Jan 13 (NS) The Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka, under the Ministry of Economic Development has advertised in a local newspaper inviting proposals to invest, develop and operate a Mixed Development project on a prime block of land at Nawam Mawatha, Colombo 2. The two acre block of land owned by the Employees Trust Fund (ETF) will be available on a long term-lease basis to the successful applicant and will enjoy tax relief and other incentives through the BOI. more..

Jan 13 (NS) Although Sri Lanka had witnessed a decline in total tea export volumes during the year 2012, crisis ridden Middle Eastern countries such as Iran and Libya had substantially increased their imports of Sri Lankan tea by 9.22% and 9.21% respectively compared to the year 2011, recent statistics showed. However, the country-wise analysis of exports shows that export volumes to Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries including Russia continues as the more..

Jan 13 (CT) Rizana the girl child from Muttur Sri Lanka was beheaded in a Saudi Prison on 9 January. Malala the 15-year-old Pakistani girl, who was shot in the head by the Taliban, was discharged from the Birmingham hospital on 4 January. The poor parents of Rizana of Muttur have now requested for the body of their daughter. The Queen Elizabeth hospital that treated Malala has advised her parents that Malala could now more..

Jan 13 (CG) The weather over Si Lanka today has been mainly fair and cold, the Department of Meteorology said. A cold breeze was felt in Colombo and the surrounding areas from morning. The Department of Meteorology meanwhile said that there will be showers or thundershowers at several places in the sea areas off Eastern, South-eastern and Southern coasts over the next few hours. Winds will be from North-easterly or Northerly direction and speed will be 30 – 40 km/hr. more..

Jan 13 (IC) Q: If Angelo Mathews takes over as captain after this series, who should be vice-captain? A: Dinesh Chandimal will make a good vice-captain. He comes across as being brave, and seems to read the game well, just as he showed in that third Test. Out of the youngsters, he looks like the fastest learner. Chandimal will also be behind the stumps, which means he can read the angles in the field well. He is vocal behind the stumps, and is always encouraging his mates. more..

Jan 13 (CI) Former Sri Lanka wicketkeeper Guy de Alwis, 52, died on Saturday night after a battle with cancer. De Alwis is the fourth* Test cricketer from Sri Lanka to pass away after Sritharan Jeganathan, Anura Ranasinghe and Roshan Guneratne. He represented Sri Lanka in 11 Tests and 31 ODIs from 1983 to 1988. De Alwis topped his country's batting averages in the 1983 World Cup with 167 runs at 55.66, more..

Jan 13 (Reuters) On Wednesday, the Saudi Arabian government beheaded Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan woman who had worked as a maid in the kingdom, holding her responsible for the death of the four-month-old baby of her employer. Nafeek—the daughter of an impoverished wood-cutter from a village in Trincomalee, in northern Sri Lanka—was a seventeen-year-old in the second week of her job as a maid in the Saudi town of Dawadmi when the child died in her care on May 22, 2005. more..

Jan 13 (LBO) CJ Shirani Bandaranayake has not asked for time to remain till April 30 which will be followed by a voluntary retirement, her lawyers said. Referring to a media report on a Sinhalese language weekly that she had asked to remain till April 30 and retire voluntarily after that, lawyers said it was not correct and a denial had been sent to the paper. Chief justice had been fighting an impeachment by ruling coalition legislators. Court has already quashed a report by a PSC. more..

Jan 13 (CI) Sri Lanka's coach Graham Ford expected far better from his men after an abject display in the first ODI, and in Adelaide they duly delivered. A highly disciplined bowling ensemble laid bare Australian frailty against the seaming ball before Lahiru Thirimanne anchored a comfortable chase on a tacky pitch in the second match of the series at Adelaide Oval. Visitors lost Upul Tharanga in the first over of their chase more..

