June 17 (GDI) It has been tested and proved that pesticides used in Sri Lanka do not carry Arsenic elements, said the Registrar of Pesticides, of the Agriculture Department, Dr. Anura Wijesekara. According to him it has been in circulation that a high content of Arsenic is positive in pesticides used for agriculture in the Island and it is the cause for the Kidney infection which is on spread among the people in Rajarata area. He further informed that this misleading and more..

June 17 (DM) Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) said today it had requested the government to permit the company to increase the price of a litre petrol by Rs.20 and the price of a litre of diesel by Rs.5 owing to the huge losses incurred by it. LIOC Managing Director Suresh Kumara said the company was hopeful of receiving a favourable response from the govt. “We lose Rs.30 on every litre of diesel we sell and on a litre of petrol we lose Rs.2. more..

June 17 (LT) The President of Inter Company Employees' Union, Mr Wasantha Samarasinghe asks the outcome of the investigations of the inquiry in to the death of Roshen Chanaka who died at Katunayake Free Trade Zone shooting by the Police on May 30th. Mr Samarasinghe points out though a one man Commission was appointed comprising retired Judge Mr Mahanama Tillakaratne, the details of the report handed over to the President has not been published as yet. more..

June 17 (SL) The UPFA is to commence its campaign for the forthcoming local government elections to be held for 64 bodies under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa on June 20. UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha said that the President has already met with the UPFA organizers of the electorates that come under the 64 local govt bodies. The organizers have therefore commenced laying the groundwork for the official commencement of the election campaign on June 20. more..

June 17 (NN) The government says funds given by international donors for tsunami relief work and even after the recent floods in the east have not been fully utilized by aid agencies. Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera accused some Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) both local and foreign operating in Sri Lanka, of using only a fraction of the funds given for disaster affected families in Sri Lanka. more..

June 17 (GDI) The Ambatale Water Treatment Plant Project will be declared open by the Minister of Water Supply and Drainage, tomorrow at the plant site in Mulleriyawa. This project has been implemented with development assistance provided by the Govt of Spain under the “Spanish Tsunami Facility Fund”. The total project cost totalling Rs. 2290 Million of which the foreign component was Rs. 1,670 Million and the remaining Rs. 620 Million was funded by the Govt. more..

June 17 (C4) Mike Atherton has said questions will "likely" now be asked over England's planned tour of Sri Lanka, following war crimes allegations highlighted by Channel 4. The former England captain has written in The Times following the broadcast of groundbreaking documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields this week. He wrote: "Increasingly, the United Nations' inaction on the evidence of war crimes [at the end of Sri Lanka's civil war] looks inexcusable, more..

June 17 (wsws) Inational Students for Social Equality (ISSE) in Sri Lanka calls on students to defend the right of university teachers to fight for a decent wage rise and improved conditions. University academics quit their administrative posts as heads of department, faculty coordinators, hostel wardens and student counsellors on May 9 as part of their protest campaign for higher wages. The Appeal Courts issued an interim order on May 30 blocking the resignations after more..

June 17 (BS) State-run transmission firm Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd will provide consultancy services to the Sri Lankan government for setting up an undersea power transmission line between the two countries. The project, estimated to cost Rs 2,500-3,000 crore (Rs 25-30 billion), is to be jointly implemented with the Ceylon Electricity Board. Globally, transnational undersea power transmission lines have been laid till date only between Britain and France, more..

June 17 (BBC) Human rights groups have urged the UK not to deport about 40 Tamils to Sri Lanka, warning that they face the risk of being tortured. Amnesty International says that at least one of the failed asylum seekers tried to commit suicide on Wednesday night at an airport detention facility. The fate of the Tamils is currently unclear. Some are reported to have had their deportations deferred. more..

June 17 (PTI) Four Tamil Nadu fishermen, arrested and remanded in judicial custody by Sri Lankan authorities for intruding into Lankan waters, were released today, a top coast guard official said. Sri Lankan naval personnel handed over the fishermen to the ICG at the International Maritime Boundary Line this evening, Indian Coast Guard Commanding Officer H Harish Morre told reporters here. The fishermen were being brought to Mandapam near here by an ICG vessel. more..

June 17 (IBT) Even before the diffusion of its documentary "Killing Fields of Sri Lanka', Channel 4 insisted the film would shed a new light in terms of ground-breaking evidence regarding the incidents related to the end of the war in Sri Lanka in 2009. However two days after the documentary first aired, it appears that the film has had different impact on different factions of the public. In the UK, reviews insisted in the horrendous graphic evidences of more..

June 17 (SL) The JVP today said the President’s move to appoint a parliamentary select committee to decide on a political solution to the ethnic issue was a farce and called on the government to first reveal its stance on a political settlement. JVP MP Vijitha Herath told a press conference that the govt earlier appointed an all party representatives committee to determine a political solution, but after meeting 128 times for four years without yielding any results. more..

