Apr 27 (DN) Jaffna Vesak zone titled Yapa Patunai Daham Amawai will be held from April 29 to May 1 in front of the Weerasinham hall at Jaffna. This event which is held in commemoration of the 2561th Sambuddutva Jayanthi is also intended to encourage reconciliation among Hindu, Christian and Buddhist religious communities. The Vesak zone will showcase Pandols, Vesak lanterns together with Bhakthi Geetha and Dansals. The Sacred Relics will also be exposed for more..

Apr 27 (NFY) On Wednesday (25), Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands perfumed Trace Expert City with the scent of flowers, as it held a series of events to celebrate the floriculture industries of SL and the Netherlands. Programme consisted of a floral arrangement competition, exhibition and a training workshop with floriculture experts from the Dutch agricultural vocational training institute Wellant College, in keeping with this year’s King’s Day theme of floriculture. more..

Apr 27 (EN) Sri Lanka and Australia has had the inaugural round of talks under a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement signed on November 2017, when PM Malcolm Turbull visited the island. "The agenda encompassed discussions on economic reform and cooperation, free trade and regional trade agreement agendas, market access and investment facilitation and sector specific opportunities for investment in both more..

Apr 27 (GDI) Vietnam and Sri Lanka have agreed to maintain and intensify the exchange of all-level delegations of their legislative bodies, particularly special committees, in order to share information and experience in parliamentary activities, law making and supervision. The consensus was reached during talks between the visiting Speaker of the SL Parliament Karu Jayasuriya and the Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan on April 24 in Hanoi, more..

Apr 27 (CT) National Council for Road Safety (NCRS) yesterday said that it was working on the proposal put forward by trishaw associations to stop youth between the ages of 18 and 30 from driving three-wheelers. NCRS Chairman Dr. Sisira Kodagoda said that trishaw drivers themselves had submitted this proposal, requesting that the minimum age limit to drive three- wheelers be increased to 30 years. Careless driving and a majority of trishaw accidents have been more..

Apr 27 (DM) Laugfs Gas PLC also announced a short while ago that they have received approval from the CAA to increase the price of a 12.5 kg LP gas cylinder by Rs. 245 with effect from midnight today. Accordingly, the price of a 12.5 kg gas cylinder would be increased to Rs. 1,676. Meanwhile, the price of a 5 kg LP gas cylinder had been increased to Rs.606 by Rs.64. The price of Litro gas cylinders (12.5kg) will be increased more..

Apr 27 (Island) Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat (PRDS) would conduct seismic surveys and airborne Gravity/Magnetic surveys to facilitate oil and gas exploration work in the Mannar basin, Preeni Withanage, Director Benefits of Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat told The Island. Studies have indicated that Mannar basin has sufficiently thick and mature sedimentary deposits that may yield high quality oil and natural gas adequate for the next sixty years, more..

Apr 27 (CT) Villagers who live near the Knuckles rainforest have been suffering from a severe water shortage for years and the condition is worsening now. Hundreds of families who live in Thawalantenna (a village situated near the Hulu Ganga, near Panwila - 56 km from Kandy) and nearby villages do not have enough water and some have to go many kilometres away to find drinking water. Ceylon Today visited these areas and observed that there was very little water more..

Apr 27 (CT) Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) yesterday said it had turned down applications for the temporary registration of several US marines, medical practitioners and technologists of other nationalities to serve in Trincomalee. The applications had been turned down due to the lack of time and the vagueness in the applications. The application had been made by Director General of Health Services (DGHS) as per a request more..

Apr 28 (CT) The main reason, us to defend the actions of the Govt during the War was very simply that the Govt was doing its best for the people in the war areas. This is what helped us to convince those who would otherwise have gone along with the propaganda created by the West and its agencies. But with facts and figures we were able to show that we were fighting the war, in a much cleaner approach, than anyone else dealing with terrorism. When Human Rights Watch (HRW) launched more..

Apr 28 (CT) We’re forever tempted and enticed with advertisements from the moment we switch on our radios, TV’s and computers, promoting various kinds of food. Even YouTube is not spared now; it’s cramped up with advertisements as well. All, in the rush to sell, make a quick buck and profit. As much as we need goods and services, on a daily basis, for our existence; we also do need to question the authenticity of the products and services we buy, especially in the case of food. more..

Apr 28 (CT) An often heard complaint about current Sinhala music is that it has no depth. This is also the justification used for why you still hear decades old tunes still playing on the airwaves to this day. A figure responsible for such songs is the prolific lyricist Rathna Sri Wijesinghe. With a prodigious command of Sinhala, history and literature he penned many moving popular songs, weaving contemporary stories with tales from more..

Apr 28 (CT) I refer to the news report in the Daily Mirror under the above heading. In an Interview with the BBC Sinhala channel in London, President Sirisena has said that “one, who is to be appointed to a Ministerial Portfolio, should have local and International acceptance”. Firstly, the above, is an unqualified statement of a general principle on appointment of Cabinet Ministers, although it was said in the context of the recent appointment of a new Minister for Law and Order. more..

