with police support, was conducting a survey to ascertain whether these people were the original residents of Somaliawatte and Kajimawatte on Ferguson Road. more..

Feb 28 (ENS) As India�s PM between 1984 and 1989, Rajiv Gandhi neither asked Sri Lanka to adopt a federal constitution nor did he get involved in the drafting and implementation of the 13th Amendment (13A), says Varatharaja perumal, former Chief Minister of the now defunct North-Eastern Province. �When we met Rajiv in 1986, Indian PM categorically said that India would not ask SL to adopt a federal constitution. more..

Feb 29 (CT) It is 2010, and we are travelling down a silent road. This road is as old as my parents, my grandparents, and their parents before them, and yet is has been built anew again and again over the scars and craters of Sri Lanka�s civil war. There is no one else around us. Not a single tree stands, no birds remain to sing. Soldiers flicker by at short intervals, standing watchfully against a deceased enemy. As the sun sets, the dying fields begin to glow red. more..

Feb 29 (ST) It is becoming increasingly more difficult to pretend that sexual violence is not on the rise in Sri Lanka. In past weeks alone, particular incidents included the rape and murder of a thirteen year old girl in Vavuniya as well as another teenager in Mawathagama while a six year old boy was sexually abused and killed in Sampoor. These are poignant and outrageous cases which reverberate in the public conscience as much as the murders of little Seya Sadewmini from Kotadeniyawa and more..

Feb 29 (SL) Minister W.D.J Seneviratne says that the proposal for the appointment of Constitutional Assembly was taken up for debate for a second day in Parliament on Feb 24. The electoral reforms should be taken up first at the constitutional council meeting and in no way will the rights of the minority be undermined by reforming the electoral system. In order to frame a new constitution none of the parties had received a mandate to do so. more..

Feb 29 (CT) The first article in this series warned against the secrecy surrounding the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement, now known as ETCA, which the Govt says that it would enter into with India shortly. The article noted that all those who are concerned about ETCA � both supporters and opponents � have been kept in the dark as to what it constitutes and what benefits it would bring to the country. Darkness breeds fear and fear leads to suspicion. more..

Feb 29 (CT) Heart disease is considered as one of the major causes of death today worldwide. Statistics of heart patients vary from country to country and patient to patient. There are over 900,000 people who have suffered a stroke, and Stroke is the largest cause of disability in England where 300,000 people live with moderate to severe disability as a result of a stroke. In Sri Lanka the number of people admitted to hospitals for heart disease is about 219,000 a year. more..

Feb 29 (CT) The artiste in the Rajapaksa family is undoubtedly Rohitha Rajapaksa; here he narrates in his own way how he came around to compose his first song. Q: Rohitha, you have surprised us all with your composition of this song; what led you to think of composing such a song? A: (Shrugs with the hint of a smile) I have always wanted to write a song ever since I was a little child. I do not entertain the idea of more..

Feb 29 (CT) Anbirkum Undo Addaikkuntaal Arrvalar Punkaneer Pusal Tharum. The above verse is in a work of ancient Tamil literature Thirukkural, which means Love cannot be confined by shutters; Uncontrollable tears will roll down spontaneously when one sees the sufferings and sorrows of the loved ones. Legendary film icon late Gamini Fonseka uttered the above Thirukkural verse on love in Tamil, when he played the lead role as a Tamil govt servant named Nadaraja in more..

Feb 29 (ST) It took seven years for justice to catch up with international fugitive Sicille Kotelawala but when it did and when she was finally brought before the bar of court to answer charges of misappropriating 26 billion rupees of depositor funds at Golden Key Creditcard Company, it was visible to all that she had begun serving her prison sentence long before her court date, atoning for her compounded sins incarcerated within the trappings of her own exacting unredeeming mind. more..

Feb 29 (Island) Something very interesting thing happened when Palitha Kohona, as the Foreign Secretary, visited Toronto along with Suganthi Kadirgamar, widow of late great foreign minister Lakshman Kadiragamar, to attend the 25th anniversary celebrations of the SL United National Association of Canada (SLUNA). TULF leader, V Anandasangaree, too, was in Toronto at the time. It was August 2008. Viresh Fernando, A SL/Canadian lawyer or Barrister/Solicitor as they say in more..

Feb 29 (Island) A senior political scientist has taken a former minister cum Opposition firebrand to task for what the former calls an attempt to trivialize the on-going constitution making process. MP Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has rhetorically asked whether the people can eat the Constitution much to the consternation of Prof. Laksiri Fernando, who is in the forefront of a campaign for constitutional reforms. He has apparently sought to stress the fact that govt ought to remain more focussed on more..

Feb 29 (SO) Road accident statistics compiled reveals that a Sri Lankan is killed in a road accident every 3 � hours and twice that number are critically injured. This is a clear indication that road travel is becoming increasingly dangerous and hazardous. Compared to road deaths in the pre-1970s, the risk of death on the roads faced by Sri Lankans has nearly trebled. Such a tragic scenario is inevitable with higher volumes and more..

