Jul 24 (DM) The Ministry of Defence has reviewed progress on measures to strengthen Sri Lanka's domestic aviation sector, with discussions including a proposal to establish a dedicated helicopter landing facility within Colombo Port City. The progress review meeting was chaired by Defence Secretary Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuyacontha (Retd.) and focused on balancing operational efficiency in domestic aviation with national security requirements. more..

Jul 24 (FT) Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) has exited its investment in unlisted Canwill Holdings Ltd., recovering its Rs. 5 billion capital after transferring its stake to the Govt as part of a restructuring arrangement, Central Bank of SL (CBSL) officials said yesterday. The investment no longer appears in the EPF’s portfolio following completion of the transaction by the end of last year, allowing the Fund to redeploy the recovered capital into other income-generating assets. more..

Jul 24 (EN) Sri Lanka has declared July 27 to 31 National Integrity Week in an effort to curb public sector corruption and foster a transparent governance culture. The initiative, originally scheduled to align with Anti-Corruption Day in 2025 and later postponed in March due to practical difficulties and fuel-related obstacles, will now be spearheaded by the Ministry of Public Adm alongside the Presidential Secretariat and more..

Jul 24 (DM) Opening a new chapter in the SL literary landscape and book publishing, the first ever Colombo Literary Festival (CLF), will be opened today and will go on till July 29 with multiple events including discussions, talks, music and cinema at the Independence Arcade Premises Col 7, and at the Goethe Institute. The special feature of this festival is that it will run as a Trilingual Literary Festival and would bring all communities with events taking place in all three languages more..

Jul 24 (ST) Agriculture Dept introduced pears to Badulla some 50 years ago under the name Rahangala Pears, but growers are still struggling to find a reasonable price for the produce. The Welimada, Boralanda, Rahangala, Uva Paranagama, and Luckyland Gommalikanda areas have the ideal climatic conditions, while growing pears in the Ragala area of the Nuwara Eliya district is reported to be thriving. W.A. Sangadasa, a cultivator in Gommalikanda, said more..

Jul 24 (NW) SL sprinter Yupun Abeykoon has rejected claims that he demanded US$300,000 from the Govt as a condition to continue representing SL, saying the request was related to unpaid dues and long-standing commitments made by previous administrations. Responding to recent remarks by Sports Minister Sunil Kumara Gamage, Abeykoon said the amount was linked to payments due to him and his support team over several years, including outstanding payments dating back to 2021. more..

Jul 24 (DN) India U-19s recorded a convincing 211-run victory over Sri Lanka U-19s in the second and final four-day match yesterday to secure the series 1-0. Chasing a challenging target of 472, SL resumed the final day on 155 for four, still needing 317 runs for victory. However, the Indian bowlers dominated the morning session, dismissing the hosts for 260 in 77 overs. Sri Lanka lost their remaining six wickets for just 105 runs as India wrapped up victory about an hour after lunch. more..

Jul 24 (NW) Supreme Court has ruled that the 2022 arrest of social activist Thisara Bandara over his involvement in the GoHomeGota 2022 campaign violated his Fundamental Rights, holding that the Police acted without objectively reasonable grounds. In a judgment delivered on July 23, a 3-judge bench held that petitioner’s rights under Articles 12(1) and 13(1) of the Constitution had been infringed by the then Senior DIG more..

Jul 24 (FT) CB's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) repeatedly warned successive Governments from 2021 that advance import payments were being used for trade-based money laundering, years before investigations uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars remitted overseas for imports that never arrived, CoPF heard this week. FIU officials told the Committee that strategic analysis undertaken in 2021 identified trade-based money laundering as one of SL’s highest financial crime risks. more..

Jul 24 (DN) Colombo Kaps bounced back from their defeat to Jaffna Kings with a 23-run victory over Kandy Royals in their Lanka Premier League match played at the Dambulla International Stadium yesterday. It was an impressive all-round performance by Colombo Kaps, who posted 192 for nine before restricting Kandy Royals to 169 for eight. Opener Rubin Hermann struck 53, while Janith Liyanage remained unbeaten on 52 to steer Colombo Kaps to a competitive total. more..