Apr 28 (CT) The Video of a speech by a young whistle-blower lawyer Sugandhika Fernando exposing the utter corruption and deterioration of the standards in the system of justice and law enforcement in Sri Lanka, has already gone viral. She particularly mentioned many acts of misconduct such as drunken/corrupt judges, corrupt Mudliyars/court administration staff, and also senior lawyers and Police officers who have been abusing the system to enrich themselves. more..

Apr 28 (Roar) Nearly 10 years have passed since the end of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict—but the whereabouts of thousands of missing people are still unknown. Families, especially in the North and East, still continue to seek answers regarding lost ones. In an attempt to address these issues, legislation to establish an Office on Missing Persons (OMP) was passed in August 2016. This is one among four establishments recommended by more..

Apr 28 (DN) Young ascetic Sumedha was steadfast in his attempt to achieve the highest spiritual realm - something only a few could reach. That day he heard Dipankara Buddha was visiting the town. What he wanted was a definite prophecy that he would be a Buddha in aeons to come. The locale, however, was congested with people and the young man could hardly think of seeing Dipankara Buddha. When he spotted the muddy road, his thoughts worked on so fast in a different plane. more..

Apr 28 (Island) May be because some believe that it is an established fact, while others opine that it is yet another piece of religious fiction, that rebirth is one topic which, invariably, evokes interesting discussion and scholarly dialogue. I am pleased to note that my article, Rebirth, the query? (The Island, 7 Apr) has elicited many responses. Dr Rohan Wickremasinghe raises the issue of Out-of-body experiences (The Island, 9 Apr) quoting from the book Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T E Lawrence, more..

Apr 28 (Island) It is bad enough that the Yahapalana 2015 regime change project planted Mr. Sampanthan as a settler in the post of Opposition Leader, a post in which he continues to be a squatter, demanding internal self-determination and the full implementation of the Geneva resolution. Now, another de facto member of the Yahapalana 2015 regime change coalition, the JVP, is attempting to do to the Sri Lankan State and Constitution, what its serial assassin did to Vijaya more..

Apr 28 (Island) Good news is hard to come by these days. All what we hear, day in day out, is depressing, but we are told that there has been a positive development. SL is reported to have climbed 10 notches to be ranked 131st on the World Press Freedom Index (WPFI), compiled by Reporters without Borders (RSF). Its significant rise has been attributed to, inter alia, the efforts undertaken to combat physical attacks against media personnel and impunity for acts of more..

Apr 28 (DN) The recent incidents that took place in Mirissa where a group of Dutch tourists were assaulted and sexually harassed and another group of Israeli tourists were assaulted at the Midigama beach have brought to light the issues facing the tourism industry. Despite the govt efforts to promote tourism as a key source of revenue to the country, the question arises as to whether we are heading in the right direction to market more..

Apr 28 (CT) Sri Lanka Navy Canoeing Pool emerged overall champions and got several other positions at the 2nd National Canoe Sprint Championship that was worked off on the waters of Diyawanna on 23 and 24 April. The championship was conducted under categories of K1, K2, K4 and C1 and Navy contestants were talented enough to secure 7 Gold medals out of 10 allocated in these categories: In addition to 3 Silver medals, 2 Bronze medals and 3 Silver medals from the women events were more..

Apr 28 (ST) Three elevens and the bid was gone. The year 2011 was special in a way. Sri Lanka was busy decorating the image of its proposed capital under the previous regime and the cost was immaterial. At that time Sri Lanka was almost building castles in the air when the then regime made a bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games which at the estimated cost of at least Rs. 265 billion. The games were proposed to be held in the Rajapaksa stronghold of Hambantota, more..

Apr 28 (CT) Sprinter Vinoj Suranjaya de Silva made it a memorable day for himself as well as the athletic fraternity of the country by shattering the longstanding Sri Lanka 200m record held by Sugath Thilakarathne, clocking 20.68 secs in the first national trials for the Asian Games that started at the Sugathadasa Stadium Colombo yesterday. After the four-day junior championship saw several records being established. more..

Apr 28 (ST) Buoyed by the recent success achieved by our athletes in boxing and weightlifting, at the recent Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia, undoubtedly, the best performance by the country to date at Commonwealth Games, this article explores the future prospects for a relatively new sport introduced to SL 14 years ago, in 2004. Canoeing and Kayaking is an Olympic Sport in over 158 countries and covers many a discipline namely, C1, C2 and C4 in Canoeing and K1, K2 and more..

Apr 28 (NDTV) On the final day of a week of ICC meetings here, the ICC Board on Thursday gave the green light to all T20 matches between members being awarded int'l status along with plans to introduce global rankings in the format. The move across both men's and women's cricket, is part of the wider strategic aim of using the T20 format to globalise the game. New minimum standards will be introduced making it as easy as possible for Members to play int'l cricket in a sustainable more..

Apr 28 (DN) Stabilisation policy measures taken by the Central Bank and the govt in the past two years has resulted in reserves increasing from US$ 8 billion by end 2017 to a historic US$ 9.88 billion, said Governor CB, Indrajit Coomaraswamy. He expressed these views after submitting the CB Annual report to Minister Mangala Samaraweera. “Adverse weather conditions and their spillover effects continued to affect more..

