Jul 19 (AD) It has been decided to conduct the final rites of former IGP C.D. Wickramaratne with full police honors. Police Media Spokesperson, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) F.U. Wootler, stated that the late former IGP C.D. Wickramaratne would be accorded the standard police honors customarily granted to a retired IGP upon their passing. Accordingly, the final rites of former IGP C.D. Wickramaratne are scheduled to be held on July 20 with full police honors. more..

Jul 19 (DM) House of Fashions owner and Managing Director Preethi Jayawardena has been arrested over an alleged Customs violation and remanded while receiving treatment at the National Hospital in Colombo after developing a heart-related medical condition. Sri Lanka Customs officers arrested Jayawardena at his residence during a special investigation into a customs valuation issue. Customs senior official said Jayawardena developed a heart-related medical condition while more..

Jul 19 (NW) SL Police and health authorities have launched a special islandwide programme to strengthen dengue prevention efforts and enforce legal action against those responsible for mosquito breeding sites, amid growing concerns over the spread of dengue. The initiative is being carried out jointly by the Ministry of Health, Public Health Inspectors and the SL Police to curb the spread of dengue across the country. The Inspector General of Police has instructed OICs of all police stations to more..

Jul 19 (ST) Cricket Transformation Committee (CTC) running the gentleman’s game believes it has won valuable time from the ICC to complete sweeping governance reforms, but insists that its own ambition is to relinquish control and return the game to an elected administration at the earliest. Fresh from attending the ICC Chief Executives’ Meeting in Scotland, CTC Secretary Prakash Schaffter says the message from world cricket’s governing body was clear: more..

Jul 19 (TM) Football fans in SL will have the opportunity to watch the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final live on the big screen at Galle Face Green on Sunday night. Free public screening, organised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, will begin at 6 p.m., with organisers inviting fans to bring their national flags and join the celebrations. The event is open to the public at no cost and is expected to bring together football enthusiasts from across the country for the biggest match of the tournament. more..

Jul 19 (TM) Urban Development Authority (UDA) has received bids for all seven plots of land offered for logistics and associated development projects in Ekala. UDA Deputy Director General E.A.C. Piyashantha revealed that the UDA had invited proposals from interested investors for logistics and related development projects on its land in Ekala. This related to the remaining UDA land adjoining the 36-acre plot on which the Access Group had been granted approval to build a logistics park in 2022. more..

Jul 19 (ST) Lanka Premier League (LPL) began its sixth season on Friday night under an unsolicited cloud after the arrest of a co-owner of the Jaffna Kings franchise and another suspect, on the eve of the tournament opener, raising fresh concerns over the league’s integrity, ownership structures and long-term sustainability. The timing was particularly damaging. Unlike previous editions, ICC did not deploy its Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) officials for this year’s tournament. more..

Jul 19 (TM) Sri Lanka Masters National Hockey Association (SLMNHA) President Fouzul Hameed – a prominent businessman of an integrated retail and apparel group and a noted sports critic – bemoaned the current plight of hockey in the country at a recent press conference. He stated that hockey in particular, which he had played in the past and loved, had not reached its desired destination in comparison with other marquee games in Sri Lanka such as cricket and rugby. more..

Jul 19 (ST) As opposed to the previous edition of the Commonwealth Games, this time around SL may field a lesser number of participating athletes numbering to 40, and another 14 accompanying at official capacity for the Glasgow 2026 Games. But the National Olympic Committee of SL (NOC) will be cautious as ever following the scars left from Birmingham 2022, where 11 from the contingent of over 160 athletes, officials and others involved, decamped without a trace from the games village. more..

Jul 18 (CI) Sir Garry Sobers, the legendary West Indies allrounder and one of the sport's most towering icons, has died at his home in Barbados. He was 89 years old. Widely regarded by many as the greatest allrounder and most gifted cricketer to have played the game, Sobers excelled as Test batter, could bowl left-arm pace as well as orthodox and wrist-spin, and he was an exceptional fielder and close-in catcher - attributes that once led his fellow all-timer, Sir Donald Bradman, to describe him as more..

Jul 18 (ST) He was a man of all seasons. Surendran Subramaniam was a man who could handle any challenge, stay calm in a crisis, and maintain morals against all odds around him. I am trying to explain about a different man whom I knew and also knew the meaning of the word resilience, but at the same time had the time to scale Mount Olympus if the need of the hour was so. Although formerly I knew him as a young tennis player at the SLTA, I really got to know the real Subramaniam more..

