Aug 14 (ST) The Consultant is examining a patient who is wracked by a fit of coughing, when the Sunday Times calls him on Thursday morning. This is nothing new in these terrible times of COVID-19, with a rapid spread of the virus. What is new though is that the doctor seeing the patient is not a Physician but a Psychiatrist. A Physician has also seen the patient to manage his COVID-19 symptoms. This was the scene at the very first National COVID-19 Positive Hospital for more..

Aug 14 (TM) An employee attached to the Lunawa District Hospital has been arrested for illegally administering Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines at a fee of Rs.2000. SDIG Ajith Rohana further elaborated that the individual was also involved in forging vaccination cards. The arrest was made on Friday (August 13) in a joint operation carried out by the Divisional Intelligence Unit of Mount Lavinia Police and the investigation officers of the Ministry of Health. more..

Aug 14 (ST) Children from families working in the plantation sector are dropping out of school at an increasing rate to seek work due to crushing pressure to perform extraordinarily well at national exams. These students are being pushed by teachers, principals, education zone and provincial directors to show good results at national exams so that these functionaries could earn pay increments and promotions, more..

Aug 14 (ST) While the present judicial delays were exacerbated by the pandemic, it is important to treat these challenges as an opportunity, build on the momentum and continue to strengthen the relationship of technology and the judicial system, newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Arjuna Obeysekere said. While the country�s judicial system took time to adjust to the pandemic, it has now caught up due to the steady support and commitment of members of the Bar, more..

Aug 14 (SLN) A special foot patrol conducted by the Navy in Velvettithurai area, Jaffna this morning led to the seizure of about 126kg of Kerala cannabis and over 02kg of the drug Crystal Methamphetamine known as �Ice�. Apart from these substances the Navy also managed to nab 03 suspects in connection to the incident and a cab used to transfer those items. Navy has been conducting regular operations both at sea and along the coastal border, to curb illegal activities including smuggling more..

Aug 14 (TM) In a Special Procedure report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) dated 9 Aug 2021 addressed to Prez Rajapaksa, concerns have been raised around the adoption and implementation of Prevention of Terrorism (De-radicalization from holding violent extremist religious ideology) Regulations No. 01 of 2021. According to the report, Prez has been encouraged to rescind more..

Aug 14 (FT) Afghanistan is keen to obtain SL�s expertise in the gem and jewellery industry, according to the Afghan Ambassador to Colombo. Ambassador M. Ashraf Haidari has met with State Minister of Gem and Jewelry Related Industries Lohan Ratwatte and discussed many potential areas of cooperation in this sector where Afghanistan needs Sri Lanka�s expertise and experience in extracting, processing, designing, and marketing precious and semi-precious stones, more..

Aug 14 (AD) Minister of Finance has issued a Gazette Extraordinary, extending the validity period of the existing special commodity levy on several food items. The order will be in effect for a period of one year commencing from Aug 12, 2021, subject to provisions of Sub Section (3) of Section 2 of the Special Commodity Levy Act, No. 48 of 2007. Further, the order previously made under the provisions of Special Commodity Act and published in two gazette notifications issued on more..

Aug 14 (EE) POLICE Scotland has paused its training programme in SL for the time being as the force�s activity in the south Asian country is being reviewed. Its engagement with Sri Lanka where it worked to develop community policing has been halted since May, months after reports that it renewed its contract with Colombo for two years. While the activity of Police Scotland is being assessed, the force said its officers could not more..

Aug 14 (FT) Supreme TV, SL�s latest Sinhala TV channel, has expanded islandwide, joining the fight against COVID-19�s adverse impact on the nation�s education sector. The channel has joined an existing TV infrastructure and has hurriedly expanded islandwide especially to cater to over 660,000 GCE (O/L) students who will now be able to continue their studies uninterrupted by watching the educational content of the channel. Supreme TV became the first and only channel to dedicate more than half more..

Aug 14 (CT) If a lockdown is not possible, the Govt should consider imposing a lockup in the country in order to arrest the current situation where COVID-19 cases are rapidly increasing, Medical Expert urged. Academic and Consultant, Senior Professor Arjuna de Silva, while recommending a �lockup� system insisted the Govt look to its best available options at this critical stage, where the next two weeks remain extremely crucial. The Senior Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Kelaniya University more..

Aug 15 (SO) The country has reached a critical phase in its battle against the raging Coronavirus, with daily infections touching the 3,000 mark and the death toll exceeding 150. These are numbers that no one imagined even a few months ago when the disease was somewhat tamed in the country. However, the carelessness of the masses during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year period and the massive breaching of the subsequent travel restrictions did lead to a surge in cases, this time helped by more..

Aug 15 (TM) For want of a better analogy, Sri Lanka appears to be fast approaching its Titanic moment with the Covid iceberg looming large on the horizon. It was not long ago that an American think tank predicted SL�s daily death toll will hit 200 by end-August. That prediction has proven to be spot on, given the current controversy surrounding official pandemic-related data. To make matters worse, just last week, a special WHO-appointed committee, comprising the cream of local specialists more..

