July 26 (CT) The Colombo Chief Magistrate, Rashmi Singappuli today ordered General Sarath Fonseka to appear before the Colombo High Court on July 29 for the hearing of the controversial 'white flag' case. The case was filed by the Attorney General against General Sarath Fonseka over his controversial interview to 'The Sunday Leader' newspaper. The newspaper carried an article some months ago, quoting more..

July 26 (DM) The funeral of Susantha Bandara was held yesterday at the Harilagama Public Cemetery in Buttala amidst a large number of students from the Ruhunu University. A large number of policemen were deployed in the area and the security had been tightened throughout the funeral. Meanwhile, the police said it was looking to arrest a student named ‘Bassa’ who was a colleague of the victim and allegedly to be behind the assault, the police said. more..

July 26 (DM) Several opposition political parties who threw a challenge at the government yesterday said the latter should recall Sri Lankan ambassador in Israel Donald Perera and make a clear clarification on the government’s position on Israel. These parties told a press conference organized by the Friends of Palestine in Colombo that the government should do this to prove that it did not follow double standards when it comes to its foreign policy. more..

July 27 (DM) The United National Party (UNP) supporter Rienzi Algama who set himself ablaze opposite the UNP headquarters Sirikotha today has sustained serious burn injuries and has now been transferred to the Colombo National Hospital. Speaking to Daily Mirror, UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya confirmed that Algama was a UNP supporter and had been ‘disgusted’ over the ‘disunity’ of the UNP and had stressed the need of unity within the party. more..

July 27 (Guardian) A British Tamil has embarked on a two-week walk from London to Geneva to ask the UN to initiate an independent investigation into allegations that war crimes were committed when the Sri Lankan government crushed the Tamil Tigers last year. Gobi Sivanthan, 29, a businessman from Hayes, west London, left Downing Street at midnight on Saturday morning. As part of his "walk for justice", which is due to end outside the offices of the UN human rights council on 6 August, more..

July 27 (CT) Around 100,000 undelivered postal and registered letters have been piled up due to the current work to rule resorted by the registration section of the Central Mail Exchange, internal sources say. The situation worsened last weekend as workers abstained from the overtime work hours which dominate the usual weekend office hours. Deputy postmaster General, R.D.P. Gamini confirmed the incident and that this was a result of a trade union action. more..

July 27 (IRIN) Every day, more than 100 fishing boats launch into the waters off Panichchankerni in eastern Batticaloa District - four times the number when fighting re-erupted four years ago. Security restrictions meant boats could only go out at certain times, but these rules have been relaxed since the end of the war in May 2009. "We go out daily now," said Dominic Silva, a fisherman whose family has been involved in the local fishing industry for 75 years. more..

July 27 (IL) The annual Esala perahera of the Ruhunu Katharagama Devalaya took to the streets on the Esala full moon Poya day on 25th July. President Mahinda Rajapakse also participated at the festival and was among the thousands of devotees and spectators who flocked to Katharagama from all the corners of Sri Lanka. A number of special rituals related to the historic Katharagama Esala perahera more..

July 27 (CI) Winning a Test against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka is one of the toughest tasks going around, but beating them in a home venue after losing the toss is perhaps the toughest task in international cricket. In April next year, the island will celebrate a decade of never having lost a home Test in which they’ve won the toss. An awesome stat for them, and a scary one for all opponents. The table below lists the records of all teams after winning tosses in home games, more..

July 27 (CI) Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan feels that Sri Lanka will be able to exert pressure on India if they score over 550 in the first innings on the placid SSC wicket. The hosts ended the opening day on a strong 312 for 2, with Tharanga Paranavitana and Kumar Sangakkara tormenting India with centuries yet again. "The second day is the best day to bat on the SSC pitch and we have our two most experienced batsmen at the crease more..

July 27 (CI) This is India's third game on the tour, and they have looked helpless on the first days of all three matches. Losing all three tosses hasn't helped, but having no answers for left-hand batsmen has been at the heart of their problems. When Kumar Sangakkara brought up his century soon after Tharanga Paranavitana today, it was the seventh such effort from left-hand batsmen against the Indian attack on this tour so far. more..

July 27 (LBO) Sri Lankan rubber prices rose again at last week's auction on continued short supply as rain affected tapping but brokers said the shortage might ease if the current dry weather continues. The price of the main grade latex crepe 1X went up to 521.50 rupees a kilo. "Prices went up due to short supply in the market," said Shehan Meegama of brokers John Keells. "There has been bad weather- heavy rains - more..

