Jun 24 (DM) Colombo High Court acquitted 21 former uni student activists from 29 charges including unlawful assembly, causing injuries to police officers and charges under the Public Property Act, following a demonstration held in Colombo on Oct 14, 2010. IUSF organised this protest outside the Ministry of Education demanding the release of a group of student activists attached to the Peradeniya Uni, who were imprisoned for booing the then Minister more..

Jun 24 (DN) PM Dinesh Gunawardena held detailed discussions with Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay on the proposed Road Map for cooperation between the two countries. Indian High Commissioner called on the Prime Minister at Temple Trees on Thursday to examine the outlines of the proposed action plan on economic cooperation. High Commissioner Baglay, referring to the increase of tourism, said India would take steps to increase flights between the two countries. more..

Jun 24 (CT) Air Force Commander Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana declared open the newly established Surface Treatment Plant at the SLAF station in Palavi. The Surface Treatment Plant, constructed as a mandatory workshop of the Aircraft Overhaul Wing at SLAF Base Katunayake, plays a crucial role in facilitating the surface finishing of spares during the overhaul process of F-7BS/GS and K-8 aircraft. The design of this workshop was executed by the expert team from China more..

Jun 24 (Island) About 70 pilots attached to SriLankan Airlines had resigned during the past six months, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa said yesterday in Parliament. �There are fewer than 260 pilots at SriLankan now. Another 18 are to join Emirates soon,� he said. SriLankan needs 330 pilots to operate its flights optimally, Premadasa said. Meanwhile, from 18 to 22 June, SriLankan Airlines have cancelled 13 flights, SLFP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera said in Parliament on Friday. more..

Jun 24 (FT) SJB MP Eran Wickramaratne this week alleged in Parliament that the Govt is hiding behind the fact that the country has laws such as the Money Laundering Law of 2006, Financial Transaction Reporting Act of 2006 and Mutual Legal Assistance & Criminal Law of 2002 without including more comprehensive measures to combat corruption and to recover stolen assets from foreign jurisdictions under more..

Jun 24 (TM) A contentious issue has emerged in SL surrounding the administration of Local Govt (LG) councils, with allegations of illegal appointments and the absence of people�s representatives. SJB has raised concerns about attempts to govern local bodies without holding elections, leading to a lack of accountability and transparency. Govt officials, however, deny any improper appointments and emphasise the role of appointed commissioners in overseeing administrative activities. more..

Jun 24 (ST) A protest was held against a proposal to convert the historic Nuwara Eliya post office into a tourist hotel, by post office staff and some area residents. While the district�s Govt Agent insisted the post office will remain intact and only part of the land will be given for the hotel project, the protestors said this conversion is not feasible due to the post office�s aging infrastructure. They also said the building�s historic value would be tarnished. The protestors have begun signing a public petition against more..

Jun 24 (AD) A wanted gunman has died in a shootout with the STF personnel who were trying to arrest him. The decisive gun battle took place in the area of Welikadayaya in Embilipitiya early this morning (24) during a raid mounted by the STF. In a bid to avoid arrest, the suspect had fired gunshots at the STF personnel who then returned fire. During the shootout with the STF, the 22-year-old, who had been wanted by the police over multiple gun violence incidents, was killed. more..

Jun 24 (CT) Although it was expected to earn excise revenue of Rs 217 billion this year, as of June the Dept of Excise has only been able to collect Rs 73 billion, it was revealed at the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Economic and Physical Plans on Thursday. The main reason for this setback is that production and sale of alcohol has decreased due to the increase in the price of alcohol. As a result, reaching the targeted revenue for this year would be impossible, more..

Jun 24 (DM) The evaluation of 2022 CGE A/L exam papers is at risk of further delays, as teachers have not been paid as they were promised according to Joseph Stalin, Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers' Union. As a result of the delays, which have been caused by the Education Ministry and Examinations Dept's irresponsible actions, examiners at Kandy Girls' High School withdrew from their duties yesterday. more..

Jun 24 (Island) There had been many irregularities in the process of selecting beneficiaries of the Aswesuma Welfare Benefits Programme, govt and Opposition MPs said in Parliament yesterday. They urged the govt to suspend the implementation of the programme until those issues were sorted out. Sri Lanka should have conducted a household income and expenditure survey, immediately after the COVID crisis, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa said. more..

Jun 24 (TM) There is an extremely high teacher turnover rate in international schools in SL, especially in the arts and technology streams, due to managerial interference, strict rules and regulations and more protocols to follow including more paperwork to be completed regularly, the sense of job insecurity and overloaded levels of work, and the resultant stress. These findings were made in an original article on the Recruitment of teachers and strategies to retain them: more..

