Jun 6 (CT) The Sri Lanka under 19 team was able to beat the Pakistan under 19 team by 5 wickets in the fifth Youth ODI at the MRIC Stadium in Hambantota yesterday. Sri Lanka who had lost the series inside 4 matches made it 3-2 with the victory in the fifth match. Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bowl first and they had early success with Haider Ali dismissed for 5. But, Basit Ali and Rohail Nazir consolidated their innings adding 81 runs for the second wicket. Ali made 56 in 86 balls more..

Jun 6 (Island) Minister Ravi Karunanayake�s announcement, on the World Environmental Day, of the removal of Net Metering System (NMS) and Net Accounting System (NAS) will dramatically reduce the future investment in solar power generation, industry experts warn. The two systems were put in place to encourage installation of rooftop solar systems. Minister announced that from Aug 1, only the Net Plus System (NPS) more..

Jun 6 (FT) Focusing on recognising women who excel in their careers, businesses and everyday life, the ninth edition of the Top 50 Professional and Career Women Awards Sri Lanka 2019 was launched on Tuesday under the theme Empowered Women for Sustainable Growth. The Professional and Career Women Awards will be hosted by Women in Management (WIM) in partnership with International Finance Corporation (IFC) for the fifth consecutive year. more..

Jun 6 (ICC) Securing a morale-boosting win was all that mattered to Isuru Udana after Sri Lanka held their nerve against Afghanistan to get off the mark in the World Cup 2019. Sri Lanka recovered from a second batting collapse in as many games to defeat Afghanistan by 34 runs (DLS method) after being rescued by bowlers Lasith Malinga (3/39) and Nuwan Pradeep (4/31). It was only their second ODI win of the year and ensured they bounced back from a heavy ten-wicket defeat by New Zealand more..

Jun 6 (DM) Outdoor activities which were absent for Vesak this year are to be allowed for Poson, PM�s Office said. This decision has been made at a meeting which PM had together with a group of senior monks and laypersons at Temple Trees. PM has assured that Poson will be held in a grand scale this year. It was revealed in this meeting that a total of one million people are expected in to visit various places during Poson festival including A'pura more..

Jun 6 (Island) Points on the board is vital for SL but there is still a lot more to come from this team, particularly in the batting department. Looking at the wicket for the game against Afghanistan in Cardiff, it was clear this was never going to be a high-scoring game. However there is no question that Sri Lanka could have batted better. After such a good start, where Kusal Perera batted beautifully and they had two big partnerships, it was disappointing to see them lose their way in the middle. more..

Jun 6 (DN) LOLC Group releasing its year end results for 31 March 2019 registered another strong year to its stellar performance over the last decade. With a robust Profit before Tax (PBT) of Rs. 26.81bn, compared to Rs. 24.6 bn recorded in 2018, LOLC continues to surpass its own accomplishments. Kapila Jayawardena, CEO said, �We are proud of our resounding achievements this year, with a Group PBT of Rs 26.81bn, an extremely challenging task given the pressures of more..

Jun 6 (DM) Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the Constitution does not give power to any politicians, priests or social media platforms to decide who is guilty or innocent of any crime, including terrorism. In a lengthy statement issued to the media under the title The Cardinal Truth, Minister Samaraweera said every elected and appointed official in Sri Lanka has sworn an oath to uphold and defend such a Constitution. more..

Jun 6 (SLN) To coincide with the World Environment Day that falls on 05th June, officers and sailors attached to the Southern Naval Command volunteered to clean the beach lying adjacent to Galle Dutch Fort today. Going by the directives of the President, a National Environment Week has been declared to encourage people to be more green-activists. This year�s Environment Day is celebrated under the theme Reducing Air Pollution through Sustainable Forest Management. more..

Jun 6 (Island) Monetary Board of the Central Bank will have to consider imposing a lending cap on the banks if the banks are not cooperative enough to reduce the high lending rates, Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy warned. The Central Bank recently imposed a cap on deposit rates with the intention of bringing down lending rates by about 200 basis points, but so far the rates have come down only by 31 basis points. "It is not adequate but it will take time because more..

Jun 6 (DN) Laws are to be urgently toughened to crack down on false news distribution and to curb hate speech in a bid to reduce the current spate of conflict aggravating public messaging, the Govt Information Department announced yesterday. Cabinet approval has been granted for the revision of the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code enabling swift and stringent legal action to be taken against more..

Jun 6 (FT) LMD-Nielsen Business Confidence Index (BCI) plummeted by 15 basis points to register 62 in May, continuing its downward trend for the third consecutive month. LMD notes that this is the lowest the index has fallen to since July 2008. The count stood at 106 a year ago and averaged 93 points for the last 12 months, the magazine adds. Nielsen�s Managing Director Sharang Pant says in the latest edition of LMD that �the Easter Sunday attacks have had a telling impact on confidence levels more..