July 27 (CI) Tharanga Paranavitana is not a very remarkable batsman. When Tillakaratne Dilshan cuts and slashes and hooks, Paranavitana quietly blends into the background and picks runs. He doesn't have Kumar Sangakkara's extravagant drives, nor Mahela Jayawardene's silken shots. If you run into him in an elevator, chances are you won't recognise him. He is not a lawyer, nor is he the man with the funky beard and a shot named after him. more..

July 27 (LBO) Shipping lines calling at Colombo port may have to raise freight rates to cover losses in recent years and return to profitability, Sri Lankan ship agents representing liners have said. Nimal Ranchigoda, chairman of the Ceylon Association of Ships' Agents, said the shipping industry was in "dire straits" last year owing to global recession which reduced trade. more..

July 27 (LG) I was concerned on the way to attend the picket organized by the union federations, United Federation of Labour and the Government United Federation Labour, on 15 July at Ratmalana. Workers were reluctant to campaign for higher wages in the last period, and only the politically conscious were interested in a show of protest. Hence I was thinking of an embarrassing situation, where I participate in a picket to demand wage increases with only half dozen of workers! more..

July 27 (LG) I decided to write this article after seeing a series of articles about the Sri Lanka Inventors’ Commission (SLIC). Some articles accused the present commissioner for mismanaging intellectual property and some articles accused some officers for fraud. Though at present I have no interest in SLIC, I was tempted to write because I was the commissioner of SLIC in 2006/07, and more..

July 27 (TC) When the president invited the opposition leader for talks on constitutional change, there was cheer that the debate on this vital national issue was finally broadening. Then, after just a few rounds of discussion, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe proposed the introduction of an elected executive prime minister — a system which has only been tried once before in the world and more..

July 27 (TN) Two undergrads, one of Jaffna University and the other of Peredeniya University riding on a motorcycle collided with another vehicle Sunday night in Jaffna at Kantharmadam and died on the spot, sources in Jaffna said. The victims riding without helmets had speeded up to escape traffic police chasing them and had collided with an oncoming vehicle, the sources added. The victims were identified as Shanthakumar Chanthuru, 25, more..

July 27 (NF) The Inter University Student Centre and the Inter University Student Federation say that the death of student Susantha Aruna Bandara is in fact, a murder. They charged that the police must take responsibility for it. “We clearly state that this is a murder and we accuse the police. They have attempted to produce a JMO report to quell protests in the country. “The IGP came before the media and claimed that based on the JMO report, more..

July 27 (TN) UNP Jaffna district parliamentarian Ms. Vijyakala Maheswaran Monday requested Sri Lanka government to launch an inquiry into the attack on Tamil prisoners in Colombo remand prison on Saturday. The Tamil prisoners were attacked when they complained to the prison authorities that they were being detained in overcrowded cells in the prison, sources in Colombo said. more..

July 27 (MoD) Five Hundred and thirty (530) recruits belonging to the 193rd and 194th Intakes of the Regular Naval Force passed out in a colourful Passing Out Parade held under flood lights at SLNS Nipuna in Boossa on 24th July 2010. Director General (Logistics) of the Sri Lanka Navy Rear Admiral M Premathilake graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and took the salute. Commander Southern Naval Area Commodore PADR Perera, more..

July 27 (LG) Focus on administrative measures is inevitable in the context of failure of the legal process. This section deals with aspects of administrative liability, of administrative sanction for control of bribery, and their proactive cogency for viable strategy for control of bribery and corruption. An idea of administrative liability for control of bribery and corruption has not been conceived by by the authorities through all the long years of legal formulation. more..

July 27 (LBO) Depositors in a failed Sri Lankan finance company have been paid back part of their money in the first phase of a repayment scheme with assets of the firm to be sold to raise more funds, the regulator said. The central bank said in a statement that by July 14, 2010, a total of 772.93 million rupees had been paid to 7,838 security deposit holders of The Golden Key Credit Card Company. more..

July 27 (TN) Plans to move Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and its offices now functioning in Trincomalee to Ki’linochchi by Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Sri Lanka government have been indefinitely postponed due to opposed opinion of the NPC officials who maintain that Ki’linochchi has not returned to normalcy and there are no basic facilities for the officials and employees to reside and work, sources in Trincomalee said. more..