Jan 13 (Island) The Colombo share market remains stagnant despite continued declines in interest rates, Acuity Stockbrokers said in a research report issued yesterday. "Markets were stagnant throughout the week with the All Share Price Index declining 0.02% amid low retail participation," Acuity’s Weekly Research Report said. It noted that interest rates continued to fall, dropping 33 bps over the last week and said that since the Central Bank’s policy rate cut early December, money market rates had more..

Jan 13 (AD) Norway has condemned the execution of Sri Lankan domestic worker Rizana Nafeek in Saudi Arabia this week, with the country’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide saying he was shocked by the execution. “I am shocked by the execution in Saudi Arabia of Sri Lankan Rizana Nafeek. Norway condemns her execution, which is also a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as she was a minor at the time of the crime for which she was charged,” Barth Eide said. more..

Jan 13 (CG) In their first interview since moving out of Sri Lanka in 2008, the former Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) has admitted the 2002 ceasefire agreement was flawed. Former SLMM spokeswoman Helen Ólafsdóttir says the CFA had some structural flaws and was never actually fully implemented, which gave scope for further conflict. The SLMM was criticized by hard-line political parties and groups in Sri Lanka more..

Jan 13 (CT) Three Kurdish women activists including a co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who were believed to be closely associated with the LTTE’s shadow organization Tamil Coordinating Committee have been killed inside the Kurdish Information Centre in Paris on Thursday informed sources said. “The scene leads one to think of an execution, but the investigation will determine the exact circumstances,” a police source said. Three bullet casings were found near more..

Jan 13 (CT) Chairman of Master Divers, Ariyaseela Wickramanayake, said that ruins of an ancient ship believed to date back to 200 B.C. have been found in the sea near Godawaya in Hambantota. According to Wickramanayake, the ship's ruins have been found during a diving excursion. Among the ruins, were copper, steel, earthen ware and glass balls. It is speculated that this ship had been used to export these items to foreign countries from ancient Sri Lanka. The ship had been located at more..

Jan 13 (CT) Around 50,000 trainee graduates are gearing up for a mass protest throughout the country, demanding they be given permanent jobs before the end of this month. The Graduate Employees’ Union (GEU) claimed on Friday over 50,000 graduates, who received job appointments in February last year, are still employed as trainees, though their six-month training period was completed months ago. more..

Jan 13 (DM) Foreign workers are being warned of the 'deadly risks' they face in Saudi Arabia, with more than 45 maids awaiting execution despite growing anger at the country's mistreatment of migrants. The death row prisoners include a domestic worker convicted of beating her employer to death when he allegedly tried to rape her. On Wednesday, authorities in the Middle Eastern country ignored international pleas and beheaded maid Rizana Nafeek, 24, who was more..

Jan 13 (AFP) Saudi Arabia on Sunday criticised world reaction to its beheading of a Sri Lankan maid convicted of killing her employer’s baby, the official SPA news agency reported. Riyadh “deplores the statements made... over the execution of a Sri Lankan maid who had plotted and killed an infant by suffocating him to death, one week after she arrived in the kingdom,” the govt spokesman said. Rizana Nafeek was beheaded on Wednesday in a case that sparked widespread international more..

Jan 13 (AD) The impeachment motion brought against Shirani Bandaranayake was not properly passed in Parliament, says the UNP expressing its stance on the removal of the country’s first woman CJ by the President today. “Therefore the President has no legal authority to remove Shirani Bandaranayake from the post or appoint a new Chief Justice,” UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said in a statement. more..

Jan 14 (SL) SRI Lanka’s Davis Cup tie against Pakistan, next month in Colombo, will be the first international event of significance that the country would’ve hosted in the New Year. The Feb 1-3 contest, of course, is not, just as its previous hostingwere, quite the year’s most eagerly looked-forward to event, and not wholly due to a lack of entertainment value. The long years, between late 90s through to 2009, during which we spent in Group 3 and 4 of the annual tournament more..

