In a tragic accident yesterday morning two people waiting for a bus at a bus-halt near the Talangama Government Hospital were killed when an oncoming bus crashed into the halt running over those who were standing there. Police said the Colombo bound...

Concerned over reports that the Sri Lankan Government was considering the removal of land and police powers from the provincial councils prior to the elections in the Northern Province, India has asked the Government not to deviate from its own...

In a tragic incident, three young children were killed when their mentally challenged mother jumped into a well with them yesterday morning in the Thandikulam area in Vavuniya. According to the Vavuniya police the residents had heard the noise when...

The People's Movement against Increased Electricity Tariffs yesterday urged the people to wear a black wrist band on May 21 to show their support for the struggle against the increase in electricity tariffs. The movement which comprises a large number...

Dickwella police said they had taken into custody on suspicion an individual who had sent an SMS under the name of Minister Dullas Alahaperuma, to a PS Council member inviting him for a New Year gettogether.

Impeached Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayke who appeared before the Bribery Commission issued a lengthy statement denying the charges levelled against her. Sources close to Dr. Bandaranayake said she gave a detailed explanation on how she obtained...

The Military said the country would showcase its military might at today’s National Victory Parade to mark the fourth anniversary of the end of the Eelam War against the LTTE. The parade will consist of some 550 officers and 6600 soldiers of the Army,...

Five University Colleges will be set up in the country to train the youth in Information Technology and other technology sectors that are not available in the national university system to train the youth for the local and global job markets, Skills...

The China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) was awarded a US 229.5 million dollar contract for a massive water project funded by China to supply water to the Gampaha District. It is a 100 per cent Chinese funded project and funds are by way of a...

The scheduled one day general strike on Tuesday by the combined opposition demanding the withdrawal of the power tariff increase, received a further boost yesterday with the left alliance partners of the UPFA government also pledging their support to...

The main opposition UNP yesterday said it had rejected a request made by Velayutham Dayanithi alias Daya Master and his supporters to contest the Northern Provincial Council election on the UNP ticket.

The United National Party (UNP) yesterday charged there was a large scandal behind the stoppage of work at the Sapugaskanda refinery. UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake told a news conference that the work of the refinery had been stopped to enable the placing...

An infant succumbed to its injuries when a fire started inside the room he was sleeping in on Thursday night. The unfortunate incident was reported in the Muhunuwatawana area of Madampe. The victim was identified as Sameera Dias. Police said the fire...

The vice chairman of the Laggala- Wilgamuwa Pradeshiya Sabha was arrested by the Wilgamuwa police for allegedly entering the house of a widow and attempting to sexually abuse her. The wife of a deceased soldier had been living in Naminigama Wilgamuwa,...

The UNP said yesterday it would implement a Social Market Economy system aiming to devolve the economic power of the people. “The present neo liberalist economic policies only allow less than 1 per cent of the people to enjoy the economy. We have...

A soldier was killed and 18 others injured when the lorry they were travelling in toppled near the Settikulam Railway Station on the Vavuniya-Settikulam main road yesterday morning. The lorry was heading for Madhu at the time of the incident and the...

The Ceylon Teachers Union yesterday said they had not yet decided about their participation at the massive protests on May 21. The General Secretary of the Union, Joseph Stalin said the Union had discussions with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)...

Ha, ha, Ha, something that I am looking forward to see

A person who was wanted for more than 16 robberies in the Sapugaskanda area was arrested during a search operation. The Sapugaskanda police arrested him after they received a tip-off from the public about his whereabouts. He had managed to escape from...

A man who allegedly possessed a foreign made hand grenade was arrested by the Mirihana special operations unit during a raid carried out in the Batawala area of Hanwella. The 33-year-old suspect was arrested after the unit received a tip-off from the...

A 60-year-old farmer succumbed to his injuries when he was attacked by a wild elephant in the Sirisarawatta forest area of Saliyawewa. He was near his paddy field at the time of the incident. The victim was identified as Herath Banda Punchirala who...

Aren't they loosing what they have? Poor people Will smashing what they have, help to solve the problem??

Police arrested 17 persons who were wanted for a number of criminal activities in the Badulla district during a search operation which was carried

Two men on a motorbike snatch-

Why now?

Despite the Matara Lawyers’ Association deciding to boycott yesterday’s welcoming ceremony for new Chief Justice Mohan Peiris in the Matara Courts Complex, the association’s secretary Indika Gamachchi and several members were present at this event. At...

A pointed iron rod which was being used to knock on an iron plate to announce the change in school sessions had pierced the head of an year-9 student of the Digampatuna Junior School in Sigiriya yesterday. The year-9 student was standing close to the...

