Sep 17 (AD) The name of Jayantha Ketagoda has been gazetted as a MP to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Ajith Nivard Cabraal. The Extraordinary Gazette published by the Election Commission today states that the Secretary General of the Parliament has informed the Election Commission under Section 64(5) of the Parliamentary Elections Act, No. 1 of 1981, that a vacancy has occurred in the membership of Parliament by reason of the resignation of more..

Sep 17 (EN) SL�s anti-Covid-19 measures including vaccination, tests, and oxygen is expected to cost US$ 550 million and more than 80% will be financed by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, President�s Secretary P B Jayasundera said. Prez Rajapaksa�s administration did not budget for Covid-19 control measures when the then finance minister Mahinda Rajapaksa presented the 2021 budget in Nov last year. more..

Sep 17 (FT) Embassy of SL in Riyadh in collaboration with the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce (Asharqia Chamber) in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Export Development Board and the Foreign Ministry of SL, organised a webinar on promoting bilateral trade between Sri Lanka and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 14 Sept with the participation of more than 100 companies from both countries. Asharqia Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors Chairman Abdulhakim Alkhaldi welcomed more..

Sep 17 (AD) MP Rishad Bathiudeen has been further remanded until October 01 in connection with the death of a teenage domestic worker who was serving at his residence. Meanwhile the MP�s wife and father-in-law have been granted bail by the Colombo Magistrate�s Court, when the case was taken up today. On July 15, the 16-year-old girl, who was serving as domestic help at the Bathiudeen residence, succumbed to severe burn injuries while receiving treatment at Colombo National more..

Sep 17 (TM) Following reports that the mandatory tests carried out by the SL Standards Institution (SLSI), National Plant Quarantine Service (NPQS), and the SL Atomic Energy Board (SLAEB) on samples of organic fertiliser made in China have failed, the local agent of said Chinese manufacturing company has stated that another set of samples are to be given to the SLSI, NPQS, and the SLAEB in the coming days. more..

Sep 17 (Island) SL was still in the middle of the pandemic, but the situation was likely to improve after January 2022, Dr. Manuj Weerasinghe, Head Department of Community Medicine, Univ of Colombo said. �Since April 2021, we have been facing the third wave of the pandemic. We haven�t really come out of this yet but there are signs that we should be able to get things under control by November or December,� he said. Dr. Weerasinghe said that country had made rapid progress more..

Sep 17 (Island) The incident concerning Minister Lohan Ratwatte must not be relegated to a discussion at the UNHRC, TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam said yesterday. Ratwatte is reported to have forced himself into the A'pura prison, on Sunday (12) and made two Tamil political prisoners kneel at gunpoint, threatening to kill them. �The TNPF condemns in the strongest possible terms this dastardly behaviour of the State Minister. more..

Sep 17 (TM) Pointing out that the number of Covid-19 infections reported daily in the country is still at an unbearable level of well over 2,000 cases, Health Ministry has stated that it should be brought down further to a satisfactory level of control of at least only 100 daily infections being reported. �There are about 2,300 daily Covid-19 infections reported these days. This needs to be further controlled. more..

Sep 17 (TM) In a backdrop where there are reports that the current quarantine curfew lockdown status will be lifted next week, Transport Ministry will formulate the necessary guidelines for the implementation of public transport services after the reopening of the country, according to the Lanka Private Bus Owners� Association (LPBOA). LPBOA President Gemunu Wijeratne said that during a recent discussion with Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella and Vehicle Regulation, more..

Sep 17 (Island) Wilpattu National Park goes live on 24 and 26 Sept with the Couch Safari which takes viewers on a wildlife streaming tour of SL�s oldest and largest national park, allowing them to experience the wonders of Wilpattu from the safety of their homes. The COVID-19 pandemic has indefinitely postponed travel plans for many tourists and Sri Lankans alike. Sri Lanka Tourism and Dept of Wildlife and Conservation together with Deutsche Gesellschaft f�r Internationale more..

Sep 17 (EN) SL has decided to reopen some 5,000 schools with a maximum of 200 students each over the next two to three weeks, though school teachers and principals have yet to call off a two-month-long strike. A policy decision in this regard was taken at a meeting held at the health ministry with the national COVID-19 task force, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said. The govt also expects to reopen preschools and primary more..

Sep 17 (EN) Russia�s Aeroflot will re-start flights to Sri Lanka�s capital from Nov 4, the state airport agency said, as the island gradually opens the country to international visitors with accelerated vaccinations. SU 284 will depart Moscow on Thursdays and Saturdays. SU 285 will depart Colombo on Friday and Sunday. Aeroflot has been operating to Colombo from 1964, Airport Aviations Services Sri Lanka Ltd said. Many airline stopped regular flight to Colombo in 2020 and more..

Sep 17 (TM) The trade unions within the exports manufacturing sector have requested Labour Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva to take the necessary steps to pay a special allowance and a risk allowance to those working in the free trade zones (FTZs), who make a direct and significant contribution to the country�s economy in the current Covid-19 pandemic situation. In a letter to de Silva, Standup Employees Union Secretary Ashila Dandeniya has stated that the direct and more..

