By P. K. Balachandran/newsin.asia Colombo, January 13: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday assured representatives of Port Trade Unions that the Eastern Container Terminal (ECT) in the Colombo Port will not be sold or leased out. The President, who met representatives of the port unions, made it clear that  the plan is to develop […]

By P.K.Balachandran/newsin.asia Colombo, January 13 (newsin.asia): The Batticaloa High Court on Wednesday released Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, a Member of Parliament and former Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, after the Attorney General’s department said on Monday that it would not pursue the murder case against him. The Court of Appeal had earlier ruled that […]

Courtesy Adaderana The new variant of the COVID-19 virus found in the United Kingdom (UK) has been detected in a person who has visited Sri Lanka, says Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Sudath Samaraweera. This has been identified during tests carried out focusing on people arriving in Sri Lanka from foreign countries. Reportedly, the infected person had […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka has registered 03 more coronavirus-related deaths, the Director-General of Health Services confirmed. Following the new development, total deaths reported in the country has climbed to 247. One of the deceased is a 66-year-old male from the Battaramulla area. He had been transferred to the Homagama Base Hospital from the Colombo National […]

Courtesy Adaderana Covid-19 infections registered in Sri Lanka crossed 50,000 as 378 more persons have tested positive today (January 13). The Government Information Department said the newly-identified patients are close contacts of earlier cases linked to the Peliyagoda fish market cluster.  A total of 687 cases have been reported within the day so far. As […]

Courtesy Adaderana Major (Retired) Ajith Prasanna, who was in remand custody, has been released on bail by the Court of Appeal. Three defendants including Ajith Prasanna and two naval intelligence officers are accused of holding a press conference and intimidating witnesses in the case against several navy officials over the abduction and disappearance of 11 […]

Garvin Karunaratne, PhD in Non-Formal Education & Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University Formerly of the SLAS- Government Agent, Matara in 1971-1973.  A Country that is saddled with a massive unsustainable foreign debt- as much as $ 56 billion, the servicing of which requires some $ 4 billion annually, where the outlay required for imports far outweighs […]

By M D P DISSANAYAKE The first Sri Lankan Buddhist monk honoured by the King of Thailand  awarding the status of Aggamaha Panditha ( meaning Chief Great Scholar) was none other than the former Vice Chancellor of Vidyalankara University Ven Polwatte Buddhadatta Thera.  He has made valuable contribution to Buddhism and wrote series of books […]

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය දුෂ්කර පළාත් වල තෝරා ගත් හින්දු කෝවිල් 100ක් සඳහා එළඹෙන තෛයිපොංගල් දිනය සැමරීම හා පූජා කටයුතු සඳහා රුපියල් 10,000ක් වටිනා චෙක්පත් ප්‍රදානය අද 2021.01.12 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී සිදු විය. බුද්ධශාසන ආගමික හා සංස්කෘතික කටයුතු අමාත්‍යවරයා ලෙස ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ සංකල්පයකට අනුව මෙම චෙක්පත් ප්‍රදානය කෙරිණි. කෝවිල් සඳහා කෙරෙන මෙම චෙක්පත් […]

Prime Minister’s Media Unit Mr. Wes Edens, Founder of New Fortress Energy, met Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss investment opportunities in the tourism, energy, transport and infrastructure sectors in Sri Lanka. Mr. Edens who is on a short visit to Sri Lanka expressed his interest in investing in cleaner, affordable and renewable energy sources […]

උපාධිධාරී ජාතික මධ්‍යස්ථානය. ගරු ජනාධිපති, ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා, ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය, කොළඹ 01. ගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමනි, සංවර්ධන නිලධාරී තනතුරට උපාධිධාරීන් බඳවාගැනීමේ දී ඌන සේවා උපාධිධාරීන් හා විදෙස් උපාධිධාරී පදනම තම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කර ඇති උපාධිධාරීන් පිළිබඳ රජයේ ස්ථාවරය කඩිනමින් අපේක්ෂා කරමු. සංවර්ධන නිලධාරී තනතුර සඳහා උපාධිධාරීන් බඳවා ගැනීමේ දී ඌන සේවා උපාධිධාරීන් ඉවත් කිරීම හා විදෙස් උපාධි […]

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය ජාතික සමාජ සංවර්ධන ආයතනයේ වාර්ෂික උපාධි ප්‍රදානෝත්සවය – 2020 ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අද 2021.01.12 දින බණ්ඩාරනායක ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලා පරිශ්‍රයේ දී පැවැත්විණි. සමාජ මාධ්‍ය පිළිබඳ මූලික උපාධිය සම්පූර්ණ කළ උපාධිධාරීන් 76 දෙනෙකු මෙම උපාධි ප්‍රදානයට සුදුසුකම් ලබා තිබිණි. එහිදී ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගේ සුරතින් උපාධිධාරීන් 50 දෙනෙකුට උපාධි ප්‍රදානය සිදුවිය. මෙම […]

ලංකා ගුරු සේවා සංගමය ගරු අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍ය, ජී.එල්. පිරීස් මහතා, අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශය, ඉසුරුපාය, බත්තරමුල්ල. අමාත්‍යතුමනි, 2018 අ.පො.ස. උසස්පෙළ විභාග ප්‍රතිඵල මත අධ්‍යාපන විද්‍යාපීඨ සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණ මෙතෙක් ආරම්භ නොකිරීම සම්බන්ධව. 02ග විශේෂයෙන් අධ්‍යාපන විද්‍යාපීඨවලට ඇතුලත් වීමට අපේක්ෂාවෙන් සිටින මෙම සිසුන් අ.පො.ස. උසස්පෙළ විභාගයට පෙනී සිට මේ වනවිට වසර දෙකහමාරක පමණ කාලයක් ගත වී ඇති අතරම අධ්‍යාපන […]

