May 21 (CT) Hurdler Shayama Dulani finished her maiden international outing in emphatic fashion as she won the Gold Medal in the 400m hurdles at the Thailand Open Athletics Championship, yesterday. The 26-year old clocked a modest 1 minute 2.49 seconds, but it was enough for her to win the Gold medal, with Koniel Donna of Papua New Guinea finishing second and Suchada Meersi of Thailand coming in third. Hailing from Down South, Shayama trains under coach Muddika Thushara, more..

May 21 (FT) SL Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry has welcomed the move by the Govt, in consultation with the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA), to gazette a 14.4% increase in the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of 60 price-controlled pharmaceutical drug molecules. �The increase in the MRP of all price-controlled molecules will provide all our stakeholders with a measure of relief from the escalating cost burden created by extreme rupee devaluation,� more..

May 21 (AD) The SL Army Commander urges parents to send their children to school again from tomorrow, without any fear. Commander of the SL Army Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake says that the tri-forces and the police have given priority to strengthening the security of schools. The complete message of the Army Commander: �Following the unfortunate terrorist attack and its impact on 21 April 2019, more..

May 21 (DN) World renowned trade fair organizer Messe Duesseldorf who has been represented officially by the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Sri Lanka (AHK Sri Lanka), met with the Minister Malik Samarawickrama recently to discuss on how to promote the Made in Sri Lanka brand name in the international arena. �The SL govt shows full openness in cooperating with Messe Duesseldorf,� said Director, International Business of Messe Duesseldorf, Dr. Clemens Schuette. more..

May 21 (ET) Carrier Vistara has stalled plans to fly to Colombo, after the spate of terrorist bombings that recently ravaged the Sri Lankan commercial capital and is instead looking at South Asian destinations for its maiden international flight. �Colombo flights were to start this month. But the airline had to delay it in view of the attacks. It is now working on a plan B,� said a person close to the development. He did not disclose which specific destinations in the region are being looked at more..

May 21 (Island) Executive Committee member of National Joint Committee (NJC) Manohara de Silva, PC, warned of a possible attempt to put off the scheduled 2019 presidential election purportedly on account of the current security situation following the Easter Sunday carnage. Speaking at a media briefing, held by civil society group Yuthukama, De Silva said so, having accused the National Election Commission more..

May 21 (DN) The Canned Fish Manufacturers Association of SL called for immediate govt intervention to prevent the local industry from collapsing. President, Canned Fish Manufacturers Association of SL, Shiran Fernando, urged the govt to act swiftly to remedy their woes by implementing the following minimum requirements of re-introducing the import tax on foreign canned fish to previous levels of Rs 102 and re-introducing the Rs 20 concession per tin offered by the Sathosa, more..

May 21 (CT) Unemployment in the fourth quarter of last year increased, coinciding with the slowdown in the tourism construction subsector, allegedly, consequent to the political crisis that gripped the country on 26 Oct 2018, official data, showed. Subsequently, last year�s third quarter unemployment, which was 346,998, increased by 12.22% (42,408) to 389,406 by the fourth quarter of last year. As a percentage of the total labour or workforce, unemployment figure increased more..

May 21 (FT) JVP will hand over a No-Confidence Motion (NCM) against the Govt, including President Maithripala Sirisena, to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya today. JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the JVP had decided to hand over the No-Confidence Motion, as there was clear evidence in the public domain that Prez and PM, as well as other members of the Govt, had failed to prevent Easter Sunday attacks, more..

May 21 (DM) PHU deputy leader Madumadawa Aravinda has failed to appear at the Minuwangoda Police Station at two instances � today and Sunday � despite summons being issued to be present to provide a statement in connection with his alleged presence during a tense situation that erupted in Minuwangoda on May 13, police said. Mr. Aravinda had told the media that he had to leave the Minuwangoda Police Station without giving a statement when he was first summoned as more..

May 21 (DM) The Elections Commission (EC) was determined to announce the presidential poll in mid-October and hold the election between Nov 9 and Dec 9, its Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said. �According to the Constitution, the presidential poll has to be held one month prior to the expiry of office of the incumbent President. The Constitution also says the election has to be announced at a minimum of 15 days prior to the nomination day,� he told Daily Mirror. �The Elections Commission is more..

May 21 (AD) Six persons have been arrested by the Kurunegala Police over connections to the Easter Day attacks and enabling terror acts. Among the arrestees, three have been remanded after being produced at the courts and the remaining 3 are currently investigated on under the custody of the Kurunegala Police. Reportedly, Kurunegala Police had received a tip-off that a group of persons had been conducting a training camp at more..

May 21 (FT) Speaker Karu Jayasuriya on Sunday requested of MPs, most of whom are members of Sectoral Oversight Committees in Parliament, to speak in one voice so as to demonstrate to the country the readiness of Parliament to collectively face the challenges before it. In the letter addressed to the MPs, the Speaker said that it has become evident now that a large amount of false propaganda has been spread around the country, since the Easter Sunday attacks up to the Vesak Day, more..