Sep 17 (AD) Govt of SL has decided to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to children between the ages of 15 and 19 years, based on the medical recommendation. State Minister Prof. Channa Jayasumana stated that the Pfizer jab will also be provided to children over 12 years with disabilities. He said that it was decided during the meeting of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Control this morning that more..

Sep 17 (CT) Govt of SL's non-demand-pull inflationary face value money printing (FVMP) debt increased by Rs 27,808 million, therewith upping its total FVMP debt as a whole by 1.79% to a record high figure of Rs 1,577,610.13 million (Rs 1.5776 trillion) yesterday due to a lack of revenue. GoSL�s FVMP debt has been over Rs 1 trillion for a record 41 consecutive market days to yesterday. Further, GoSL�s highest to the 14th highest FVMP debt has been registered in the 14 consecutive market more..

Sep 17 (DM) The Health Ministry today dismissed claims that the daily COVID cases have decreased due to the lesser number of PCR and Rapid Antigen tests conducted on daily basis. Deputy Director General of Health Services Dr. Hemantha Herath said the priority is to conduct Antigen Tests rather than PCR tests. �However, we have not deliberately reduced the number of PCR tests though there could be fluctuations,� he stressed. Steps have also been taken to scale up PCR testing capacity more..

Sep 17 (AD) The President�s Media Division has announced the decisions taken at the online meeting of the Special Committee on COVID-19 Control chaired by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa this morning (17). It had been decided to extend the quarantine curfew imposed in the country until 4.00 am on October 1. It was revealed at the meeting that the government has made plans to lift the quarantine curfew on October 1, more..

Sep 17 (AD) The CID has received a complaint against State Minister Lohan Ratwatte in connection with the incidents at the Welikada and Anuradhapura prisons. Minister of Public Security Sarath Weerasekara has instructed IGP Chandana Wickramaratne immediately launch an investigation into that complaint. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) yesterday said that such acts should be investigated fully and impartially and if proved be visited with penal consequences. more..

Sep 17 (AD) Sri Lanka�s Secretary of Defence says there is NO need for the public to panic over the fake email received by country�s airport authorities regarding a security threat. �Defence Secretary Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne Referring to the standard security measures adopted at the Katunayake BIA, affirmed that there is no requirement for general public to panic due to the information disseminating over a fake email of hostile nature received by the airport authorities.� more..

Sep 17 (EN) China has agreed to donate one million doses of the Chinese Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine to SL on an as yet unspecified date, on top of four million purchased doses of Sinopharm, the other Chinese vaccine, due to arrive end September. Chinese Embassy in SL said in a tweet on Friday that the Chinese govt has exported 1.8 billion doses of the vaccine to 50 countries by end August, and that the donation to SL more..

Sep 17 (TM) Emphasising that all tourists visiting the country are under the supervision of the Health authorities, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga has said that the allegations made by the Public Health Inspectors (PHI) Association regarding the tourism industry and Indian tourists are baseless. The Minister was responding to a statement made by the PHIs Association that tourists arriving in Sri Lanka are being picked up by Tourist Board agents at the Katunayake Airport, and more..

Sep 17 (DM) Countrywide liquor shops were opened to the public a short while ago, following an unofficial order received by the Department of Excise from the Ministry of Finance. Liquor shops bearing the Excise Dept licence FL04 (wine stores) and FL22B (beer and wine shops) have therefore been granted permission to open for business. A top Excise official said that they had been instructed over the phone by a top official in the Finance Ministry to relax the prevailing restrictions on sale of liquor. more..

Sep 18 (DM) The whole Tamil politics seems to rely on making the govt accountable to the human rights violations allegedly committed during the war between the armed forces and the LTTE. And the Tamil leaders have reposed their hope fully on the UNHRC and the UN system to achieve this end for the past 12 years � since the end of the war in 2009. However, the pace of the UN system in this regard has not been swift as they expect. 12 years after the end of the war, and six years after the report more..

Sep 18 (DM) A world without women may be a good title for a socio-fiction movie or book. But under Taliban rulers, Afghanistan has become a country without women. You may ask where all the women have gone. They are there, but they are virtually dead. With no representation in the interim govt which the Taliban, in their preludes to the govt formation, had advertised as an inclusive govt, the Afghan woman has come virtually under the writ of men who decide on her behalf as to what job more..

Sep 18 (CT) Minister of Agriculture, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, spoke on the controversial overnight banning of chemical fertilizer by the Govt and how they are mitigating the agitation that followed. He also pointed out that the PMB Chairman Dr. J. Mannapperuma�s sudden resignation was done on his own volition and that the Minister is only aware of that fact, despite Dr. Mannepperuma claiming that more..

Sep 18 (Island) When I pen these words, most Sri Lankans are still sleeping. I am ahead of them and awake. That is because of the time zone difference between where I live and SL, my country of birth. As usual, as the first thing I do in the morning, particularly these days, I glanced at the headlines in The Island epaper, and was depressed to read the banner headline Ratwatte remains a state minister despite resignation over running amok in prisons, with the following underneath it: more..

