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News Archive for Oct 2020
Anjalika Silva
With a Sri Lankan American population in the United States now lingering between the third and fourth generation, the time has come to face one of the most decisive elections experienced by native and naturalized citizens with voting rights in the USA. The choices are easy and plain to those who follow the facts and closely examine priorities for the country and its people. Above all, we have a responsibility to uphold higher values than what we have experienced in the last four years. It is imperative to pick the right reasons for making choices because... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
KAMALIKA PIERIS
China kept mum during the time of the general election of 2020. But soon after, China moved quickly to re-affirm friendly relations. The first high-powered Chinese business delegation to Sri Lanka to arrive was a 15-member business delegation from Mianyang, to sign agreements with Sri Lanka’s Confederation of Micro, Small and Medium Industries (COSMI). They came in December 2019. Two landmark agreements were signed. A Cooperation Framework Agreement between COSMI and China Mianyang Enterprise Union for Import and Export, and a Strategic Cooperation Agreement between COSMI and Sichuan Yiyang Xuanyu Trading Co. Ltd were signed. The visiting... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Daily FT
PM Modi was wrong to reiterate his call for the 13th Amendment’s implementation – especially when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had already articulated his position on the matter. In the past, this has been a bait for the Tamils in the north and east to turn antagonistic to their own Government. This kind of interference on Sri Lanka’s internal affairs had not only led to the destruction of innocent lives, but had been catastrophic to India as well It is ironic that Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka’s... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
KAMALIKA PIERIS
After a long march, a great leap, a cultural revolution and ‘Tiananmen Square’, China is today emerging as the most powerful country in the world. China is the world’s first Communist state with a capitalist economy. China has managed to stay Communist while engaging in free market enterprise. This is considered unique and not to be replicated anywhere else. No other country plans to imitate China. At the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017, the Party declared that its philosophy is based on Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong thought, Deng Xiaoping theory... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගත තත්ත්වය හමුවේ රටට හා රටවැසියාට සෙත්පතා දිවයිනේ සෑම විහාරස්ථානයකම රතන සූත්‍රය සඡ්ඡායනා කරන ලෙස ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමන් මහා සංඝරත්නයෙන් ගෞරවයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියි. කොවිඩ් - 19 වසංගතය හේතුවෙන් මේ වන විට ශ්රී ලංකාව පමණක් නොව මුළු මහත් ලෝකයම දැඩි අර්බුදකාරී අවස්ථාවකට මුහුණ දී තිබේ. එවන් පසුබිමක් තුළ කොරෝනා වෛරසයෙන් සියලු ලෝකවාසී ජනතාව ආරක්ෂා වේවායි සෙත් ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරමින්, දිවයිනේ වෙහෙර විහාරස්ථාන රැසක් කේන්ද්‍ර කර ගනිමින් මේ වන විටත් රතන සූත්‍රය සඡ්ඡායනා කිරීම සිදු වෙයි. මෙම අර්බුදකාරී තත්ත්වය හමුවේ දිවයිනේ සියලුම විහාරස්ථානවල සෑම දිනකම රතන සූත්‍ර සඡ්ඡායනා කරමින්... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
By A. Abdul Aziz, Press Secretary.
