MALINDA SENEVIRATN​E The year 2020 was eminently forgettable and that has very little to do with politics. The obvious need not be stated. As for the political, we had parliamentary elections and the passage of the 20th Amendment. The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna effectively consolidated its hold on power, securing close to a two-thirds majority. […]

C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D. Tamil-speaking people, after the defeat of the LTTE, see the Provincial Councils as an adequate sharing of power, given some minor modifications that were acceptable to them at the APRC, within a single unitary state.” LSSP communique issued by Tissa Vitharana, Island January 3, 2021 I delivered Sri Lankan Tamils more […]

By Raj Gonsalkorale The year 2020 ended with the COVID pandemic raging unabated, not just in Sri Lanka but throughout the world and bringing down the world as we all knew it. Economies of countries from the superrich to the very poor have all crumbled and health services are bursting at the seams. Education has […]

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රසව හා නාරිවේදී විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍යවරුන්ගේ සංගමයේ 35 වැනි සභාපති විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය ප්‍රදීප් ද සිල්වා මහතා එම ධූරයේ පිහිටුවීමේ උත්සවය ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අද 2021.01.03 සවස පැවැත්විණි. කොළඹ බණ්ඩාරනායක අනුස්මරණ ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලා පරිශ්‍රයේ නෙළුම් ශාලාවේ පැවැති මෙම උත්සව අවස්ථාව ආරම්භ වූයේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ සම්ප්‍රාප්තිය සමඟිනි. […]

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය රත්මලාන, කොතලාවලපුර සමාධි බෞද්ධ මධ්‍යස්ථානයේ ඉදි කළ රන්වැට සහිත බෝධි ප්‍රාකාරය ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අද 2021.01.04 දින විවෘත විය. රත්මලාන, කොතලාවලපුර සමාධි බෞද්ධ මධ්‍යස්ථානාධිපති, මාතර වෙහෙරහේන පූර්වාරාම රාජමහා විහාරාධිවාසී, පූජ්‍ය මාපලගම බුද්ධසිරි නාහිමියන්ගේ අනුශාසනා පරිදි සිවිල් ආරක්ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ශ්‍රම දායකත්වයෙන් මෙම රන්වැට සහිත බෝධි ප්‍රාකාරය ඉදි කර තිබේ. කටුබැද්ද […]

By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, January 4 (newsin.asia): The Indian External Affairs Minister, Dr. S Jaishankar, will pay an official visit to Sri Lanka from January 5 to 7 at the invitation of the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Dinesh Gunawardena. Dr.Jaishankar will hold discussions with his counterpart and Sri Lanka’s leadership on the entire gamut […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, January 4: The Sri Lankan State Ministry of Primary Healthcare, Epidemics, and Primary Disease Control has refuted media reports claiming that a committee has been appointed to make recommendations on the issues surrounding the cremation of the remains of Covid victims in Sri Lanka. Issuing a statement, the Ministry said there is […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස් කොරෝනා මෘත දේහ වැලලීම සඳහා නිර්දේශ දුන් කමිටුව තමන් විසින් පත් කරන ලද්දක් නොවන බව ප්‍රාථමික සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා, වසංගත රෝග සහ කොවිඩ් රෝග පාලනය පිළිබද රාජ්‍ය ඇමතිනි සුදර්ශණී ප්‍රනාන්දු පුල්ලේ මහත්මියගේ මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය සදහන් කරයි. ඒ බව සදහන් කරමින් එම මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය විසින් නිකුත් කරන ලද නිවේදනයක් පහතින් දැක්වේ. රජයේ […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror People will have to live with the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic even this year and therefore, they should be prepared to adapt to the conditions and live adhering to health guidelines, Health Services Director General Dr. Asela Gunawardane said. He said this after paying an inspection tour to the new kidney hospital […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror When the first sign of intelligent life first visits us from space, it won’t be a giant saucer hovering over New York. More likely, it will be an alien civilization’s trash.  Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy, believes he’s already found some of that garbage.  In his upcoming […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Director-General of Health Services confirms that Sri Lanka’s fatality count from COVID-19 has risen with 02 more deaths caused by the virus. Two men, both residents of Ratnapura, have succumbed to the virus pushing the COVID-19 death count to 215. A 71-year-old man had passed away at the Ratnapura Teaching Hospital on […]

Courtesy Adaderana The total count of Covid-19 cases reported in Sri Lanka reached 45,242 as more persons were tested positive for the virus.  The Department of Government Information said 277 more fresh cases have been detected within the day. Reportedly, 261 of the new cases are close contacts of the Peliyagoda fish market cluster. The […]

