May 23 (FT) UNP MP Dr. Harsha de Silva said Parliament was in the dark over the spate of new loans approved by Cabinet. Sri Lanka will take a “fresh loan of US$ 580 from China Development Bank” within the next few days, revealed Dr. de Silva yesterday in Parliament, taking the members by surprise. According to him, President Rajapaksa as the Minister of Finance has submitted a Cabinet Paper seeking approval for this agreement with China Development Bank and it will be more..

May 23 (BBC) Sri Lanka's rugby authorities are investigating President Mahinda Rajapaksa's rugby-playing son after claims that he assaulted a referee. One report says Rohitha Rajapaksa has been suspended from the game but the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) denies this. Witnesses said they saw Mr Rajapaksa, 22, physically attack the referee after his side lost a match this month. Rugby is the island's most more..

May 23 (Island) JVP MP Vijitha Herath yesterday complained to the Supreme Court that the Attorney General, who was not a party in the Court of Appeal Writ Application by the former Chief Justice, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Judgment of the Court of Appeal, in respect of the Writ Application. The respondent, Yapa, had not received any papers, including the petition, affidavit of annexure pertaining to the ‘instant’ appeal. more..

May 23 (Hindu) The Coast Guard will receive the 26 Karaikal fishermen, who were ordered released by the Magistrate court in Sri Lanka, at the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) on Thursday morning after handing over nine Sri Lankan fishermen with their two boats to the Sri Lankan Navy. Coast Guard sources here said Rani Abbakka, an inshore patrol vessel, had already left Chennai for north Palk Bay with the nine fishermen and their two trawlers for their repatriation. more..

May 23 (HCI) The Indian Housing Project was launched on the ground in the Eastern Province today jointly by Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Ashok K. Kantha, High Commissioner of India. In events organized at three different locations in Batticaloa district, certificates were handed over to some of the selected beneficiaries. Minister Basheer Segudawood, Deputy Ministers M.L.A.M. Hizbullah, V. Muralitharan, Governor of Eastern more..

May 23 (CT) The Western Provincial Council (WPC) passed a regulation preventing private companies, such as private hospitals and super markets, from charging parking fees. The proposal made by UNP Western Provincial Councillor, Niroshan Padukka, was passed with the approval of all the members of WPC. Speaking to Ceylon Today, Padukka said, since the WPC has approved his proposal, it only requires the approval of Chief Minister Prasanna Ranatunga, to implement the regulation. more..

May 23 (Island) Tea smallholders, who account for nearly 70% of Sri Lanka’s tea production, said they wanted to shift to planting cinnamon as they were incurring huge losses due to the non-availability of fertilizer and the recent wage hike. Several tea smallholders have already made the shift. Two members of the Tea Factory Owners’ Association said that their fertilizer go-downs were empty and fertilizer supplies to tea small holders were seriously impaired. They said lack of fertilizer would more..

May 23 (FT) UNP MP Dr. Harsha de Silva suggested the govt should “hire vehicles including the proposed 12 Rolls-Royce Ghost motor cars” for the upcoming CHOGM instead of making outright purchases at a possible “over invoiced price,” which is a waste of public money for a period of a few days to “drive around the VVIPs”. “When a Rolls-Royce was bought to Sri Lanka on 17 January this year, the value was US$ 175,000. more..

May 23 (Island) Maliban Milk Products reassured its consumers that their products were free of dicyandiamide. CEO of Maliban Lakshman Weerasuriya said that the milk powder, imported from the Murray Goulburn Cooperative Company and packed in Sri Lanka, had been certified as "100% free of DCD." He said that his company had taken urgent measures to have the milk powder tested in the UK and made Murray Goulburn Co-operative (MGC), aware of the situation. more..

May 23 (DN) Sri Lanka is the only country which provides free education and health services for the people. The excellent free health service has helped to increase the life span of the people and reduce the infant mortality rate and this has made the people to gain international focus and attention, said Minister Sarath Amunugama. He was addressing the gathering at a ceremony held to mark the handing over of a new ambulance valued at Rs 11 million to the Hadabowa Rural Hospital more..

May 23 (Island) Celebrating ‘World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) last week, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) announced the soft launch of its VDSL2 (Very-High-Bit-Rate Digital Subscriber Line 2) advanced fixed broadband technology. The addition of this new tech means the company’s broadband users could expect speeds of up to 100Mbps. SLT has plans to expand the services to other regions as well by more..

