July 26 (CT) A Lieutenant attached to the Palali Army Camp has been heavily assaulted with an iron chair by a Brigadier of the same camp, for failing to report to him dressed in official sports attire. The victimized Lieutenant had been off-duty as he had been advised by a doctor to take rest due to his ill-health, when he had been summoned by the Brigadier for a program on July 23. The Brigadier had lost his temper when he saw the Lieutenant not dressed in appropriate garb and had lifted more..

July 26 (Island) The govt had allocated only Rs. 300 million for the country’s technology and research sector per year, Minister Champika Ranawaka said. He said that the govt had invested the least amount of money on the technology and research sector of the country. The govt should allocate more funds for research and technology development and the funds provided were not sufficient, Minister Ranawaka said, adding that in calculating economic development data, the statistics more..

July 26 (CT) 31 years after the tragic events of July 1983, there has still been no serious attempt to heal the wounds. They were grave wounds, and the effect they had still bedevils this country. Though many explanations are offered, some in an effort to justify what occurred, we must recognize that, as Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe put it, ‘The facts however cannot be denied. Thousand of Tamils, old and young, and even little children were assaulted; robbed, killed, bereaved and made refugees. more..

July 26 (CT) The management of the social media site Facebook has removed the pages of the Buddhist nationalist BBS and its chief instigator, Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, after a series of complaints that the content therein constituted hate speech. Witty media folks were heard saying that the latest incident would augur the BBS aba saranai, borrowing from a phrase popularize by the monk himself. The meaning of that saying is a cause for dispute, though linguists say more..

July 26 (Island) Fisheries Ministry has launched a project to earn an enhanced income of two billion rupees via ornamental fish exports next year, which has a demand of around USD 355 million in the world market. At present Sri Lanka produced only around 2.7% of total world ornamental fish demand worth around USD 10 million, Minister Rajitha Senaratne said. As there was a good demand for SL ornamental fish more..

July 26 (GDI) President Rajapaksa who visited the Anuradhapura Sacred City on Friday paid homage to the historic Jaya Sri Mahabodhi and secured blessings. Thereafter the President called on the Atamasthanadhipathi the Ven. Pallegama Sirinivasa Thera and inquired into his wellbeing. The Ven. Thero chanted Seth Pirith and blessed the President. A Heel Dana was also offered to the members of the Maha Sangha near the Ruwanweli Maha Seya on Friday morning by President more..

July 26 (LR) In a country where many school kids spend their evenings, weekends or an entire childhood in private study classes in a race to get ahead, rarely will a role model advise them to be patient in their pursuit of success. Even rarer, a role model to use sport as a blueprint for academic and professional success. Yet recently, the chief guest at prize giving ceremony at St. John’s Jaffna College used a cricket analogy to tell students to be patient and focused. more..

July 26 (DM) Star bowler Lasith Malinga had told Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials yesterday that he has still not decided whether he would represent the local Southern Express team or the IPL team Mumbai Indians at the forthcoming Champions’ League tournament. Malinga had asked several top officials who met the Sri Lanka T20 skipper on the sidelines of the Test match when he visited the SLC why they let Dilshan, more..

July 26 (CG) British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, in a statement released on Friday, recalled the violence which occurred in 1983 affecting thousands of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka. “This month, in remembrance of Black July, we commemorate the lives of Tamil men, women and children that were lost and those who were displaced and exiled as a result of the regrettable violence. We may never know exactly how many lives were lost, but it is clear that more..

July 26 (E24|7) A Sri Lankan man killed his wife in Kuwait by stabbing her many times after she discovered that he was betraying her with another woman. Police rushed to the man’s apartment after receiving a call from an unknown woman telling them about a murder. “They found the wife lying dead in a pool of blood…when they asked her husband, he told them she was killed by another woman,” Alwatan daily said. “Pressed during interrogation, the man later confessed that more..

July 26 (AD) Govt has made it mandatory to teach Mother Tongue, Sri Lankan history and religion in all international schools in the country from next year, Minister Bandula Gunawardena said. Any person or institution is prohibited from starting a school for students between the ages of 5-14 as stated in the 1961 bill, however many things can happen outside of the law. However, the govt still provides education to a majority of more..

July 26 (Island) The Court of Appeal yesterday suspended the gazette notification which cancelled the appointment of Indika Koralage Chairman of the Homagama Pradeshiya Sabha. The Court also suspended the gazette notification, which appointed Ruwan Prasanna Chairman of the same Pradeshiya Sabha and restrained Prasanna from functioning as the chairman. Previous Chairman A.D. Kumarasiri was unseated subsequent to the defeat of the budget for 2014. more..

July 26 (Island) Four accused indicted with the robbery of a van and murder of its driver were found guilty and sentenced to death by the Central Provincial High Court Judge of Kandy Manilal Waidyatilake on Thursday. They were further sentenced to a jail term of 20 years each for robbery of the van. The four convicts sentenced to death are Ruwan Perera (Pelmadulla), Brian Abeyratne (Uvatenna, Malarajjawila), Anura Prasanga Udayakumara (Pelmadulla, Ihalabopitiya) more..

