June 27 (LBO) Bansai Securities, a Tokyo based investment house is planning to buy 10 billion yen (125 million US dollars) worth Sri Lanka rupee Treasuries, over the next 12 months, the foreign ministry said. The first tranche of 1.5 million US dollars is expected to be made before 15 July 2012. The New World Securities [Pvt] Limited, a Japanese Securities firm authorized to trade in shares and financial instrument in Sri Lanka is lead manager to the deal and more..

June 27 (IL) A financial donation with a worth of Rs. 75 million from the Employees Trust Fund (ETF) was made as scholarship grants to nearly 5000 students who excelled in last year's Grade Five scholarship examination, at Temple Trees yesterday on 26 June. The EPF Board Chairman K.M.A. Godawaththa presented the cheque to President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the presence of Ministers and officials. Later the President handed over the more..

June 27 (CT) Lawyers for Nihal Sri Ameresekere has filed a Motion on 19 June in the District Court of Colombo Case No. 217/CO with copies of Letters sent by them to seven Govt Directors of Hilton, namely: Chairman Tirukumar Nadesan, former Chairman Nawaz Rajabdeen, Director V. Kanagasabapathy, Director N. Warusavitharana, Director K.V.N Jayawardena, Director Kosala Wickramanayake and Director Tissa Wickramasuriya putting them on notice more..

June 27 (GDI) Sri Lanka National Director of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Nawaz Rajabdeen said as once war affected North and East regions have now re-joined the country’s GDP scheme, UNIDO is moving to resurrect the regional chambers of these provinces – and elsewhere. He said that their Regional Chambers can actively get involved in identifying the industrial requirements of these areas and the availability of more..

June 27 (GDI) The logistic subsidiary Logiventures of the Hayleys Group, upon clearing its first shipment of 850 vehicles at the Magam Ruhunupura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port in Hambantota has begun offering comprehensive automotive logistics solutions. The 850 vehicles were brought by the NYK Line vessel Cygnus Leader and the Logiventures has made arrangements to work closely with NYK Line, to expand its engagement with the automotive industry in Sri Lanka. more..

June 27 (AHRC) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that on 20 May 2012, Kalum Priyanath, a disabled labourer, went to a local temple to help a monk run an errand. At 12pm, as he was returning home, Priyanath was arrested by the police and taken to Welikanda Police Station. According to police officers, Priyanath was in possession of marijuana, and was found dead in his jail cell at 1pm as the result of a head injury caused by a fall. more..

June 27 (DM) The University Grants Commission (UGC) is responsible for devising the Z-score, the Minister of Education and the commissioner of examinations have been absolved of any issue regarding the A/L results, Minister of Education Bandula Gunawardena said. The Minister addressing a news conference held at the Isurupaya said, when asked who is to blame for the current fiasco, that no one is to blame. “No one is to be blamed for this, more..

June 27 (DM) The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said arsonists were responsible for setting fire to 22 forest reserves during the past two weeks. The fires had destroyed thousands of acres of forest land. The DMC said it was impossible to arrest the culprits as there was no way to find out who they were. DMC Deputy Director Sarath Lal Kumara said forest fires hadbeenreported from the Monaragala, Badulla, Nuwara-Eliya, Kandy and Matale districts during the past two weeks. more..

June 27 (LBO) The International Finance Corporation, is working with Sri Lanka’s Nations Trust Bank to help up to 30,000 small business owners become more competitive through a series of advisory interventions, sharpening their readiness to access new markets. IFC said its advisory assistance has helped the bank to strengthen its institutional capacity over the last two years to expand product portfolio, service small business clients, and more..

June 27 (DM) Defying all negative forecasts for the much-frowned-upon Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) and the dismal image of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), some of the world’s leading companies have put faith in the new project, investing heavily in Sri Lankan standards to win the ownership of franchises. Among the big names that have won the franchises are soft drink giants Pepsi and the leading Indian business conglomerate Wadhwan Holdings, more..

June 27 (AD) A Sri Lankan Court has lifted the travel ban on the six Maldivians and a woman from Madagascar held from leaving the country following the death of Mohamed Midhshah, 37 who plunged to his death from the eighteenth floor of Hotel in Colombo on June 14. Police Spokesperson Sajeewa Medawatte detailed last night that the seven people had been released on a bail of RS 1.5 million while conditioning their mandatory presence for the next hearing of the trial. more..

June 27 (Stuff) A crowded boat carrying asylum seekers to Australia capsized and sank on Wednesday and 130 survivors and one body were recovered from the Indian Ocean, less than a week after more than 90 people drowned on a similar journey. An air and sea search was ongoing for as many as 19 people who could still be missing, Australian Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said. "The information that we have is that there were as many as 150 people on the boat," more..

June 27 (GDI) New Index launched to meet investor demand for transparent, rules based benchmark to measure the performance of the Sri Lankan equity market. S&P Indices announces today the launch of the S&P Sri Lanka 20, which has been jointly developed with the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). The Index is designed to be representative of the Sri Lankan equity market, yet also be efficient to replicate, with possible more..

