By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island A US official is in Colombo to coordinate high profile ongoing asset recovery operations undertaken by the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration. Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) President’s Counsel Sarath Jayamanne yesterday said the US official coordinated training programmes involving his outfit and related work. […]

By Richard KimTwitter Courtesy The Nation The country is ruled by oligarchs and their enablers. t just so happened that during the week that Republicans rammed a $1.5 trillion tax bill through Congress without a single Democratic vote, Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, was finishing up a fact-finding mission to […]

TE RAJA SIMHAN Courtesy The Hindu Business Line  Maersk Line (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives), a part of Maersk Group, is a leading container shipping line in the region with footprint across 25 offices, 55 inland acceptance points and across 16 Indian ports. Steve Felder, Managing Director of Maersk Line in Asia, spoke to BusinessLine on […]

Nirmala Ganapathy India Bureau Chief In New Delhi Beijing’s moves in region lead Delhi to remind neighbouring states of its security concerns China and Maldives signed a free trade agreement this month, and Sri Lanka recently handed over a major port to Beijing. These moves by China have led New Delhi to remind its neighbours to […]

Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror President, Maithripala Sirisena was doing the role of the opposition by publicly criticizing the government policies, chairman of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), Prof. G.L. Peiris said yesterday. Addressing a news briefing, he said none of the past executive presidents had criticized in such a manner as the incumbent […]

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 […]

lanka C news බෙදුම්වාදයට, අධිරාජ්‍යවාදයට, ඉන්දියානු ව්‍යාප්තවාදයට එරෙහි මාවතේ, එනම් මේ රටේ ස්වෛරීභාවයට, නිදහසට පක්ෂපාතී මාවතේ ඉදිරියට යනු විනා දේශද්‍රෝහී සතුරු කල්ලිවල අගුපිල්වල ලගින දේශපාලන ගමනක් තමන්ට නැතැයි ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා අවධාරණය කරයි. රාජගිරියේ පැවති ජනසමුළුවක් අමතමින් ඒ මහතා මෙසේ අවධාරණය කළේය. එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා මෙසේ ද […]

Janaka Perera Courtesy The Daily News It is strange that the 50th death anniversary of Buddhist revivalist L.H. Mettananda went almost unnoticed, even at Ananda College where he was Principal from 1945 to 1953. We wonder whether the present generation of Anandians is even aware of his contributions to the school and Buddhist rights in general. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 8.9.18, 29.3.19 The Human Rights Council of the UN is, as its name indicates, the UN body which deals with human rights. The human rights position of all UN member countries come up before the HRC on periodic review, every four years. HRC has no power over UN member countries.  It cannot […]

SUSANTHA WIJESINGHE. A MELVIN JONES FELLOW. The first question would be, not of the severe punishment that the ERRANT DRIVER has to face, but that of the Safety of Lives of the Pedestrians, that constantly walk on the road. It was only last year that I wrote on the same subject, to the TWO Mahanayakas, […]

Kanthar Balanathan DipEE(UK), GradCert(Rel Eng-Monash), DipBus&Adm(Finance-Massey), CEng., MIEE Fundamental SriLanka received independence on the 4th February 1948. The country was still under the British throne up to the 22nd May 1972, when the country achieved full independence. However, we still celebrate the 4th of February as the day of independence. SL spends millions of dollars […]

කැලුම් ජයසුමන ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ ආරම්භයේ සිටම පහළ මධ්‍යම පන්තියත්, කුල පිඩිතයනුත්, විශ්වවිද්‍යාල ප්‍රජාවත් අකර්ශනිය වූ පක්ෂයකි . යමක් තේරුම් බේරුම් කරගත හැකි සහ අනෙකාගේ දුක දැනෙන රට පිලිබඳ හැගීමක් සහිත මිනිසුන් ඒකරාශිවී ආරම්භවූ දේශපාලන ව්‍යපාරයක් වුවද නායකත්වය සහ ආරම්භක සාමාජිකත්වය මාක්ස්වාදී විය.  එනමුත් මාක්ස්වාදයේ එන සමහර කොටස් වෙනස් කරමින් රටට ගැලපෙන ලෙස සකස් කිරීම රෝහණ […]

By Andre Vltchek Courtesy Information Clearing House“ From Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, Samarinda and Pontianak December 18, 2017 “Information Clearing House” – Several years ago, a prominent Indonesian businessman who now resides in Canada, insisted on meeting me in a back room of one of Jakarta’s posh restaurants. An avid reader of mine, he ‘had something urgent to […]

අද දෙරණ රාත්‍රී 06.55 ප්‍රධාන පුවත් විකාශය – 2017.12.19

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 19.12.17,   8.9.18,   29.3.19 The government of Sri Lanka defeated the LTTE in May 2009, and the Eelam War IV came to an end. Soon after, the separatist movement went into its next phase of attack, which was UN action against Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was to be punished for defeating the LTTE […]