KAMALIKA PIERIS There are just two categories of speakers who are permitted to address the HRC. Firstly, those representing the government of a country, and its National Human rights Institutions (NHRI). Secondly, those belonging to Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) registered with the HRC NHRIs are entitled to intervene immediately after their country during the interactive dialogue, […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada. Sri Lanka’s tea industry had been hit hard in recent times from several quarters. The drought brought trouble for tea, and even more trouble for  the paddy farmer. The knee-jerk ban of the herbicide glyphosate falsely claiming it to cause kidney miles away from the tea plantations, in the Rajarata, was another […]

Keerthi Tennkoon  The Eastern Province based Muslim identitarian politics, brought to the fore by M. H. M. Ashraff, founder/leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), has entered a new phase with the alliance between the former General Secretary of SLMC, Hasen Ali and Minister and Leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) Rishad […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE ‘Democracy!’ was the clarion call of Maithripala Sirisena’s campaign against Mahinda Rajapaksa.  Much was promised.  So far, the only victory in this regard is the 19th Amendment and even this is but a shadow of what was pledged.  If there is a greater sense of freedom and more reasons to hope that things […]

By Gomin Dayasri Courtesy The Daily Mirror Elections can’t be held for another 24 months-till 2020- due to the stupidity evolved by the‘pundits’ on the 19th amendment. Manipulations have placed the UNP in serious trouble. If local Government elections aren’t held in early 2018 – the UNP will lose more votes- for not keeping to the […]

By Sanchith Karunaratna Courtesy Adaderana The Cabinet decided to lift the ban on the use of white asbestos for state institutions but will continue the full ban on blue asbestos with effect from January 1, 2018. Government had taken a policy decision to limit import of raw material required to manufacture asbestos on September 06, 2016 which […]

By CHRISTOPHER BOOKER  Courtesy Mail on line Yesterday saw the launch of yet another scare campaign. As so often before championed by the BBC, it warned us again of the deadly dangers posed by asbestos – this time in Britain’s schools. In the past 30 years, it was claimed on Radio 4’s Today programme, 178 teachers have […]

Ministry of Health of New Zealand responses to questions about asbestos in Canterbury. Background The workplace health and safety regulator, WorkSafe NZ, has been investigating the testing and management of asbestos during repair work carried out in homes in Canterbury following the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Below are answers to some common questions about […]

සාකච්ඡා කළේ- චමින්ද මුණසිංහ උපුටාගැණීම ලංකාදීප ඒකාබද්ධයේ නාගැනීම, නාම යෝජනාවක්වත් හරියට හදාගන්න බැරිද, ආණ්ඩුව කළ ඇඟට දැනෙන සංවර්ධනය, හම්බන්තොට වරාය,  සාමකතා බිඳවැටීම, ඒකාබද්ධයේ පතුරු ගැලවීම යනාදී කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙවර සඳුදා හමුවෙන් අදහස් දක්වන්නේ පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමයේ නායක සහ එ.ජ.නි.ස. පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී උදය ප්‍රභාත් ගම්මන්පිල මහතායි. ප්‍රශ්නය:- මැතිවරණය ඉල්ලා කෑ ගැසූ ඒකාබද්ධයට මැතිවරණය දුන්න ගමන්ම නා ගත්තා […]

උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට යළි ජනාධිපතිවරණයට තරග කිරීමට නොහැකි බව ප්‍රකාශ කළද 2020 වසරේදී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුත් ආණ්ඩුවක් අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම පිහිටුවන බව හිටපු ආර්ථික සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍ය බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ‘මව්බිම’ට ප්‍රකාශ කළේය. එදා රුසියාවේ ජනාධිපති පුටින් මහතාට තරග කිරීමට නොහැකි බව ප්‍රකාශ වුවද, එදා රුසියාවේ ජනතාවට පුටින් මහතාගේ නායකත්වය අවශ්‍ය වූ […]

Courtesy newsin.asia Colombo, November 18 (newsin.asia): The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations (UN) are going their separate ways on the Rohingya issue. While ASEAN is ignoring it for the sake of economic cooperation and internal consensus, the UN is taking it up seriously counting it as one of the greatest […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia New York, December 20 (Reuter): Yanghee Lee, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, has been denied permission to visit Myanmar. had been due to visit in January to assess human rights across Myanmar, including abuses against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State. But Myanmar had told her she was no longer welcome, she said, […]

Reporting from Moscow Russia’s agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection  authority “Rosselkhoznadzor” demanded that preventive steps should be taken in Sri Lanka to secure the safety of tea intended for export to Russia before further discussion on restricted tea imports from Sri Lanka at the end of December, it said in a statement on Tuesday. […]

By Professor Rohan Rajapakse, Senior Professor of Agricultural Biology Dr. Wolly Wijayaratne Senior Lecturer in Pest Management Rajarata University of Sri Lanka Tea consignments from Sri Lanka to Russia were found to have a Khapra beetle a few days ago. Consequently, Russia restricted the importation of agricultural products from Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan tea, which accounts […]

Dilrook Kannangara As usual Sri Lankan policymakers and advisors have missed the woods for the trees. The pro-US and anti-Russian regime in Colombo has now resorted to begging to win back the Russian tea market. They cannot see beyond their cuppa. There are much larger issues at play in tea exports to Russia than an […]

Sarath Wijesinghe (former Ambassador to U A E and Israel- Solicitor Attorney- at- Law) TEA IS OUR PRIDE Tea is our pride, for which we can be proud of for the reason that it is the best tea on the Globe. It is the duty of every Sri Lankan- especially the Diplomatic Missions worldwide to […]