June 27 (CT) Electric Engineer N. Salie of the maintenance department at the Kotmale Power Plant says the power plant’s water capacity is only sufficient for the generation of electricity for five days due to the receding water levels in the Kotmale reservoir. Since the upper catchment areas have not received sufficient rainfall, the water level in the reservoir has decreased down to 30%. Salie pointed out, due to the shortage of the water supply, two out of three more..

June 27 (ST) Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunge stressed the need to revolutionise Sri Lanka’s school curriculum, both from an academic as well as an extracurricular standpoint. Sri Lanka’s education system has undergone a lot of tinkering over a period of time, at the behest of individuals rather than a body of cohesive and rational thinkers. This has resulted in rather disjointed system that leaves the student totally unprepared for the world of work, more..

June 27 (DM) The North Central, Sabaragamuwa and Eastern Provinces are to be dissolved; midnight today, highly placed govt officials said. Governors of the three provinces have placed their signatures on the gazette notification effecting the dissolution. The period of office of the Sabaragamuwa PC was to come to an end on September 10th of 2013 as the council met for the first time on 11th September 2008 after the election was held on 2008 April 10th. more..

June 28 (LB) The president last week visited Cuba, and significantly he dropped-by to see the living relatives of the late Che Guevara, the charismatic leftist guerilla idol who championed the Cuban revolution along with Fidel Castro. Strange, some would say. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s political party has a history of quelling a so called Che Guevara insurgency in 1971, which was of course a JVP uprising led by Rohana Wijeweera who imbibed his revolutionary fervour in the Patrice more..

June 28 (LB) The pro-separatist intellectuals of the twentieth and twenty first century bent over backwards, manufacturing theories, re-writing history, concocting geographies, to justify the violence that came out of the womb of Jaffna. The 18th century chronicle of Mylvaganam Pulavar, Yalpana Vaipava Malai (Garland of Significant Events of Jaffna), however, is exceptional in that it has no qualms in condemning Tamil violence without any reservations. more..

June 28 (LB) True Lasith is a great bowler. One of the best pacies probably ever in the history of one-day internationals, and a man who reinvented the word hat-trick, or redefined it to mean ‘fat-trick’ by taking four wickets in four successive balls. Malinga yorkers are the piece de resistance in the Sri Lankan bowling armory. True. Too true, almost. But yet - but really, yet - this is nothing compared to what he has been bowling at the Establishment lately. They do not know what to do with this kind of bowling, more..

June 28 (Island) Having decided to pursue a common strategy against the then govt consequent to a series of talks with the JVP, President Chandrika Kumaratunga took over the Defence, Interior and Information portfolios and prorogued Parliament on Nov 4, 2003 till Nov. 19, 2003. Her action effectively scuttled the government’s budget scheduled to be presented on Nov. 12. The President replaced Defence Secretary, Austin Fernando with one-time IGP, Cyril Herath. more..

June 28 (Island) A knowledge society and knowledge-based economy are the latest catch words in the field of education. Knowledge, skills and resourcefulness of people are critical to the building up of a knowledge society which is crucial for achieving the objective of a knowledge-based economy. During the last two decades, most of the South and South East Asian countries have developed considerably by with the involvement of the academics. Although education at primary, secondary and tertiary level including more..

June 28 (DM) R.Sampanthan’s road map of a long march to bifurcate Sri Lanka is routed through New Delhi. Craftily navigating in troubled waters the destination, he seeks, is called Point Federal. That veiled name board is unspoken and unseen in his script. In TNA’s vocabulary Federalism is a prohibited word, they opt not to utter, since the 13th Amendment will carry them nearly the same distance legitimately through an Indian rope trick. more..

June 28 (GV) For many in Sri Lanka and around the globe, war is generic. Images of war victims are anonymous and nonspecific. If the caption on a photograph of a child war victim is altered, the meaning of the image can be changed and the photo reused in different contexts and by different parties – by LTTE advocates, different political factions, or by the Sri Lankan govt. Do photographs of war victims necessarily vivify the condemnation of war? No. more..

June 28 (DBS) In the 2012 Gallup poll, conducted by the US in the Asian region, to find the chief executive with highest approval rating, President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, came third with a 91 percent approval rating. It was conducted by a US-based agency. When President Rajapaksa visited Rome, I had sleepless nights with Sri Lankans living all over Italy pleading with me to give them an opportunity to see him. A few years after his election as President another English newspaper carried out more..

June 28 (Island) A proposal to lift the restrictions on the importation of orthodox style tea was submitted to the Tea Council of the Sri Lanka Tea Board, on August 1, 2011, by the trade members of the Tea Council, acting on behalf of the Tea Exporters Association. As the then Chairman of the Tea Council, I did not to express an opinion on the matter, on behalf of the Council. However, having perceived that the proposal was based entirely on assumptions and more..

June 28 (Island) Some cricketers are accused of being paid by big-time bookies to fix matches. The game has been the loser owing to this abominable practice. Much opprobrium is heaped on the errant players, who even face bans, if found guilty. But, surprisingly there is no such public outcry in this country against politicians and top bureaucrats suspected of ‘fixing’ vital Bills. What has befallen the National Medicinal Drug Policy (NMDP) is just one example. There has been an inordinate delay in formulating the NMDP, which, the govt more..

