Courtesy The TelegraphOnline Most of the country’s petrol stations running dry. Sri Lanka’s central bank has secured foreign exchange to pay for fuel and cooking gas shipments that will ease crippling shortages, its governor said on Thursday, but police fired tear gas and water canon to push back student protesters.  Most of Sri Lanka’’’’s petrol […]

Courtesy The Straits Times KOENIGSWINTER, GERMANY (REUTERS) – The Group of Seven economic powers support efforts to provide debt relief for Sri Lanka, G-7 finance chiefs said on Thursday (May 19) in a draft communique from a meeting in Germany after the country defaulted on its sovereign debt. The once-booming island country has suspended debt payments […]

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Courtesy AP COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka will lower the maximum amount of foreign currency that individuals can possess to $10,000 from $15,000 and penalize anyone who holds it for more than three months, the central bank announced Thursday, as police fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands of […]

Courtesy Borneo Bulletin COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka will take at least six more months to start repaying its debts, the central bank said yesterday as the government shut schools because of fuel shortages. Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said there will be no debt servicing until the country was able to […]

Courtesy Stuff Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe wants to sell the national airline, saying the country’s poorest people who’ve never flown shouldn’t be saddled with its losses. Finding a buyer might not be easy. SriLankan Airlines, which prior to the pandemic flew to 126 destinations in more than 60 countries, lost 45 billion […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island Colombo HC lawyers concerned over shocking developments National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa, MP, says a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) should be appointed to investigate the role played by IGP C.D. Wickremaratne and Public Security Ministry Secretary Maj. Gen. (retd.) Jagath Alwis in the recent SLPP hothead attack […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Trade Unions today denied reports which claimed that fuel was sold at a subsidized rate of Rs.121 per liter to MPs and VIPs and said if any MP needed to fill their vehicle tanks, they would have to stay in the queue. Trade Union officials told Daily […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on May 19 said that the government of India-backed $1 billion term loan granted to Sri Lank through the State Bank of India (SBI) for financing purchase of essential goods can be settled in rupee terms, outside the purview of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Three admins of social media platform including a 39-year-old TV presenter have been arrested by the CID for instigating and aiding and abetting recent violent activities through the social media. Police said the CID, police stations across the country and special police units are conducting investigations to identify social media groups […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s office, today rejected social media reports claiming that Rajapaksa was flown in for the parliamentary sessions on Wednesday, saying Rajapaksa traveled by road and not by chopper. Former Coordinating Secretary to Rajapaksa, Geethanath Cassilingam said Rajapaksa is in Colombo and arrived in Parliament by road and not […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Sri Lanka is yet to respond to a Chinese offer of a shipment of diesel to tide over the present crisis of fuel shortage, Daily Mirror learns. According to an informed source, China has made the offer in terms of emergency assistance. However, Sri Lanka has not yet responded to it. […]

Courtesy Hiru News The Prime Minister says that the new cabinet ministers will not be paid their ministerial salaries.<br /><br />This was during the parliamentary session held today (19). Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has stated that some of the privileges of the Members of Parliament will also be curtailed. Earlier it was reported that the […]

Courtesy Adaderana A 42-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of torching an army bus during the protest staged in front of the President’s residence in Pengiriwatte, Mirihana on the 31st of March. The arrest was made by the Criminal Investigation Department, in the area of Deraniyagala today (May 19). A protest was staged near […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s central bank governor said on Thursday he will stay on as head of the bank given an improvement in political stability in the midst of an economic crisis, and he would not step down as he had earlier said he would. Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe also said the Central Bank of […]

Courtesy Adaderana Public sector employees, except those in essential services, are not required to report to work tomorrow due to the prevailing fuel crisis, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in parliament this morning (May 19). Delivering a speech in the House, the Premier also urged the general public to limit non-essential travels tomorrow. Meanwhile, Energy […]

Shenali D Waduge A crisis is the best time to analyze what went wrong & what we can do to correct this. A constitution is just a piece of paper. Its applicability is what matters. Its applicability by the correct persons is equally important. The problem lies in the issue of definition of ‘correct persons’. […]

Dr Sudath Gunasekara This is a letter I wrote to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the present President,  in 2006 from Texas USA, when I was holidaying at my younger daughter Achala when he was the Defense Secretary in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government requesting him to take immediate safety measures against a possible LTTE attack on the Kotmale […]

