Mar 29 (Island) Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said that the unparalleled collaboration between the SLFP-led UPFA and the UNP-run Colombo Municipal Council was a shining example to those refusing to back the govt under heavy criticism by a biased section of the international community. The Defence Secretary was responding to UNP demand that it would cooperate with the govt only if tangible action was taken to implement the LLRC recommendations. more..

Mar 29 (PTI) DMK President M Karunanidhi today said pulling out of UPA on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue has not changed anything for 'Eelam Tamils' though he insisted his party was not bothered about withdrawing support to the coalition. "DMK has now come out of Central govt as desired by some persons including Jayalalithaa. So what has happened? Has there been an end to problems of Eelam Tamils? more..

Mar 29 (Xinhua) The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC) on Friday warned that a "dangerous national issue" has arisen in the island nation as a result of the recent religious tensions in the country. The commission said that it is concerned that state institutions responsible for the implementation of the rule of law and for ensuring peace are silent on this matter and that the tensions could lead to the creation of mistrust within different communities resulting in these more..

Mar 29 (Island) A suspect, in the killing of presidential advisor Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and three others in October 2011, has been abducted by an unidentified group, the Criminal Investigations Department informed the Colombo Magistrate's Court yesterday. The CID told Court,in answer to a query, that abducted person was the 10th suspect, identified as Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Janaka Bandara, who had supported Duminda Silva during the election more..

Mar 29 (IBN) Days after the DMK pulled out of the Centre and Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa barred Sri Lankan cricketers from playing in Chennai, the Centre has taken a tough stand on politics over Sri Lankan Tamils. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has rejected the Tamil Nadu Assembly resolution against Colombo. The resolution sought a separate Eelam for Sri Lankan Tamils and said Sri Lanka should not be more..

Mar 29 (Island) All Ceylon Health Services Union General Secretary Gamini Kumarasinghe yesterday asked the Health Ministry to immediately shelve the decision to instruct Hospital Directors to issue bills, on the cost of treatment, to patients when they were discharged from state hospitals. The ACHSU warned that if that policy was implemented it would take trade union action. The issuance of bills for treatment to patients was not acceptable on principle, because more..

Mar 29 (DM) Charging that the Minister G.L. Peiris was responsible for the current diplomatic crisis, the UNP today urged him to resign from his post immediately. UNP MP Harin Fernando told a news conference that Minister Peiris should step down as he had failed to perform his duties towards the nation. He blamed the Minister for failing to maintain the diplomatic ties with the closest neighbour India. He said the external Affairs Minister did not play his role to defend Sri Lanka at the UNHRC more..

Mar 29 (CG) Leader of SLMC and Minister of Justice, Rauff Hakeem, has requested President Mahinda Rajapakse to convene a cabinet meeting to discuss the rising religious unrest and civil disturbance in the country. Minister Hakeem has also contacted all the Muslim parliamentarians including Senior Minister M H M Fowzie (who is currently out of the country) and Ministers Rishard Bathiutheen and more..

Mar 29 (GDI) On Wednesday, the Mega Tourism Road Show of Sri Lanka continued its promotional campaign in the most visited city of Ukraine, with more than 1.5 million tourist arrivals in 2012. Kiev, popularly known as the Green City, capital of Ukraine is a city with a deep rooted history. Today, Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational, and cultural centre of Eastern Europe which holds major travel and tourism forums and travel and trade exhibitions more..

Mar 29 (Island) Sri Lanaka's Ambassador in Germany Sarath Kongahage said yesterday that a bigger budget was needed for vital travel promotion work here as Germany was an important market for Sri Lanka's tourism industry. Kongahage told The Island, in an interview, that with limited resources, the embassy in Berlin had been able to generate publicity in the main cities of the key European country with various promotions but admitted that it was not sufficient. more..

