Jan 20 (DM) The COPF has moved towards preventing Colombo Port City to prepare new legislation pertaining to the casinos within the offshore city which is being set up on reclaimed land from the sea. COPF Chairman Dr. Harsha de Silva told Parliament that the committee had informed the authorities of Port City that it has to abide by the existing laws pertaining to casinos. �Finance Committee was informed by the authorities of Port City that they were in the process of more..

Jan 20 (AD) Securing additional funds for an election at a time state revenue is battered by the economic crisis will be extremely challenging to the Treasury, Secretary to the Finance Ministry informed the Supreme Court. Mahinda Siriwardana conveyed this to the SC in an affidavit submitted pertaining to a writ application filed by retired Army Colonel W.M.R. Wijesundara. The petition, citing the prevailing economic crisis, has sought a court more..

Jan 20 (EN) The CEB Engineers� Union held a protest in Colombo at early hours on Friday against the increase in personal income tax imposed by the government from this month amid more state sector unions have vowed to join the agitation in the future. The government has raised taxes up to a maximum of 36 percent after 100,000 rupee monthly tax free income. Majority of the island nation�s state sector workers get a compensation below the monthly tax free allowance. more..

Jan 20 (Island) Chief Govt Whip Prasanna Ranatunga told Parliament that the Cabinet ministers had recently requested President Ranil Wickremesinghe to reveal inquiry report on May 9 attacks on Galle Face protesters and subsequent countrywide violence against mainly govt politicians. Minister Ranatunga said so when NFF leader and MP Wimal Weerawansa inquired about the failure on the part of President Ranil Wickremesinghe to table that report in parliament. more..

Jan 20 (EN) SJB MP Mujibur Rahuman has announced his resignation from parliament to contest the local govt elections scheduled for March. The MP told parliament on Friday that he would be stepping down to contest the election for the post of Colombo Mayor as decided by the SJB�s working committee. �I ask this govt that this democratic election and the country�s democratic rights be protected. People�s right to vote more..

Jan 20 (DM) The CEB said that the Public Utilities Commission of SL (PUCSL) should quickly give a decision on the proposal to increase electricity charges brought in by the CEB along with the approval of the Cabinet. The CEB officials made this request when the National Council met in Parliament yesterday under the chairmanship of Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana and with the presence of PM Dinesh Gunawardena. The Board of Directors and officers representing several institutions more..

Jan 20 (AD) Accepting cash deposits for the LG election ends at 12 p.m. today. Several political parties and independent groups had placed their cash deposits for the LG election as of yesterday, since the process began on Jan 18. Meanwhile, 10 political parties handed over the nominations for the upcoming LG election yesterday. Accepting nominations will end at 12 noon on Saturday. NPP has handed over their nominations for Matale, Puttlam, A'pura, Polonnaruwa, Badulla, more..

Jan 20 (DM) An investigation should be held to ascertain as to how the statement given by the university student, who killed another fellow female student of the Colombo university recently, was released to media, SJB MP Rohana Bandara said today. He told Parliament that if highly sensitive and confidential information such as statments and confessions given by the suspects to the police were released to media it was a serious situation. The MP said it was a matter before the court now and more..

Jan 20 (EN) SL�s youngest ever cabinet minister, Jeevan Thondaman of the CWC, was sworn in before President Ranil Wickremesinghe who held the previous record as the youngest Sri Lankan to hold a cabinet portfolio. The 28-year-old Thondaman was sworn is as Minister of Waster Supply & Estate Infrastructure Development on Thursday (19) at the Prez Secretariat in Colombo. Wickremesinghe, whose record Thondaman broke, was 29 when he was sworn in as Minister of Youth more..

Jan 20 (PMD) Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe has invited the Muslim community to join hands with the Social Justice Commission to find solutions to the issues they face, and stressed that any religion should guide their respective communities to modernity and adapt to the modern world. Addressing the 100th-anniversary celebration of All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) at the BMICH hall yesterday, more..

Jan 20 (DM) Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana today announced the appointment of a special select committee to probe actions of a media institution which is the first of its kind during recent times. The select committee is chaired by Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, while other members are Suren Raghavan, Gayantha Karunatilake, Anura Priyadarashana Yapa, Vajira Abeywardene, Nimal Lansa and M. A. Sumanthiran. The select committee is expected to investigate incidents of more..

Jan 20 (AD) STF has arrested a woman, who was in possession of heroin. The 31-year-old suspect named Thilini Nishadi alias Teena is a resident of Maharagama, police said. The apprehension was made in accordance with a tip-off received by the officers of Organized Crimes Unit II of Police STF. Further investigations have uncovered that the arrested woman is the paramour of the organized criminal and notorious drug trafficker Nadun Chinthaka Wickremaratne alias Harak Kata, more..

