Jan 4 (Island) Most of you, born to the world with sourpuss minds, make solemn New Year resolutions and strive to realise them for a week or two till your crass hypocrisy is bared. Me, I am above all that; here are my five New Year resolutions and I solemnly pledge NOT to live up to any of them. 1. I shall drown myself in less whisky and vintage reds than in previous years – which was enough to float a small ship anyway. 2. I shall desist from cussing and swearing at the Rajapaksas in 2016. more..

Jan 4 (CT) Havelocks Sports Club is set to take legal action over a hilarious decision taken by Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) prior to their inter-club league rugby clash against Kandy Sports Club on Saturday. Havies had lodged a protest against Shehan Pathirana who made his debut for Kandy against CR and FC a couple of weeks ago despite having a contract with Havelock SC. The former Royalist was summoned for an inquiry headed by Ibrahim Hamid last Thursday. more..

Jan 4 (SO) Despite the earlier threat posed by the GMOA to launch countrywide trade union action in the first week of Jan 2016 over several unresolved issues, GMOA said a final decision on trade union action will be taken at a special GMOA Central Committee meeting, today. However, GMOA has expressed its willingness to discuss these issues with the govt and has warned they would take a stand if the authorities fail to more..

Jan 4 (CT) A matter of concern is Sri Lanka's remittances outlook, the island's single largest foreign exchange earner.This concern was reiterated by no less a person than Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Governor Arjuna Mahendran. Mahendran speaking to reporters on Thursday said that worker remittances which hit US$ seven billion in 2014, had, in the first 11 months of last year (2015), grown by a measly 0.8% year on year (YoY) to US$ 6.4 billion. more..

Jan 4 (Macleans) The Sri Lankan civil war came to an abrupt end on a sandy beach in May 2009. The government army was unrelenting in its shelling of a three-square-kilometre strip in the island’s northeastern part, which sheltered an estimated 100,000 civilians used as human shields by the rebel group LTTE. They eventually killed its megalomaniac leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, whose guerrilla tactics included recruiting child soldiers and suicide bombers. more..

Jan 4 (CT) Ceylon Today recently revealed a massive tax fraud involving a minister, who had allegedly given the green light to Customs to release 700 undervalued vehicles with a concession in import duty. This revelation sent shockwaves among the top brass in the govt. Minister Rajitha Senaratne, commenting on this large-scale tax evasion claimed that he would stand against such criminal activities no matter who is behind it. more..

Jan 4 (ST) New Year is a good time to ponder what Tennis is to any sportsperson. It is a great achievement to be a good Tennis player but when you get on the road to become a player, the realities a player faces unknowingly, involves a heavy burden. One such is the long and large band-wagon that gets attached in becoming a player. It makes the interest, progress and the success of a player that of the family, school, club, coaches, association, ministry, to an extent parliament & country. more..

Jan 4 (IG) SL's successful young netballers have been presented with cash prizes after winning the Asian Youth Championships. They beat Malaysia 53-48 in a tense final in Hong Kong last month. Both SL and Malaysia have qualified for the 2017 Netball World Youth Cup in Botswana, alongside Singapore, who finished third. Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera made the award to the youngsters upon their return and promised to help them find a sponsor so the sport could continue to develop on the island. more..

Jan 4 (DN) Former captain Arjuna Ranatunga commenting on yesterdays election defeat said that it was easy to win a general election than an SLC election because of the mafia involvement at SLC elections. Upto Saturday night we were assured of 90 votes from the membership but something had gone wrong overnight. This cricket mafia has to be stopped and the only way to do it is to change the constitution, he said. more..

Jan 4 (ST) Treasury is in the dark over the submission of finance bills, necessary circulars and guidelines to collect revenue following unprecedented amendments introduced in the 2016 Budget during and after the committee stage of the debate. Issuance of relevant circulars, gazette notifications and operating instructions to the relevant line ministries and agencies, giving effect to the budget proposals has been delayed due to uncertainty in admin of Finance Ministry, more..

Jan 4 (CT) Presidential candidate Nishantha Ranatunga faced a shock defeat with just 56 votes in favour of him though he expected more than 90 votes at the 2016 Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) AGM held at Sports Ministry yesterday. However, surprisingly Ranatunga was not critical of the proceedings of the election as usually it happens with the lost candidates but instead he appreciated the work of the Sports Ministry and the Director General of Sports (DG) in holding the election. more..

Jan 4 (CT) The newly elected President, Thilanga Sumathipala was jubilant after his win for the fifth time to the SLC top post. "It gives me great pleasure, honour, privilege and enormous amount of satisfaction to be in front of you as the duly elected President of SLC. It has been a long journey. I'm glad the entire committee whom we had proposed got elected" he said. Sumathipala said he has a five year plan in place for six sections: more..

Jan 4 (CT) Health Ministry that was taken away from Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe JHU member of Western Provincial Council (WPC) is most likely to be handed over to WPC member Nawzer Fowzie, based on reports. The reason for this move is, though Nawzer Fowzie had been a member of the WPC for the last 16 years, those who should have shouldered the responsibility to appoint him as a WPC Minister had neglected that task, sources say. There is a large number of Muslims in WP. more..