Courtesy Adaderana Former Chairman of Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), President’s Counsel U.R. de Silva says the MP Ranjan Ramanayake, who was sentenced to four-year rigorous imprisonment today, will lose his parliamentary seat. Speaking further, he said Ramanayake will not be able to appeal the verdict delivered by the Supreme Court. The parliamentarian will […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Supreme Court has sentenced parliamentarian Ranjan Ramanayake to 04 years of rigorous imprisonment over a case of Contempt of Court, stated Ada Derana reporter. Last month, the Supreme Court judge bench scheduled further clarifications on the contempt of court case for today (January 12). A three-judge bench comprising Justices Sisira de Abrew, […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka has reported 04 more coronavirus-related deaths, the Director-General of Health Services confirmed. One among the deceased is an 82-year-old woman from Colombo 13. She had been transferred to the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) from the Colombo National Hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19, where she passed away on January 10. The […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s Covid-19 numbers saw another surge today, as 278 more persons were tested positive for the virus. Department of Government Information confirmed that 274 of the newly-identified patients are close contacts of earlier cases linked to the Peliyagoda fish market. In addition, four arrivals from foreign countries – Pakistan (01), Qatar (01), […]

EASWARAN RUTNAM The Oxford-Astrazeneca and Pfizer coronavirus vaccines will most likely be airlifted to Sri Lanka as early as next month. Speaking to journalists yesterday, state Minister of Primary Health Services, pandemics and COVID Prevention, dr. sud ar shani Fernandopulle said that the cold storage facilities were being prepared for the vaccines. She said that […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Democracy is fragile. It is more fragile that the window panes of the Congress that were smashed by the mob unleashed by President Donald Trump. It is the ultimate symbol of the desecration of American democracy. The world watched in horror as the misinformed, misguided, politically driven mob went berserk destroying […]

වාගිස ප්‍රනාන්දු විසිනි. මෙවැනි මාතෘකාවක් අරඹයා මෙතරම් ඉක්මණට ලිපියක් ලිවීමට සිදුවෙතැයි ඔබ මෙන්ම මාද සිතුවේ නැත. නමුත් සිතූ දේ නොම වේ – නොසිතූ දේම වේ යන්න අනුුව යමින් අද මේ ප්‍රවෘත්තිය ගැන අපට සාකච්චා කරන්නට අවස්ථාව සහ වරම හිමිවී ඇත. එම අවස්ථාව සහ වරම අපට හිමිවී ඇත්තේ රටේ සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමතිවරියට පිං සිදුවන්නට බව මුළින්ම කෘතගුණපූර්වකව […]

Courtesy Deccanherald External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s recent visit to Sri Lanka has only underscored the continuing differences between New Delhi and Colombo on key issues. The only issue on which the two sides seemed to agree was on continued cooperation in figh… Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/second-edit/india-lanka-ties-in-choppy-waters-again-937961.html

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The ‘Park & Ride City Bus Service’ system, will come to effect from today from the Makumbura Multi-modal Transport Centre (MTC), State Minister of Transport Dilum Amunugama said. He said the launching ceremony of the system will be held under the patronage of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.  The Park & Ride system […]

Courtesy Adaderana A total of 31 Members of Parliament have been asked to self-quarantine in Sri Lanka thus far, after three parliamentarians were identified as Covid-19 positive recently. This includes 10 MPs who were identified as close associates of Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara, who had tested positive for the virus earlier today.  Sergeant-at-Arms Narendra Fernando stated […]

Courtesy Adaderana The total count of COVID-19 fatalities in Sri Lanka has gone up as 8 more deaths were confirmed by the Director-General of Health Services. On January 06, a 52-year-old prison inmate has succumbed to COVID-19 related pneumonia upon admittance to the Welikada Prison Hospital. A 61-year-old male from Rajagiriya has passed away on […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Government Information Department reports that 283 more persons have tested positive for Covid-19, increasing today’s tally of fresh cases to 568 thus far. The total number of positive cases reported from the Minuwangoda, Peliyagoda, and prisons clusters so far stands at 45,186. The total number of COVID-19 cases reported in the country […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Attorney General’s Department today informed the Batticaloa High Court that it will not continue with the case against MP Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan” regarding the murder of former TNA MP Joseph Pararajasingham. Senior State Counsel Madhawa Tennakoon informed the Batticaloa High Court of this decision today (11). Six defendants including Pillayan have […]

H. L. D.  Mahindapala I like reading Prof. Kumar David’s (KD) column in the Sunday Island, even though the contents lean heavily towards Marxist mantras which have passed its used-by-date long before the fall of the Berlin Wall. What grabbed my  attention was last Sunday’s (2/1/21) column which was a foray into English literature. As […]

C. Wijeyawickrema, B.A. (Hons.), LL.B., M.A., Ph.D. Dear Mr. Austin Fernando: Thank you very much for your response (Jan. 2) to my previous essay  titled, Attempts to exhume the provincial council cadaver: a reply to Mr. Austin Fernando,” (Lankaweb, Dec. 31). However, I am not happy with your decision to stop our exchange, because it […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS USA does not have a good human rights record and it does not care either. In the domestic sphere, US has the largest prison population in the world, mainly drug users, and the highest per-capita incarceration rate. 3000 odd were on death row in 2016.  2.3 millions American were behind bars. Many adults […]

MALINDA SENEVIRATN​E This column focuses on local politics. As opposed to global affairs. However, ‘local-global’ is, as sociologists would point out, a false dichotomy. What happens or rather can happen here is by and large determined by overarching global political and economic structures. Local affairs don’t always shape global processes unless the particular ‘local’ enjoys […]