By Dr.Tilak S. Fernando My elder brother, M. R. Fernando, passed away on 5 May 1995. On his 27th death anniversary, I write this to him tribute because at the time of his death I was living in London. Everyone called him MR. He missed his university entrance as our father suffered from Typhoid fever. […]

MALINDA SENEVIRATN​E Politics is about claims and counter-claims. It is about profit-seeking through exaggeration and pooh-poohing. It is also about wild extrapolation of conclusions wrought in echo-chambers. It is as much about deception as it is about self-deception. Perhaps an example would illustrate the point. Way back in 2010, a few weeks before the presidential […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Dhaka, May 5 (newsin.asia): The Government of Bangladesh donated much needed medical supplies to the people of Sri Lanka at the request of the Sri Lankan Government at a simple ceremony held at the State Guest House Padma in Dhaka on May 5. The urgent medical supplies provided are of a total value […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, May 4 (ECONOMYNEXT):  The near two thirds’ vote in favour of Sri Lanka’s government-backed deputy speaker candidate on Thursday (05) revealed the likelihood of the government easily defeating a proposed no confidence motion against it, opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam said. In an impassioned speech following the vote, Rasamanickam […]

Courtesy First Post This demonstrated the ruling SLPP coalition’s ability to prove their parliamentary majority despite raging public protests demanding their resignation for mishandling the country’s worst economic crisis Colombo: In a major victory for Sri Lanka’s embattled Rajapaksa clan, the government backed nominee on Thursday won the secret vote for the position of Deputy Speaker, […]

Courtesy The Island Finance Minister Ali Sabry yesterday told Parliament that continuous budget deficits had led to accumulation of public debt, which was now unsustainable. In this process, I do not rule out the element of corruption, and therefore we need to emphasise the institutional factors, such as an independent judiciary, a credible Central Bank, […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Police fired tear gas on students of the Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF) who were protesting near Parliament entrance this evening.

Courtesy Daily Mirror AFP: Crisis-struck Sri Lanka’s vital tea exports have dropped to their lowest level in 23 years, official figures showed yesterday, hit by a fertiliser ban and the war in Ukraine.Tea is the island nation’s biggest export commodity, bringing in about US $ 1.3 billion annually before the current economic downturn, the worst […]

Shenali D Waduge According to the former SIS head Nilantha Jayawardena at least 15,000 people knew of an impending attack on Easter Sunday – to this list of 15,000 people included entire Parliament & even diplomatic missions. All of them are now trying to palm of their guilty conscience by accusing others. Amongst the MPs […]

By Raj Gonsalkorale Those who desire to treat politics and morals separately will never understand anything of either. The practice of politics not only can, but must be reconciled with the imperatives of honesty – Jean-Jacques Rousseau It is often said that politicians have the morals of alley cats. Some say asking a politician whether he or she is […]

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය කාර්ය මණ්ඩල ප්‍රධානී කාර්යාලය ශ්‍රී ලංකා පදනම් ආයතනයේ දී  2022.05.03 දින පවත්වන්නට යෙදුනු මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡාවේ දී යෝෂිත රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට අයත් ඉඩම් ලෙසට යම් ඔප්පු අංක සහ ඉඩම්වල නම් ඉදිරිපත් කරමින් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක මහතා විසින් අසත්‍ය හා ජනතාව නොමගයවනසුළු ප්‍රකාශ කරමින් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය කාර්ය මණ්ඩල ප්‍රධානී යෝෂිත රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Australia Broadcasting Corporation’s leading investigative journalism and current affairs programme, Four Corners, recently released a documentary suggesting a major corruption case pertaining to the multi-million dollar hospital project in Hambantota The video reveals how Aspen Medical profited from the pandemic and got itself embroiled in an international criminal investigation into corruption […]

Courtesy Colombotoday යහපාලන සමයේදී අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ පවත්වාගෙන ගිය බවට චෝදනා එල්ලවූ දුෂණ විරෝධී කමිටුව වෙත සිවිල් සංවිධාන සහ මහජනතාව විසින් ලබා දුන් තොරතුරු ජවිපෙ නායක අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක අද (3) දින වීරයෙකු මෙන් මාධ්‍ය වෙත ලබා දුන් බවට පාරිභෝගික අයිතිවාසිකම් සුරැකීමේ ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරය පවසනවා. තම සංවිධානයද ඇතුළුව සිවිල් සංවිධාන රැසක් අල්ලස් හෝ දුෂණ වැළක්වීමේ කොමිෂන් […]