May 21 (AD) Easter Attack ringleader Zahran Hashim�s main organizer, Kalmunai Siam, has been arrested by officials of the State Intelligence Service. The officials from the Ampara division of the State Intelligence Service had arrested the called Kalmunai Siam, last evening (19), based on investigations carried out by them following the Easter attacks. Following interrogations of Siam, four more suspects were also arrested yesterday (19). more..

May 21 (DM) Controversy surrounds Power and Energy Minister Ravi Karunanayake�s move to award another 400MWs of emergency power to a Turkish company, Daily Mirror learns. Mr. Karunanayake recently managed to get Cabinet approval to award the 300MWs Kerawalapitiya Power Plant tender to a Chinese firm. The transaction is mired in controversy and challenged in a court of law by local bidder Lakdhanavi. more..

May 21 (DM) Once again the US seems to be on the brink of war, creating the conditions to commence another invasion of the Middle East. The world�s leading super power is in the middle of building tensions between itself and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The enmity between Iran and the US is not new. The US is apparently still smarting from the slap in the face it received from Iran back in 1979, when it overthrew the US-puppet regime led by the then Shah of Iran, followed by more..

May 21 (DM) If Zaharan blew up temples, many pundits would have rationalized the massacre. Anti-Muslim riots gave them an opening and diverted the attention from the real problem. What if the Easter Sunday attacks targeted temples and people queuing at bus stands in the South? Imagine then how many of those usual culprits would have gone to town, rationalizing, and even covertly justifying it. NGO captains would have had a field day cataloguing the victimhood of Muslims, and more..

May 21 (DM) Former Army Commander, the first Field Marshal and the 2010 Presidential Candidate, Sarath Fonseka airs his views on how to fight a war and battle terrorism. One of the most experienced Army Commanders in the world, Field Marshal Fonseka, describes how and why Sri Lanka failed to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks. Fonseka, who marshalled his troops to win the 26-year-old war against LTTE, in this candid interview says more..

May 21 (Island) The CEB is left with no alternative but to impose power cuts if the prevailing weather continues, warns a top Board engineer. CEB Engineers Union President Saumya Manawadu, said that with peak demand on the rise, power cuts would be inevitable. Water levels at the Castlereigh, Mousakelle, Kotmale, Victoria, Randenigala, and Samanalawewa dams had dropped to 27% of their capacity. more..

May 21 (ST) Public debt is estimated to have increased significantly to about 90% of GDP at end-2018, the IMF said in its latest staff report, with losses of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), particularly CEB, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and SriLankan Airlines, accounting for 1.3% of GDP. The increased debt reflected weaker economic performance and the sizable depreciation of the rupee as at the end of last year. more..

May 21 (CT) Sri Lanka should immediately bring Laws to criminalise hate speech and regulate religious space to tackle terrorism. Otherwise, Sri Lanka wll become another Syria in the future, warns Prof. Rohan Gunaratna, a political analyst, widely known as an international terrorism expert. Prof. Gunaratna made this remark while delivering the keynote speech at the Forum Sri Lanka at Cross Roads: Time to Learn, Unlearn and Relearn, more..

May 21 (ST) Though security considerations in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks have led to the cancellation of many public events during this year�s Vesak celebrations, they have not stopped the people from marking the most significant date on the Buddhist calendar in their own way. There will be no major Vesak Zones this year owing to security concerns. There are hardly any pandals or large scale Vesak lanterns, more..

May 21 (FT) The UNP yesterday said the party will take a final decision at the Parliamentary Group today over the No-Confidence Motion handed over to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya against Minister Rishad Bathiudeen by the Joint Opposition last week. MPs who back Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa handed over the No-Confidence Motion against Bathiudeen last Thursday, alleging the Minister had links with several suspects who were more..

May 21 (Island) Civil society organization, Yuthukama, called for a thorough investigation into the circumstances leading to the Easter Sunday suicide bombings. Yuthukama Convener Genvindu Cumaratunga said that the public was aware of the identities of suicide cadres and their relatives as well as the National Thowheed Jamat�s alleged links to ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). But the real issue was who actually more..

May 21 (AD) Sharia universities will not be granted approval and Madrasah education institutes will be brought under the purview of Ministry of Education, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe has asserted. The PM has met with the Muslim ministers and the committee appointed to look into the proposed Sharia University in Batticaloa. Accordingly, MP Ashu Marasinghe has informed the PM on the content of the report more..

May 21 (AD) JVP handed over a no-confidence motion against the govt to the Speaker of the Parliament a short while ago. Speaker�s Office stated that the JVP handed over the motion to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya at 10 am this morning. JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake stated that the faith on the govt regarding the security of the country has been lost. The JVP has filed a motion based on several points including more..

