Jun 14 (DM) A top US govt official said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assisted the CID of Sri Lanka in the analysis of evidence and phone details in connection with the serial bombings on Easter Sunday. The official told a select group of journalists that the FBI, in the aftermath of the attack, extended its assistance to the CID to pursue evidence regarding suspects arrested in connection with the attack. more..

Jun 14 (FT) While the failure to build the modern nation has been the prime factor that had caused the wretchedness of Sri Lanka, plundering of public property by rulers when they are under their custody can be considered the next vital factor that had exacerbated this situation. I have briefly discussed the issue on the failure to build the modern nation in a previous article. In this article, I intend dealing with the question on plundering of public property by ruling parties. more..

Jun 14 (CT) If the Cold War had, as its principal actors, Marxist Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies and India on one side and the Capitalist West led by the USA and Japan on the other, the new Cold War has seen China replacing the Soviet Union, while, on the other side, the actors are virtually the same, with the exception that India has switched sides, aligning herself with the West and Japan, while the then Soviet Union has been left out in the cold. more..

Jun 14 (MFA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs participated at the first Rajya Sewaya Gamata Gena Yana Janatha Sewaya national programme, held in Matale on 1 June 2019 and conducted a consular mobile service, at the premises of the Matale Sri Sangamitta Balika National School. The Rajya Sewaya Gamata Gena Yana Janatha Sewaya programme which was held under the patronage of PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, was coordinated by the Ministry of Internal and Home Affairs & PCs more..

Jun 14 (EN) Royal Ceramics group, the dominant domestic tile and sanitaryware manufacturer, has expanded its contract manufacturing operations and imports from India through a subsidiary to exploit lower costs there. Competition from cheap imports intensified last year, Royal Ceramics chairman Dhammika Perera told shareholders in the company�s annual report. But he said escalating trade tensions between the US and China will provide opportunities for SL manufacturers. more..

Jun 14 (MB) More than seven weeks after a series of deadly Easter Sunday bombings rocked Sri Lanka, an international summit on the wildlife trade originally scheduled to take place in Colombo last May has now been shifted to Geneva. The announcement on the rescheduling of the 18th Meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP18) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was made June 12, more..

Jun 14 (DM) Five terror suspects including Mohamed Milhan, alias Abu Seelan, who were arrested in Jeddah in connection with the Easter Sunday attacks, have been brought back to Sri Lanka by the CID this morning, police said. They said the special CID team had left for Saudi Arabia on June 11 to bring back the suspects who were in Saudi police custody. The suspects were detained under the CID custody for further questioning. Initial police investigations revealed that more..

Jun 14 (AD) Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed is scheduled to embark on a solidarity visit to SL from today, accompanied by a several Cabinet members and MPs. The delegation will include Maldivian Vice President Faisal Naseem, cabinet members and MPs of Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) of which Nasheed is the leader. MDP won the parliamentary elections in April with three-fourth majority and Mr. Nasheed was chosen the speaker of the People�s Majlis last month. more..

Jun 14 (DM) Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, who attended a function held at the Negombo Hospital, had to use the back entrance to leave the hospital premises due to a protest staged by a group of people against him. The protestors demanded that Minister Senaratne�s civic rights should be strapped. The people who protested at the front gate blocked the minister�s motorcade and were heard hooting at the minister. more..

Jun 14 (AD) Singaporean Minister of Home Affairs K. Shanmugam has commended SL�s efforts to make Indian Ocean Region conflict-free, peaceful zone and offered maximum support for SL in this regard. PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is currently in Singapore for a three-day official visit, yesterday called on Singaporean Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan. The bilateral discussions were focused on the matters concerning social, more..

Jun 14 (Island) Minister Ravi Karunanayake said that he had issued a letter of intent (LoI) to GCL WindForce, a SL-Chinese joint venture for the construction of a 300 MW combined cycle power plant at Kerawalapitiya. With the LoI, WindForce can start preliminary work connected with the proposed the plant, such as raising funds. The construction of the power plant, which should have been operational by now, had seen major delays. Tender opening was on January 2017 and more..

Jun 14 (AD) One of the five suspects, who were arrested in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for allegedly having strong links to the terrorist group that carried out the coordinated attacks on Easter Sunday, is also in connection with the murders of two police constables at Vavunativu, the SP Ruwan Gunasekara said. The suspect named Ayathu Mohamed Ahmed Milhan is the main suspect of the murder of two police constables at more..

Jun 14 (AD) Security forces have arrested two individuals who believed to be close associates of terrorist leader Zahran Hashim, the ringleader of the Easter Sunday attackers. Police said that the suspects were arrested at Hingula in Mawanella during a secret operation jointly carried out by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) and the SL Army. Razik Mohamed Rizvi, who had worked at a computer technician in Kandy, and Musthapha Mohamed Rizvan, who had been employed more..