QUITO, A ring that smuggled immigrants from India and Sri Lanka into the United States through Ecuador has been broken up with the arrest of six people, Ecuadoran authorities said yesterday. Three Indians and two members of Ecuador's immigration...

The Peradeniya Students’ Union (PSU), the largest student union at the Pradeniya University yesterday charged some unidentified people claiming to be CID officials had threatened to kill the PSU president. Union spokesman Mahesh Prabashwara said PSU...

The United National Party (UNP) said yesterday it would engage in protests against the electricity tariff hike inside Parliament on Tuesday. Moneragala District UNP MP Ranjith Madduma Bandara told a news conference that the UNP had urged public...

Kandy High Court Judge Amendran Seneviratne reserved his order in the case where former Embekke Devale Basnayake Nilame Sudantha Rasika Punchi Bandara Sennayake had filed a petition seeking a revision in a case that was dismissed by the Kandy...

The Naula Regional Development Coordination Committee has turned down an environmental assessment report (EAR) with regard to the proposed hotel complex to be constructed in close vicinity of the ancient Naula Wemeddilla Tank by the secretary of a...

Government’s decision to deviate from its earlier plan of holding the Northern Provincial Council elections together with North Western and Central Provincial Council elections has aroused suspicion, UNP parliamentarian Karu Jayasuriya said...

There won’t be a bus strike on Monday, National Transport Board Chairman Roshan Gunaratna said yesterday. He said most private bus owners did not justify the abrupt and arbitrary strike planned by some bus operators. Mr. Gunaratne said police...

In a letter addressed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) led National Trade Union Centre (NTUC) complained that the Government was planning to use innocent people to sabotage Tuesday’s general strike. NTUC...

Land owners, whose lands were to be taken over by the government as these lands came under the area designated as the Dambulla Sacred Area, held a protest yesterday (17) asking that they be given alternative land by the government. They proceeded to...

Two persons who had been indicted and remanded for killing 29 people including former opposition leader of the North Central Provincial Council, Major General Janaka Perera using a suicide bomb, were further remanded till July 19 by the North Central...

The country’s oldest and pioneering electronic media institution - the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) which is reeling under the impact of heavy losses, has started fragmenting its regional services and leasing them out. The SLBC’s‘Ruhunu...

The JMO who had examined the skeletal remains that were found in an abandoned well in Kalutara had ruled that were not human but those of an animal. Police officials who launched investigations into the discovery of skeletal remains that were found in...

The visiting Canadian Commissioner of Official Languages, Graham Frazer, said that 80% of Sri Lankans who migrated to Canada were supportive of the language policy of the Government. “Each and every migrant who lives in Canada is more eloquent and...

Kandy High Court Judge Manilal Waidyatilleke sentenced and fined the two accused a total of rupees three hundred and fifty thousand (350,000/=) with suspended jail terms on charges of procurement, aiding and abetting for procurement of a woman for...

A dagoba of historical importance that was located in a forest in Thirukkovil in Ampara had been violated by treasure hunters, sources revealed. When police along with the secretary of the Akkaraipattu Sinhala Organisation reached the area after...

The bodies of two persons, a man and a woman, who were said to have died as a result of the floods that were experienced in the Nuwara-Eliya District, were recovered by the police yesterday. The woman, 40-year-old Kamaleswari of Dickoya, had allegedly...

A wild elephant that had fallen into a well meant for cultivation at the Hulannuge 13th Mile Post, coming under the Lahugala Wild Life Office had been rescued by the Wild Life Officers. Villagers and police officers of the area had been on hand to...

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian for the Wanni District, Sivasakthi Anandan, had been requested by the CID to present himself for an investigation to be held on Tuesday (21) at the CID Headquarters. MP Anandan said that although he had...

Early last morning custom officers of the bio-diversity unit at the BIA foiled an attempt by a Sri Lankan businessman to export 669 small live lobsters packed in eight cartons to Vietnam in contravention of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Ordinance...

A deer that had been the pet of soldiers in an army camp in Medirigiriya during the war years roams into the Wadigawewa village where the villagers feed it. The deer lost its soldier friends after the army camp was shut down. The deer, without any...

A young man who allegedly clubbed to death his ailing father was arrested by the Balangoda police. The victim, W.G.Dionoris (70) of Kumaragama in Balangoda had been a bedridden paralytic for a long time. On the night of the incident he had developed a...