Aug 15 (SO) State Minister Prof. Channa Jayasumana said the health sector is still managing the Covid-19 pandemic with great difficulties. This is a serious situation and there are many difficulties faced by the health sector. State Minister said, however, we should appreciate the contribution by the doctors, nurses and all other healthcare workers as they are doing their best. He said the health sector has exhausted due to the pandemic. more..

Aug 15 (CT) The doctors have been saying it daily. Vaccine alone is not enough to stem the spread of Covid-19, especially the Delta variant. Doctors have been calling for greater isolation, lockdown, and even a curfew. �An immediate curfew will prevent at least 1,200 additional deaths within the next 20 days,� Prof. Suneth Agampodi, Rajarata University, is reported to have predicted. This is based on a forecasting model he has developed with two Sri Lankan colleagues at Harvard and MIT. more..

Aug 15 (DM) Journalism has been oft described as the first draft of history. But what is that first draft? Is it the authentic documentation of events or is it something else? It possibly is the version of history of the note taker. When the then SL govt and the Tigers were entering the final acts of a ceasefire sometime in the last quarter of 2004, I found that there was a confrontation between the Navy and Sea Tigers. Incident was kept out of the media, my source was an internal document circulated more..

Aug 15 (CT) �We were returning to the uni, with a group of students and uni lecturers, after engaging in a protest against the KNDU Bill on 5 Aug. Our bus was stopped near Gamsabha Junction and 3 persons who were in civil attire got in and one of them grabbed me by the hand,� Aminda Lakmal, Senior Lecturer at Uni of Sri J'pura said. According to him, person who grabbed him by the hand tried to take him away without more..

Aug 15 (SO) Army Commander General Shavendra Silva said although UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has strongly criticised the Army for their involvement in the Covid-19 vaccination drive, he too received his vaccine from the vaccination centre at the Army Hospital, Narahenpita. He said that the public would decide whether Wickremesinghe�s criticism of the Security Forces and their contribution to the vaccination drive is justified, when he himself had obtained more..

Aug 15 (NIA) It is with interest that I read in the Sunday Times of 8th Aug 2021, that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is looking to the private sector to recruit mid-career diplomats through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. This arrangement is being considered apparently because of the lack of expertise in various areas of diplomacy which now include highly specialized technical, scientific, trade and investment matters. Professional diplomats are trained in the art of diplomacy but more..

Aug 15 (CT) This article began as a comment on the call by Ms. Yasmin Sooka the executive directress of the Int'l Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) and others to cancel training programs to SL police. More broadly Ms. Sooka stated: �We urge the UK Govt to cancel the programme until Sri Lanka takes serious action to hold alleged perpetrators to account.� I endorse that call but there is a lot more to my comment that will not fit the Colombo Telegraph 200-word limit on comments. So this long piece. more..

Aug 15 (ST) There was probably little the Govt could celebrate last week on its first anniversary of returning to power and place. Ruling party MPs are being forced to argue a very bad brief these days. Some put on a brave face; others betray a sense of remorse, while some try to lie their way through. Not only has the virus taken a deadly new turn, but food prices, shortages of gas and milk food, anticipated low production of agricultural and plantation outputs, petrol price hikes, sugar scams, more..

Aug 15 (ST) Constituent parties within TNA were furious this week when they came to know that the party spokesperson MP M. A. Sumanthiran was present at a dinner with Minister G.L. Peiris on Wednesday at the residence of the US ambassador in Colombo. The dinner hosted by US ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz saw the discussion focused on the proposed political solution for the ethnic conflict through a new Constitution. more..

Aug 15 (DN) The Coast Conservation Act deals mainly with the coastal zone, and coasts is defined to mean �the border of land which is adjacent to the sea, and not covered by seawater, hence its applicability does not generally extend to the territorial sea, and to foreign vessels. The applicability of the other two Acts however is much wider. The Act dealing with national aquatic resources does with the development of aquatic resources. more..

Aug 15 (ST) My dear Sudarshini, I write to you because you seem to be the only person who is able to keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming each other � and also because you seem to be the only person with the courage to speak out against the mismanagement of the pandemic. When we heard you say that people should protect themselves instead of expecting the govt to impose restrictions, you stated the obvious. Yet, this is simply is not happening. more..

Aug 15 (CT) More than half of the gas stores in the country are out of stock. The Western Province is the worst hit with nearly three-quarters of stores running out of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders. The possibility of a gas shortage has aggravated the situation. It�s a vicious cycle: when customers stockpile LPG cylinders, stations run out of fuel. As more people realise that stores are empty they purchase more gas, more..