July 26 (CI) South Africa need only a draw at the SSC to regain the coveted No. 1 Test ranking and they batted as if that was their sole objective. Since the start of the innings midway through the second day, their batsmen have only been bothered about consuming time, deeming run-scoring as an unnecessary frivolity. Hashim Amla ground his way to his 22nd Test century, the first by a South African captain in Sri Lanka, and more..

July 26 (CI) On the same day South Africa's first match on this Sri Lanka tour took place - July 3 - CSA announced a new sponsor: Rolux. The lawnmower manufacturers became an official supplier. Change one letter and you will get the name of the company they should have signed: Rolex. Time was the theme of the day traditionally known as "moving day" in a Test. The only things that seemed to shift were seconds, minutes, hours and sessions. Somehow that became runs more..

July 26 (CG) Govt claimed that the most number of water thieves are in the Colombo North divisions. Responding to a question posed by UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake on frequent water cuts being experienced in parts of Colombo, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said that the water cuts were as a result of some maintenance work. He said that a new pipe system is being placed to connect homes to the main water supply in order to prevent water being tapped from existing pipes illegally. more..

July 26 (AFP) Dozens of pro-govt activists blocked ethnic Tamil journalists from holding a training programme in Sri Lanka on Saturday, marking the latest harassment of the minority community, a media rights group said. Journalists from the northern Jaffna peninsula, a former war zone, had travelled to Colombo for an electronic media workshop. "The organisers were forced to stop the program because of more..

July 26 (Island) The Rikkilagaskada Base Hospital transferred eight pregnant mothers to the Kandy Teaching Hospital on Tuesday as the consultant anesthetist who was temporarily attached to it from the Kandy Teaching Hospital did not turn up on July 23. Protests against the failure on the part of the hospital to perform operations spilled over into the streets with some shops being closed. Rikillagaskada Hospital Director Dr. Raj Kumara, contacted for comment, said that more..

July 26 (AD) JVP today rejected the allegation raised by Uva Province Chief Minister Shasheendra Rajapaksa, on four JVP leaders’ alleged involvement in a bomb attack in Kataragama in 1989. Former JVP MP, Samantha Vidyarathna, who is expected to contest the upcoming Uva PC election, told Ada Derana that the JVP is prepared to have a face-to-face debate with the Chief Minister, on this regard. “If there is such allegation, in the first place he should take legal actions against us. more..

July 26 (CG) Former LTTE member and peace negotiator and now head of the Transnational Govt of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) Visvanathan Rudrakumaran has rejected the war crimes investigation to be conducted by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, saying he has more faith in a UN led probe than a domestic probe. Rudrakumaran said that Tamil diaspora prefers to cooperate with a neutral investigation established by UN more..

July 26 (CI) 22: Number of centuries Hashim Amla has scored in Tests. With his unbeaten ton on Saturday, Amla pipped Gary Kirsten to third place in the list of South Africa batsmen with most Test centuries. Jacques Kallis leads the list with 45 hundreds, followed by Graeme Smith, who finished with 27. 382: Deliveries faced by Amla in his unbeaten innings of 139. Since balls-faced information has been made available, this was the sixth-longest innings in terms of deliveries more..

July 26 (ST) A man was preparing for his wedding in two days time when policemen following up on the detection of three mg of heroin, arrested him in the Borella area. Twenty-six-year old Dinusha Madhuranga who police said confessed to having one more kilogram of heroin inside his music setup at home in Borella, was accompanied back to his residence by two policemen in civvies, after being warned not to reveal their identities to his family members. more..

July 26 (MoD) Military spokesperson Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya yesterday rejected the allegations made against the Sri Lankan Govt by the US Embassy in Colombo and said it had exceeded its mandate as a foreign mission. He was referring to the reports which quoted the US Embassy spokesperson having questioned the credibility of the Commission of Inquiry on disappearances and the recent more..

July 26 (NL) Hosts Scotland will play top seeds Malaysia and England will take on surprise quarter-finalists Sri Lanka in the last eight of the Commonwealth Games team event. England rubber-stamped their place alongside the Scots in the knockout stages at the Emirates Arena by completing formalities in their group with a 5-0 rout of Mauritius on Saturday morning. They were then drawn against Sri Lanka, who did not even realise they had qualified for the quarter-finals as more..

July 26 (CG) The army has denied claims that a soldier had planted the ganja found in a van transporting a group of journalists to Colombo from Jaffna last night. Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said that the van was checked by the police and not the army at the Omanthai checkpoint. He said that while soldiers man the checkpoint it’s the police who search vehicles and it was at this point that ganja was found. Brigadier also denied claims that the van was stopped as it was taking a group of more..

July 26 (CG) President Rajapaksa has invited newly elected President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, to undertake a State visit to Sri Lanka. President had telephoned Widodo to offer congratulations on his decisive victory at the recently concluded elections. Having secured 53.15% of the vote, Widodo emerged as the clear winner over his rival, Mr. Prabowo Subianto who secured 48.85% of the vote. more..