BY Buddhika Samaraweera Courtesy Aruna Police remove their vehicles, protestors remove their constructions Peaceful non-inconveniencing protests still permitted Following an order issued by the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court and a heated debate between Police and protestors outside Temple Trees in Kollupitiya, vehicles parked on the pavement in the area and the constructions of the protest […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia May 5 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka plans to replace its current unrealistic” budget and is in talks with the World Bank to extend its support by $300 million to $700 million, the country’s finance minister said on Wednesday. The island nation, hit hard by COVID-19 and short of revenue after steep tax cuts […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, May 4 (newsin.asia): Representative of trade unions in a number of essential services have said that they will not support the strike which is expected to be launched on the 6th of May. The strike will cause inconvenience to the general public and will only help achieve narrow political gains, they said. […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස් සමගි ජන බලවේගය විසින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති විශ්වාසභංගය සඳහා සහාය ලබා දෙන්නේ විශ්වාස භංගයෙන් අනතුරුව රටේ වගකීම භාර ගැනීමට සූදානම් නම් පමණක් බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී පූජ්‍ය අතුරලියේ රතන හිමියෝ සඳහන් කරති. විශ්වාසභංගයකින් ආණ්ඩුවක් පරාජය කල යුත්තේ ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවා එම වගකීම ගෙන ආණ්ඩුව කරගෙන යා හැකි නම් පමණක් බවත් එසේ […]

Coutesy Taipei Times FERTILIZER BAN: Asia Siyaka Commodities blamed the drop on the agrochemical ban, a government push to transform the country’s farms into 100 percent organic Sri Lanka’s tea exports have dropped to their lowest level in 23 years, official figures showed yesterday, hit by a fertilizer ban and Russia’s war against Ukraine. Tea is […]

Courtesy MailOnLine Buddhist monks protest outside the president’s office in Colombo on Wednesday Sri Lanka will have to endure its unprecedented economic hardships for at least two more years, the country’s finance minister said Wednesday while warning of an imminent cash crunch. Months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals have brought […]

By Michael Gregson Courtesy Ceylon Today You can’t believe everything you read on the internet – especially these days, with so many false claims and misleading stories. Some governments have even taken to blocking social media to prevent ‘rumours’ spreading. In fact, no less than 32 countries in Asia restrict social media platforms in some […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror It was the private sector that demanded a tax cut soon after the present government came into power, Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament today.  “No politicaian in the government wanted a tax cut, as it was the private sector that wanted it,” he said.  The former Premier also found […]

Courtesy Adaderana Minister of Finance Ali Sabry, delivering a special statement in parliament today (May 05), revealed that Sri Lanka’s foreign liquidity reserves, which amounted to USD 7.6 billion by the end of 2019, have dropped to a critically low level below USD 50 million. Speaking further, the lawmaker said the reserves declined to USD […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Fort Magistrate’s Court has issued a court order for the removal of all the structures, vehicle and belonging of protesters near Temple Trees in Kollupitiya, that cause obstructions to the pedestrians using the pavement and inconveniences the public. However, the court order further says that it does not impede the protests carried […]

Courtesy Adaderana Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, addressing the rumours circulated on the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, said the reports are baseless. He made these remarks speaking to the media following the meeting of the parliamentary group of the ruling party today (May 04). When asked about the rumours stating that the prime minister is […]

Courtesy Adaderana UPDATE: The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has announced the official exchange rates of the US Dollar. Accordingly, the selling rate of the USD is listed as Rs. 350.05 and the buying rate is Rs. 362.99, according to the central bank.  Several licensed commercial banks in Sri Lanka today (May 04) announced their […]

Australian News In one of the video reports, the person by the name of Nimal Perera does not want to answer the interviewer’s question about the mysterious British-Virgin Islands-domiciled company called Sabre Vision Holdings and walks away giving the impression to the viewer that there is something fishy going on. However, in 2016, this same […]

KAMALIKA  PIERIS United Nations held its first Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS I)  in 1956.The second Conference (UNCLOS II)  was held in 1960. The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III)   was convened in 1973  and went on till. 1982.   The United Nations Convention on the Law […]

KAMALIKA  PIERIS The ocean resources of Sri Lanka are in the process of expanding due to the relatively new UN Law of the Sea,  announced the media.   The Territorial and Continuous areas will add a sea area 8 times our land area. Sri Lanka will thereafter acquire 200 nautical miles as an Exclusive Economic Zone, […]

KAMALIKA  PIERIS India, Sri Lanka and Maldives  are located in the same area of the Indian Ocean. Therefore it was necessary to  decide on the territorial boundaries  of the sea between these three countries. Maritime  boundary agreements  between India and Sri Lanka were signed in 1974 and 1976 . This was necessary to avoid conflict, […]

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM Wellington NZ Several of my Kiwi patients and medical colleagues have asked me repeatedly why Sri Lankans are washing their dirty linen in public and driving off potential tourists and investors from going to Sri Lanka, when this is precisely what Sei Lanka needs now.! On a personal note the latest […]