Apr 28 (CT) The North Central, Sabaragamuwa, Central and Uva Provinces have the lowest level of access to safe drinking water, ranging from 71.2% to 79.4%, with the Nuwara Eliya District, in the Central Province, Anuradhapura in the North Central Province and Badulla in the Uva Province having the lowest access to safe drinking water at the District level, according to the Central Bank of SL�s 2017 Annual Report. Thus, it is essential to implement projects focused on these Provinces more..

Apr 28 (DM) State Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva ruled out the possibility of introducing measures to contain the devaluation of the rupee, in the wake of the local currency hitting record lows against the U.S. dollar. Dr. de Silva said the govt�s policy was to increase exports and encourage local industrialists and not to politicize financial markets. �We maintain a floating exchange rate system at the moment. more..

Apr 28 (DN) Power generation and supply would not be a challenge with the govt�s decision to construct Liquefied Natural Gas power plants, Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said yesterday. He made this observation during a ceremony held to grant solar panels to the Ruwanwella Rajasinghe Vidyalaya. He said the govt had decided to construct three Liquefied Natural Gas power plants to address the increasing electricity demand in future. Cabinet approval for the construction of the three more..

Apr 28 (GDI) The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Sri Lanka has launched a program to empower the youth around the country to come together to address social issues and build lasting peace. According to the UNFPA, Sri Lanka's youth population is estimated to be 4.4 million and therefore, 25 percent of the total population have the potential to actively participate in policymaking, drive innovative ideas, and to contribute towards sustaining peace in Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 28 (Island) Speculation is rife in political circles that the govt is planning to accommodate former finance/foreign and justice ministers, Ravi Karunanayake and Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, respectively, in the Cabinet. Karunanayake quit in Aug 2017, owing to the findings of a presidential probe into the bond scams and Rajapakse was removed, in Aug 2017. He was accused of violating collective Cabinet responsibility when more..

Apr 28 (DM) SL celebrates Vesak Poya tomorrow though some confusion has been created over this thrice-blessed day marking the birth, enlightenment and death of Gautama the Buddha. Some Buddhist prelates say Vesak should have been celebrated on May 29 as several other Buddhist majority countries like Thailand are doing. Another controversy arose when the Buddha Sasana Minister asked that Vesak pandals, dansal and other festivities be held not on Vesak day but on April 30 and the days after. more..

Apr 28 (DM) On Ves�k Day, Buddhists of the world commemorate three events of significance to Buddhists of all traditions and sects. The Birth, Enlightenment and the Parinbbana of Gautama Buddha. United Nations, in 1999, resolved to internationally observe the day at its headquarters. Pali term Ves�kha or Sanskrit Vai��kha is the name of the lunar month in the Hindu calendar. In the Mahayana Buddhist traditions, the holiday is known by its Sanskrit name Vai��kha, more..

Apr 28 (Roar) Walking into the taxidermy division of the Colombo National Museum is both fascinating and unnerving at the same time. A leopard snarls in greeting just inside the door, elephant skulls line the small aisle ahead. A pair of giant squirrels perch on a stand, nibbling fruits in tableau, redolent of a life perhaps spent leaping branches in a forest. Just outside taxidermist�s office, a giant tortoise grandly stands sentinel. more..

Apr 28 (ST) Owner of a latex factory in Bellapitiya in Horana has become a fugitive following the deaths of five people from inhalation of the corrosive, colourless, deadly gas ammonia. Ratansiri Edirisinghe, manger of the latex factory, which is suspected to have breached environmental regulations, has been arrested and remanded until April 25. Rubber processing factories at which ammonia is used in the production more..

Apr 28 (ST) The controversial telecom tycoon of SL origin Subaskaran Allirajah, boss of Lycamobile, is again at the centre of a French police and media investigation that involves money laundering and tax frauds. A five-part investigation by BuzzFeed News that has been looking closely at the activities of the Allirajah telecom empire in Britain and elsewhere, including Sri Lanka, has revealed in the 5th part of investigation, of a conflict more..