Jan 4 (DN) A petition with one million signatures under the theme of Lets Protect Our Children was signed on January 2 at Ruwanweliseya premises, Anuradhapura urging the President to take measures to block access to sites that contain sexually explicit material via mobile phone connections. S.D. Social Services Association Chairman Sanjeewa Hemasiri said that mobile networks have provided facilities for 3G phones to access the Internet. more..

Jan 4 (FT) Sri Lanka in 2015 had to be content with lower than the targeted tourist arrivals effecting a minor blow to policy makers, promoters and the industry. According to provisional data, tourist arrivals in 2015 amounted to 1.798 million, up by 17.8% over 2014. However the final tally was lower than the revised target of 1.8 million tourists for 2015. Prior to the change of the Govt, the original target was 2 million tourists. more..

Jan 4 (FT) On the 10th anniversary of the extrajudicial killing of five Tamil students in Trincomalee on 2 Jan 2006, the families of the youth request the Govt to bring the culprits to justice. Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan, a father of one of the murdered students, has issued a joint statement with Amnesty International requesting the Government to conduct an unbiased probe into the killing and deliver justice to the victims. Killing of the five Tamil students took place on 2 Jan 2006 when more..

Jan 4 (DN) On an understanding reached between the Govt of Sri Lanka and International Cricket Council (ICC), a committee will be appointed to inquire into financial irregularities and corruption which had taken place at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in the past. The committee which will be appointed in the next few days will comprise two persons from Sri Lanka Cricket and three persons representing the Government. It will start functioning once the ICC gives permission. more..

Jan 4 (CT) The Health Ministry is to cultivate cannabis (ganja) in a protected mechanism in order to fulfil shortage of ganja to produce certain Ayurvedic medicine, Minister Rajitha Senaratne said. Addressing a ceremony held to declare open an Ayurvedic Hospital, he said govt will take initiative to import opium in order to produce certain medicine. "Health Ministry is assigned not only Western medicine, but also indigenous medicine. more..

Jan 4 (CT) Former Western Province (WPC) Health Minister Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe is expected to take legal action against the decision to remove him from his ministerial portfolio. He said that the party lawyer is currently discussing the details of this, in order to take legal action. He further added that the decision to remove him from his portfolio was illegal. "Just because the budget was lost does not give the Governor the power to remove me," he added. He added that it was wrong for the Governor more..

Jan 4 (ENS) Giving a new look to Islamic Pakistan in keeping with changing times, Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif will be breaking a time honoured religious taboo to visit Sri Lanka’s holiest Buddhist shrine, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth at Kandy. However, the ice had been broken way back in Dec 2010 itself, when the then Pakistani President, Asif Zardari, responded favourably to a request from the then Lankan President Rajapaksa to send Buddhist relics of Gandhara for exhibition in Lanka. more..

Jan 4 (Hindu) Sri Lankan govt would not act in haste on the issue of setting up a special court on allegations of violations of human rights in the last stages of the civil war, President Maithiripala Sirisena said. Answering questions on the status of implementation of a resolution adopted by UNHRC in October on accountability, he replied that what should be done first was to evaluate what had happened (during the war). more..

Jan 4 (DM) With the Christmas and New Year holiday season ending, more than 4.5 million children will go back to school today with the vast public schools network alone having 4.2 million enrolled in more than 9,790 schools around the country with a teaching staff of more than 200,000. We hope that in this digital age of creativity and innovation, inquiry and discovery, the attitude and approach will be transformed from exam-oriented education to education for life. more..

Jan 4 (DM) With the commotion that has been whipped up over the incident at the Enrique Iglesias concert the other day, there is bewilderment among many as to what exactly, in that episode, was so damaging to SL’s moral status, in the eyes of the nation’s moral guardians. Some members of the audience thought it was the rip-off of a lip-synced performance for which they had paid prices that made them feel foolish afterwards. Others are of the view that it was the sale of liquor that more..

Jan 4 (DM) The prevalence of HIV in Sri Lanka has been significant during the past few decades. Although much has been done to eliminate this disease the numbers tend to increase. In a candid interview with the Daily Mirror Dr. Dayanath Ranatunga, Country Manager for UNAIDS Sri Lanka, Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS spoke on the latest issues in the legal, and education system, stigmatisation and pressure, more..

Jan 4 (Island) No tamashas and carnivals will be held to mark President Maithripala Sirisena’s first year in office contrary to claims made by NFF leader MP Wimal Weerawansa, says Minister Sajith Premadasa. "Former Minister Weerawansa on his return to the country after a month long foreign junket has said that the govt is getting ready to party for one week to mark the first anniversary of the hopper coup. more..

Jan 4 (DN) Several top businessmen engaged in import and export of goods have lost millions of rupees due to an internet-related fraud. At least Rs. 140 million have been defrauded from 12 businessmen by an unidentified gang, who hacked the businessmen’s emails and computers to obtain sensitive financial and trade details. Computer Emergency Response Unit senior engineer Roshan Chandraguptha said his organisation had more..