July 27 (LG) I wrote two poems on the July 1983 both of which have been reproduced over and over again in anthologies and other publications. I thought reflecting on one of these two poems as a way of trying to talk about the meaning of the events of July 1983. Title of this poem is yet another incident in 1983. Yet words yet another incident was selected deliberately. The words yet another evokes the commonness of similar kind of events which happened during the time. more..

July 27 (ST) Passing the co-operative petrol station in Bandaragama town, we see a middle-aged woman, clad in a red uniform standing under a kottamba tree. The moment she sees a car, van, motorbike, trishaw or lorry enter the premises, she gets into action. To pump petrol or diesel to the vehicles or to give out oil or kerosene is her job and she attends to it with a smile. Amarasinghe Arachchige Jayantha, 58, has been working at this fuel station for the past 25 years, she says. more..

July 27 (Island) Many a remark has already been written on Minister Wimal Weerawansa’s resistance in front of the Colombo UN office against Ban Ki-moon’s decision to appoint a three-member advisory committee to look into the happenings in the final days of the war that resulted in a comprehensive defeat of the LTTE. The aim of this article is neither to defend Minister Weerawansa’s action nor to add one more interpretation, but to look at critically some of the comments, more..

July 27 (ST) Yesteryear is where you go when you want to lean back, relax and let the past take you on a long, winding drive through a countryside of pleasant memories. On a sunny day, back in the mid-Sixties and well into the early Eighties, the gates of a dignified, laidback bungalow on Dickman’s Road, Colombo 4, would open and a dignified, laidback and quite splendid vehicle would emerge; it would pause, turn left or right, and sedately head into town. more..

July 27 (NF) The purchasing of paddy for the Yala season will commence today. “Under the first phase of this initiative, paddy will be purchased from Ampara and Trincomalee. Forty-two centers have been set up to purchase paddy for the Yala season,” said K. Herath, Chairman of the Paddy Marketing Board. The government has allocated Rs 4 billion for this purpose. “A kilogramme of Nadu will be purchased at Rs. 28 while a kilogramme of Samba will be purchased at Rs. 30. more..

July 27 (SL) Ranil Wickremesinghe is certainly the pits. He projects himself as the gentleman of politics, a man who leads one to believe that his word is his bond — even though it is common knowledge that Wickremesinghe rarely gives his word but when he does, he stands by it. In that context, we are reproducing below, the exact words Ranil Wickremesinghe used as Leader of the House to lecture Mrs. Bandaranaike on the Westminster system of politics. more..

July 27 (GV) Savouring the richly deserved cascades of press coverage last week of Muttiah Muralidaran’s retirement from Test cricket on the magnificent record of 800 wickets, it is difficult to resist a surge of heart-warming patriotism. It was not only the doosra-like sequence of events in the last day of the Galle Test against India – wholly implausible had it been a fictional plot – that precipitated more..

july 27 (wsws) Further evidence has emerged in recent weeks of the continuing political disintegration of the separatist LTTE, which was militarily crushed in May 2009 by the Sri Lankan military. Several reports indicate that Selvarasa Pathmanathan, also known as KP, who took over as LTTE leader after the death of V. Prabhakaran, is now actively collaborating with the Sri Lankan government and military intelligence. more..

july 27 (TN) Northern Provincial Council (NPC) is alleged of cutting funds allocated to the local government bodies in Vanni in great measures while these institutions are not in a position to collect revenue from people who had been uprooted and just resettled in Vanni, sources in Vanni said. It is further accused that NPC officials spend the above funds on needless projects to satisfy the whims of Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and more..

july 27 (TN) Sri Lanka government has suspended the dry food relief supplied under World Food Programme to the recently resettled people in the outskirts of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Vazhalaay near Achchuveali, according to Divisional Secretariat officials who had suspended the supply of dry food rations on instructions from Sri Lanka government authorities. Around 230 uprooted families evacuated from more..

July 27 (NNS) The women of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Female Engagement Team (FET) on the Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) shared their personal military experiences with the female service members of the Sri Lankan Navy and Air Force July 14. "We invited them on board the Pearl Harbor to meet with them and discuss differences in our militaries and just in general being a woman in the military," more..

July 27 (NF) A consensus will be reached with regard to reviving the party's grass root level membership through an amendment that will serve the purpose, says the UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera. “Even though our leader is not in the country, through discussions with the Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya, our chairman, the general secretary and others, we will come to a consensus this week or during the next about who our leader, deputy leader, asst. leader. national organizer and general secretary will be. more..