May 23 (DN) Reconstructed Hingurana sugar factory closed for over 15 years owing to terrorism, ceremonially commenced crushing at an auspicious time after religious observances on May 19 in the presence of a large gathering. Senior Minister P Dayaratna participated as chief guest. Provincial Minister Wimalaweera Dissanayake and COO of Browns Group Rimoe Saldin inaugurated sugar production by feeding bundles of sugarcane to the crushing machine. more..

May 23 (LT) ‘Lake House’ is a newspaper institution that belongs to the govt. It was established in 1927 and was a private enterprise until it was taken over by the govt in 1973. The general view is that since it was taken over ‘Lake House’ has been used to wash soiled clothes of the govt. D.R. Wijewardene, the founder of Lake House, recruited renowned writers and intellectuals to his media institution to popularize its newspapers. Martin Wickramasinghe, one of Sri Lanka's greatest authors and intellectuals, more..

May 23 (Island) Outgoing Indian High Commissioner Ashok K. Kantha says Sri Lanka needed to enter into a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) between the two countries, more so than India did, because economic growth prospects are linked with that of Asia and the ASEAN grouping. "The rest of the world does not wait for us. India has signed CEPAs with many other countries. more..

May 23 (CT) Even before Sri Lanka gained independence, the country drew a certain amount of disapprobation from the US and the West due mainly to the Leftist political leaders and their adherence to theoretical political systems that were shunned in those countries. Incurring India's displeasure was the result of J.R. Jayewardene's short-sighted policies and arrogant demeanour in his interaction with that country. During the 1977 elections, JR and his bandwagon went round more..

May 23 (Island) The outcome of Tuesday’s strike has come as a huge disappointment for the Opposition as well as the hapless public who hoped and prayed that the govt would buckle under pressure and reduce power tariffs. The trade union alliance responsible for the strike promised to paralyse the public, private and estate sectors and bring the government to its knees, but nothing of the sort happened. It obviously overestimated its strength and made a fatal mistake; more..

May 23 (FT) To mark four years since the end of the military conflict and the defeat of the LTTE, the ‘victorious’ Govt of President Rajapaksa held its annual Victory Day parade last Saturday. This year, the Govt moved to remove the concrete island dividing the lanes on Galle Road facing the Galle Face Green, to make room for the military march that was to feature bigger rows of soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder, in the more..

May 23 (CT) Are Sri Lankans getting into the same mind-set of the Zimbabweans under Mugabe? One wonders when reading about the unravelling comical events in the country. We need to understand why Mugabe is often revered by those who live, or have lived, in previously colonized nations. He literally fought for the independence of his country from an oppressive occupying govt and won. As a British colony a white minority group prospered and had held sway over national decisions with their more..

May 23 (CT) The issue of enforcing unity among the people in Sri Lanka has become a controversial debate on account of the birth of divisive force of religions. Ancient history of Sri Lanka establishes that there were two nations and two religions, viz, Buddhism and Hinduism. With the passage of time Muslims came as traders and introduced Islam. Later they were followed by the Westerners who introduced Catholicism and Christianity. Though there were some incidents of more..

May 23 (CT) Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera said the socialist political parties in the UPFA have been continuously advocating towards changing the govt's irregular fiscal policies. Excerpts: Q: The policies of the present govt such as the electricity price hike indicate the govt has no feelings towards the common man. Their policies are similar to the UNP polices. Under the circumstances, can you continue your affiliation with the UPFA? more..

May 23 (GV) Coming as it did at the end of 2012, The Sri Lankan Republic at 40: Reflections on Constitutional History, Theory and Practice, is much more than two edited volumes or an extensive anthology. Rather, on close reading it seems more a living embodiment of current and critical debate at the very heart of the Sri Lankan body politic. Here are voices and perspectives from the fields of law, politics, sociology, history, gender and religion (to name a few) that speak to the reader more..

May 23 (GV) Lord Buddha gave different meditation objects to different people. For some, just focusing on rubbing two pieces of material against each other worked, and for some others focusing on the breath worked. On Vesak poya day, we celebrate the birth, enlightenment, and the passing away of this great teacher. In Sri Lanka, almost every Buddhist family makes a lantern, or at least buys and lights up a lantern, or an oil lamp. One might think that this is a mundane way to celebrate Vesak. more..

May 23 (SO) The panic among the people is creating more danger than infection by the Influenza A virus. The Health Ministry has already made arrangements to prevent the spread of the disease. Last week the Ministry advised the public to take precautionary measures to prevent the spread of Influenza A and rush patients in the risk category to hospitals if symptoms do not fade away in a day or two. The health officials have identified more..

