May 5 (Island) There was never a doubt about Kumar Sangakkara’s oratory skills. His press conferences were eagerly looked forward to as much as his flawless batting. At the crease, he resembled David Gower and at stumps talking to the media, there were shades of Barrack Obama – articulate, witty, honest and often a spade was called a spade. Sports writers attending these press conferences were smiling ear to ear as he would give you plenty of angles to write your stories, more..

May 5 (DT) India has long been blamed for the intransigence of its intelligence agency RAW in SL. Indian role in creating, training, financing and supporting the LTTE as a terrorist movement and India’s war crimes committed on Sri Lankan citizens by the IPKF are well documented. Prabhakaran, a RAW protégé, went on to become a Frankenstein. On 26 May 1987, Prabhakaran was cornered in Vadamarachchi and would have been caught by the SL troops had India not intervened to more..

May 5 (ST) The Nuwara Eliya Racecourse, situated 6129 feet above sea level, is listed among the top 100 horseracing courses in the world, according to the latest edition of Remarkable Racecourses by Tom Peacock. The latest development comes as a huge boost for Royal Turf Club (RTC), who had taken a great stride to upgrade Sri Lanka’s only remaining horseracing course. The list of global racecourses is dominated by more..

May 5 (AD) Chairman of SL Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Kishu Gomes says that the massive decline experienced in SL’s tourism sector is a normal occurrence for any country in the face of such terrorist attacks. “We see a massive decline. This is a normal. If you take it as percentage its about 70% drop in bookings,” he said, speaking on the impact of the Easter Sunday attacks on the island’s tourism industry. However, he said that while this situation remains that way, more..

May 5 (SO) Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year, which will be held for the 41st year this time, reached the new millennium when Kaushalya Weeraratne emerged the star at the Mega Show. Weeraratne of Trinity College, Kandy emerged the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year in the year 2000 with a stunning record in the 1999-2000 inter-school cricket season. The Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year is sponsored by SLT Mobitel for the 12th successive year. more..

May 5 (ST) Sports Ministry has made it mandatory for the National Olympic Committee of SL (NOCSL) to audit their annual accounts through the govt auditor–the Auditor General’s Department, Minister Harin Fernando said. The decision comes in the wake of NOCSL’s attempt to gain complete independence and autonomy claiming non-Govt organization (NGO) status with no links whatsoever with the Govt. more..

May 5 (SO) The three girls from Sri Lanka who entered the quarter-finals at the ITF Junior week 2 tennis tournament held at the SLTA courts lost to their opponents in very close games on Friday. Anjalika Kurera (third seed) who emerged champion in the first week, lost to unseeded Chloe Chong Zhi of Malaysia in a closely contested game. She lost the first set on 4-6, but tried to come back in the second set but fell short in a closely fought set 5-7. Top seed Qinglin Zang of China more..

May 5 (CT) Malaysian National Rugby team showed superb skills and strengths to edge out the Sri Lankans by 31 points to 26 in their second match of the Malaysia tour, yesterday. Malaysia scored 5 tries and 3 conversions while Sri Lanka scored 2 tries, 2 conversions and 4 penalties. Sri Lanka started off well and took a lead of 3 points to 0 in the first ten minutes as their fly half Samuel Maduwantha smashed in a penalty. The Sri Lanka forwards put on a lot of pressure on the Malaysian earlier. more..

May 5 (AFP) The nauseating smell of death that infested the streets around Colombo's morgue after SL's devastating Easter attacks has finally dispersed. But forensic pathologists are still attempting to identify the remains of bodies blown apart by suicide bombers, final pieces of a macabre puzzle. While staff have so far returned 115 victims to their relatives, there are still some 50 bags filled with unidentified remains in the morgue's more..

May 5 (ST) SL will be strengthening the national Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism policy framework of the country. State intelligence units have received information recently that extremist terror group members were receiving huge sums of money from informal channels such as Undiyal system to carry out business activities in major towns including Pettah market. Several newcomers to the Pettah market have started gold jewellery, textile, more..