Jan 20 (AD) India�s External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar, who is in SL for an official visit, called on Prez Wickremesinghe at Prez Secretariat this morning. Joining a joint media briefing with his SL counterpart Minister Ali Sabry following the meeting with Prez, Jaishankar said all bilateral creditors of SL must take proactive steps to facilitate the island�s recovery. �India decided not to wait on others but to do what we believe is right. more..

Jan 20 (AD) A 09-hour water cut will be imposed in several areas of Colombo and its suburbs tomorrow, NWSDB announced. Accordingly, the water supply will be interrupted for the areas of Colombo, Dehiwala, Mount Lavinia, Kotte and Kaduwela Municipal Council areas; Maharagama, Boralesgamuwa & Kolonnawa UC areas; Kotikawatta and Mulleriyawa PSs and in Ratmalana and Katubedda. The water supply will be interrupted for 09 hours from 11 am to 8 pm on Saturday. more..

Jan 20 (CT) A highly charged situation arose outside the National Hospital, when minor employees, who had allegedly taken umbrage over comments made by Deputy Director, Dr. Rukshan Bellana, surrounded his office demanding his removal. They accused Dr. Bellana, who is also the Prez of GMOF, of repeatedly accusing the Colombo NHSL minor employees of being addicted to marijuana and dangerous substances such as ice, claiming that they had even resorted to steal from patients more..

Jan 20 (TM) Global fashion infrastructure company PDS Ltd. (PDS) has announced the opening of a centralised cutting plant (CCP) in the SL subsidiary Norlanka, located in Malwana. The plant�s commercial production commenced in late Dec 2022 and is now operational with a fully digitalised and integrated system, from inspection of mills, warehousing, fabric, and the cutting process. The centralised operation uses advanced automated machinery in partnership with Tukatech, more..

Jan 20 (FT) The abuse of official power by the heads of state in Sri Lanka to amass illegal wealth or to allow their cronies to do so, and also to encourage the public representatives elected to legislative bodies such as the Parliament and Provincial Councils to transact trading business with the Govt which is contrary to the law, can be considered as the prime origin of state level corruption in Sri Lanka. So much so, a corrupt policy which allows the cronies of the head of state to earn wealth more..

Jan 20 (CT) Air pollution increased two-fold due to the X-Press Pearl disaster, State-owned NBRO said. NBRO, in its 2021 Annual Report, uploaded to the Parliament website on Tuesday, said that air quality dispersion model software was run to assess the ground level concentration of pollutants generated by the fire. �This modelling indicated that the contribution made by the X-Press Pearl fire increased ambient pollutant levels more..

Jan 20 (DM) An accident has been reported on the Nanuoya road in Nuwera Eliya between a bus and a van and seven bodies have been recovered while several people have been reported injured. The bodies are presently in the Nuwera Eliya Hospital while rescue operations are still ongoing. Accident occurred when the bus and the van collided resulting in the bus falling down a precipice. Bus was carrying over 50 people which included several students. Some have been critically injured more..

Jan 20 (EN) SL and India have signed an agreement to raise the ceiling on high-impact community development projects (HICDP) that are assisted by the Indian govt. A statement from SL Prez Wickremesinghe�s office said on Friday January 20 that the agreement was signed at a meeting between Wickremesinghe and India�s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar who is on a two-day official visit to Colombo. Other matters discussed between Wickremesinghe and Jaishankar more..

Jan 20 (TM) In the wake of the recent Supreme Court judgement (SC) on the Easter Sunday attacks, where the victims were awarded a large sum of compensation for the authorities� negligence, the families of missing persons in the South, including those who went missing during the period of the JVP insurrections in 1988-1989, are presently looking into the possibility of seeking legal relief for mental torture by means of more..

Jan 20 (EN) Shares shot up in mid day trade on Friday (20), positive sentiments took over the market as India assured support towards debt restructuring, analysts said. �The market moved on green due to India agreeing to restructure debts and investors anticipate China to follow the same movement,� the analyst said. All Share Price Index was up by 2.92% of 247.85 points to 8,732, while the most liquid index, S&P SL20 shot up by 3.69% or 97.26 points to 2,733. more..

Jan 20 (RFI) A court in northern France has sentenced 14 SL nationals to prison for operating a people-smuggling ring across Europe � part of a continent-wide attempt to crack down on the lucrative criminal networks. The main suspect, accused of overseeing the operation from a grocery store in the village of Serifontaine, 80km north of Paris, was handed a four-year prison term, with one year suspended. Investigators determined that he set the prices and routes for moving migrants more..

Jan 21 (ST) Who did SL�s economic crisis destroy the most? Talal Rafi, a Senior Global Management Consultant at Deloitte and development economist as well as a friend of mine too, asked this question in his Twitter message last week. In fact, it was just this week that Talal won an award from the IMF for one of his papers published there. The answer to the question that Talal raised is in the rest of his message, which reads as follows: It�s the elderly who saved all their life for retirement and more..