Jun 14 (Island) Central Environmental Authority (CEA) on Tuesday raided a banned lunch sheet producing factory on Kottawa Road, Miriswatta, Piliyandala, in the Kesbewa Police area, jointly with the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) and the police special unit attached to the CEA on Tuesday. When the raid was conducted the factory was in operation and lunch sheets were being manufactured using HDPE, LDPE materials and calcium. Two extruder machines (15Hp each), two cutting machines more..

Jun 14 (MEE) Saudi Arabia has extradited and handed over five Sri Lankans suspected of having links to the Easter Sunday bombings that killed more than 250 people, SL's police said on Friday. SL police officials refused to provide details of how the five had been arrested but said that they were holding the suspects after being picked up in the Saudi city of Jeddah. "These are the five remaining leaders of 21 April terrorist group" more..

Jun 14 (AD) Minister Ravi Karunanayake says that Sri Lanka would not be facing the issues it is currently burdened with if the process initiated by him as the Minister of Finance had been continued and that he did not become Asia�s Best Finance Minister by just idling. Responding to questions from reporters following an event in Colombo today, the minister said that not only him, but even his wife and children had been subjected to great injustices in the face of the allegations more..

Jun 14 (DM) Australian Govt yesterday reviewed its travel advisory for Sri Lanka and lowered it to exercise a high degree of caution. �We�ve lowered our level of travel advice for Sri Lanka to exercise a high degree of caution, �the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. The travel advisory said following the 21 April terrorist attacks, a state of emergency is in place and night-time curfews can be imposed with short notice. �Security forces maintain a visible presence, more..

Jun 14 (PMD) President Sirisena said it is his objective is to work closely with the other countries in the world in Sri Lanka�s march towards economic prosperity. Prez made these comments during a bilateral discussion with President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. Prez Sirisena who was on a state visit to Tajikistan to attend the 5th Summit of the Conference on Interaction & confidence building measures more..

Jun 14 (DM) The countrywide sale of liquor and all alcoholic beverages will be banned on Poson Poya Day, which falls on Sunday, June 15 and 16, by order of Excise Commissioner General, the department announced. The order will prevail on all wine shops, bars, restaurants, taverns and hotels around the country. The order will also include all Sri Lanka Tourist Board approved guest houses, rest houses as well as the hotels that chiefly serve foreign tourists. more..

Jun 14 (EN) Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a project under which Sri Lanka will get aid to adopt more solar energy in its power generation mix, upgrade transmission systems and raise funds. The ADB aid for deploying solar energy at scale covers south Asia and includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives and Nepal. The funds, from the Clean Energy Fund under the Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility, will ensure environmentally sustainable and inclusive more..

Jun 14 (AFP) World Cup organisers have been forced to defend the quality of the tournament's pitches and facilities after reports of an official complaint from Sri Lanka. SL team manager Ashantha de Mel claimed the ICC have given certain World Cup teams preferential treatment at the expense of his side. Launching an angry attack on the ICC ahead of SL's match against holders Australia on Saturday, De Mel blasted the quality of more..

Jun 14 (TP) Sri Lanka is taking all steps necessary in collaboration with other countries, including India, to ensure the Islamic State or ISIS doesn�t spread its tentacles in south Asia after the horrific Easter bombings in April that killed over 250 people, said Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Austin Fernando. He said, �We have started working on it. Investigations are still going on, but we have found some of those who had links with ISIS (and they) are under custody. more..

Jun 14 (Island) Former Governor of the Eastern province M. L. A. M. Hisbullah yesterday told the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), probing the Easter Sunday carnage that he had, in Parliament, warned of a bloodbath sometime back, but it had nothing to do Islamic extremism. Giving evidence before the PSC during the second session of the fifth day of sitting, Hisbullah said that he warned of a bloodbath in case of the merger of the North and the East. more..

Jun 14 (CG) Marking Father�s Day (June 16), United Nations Children�s Fund (UNICEF) has temporarily removed the image of the parent from its iconic 70 year old parent and child logo, to highlight the need for parents in Sri Lanka to receive increased support through family friendly policies, enabling them to play their full role in the healthy growth and development of their children. During the first 5 years, more..

Jun 15 (CT) Six weeks after the Easter Sunday crime in Sri Lanka, it is an open secret among Colombo�s diplomatic community and intelligentsia that Saudi Arabia funded and had prior notice, while the United States had prime motive to stage the Hollywood-style shock and awe suicide attacks, mysteriously claimed by the Islamic State two days later. Sri Lanka is a 70% Buddhist county with around ten percent each of Hindus, Muslims and Christians, and hence the Euro-American, more..

Jun 15 (CT) Carbon Dating is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. Excavations at the mass grave in Mannar began when the site was first discovered during the initial phases of the construction of a SATHOSA building in the area. Samples obtained from the mass grave at Mannar were sent to Beta Analytic, USA for a Carbon 14 test. The carbon dating report prepared by more..