Jun 6 (EN) Sri Lanka will seek a US$ 310 million loan with the World Bank to mitigate climate disasters. The cabinet had cleared a proposal of Minister Mangala Samaraweera to begin negotiations for the loan. The proceeds of the loan will be used to mitigate climate risks across 11 river basins. The 8-10 year project will be carried out in three phases, with the first phase aimed at giving early flood warnings and reducing the danger of flooding in the Kelani River. more..

Jun 6 (EN) Galagoda Atte Gnanasara Thero has suddenly appeared on the side of angels slamming a fast by a fellow monk that raised communal tensions while the country's Catholic Cardinal appeared on the side of the fasting monk. Athureliye Rathana, a legislator-monk engaged in a fast opposite Temple of the Tooth asking for the resignation of three Muslim politicians including the controversial governor of Eastern province more..

Jun 6 (AD) Venerable Athuraliye Rathan Thero, who was hospitalized after concluding his protest fast, has discharged himself from the Kandy Teaching Hospital a short while ago. He had been receiving treatment at the Intensive Care Unit of the Kandy Teaching Hospital since concluding his protest fast on Monday (03). The Director of the hospital Dr. Saman Rathnayake stated yesterday (04) that the health condition of Ven. Rathana Thero was gradually improving. more..

Jun 6 (CT) The conservation of the Bar Reef located off the coast of Kalpitiya is a US$ 19.3 million project funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United States (US)-based Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Govt of Sri Lanka (GoSL). It is a six-year project ending in 2021. When the UNDP came to its aid, the reef was almost completely destroyed with only about 6% of it left alive, the UNDP in a publication released on 4 June said. more..

Jun 6 (DM) Holding a special discussion in Kandy, the Maha Sangha representing the three Nikayas expressed disappointment over the resignation of Muslim ministers and informed them to accept their own responsibilities and fulfil duties to serve the people of the country. The discussion was held under the patronage of Asgiriya Chapter Mahanayake the Most Venerable Warakagoda Sri Gnanarathana Thera more..

Jun 6 (Island) President�s Secretary Udaya Seneviratne, yesterday, said that none of the Muslim Ministers who, on Monday, announced that they would resign from the Cabinet had tendered their resignation letters. Cabinet Ministers Rauff Hakeem, Rishad Bathiudeen, Kabir Hashim and Abdul Haleem and State Ministers Faizal Cassim, Ameer Ali, H. M.M. Haris and Ali Zaheer Moulana announced, at a press conference on Monday, that they were resigning from their portfolios. more..

Jun 6 (AD) Former Southern Province Chief Minister Shan Wijeylal has been appointed as the new governor for the Eastern Province, stated President�s Media Division. Accordingly, he has been sworn into the new post before President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat, a short while ago. He will be filling into the post of Governor of Eastern Province following the resignation of former governor M.L.A.M. Hizbullah amid controversy. more..

Jun 6 (CT) A senior source in the Govt said, there is no change in the privileges given to the nine Muslim Ministers, though a statement has been made that they resigned. Their security, official vehicles, staff, and Parliament privileges remain as it is. Deputy Inspector General of Police, of the Ministers� Security Division said, security staff of Cabinet Ministers, State and Deputy Ministers, who had resigned, have not been removed yet. more..

Jun 6 (DM) United Nations (UN) International Day of Innocent Children-Victims of Aggression is observed on June 4 each year. Its purpose is to acknowledge the pain suffered by children, who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse and affirms the UN�s commitment to protect the rights of children the world over. In 1997 the General Assembly adopted Resolution 51/77 on the Rights of the Child. It was a landmark development in efforts to improve the protection of children in conflict situations. more..

Jun 6 (DM) Ajith Fernando, an old friend and an incredibly good and humble human being, got it right when he said, Terrorists don�t win when they manage to kill 200, 300 innocent people. They win when they manage to alienate and isolate the entire Muslim population. Now, broadly speaking, there are two ways in which a community can become alienated and isolated. First, if the rest of the population, out of fear, prejudice or for some other reason, conflates that community with more..

Jun 6 (ST) Tests in March and April at the Lakvijaya coal power plant in Norochcholai show particulate matter�or dust�sixteen times over the maximum permissible level in the stack emissions of unit one. The quantity of harmful sulphur dioxide is also over the limit in the stacks emissions of both unit one and two, with the latter performing significantly worse than the former. Unit two is functioning without a vital environmental more..

Jun 6 (EN) Sri Lanka's central bank may consider further steps to reduce perceptions of conflicts of interest in bank regulation and the purchase of shares by the Employees Provident Fund, Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy said. Reporters questioned whether there were conflicts when the same deputy or assistant governors were assigned both departments, and if the roles should be split. more..

Jun 6 (Island) The Joint Opposition (JO), accused the UNP of causing an irreparable rift between the Sinhala and Muslim communities by forcing all Muslim lawmakers to give up portfolios to save Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, accused of complicity in the Easter Sunday carnage. JO spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella questioned why Ministers Rauff Hakeem, Kabir Hashim, Amir Ali, Sihabdeen and Abdul Haleem, more..