May 5 (AD) Minister Lakshman Kiriella today issued a statement in response to the arrest of three members of his staff with 639 letters allegedly defaming the President and inciting enmity among races. He says that the letters in question do not state anything that would incite racial enmity, anything anti-govt or slings mud at any person. He said that facts in the letter, which had been published in a website, has not been rejected by anyone. The minister also stated that more..

May 5 (SO) An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the Govt-owned Litro Gas Company was unexpectedly postponed last week, due to an alleged bomb scare at the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC). The main objective of the EGM was to remove the current board of directors of Litro Gas, in which SLIC holds a 96 percent stake. A new board of directors was to be appointed at the EGM. more..

May 5 (AD) The second term of school will commence on Monday (6) for Grades 6 to 13 in all govt schools. However, for Grades 1 to 5 the second term will commence on May 13. National Security Council last week decided to reopen all schools and universities in the country on May 6. Schools which were closed for the term holidays were initially scheduled to reopen for the second term on April 22, however the government had decided to keep schools closed the series of bombings in more..

May 5 (ST) While Sri Lanka’s national carrier has seen a flood of cancellations and expects to lose at least US$ 100 million in revenue, MICE experts say confirmed bookings of events including weddings have been cancelled after the Easter Sunday carnage. With tourists arrivals likely to see a 30-50% drop this year, SriLankan Airlines CEO Vipula Gunatilleka said that as at Tuesday, cancellations in May was 17% compared to May last year, 12% in June and about 18% in July. more..

May 5 (Reuters) Sri Lanka’s $4.4 billion tourism industry is reeling from cancellations as travelers shun the sun and sand Indian Ocean island after multiple suicide bombings that killed over 250 people two weeks ago. Suspected suicide bombers from little-known Islamic groups in Sri Lanka attacked churches and luxury hotels in the country on Easter Sunday, killing worshippers, tourists and their families. more..

May 5 (Island) Chairman, Jetwing Symphony PLC, Hiran Cooray, one of the most respected hospitality leaders of the country, elucidates on the challenges the SL hospitality sector and the country as a whole need to counter, to emerge from the rubble and the pain caused by the brutal Easter Sunday attacks. Q: From being recognized as the tourist hotspot of 2019 by global forums such as Lonely Planet, overnight we have being pulled into an abyss with travel advisories imposed on the country. more..

May 5 (DM) President Maithripala Sirisena is reported to have refused Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's request to appoint UNP MP Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka as the Law and Order Minister. A UNP delegation led by the PM met the President on Wednesday to make the request. The President flatly turned down the request saying it would have dire consequences. Ministers Lakshman Kiriella, Kabir Hashim, and Malik Samarawickrama accompanied the PM to the meeting. more..

May 5 (ST) A 5-member subcommittee headed by Prez Sirsena to re-evaluate Cabinet papers submitted by Minister Ravi Karunanayake on the electricity crisis has decided not to approve the purchase of an additional 200 megawatts of emergency power outside tender process as recommended by Ministry and some CEB officials. A quantity of 170mw has already been bought from existing private power producers more..

May 5 (AD) SL Police says it has allocated specific locations to park school vans and buses in Colombo when schools reopen. The second term of all govt schools will commence on Monday (6) for Grades 6 and above while the commencement date for Grades 1 to 5 has been extended until May 13. Authorities will search schools and their environs in Colombo Sunday. Accordingly the following locations have been allocated to park school vans and buses for respective schools: more..

May 5 (PTI) There is no record to suggest that any of the suicide bombers who carried out the Easter Sunday attacks in SL had visited Kashmir as claimed by Army chief of the island nation, officials of central security agencies said here Saturday. One of the officials said immigration records were re-visited after the terrorist attacks and none of the bombers had visited Kashmir. About a dozen SL nationals had come to Kashmir Valley this year and their credentials have been re-checked more..