Aug 15 (ST) SL Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU) intends to request the Ministry of Sports to obtain services of Chinese coaches for the national coaching set up on a long term plan. Through this SLASU intends to seriously focus on four categories of aquatic sports, as the coaches would be drafted under the China-SL cultural programme. Chinese aquatic sports has seen a tremendous rate of success internationally, being among top five in the world rankings & Olympics in all 4 categories more..

Aug 15 (ST) Skipper Dasun Shanaka guided SLC Greys to their second successive win, cruising to an easy 35-run win over SLC Reds in a Dialog-SLC Invitation T20 League match played at Pallekele yesterday. Chasing 155 runs for victory, Reds were all at sea losing wickets at regular intervals and were eventually restricted for 119-9. Oshada Fernando played a good hand scoring a half-century but it was not sufficient to take the Reds to their maiden win in the tournament. more..

Aug 15 (ST) When eight Indian cricketers went into isolation after Kurnal Pandya tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the second T20 international against SL, it sent shivers down Sri Lanka Cricket�s (SLC) spine. The tourists had every reason to back out. With 9 players were in quarantine, they were just down to 11, not counting the four standbys, to finish off the last two games of the six-match white-ball series. more..

Aug 15 (ST) An alleged attempt to rig a tender by tailor-making the technical specifications to suit a hand-picked party has come to light at the Institute of Sports Medicine (ISM), with an aggrieved party protesting over alleged violation of procurement guidelines. ISM recently called for tenders to supply, install, commission, train and maintain equipment for its human performance laboratory but concerns about the specifications were brought to the notice of Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) more..

Aug 15 (ST) In a major development, Govt is to enter into public-private partnerships (PPPs) to maintain all State-owned sports complexes and stadiums in the country. Accordingly, all stadiums and grounds at national, provincial and district levels owned and managed by Sports Ministry or Sports Development Dept or funded by the same will be brought under Sugathadasa National Sports Complex Authority, which is now empowered to enter into PPPs for their management. more..

Aug 15 (SO) Javelin thrower Dinesh Priyantha Herath who won the bronze medal at the last Rio Paralympic Games will lead the nine member SL team to the Tokyo Paralympic Games scheduled to be held from Aug 24 to Sept 5 unlike the able bodied Olympians who were paid millions only to return by falling terribly below expectations. Worthy of note was also the fact that the Paralympians returned with 15 medals from the last Asian meet more..

Aug 15 (ST) CB is seriously considering intervening in the open market operations amidst heavy arbitraging by both the formal and informal financial sectors in the wake of the foreign exchange crisis. Despite the CB�s published exchange rate of Rs. 200 per USD the banks are selling dollars above this rate, an importer said on Friday. �There is no single dollar in any bank in the country to buy at that rate and banks are now buying from exporters at Rs. 210 and selling to importers at 214/215 levels� more..

Aug 15 (ST) SL�s tourism industry has raised their voice insisting that due recognition be given to them as a sector mainly run by the private sector in the adoption of a proposed new Tourism Act. Having reached the deadline for submitting the proposals, the industry as a One Voice collective has agreed to the amalgamation of the two key state institutions � SL Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) and SL Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) � and the inclusion of more pvt sector persons to join more..

Aug 15 (CT) Seven SL Junior Athletes will take wing to Nairobi, Kenya tomorrow to compete in the World Athletics Junior Championship. The event which was postponed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic will now be held from 17 to 22 August at the Nyayo Sports Complex. Team includes four athletes who achieved qualification standards for the championship in individual events, as well as members for the 4x400m Mix relay team. more..

Aug 15 (ST) Around 1000 essential commodity container congestion at Colombo Port for several weeks appears to be easing following their clearance making maximum use of manpower with minimum number of workers, the SL Customs Chief said. A heavy container backlog had been created at the port due to the detention of 550 sugar containers on an order issued by Imports and Exports Controller General Damayanthi Karunarathne in accordance with the circular on banning more..

Aug 15 (ST) SL is set to adopt a vibrant mechanism to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) amid concern that the authorities are likely to fall short of the target of US$ 2.5 billion this year. According to latest official projections, FDI is expected to be subdued to a level of $800 million in 2021, little over $670 million achieved in 2020. With the aim of fast-tracking foreign investment a vibrant mechanism has been devised by the Finance Ministry to receive, evaluate and approve investment proposals, more..

Aug 15 (ST) Milk powder importers are to be been given a tax relief of Rs.35 per kg to maintain their present selling price as a remedy to the issue of incurring losses as a result of global price escalation during the past six months. The Finance Ministry will issue a gazette notification removing Income tax of Rs.15 and Port and Airport levy of Rs. 20, a senior Treasury official said. This action was taken on the directions of more..

Aug 15 (SO) Sri Lanka has lined up cash flows into the country which will enable it to stabilise foreign reserves and boost the confidence level of businessmen and investors, said State Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal. �Foreign reserves, the exchange rate, the capital market and resumption of business activities are all indicators of a stable growth. What more indicators do you need to prove economic stability that has been restored within a short time,� he said. more..