Jan 4 (ST) The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) says it is still waiting for the organisers of the Enrique Iglesias Sex and Love concert to submit a response to allegations of tax fraud. “I have not received any files from the company so far,” CMC Treasurer K.D. Chitrapala said. Ahead of filing legal papers in court against concert organiser Live Events, founded by former cricketers Sangakkara and Mahela, more..

Jan 4 (SL) On the eve of the country keeping a full stop to an eventful 2015, much debate has been hovering over the fuel prices in Sri Lanka being in a position to be further reduced and that the country has been in need of a proper fuel pricing formula which steps in line with the global fuel pricing mechanism. With the global crude oil price standing at Rs. 30 per litre it is in the grapevine that the fuel prices in Sri Lanka could be more..

Jan 4 (Island) The govt has given an assurance that the unitary status of the country wouldn’t be changed under any circumstances. Deputy Minister Ajith Perera emphasised that govt wouldn’t renege on assurance that the unitary status would be retained. He insisted that contrary to what he called lies being propagated by certain vested interests the Eastern Province wouldn’t be re-merged with Northern Province through more..

Jan 4 (DN) Reputation and the strength of good governance govt led by President Maitripala Sirisena and PM Ranil Wickremesinghe are rising as of the steady increase of marks on the score board when well-formed batsmen are at the wicket, Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said. He was speaking at the inauguration of the relocated State Osu Sala outlet of the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation at Karapitiya, Galle on Tuesday. more..

Jan 4 (FT) The high-profile two-day Sri Lanka Economic Forum will kick off in Colombo on 7 January with a focus on steering the country towards sustainable and inclusive development. The highlight of the Forum is the active involvement of world renowned philanthropist George Soros, who arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday and 2001 Nobel Prize winner for economics Prof. Joseph E. Stiglitz, who is scheduled to land today. more..

Jan 4 (Island) The Tamil People’s Council (TPC) has said it will not limit its membership to its founder members numbering 35. "The number of the council members will not be limited to thirty five. It will expand further as there are discussions in progress between the Office of the Convening Committee and some political parties as well as civil society organisations." Full text of the TPC media statement: more..

Jan 4 (CT) The GCE A/L 2015 results were released yesterday, said Department of Examinations. Dasun Jayasinghe of Royal College, Colombo has topped the island in the Maths stream. Thepuli Umesha from Rathnawali Balika Maha Vidyalaya has obtained the island first ranking in the Bio Science stream. Akila Mohammed of Maliyadeva College (Boys), Kurunegala topped the Island in the Commerce stream. more..

Jan 4 (Island) There has been quite a hullabaloo over a farmer registration application form the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) has published on its official website. Some farmers insist that they have been officially informed that online registration is mandatory for selling their produce to the PMB. The govt has denied this claim. Detractors of the government may be blowing the issue out of proportion for obvious reasons, but the fact remains that the PMB website has an online more..

Jan 4 (Island) Although I am an academic in a state university, I will declare at the outset that this is not an article against private universities. In fact, one of the benefits of private universities is that it forces state universities to do better. I am however saying that there is no level playing field between the state and private universities, to the detriment of the former. This is due to deficiencies in the state system itself (including higher education planning and student admission); in other words, more..

Jan 4 (Reuters) Sri Lankan shares fell on Monday, after closing at their highest level in over a month in the previous session, led by financial stocks on concerns that the new budget proposals would hit their earnings. The day's turnover stood at 1.07 billion rupees, more than double the average daily turnover of 412.3 million rupees in the final two weeks of December, helped by block deals in Singer Industries. The main stock index fell 0.39%, or 26.88 points, to close at 6,867.62, more..

Jan 4 (ST) UK Comedy Hypnotist Alan Bates will perform live in Sri Lanka on January 12 at the Ballroom, Hilton Colombo. This charity dinner show is in aid of Sooriyawewa Weliwewa Pradeepa pre-school to help construct a building and provide related school equipment. In addition to Alan Bates’s interactive stage show, guests will enjoy pre-dinner cocktails and canapes hosted by Wine World and then a formal sit-down dinner paired with Chapoutier wine. Senok Ceylon Tea Experience, more..

Jan 4 (CI) Following two humbling defeats at the beginning of the series, would anyone have given Sri Lanka a chance of finishing the series level? With a bounce in their step since Nelson, and a number of injuries having eroded New Zealand, Sri Lanka might have a nearly-even shot at finishing 2-2. Having defeated only West Indies in the past 12 months, a drawn away-series will count as something of a moral victory. more..

Jan 4 (Island) Several members of the Sri Lanka United Association of Canada responded to last week’s column on my Salute to SLUNA. The first one came from Vijitha Bulathsinhala in Toronto. "One incident came to my mind. I hope you are aware that I am one of the few people who went to an LTTE meeting to prevent them from passing a resolution in the Canadian Parliament when they held a meeting with Canadian MP, during the height of the war in Sri Lanka. more..