Jan 14 (DBS) My dear Ma-hinder,….or should I say Mein lieber Führer. If ever there was a time for you to sport a toothbrush darling, this time is that time. Much as I and many others, both from the ranks of the Martyred Proletariat and the hierarchies of the privileged classes would like to see you pack up your signal toothbrush into an overnight bag and hook it to Palestine or perhaps Saudi Arabia; that is not what I have in mind. But while I’m on the subject or the prospect of you tootling off somewhere more..

Jan 14 (ST) 27-year-old Viraj de Silva from Kuda Maskeliya is on a desperate search. He is looking and longing for a pair of hands. Although this policeman of the Special Task Force has also been blinded in his left eye, he has come to accept that with stoic resignation, but agonises over a future without his hands. Let alone, taking food to the mouth, holding a cup to drink water, washing not only the face or body more..

Jan 14 (SL) The froth and fume directed against the Saudis on the beheading of the innocent Sri Lankan girl Rizana Nafeek can be understood but can Saudis alone be held responsible for this tragedy? Each country has its own peculiar judicial and penal systems which they do not stretch even to their own nationals and it cannot be expected that they will do so to foreigners – least of all abjectly poor workers from the poorest of countries. Authorities of Sri Lanka as well as those from South and more..

Jan 14 (DBS) What the ‘Geneva vote’ in March last could not achieve, it now seems, the Parliament vote on Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake’s impeachment is capable of attaining. It was argued then that the Geneva vote aimed at destabilising not just the incumbent government but Sri Lanka as a nation. Despite the vote, the Geneva process did not achieve that goal. Today, the impeachment vote can do it, without instigation from outside and exclusively from within. With 117 MPs from the ruling more..

Jan 14 (DBS) Friday, the 11th of January 2013 will go down in the history of Sri Lanka, as a day marked by the accomplishment of a feat but not a victory, a day of conquest but riddled with cowardice, a splendid display of power but not strength, a day of triumph but drenched in iniquity. All through the island was heard the death knell…of the judiciary, its independence, but even more: of justice, freedom, liberty, security and rights more..

Jan 14 (CT) As the dust settles down over the fortnight long protests against the barbaric gang rape of a 23 year old girl in Delhi, the world reacted strongly, a number of world leaders commented on the need to protect women. I was amused with two news articles, one was the demonstrations in support of the Delhi rape victim in Sri Lanka, here I was wondering when rape is an everyday unreported occurrence in the North and East of their own country, the demonstrators shut more..

Jan 14 (CT) We are today facing a situation where the Rule of Law is being replaced by the rule of a man. Parliament has refused to accept the interpretation of the Constitution given by the Supreme Court, which alone is empowered to do so under our Constitution. The concept of the rule of law is the principle of nondiscretionary governance of those people currently in authority. It stands in contrast to the arbitrary or discretionary rule of some of our ancient kings although they more..

Jan 14 (DBS) After the Christmas and New Year festivities, the focus is now on the Pongal harvest festival, popularly known as Thai Pongal, celebrated in the first four days of the month of Thai in the Tamil-Hindu calendar. Traditionally, it is the festival of farmers who depend on Mother Earth, the sun, rain, other natural elements and cows and buffaloes for a bountiful harvest of their staple food, rice. It is a time more..

Jan 14 (SO) It all happened a few years ago while both of them were serving as police constables in a remote police station at Koslanda nearly 20 kilometres from the Bandarawela town. He was a handsome young police constable from Walapone and his girlfriend came from Medagama in the Bibile area. She was a young and vivacious woman in her mid-twenties. She was athletically built, smart and carried herself well. Naturally she captivated the young constable's heart. more..

Jan 14 (Island) President Mahinda Rajapaksa came under tremendous pressure, both local and international, to suspend the impeachment process after Parliament had resolved to remove CJ Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake. But, he sacked her yesterday. The less said about the politicians who ganged up against CJ Bandaranayake, the better. But the question is whether the impeached CJ lived up to the high standards expected of the head of the apex court. She should have been wise more..