May 23 (NS) Contemporary dancer Kapila Palihawadana is very clear about what he has to offer his audience; a gripping dance session which has a mix of ballet, yoga and bharatanatyam. One can also see traces of Kandyan dancing in his moves when he performs with his troupe. What’s striking about Kapila is that his body movements are aesthetic even when gesturing. The other standout feature is that he doesn’t waste a word when communicating and drives the point more..

May 23 (NS) Being surrounded by mountains and peaks, Kandy is rich in greenery. And has diverse natural reserves where life is never less than any other sanctuary in the country. Anyone living away from the congested busy town limits of Kandy experiences the morning dew drops, the cold breeze, and greenery that sooth the eye. Also, hear the lovely music of the morning birds. Simply the best medicine one could ask for. Speaking out of personal experience, the busy noise pollution more..

May 22 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's sole refinery, which was closed last week due to a delayed crude oil delivery, will resume operations in two days with an expected 1 million barrels of Omani crude, Oil Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said. The decades-old 50,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) refinery, which is configured to run on Iranian crude, closed on Friday after a shipment failed to arrive on time. more..

May 22 (Island) The UNP said that before the Petroleum Industries Ministry imported more oil from Singapore, it should find the missing ship that was carrying fuel to Sri Lanka. The Petroleum Industries Minister, Anura Priyadharashana Yapa, wanted to obtain more fuel from PV Oil Singapore, against which trade unions had levelled several allegations. But, he should first launch a high level probe to ascertain the whereabouts of the ship that was bound for the Colombo port, more..

May 22 (Island) A bus proceeding from Jaffna to Diyatalawa fell down a precipice near the Bloomfield Tea factory in Ramboda, on the Kandy – Nuwara Eliya Road, early yesterday morning injuring 26 passengers. The injured from the accident, which took place around 4:30 a.m., were admitted to Kotmale, Gampola, Pussellawa, and Nuwara Eliya hospitals. Out of 20 victims admitted to the Kotmale hospital, 16 were transferred to the Gampola hospital. Initial police investigations have more..

May 22 (ST) flydubai, Dubai's low-cost airline, began flights to Mattala Rajapaksa international Airport today, officials of Jetwing Air, Sri Lankan general sales agent of flydubai said. flydubai operates flights to Mattala three-times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from today and daily from June 3, General Manager of Jetwing Air J.D. Wieman said. He expressed optimism that the number of passengers from Mattala will more..

May 22 (MED) A two-week training course for the third batch our of 15,596 graduates the Economic Development Ministry recruited as Development Officers and assigned to Divisional Secretariats countrywide, commenced on May 8. Selected from 25 districts they are being successfully trained in 16 centres. The passing out parade of the third batch (3,361) will be held on May 23. The aim of this training course is to give them a basic knowledge of working as facilitators in implementing rural more..

May 22 (ST) Minister G.L.Peries blamed Canada for relentlessly trying to stop the CHOGM being held in Sri Lanka and hinted that it was due to the influence of LTTE sympathizers which was the reason behind it. “Why is Sri Lanka is pursued relentlessly and castigated by some representatives of the govt of Canada. Even though the LTTE is not presented physically their influence is still there,” he said. He said that since October 2011, Canada has attempted to stop CHOGM being held in SL more..

May 22 (CI) Chanaka Welegedara is unlikely to travel to England for the Champions Trophy, after failing to recover sufficiently from an ankle injury he sustained on May 18. Welegedara failed a fitness test on Wednesday morning, and Sri Lanka Cricket have since named seam bowler Dilhara Lokuhettige as a replacement. The selection was cleared by the sports minister, but has not yet been approved by the ICC. more..

May 22 (GDI) Coast Guard personnel of the visiting Japanese Marine Defence Force ships joined their Sri Lankan counterparts in a beach beach clean up campaign in Nilaweli, Tuesday (21). A group of 35 Japanese Coast Guards from the two ships 'Suzunami' and 'Kirisame' which arrived in the Island on a goodwill visit took time to clean up the Nilaweli beach in the Eastern coast. The Nilaweli beach, for years has been considered as one of Sri Lanka's most perfect beaches. more..

May 22 (Island) Minister Bandula Gunawardena told Parliament that ousted CJ Shirani Bandaranayake should be held responsible for the 2011 GCE A/L ‘Z-score’ crisis. He said that when the ‘Z-score’ issue turned controversial, the ministry had appointed a committee of five professors and they were ready to present their opinion to the Supreme Court. But, CJ Bandaranayake had allowed only Prof R.O. Thattil to present observations before the Court and the Supreme Court verdict was given on more..