Apr 28 (ST) Outraged teachers are demanding that controversial Chief Minister Chamara Sampath Dassanayake of the Uva Province be removed after he was reinstated by the outgoing Governor M P Jayasinghe as the provincial education minister while a court case and a human rights violation investigation are continuing. Mr Jayasinghe said a one-person inquiry had cleared Mr Dassanayake who had been accused of more..

Apr 28 (EN) Sri Lanka's central bank killed 19 billion rupees of printed money Friday selling down its Treasury bill stock to 50.53 billion rupees from 69.11 billion rupees, which analysts say will help support the rupee. The aggregate balance of the banking system dropped to 3.53 billion rupees on April 27 from 23.93 billion rupees a day earlier as the weekly Treasury bill auction was settled. Some banks were excess by 21.3 billion rupees more..

Apr 28 (DM) In the wake of the controversy surrounding the British doctor who was performing heart surgeries at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) decided to allow him a 3-month grace period to obtain the practising licence from the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK. GMOA pulled up the case after noticing that British Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Richard Permin did not possess a licence to more..

Apr 28 (Island) Excise Department sleuths had nabbed an Austrian national and two Sri Lankans possessing a new drug, during a raid conducted at Rekawa in Tangalle, Excise spokesman Deputy Commissioner Kapila Kumarasinghe said. It was the first time the drug known as Black Mendi had been detected in Sri Lanka, Kumarasinghe said. Austrian national (36) had arrived in the country stating that more..

Apr 28 (DM) Beginning from May 12, 2018, the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) will meet the public including family members of the disappeared in Mannar, Chairman Saliya Peiris PC said. He said arrangements had been made to hold public meetings countrywide till early July. �In May, June and July, we will hold meetings in Kilinochchi, Matara, Mullaitivu, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Trincomalee and Kandy. more..

Apr 28 (AD) Finance State Minister Eran Wickremeratne while addressing the media said that all positions of the UNP including party leadership should be elected through a vote. �Party received a message from our voters that it should undergo major reforms from the results of recently concluded LG elections. Top chairs in the party such as Leader, Deputy Leader and Vice Leader should be elected through an election,� he said. more..

Apr 28 (EN) Sri Lanka�s investigation into the controversial MiG aircraft purchase has extended to Singapore and Australia as police listed charges against four foreigners in addition to former president Mahinda Rajapaks�a cousin Udayanga Weeratunga. Two nationals each from Singapore and Ukraine were formally named as accused in defrauding the govt of Sri Lanka of nearly seven million dollars in a deal where more..

Apr 28 (CT) The UNP suffered an ignominious rout at February�s LG Polls under the hands of its b�te noire Mahinda Rajapaksa, where its vote base was reduced from 45% at the August 2015 Parliamentary Poll to 29 per cent in February, within the space of 2� years. Rajapaksa may be the UNP�s b�te noire, but whether he�s also the UNP Leader and Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe�s b�te noire is the million dollar question! Two reasons have been attributed to UNP�s humiliating defeat. more..

Apr 28 (FT) In a recent World Bank publication, South Asia�s Turn, two Sri Lankan organisations � MAS from apparel and Dilmah from agribusiness � receive recognition as global champions. While Dilmah is in control of its value chain and that was its differentiation to start with, going ahead very much against conventional wisdom, MAS participates in regional as well as global value chains. Both these organisations are strong champions of innovation. more..

Apr 28 (AD) 18 persons were injured after a bus toppled on the Southern Expressway near Pinnaduwa exit, according to police. The Kataragama bound private bus has toppled due to a flat tyre at around 7.30 am today (28), it is reported. The victims have been rushed to Karapitiya Teaching Hospital and the conditions of the victims are not severe, hospital sources claimed. They were identified as residents of Meegahathenna area who were on a pilgrimage to Kataragama. more..