Apr 28 (DM) Sri Lanka has won the bid to host the Round Table Int'l World Meeting (RTIWM) 2018 connecting four leading hotels in Negombo from 5th to 9th Sept, organizers of the event announced at a recent press briefing. RTIWM is considered the most important event in the Round Table calendar, with many countries bidding to host the event. Round Table Sri Lanka (RTSL) was successful in its bid to host the 2018 World Meeting at Jetwing Blue, Jetwing Sea, Jetwing Beach & Camelot more..

Apr 28 (SO) SL’s veteran netball players have rebuked the head coach of the National team Thilaka Jinadasa who they charge with paying more attention to district programmes and neglecting the needs of the team which is set to contest the Asian championships scheduled to begin in four months time in Singapore. One of the veteran players said that Jinadasa’s primary function was SL team and the Asian meet but that her focus was instead about conducting training session in the districts. more..

Apr 28 (FT) Improved monitoring of high-end transactions, including car and property sales, would reduce tax evasion, Central Bank said in its latest Annual Report, recommending that such transactions be matched with income declarations. Central Bank commended the commitment of the Govt to increase govt revenue through tax reforms, spearheaded by the Inland Revenue Act that came into effect from 1 April and is expected to more..

Apr 28 (Island) UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake said that those who had opposed his reappointment as the Assistant Leader of the UNP were not confident of their victory at the last parliamentary polls in August 2015. MP Karunanayake said so when The Island sought his views on statements made by former Speaker Joseph Michael Perera, MP and Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake, against his reappointment. MP Karunanayake stressed that his commitment to the party had never been more..

Apr 28 (FT) The Govt plans to provide deeds for utilised State lands that have been cultivated, settled on or belonging to religious and public institutions, said Minister Gayantha Karunathilaka. He made these comments addressing a title deed distribution ceremony for the residents of Monaragala, Medagama, Badalkumbura and Bibile Divisional Secretariat areas of Uva Province at the Monaragala Library Auditorium on 21 April. 666 deeds were distributed during this event. more..

Apr 28 (CT) The increase in the Employer category in total employment last year (2017), could result in the generation of more employment opportunities and many other economic benefits in the subsequent periods, CB’s 2017 Annual Report released on 26 April, said. Meanwhile, the number employed in the private sector, which represented 43.3% of the total employment last year (2017), increased by more..

Apr 28 (DN) Dhamma or the teachings of Buddha is a purifying factor for the human mind propelled by lust, hate and violence. The pious festival of Vesak reminds us the virtues of practising four focuses of mindfulness in order to dwell with Dhamma as no other refuge. It is a time for reflection and appreciation of our humanity, and to lead a life full of equality, fraternity, respect and understanding. The unity Govt is determined to make the prospects of a harmonious society, more..

Apr 28 (DN) Buddhists all over the world celebrate the Vesak Festival with much religious fervour and enthusiasm to commemorate the important events that took place in the life of Gauthama Buddha on this day, namely the birth of Siddhartha Gauthama, Siddharta Gauthama’s supreme attainment of Buddhahood & Mahaparinibbana. Buddha’s teaching which reflects a great vision of a superior religious age and a humanitarian philosopher have an eternal appeal to the human civilization. more..

Apr 28 (PSL) President Maithripala Sirisena says the school is the best medium to carry forward the message of national reconciliation to the society. He made these remarks participating in the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Zahira College in Anuradhapura, today (27). The President also vested the new three-storied building for classrooms at the school with the students. President Sirisena was warmly received by more..

Apr 28 (CT) Minister and TPF Leader Mano Ganesan says that 19 MPs have already decided to oppose the proposed 20th Amendment to the Constitution, to be brought by the JVP, with the aim of abolishing the Executive Presidency. He said that the TPF will do its utmost to defeat the proposed Amendment when it is tabled in the Parliament as a private member’s motion. Ganesan added that several minority parties in the House had already reached a consensus to defeat the proposed more..

Apr 28 (Island) The recent CHOGM in London brought together leaders representing the interests of 2.4 billion people, nearly one third of the world’s population. Sri Lanka is no stranger to CHOGM. It hosted the meeting in 2013 and President Sirisena led the delegation to London this year. 46 Heads of Govt, over 50 Ministers and 15,000 delegates attended. Heads of delegations met in London and at Windsor Castle, while Ministers and other participants took part in forums for women, more..

Apr 28 (DM) The SLFP will hold the biggest-ever May Day rally at Chenkalady in Batticaloa on May 7 with the participation of the members of the JO and the 16 SLFPers who quit the govt recently, Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva said. He said the SLFP May Day rally to be held in the Eastern Province would be the first step in uniting all factions of the party with dissenting views and a new beginning for the party. more..

Apr 28 (DM) While claiming that the joint opposition had secured the majority in Parliament, JO MP, Dinesh Gunawardena said he was ready to be the official Opposition Leader in Parliament. He said the incumbent Opposition Leader, R. Sampanthan was not performing his role in Parliament and should resign from the post of Opposition Leader. “It is visible that Mr. Sampanthan is supporting the govt rather than raising his voice against the malpractices of the govt. more..