Jan 21 (DM) Panama is a remote SL village at the southern end of the eastern province in the Ampara district. The slogan often used in land struggles Land is Life is true for most people in Panama, like it is for many agricultural and fishing villagers. Land is central to their livelihoods, social � cultural � religious life and cannot be valued purely in monetary terms. Panama is rich with natural resources, especially for agriculture and fishing and also a scenic location, with sea, lagoon, more..

Jan 21 (CT) President Ranil Wickremesinghe attended Parliament sittings on Tuesday (17) and Wednesday (18) to respond to questions posed by the MPs. Since he became the Prez, on 20 July 2022, he has attended the sittings on 29 days. Two Govt MPs were discussing the Prez�s frequent visits to Parliament and his accountability to the House. �When former Prezs never bothered to look at Parliament, more..

Jan 21 (DM) Today the country is held in thraw of an impending local govt election. Our president has said he will not be involved in electioneering. This is perhaps a good precedent for future heads of state to follow -remaining above partisan party politics. Prez himself has remained non-committal regarding the holding of local govt elections at this particular point of time. The opposition parties are demanding the local elections be held in a timely manner, claiming it's a fundamental right of people. more..

Jan 21 (CT) It is no secret that Sri Lankan authorities have pinned most of their hopes, if not all, of recovery from the worst economic crisis in the country�s history, on a bailout package from the IMF. The calls to reach out to the IMF for support started gathering momentum almost a year ago, despite much resistance from the then Governor of the CB. However, when the crisis came to a head with a severe fuel shortage, gas shortage, long hours of power cuts, with State revenue dropping more..

Jan 21 (CT) �I was stopped by the Traffic Police while riding my motorbike on Baseline Road, and they asked to see my licence. As the Police Officer was looking at my driver�s license, I queried about the proposed Demerit Points System for motorists. I was shocked by the officer�s response. Even we do not know Miss, officer replied," a puzzled motorbike rider said. A number of new decisions concerning vehicle registration more..

Jan 21 (CT) Attorney General (AG) is the principal legal officer who represents the state in legal proceedings and gives legal advice to the govt. In addition to that AG is the Public Prosecutor. In cases of corruption, it is required that the same AG conduct the prosecution of govt entities or officials. This situation is vulnerable to a conflict of interest. In certain countries such as South Africa these two roles are played by different persons. In the UK AG is a MP and attends cabinet meetings more..

Jan 21 (Island) British PM Rishi Sunak is reported to have apologised for unbuckling his seat belt to film a social media video while being driven in north-west England recently. The police are said to be looking into the incident, which has made Sunak draw a lot of flak from his political opponents as well as some members of the British public. Sunak�s apology and police reaction are viewed, in some quarters, as proof that not even the British Prime Minister is above the law. more..

Jan 21 (DM) The TNA with 10 seats in Parliament is currently facing an internal crisis. The premier political configuration of the Sri Lankan Tamils in the N&E Provinces is being plagued by intra-party rivalry within its constituent parties. The ITAK, TELO and PLOTE are the three constituent parties of the TNA. Of these, the ITAK has six MPs. TELO has three and PLOTE one. With the prospects of local authority elections looming large on the political horizon, the TNA�s chief constituent more..

Jan 21 (Island) Cassandra fortuitously switched on to BBC on Monday January 16 at around 8.30 pm. She was most pleasantly surprised and pleased to see and hear a distinguished Sri Lankan interviewed by Zeinab Badawi on the BBC HardTalk programme, right here. Thus it meant Zeinab was in Colombo. She and the other anchor Stephen Sackur of the BBC�s current affairs unit are superb presenters. Well, person interviewed was Jagath Weerasinghe, well known artist and archaeologist. more..

Jan 21 (HM) On 21 Apr 2019, Easter Sunday, National Thowheeth Jamath, an Islamist militant group, carried out a series of attacks targeting churches and hotels in SL. A total of 269 people were killed and more than 500 were injured. From the beginning, there were accusations of negligence from the highest echelons of the political and security establishment, and a number of petitions alleging fundamental-rights more..

Jan 21 (GV) A Supreme Court judgement, a new US law, Canadian sanctions and UN evidence gathering are making it increasingly hard for SL�s past and present rulers to avoid accountability for large scale violence and abuse of power. Survivors and the families of victims across the island have played a key part despite attempts by those in charge to ignore or silence them. Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa, in particular, can no longer just get on with living comfortably and travelling freely more..

Jan 21 (DN) Oshada Fernando made a superb knock of 201 while Sandun Weerakkody hit 144 as Kandy made a mammoth total of 554 for 7 wickets at close in their National Super League cricket fixture played at SSC grounds yesterday. The two overnight batters Oshada Fernando the 30-year-old right hander and wicketkeeper Sandun Weerakkody added a remarkable 146 runs for the third wicket to build up the innings. Weerakkody who scored 144 in 154 balls with 18 fours and 4 sixes more..