Jul 19 (CT) The coming together of six Tamil speaking political parties to form a common platform to reach the goal of meeting the needs of the communities they represent is seen both with positive and negative attributes in the political circles. SL People’s Congress, SL Muslim Congress, Ceylon Workers’ Congress, Tamil Progressive Alliance, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi and Democratic Tamil National Alliance, or DTNA on Monday called on the NPP govt to address three key issues more..

Jul 19 (Island) Spanish Israeli entrepreneur Simon Max Astandoust, a fourth-generation member of the renowned Astan fishing family, has endured years of legal battles, business setbacks and the loss of millions of dollars after investing in Sri Lanka’s fishing industry. Yet, despite the challenges, he has chosen to stay and rebuild. CEO of Seamax Ceylon (Pvt) Ltd speaks about his struggle, the restoration of his state-of-the-art factory vessel Astan II, more..

Jul 19 (Island) SL’s legal fraternity has woken up to threats to democracy and embarked on a campaign to neutralise them. The Bar Association of SL (BASL) is leading the battle against the incumbent govt’s efforts to undermine democracy and judicial independence. It deserves praise for its laudable mission, whose success however hinges on the cooperation of all other stakeholders. Former BASL President Saliya Pieris, speaking at the launch of Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne’s book, more..

Jul 19 (SO) Sri Lankan politicians, especially Presidents and family members, have acted with increasing impunity from 1978, when the Executive Presidency was introduced by the late President J. R. Jayewardene. But it was the Rajapaksas that turned impunity into a way of governance. Between 2005 and 2015 and again between 2019 and 2022, the Rajapaksas concentrated political, military, economic and administrative power within the extended family. more..

Jul 19 (ST) My dear Citizens of Paradise, I am writing to you at a time when you are being bombarded with an alarming news almost every week. Last week, it was the incident in Negombo that left over two dozen people dead, including some prison officers. This week, it was the sudden and unexpected demise of a former Police chief. It is also a time when we hear of sudden deaths of people who have been in responsible positions. First, it was an official of the Treasury. more..

Jul 19 (ST) The 32-km-long Palk Strait has been a testament to civilisational friendship between India and SL for millennia, but it is increasingly becoming militarised due to global power rivalries. In New Delhi, SL High Commissioner Mahishini Colonne underscored the importance of the strait’s role in the regional context last Friday when she was addressing a meeting titled Calm Waters, Rising Tide: Stability as the Foundation for Indian Ocean Growth. more..

Jul 19 (ST) Govts always get caught between what is a fair price for rice farmers and what is a fair price for consumers; never the twain to meet. Farmers toiling in the sun and mud complain of the increasing cost of production (CoP) given the escalating fuel costs as mechanised agriculture increasingly takes over from livestock-driven farming, fertiliser and transport costs adding to the expense mix. The guaranteed price offered by the govt does not correspond with their CoP, more..

Jul 19 (CT) The Sri Lanka People’s Congress, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Ceylon Workers’ Congress, Tamil Progressive Alliance, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi, or ITAK, and Democratic Tamil National Alliance, or DTNA, on Monday joined forces to form a common platform to address issues affecting the Tamil-speaking communities of the North and East and the Upcountry Tamil community. The collective issued a communique calling on the Govt to fulfil pledges made to the Tamil-speaking communities at more..

Jul 19 (TM) Politics is often said to be about perception, but govts ultimately survive on performance. For Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and his JVP-led NPP Govt, the latest economic and political indicators present a striking paradox. On the one hand, the administration continues to command extraordinary public confidence, with more than three-quarters of Sri Lankans reportedly expressing satisfaction with the President’s performance and more..

Jul 19 (TM) Excavation work involving the 27.7 km irrigation tunnel forming part of SL’s North Central Province Main Canal Project was completed last week. The tunnel, one of the most historic and ambitious irrigation engineering projects in the region, will eventually help transfer water from the Moragahakanda system towards the water-stressed areas of the North Central and Northern Provinces. Its excavation alone has involved an investment of approximately Rs. 60 billion. more..

Jul 19 (GV) In June 2026, Keir Starmer announced that he would resign as UK prime minister, promising to “Do everything I can to ensure an orderly handover of power.” Less than two years earlier, he had led the Labour Party to a landslide victory in a general election. Each country’s situation is distinct yet there may be lessons for SL and elsewhere with a left wing or centre left govt that came to office with a promise of change. He is being replaced by Andy Burnham, former mayor of Manchester, more..