Jan 14 (ST) We learned that upon the Melbourne debacle, some of the high-backed cushioned chairs at a Maitland Place building, which is called by its most appropriate name, Sri Lanka Cricket, began to heat up. Anyway SLC Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga was in Melbourne to swallow the bitter pill while some of the other big wigs rushed back to their hot seats in Colombo. Losing a Test in Australia is nothing new to Sri Lanka because more..

Jan 14 (ST) After averting the so-called “fiscal cliff”, President Obama said there is need to reduce the fiscal deficit while spending more in those areas that will determine the development of the US. This is even truer of the challenges facing Sri Lanka’s economy. Reforms of state enterprises and more prudent government expenditure are needed to reduce the fiscal deficit and increase expenditure on economic and social priorities. These are serious challenges in 2013. Central Bank Governor more..

Jan 14 (ST) The fate of Chief Justice (CJ) Shirani Bandaranayake was sealed on November 1, 2012; the day a motion signed by 117 Govt legislators seeking her removal from office was handed over to Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa. Once the process was set in motion, there was no turning back for the Govt which defied all those who stood in its way. A Supreme Court judgment on the legality of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) that probed charges against the CJ, as well as more..

Jan 14 (Island) Four years after the preliminary application, the plans of ‘Clearpoint Residencies’, the Rs. 3.5 billion joint venture between top rung architect Milroy Perera of Kandalama Hotel fame and MAGA Engineering (Pvt) Ltd were approved and the long awaited construction of the world’s tallest vertical garden commenced yesterday. Situated within the heart of the city and surrounded by marshes more..

Jan 14 (Island) Chaaya Blu Trincomalee was awarded the ‘Green Globe Re-Certification’ by the world wide certification and performance improvement program developed specifically for the tourism and travel industry. The Green Globe Certification which operates in 83 countries is stringent in awarding their certifications through independent third party assessors. Applicants have to conform to 248 pre-set internationally accepted standards including saving energy and water, more..

Jan 14 (Island) Minister Basil Rajapaksa said last week that the govt was in the process of importing the best breeds of dairy cows which will be distributed among the people at reasonable prices to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in milk production by 2016, the ministry said in a press communiqué. "Already steps have been taken to import Jersey and Friesian cows from Australia for hill country farms. Later 10,000 more cows which can adapt to the low country climate would be imported, more..

Jan 14 (DN) Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena instructed the Cosmetic Devices and Drug Control Authority (CDDA) to take immediate action against private pharmacies purchasing medicine issued by the govt and selling them to patients at higher prices. He instructed CDDA officials to cancel the licenses of such private pharmacies and take legal action against pharmacy owners. The Health Ministry recently uncovered a racket where drugs issued to patients by govt hospitals more..

Jan 14 (DN) Making a commitment to the betterment of children at the start of the new year, SriLankan Airlines’ CSR arm ‘SriLankan Cares’, signed a MoU with the Ministry of Health and the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) to upgrade and convert Ward Five of the LRH, to a Child Psychiatric facility. This will be the first dedicated, multi-disciplinary Child Psychiatric Unit in Sri Lanka. The MOU was signed by Srilankan CEO, Kapila Chandrasena, the Health Ministry Secretary, Dr Y D Nihal Jayathilaka more..

Jan 14 (LT) Despite stating he was not aware of the impeachment motion brought against the Chief Justice by a group of MPs and attempting to evade responsibility of the impeachment process by stating an independent committee would be appointed to study the report of the PSC, the President cannot do so emphasizes the JVP. Govt’s strategy was to threaten the CJ by bringing up an impeachment motion and more..

Jan 14 (Island) A 22-year-old Sri Lankan youth has been sentenced to death by a Qatar court. Vengadaslam Sudeshkar, who left the country in 2010 as a migrant worker to Qatar, had been found guilty of killing a fellow Indian worker by stabbing him. Sudeshkar was arrested in June 2011 and a Qatar court had sentenced him to death on Dec 31, 2012. Parents of the Indian worker had agreed to exonerate Sudeshkar if they are paid blood money amounting to 3.5 million Lankan rupees, more..