Jul 24 (FT) Opposition MP Dr. Harsha de Silva cautioned that the Govt’s latest import control regulations risk imposing additional compliance costs on legitimate businesses while failing to address the institutional weaknesses that enabled approximately $ 715 million to leave SL through fraudulent advance import payments. Speaking during the parliamentary debate on new regulations issued under Import & Export (Control) Act, more..

Jul 24 (FT) Nepal’s billionaire industrialist Dr. Binod Chaudhary on Wednesday said boards that focus solely on compliance and risk management risk holding companies back, while those that successfully combine sound governance with entrepreneurial ambition will be best positioned to build globally competitive businesses. Delivering a keynote address on Beyond Borders, Beyond Limits: How Directors Can Build Global Ambition from Small Markets at the SL Corporate Director Summit, more..

Jul 24 (FT) South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT) is SL’s first Public Private Partnership (PPP) container terminal. Since commencing operations in 1999, SAGT has played a transformative role in the Port of Colombo and consistently supported the Port’s aspiration of serving as South Asia’s preeminent gateway hub for global trade. SAGT has set industry benchmarks in operational excellence and has been instrumental in elevating the Port of Colombo’s global standing throughout the years. more..

Jul 24 (FT) In 1997, the world made a promise in Kyoto to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Paris, nearly two decades later, it made that promise again with greater ambition. Yet global carbon emissions continued to rise. The consequences of those failures are not evenly distributed. SL contributes less than 0.1% of global GHG emissions, yet we remain among the countries most vulnerable to climate shocks. What was once considered models and projections, more..

Jul 24 (Island) Hosts Sri Lanka made a winning start to their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group IV campaign, edging out Qatar 2-1 in a closely contested opening-day tie at the SL Tennis Association courts in Colombo on Wednesday. The visitors struck first when Mubarak Alharrasi defeated SL’s Apna Perera 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in a hard-fought opening singles encounter, giving Qatar an early 1-0 lead. sL bounced back in the second singles as Thehan Wijemanne produced a spirited comeback more..

Jul 24 (ST) Wow! This was the first thought that crossed this trailblazer’s mind as she was wheeled in to the Operating Theatre (OT) on Monday, July 13th. Covered all in plastic stood Toumai, the Chinese MicroPort group’s MedBot whose multi-robotic arms would be used for the very first time in SL at the private Asiri Surgical Hospital in Narahenpita, by skilled and competent surgeons for precision procedures. more..

Jul 24 (Island) Sri Lanka’s higher education system has long sought to balance two equally important national objectives: maintaining academic quality while expanding access to university education. Open and Distance Learning (ODL) has been one of the country’s most successful mechanisms for achieving this balance, particularly for working adults, teachers, govt officers, rural communities, and thousands of students who were unable to enter conventional degree programmes. more..

Jul 24 (DM) The revelation before the CoPF that nearly US$715 million may have been remitted overseas using allegedly false import documents is not merely another financial irregularity. It is a matter that strikes at the heart of Sri Lanka’s economic governance. If substantiated, it represents one of the largest illicit outflows of foreign exchange in recent history at a time when every dollar has become precious to a nation emerging from bankruptcy. The allegation, disclosed by more..

Jul 24 (DN) According to PM and Minister of Education Harini Amarasuriya, UGC’s 24/7 Anti-Ragging Hotline has been formulated for students in universities and other higher education institutes to report any incidents related to physical, verbal or emotional abuse without fear of retaliation. Victim Support Committees (VSCs) in universities are institutional bodies established to protect and assist students who experience ragging, bullying or sexual and gender-based violence. more..

Jul 24 (Island) SL has succeeded in defeating terrorism but failed to neutralise the netherworld of drugs and crime. Successive govts have launched ambitious operations against the underworld but crime syndicates are still going strong as evident from frequent incidents violence and drug detections. Now, a notorious drug dealer, Mohamed Imran aka Kanjipani Imran, has reportedly threatened to attack the Devinuwara Sri Vishnu Maha Devalaya perahera over a dispute more..