Sep 18 (TM) In the past few months, SL Govt intensified its pressure against associations who are contributing to defend the rights of people against a series of serious attacks by the Govt. Govt attacks centre round the passing of several laws that affect the right to education, the rights relating to healthcare, the right to food, and the right to security. The latest move by the Govt in that direction is the declaration of emergency, which places the present state of the country above any law. more..

Sep 18 (CT) The raging speculations that State Minister for Prison Reforms and Gem and Jewellery, Lohan Ratwatte, had visited the Welikada and Anuradhapura Prisons has been confirmed by the Prison Department, but what had happened inside the prisons and who had accompanied Ratwatte is so far not known. Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera said there were no Police complaints into the incident more..

Sep 18 (CT) Sri Lanka economy faces a historical crisis. The root causes are the twin deficits. First, the persistent fiscal deficit � the gap between govt expenditure and income. Second, the external current account deficit � the gap between total exports and imports. The problems have been festering for too long. Without urgent reforms, the crisis could easily morph into a full-blown debt crisis. Sovereign debt workouts are extremely painful for citizens. more..

Sep 18 (CT) 48th session of the UNHRC that started this week in Geneva will not be having any new UN resolutions with regard to SL. This session will only see the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet make her report. But that report can set the direction for what will follow, with an EU assessment of GSP+ tariff privilege set for Nov. SL is one of a handful of countries singled out for special attention as a follow up to the UNHRC resolution on SL passed in March this year. more..

Sep 18 (CT) The construction work on the proposed walking path of the Parakrama Samudra tank bund was suspended after a protest by a group of Buddhist monks. Whether it is appropriate for monks to intervene in this matter is a different issue and the objection is admirable because many remained silent over this issue of national significance. Since then many views, both pros and cons, are being expressed by various parties on the proposed walking path. more..

Sep 18 (ST) A radio in the neighbourhood was blaring the music of Sunil and the Gypsies and in this instance it was the popular Piti Kotapan None. Ironically, in another home nearby, the unmistakable sounds of spices being pounded in a wangediya in the kitchen could be heard. It was at this point that Kussi Amma Sera paused for a moment under the margosa tree, to ask Serapina and Mabel Rasthiyadu; "Eh Sunilge sinduwa neda (That�s Sunil�s song?).� �Ow, eka lassana sinduwak. more..

Sep 18 (Island) What a gem of a minister he is! Who? Who else, State Minister Lohan Ratwatte, the gem and jewel of today. Why? He resigned from his Prison Portfolio, not having done anything wrong, as he says it. He has gone beyond the stuff of any politician. He truly deserves to be given the highest regard by the Saubhagya Strategists. Just think of any politician of today, especially from the Pohottuva Team, who will resign from a portfolio for more..

Sep 18 (ST) A few weeks ago, Central Bank of SL decided to reverse its monetary policy stance that it had been implementing over the past one and half years; instead of loosening monetary policy, now it is one of tightening. Reuters reported that Sri Lanka becomes the first in Asia to do so. However, some of the countries including South Korea, Singapore, Iceland, Mexico and Brazil have already moved in this direction so that it doesn�t look like an exclusive policy decision by Sri Lanka only. more..

Sep 18 (FT) Tea exports in August have increased by 16% to 25.48 million kilos and cumulative first eight months performance rose by 8% to 187.57 million. Value wise, exports in August was Rs. 23.3 billion, up 22.6% from Rs. 19 billion. Cumulative exports were worth Rs. 174 billion, up 16% as against Rs. 149.5 billion in 2020. In July, tea exports dipped YOY by 12% to $ 115 million (around Rs. 23 b). Forbes said in August, Bulk Tea and Packeted Tea categories had shown an increase, more..

Sep 18 (TM) While claiming that the Examinations Dept has only received 50% of the applications for the GCE A/L and Grade Five Scholarship examinations that are to be held in Feb 2022, the teachers� and principals� trade unions (TUs) have warned that they would not send the remaining applications until their issues, including that of the teacher-principal salary anomaly, are resolved. Ceylon Teachers� Service Union (CTSU) more..

Sep 18 (DM) Deep and lasting peace is not just the absence of war but has many virtues and values. As the famous St. Ignatius of Loyola has put it, make me a channel of peace, where there is hatred let me bring love, where there is injury, pardon and where there is doubt true faith in noble human values; make me a channel of peace, where there is despair in life, let me bring hope, where there is darkness only light, and where there�s sadness ever joy; grant that I may never seek, so much to be more..

Sep 18 (FT) The EDB Chairman Suresh de Mel recently said the current unprecedented time is an opportunity to formalise the small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs (SMEs), noting that half or more are engaged in the informal sector. �SMEs play a major role in most economies, particularly in developing countries like ours. However, the tricky part in our country is that most of them are engaged in the informal sector. So, the time is right for us to push to bring them to the mainstream,� more..