Jun 24 (Reuters) Sri Lanka is set to start bartering tea to Iran next month in lieu of $250 million owed for oil, a SL official said, as the crisis-hit country tries to lift sales to a key market and protect its forex reserves. The barter was agreed in 2021 for oil imported in 2012, but the exchange was delayed after SL's unprecedented dollar shortage last year plunged the economy into its worst financial crisis in more than 7 decades. more..

Jun 25 (TM) The catastrophic end to the OceanGate saga that held the world enthralled for the better part of the past week offers many lessons for our own political leadership that appears to be hell-bent on taking the country on an equally-risky journey. For starters, it appears that the senior management of OceanGate was made aware of the vulnerabilities of the vessel by its own technical staff years ago, but instead of addressing those concerns, the gung ho CEO borrowed a page from SL politics more..

Jun 25 (GV) The Other Side is a documentary series that is focused on sharing the perspectives of three women belonging to the families of some of the alleged perpetrators of the Easter Sunday attacks of April 2019. This series was compiled and initiated by the Easter Attack Survivors Project (EASP), which is a project of the SL Reconciliation Movement (SLRM), an organization established for the purpose of enabling discourse on peace and reconciliation through story telling and policy. more..

Jun 25 (SO) Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry, PC said the Govt is very confident that it would get the second tranche of the IMF. Minister said of the 32 indicators laid down by the IMF, the Govt has already fulfilled 29 and it is working on the remaining three indicators as well. Govt will also submit its debt restructuring program and plan. Minister Sabry said they are on the right track for the Govt to continue. more..

Jun 25 (SO) SL is one of the very few developing countries with a completely free Govt healthcare service. Along with free education, it is one of the cornerstones of Govt policy. This is indeed why some of our health indices such as the maternal mortality rate are almost on par with those of the developed world. This is an expensive exercise for a developing country, with an annual budgetary allocation exceeding Rs.200 billion. The general consensus is that this is money well spent, more..

Jun 25 (CT) Amidst a spate of summits last week underscoring the global economic and geopolitical headwinds that govts and countries are having to cope with, Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe attended the Paris summit convened by Prez Emmanuel Macron to achieve a New Global Financing Pact for the world. The Paris summit has created both optimism and skepticism. On the one hand, it has been touted as the new Bretton Woods that would reform the global financial architecture to narrow more..

Jun 25 (TM) Govt is in the process of preparing a National Digital Economy Strategy with the technical assistance of the World Bank, while a Cabinet Committee on Digital Economy has been set up as the main advisory and endorsement body, says State Minister of Technology Kanaka Herath, speaking on the status quo in relation to the Govt�s digitalisation programme, adding that the final reports more..

Jun 25 (Island) In an unusual cartoon illustrated spread taking up more than half its front page last Tuesday, the Daily Mirror splashed the news of the impending appointment of Mr. Rohitha Bogollagama, a former foreign minister, as Sri Lanka�s new High Commissioner to the UK. He replaces Ms. Saroja Sirisena, a career diplomat widely regarded as having done a good job in an overseas mission considered among the more important maintained by post-Independent Ceylon/Sri Lanka. more..

Jun 25 (ST) France took the initiative this week to introduce some fresh thinking into how the economically developed world must reform the post-World War II Bretton Woods agreement that relied on int'l lending institutions based in Washington, like the IMF and the World Bank, helping economically poor nations out of the woods when in financial distress. This week�s summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris was ambitious, seemed even holistic, but will it be realistic? more..

Jun 25 (SO) Brayan Perera, representing SL from Ceylon Motor Sports Club, qualified for the finals of the Olympic Esport Series 2023 scheduled to be held in Singapore conducted by the International Olympic Committee, Federation Int'l Automobile and GranTurismo. Brayan has been racing since 2007 starting his career in karts before moving on to compete in the Formula McLarens 1300 LGB and in the following year he won the Formula EFI championship and later moved on to win more..

Jun 25 (TM) The bidding process for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) investment opportunities at Mattala Rajapaksa Int'l Airport (MRIA) concluded last week, with the participation of 19 potential investors and strategic entrepreneurs, according to Airport & Aviation Services SL (AASL). AASL Chairman G.A. Chandrasiri revealed that significant interest had been received from interested investors and strategic entrepreneurs after Expressions of Interest (EOIs) had been called earlier this year. more..