Triplets delivered by two mothers at the De Soyza Hospital for Women recently that had been under intensive care were transferred to the ward yesterday. The triplets were delivered through Caesarian section. A spokesman for the hospital said the two...

A farmer of Puliyankulama in the Saliyawewa police area was trampled to death by a wild elephant that roamed into his chena in the early hours of last morning. Police said the farmer who was watching the chena from a hut on a tree had fallen down when...

Amid allegations of large-scale corruption, waste, mismanagement and price manipulation by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), we heard the blazing news that the European Union is probing alleged price fixing by the biggest oil companies in the...

A writer in a weekend newspaper of 12th May has very appropriately drawn the attention of the public to the slow but deliberate attempts at encroachment of the military on civilian life in Sri Lanka. It is a dangerous trend which can greatly strengthen...

The proposal to issue the NIC in Tamil and Sinhala should have been implemented many moons ago, but nevertheless should be of assistance to a large segment of people of all communities. A Tamil Officer functioning in any capacity will have occasions to...

Thangeswari Kadirgamar contested on the United Peoples Freedom Alliance ticket. They suffered ignominious defeat. Two Jaffna district MPs Selvarajah Gajendran and Ms. Padmini Sithamparanathan were denied nomination again. This was presumably due to...

While leaders of the ITAK have generally been on the defensive in reacting to questions concerning TNA structural unity some leaders from other parties purporting to retain the moral high ground on this issue have been very much on the offensive...

What some of these Diaspora elements have been trying to do in the past has been to prop up the “Thamil Thesiya Makkal Munnani”(Tamil National Peoples Front) as the premier representative organisation of the Sri Lankan Tamil people. The Sri Lankan...

Sangaree soon fell foul of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in trying to assert and uphold the independence and dignity of the TULF. This led to the LTTE pressurising the TULF to remove their president from office and deprive him of his MP...

An interesting feature of post - 2010 election Tamil politics was increasing pressure on the TNA to both enlarge its membership and concretise its structural unity. Parallel to this pressure was the renaissance and assertion of the ITAK while remaining...

The TNA too has had a chequered past in this respect. When it came into being in 2001 the TNA had four constituent members. The press communique issued on October 22nd 2001 heralding the formation of the Tamil National Alliance was signed by four...

Thus it could be seen that there is a convergence of interests between some internal components of the TNA and some external elements in downsizing the ITAK. The redeeming feature for the Thamil Arasu Katchi in this gloomy scenario is the fact that...

Apart from the fact that elections to the Northern council are by no means a certainty there is also a legal hitch in registering the TNA as a political party right now. Apparently new election laws stand in the way of a new party being registered...

Though Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP) leader Douglas Devananda is fond of describing the 22 MP’s of TNA elected in 2004 as “Tiger Nominated Agents” it was not the whole truth. Eleven of the twenty-two were nominated as non party candidates by...

These developments in turn are paving the way for an effective counter strike by the ITAK. It appears that the ITAK would be able to consolidate its position within the TNA and withstand the internal and external political assaults. How and why this...

The percentage of global investment that goes to developing countries should triple in the next two decades as emerging economies catch up to richer nations and become more integrated into financial markets, the World Bank predicted in a report on...

Troubled Bangladesh’s economy is forecast to have grown at a four-year low of 6.03 percent in the fiscal year to June, more than a percentage point below the government target, officials said yesterday. Analysts have said that a crisis in the...

The European Central Bank (ECB) could use its new supervisory role from next year to single out weak banks and make it harder for them to get its financial support, people familiar with the matter say. Such a hardening of approach would keep ECB...

Apple on Thursday announced that the number of mini-programmes downloaded from its App Store has blasted past the 50 billion milestone and celebrated the moment with a US $ 10,000 prize. The California-based maker of iPads, iPhones, iPods and...

World number two truck maker Volvo said yesterday shipments of its trucks eased 2 percent year-onyear in April as booming business in South America took most of the sting out of moderating declines in Europe and the United States. Including joint...

“We made progress in building our enterprise solutions capabilities in the first quarter and are confident in our strategy to be the leading provider of end-to-end scalable solutions,” said chief financial officer Brian Gladden. “In addition, we have...

“Now that the summer has arrived, we going to increase our flights from the Gulf as many Syrians want to come home for the holidays despite the situation.” But it is SyrianAir’s internal flights that have seen the biggest surge in demand as travellers...

HSBCSL’s National LongTerm Rating is at the highest end of the National Rating scale. A downgrade of HSBCSL rating could result from HKSB’s rating falling below Sri Lanka’s IDR. Any changes to Fitch’s expectation of support from HKSB could also be...