Apr 6 (ST) Hong Kong-based luxury hotels owner and operator Shangri-La Asia Ltd, which owns hotels in Colombo and Hambantota, and a mall and apartments on Galle Face, has reported a US$1.9 million loss for the year ended December 31, 2023. It was a sharp reduction in loss from 2022, when the hotels in SL were US$6.9m in the red, annual filings show. Revenue of hotels, mall, offices, and apartments, exceeded US$51m for 2023 – US$33.2m from hotels, and US$18.5m more..

Apr 6 (AD) An adjournment debate on the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks is scheduled to be held from 24-26 April in accordance with a motion brought by the Opposition. The decision was taken at the meeting of the Parliamentary Business Committee chaired by Deputy Speaker Ajith Rajapakse on Friday (5), as per a press release issued by the Parliament’s Communication Department. Thereby, the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill (Second Reading) and Regulations under more..

Apr 6 (TM) The statements coming out of India on reclaiming Kachchatheevu island from Sri Lanka have no ground, SL Minister of Fisheries Douglas Devananda has said. The senior SL Tamil politician’s comments came days after the Narendra Modi govt targeted the Congress and its ally the DMK in Tamil Nadu accusing them of overlooking national interests in the ceding of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in 1974. more..

Apr 6 (TM) A special bus service is set in place from today (5) for members of the public, given the upcoming Sinhala and Tamil New Year season, the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) stated. The SLTB explained that measures have been taken to deploy around 200 additional buses during the festive season for people in Colombo and suburbs who are visiting their hometowns. Accordingly, this bus service will be operational from Colombo to all parts of the island. more..

Apr 6 (Island) SLFP dissident MP Dayasiri Jayasekera has said that he does not rejoice in the court injunction against former President Maithripala Sirisena banning him from holding the post of SLFP Chairman. “Of course, he has made mistakes. He removed me from the post of General Secretary and ever since he has been making a series of mistakes. If I had been the General Secretary he would not have been in this mess. The Court decision against him, however, is disastrous for the party,” more..

Apr 6 (ST) The scorching sun and intermittent rains have not deterred the women and men protesting outside the Divisional Secretary office in Kalmunai North, a Tamil populated area in Ampara, since Monday. Their longstanding demand has been that the Divisional Secretariat area be given its due recognition, and function similar to other Divisional Secretariats across the country. Former Assistant Director of Agriculture, Kandasamy Sivalingam (70), alleged that funds coming from more..

Apr 6 (EN) Ayurvedic medicine should be integrated into the tourism industry more effectively, State Minister Sisira Jayakody has said. “Tourists show a particular fascination and enthusiasm for massage techniques offered by the traditional medical system,” Jayakody said. “In collaboration with the Dept of Ayurveda, we are establishing Body Mantra massage centres across the country.” The centres are planned for hotels and resorts within the country, as well as abroad, more..

Apr 6 (DM) Claiming that both Sinhala and Tamil people have a right to interact with the State in their own languages, NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the proportion of the Tamil youth in public institutions, tri-forces and important sectors should be increased. Speaking at the Northern Provincial Conference of Ceylon Teachers Service Union, he said it was vital to defeat the racial political culture in the country on behalf of more..

Apr 6 (AD) Actress Damitha Abeyratne and her husband, who was arrested by the CID over an alleged financial fraud, has been remanded on the orders of the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court. Accordingly, the couple will be behind bars on remand until April 17. The actress and her spouse, who had been wanted by the CID, were arrested after they appeared before the court on Thursday (4). CID is investigating Abeyratne and her husband, in connection with their involvement more..

Apr 6 (ST) The local batik industry has been hit hard by illegal imports of printed Indian material. Batik producers complain that the Indian printed batik sarongs and clothing items have reached Pettah markets for lesser prices, affecting the sales of local batik products. The local Batik Manufacturers Association (BMA) pointed out that increased production costs and reduced sales have affected their industry. An owner of a batik manufacturing company, Chammi Samaraweera said that more..

Apr 6 (ST) All upcoming national elections will be subject to new campaign finance laws that will limit the amount of funding that candidates, political parties and independent groups can spend on their campaigns. The new laws are yet to be tested, but with a prez election due this year and a parliamentary election to follow early next year, Election Commission (EC) has been meeting with various stakeholders to brief them on more..