Mar 29 (IT) The small dirt trail just wide enough for a motor car twists into the jungles of Sri Lanka's Mullaitivu district. It leads to a 60 acre complex ringed by five rows of barbed wire, minefields, cages that held guard dogs and 25 small bunkers each with four bodyguards. At the centre of the formidable 'Puli Kottai' or Tiger Fortress, sits a small nondescript single-storeyed structure. This fasade masks the entrance to a four-storey more..

Mar 29 (IT) A 10-foot-high golden-hued Sri Lankan soldier in full combat gear emerges from the centre of a mirror-calm artificial lake in Mullaitivu district, north-eastern Sri Lanka. The fierce Soviet-style soldier waves a Sri Lankan flag in his left hand, a Chinese-made Type 56-2 assault rifle in his right, mouth open in orgiastic exultation. The war memorial, unveiled by President Rajapaksa in December 2009, stands less than 2 km north of the shores of Nanthikadal lagoon more..

Mar 29 (LT) The International Preparatory Committee for the World Students and Youth Festival to be held in Ecuador was held in Pretoria, South Africa from the 26th to 28th of this month. 75 delegates representing 35 national, regional and international youth and student organizations participated at this Committee of preparation. The resolution presented by Mr. Bimal Ratnayake, the National Organizer of Socialist Youth Union (SYU) demanding the govt more..

Mar 29 (DM) Inquiries into the unrest in Pepiliyana on Thursday night revealed that the warehouse of the Fashion Bug clothing outlet which suffered damages, was not the main focus of the mob attack, but a Backhoe yard situated nearby. The Police said that three persons have been arrested in relation to the incident. The mob attack had stemmed from an ongoing case regarding a police complaint over a love affair more..

Mar 29 (CI) A favourite criticism of schoolteachers, theatre critics and literary aficionados is that too much writing has "a beginning, a muddle and an end". After losing their first ever ODI at home to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka may reflect on the components of their team, and feel they too are guilty of confusing upheaval near the centre. On paper, it would seem Sri Lanka are one of the most versatile ODI teams in the world. The XI that played Bangladesh on Thursday featured more..

Mar 29 (CT) JVP MP, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, urged the govt to conduct a full probe into the mass grave found at the Matale Hospital premises. "The dating of the grave is crucial and it supports our claim the victims had been killed during the uprising. We want this thoroughly probed and perpetrators brought to justice." A mass grave found in Matale with over 150 skeletal remains dates back to a time when thousands of people disappeared during a crackdown on rebels, more..

Mar 29 (CG) The govt has warned of attempts to create instability in Sri Lanka by stirring religious hatred among communities. A statement by the govt information department urged the public to exercise caution and avoid falling prey to rumors. The statement also said that both local and foreign elements were attempting to disturb the peace in SL. The govt says attempts are also being made to harm Sri Lanka's good image overseas. more..

Mar 29 (DM) The Bodu Bala Sena organization (BBS) today while condemning the attack on the Pepiliyana Fashion Bug warehouse on Thursday, called for the arrest of all persons involved with the incident irrelevant of their status. BBS Secretary, Ven. Galaboda Aththey Gnanasara thera described the events that transpired on Thursday as ‘barbaric’ and ‘unpleasant’ and as actions organized by extremists to disrupt the Sinhala Buddhist revival movement initiated by them. more..

Mar 29 (CT) Leader of the TNA, R. Sampanthan, has invited the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) to join the TNA, to fulfill the political aspirations of the Tamils and Muslims as a Tamil speaking entity in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. The TNA leader was addressing a rally at a Muslim village in Pulmoddai on Wednesday. Sampanthan also recalled how he worked towards the Tamil-Muslim alliance in the Eastern Province during the Eastern Provincial polls last year. more..

Mar 29 (AFP) Sri Lanka boosted security for Muslim-owned businesses across the country on Friday after a cloth store was torched by hundreds of Buddhist hardliners, scaling up religious tensions. Police said commandos of the elite Special Task Force were deployed in the Colombo suburb of Pepiliyana where mobs from the ethnic Sinhalese majority stoned and later set fire to a store and warehouse owned by Muslims on late more..