May 5 (AD) Underworld figure Makandure Madush has been deported from Dubai this morning. He was taken into the custody of the CID upon his arrival at the BIA. Drug kingpin Makandure Madush was under the custody of the Dubai authorities after being arrested at a drug-fuelled party thrown by him in a Dubai hotel, back in October. Along with him, 31 Sri Lankans including underworld figures and celebrities such as more..

May 5 (AFP) Sri Lanka's Catholic Church will televise a private Sunday mass after cancelling regular services over fears of a repeat of Easter suicide bombings that killed 257 people, a spokesman said. Father Edmund Tillakaratne said public masses were suspended for a second week, but a service conducted by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith will be broadcast on national television. "It will be like last Sunday when we had a service at Archbishop's chapel and telecast it live," Tillakaratne said. more..

May 5 (CT) The Police have set a deadline for the public to hand over swords, daggers, machetes and clothes similar to Military uniforms, to the nearest Police station, no later than today. Police Media Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said that Police and the Security Forces have set up a special plan to ensure security of schools and instructions have been given to all schools to draw up a security plan with the support of teachers and parents. They will be supervised by Divisional SPs and DIGs. more..

May 5 (ST) Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa was in a multi-color handloom shirt and sarong, not his white national dress with the maroon satakaya (shawl) around his neck, when he greeted Prez Sirisena at the latter’s residence on Thurs night. He said he did not have time to change clothes for Sirisena’s meeting with leaders of Opposition political parties. He had been at the wedding of onetime Minister, Mahinda Yapa’s son. more..

May 5 (Island) Two meetings, two pictures. They say it all about the state of SL’s political establishment following the Easter Sunday calamities. The first (The Island, Apr 26) shows Sirisena presiding over an all-party meeting. The President’s pathetic photo-up to cover up his incompetence and failure generally as President and especially as Defence Minister. In the second (Daily Mirror, Apr 29), Mahinda Rajapaksa is presiding over a para-state gathering of the former Defence Secretary more..

May 5 (Island) We are slowly but surely recovering. We Sri Lankans are a resilient lot; no doubt about that, just as we are lazy, easy going but erupt in sudden anger. This last we have refrained from since Easter Sunday and we hope our people will remain as they have: unretaliatory and leaving security matters to those designated to this task. Most heartwarming snippet of information I got was that money collected for Vesak dansales was being donated for restoration of damaged churches. more..

May 5 (ST) With questions being raised on how the state agencies handled prior warnings about the Easter Sunday bombings, there are also concerns over more blunders and blunders. One such case is the ongoing Emergency Regulations, introduced just a day after the dastardly incidents. This was followed a day later by another gazette notification to correct as many as 33 mistakes in the original gazette. more..

May 5 (SO) On April 27, an Army officer walked out of the wreckage of a house that had been the centre of a gun fight and explosions all night. In his arms, he carried a curly haired child in purple shorts. Sir, Sir, the soldier shouted, to get the attention of his senior officers, trying to explain that he needed cover to get the child to safety. Subsequent video inside an army ambulance shows the same officer gently wetting more..

May 5 (NYT) Sri Lanka is an impossibly lovely island, a pendant suspended off the Indian subcontinent that for centuries attracted traders and evangelists in search of spices and souls. But this is also a war-wounded nation that popularized the use of the suicide bomber vest, a place far more compact than the Balkans yet cleaved by more divisions: ethnic, religious and class. If it is renowned for its beauty, more..

May 5 (CT) The UNHCR and the Govt, after holding a discussion over the refugee crisis in Negombo, had decided to shelter some of the families in Ridiyagma, in the Hambantota District. UNHRC spokesperson Babar Baloch said that currently, there are nearly 1,700 registered refugees and asylum-seekers in Sri Lanka and that they are working closely with the Govt authorities, their partners and local communities to ensure more..