In France, the recent attack in Nice and following on from the murder of Samuel Paty on 16 October, the World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad has condemned all forms of terrorism and extremism and called for mutual understanding and dialogue between all peoples and nations. His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad states: “The murder and beheading of Samuel Paty and the attack in Nice earlier today (29 October) must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Such grievous attacks are completely against the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
Courtesy BBC
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a second national lockdown for England to prevent a "medical and moral disaster" for the NHS. He said Christmas may be "very different" but he hoped taking action now would mean families can gather. Non-essential shops and hospitality will have to close for four weeks on Thursday, he said. But unlike the restrictions in spring, schools, colleges and universities can stay open. After 2 December, the restrictions would be eased and regions would go back to the tiered system, he said. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
By Asiff Hussein/Roar.lk Courtesy NewsIn.Asia
Names reflect beliefs and attitudes and give an insight into the manifold influences a people have been subjected to in the past, says Asiff Hussein, in his article in Roar.lk. Little do we realise that names are the foundation of all knowledge. Naming people and things makes it easier for us to make sense of our world. In the Muslim creation story, for example, we are told how God taught Adam the names of all things, thus giving him knowledge of matters even the angels could not fathom.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
More COVID-19 positive cases have been identified raising the total number of cases reported from the Minuwangoda and Peliyagoda clusters to 7,185. As per Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, 102 more cases have been detected. Reportedly, 21 among the latest cases are identified from the quarantine centers. The remaining 81 are close contacts of the Peliyagoda Fish Market cluster, the Department of Government Information confirmed. Thereby, a total of 239 new cases have been detected within the day so far. Yesterday a total of 633... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Following is a statement issued by the State Minister of Money & Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal on 30th October 2020 With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, all countries including Sri Lanka, observed a contraction in economic activity, reduction in foreign exchange earnings, decrease in revenue collection, and increase in health and welfare related expenditure. However, the prompt and measured policy support provided by the Government and the Central Bank enabled Sri Lanka to contain the unfavourable effects of Covid-19 to a great extent, and return the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The police have traced 454 individuals in total who had left the Western Province on the 29th of October, before quarantine curfew came into effect. They have been placed under self-isolation at the establishments they are currently staying at, the Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana said. https://youtu.be/-6Y6DPxVl60 Addressing a special media briefing held this evening (31), he said these persons were found while holidaying at tourist hotels in Bandarawela, Batticaloa, Ampara, Jaffna, Tangalle and Nuwara Eliya areas. Further search operations to trace people who left the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
The unfortunate news of a young special needs boy committing suicide after his mother was admitted to the hospital by public health inspectors due to symptoms related to the coronavirus was reported from the Dolahena, Homagama. https://youtu.be/68PAcpT7PzI The infected woman had bought fish from a fish market in Maharagama and was admitted to the Kalubowila Teaching Hospital yesterday (30) due to her coronavirus symptoms. She lives alone at home with her 25-year-old son with special needs. The residents of the area stated that the son who was... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Health Minster Pavithra Wanniarachchi, states that her Ministry has received the research report on the new coronavirus strain. https://youtu.be/ElRvNXIcZyM A special statement was made at the Ministry of Health today (31) regarding the relevant research report. The Minister of Health stated that the research conducted by the team led by Professor Neelika Malavige, Director of the Dengue Research Unit of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura on the instructions of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has revealed that there is only one variety of the Covid 19 virus in... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS
When it talks about investment nobody can ignore the views of Schumpeter, who is regarded as a classical economist that investment is built upon on the level of returns that an investor gains and expected, which is based on the cost of investment plus the risk that could be tolerated by an entrepreneur. Investors are compensated by the return from the investment. Beyond the classical era, the attraction of investment to a country has been generally dependent on the return from the investment. Mr. Mike Pompeo indirectly confirmed the view of Schumpeter at the interview... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D.