Mar 30 (NS) Yoga teacher and karate guru D. Wijesiri is not one to lie in bed and snooze off for an extra hour when the alarm bell rings at 5am. Wijesiri tells The Nation that he considers the time between 5 and 6 am as the golden hour where he plans his day and gets some yoga exercise. “Many people waste this time by getting unwanted sleep. If you do something productive during this time you can start the day with a smile and ensure the smile remains with you throughout the day,” more..

Mar 30 (NS) Seventeen years ago, as a child, when I first stepped onto this land, filled with tombs of long-dead people, it never struck me that it was the final resting place in life. Looking up at the fumes and smoke I remember my father telling me many things about this place of final rest and my curiosity about the place grew with every story he told me. With the years passing and coming to terms with the turn of events, it struck me that this was the resting place for over hundreds and thousands of people more..

Mar 30 (SO) People who used to visit the Colombo City on a daily basis and accustomed to viewing the nearly 100-year-old colonial type Town Hall building in the heart of the city with its surrounding fences, the lawn and adjoining Viharamahadevi Park today see it with demolished fences, a ground filled with soil and dead grass and a lot of other activities that are taking place in and around that area. Despite this situation, more..

Mar 30 (DBS) With a population of barely 20 million, people in Sri Lanka have, in recent years, shed earlier prejudices and fears about India. Roughly one-third of its Tamil population of 3 million are descendants of Indian workers. Facing discrimination in the years following independence, Tamils who have inhabited the island’s north-east for centuries, resorted to an armed struggle, in which India rather unwisely associated with armed Tamil groups in the 1980s. Nevertheless, more..

Mar 30 (DBS) TNA MP Suresh Premachandran has said the final Geneva Resolution will not relieve the affected Tamils and reminded the UNHRC wish (2012) to implement the LLRC recommendations, which allegedly has been defaulted. TNA Leader R Sampanthan has said that if Govt of SL complied by implementing the LLRC recommendations, a second resolution could have been avoided. However, Japan’s Yasushi Akashi has made a favourable statement for Sri Lanka, more..

Mar 30 (DBS) A mob numbering hundreds led by Buddhist monks attacked the showroom cum warehouse complex of the reputed apparel firm”Fashion Bug” in the suburbs of Colombo city at about 8 pm on Thursday. The Muslim owned “Fashion Bug”chain of clothing stores with the motto of catering to “changing life styles” is one of SL’s foremost business establishments. It has a chain of 18 clothes stores employing more..

Mar 30 (CT) The creeping militarization of Sri Lanka which followed the end of armed conflict in 2009 has now, four years later, become normalised and entrenched. During the years of the war the impact of militarization was felt mainly in the North and East. However, following the end of the war, systematic militarization has been taking place throughout the country. Its impact on the lives of those in conflict-affected areas is visible and severe. Driving through Kilinochchi, more..

Mar 30 (CT) The Tamil Nadu resolution is a cause for celebrations. It’s a reason to thank the students, the people, the State Assembly and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for taking the Eelam freedom struggle to the next level – Kusal Perera would have to one day eat his own words. At last the Diaspora Eelam Tamils have been recognized as a people deserving to be counted. That Eelam is our land and that we have a stake in restoring our land, the land of our birth, our homeland, more..

Mar 30 (LBO) SL's aggressive economic expansions into elephant country through recent projects may further aggravate human conflicts, which are already taking a toll on human and animal life, researchers and conservationists have warned. Driving elephants into reserves or transporting is not effective as they try to come back. Disturbing the habitat can increase human elephant conflicts, wild life conservationists say. more..

Mar 30 (GV) When I was in Sri Lanka from mid-April to early June 2009 I was on holiday with my wife and not able to pursue investigations in any depth. In contrast my sojourn in May-June 2010 focused on a range of studies and travels. One gem of a life-story surfaced near my second home in Wellawatte when I was able to chat with a domestic servant at a Tamil house nearby, a lady who had been through the crucible of Eelam War in the Vanni Pocket. I shall call her Sambandhi. more..