May 5 (Reuters) A dozen rifle-toting soldiers guarded a small community hall as day broke in the eastern town of Batticaloa on Sunday morning. Around 9 a.m. local time - roughly the same time a suicide bomber killed 29 of their fellow parishioners at the evangelical Zion Church two weeks ago - worshippers streamed silently into the hall. Survivors of the attack on Easter Sunday ambled in on crutches or with an eye patch. more..

May 5 (ST) UNP will continue to press for the appointment of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka as the Minister of Law and Order next week, a senior party source said. Prez Sirisena, who brought the Police Department under him since his attempt to sack the UNP Govt last year, had this week offered to appoint MP Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka as an advisor to the Defence Ministry in the midst of the demand by the UNP more..

May 5 (SO) The appeal by the Presidential Secretariat against the order by the Right-To-Information Commission (RTIC) in December, last year to disclose the Assets and Liabilities declaration of PM Ranil Wickremesinghe will be taken up in the Court of Appeal tomorrow. Transparency International of Sri Lanka (TISL), a forefront NGO in SL filed two Right-To-Information (RTI) requests in 2017, demanding more..

May 5 (CT) Top officials at the CEB have expressed concern over a recent proposal, forwarded to the Cabinet, seeking several tax exemptions and special licences, by the Minister Ravi Karunanayake, in connection with procuring 200MW of power from a barge-mounted power ship at Kerawalapitiya, for a six-month period, in order to “ensure continuous power supply to the country, on an emergency basis.” more..

May 5 (HT) Saudi Arabia is learnt to have arrested Maulana Rila, brother-in-law of the Islamic State inspired Shangri-La hotel bomber Zahran Hashim, and a colleague of his, who just goes by the name Shahnawaj, last week on the basis of inputs from Indian intelligence. Hashim was the leader of National Towheed Jama’at and chief radicaliser of the hardline salafi group responsible for the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka. more..

May 5 (BN) Sri Lanka will consider a tax amnesty program for the tourism industry in a bid to help companies recover from the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks that killed more than 250 people, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said. The industry has requested tax waivers, including on the importation of security gear in the aftermath of the blasts that targeted foreigners and churchgoers, Samaraweera told Bloomberg Television. more..

May 6 (CT) The Easter carnage that consumed the lives of nearly two hundred and fifty innocent worshippers and bystanders including children, opens another chapter in SL’s post-colonial bloody history of communalism and majoritarian rule. Unless one is prepared to accept this fundamental flaw in the nation’s political development and remedy it sooner rather than later the future may become even bloodier. Sri Lankan masses, Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims or Burghers, more..

May 6 (CT) Police Spokesperson SSP Ruwan Gunasekara announcing the special plan to strengthen security in the country, said it is the responsibility of all citizens to act wisely with right thinking on right direction to cooperate with the law enforcement officials and the Security Forces to prevent any adverse situation in the nature of the Easter Sunday carnage two weeks ago. The determination of the countrymen soon after the Easter Sunday horror to extend their support more..

May 6 (SO) A decade of peace! It has been ten quiet years where no sound of a bomb blast was heard throughout the country. It was in 2009 the gruesome civil war between the govt and the LTTE ended. Hopes were high since then, that the younger generations will be freed of such violence and bloodshed. Many efforts were under-way promoting reconciliation, peace & harmony. Yet, unfortunately, terror struck again on Apr 21, more..

May 6 (ST) As Sri Lankans are besieged by daily if not hourly reports regarding the rounding up of suspected islamist jihadists in the wake of last month’s Easter Sunday atrocities, it is crucial to recognise that the terrorism of a barbaric few cannot and should not be allowed to taint an entire Muslim community. Sadly but inevitably, Muslim Sri Lankans who were as appalled at the attacks as their Sinhalese and Tamil neighbours may face random and increased hostilities from the ignorant or more..