Jul 24 (DM) Animal welfare organisations and activists across SL strongly reject the recent statement made by the Director General of the Department of Animal Production and Health suggesting that feeding street dogs contributes to increasing dog populations and the spread of rabies. Following widespread public concern, the Director General subsequently referred to the concept of responsible feeding. more..

Jul 24 (CT) As Sri Lanka continues its journey towards economic recovery, policymakers and business leaders are increasingly looking towards successful international experiences for lessons that could guide the country’s future development. Among the countries most frequently cited is Singapore, a nation that transformed itself within a generation from a resource-limited island into one of the world’s most prosperous economies. The obvious question is whether SL can replicate more..

Jul 24 (CT) Every year in July, Sri Lankan Tamils across the world pause to remember one of the darkest chapters in the country’s modern history. The events of July 1983—widely known as Black July—left deep scars on the nation. Thousands of Tamil families were displaced, homes and businesses were destroyed, innocent civilians lost their lives, and the violence marked a turning point that ultimately led to nearly three decades of civil war. Forty-three years have now passed. more..

Jul 24 (TM) For the first time in years, the State has moved to legally clear elephant corridors rather than simply declare them on a map. Three routes in the south and east – Handapanagala, Wetahirakanda, and Koholankala – have been gazetted; families occupying blocked land have been promised alternative plots; and a new national action plan is being drafted to replace a framework that has remained largely more..

Jul 24 (GV) Our society is still not free from ambiguity. The political landscape remains extremely ambiguous. Fraud, corruption and intimidation persist; only the context has changed. Blaming others and taking advantage for personal gain have become the new cultural norms. Rather than following the Buddhist teaching that hatred cannot be quenched by hatred, hatred continues to spread, shaping a political mindset that is difficult to escape. Instead of valuing dissent, more..

Jul 24 (ST) SL is now an upper-middle-income country, according to per capita income in US dollar terms. While some would say wow… what an achievement!, others would ask is it a big deal? Let us dig into this country classification practice and SL’s long journey towards where it is today. SL in fact crossed the upper-middle income status in 2018, after spending 20 long years in lower-middle income status. Then, just the next year – 2019, SL fell back to lower-middle income status. more..

Jul 23 (DM) Negombo Magistrate’s Court has been informed that 17 of the 28 deaths linked to the incident inside Negombo Prison were caused by gunshot injuries, while the remaining 11 deaths resulted from assaults involving blunt weapons. Negombo Chief Magistrate Shilani Perera disclosed the findings in open court while announcing the results of 28 post-mortem examinations submitted by the Negombo Judicial Medical Officer. After the findings of all 28 post-mortem examinations more..

Jul 23 (NW) The Chinese Embassy in SL says it is closely following the incident involving the death of a Chinese national following a clash between two groups at the Colombo Port City last night. The Chinese Embassy has urged the SL police to conduct a thorough investigation to establish the facts as soon as possible and safeguard the personal safety and lawful rights and interests of Chinese citizens. Embassy further reminded Chinese citizens in SL to enhance their more..

Jul 23 (BBC) Battling its worst dengue outbreak in nearly a decade, Sri Lanka has deployed military drones to scan for stagnant pools of water on rooftops and other mosquito-breeding sites. The virus has killed 56 people and infected more than 77,000 others in the South Asian nation this year, with more than a quarter of them reported in July alone. Dengue fever, which is spread to humans through mosquitoes, more..

Jul 23 (DM) Two schoolboys lost their lives after attempting to take selfies from the top of the Jodu Ella waterfall in the Knuckles forest range yesterday. The victims, identified as B. Saljith and K. Delon, were Grade Nine students of the Knuckles Tamil Maha Vidyalaya and residents of Knuckles Estate in Thawalantenna. The two boys were among a group of five schoolboys who had visited the scenic Jodu Ella waterfall. While standing on a boulder at the top of the falls to take selfies, more..

Jul 23 (NW) Tamil Members of Parliament today commemorated the 43rd anniversary of Black July in Parliament, remembering the victims of the anti-Tamil violence of July 1983 and renewing calls for justice and accountability. Batticaloa District MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, in a post on ‘X’, noted that forty‑three years have passed since the atrocities that forever changed the lives of the Tamil people. He said that despite political and social changes over the past four decades, more..