May 21 (DM) DNA investigations have confirmed that it was National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) leader Mohamed Zahran Hashim - one of the two suicide bombers - who was killed in the Colombo Shangri-La hotel blast on Easter Sunday. A top officer of the Govt Analyst's Dept said the DNA investigations were carried out for several days using biological samples of the wife of Mohamed Zahran, his daughter and a sister. more..

May 21 (Island) A person who visited a prisoner at the Malwatte Prison in Kalutara on the Vesak Poya day (18) was detained on suspicion for 72-hours for questioning, Kalutara North police said. Suspect Letchuman Manodharshan (24) is a resident of Hendala, Wattala. The police said the suspect had been found loitering close to the Jayasumanarama temple in the area around 2 a.m. and when questioned he said had come to visit his brother serving a prison term. more..

May 21 (FT) Property rights of people are at the foundation of any economic system, whether it is free-market, statist, or socialist. People do what they do in an economy if they can enjoy the fruits of their labour � in the parlance of economists, physical and human property they have acquired and called property rights � without the fear of it being taken away by someone against their consent. If they consent, it should be done only by paying the appropriate price agreed between them. more..

May 21 (AD) Leader of Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa today (21) visited several schools in Colombo to observe the student turnout and encourage parents to send their children to schools. Accordingly, he first arrived at the Thurstan College along with a group of MPs representing the Joint Opposition and also met with the principal of the school. The Opposition Leader also visited the Royal College, Visakha Vidyalaya as well as the Hindu College in Bambalapitiya. more..

May 21 (EN) Sri Lanka's private security firms are seeing a spike in demand which they cannot meet after Easter Sunday bombings but there are fears that the boom may not be sustainable, industry officials said. "We are seeing a large increase in demand of about 75%," says General Manager of LOKX Security Services, Major (retired) Surangoda De Silva. "We don't even have security surveillance equipment, we are already run out of stock," he said. The Easter Sunday bombings sent more..

May 21 (DM) State Minister Niroshan Perera said that he would use his vote in favour of the No-confidence motion (NCM) handed over to the Speaker by the Joint Opposition against Minister, Rishard Bathiudeen, if he does not resign from his ministerial post. He said this was not a decision of the govt but his own decision in a bid to mete out justice for the people who died and injured during the Easter Sunday attack. more..

May 21 (Island) Kahawatte police said investigations would continue into a former officer who had allegedly extorted money from a businessman posing off as drug lord Makandure Madush, now in remand custody. 24-year-old suspect is a resident of Rajanganaya, A'pura. He had also given his wife�s address at Mount Lavinia as his place of residence. The suspect had allegedly demanded money from businessman in Gorala, Pelmadulla posing off as Madush and ordered the latter to credit funds more..

May 21 (DN) PHU Leader and Joint Opposition MP Udaya Gammanpila said Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had accepted the No Confidence Motion (NCM) submitted by the JO against Minister Rishad Bathiudeen and the JO intends to ask for an early date for the debate. He also said that since one day would not be enough for the debate, they intend to ask for two days to debate the motion. Responding to social media claims that the NCM against Minister Bathiudeen by the Opposition had been more..

May 21 (AD) Former DIG Nalaka de Silva, who was arrested in connection with the alleged VIP assassination plot, has been granted bail by the Colombo Fort Magistrate�s Court. The case against the former DIG was taken up before the Colombo Fort Magistrate today (21), while a bail application filed on his behalf was taken up for consideration. De Silva, the former Director of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), more..

May 21 (CT) Unless the UNP and the UNP�led Govt comes up with something extraordinarily powerful to swing the pendulum their way almost immediately, one is inclined to prophesy that the writing�s on the wall for the UNP and its allies at the next presidential and general election. As though the Central Bank Bonds scam and utter failure to successfully prosecute any of the major crimes committed under cover of the former Govt�s impunity and a litany of promises not delivered upon, more..

May 21 (AD) The deadline for submitting applications for the G.C.E. O/L Exam for the year 2019 has been extended. Accordingly, the closing date of the applications for the G.C.E. O/L 2019 is the 31st of May. Additionally, if govt-employed applicants are not able to get their applications certified by Grama Niladari Officers, they may get the certification by the head of their place of employment. Meanwhile, GCE O/L exam for the year 2019 is set to be held in Dec this year. more..

May 21 (FT) SLPP yesterday warned the SLFP that any attempt to seek an extension of President Maithripala Sirisena�s term will undermine ongoing talks to form a coalition. SLPP Chairman Prof G.L. Peiris warned against the SLFP attempting to extend the term limit of President Sirisena, saying it would scupper ongoing talks between the SLPP and the SLFP to form a coalition more..

May 21 (FT) Distinguished surgeon Dr. Lakshman Attygalle died peacefully at his residence. The funeral will take place today. Having earned his FRCS Eng in 1963 and qualified as a genito urinary (GU) surgeon in 1966, Dr. Lakshman Attygalle was, at one time, the only GU surgeon in the country. Posted as GU Surgeon to Kandy in 1968, he was appointed to Colombo General Hospital in 1972, where he served in the same capacity until retirement in 1993. more..