Mar 30 (GV) I am one of the 243,876 lucky students who sat for the A/L Exam in 2011. It has been almost one-and-a-half-years since then, and I received my university registration form only yesterday. I was privileged enough to receive A/L results four times in the space of ten months. For this, I am eternally indebted to the Examinations Department. The possibilities for further delay, once I start university are endless: the FUTA might decide to call for another trade union action; more..

Mar 30 (FT) Minister of Petroleum Anura Priyadharshana Yapa guarantees to breakeven the CPC by end of 2014 through product variation and stresses that he will not increase fuel prices to minimise losses. Q: How challenging is it to be the Minister of Petroleum? A: This is one of the most important ministries in the country. As you need water for your survival, oil is needed for a country for many purposes. more..

Mar 30 (Island) There is hardly anyone who is better informed of the LTTE’s armed struggle than Deputy Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman. He is in a position to comment on it authoritatively because he was part of it. However, he is one of the few people who could take moral high ground and point fingers at others over terrorism. Karuna has incurred the wrath of international human rights groups by calling for a war crimes probe against the TNA, more..

Mar 30 (Island) The Greater Colombo Fashion Company (TGCFC ) is set to present HSBC Colombo Fashion Week, now in its 10th year running on the 3rd, 4th, 5th of April 2013 featuring high profile designers from eight countries such as Agatha Ruiz de La Prada, Bibi Russell, Radhika Hernandez and 28 others –both local and international – vying for notoriety and critical acclaim yet again for the impeccable designs and glittering talent we’ve come to expect from this event. more..

Mar 30 (Island) In a significant development in Lanka – China bilateral trade, China has upgraded Sri Lanka to no less than a Joint Sponsor in the first of its newest international trade event series-the CSAE. "We thank you for making Sri Lanka a Joint Sponsor in the first China South Asia Exposition (CSAE) to be held in Yunnan in June. We are currently working on a 150 strong Sri Lankan delegation for this forthcoming more..

Mar 30 (Island) With the April festive season just around the corner, food confectioners and retail shops can expect regular visits from Public Health Inspectors (PHIs). The Public Health Inspectors’ Union of Sri Lanka (PHIUSL) warned that they would carry out countrywide inspections on all food confectioners and retailing shops to ensure the safety of food sold to the public during the festive season. PHIUSL Secretary Senarath Bandara said the PHIs had carried out raids on more..

Mar 30 (ST) Labour unions in Sri Lanka are to launch an agitation campaign countrywide demanding the government to implement proposals relating to contract work which has been endorsed by all stakeholders, trade union leaders revealed. Anton Marcus, convener and General Secretary of the FTZ&GSEU said that the delay in presenting to parliament the proposed Wages Board Ordinance amendment bill on contract labour, was due to undue interference of Treasury officials. more..

Mar 30 (CT) In a damning disclosure, the survivors of a military-run detention centre that existed during the southern counter-insurgency campaign have alleged the army had operated a torture chamber in a govt school in the vicinity of the mass grave of Matale in 1989-90, and that the skeletons of the mass grave belong to the victims of that torture chamber. The shocking disclosures come in the wake of Carbon C 14 more..

Mar 30 (CI) Although Sri Lanka's pace reserves have struggled to produce quality in recent years, hurt by a spate of serious injuries, a bevy of burgeoning spinners has begun to vie for long-term places in the national team. 
 19-year-old Akila Dananjaya had a successful introduction to international cricket during the World Twenty20 last year, but has been used with utmost care and consideration, owing to his extreme inexperience. 20-year-old Tharindu Kaushal has amassed more..

Mar 30 (CT) Police have been able to identify the suspect, alleged to have attacked Faraz Shauketaly, a journalist attached to The Sunday Leader, sources said. According to police sources, the suspect is currently in remand for another offence committed sometime after the attempt on the journalist's life. However, even after interrogations, the police are still unable to ascertain the exact reason behind the murder attempt, sources explained. Police are of the view that questioning more..