July 27 (MoD) A person from the South, who has allegedly committed acts of terrorism with the LTTE was arrested by the Colombo Police Crimes Division at Dedigama in the Navagamuwa area yesterday. The terrorist suspect is a Sinhalese who had cooperated in committing acts of terrorism in the North and the South for more than 18 years. On information received the CCD had made investigations on his movements for some time before he was arrested. more..

July 27 (MoD) 'The de-mining programme is progressing well although it is a very tedious process, as land has to be cleared inch by inch,' Military Spokesperson Brigadier Ubaya Medawala said. UNDP Senior Programme Manager for Mine Action, Wuria Karadaghy said the mine clearance remains one of the most important aspects with regard to resettlement. more..

July 27 (LP) 10 sites have been recognized with a high risk of landslides, and investigations are being carried out into those districts, said Disaster Management Minister A.H.M. Fawzi. He also said that Peradeniya and Padiyapilalla has been identified as the two places with the highest risk of landslides, and that over 15 crore in rupees would have to be spent to minimize the risk in those places. MP Fawzi said that close to Rs. 5000 million will have to be spent to more..

July 27 (MoD) Terrorism by nature thrives on the vulnerabilities of democratic States and lacuna in international law. Much of the rules of war and norms are based on the presumption that the parties to the conflict are conventional armies of responsible States, but terrorists totally disregard these laws and principles, External Affairs Deputy Minister Gitanjana Gunawardena said. The Deputy Minister was addressing the 17th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Hanoi. more..

July 27 (N360) Thousands of Sri Lankan’s living in Italy urged the EU officials to reconsider its decision taken to remove the GSP + trade concession from Sri Lanka. Writing a letter to the European Union, Sri Lankan expatriates appealed to the EU officials to restore the GSP + duty concession which is expected to be ceased from the 15th of August this year. The letter handed over to the Chairman of the European parliament goes onto say more..

July 27 (LP) Japan-Lanka Friendship Association once again extended their goodwill towards Sri Lanka Army by donating more vehicles. The association donated one ambulance and three fire engines worth Rs. 124 million for use of the Army at a special ceremony held yesterday (26) at the Army Headquarters playground. The ceremony commenced with the hoisting of the national flag by Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya and more..

July 27 (GDI) Minister of External Affairs Prof. G.L. Peiris and Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa who are currently in Japan on an official visit stated that since Sri Lanka is now in the post conflict era the Japanese investors could play a vigorous role in the development of infrastructure in variety of fields. Both the ministers during their meeting with Japanese Transport and Tourism Minister and more..

July 27 (GDI) The remittances received last year from Sri Lankan expatriates topped country’s foreign exchange earnings and amounted to Rs. 382 Billion. The Minister of Youth Affairs Mr. Dallas Alahapperuma has said that measures will be taken to double this amount and increase it to Rs. 764 Billion this year. Addressing a function held in Colombo in connection with more..

July 27 (MoD) The Police Department is to extend the registration of persons currently being carried out in certain areas in Colombo to the rest of the country. The registration programme is being carried out not only in Wellawatte but also in Kirulapona and Kotahena at the moment, Police Spokesperson SP Prishantha Jayakody said. He said the registrations were a normal, regular occurrence and more..

July 27 (DM) Given the track record of the UPFA in its dealings with media, the fourth estate has all the right to suspect that there’s some sinister intention behind the move to establish a Media Development Authority (MDA). And that hunch will remain till the government proves its innocence. The Information Department statement clarifying the purpose behind setting up of the authority appears to have let the cat out of the bag. more..

July 27 (LT) Police Station Matara launched a poster campaign to put the blame of the student's killing on University students while ignoring impartial inquiries which are to be carried out against the Police who were accused against this death, reported our Matara correspondent. The correspondent further stated that Matara Police were putting up posters at the dawn today. A Sub-Inspector who didn’t want to identify himself has told our correspondent that more..

July 27 (CT) Academic activities in several universities islandwide are facing a standstill after university lecturers launched a token strike today (July 27) demanding the increase of their academic allowance by 25 per cent. Over 4,000 lecturers from the Kelaniya, Jayawardenapura, Sabaragamuwa, Ruhuna, Rajarata, Peradeniya universities and the University of Visual & Performing Arts have joined the token strike. more..