Apr 6 (ST) With the Sinhala and Tamil New Year approaching, CAA and PHIs have intensified raids to prevent possible scarcities and the exploitation of consumers in the coming days. Director of Raids and Special Investigation of the CAA Sanjaya Irasinghe said that warehouses of essential food items were raided, taking note of their stocks. “This was done to avoid a possible scarcity as importers are known to stock up goods and sell for higher prices when the demand is high,” he said. more..

Apr 6 (FT) Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva yesterday unveiled plans to modernise the Hingurakgoda domestic airport with a whopping investment of Rs. 17 billion to facilitate international flight operations. The transformative initiative is set to elevate the antiquated airport, originally constructed during World War II for the Royal Air Force of England and known as RAF Minneriya at the time, into an international aviation hub capable of facilitating international flight operations. more..

Apr 6 (CT) Many speculate what the State of the Nation would be today if Lasantha Wickrematunge were alive. I have thought about it too. But, then I know. If it were not on that fateful day, the 8th of January 2009 it would have been another day. It is said that the greatest aphrodisiac known to man is the power of man over man. Lasantha had to be killed for one man’s power over all men in SL. He may be power hungry, yet be a coward who would use minions to do such a dastardly crime more..

Apr 6 (TM) In response to complaints regarding the rising number of fake medical practitioners and fake medical centres in the country, this week, the health authorities announced that they are taking newer and stringent measures to deal with them. Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena has said that based on the available data and also discussions with the private health services regulatory authorities, the relevant authorities have been instructed to get more..

Apr 6 (FT) Sri Lanka has completed $ 2 billion in debt servicing since the assumption of Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prez, Govt announced. Of this amount $ 1.4 billion is multilateral loans, revealed the President’s Office Community Affairs Director General Rajith Keerthi Thennakoon. Quoting data from the External Resources Department, he said ADB was paid $ 760 million, $ 489.9 million to the World Bank, $ 29.9 million to OPEC fund more..

Apr 6 (DM) The trio of festivals-the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, Ramadan and Easter Sunday fall within a short time of each other. The deadly Easter Sunday massacre of innocent civilians in churches and hotels in 2019 hit one of our biggest exchange earners badly. The Easter Sunday bombings also marked the beginning of a dark era that saw the crumbling of our country’s economy which had just begun to take off after the near three-decade-long terrorist war was brought to a close. more..

Apr 6 (DM) The once-powerful LTTE waged war against the SL state for over thirty years. The LTTE known popularly as the Tigers was the determining force in SL politics for nearly two decades. The decline of the LTTE began in 2004 when its Batticaloa and Amparai district special commander V Muralidharan alias Col Karuna led an eastern tiger revolt against the LTTE supremo Veluppillai Prabhakaran. Although Col Karuna - also known as Karuna Ammaan - was defeated militarily more..

Apr 6 (CT) Colombo High Court Judge Adithya Patabendige, a Buddhist himself, had sentenced the obstreperous Buddhist monk Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, the Secretary General of BBS for four years rigorous imprisonment plus a fine of Rs.100,000 for the monk’s inflammatory remarks on Islam and Muslims. An appeal for his bail by his sympathizers has also been rejected. This is indeed a landmark judgement specially in the face of the unchallengeable power of political Buddhism, more..

Apr 6 (Island) US Prez Joe Biden’s come-to-Jesus telephone conversation with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, is said to be yielding the desired results. Biden reportedly warned Netanyahu that there would be a sharp shift in the US policy towards the Gaza war unless Israel heeded Washington’s concerns about civilian lives and acted accordingly. White House said Biden had made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action more..

Apr 6 (CT) Diaspora is a Greek word meaning to sow over, or to scatter. As applied to people, the term was first used by the Greek historian Thucydides to describe the Greeks’ dispersal. The IOM defines diasporas as Migrants or descendants of migrants, whose identity and sense of belonging have been shaped by their migration experience and background. More generally, the term refers to people who identify with their country or more..