Jun 6 (EN) The number of persons electrocuted in Sri Lanka fell 16% to 89 in 2018, with the most incidents reported when farmers were rigging illegal electric fences to protect crops, the state utilities regulator said. The international benchmark for electrocutions is one in a million people. However, at least five people per million were electrocuted in 2018, a Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) report said. more..

Jun 6 (Island) Solar Industry Association (SIA) alleges that the Surya Bala Sangraamaya programme, launched in 2016, is on the verge of collapse. This is despite the fact that the programme has been a resounding success with over 17,000 installations and a combined energy capacity of nearly 200 MW added to the national grid. "The CEB and Ministry of Power and Energy officials have undertaken steps without more..

Jun 6 (AD) Twelve days have passed since the public were requested to submit their complaints against Dr. Mohamed Shafi Mohamed of the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital if any. Since then, 742 mothers have lodged complaints that they had either suffered complications of failed to conceive again after undergoing a Caesarian surgery under Dr. Shafi. Fifteen complaints were received by Kurunegala Teaching Hospital more..

Jun 6 (AD) Chief Prelates of temples in Gampaha have jointly decided not to engage Ministers Mangala Samaraweera and Rajitha Senaratne and MP Chathura Senaratne in any religious activities held at temples in Gampaha. This decision was taken yesterday (04) at the meeting of the Gampaha District Shasanarakshaka Bala Mandalaya. However, Minister Mangala Samaraweera responded to this decision by more..

Jun 6 (EN) The mass resignation of Muslim ministers over the harassment of their community in the wake of an extremist Islamist attack on Easter Sunday had echoes of Tamil Minister Appapillai Amirthalingam in 1983, a minister said. Sri Lanka enacted a law making Sinhala the sole national language a few years after independence, helping trigger a Tamil separatist war. Legislators who did not swear to an amendment to more..

Jun 6 (DN) Unless the current harassment of the Muslim community is brought under control within the month, those Muslim Parliamentarians who have resigned their portfolios will be �compelled to take political action�, SLMC leader and former Minister Rauff Hakeem has told Australian ABC Radio. The SLMC leader who led the Muslim ministers and deputy ministers in a mass protest resignation last week, has said more..

Jun 6 (AD) IGP Pujith Jayasundara testifying at the Special Parliamentary Select Committee stated that the President has asked him not to attend the National Security Council meetings. IGP Pujith Jayasundara is currently testifying before the Special Parliamentary Select Committee appointed to look into the terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday. When he was inquired whether he attended National Security Council meetings, more..

Jun 6 (FT) Fraud has become one of the most worrying factors in recent times for business owners, board directors, senior members of management and even regulators. The increasing number of frauds in some markets over the recent past, significant loss of value and earnings due to fraud, increasing level of sophistication associated with fraud schemes and difficulties in uncovering fraud and recovering losses stemming from such frauds are amongst the leading factors that have more..

Jun 6 (CT) If a Govt can�t in five long years solve simple issues to open the way for PC elections, IT MUST GO! Politics, personal and party, juxtaposed to good constitutional governance, often makes a monkey of the Constitution and all that it literally and figuratively stands for. This is true in a democracy or any other form of Govt. This abhorrent state of indefinite, much prolonged postponement of PC elections by the UNP via its Govt has at its core the objective of preempting a whitewash at PC more..

Jun 6 (Island) Vice Chancellor of the Kelaniya University Prof. D.M. Semasinghe said that the Social Sciences and Humanities faculties would re-open today. He said that following an assurance from the students that they would not object to the security arrangements in place to ensure their own safely, it had been decided to reopen the aforesaid faculties. The other faculties were re-opened on June 3. He said that all the faculties except the Medical Faculty had been closed as more..

Jun 6 (AD) The case filed against seven individuals including one of the suicide bombers at the Shangri-La Hotel, for stealing a container with aluminum and copper worth Rs 6.1 million back in 2013, is to be taken up on September 10th to seek the Attorney General�s advice in this regard. The case filed by the Grandpass Police was taken up before the Colombo Additional magistrate Kanchana de Silva today. The police informed the court that they have sought the Attorney General�s advice more..

Jun 6 (AD) Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya has decided to appoint a seven-judge bench to consider seven Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions against IGP Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando for failing to act on the forewarning on the Easter Sunday attacks. The petitions were taken up before Supreme Court three-judge bench including Justices Buwaneka Aluwihare, Sisira de Abrew and more..

Jun 6 (AD) Three Buddhist statues near a shop in Pasyala on Colombo-Kandy main road have been vandalized last evening, says Ada Derana reporter. Nittambuwa Police suspects that this must have been done deliberately and Army personnel have been deployed to the area to curb any possible unrest that might arise in the area. The nearby CCTV cameras were also damaged by the perpetrators. Nittambuwa Police is further investigating the incident. more..

Jun 6 (DM) Since armed forces, police and the Civil Defense Force personnel have been deployed for the safety of school children, there is no need of parents to be called to schools to provide security, the Education Ministry said today. It said some schools had worked in an embarrassing manner by calling parents to provide security. The ministry said it had received complaints claiming that expectant mothers had also been standing in front of schools gates. more..