July 27 (SO) It is still fresh in people's minds how several NGOs filled their coffers with an unprecedented volume of foreign funds during the Security Forces' relentless battle against terrorism from 2006-2009. To reciprocate it, these NGOs danced the fandango around some Western countries which are on a witch-hunt against Sri Lanka. It is deplorable that there are several NGO goons here who would stoop to any level and betray their country in their lust for filthy lucre. more..

July 27 (SL) Sri Lankans right now may be living in a fools’ paradise. Thousands of us are on tenterhooks watching Sri Lanka play South Africa at the SSC. Next will be the tour of the Pakistan cricket team in a few weeks. Others are willing to crack nuts over the Uva Provincial Council election. Of course there is the ongoing debate over Geneva and the inclusion of reputed human rights observers from abroad into the Commission probing missing persons. But the greatest peril hanging over us all is more..

July 27 (SO) Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said UNP's protest against the transfer of three seats from the Badulla district to the Moneragala district is not salutary for democracy. The Govt has no particular interest in this transfer at all but similar transfers have been effected earlier too. Minister said that the UNP is protesting as they don’t have any issue to canvas. They should recognise the independence of more..

July 27 (NS) People have short memories, some politicians like to think. But politicians themselves are people and the claim is eminently applicable to that category as well. Forgive-forget after all is par for the course in a profession about which it is said that there are no permanent enemies or friends. Indeed, politicians can remember-forget anything and everything, including ‘truths’ ferociously defended and enemies fought with no quarter given or asked for. more..

July 27 (Island) President R. Premadasa coined a new word, 'peoplization' which he preferred to use for obvious reasons when state-owned enterprises (SOE) were privatized during his administration. Employees of SOEs, long used to benefiting from political patronage at their workplaces, naturally disliked the thought of tighter private sector management in the event of privatization. Given the losses the state carried, and still does, at woefully inefficient SOEs, privatization was more..

July 27 (SL) While the Govt feels it has achieved something more by expanding the mandate of the Missing Persons Commission to investigate war crimes and appointing three foreign experts to oversee the probe, the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) feels it is not enough. GTF spokesman Suren Surendiran says more questions than answers have surfaced following the Govt announcement. more..

July 27 (ST) In marked contrast to the hysterical screeching by Govt leaders that there shall be no domestic or international inquiry into the last days of the military campaign to defeat the LTTE in May of 2009, we are now faced with both. The silence by these same leaders to last week’s decision to hold a domestic inquiry is deafening in comparison. There has been no official statement by the Govt up to date on the Gazette that was issued on July 15 expanding the scope of the Commission on more..

July 27 (ST) My Dear Satellite, I thought of writing to you when I heard that you were among those who had attended a meeting calling for the abolition of the Executive Presidency — which was an essential component of JR’s ‘bahubootha vyavasthaawa’ as you used to call it those days. I didn’t know whether I should laugh or cry when I saw photographs of you seated alongside Uncle Ranil, Sampanthan seeya and the General at the meeting where the call to abolish the Executive Presidency was made, more..

July 27 (Island) I found Mr. Upul Jayasuriya, incumbent head of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, getting ready for the customary BASL meeting on the last Saturday of the month yesterday morning. Over breakfast I threw at him all I had – question-wise! Q: What is your take on the task and role of the Bar Association? A: The Bar Association, by its constitution has an objective that states that when there is a breakdown of the rule of law more..

July 27 (Island) The meeting held to call for the abolition of the executive presidency at the New Town Hall last Thursday should be an eye opener for the entire opposition and especially the UNP. It was presided over by Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera and attended by virtually everybody who counts in the opposition. Ranil Wickremesinghe, R.Sampanthan, General Sarath Fonseka, former CJ Shirani Bandaranayake & Chandrika Kumaratunga was present and the hall was packed. more..

July 27 (SL) Leader of the NFF, Minister Wimal Weerawansa fired two salvos at the govt this week, expressing his viewpoints on two major developments in the political front. The first issue was the appointment of international experts to assist the Sri Lankan Commission on Missing Persons which is already conducting its inquiries. In a strongly worded letter to the President, Minister Wimal Weerawansa expressed his displeasure over the appointment, saying more..

July 27 (SL) According to the Chairman of the Missing Persons Commission Maxwell Paranagama, the Commission, under its new mandate, despite the doubts of some Tamil political parties, is quite confident of handling investigations effectively on both missing persons and allegations of civilians killed during the war. He said that the Commission is answerable only to the President but to no one else, and it is beyond their more..

July 27 (ST) Some interesting facts were revealed during Question Time in Parliament this week, but they also exposed the colossal amounts of public funds spent on maintaining a few individuals, as well as how projects on which billions of rupees are spent, do not reap any benefits for the country, while the masses struggle to get by. While more than half the people in the country did not receive the minimum income needed by a family of four, for its monthly subsistence, more..