Courtesy Adaderana A special operation carried out by Sri Lanka Navy in the seas off Negombo led to the apprehension of 04 suspects with drugs worth over Rs 600 million. The Western Naval Command today (04) intercepted a suspicious multiday fishing trawler off Negombo and apprehended 04 suspects with over 100 kg of Crystal Methamphetamine […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka Customs has seized 7,500 kilograms of turmeric illegally imported into the country under the guise of importing wheat flour.  Customs spokesman Sunil Jayaratne said that the stock of turmeric was found inside a container shipped from India on December 20, declared as wheat flour.  The container was searched based on information […]

Senaka Weeraratna The LLRC Report was tantamount to a Betrayal of the Victory achieved by the Security Forces on the battlefield after a huge sacrifice of life and limb by the heroic soldiers. About 30, 000 personnel from the security forces perished.   What was required and anticipated by the informed public from the LLRC were […]

Dr Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara The following map shows the graphic representation of the geomorphological structure of the Island determined by its geological foundation spreading from the center in all directions Morphological map of Sri Lanka Source Sudath Gunasekara 1991. You will see from this map that all the rivers in the Island starting from the […]

Dr Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara.  This is an article that should be seriously read, understood, chewed and digested and corrective measures taken immediately by the President, Prime Minister, the entire Cabinet first, and second by all the MPP in Parliament including those supporting burial of Muslim Covid 19 corpses. I think it is better for all […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The USA, we are told, has two governments, a visible government and an invisible one. The visible government is the one run by the US President and Congress.   But the real power which drives US policy is elsewhere, say analysts. USA’s politics is masterminded by a small financial elite, they added, a kind […]

MALINDA SENEVIRATN​E No. Not THAT elephant nor the one which turned itself into a telephone. Neither are in the room. The compass is not in the room either and there’s palpable evidence that even the lotus bud has got displaced. That’s if ‘people’ constitute ‘the room.’ These days, the proverbial elephant in the room is […]

By M D P DISSANAYAKE The appointment of Mr Milinda Moragoda as High Commissioner for India met with strong reactions from certain sections of buddhist monks and majority Sinhalese.  Naturally, a person who has been looking for fortunes and power by switching his loyalty from UNP to SLFP  and then to Pohottuwa ought to face […]

ALI SUKHANVER Human rights abuses in the Indian Occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir have made the lives of the local people simply a hell. From mass killings to enforced disappearances and from torture and sexual abuse to political repression and from ban on freedom of speech to rape; the tale of miseries never comes […]

By Frances Bulathsinghala/Sunday Observer Professionals from diverse streams of specialisations in the country, seek an opportunity for traditional physicians to treat Covid-19 patients so that it could be ascertained if we need to spend billions of dollars to import a vaccine. These professionals argue that Sri Lankans should not underestimate the vast knowledge and skills […]

Courtesy Prensa Latina Colombo, Jan 3 (Prensa Latina) The foreign minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Dinesh Gunawardena, congratulated the Cuban Government and people on the 62nd anniversary of the Revolution, a diplomatic source said on Sunday.Cuban Ambassador Juana Elena Ramos met with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, who noted the […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic went up with two more deaths caused by the virus being reported, the Department of Government Information stated. The Director-General of Health Services has confirmed that two females aged 57 and 76 years have succumbed to the virus in this manner. The 57-year-old woman had […]

Courtesy Adaderana The total count of Covid-19 cases reported in Sri Lanka reached 44,774 as 188 more persons were tested positive for the virus.  The Department of Government Information said 403 fresh cases have been detected within the day. According to the Health Ministry’s data, 37,252 of the confirmed patients have made complete recoveries from […]

Vinod Kumar Menon | Mumbai Courtesy mid-day.com They say the use of polythene sheets/body bags for burial of bodies of COVID-19 victims and sodium hypochlorite to spray them, could impact the environment; point the need for analysis of the same WHO guidelines emphasise usage of cloth for burial without using any chemical sprayed as disinfectant Research scientist […]

Austin Fernando  I refer to the article written by Mr. C Wijeyawickrema (CW) in Lankaweb, in response to my article that appeared in the Island newspaper on the last Xmas Day. CW says that he had two purposes in responding; one, to reply to the contents of my article; and second, to give an alternative […]

Courtesy BBC

KAMALIKA PIERIS United States rose to prominence after World War II. USA and Russia thereafter fought a Cold War which neither won. When the Cold War with Russia ended abruptly in 1991 USA became the world’s sole super-power. Throughout the 1990s, the USA reigned supreme. USA had the best army, air force and navy. No […]

By M D P DISSANAYAKE The Centurian Park was famous for fast bowling attack. Yet Wanindu Hasaranga of Sri Lanka grabbed 4 wickets at 3.80 economy rate.   The absence of a second front line spinner was clearly the weakness of Sri Lankan cricket team.    The South Africans are more acclimatized  for  fast bowling, their key […]