Mr. D R Kanchana The Secretary Agriculture Graduate’s Association of the Sri Lanka Agriculture Service මෙරට තුළ ඇති වී ඇති ආර්ථික අර්බුදය හමුවේ ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන් ලෙස අප  ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතාව” පිළිබඳව වෙනදාට වඩා වැඩි වශයෙන් කතා බහ කරන කාලයක් නිර්මාණය වී ඇත. එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ආහාර හා කෘෂිකර්ම සංවිධානයට (FAO) අනුව, සියළුම මිනිසුන්ට ඔවුන්ගේ ආහාර අවශ්‍යතාවයන් සපුරාලීමට ප්‍රමාණවත් පරිදි සෑම […]

John Rozario Karnataka, India South Asian countries should be thankful and grateful to India for various reasons. India is a friend in need to all South Asian countries. Despite having some internal problems, India always tries to help others. Even, India set examples by assisting Pakistan at different times.  However, since the start of the […]

Shenali D Waduge JVP is undoubtedly the best organized political party in Sri Lanka. It is also the richest party in Sri Lanka. Its base includes the youth & adults & disenchanted voters of other parties. Prior to every election, the JVP take pains to support the ground campaigning of other parties instead of its […]

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D. ‘අපේ ප්‍රධාන ඉල්ලීම ජනාධිපතිතුමා ගෙදර යන එක. ජනාධිපතිතුමා ගෙදර යාමෙන් පස්සේ සම්පූර්ණ සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ් එකක් සඳහා ලස්සනට පැහැදිලිව මේකේ යෝජනාවලියක් ඉදිරිපත් වෙලා තියෙනවා’ – රතිදු සේනාරත්න හෙවත් රැට්ටා බැටරිය වැඩකරන්නේ ධන (+) හා රින (-) යන බල දෙකේ එකතුව නිසාය. මානව ශිෂ්ටාචාර ගොඩනැඟී තිබෙන්නේ එකිනෙකට ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ පරිසර දෙකක්-ගඟක්/කාන්තාරයක්, කන්ඳක්/තැනිතලාවක්, ශීත-උණුසුම් දේශගුණ […]

Shenali D Waduge One of the biggest mistakes made post-1978 was to create a lay-focused education system for Bhikkus allowing them to enter universities/institutes with laypersons. This resulted in the decline in the importance given to pirivena education system as well as the Bhikkus. While this is not to discuss or debate on Bhikkus, it […]

Shenali D Waduge Sri Lanka’s conflict is defined a non-international armed conflict. LTTE was an armed non-state actor. 3 decades of armed militancy ended on 18 May 2009. The military offensive took place amidst a humanitarian rescue operation that saved 294,000 people. The victory was marred by allegations initiated by entities linked to the militants. The most […]

By Jorgelina do Rosario and Swati Bhat Courtesy FXEmpire By Jorgelina do Rosario and Swati Bhat (Reuters) -Running out of petrol, medicines and foreign reserves, once-booming Sri Lanka is in a mess. And the measures needed to pull its economy out of the unparalleled crisis are likely to bring even more pain.Advertisement 71% of retail […]

Courtesy Reuters LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) – U.S. investment bank JPMorgan backed Sri Lanka’s crisis-hit government bonds on Wednesday, saying recent political changes in the country should gradually improve its strains and help its talks with the International Monetary Fund. Adding an ‘overweight’ – effectively a buy recommendation – JPMorgan analysts said: “political stability should […]

Courtesy The Daily Star Sri Lanka was expected to be placed into default by rating agencies on Wednesday after the non-payment of coupons on two of its sovereign bonds, while the energy minister said the country had run out of money to pay for fuel. An economic crisis unprecedented in the country’s history since independence […]

By Nicole Johnston, news reporter, Sri Lanka Courtesy Sky News It’s difficult to fathom the fury that people must have felt to not only set fire to it and smash it to pieces, but also loot everything they could get their hands on. An hour’s drive from Colombo, a luxury hotel wedding venue was utterly […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa were engaged in an open dialogue in Parliament yesterday for the first time after the two split giving birth to the Samagi Jana Balawegiaya(SJB), Prime Minister Wickremesinghe who started the dialogue said in a lighter vein that the SJB was not […]

Courtesy Adaderana Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara has requested the general public to refrain from waiting in queues to obtain petrol as supplies are unavailable today and tomorrow (May 19 and 20). Giving an update on the fuel stocks available in the country during today’s parliamentary session, the lawmaker pledged to resolve the […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Inspector-General of Police and the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security had given directives not to use water cannons and tear gas at the ruling party supporters who were heading towards the GotaGoGama protest site at the Galle Face Green on the 9th of May, says MP Ramesh Pathirana. The former […]