Apr 28 (Island) Customs officials, at the BIA, nabbed a Chinese woman who tried to smuggle in a stock of illegal cigarettes, worth over one million rupees, in the early hours of Friday. The Chinese woman (44), who had arrived from Dubai around 2.30 am was found to have 20,980 sticks (in approximately105 cartons). They were Chinese cigarettes, worth about 1,049,000, customs officials said. The detection was made at the Green Channel by Customs officials, sources said. more..

Apr 28 (CT) Chathurika Sirisena, daughter of Prez Sirisena, has obtained a liquor license for a restaurant she owns in Polonnaruwa. Anidda, a newspaper launched today, has highlighted the issuance of a liquor license to Sirisena�s daughter but has not revealed the names of all 38 persons who have been given such licenses by the Excise Department in 2016. more..

Apr 28 (CT) According to Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Nimal Siripala de Silva, the structural reforms of the UNP will be beneficial for the SLFP. �The way they�re restructuring the Party is very good for us. Therefore, we won�t interfere. Let them solve their problems on their own,� he added. Meanwhile, MP Dilan Perera, also adding his comments on this, said that the UNP�s restructuring would not benefit the SLFP, but it would benefit the Opposition. �I don�t see the announced structural reforms more..

Apr 28 (DM) Senior State Counsel Thusith Mudalige yesterday objected to the State releasing jewellery of sentimental value to notorious drug dealer Wele Suda�s wife, who the Attorney General had indicted on 57 charges for laundering money to the tune of Rs.190 million in 2006. Gampola Vidanage Samantha Kumara alias Wele Suda�s wife had filed a motion in the High Court requesting for the release of certain pieces of jewellery that were recovered from her as it had a sentimental value. more..

Apr 28 (DN) About 252 last wills pertaining to a colossal amount of wealth which were under the Public Trustee�s supervision were opened in the Colombo District Court yesterday. A representative of the Public Trustee and an Assistant Registrar of the Colombo District Court were present in court at the time these last wills were opened. President�s Counsel Ikram Mohammed appearing for Public Trustee more..

Apr 28 (ST) The newly elected Mayor for Kandy Kesara Senanayake is to urge the Megapolis Ministry not to approve plans that have been turned down by the Municipality. He said that he would have to have a discussion with Megapolis Minister Champika Ranawaka and explain to him that the Ministry cannot override and go ahead with construction plans that have not been passed by the Municipality. He said that when one looks out from the landmark Queen�s Hotel building in town more..

Apr 28 (DM) A large stock of chemicals was seized, while being taken to be mixed with tea at a secret location near a tea factory at Rangala, and a suspect arrested by STF personnel from the Ambakotte Camp in Digana. Police said the suspect was one of the tea factory managers in charge of the chemical mixing plant and that the chemical was identified as C-Sweet Liquid Glucose 01155 and that not permitted to be mixed with tea leaves. The STF seized the chemicals while in transit and more..

Apr 28 (DN) The Sri Lanka Customs had seized a stock of medicine and women�s and men�s footwear valued at around Rs 12.8 million that was being illegally imported as fabrics from India. The consignment imported as lose cargo was packed in 99 packages weighing 4000 kg in total. The consignee is registered as a person from Colombo, while the goods which had arrived in Feb were examined at Pettah warehouse more..

Apr 28 (ST) Deer and other wild animals hit by the prolonged drought in Sri Lanka�s northern half are increasingly becoming easy prey to poachers, a veterinary surgeon, who is looking after animals rescued from hunters� traps, has said. Dr Chandana Jayasinghe, the state veterinary surgeon in charged of the North Western Province, said hunters had set up traps near tanks that still held some water, expecting deer, wild boar and other animals in search of water to show up. more..

Apr 28 (CT) Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said, SLFP cannot do whatever the JVP wanted, especially with regard to abolishing the Executive Presidency. �We haven�t seen the 20th Amendment to the Constitution to support it. We can�t just do whatever the JVP wants. The powers of the Executive Presidency are vested in many areas of the Constitution, and therefore you cannot simply abolish it. If they do abolish it, they�ll have to bring in at least another 2,000 provisions in its place.� more..