Jul 18 (AD) CIABOC today (17) informed the Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court that investigators have received information indicating that a portion of the Rs. 120 million bribe allegedly obtained from the wife of underworld figure and alleged drug trafficker Nadun Chinthaka, alias Harak Kata, had been passed on to certain senior police officers through a Buddhist monk. The revelation was made when the case against suspects more..

Jul 18 (Island) The countrywide dengue outbreak has intensified, with the death toll rising to 50, by July 16, as the number of reported infections surpassed 73,000, according to the NDCU. The country has recorded 73,455 dengue cases so far this year, with the case fatality rate standing at 0.07%, highlighting the severity of the ongoing outbreak. Western Province continues to remain the worst affected region, accounting for more than half of the total cases, with 38,700 infections. more..

Jul 18 (DM) Two competing structural pressures are reshaping the financial arithmetic of SL’s inbound tourism, with the latest data from the SLTDA showing that neither trend has resolved in the island’s favour. The vital Gulf air corridor that feeds the country’s high-spending, long-haul European markets remains severely depleted, despite a recent ceasefire, which itself has begun to fracture over the past week, due to the renewed military flare-ups near the Strait of Hormuz. more..

Jul 18 (NW) Sri Lanka Customs has warned of a growing trend of narcotics being smuggled into the country through international postal packages, saying traffickers are increasingly using small consignments to evade detection. Customs Spokesman Chandana Punchihewa said Customs had carried out four drug detection operations at BIA and nine raids involving postal parcels during June 2026, resulting in the seizure of a combined more..

Jul 18 (DN) Former Colombo Mayor Rosy Senanayake appeared before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) appointed to investigate alleged corruption and fraud in the Colombo Municipal Council yesterday (17). She said that she had been summoned to inquire into the programme to provide food vouchers to low-income and needy people through Sathosa, a govt agency, during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis during her term as mayor. more..

Jul 18 (ST) SL’s hotels are facing a risk of a shortage of adequate staff as most of the trained staff is continuing to travel to potentially higher paying jobs outside of the country. With hoteliers faced with less trained workforce to run operations, they are compelled to hire unskilled people to be trained at a cost to the hotels and who eventually leave elsewhere for better jobs, former Hotels Association President M. Shanthikumar said. According to the ILO in a 2021 study more..

Jul 18 (ST) Showing the way how not to make natural dengue, difficult dengue, Dr. LakKumar Fernando says it is important to differentiate between Dengue Fever (DF) and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF). They are two different clinical conditions from the beginning of the illness, though they look very similar on the first two days. However badly-managed, DF will never become DHF, he says. According to him, some causes of deaths in DHF could be due to improper more..

Jul 18 (NF) Gampaha High Court yesterday sentenced five people, including a mother, father, and their two sons, to death for breaking into a house in Attanagalla, fatally attacking a man with a sharp weapon, and seriously injuring three others. Verdict was delivered by Gampaha Presiding Judge Rashmi Singappuli. The five individuals sentenced to death were residents of Welagedara, Attanagalla. The charges state that on the night of October 31, 2001, they unlawfully entered a house more..

Jul 18 (FT) The resilience of SL’s financial system can no longer be measured by capital, liquidity and profitability alone, with policymakers and financial institutions needing to adapt to an era where geopolitical tensions, climate risks, cyber threats and technological disruption have become permanent features of the operating environment, CB Deputy Governor K.G.P. Sirikumara said. Delivering the keynote address at more..

Jul 18 (FT) US and SL have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening bilateral commercial relations and maritime security cooperation during a meeting between senior officials in Washington. The discussion took place during a courtesy call by SL’s Ambassador to the US, Mahinda Samarasinghe, on US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Allison M. Hooker, during which the ambassador presented the book Enduring Friendship, highlighting key milestones in 250 years of diplomatic more..

Jul 18 (DN) SL’s top junior divers Vinudi Kankanamge and Ruel Wickramaratne will lead a 10-member team at the 12th Asian Age Group Diving Championships in Thailand from July 16 to 20. Sixteen-year-old Vinudi, the reigning national champion from Visakha Vidyalaya, brings valuable international experience after competing at the World Aquatics Junior Diving Championships. She has also won medals at the BIMSTEC Aquatics C'ships, Singapore National Diving C'ships more..