June 17 (LG) I write in response to the article 'The Fussy Labour in Jaffna' by Point Pedro Institute of Development & Freidrich Ebert Foundation. The article was shared with me by Professor Arunachalam Sathananthan of Monash University, who continues to invest actively in Northern Sri Lanka. The article in essence highlights the difficulties encountered in Development and Recovery of the work culture of Northern Sri Lanka. The authors say for example more..

June 17 (LG) The recommendations in the Report of the United Nations Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka provide a good starting point for what should be done to free the country from its cycle of violence. The Report of the United Nations Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka relating to the final stages of the war in 2008/2009 was finally published on 25 April 2011. It is the first time that more..

June 17 (Cimic) The island of Naga or Nagadeepa (Nainathivu) which became sacred with the arrival of Lord Buddha glittered with Poson illuminations on the full moon day (15) exclusively created to celebrate the arrival of Arhath Mahinda centuries ago and the 2600 Sri Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi. With auspices of the Chief Incumbent of Nagadeepa Temple and Sangha Nayaka of the Northern Province Ven. Navadagala Padumakitti Tissa Thero, more..

June 17 (DM) Roshen Chanaka, a twenty two year old free trade zone worker has already paid the supreme sacrifice in the defense of and in defiance against the proposal to tinker with the EPF and ETF systems in the form of a pension scheme for private sector workers. The large scale protests, the shooting dead of a young demonstrator, the strong protest by the German Ambassador of the police assault on workers inside German investor factories, the consequent early retirement of more..

June 17 (DM) Support is always given with a price tag and these support promises do not come cheap and will always seek to drain the nation of its resources or even compromise its sovereign status. Currently threats of being taken to the International Criminal Court are meant to have the Sri Lankan Govt agree to western gameplans. US & NATO troops have killed thousands of civilians. As of March 2011, 4,441 Americans have died in Iraq as have as many as 150,000 civilians, more..

June 17 (ST) The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation’s (CPC) recent long term contract with the Singapore unit of UAE’s Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) for the supply of gas oil has stirred a controversy, as it was the first time in the history of the CPC that it has awarded an oil supply contract without calling for tenders, CPC trade union officials said. They alleged that the CPC has failed to consult the Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (CAPC) and more..

June 17 (DM) The 1992 Convention on the Rights of the Child, a binding convention signed by every member nation of the United Nations and formally ratified by all but Somalia and the United States, declares that the upbringing and development of children and a standard of living adequate for the children's development is a common responsibility of both parents and a fundamental human right for children, and asserts that the primary responsibility to provide such for more..

June 17 (DM) The Minister of Labour has already confirmed through a communication from the Ministry on the 03/06/2011, to the members of the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) that the Pension Fund Bill has definitely been withdrawn. Amidst all this information, an effort is made in certain quarters to reformulate the bill to be tabled in the Parliament after consultation with the NLAC members. 'Lankadeepa' on 07th June 2011 announced this in its headlines as more..

June 17 (SL) Govts are not elected to dictate religious doctrine to its people. We elect our legislators to run the state. We elect legislators to make the decisions we cannot. They are expected to make laws, play a crucial role in the country’s political and social system, helping to articulate group aims, nurture political leadership, develop and promote policy alternatives, and contribute towards efficient govt. more..

June 17 (Island) Following every election in this country, we find ourselves burdened with corrupt imbeciles appointed to high posts on the basis of their contributions to the winning party. We get rid of one colony of bloated political leeches at an election and play willing host to another only to be disillusioned. Madness is said to be doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. So, one may argue that we, the voting public, have taken leave of our senses more..

June 17 (DM) In the psyche of modern society, there seems to be a lack of inter-relatedness. We may see a huge mass of humanity converging each day on our streets; going to work, or going home after. Yet we fail to recognize the need for a communality of our aims. The new vision of reality shows that all social movements are going in the same direction. We can expect the various movements to flow together and form a powerful force for social change. Yet fear hinders this flow. more..

June 17 (Island) Years of negotiating have come to end with business tycoon Dhammika Perera finally completing the takeover bid of Lewis Brown and Company, the holding company of Delmege Forsyth and Company Ltd, a privately held diversified company which traces its beginnings to the mid-nineteenth century with interests in shipping, insurance, retail, pharmaceuticals and travel and tourism, brokers said. more..

June 17 (ORF) The week-end Sri Lanka visit of the Indian troika comprising National Security Advisor Shivshanker Menon, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar is important to both the nations for reasons that are more than the obvious. Media reports in the two nations have highlighted discussions that had centred on rehabilitation and reconciliation, ’war crimes’ and fishermen’s issue, including the two Tamil Nadu Assembly resolutions in this regard. more..