Apr 28 (AD) Owner of the SUV which toppled into the Viyana Canal in Mahiyanganaya recently, has surrendered to Mahiyanganaya Police this morning. Police said that reports indicated that missing tuition class teacher�s mobile phone has been activated. Accordingly, police has launched a mission in search of the owner, however has failed to recover any information about the missing person. more..

Apr 28 (DM) It is now part of history that the Blue party group that teamed up with the JO camp to trounce yahapalanaya split up with many of them playing truant at the eleventh hour leaving the Cabal of 16 to hold the sack. The truants have incurred so much of wrath of the Cabal of 16 for what they describe as the act of downright treachery, the latter have now baptized the two leaders of the truant group, the one from Rajarata and the other from deep South as Molligoda and more..

Apr 28 (DM) Sacred artifacts from Nepal and Bhutan are to be exhibited at the Buddha Rashmi Vesak Zone, which has been organized by the Gangaramaya Vihara in Hunupitiya and the PM�s office. A statement from the PM�s office said the Dipankara Buddha Statue brought from Bhutan, the Shakya Muni Statue brought from Nepal and the Maithri Bodhi Sathwa Statue would be on display at the Vesak Zone. The sacred relics of Buddha brought from Pakistan and India -- relics more..

Apr 28 (ST) Every year, SL�s farmers produce some varieties of vegetables more than is needed by households. Only minute amounts are exported. Bulk ends up on garbage dumps, for elephants to rummage through. The glut of vegetables cause financial loss to farmers and the waste of thousands of tonnes of vegetables continues. Farmer associations are calling for ways to regulate agricultural production. more..

Apr 28 (GDI) The State Vesak Festival of Buddhist calendar year 2,562 will be held in the historic Bingiriya Devagiri Rajamaha Viharaya in the Kurunegala District this year. All arrangements have been made to conduct this year�s State Vesak Festival on April 28 and 29, under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena on the theme Tamed mind will bring solace. Buddhasasana Minister Gamini Jayawickrama Perera said the Vesak Week will begin on April 26 and end on May 2. more..

Apr 28 (CT) Former Chief Minister of the merged North and East Province Annamalai Varatharajah Perumal made a mind boggling analysis, after nearly two decades, on the failure of the Indo-Lanka Accord, which was jointly brought by the Indian and Sri Lankan Govts to find a durable solution to the ethnic crisis in the Island. Now in his capacity as a political think tank, moving around freely in Jaffna, he did an autopsy on the Indo-Lanka Accord, at the Colombo Tamil Sangam, more..

Apr 28 (CB) Tim McCaskil, an Australian fast bowling coach, has been hired by SLC to work with the team's fast bowlers and fast bowling coaches. McCaskil, who is the High Performance Manager with Cricket Victoria, will arrive in Colombo later this month and will work with the fast bowling coaches first. The following week he will travel to Kandy where SL team will conduct an 8-day training camp ahead of the tour of West Indies. more..

Apr 28 (C365) The ICC have confirmed the matches in th Cricket World Cup 2019, which sees the 1996 world champions Sri Lanka play their nine league matches in five cities. The 10-team tournament, to be played on a single-league format with the top four progressing to the semi-finals, will run from 30 May to 14 July across 11 venues of England and Wales. Sri Lanka will face-off New Zealand in their opening match on 1 June in Cardiff, and then take on Afghanistan at the same venue 3 days later. more..

Apr 28 (NR) Police have arrested 2,630 persons on charges of driving under the influence and who were issued warrants. The individuals were arrested in a 4 hour operation between 4am to 8am this morning. Accordingly 270 individuals were arrested for driving under the influence while 938 individuals who were issued warrants were also arrested during the operation. Meanwhile 733 suspects in connection for various offences and 633 individuals linked to drug related offences were also arrested. more..