රාජ්‍ය සේවා එක්සත් හෙද සංගමයේ සභාපති මුරුත්තෙට්ටුවේ ආනන්ද හාමුදුරුවන් සමඟ ඔක්තෝබර් 30 දින, ට්‍ර‌ැත් විත් චමුදිත විසින් කල සාකච්චාව බැලූ පසු මෙම ලිපිය ලිවීමට සිතුනි. ඊට හේතුව ඒ නිසා මට මා විසින් මාදුළුවාවේ සෝභිත හිමියන්ට යැවූ <අවවාදාත්‌මක> සංදේශයක් මතක් වීම නිසාය. මගේ බිරිඳගේ සහෝදරයා සෝභිත හිමියන්ගේ කිට්ටුම හිතවතෙකු විය. මේ නිසා 2012 දී ලංකාවට ගිය විට මම උන්වහන්සේව දේශපාලනය උඩ මුණගැසීමටද ගියෙමි. මේ සමඟ ලින්ක් කර ඇති ලිපිය .(www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2013/04/09/ven-maduluwave-sobitha-and-his-christian-marxist-friends/) හාමුදුරුවන්ට යැව්වේ ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපති මිචෙල් සිසන්, අටපිරිකර සමඟ නාගවිහාරයට යෑමට පෙරද පසුවද කියා මට මතක නැත. නමුත් එම ලිපියේ අවධාරණය කල කාරණය වූයේ වැරදි වලින්... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
“Sri Lanka Study Circle”
‘We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield And Mahinda we call to lead the field’ -With apologies to Tennyson https://youtu.be/Yoo20wBtw1U... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
Senaka Weeraratna
The underlying basic premise of the Animal Rights movement is the regard for the sanctity of life. Sanctity of life of all living beings. This is highly regarded in Buddhism. Buddhism and Jainism (both Dharmic religions) see kinship with animals in the Sansaric journey. One American Buddhist writer ( Norman Phelps) in his book ' The Great Compassion - Buddhism and Animal Rights' said as follows: "Buddhism ought to be an animal rights religion par excellence. It has long held that all life forms... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was never scheduled to meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the latter’s visit to Sri Lanka, officials said on Friday. “There has been much speculation about PM
PresRajapaksa not meeting
SecPompeo.To set the record straight: SriLanka PM was never scheduled to meet Mr. Pompeo. Given Sec. Pompeo's short visit, meeting with one member of the senior lka leadership was deemed sufficient,” Director General (International Affairs) of the Prime Minister’s Office Anuradha Herath tweeted.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Multiple scenarios have emerged in the hunt for patient zero linked to the Minuwangoda and Peliyagoda coronavirus clusters. Head of the National Operations Centre for the Prevention of COVID-19 (NOCPC), Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva said that 80 percent of the investigations to find patient zero was now complete. He said that the investigators are looking into at least six possible scenarios and once the probe is over the results will be made public. Of the six possibilities, one is the possibility... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Sri Lanka Police today (30) received information regarding a wedding ceremony organized at a star-hotel in Kollupitiya police division, Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana says. The police officers who visited the reception hall have observed that the ceremony was taking place in violation of quarantine regulations. https://youtu.be/C1G0oe63kRU Nearly 35 guests had attended the wedding ceremony in question, DIG Rohana revealed. A team of police officers subsequently launched an investigation into the incident, he said, adding that legal action will be sought against the hotel management, the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Sri Lanka Police have mounted a special operation to trace those who had stepped out of the Western Province yesterday disregarding the request made by the authorities. Legal action will be taken against such persons under the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance, Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana warned. He added that reports regarding persons who had avoided police checkpoints to leave the Western Province to lodge at tourist hotels in other provinces have been received. “We had informed those residing in the Western Province yesterday not to leave the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 31/10/20)
By Garvin Karunaratne, former G.A. Matara
It was a great sight to see Paper roll out of Valachenai once again. Thanks to our President and his team, including Minister Weerawamsa, officials of he Paper Mill and the Armed Forces that contributed to Mother Lanka to bring back Valachenai to life. Two years ago I had spent a few cosy nights at Bay Vista in Arugam Bay and on my way to Laya Waves, Pasikuda, I ventured out to see what was left of the Valachenai Paper Mill, one of my favourite haunts on... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 30/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has assented the draft bill of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution today (29). Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardane has put his signature validating the 20th Amendment to the Constitution which was passed in Parliament with 2/3 majority on October 22nd, the Parliament’s Department of Communication said. The Speaker signed the blueprint of the constitutional amendment at around 11.30 am this morning, the Secretary General of Parliament Dhammika Dasanayake said. The Deputy Secretary General and the Chief of Staff Neil Iddawala were also present during... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 30/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Western Province Health Services Office has introduced a new application designed for the benefit of those who are in the medical sector and combatting COVID–19, the President’s Media Division said. The new app will be instrumental in providing a wealth of vital data, including information on COVID infected, their close associates, quarantine, PCR testing services, observations, decision making and areas closest to the infected. The app was introduced by a team led by Western Province Health Services Director Ms. Dhammika Jayalath on Thursday (29) during the meeting of the Task Force... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 30/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Attorney General Dappula de Livera has given instructions to transfer the probes into the Brandix apparel factory from the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) and to a special investigating team from other units. Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) C.D. Wickramaratne was directed to take the relevant measures in this regard. The coordinating officer of the Attorney General, State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne said the directives came after it was revealed that certain CCD officers were tested positive for Covid-19. On Tuesday (27), the Attorney General directed the Acting IGP to investigate... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 30/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