June 17 (SL) Given the post war environment we live in, we probably think about heavy shells and armor plating. I remember round rocking Rambo movies; blood and bullet ridden carnage that was thought appropriate for a young boy to enjoy watching not so long ago. But what I am thinking about when I think about tanks right now are tanks that think; Think Tanks. To the uninitiated, the phrase might conjure up sci-fi imagery right out of an Asimov novel. No artificial intelligence endowed, more..

June 17 (SLE) Nearly 100 Sri-Lankan Americans from throughout the United States traveled to Capitol Hill Monday to brief Congress on reconciliation and post-conflict progress in Sri Lanka as part of Sri Lankan-American Day on Capitol Hill. The meetings with member of Congress and their staff were organized by the Sri Lankan community, with the help of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington, D.C. The sessions focused on economic and social progress in more..

June 17 (Island) Sri Lanka has a different regulatory initiative when it comes to energy management. Regulations on energy management will soon be introduced to the establishments, Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said. Addressing the inauguration ceremony of SAARC Training Programme on Energy Management and Energy Auditing yesterday in Colombo, he said Sri Lanka can extend her cooperation to the countries in the region to get ahead in the area of energy management. more..

June 17 (Island) The increasing number of dengue patients in the Colombo City has caused great concern to the Colombo Municipal Council Public Health Department. PHD chief Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam said on Thursday that the number of dengue patients had increased to 13,023 by the end of the third week of June. The PHD receives over twenty dengue patients each day, he said. The Council was doing its best to bring the situation under control but the citizens should do their share to more..

June 17 (Island) The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is seeking financial assistance to help ex-LTTE combatants reintegrate back to civilian life following rehabilitation under military supervision. Additional funds are needed to sustain the exclusive project spearheaded by the IOM. Norway, Australia and Japan are among the countries ready to support the IOM initiative, which is implemented in support of the rehabilitation project more..

June 17 (LBO) Two state-backed insurance schemes for state workers and agriculture have been topped up with taxes extracted from the people, as premium payments were not enough to cover claim. 'Agrahara' a medical insurance plan for state workers with 650,000 holders had claims of 1,138 million rupees in 2010, while contributions were only 595 million rupees. The Treasury had pumped in 443 million rupees of tax money collected from the people to plug the difference. more..

June 17 (DM) The Education Ministry would give teaching appointments to 3,174 graduates in aesthetic studies next month, Minister Bandula Gunawardane said. The Minister said that these appointment letters would be ready for distribution by July 1, adding that Cabinet approval had already been given for all these appointments. “There were more than 5000 applications for teaching posts this year. Therefore, the Department of Examinations had conducted an examination to more..

June 17 (TOI) Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara's miserable England tour continued on Thursday and the team's batting coach said lack of preparation may have contributed to their problems. The duo, Sri Lanka's highest-scoring batsmen in Test history, fell for single figure scores at The Rose Bowl as Sri Lanka slumped to 81 for four on a rain-affected first day. Sangakkara, standing in as captain for the injured Tillakaratne Dilshan, has managed just 65 runs in more..

June 17 (Island) In a bid to encourage fish traders in the Peliyagoda new market, the Fisheries Ministry has deleted some terms and conditions of traders’ contracts and brought in new terms and conditions in favour of the traders. Ministry media spokesman D. S. N. Rajapaksa told The Island that in accordance with the previous terms and conditions of traders’ contracts, a single trader could have only a 10-year period to run a fish stall in the market, more..

June 17 (DM) Jayewardenepura University students expressed grave concern over their safety because of the dictatorial manner in which the university administration was currently operating. Jayewardenepura Students Union Convener the Venerable Kamburugamuwe Gnanissara Thera said that the Vice Chancellor had embarked on a student suspension ‘spree’ and the students were being suspended over fabricated charges. “Some 23 female students were suspended recently for more..

June 17 (Island) After accusing the UNSG Ban Ki-moon of being an LTTE agent, the govt has shamelessly endorsed his bid for re-election, the UNP said yesterday. UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake said that the Rajapaksa regime and its ministers were behaving like clowns by changing their positions from time to time. He queried as to how a person accused of being an LTTE agent and violating Sri Lanka’s sovereignty by commissioning an Experts Panel Report that more..

June 17 (PTI) Warwickshire off-spinner Maurice Holmes has been reported to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for a suspect illegal bowling action, the governing body said Thursday. The 21-year-old bowler has been dubbed the 'English Murali' for the similiarity of his action to that of Sri Lanka great Muttiah Muralitharan. However, Holmes was reported by umpires twice in the last month with his 'doosra' -- the off-spinner's googly – believed to be the main concern. more..

June 17 (CI) As grand unveilings go, the Rose Bowl's first day as a Test venue was an unavoidably low-key occasion. Hampshire's dismal morning weather did eventually give way to a pleasingly sunlit evening, the transition point of which was marked by a rainbow that seemed to emerge directly from the Gourmet Burger van on the concourse, but in between whiles just 38 overs out of 90 were possible. However, the fact that England were able to keep the game ticking more..