Jun 15 (Island) Amidst much snigger raised from the massive political farce taking place in the country today, there is an even more cause for worry and rising fear on the very future of our society. The politicians, those in govt and opposition, are certainly having a great time, calculating the votes they will gain from the increasing divisions in the electorate. The partitioning on ethnicity and religion are vastly spreading, more..

Jun 15 (CT) Throughout 2011 then I continued to have faith in Mohan Peiris, though I was beginning to realize he was not quite everything he pretended to be. We had agreed that, since the committee tasked with carrying out the interim recommendations was not meeting, I should see him regularly to be briefed on progress and I had asked if I could bring Jeevan for these meetings, since he had done some work in this area and could also give us an NGO perspective. more..

Jun 15 (DN) PM Ranil Wickremesinghe has vowed to take stringent security measures to prevent Islamic State (IS) terrorism from raising its head again adding that the Security Forces and Police have apprehended those involved in the Easter Sunday attacks that killed 258 people. �Already the Security Forces and Police have been able to apprehend everyone involved in these bomb blasts. Those who have been apprehended will face legal proceedings initiated by Attorney General.� more..

Jun 15 (ST) There is a reason one doesn�t often ask the writer Michael Ondaatje for an interview � not only because of a sense that he prefers living offstage, but also in fairness to his own quiet manner of supporting writers, artists and their cultural landscape. In recent years, I have come across a number of writers to whom Ondaatje has given generously of his time and detailed reading, more time that one would dare to ask for. more..

Jun 15 (GV) On April 21, 2019, the doctors working at the National Blood Transfusion Services woke to chilling news. A series of suicide bomb blasts had occurred across the island. As of June 11, 254 people lost their lives. At least 500 more were injured. �By 9 am, we knew what had happened. By 11 am, the Centre was full,� recalls Dr Senal Rupasinghe, Medical Officer in Charge of the Donor Section at the National Blood Transfusion Service. Both mainstream and social media shared more..

Jun 15 (CT) With his erstwhile enemies baying for his blood from all sides, Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne is a man under serious assault one might say. And as though on cue, to magnify the man�s misery, which can never be a fraction of what the common man suffers in the hospitals under his purview, the hapless but not so pitied Minister is now under the axe as far as the Monetary Board of the Central Bank is concerned �or so he claims. Peeved to his marrow, the poor man, more..

Jun 15 (Island) Sixty years have gone by since we entered (in 1959) the portals of that most beautiful university at that time, Uni of Ceylon, situated in the salubrious surroundings of Peradeniya just four miles from the city of Kandy, to read for our varied degrees in Arts, Oriental Languages, Law, etc. But we have not forgotten the best experience we have had during the three or four years we spent in that campus. It is sad that a large number of our batch mates are not with us more..

Jun 15 (DN) Royal are favourites to retain the Bradby Shield for a record fifth consecutive year but are wary of a backlash from Trinity when they clash in the second leg of the 75th edition of the series at Royal Sports Complex this evening. Kick-off is at 4.00 p.m. Trinity are still smarting from the crushing 34-17 defeat they suffered at Pallekelle a fortnight ago and still licking their wounds after the 32-7 thrashing handed by St. Peter�s in Bambalapitiya last week. more..

Jun 15 (Island) Sydney Olympic silver medalist Susanthika Jayasinghe is set to display her medal during this year�s Olympic Day run. This was revealed at a press conference to announce the Olympic Day Run celebrations at the National Olympic Committee (NOCSL). Int'l Olympic Day falls on June 23 each year. To celebrate this annual sports spectacle, the NOCSL will conduct its annual Olympic Day Run on June 25 more..

Jun 15 (Island) The UNP, which got the current Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Easter bombings and allied issues appointed, is alleged to have sought to show President Maithripala Sirisena in a bad light, in retaliation for the presidential bond probe commission which made it attract a great deal of public opprobrium. Its tit-for-tat move seemed to have yielded the desired results with the President throwing a tantrum and threatening to suspend Cabinet meetings in protest. more..

Jun 15 (CI) This was supposed to be a 350 meets 350 match. At least 300 versus 300. And, for those who dared hope, 400 from both teams. In the end, the combined total of both teams just about crossed 400, with England clinically dismantling West Indies at the Hampshire Bowl on Friday. After three no-result matches in the last four days, it was a bit of a relief to have cricket interrupt the rain. Dark clouds did hover, but metaphorical ones, over the fitness of two key England players. more..

Jun 15 (Roar) Actor, director and playwright Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke, has just won the highest English literary award in the country�the Gratiaen Prize�for his original, creative and groundbreaking play, The One Who Loves You So. A departure from the devised and immersive theatre he is known for, The One Who Loves You So dealt with the deeply personal topic of homosexuality, but also the intersection more..