Feb 29 (Island) In reply to Thurstan�s 291 for eight wickets declared, Isipatana lost three quick wickets for just 15 runs before the latter�s most successful batsman of the season, Sanjula Abeywickrama, and their Sri Lanka Under-19 players eased the nerves with some useful knocks as the 53rd Battle of Brothers Big Match ended in a drab draw at the SSC on Saturday. Isipatana were 222 for eight wickets at close as the disappointing row of draws extended to its 17th year. more..

Feb 29 (CI) Soumya Sarkar dropped Dinesh Chandimal at slip off Taskin Ahmed. It was not the first time Soumya had made such an error this Asia Cup. In the last match against the UAE, Soumya had dropped both Rohan Mustafa and Mohammad Naveed at slip off Taskin. Taskin would be forgiven for hoping that catches start falling to his team-mates' hands. Soumya eventually made up for his squandered chance, running back 30 yards from mid-off to take a diving catch off Dilshan. more..

Feb 29 (CI) Despite playing on what stand-in captain Angelo Mathews described as a brilliant wicket, Sri Lanka couldn't find boundaries for seven consecutive overs against Bangladesh during which the required run-rate ballooned to 15.33 from 8.20. But much before they ran into trouble dealing with some impressive bowling, they could have closed down the home side's batsmen for a significantly lower score more..

Feb 29 (CI) 80: Runs scored by Sabbir Rahman - the fourth highest individual score for Bangladesh in T20Is. Tamim Iqbal's 88* against West Indies in a T20I in 2012 is the highest. Sabbir faced 54 deliveries, equaling the second most faced by a Bangladesh batsman in a T20I. The knock was also Sabbir's highest in T20Is, beating his previous highest of 51*, against Pakistan. He hit 13 boundaries (10 fours and three sixes), which is the joint-highest by a B'desh batsman in T20Is. more..

Feb 29 (AAP) Darren Lehmann is confident Australia have the spin stocks to thrive in Sri Lanka, where they will seek to continue their Test dominance in July. Australia reclaimed the No.1 Test ranking in Christchurch this week, recording a 2-0 series win over NZ. Their next Test assignment is a three-match tour of Sri Lanka. Australia will include at least two spinners in that touring party. Nathan Lyon is likely to find himself bowling in tandem with Steve O'Keefe or Glenn Maxwell, more..

Feb 29 (CI) After they ran into early trouble, Sabbir Rahman scored more than half of Bangladesh's runs. Their bowlers followed it up by squeezing Sri Lanka in the 148 chase, eventually picking up their second win in the Asia Cup by 23 runs. A packed crowd at the Shere Bangla National Stadium was kept on the edge for three and a half hours, mainly by Man-of-the-Match Sabbir's superb and clean hitting that gave him 10 fours & 3 sixes. more..

Feb 29 (Island) Jane Jacobs in her book Dark Ages Ahead talks about the end of culture, especially the way we live it today. For example, picture books do not protect the loss of a culture. The printed media is incapable of passing down a culture. It has to be experienced, it has to be lived. Hence the importance of supporting vibrant communities to carry the Cultural Matrix forward! Theoretical planning could never understand this, but then these are focussed concepts more..

Feb 29 (Island) Dialog Axiata, claimed top honours once again at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona Spain this week, winning the award for the Best Mobile Network Solution for Serving Customers. The annual Global Mobile Awards at Mobile World Congress are considered the Oscars of the mobile world, where the global industry converges to showcase the latest and best in Mobile Technologies and Services. Dialog's award winning innovation came in the form of more..

Feb 29 (DM) Minister Dilan Perera today claimed that former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chandrika Bandaranaike are still lingering crazy over power. "President Maithripala Sirisena had taught us about the importance of relinquishing of power while former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chandrika Bandaranaike are still lingering crazy over power. However, Uva Chief Minister had set aside his designation more..

Feb 29 (Island) Seylan Bank reported a 24.25% increase in Profit before tax to reach Rs. 5,777 Million for the year ended 31st December 2015. The Bank reported a record Profit after Tax figure of Rs 3,831 Million for the year ended 31st Dec 2015. This is an impressive 24.44% growth in PAT compared to the Rs 3,079 Million reported in 2014. Net Interest income increased from Rs 11,165 Million to Rs 11,825 Million, a 5.9% increase for the 12 months ended 31st December 2015. more..

Feb 29 (DN) Janashakthi Insurance reported a consolidated Gross Written Premium (GWP) of Rs.10.664 billion for the year ended Dec 31 2015, a growth of approximately 19% over the same period in 2014. The insurer posted a Profit Before Tax (PBT) of Rs.1,024 million for the period under review. Company's life insurance business recorded a Gross Written Premium of Rs.2.550 billion. This Year on Year (YoY) growth of close to 18% was a result of changes made to the life sale and more..