Apr 6 (fT) On Saturday (30) in a YouTube message, Sujeewa Bandara, former Secretary to the ousted PreZ Gotabaya Rajapaksa, claimed that the people who gathered at the Mirihana house of Gotabaya seeking to remove him from power as president were not Sinhalese but Muslims. This is absolute nonsense, calculated mischief and bankrupt politics. Video clips of the event show there were no Muslims there but all Sinhalese. Thus the statement, on the eve of preZ or general elections, more..

Apr 6 (CT) Reports that third-term MP and former Minister, Namal Rajapaksa, has taken over as the National Organiser of the family-run SLPP make for interesting reading. The first question is about the future role of Basil Rajapaksa, who until he left office some months back, was the National Organiser. Even more important from the current context is the role that Namal will play in the decision-making process – thus far, he has been providing inputs to his father and Party Leader, more..

Apr 6 (CT) Now and then, Katchatheevu island, lying halfway between the islands of Rameswaram (India) and Delft (Neduntheevu – SL), has been hitting the news headlines. Mainly, such interests are evinced when several of the hundreds of Indian trawlers that cross the IMBL three times a week and engage in bottom trawling in SL waters get arrested for a variety of offences, including illegal entry into SL waters, more..

Apr 6 (FT) The IMF drug is beginning to show signs of effectiveness by producing few random indicators of economic recovery. With strict capital controls and tightened trade rules, the rupee is appreciating against the dollar and the buying rate of the dollar has dipped below Rs.300. Unavoidably, the rupee has also appreciated against the country’s trading partners, which is bound to affect exports. Headline inflation has tumbled down from about 70% to below 6%, and the country’s foreign reserves more..

Apr 6 (DM) Despite former President Maithripala Sirisena seeming to have landed in hot water over his recent statement on the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, so long as his motive is not clear one should not jump the gun to call him a fool. Sirisena while talking to media in Kandy claimed on March 22 that he knew who really carried out the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks and that he was prepared to disclose the information if the judiciary ordered him to do so. more..

Apr 5 (Island) Around 75,000 Sri Lankans have left for overseas jobs during the first three months of 2024, Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) says. SLBFE said that 74,499 Sri Lankan workers had left for foreign employment, and 46% of them were women. There has been a slight drop in comparison to the corresponding period in 2023, when 76,025 Sri Lankans went overseas for employment. more..

Apr 5 (FT) Committee on High Posts has approved the appointments of four new ambassadors, two ministry secretaries and two chairpersons of institutions. Accordingly, the Committee on High Posts has approved the appointment of W.A.U.P. Prerera as the new SL ambassador to Vietnam and T. P. Dharmasena as the new Ambassador to Poland, the appointment of E.A.S.W. Edirisinghe as ambassador to Thailand, and P.A.P Ponnamperuma as Ambassador to Myanmar more..

Apr 5 (CT) Southern Province Health Service is facing the dilemma of being overrun by Deputy Provincial Health Directors. With 3 senior medical administrative grade doctors being given appointments as Southern Province Deputy Director Health Services, while there were three main health institution establishments in the Galle District, namely; Teaching Hospitals Karapitiya and Mahamodara and the office of the Southern Provincial Health Directorate (SPHD). more..

Apr 5 (DM) Foreign nationals who overstay their visas and do various odd jobs to earn money continue unabated with the authorities concerned hamstrung with the lack of resources to curb them, an official said. In one instance, another group of 15 foreigners overstaying their visas in Sri Lanka and doing online jobs for a living were arrested by an investigation team of the Dept of Immigration and Emigration during raids more..

Apr 5 (DM) Around 100 Intelligence Officers from the police in the Western Province have been discharged from their duties and reassigned to security duties in Colombo. IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon had instructed to deploy officers attached to the Intelligence Service in the Western Province for general duties in Colombo to enhance security and prevent crimes like vehicle thefts and gold necklace robberies especially during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year season. more..

Apr 5 (FT) SJB yesterday announced that dissident SLPP MPs including Prof. G.L Peiris and several others will sign a coalition agreement with the party today. SJB Deputy National Organiser S.M Marikkar said this was yet another step in the party’s effort to form the broadest political alliance in Sri Lanka’s political history. Marikkar noted that the coalition’s focus extends beyond the upcoming elections, encompassing agreements on various policies and reforms essential for more..