June 28 (Island) Tony Greig has appealed to the BCCI to abandon self interest and "embrace the spirit of cricket and govern in the best interests of world cricket, not just for India and its business partners." Greig, the South Africa-born former England captain, utilised his invitation to deliver the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture from Lord’s, to call upon India to "accept its responsibility as leader of the cricket world" and ensure that the long-term future of Test cricket and the less powerful Test nations were more..

June 28 (Island) Some of Sri Lanka’s Olympics bound athletes joined former Olympians to mark the Olympic Day Run with hundreds of school children in Colombo yesterday. Reshika Udugampola and Heshan Unamboowe, country’s wildcard entrants for swimming and Mangala Samarakoon, who earned a quota place for rifle shooting joined in the Olympic Day Run parade which commenced in front of the Olympics House. Damayanthi Dharsha, Sugath Thilakaratne and Sriyani Kulawansa more..

June 28 (DN) Sri Lanka State Engineering Corporation (SEC) has won the International Star for Leadership in Quality award at the international quality convention- 16th International Star for Leadership in Quality, held in Paris on June 25 with the participation of 74 countries, Ministry official said. International Star for Leadership in Quality Award is awarded by the Business Initiative Direction (BID). "According to BID, the award is offered more..

June 28 (NST) WE don’t go on one safari in Sri Lanka. We go on four in 12 days! Our bones are shaken and rattled out of joint, even as our eyes feast on the magnificent wildlife! Most of the national parks that offer these safaris have extremely bad roads. In one, driving on the rocky laterite road is really brutal as our hired 4WD takes the torturous journey into and around the park. On another, the dry earthen track kicks up so much dust, our clothes wash out black ink at laundry time. more..

June 28 (DN) The govt has focused its attention to take proactive measures to minimize marine pollution caused by shipping activities, in line with the changing trends in the country's development drive, Environment Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said. The minister was addressing the inauguration of a workshop held on Tuesday at the Central Bank Training Centre on "Marine Pollution and OPRC Convention and OPRC HNS Protocol," conducted by international experts Hakan Ozturk, Joseph Gerad Small and more..

June 28 (DN) The extended drinking water lines up to Kithulkote from the Wellawaya- Thanamalvila Water Supply Project were inaugurated by Water Supply and Drainage Minister Dinesh Gunawardana at the Wellawaya, Kudaoya Maha Vidyalaya on June 26. The project, implemented under the Assistance of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Third Project of the Asian Development Bank, will provide water for around 10,000 families. The water lines were extended to supply water to more..

June 28 (DM) Hirunika Premachandra, the daughter of late Presidential Advisor Baratha Lakshman Premachandra, said today that she would enter active politics soon. “My father didn’t do politics for money, and the people loved him for all the service that he rendered to the people. I want to continue the same politics that my father did and will do this from Kolonnawa” she said. Hirunika made these remarks while addressing a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for more..

June 28 (CT) An official has been removed from the Special Investigations Unit of the Education Ministry for pointing out the errors in the calculated z score of 2011 A/L examination. Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU), Joseph Stalin said, the official had pointed out mistakes done by the Ministry when issuing z scores. Stalin said the official had even informed this in writing to the committee headed by Dhara Wijayathilake and to the Education Ministry. more..

June 28 (CT) Out of 1,48,168 applications which were received for re-evaluation of 2011 A/L results 2725 entries have received altered results. Minister Bandula Gunwardena said that the change of results is only 1.14% of the total applications received for re-correction. He noted that this is not an unusual phenomenon as during certain years like in 2008 the percentage of the change of results out of the total number of applications had been 7.07%. The majority of the results which were changed had been altered with an improvement of grades. more..

June 28 (Hindu) It election time again in Sri Lanka. Late on Wednesday night, the North Central, Sabaragamuwa and Eastern Province Councils were dissolved. The Northern Province continues to be the only one without an elected council. Elections to these three provincial councils are likely to be held in August, after a notification and a 45-day campaign. The most important of these elections will be in the Eastern Province, more..

June 28 (CI) Sri Lanka have recalled fast bowler Dilhara Fernando to the squad for the second Test against Pakistan, which begins at the SSC on June 30, as a replacement for the injured Chanaka Welegedara. The selectors were short of options, with several back-up seamers nursing injuries. Fernando's last Test appearance was the Boxing Day match against South Africa in Durban in 2011. His inclusion is the only change to the Sri Lanka squad that won the first Test in Galle. "Fernando has recovered from a shoulder injury and more..

June 28 (DN) The new Director General of the Asian Development Bank's South Asia Regional Department Juan Miranda paid a courtesy call on Minister Basil Rajapaksa, to discuss the current status in relation to ADB's assistance programme to Sri Lanka, at the Ministry of Economic Development on June 26. He was accompanied by Hans G Carlson, Lead Development Effectives Specialist and Ms. Rita O'sullivan, ADB's country director in Sri Lanka. more..