Jun 25 (ST) An attempt to revive the LTTE in India and Sri Lanka through the illegal drug trade has drawn the attention of law enforcement authorities in the two countries. Last week, India�s National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a charge sheet against 13 suspects�10 Sri Lankans and 3 Indians�for their involvement in the drug and arms trade as well as attempts to revive LTTE in the two countries. more..

Jun 25 (Island) A new controlling body for cricket in Ceylon was formed on the 25th of June 1948 and was named Board of Control for Cricket in Ceylon. Today marks the 75th anniversary of the formation of the cricket board. At a meeting held at the Malay Cricket Club at Rifle Green, P. Saravanamuttu was elected as President of the board. The entity has over the years gone through name changes such as Board of Control for Cricket in SL and its present name Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). more..

Jun 25 (ST) My dear Gota maama, I thought of writing to you when I heard that you had celebrated your 74th birthday this week. Oddly enough, it was only mentioned in passing and not announced with great fanfare. Still, considering where you were one year ago, it must be a relief that you were able to celebrate it at all. We all remember how you had to flee through the backdoor of President�s House while mobs were at its gates. Even after leaving SL, you couldn�t work out a safe passage, more..

Jun 25 (SO) There are no known experts or bank governors running the economic affairs at the country�s richest sporting institution, but Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has come full cycle from a beggarly organization to a corporate company that can even keep a govt from crumbling, at least momentarily. This week SLC boasted that it had surpassed all past revenue rakings and made a colossal Rs 23 billion in profits thanks to what has become a household brand name and public passion more..

Jun 25 (Island) The Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) together with LOLC recently embarked on The Multi-Regional Monitoring System for the Sri Lankan Leopard Project, to engage in the research and conservation of an iconic, yet vulnerable species that adds immense value to the nation�s economy and its wildlife. The project�s initial phase is built on gathering information on the lesser-known aspects of the SL leopard, particularly by identifying leopard distribution outside of more..

Jun 25 (TM) Bureaucratic red tape continues to contribute to delays in importing a vital radioactive substance which is essential for the use of PET scan medical equipment at Apeksha Hospital in Maharagama. This, as hundreds of patients await PET scan analysis of their medical complications in order to receive treatment. The PET scan units at the hospital have not been used for more than a month due to unavailability more..

Jun 25 (TM) Govt�s move to allow three foreign players to enter the local energy market is facing delays as negotiations with Australia-based United Petroleum (Pty) Ltd. are still ongoing. It is learnt that the Govt was anticipating that all three players � Chinese petro giant Sinopec, US-based RM Parks-Shell, and Australia�s United Petroleum � would enter the market next month following agreements being signed in Colombo. However, it is learnt that negotiations are ongoing with more..

Jun 25 (ST) Sri Lanka�s World Cup qualifying campaign is facing the prospect of a major setback with spearhead paceman Dushmantha Chameera in doubt for the tournament because of swelling and pain in his right pectoral muscle. Although he traveled with the team to Zimbabwe, Chameera didn�t feature in any of the four games Sri Lanka has played so far�two warm-ups and two tournament matches�due to the pain and will not be available for today�s clash against Ireland. more..

Jun 25 (DM) In what appeared to be a dramatic turn of events related to the regime change after Galle Face Aragalaya, Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe said he was pressurised to resign from his then post of premiership on the day after his house was set ablaze by angry mobs at the instigation of what he called a media outlet. His remarks have sparked a controversy now with people wondering who applied more..

Jun 25 (EN) Sri Lanka has agreed to pay about 3.7 million US dollars (about billion rupees) to a consultancy led by Japanese firms, after a light rail transit (LRT) project was cancelled suddenly, the auditor general has said. Sri Lanka�s former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa suddenly cancelled an LRT project which was to be financed through a low interest loan from the Japan International Co-operation Agency, damaging relations between the two countries. more..

Jun 25 (EN) Adults in Sri Lanka consumed twice as much salt as recommended by the WHO though with lower -than-recommended levels of potassium intake and optimum levels of iodine intake, a study has found. The 2020 study, conducted by the Institute for Health Policy (IHP) among a population of 629 adults between the ages of 25 and 65 years, showed that salt intake was more than double the recommended level and potassium intake is lower than the recommended level. more..

Jun 25 (ST) Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has released details of professional bodies of doctors, accountants, engineers, bankers and others and instructed them to open tax files if they do not already have files, following a gazette notification that came into effect this month. These are members the IRD has classified as resident individuals. Professional practitioners registered with the SL Medical Council, and members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of SL, more..