There are reports that some who had organized excursions and pilgrimages were planning to leave the Western Province before the curfew is imposed tonight (29), stated Police Media Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana. Speaking to media, he said that only a limited number of individuals will be allowed to enter or exit the boundaries of the Western Province. https://youtu.be/nM156QluQos He added: “No persons who are not involved in essential services will have the opportunity to cross these boundaries. The same will apply for the expressway. In addition, roadblocks have... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 30/10/20)
We have a team of 4 led by US who are going around Asia trying to build alliances against China and signing defense pacts with each other, conducting naval exercises and even chiding China for being undemocratic, calling China a predator and a violator of human rights & the list of insults goes on. If all that is true, why do these nations have China as their largest trading partner? While China trades with them and calls it exercising mutual goals & objectives, the Quad nations while going to China to forge trade ties and deals have no hesitation in... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 29/10/20)
How much is China more of a threat to India than US, will be a question India must continue to ask, as it rushes to sign agreements with US. Whether India will become ornamental allies like Montenegro & North Macedonia is yet to be seen. Who would have thought that India leaning Soviet Union and US aligned to Pakistan would end up allies in 2020? Let’s also not forget that both India’s Nehru and China’s Mao Zedong in 1954 shard anti-US sentiments. China has come far but can India match the strides China has taken? China has lifted 800million from... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 29/10/20)
By Raj Gonsalkorale
The test of the success of this title registration system (Bim Saviya) has to be judged by what has been achieved since the time the Act was introduced in 1998. Implementation began in 2007. Information available to date says so far only 0.72 million blocks have been registered in the Bim Saviya Register out of 12 Million blocks of land. This registration is less than 5% of the total number of blocks identified. It has taken 12 years to achieve this. How long will it take to complete it? Much has been written... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 29/10/20)
by Senior Lawyer - Sri Lanka Study Circle
[I refer to the article appearing in the Daily FT on the 22nd titled ‘ History repeating – Are we going to lose MCC or not by an international development expert-- ] It is understandable if a non-lawyer does not understand the Legal Packages included in the MCC to change the land policy of the country and to change the land law of the country to the Australian law to suit the expansion of large-scale industrial farming complex The Australian law is known as the ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 29/10/20)
Dr.Chula Rajapakse MNZM Wellington NZ
Dear Editor, The visit from Secretary off State Pompeo and his tone and manner provided a refreshing contrast to the US sponsoring of the infamous UNHCR resolution or British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Antics at the CHOGM in 2013. On both of these occasions , the players were singing off the song sheets of he Tigers. No longer are the Tigers calling the shots. If that is not an achievement , what is. Let the Foreign Ministry and their ambassadors and High Commissioners ensure that it stays that... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 29/10/20)
සමස්ත ලංකා ප්රවාහන සේවක සංගමය.
2020.10.28 ගරු ජනාධිපති, ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා, ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය, කොළඹ 01. ගරු ජනපතිතුමනි, ශ්රී ලංගමය ශක්තිමත් කිරීමට, සේවක අයිතීන් සුරක්ෂිත කිරීමට 2021 අයවැය ලේඛනය තුළින් ප්රවාහන අමාත්‍යාංශය යටතේම ශ්රී ලංගමයට පුනරාවර්ථන වියදම් හා ප‍්‍රාග්ධන වියදම් සඳහා රුපියල් මිලියන 22 000 ක මූල්‍ය ප්රතිපාදන ලබාදීමට කඩිනමින් මැදිහත් වන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටීම. ශ්රී ලංගම සේවකයින්ගේ අයිතීන් සුරක්ෂිත කිරීමටත්, මහජනතාවට විධිමත් ප්රවාහන සේවයක් ලබාදීමටත් ශ්රී ලංගම ය ශක්තිමත් කිරිමටත් 2021 වසර සඳහා ප්රවාහන අමාත්‍යාංශය යටතේම ශ්රී ලංගමයට රුපියල් මිලියන 22,000 ක මූල්‍ය ප්රතිපාදන ලබාදීමට අවශ්‍ය පියවර කඩිනමින් ගන්නා ලෙස පළමුව අප සංගමය... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 29/10/20)
By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Express
The Lankan President told US Secretary of State Pompeo that he cannot compromise the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka for the sake of foreign relations whatever the circumstances. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Ambassador Alaina Tiplitz Colombo, October 28: The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, aggressively pushed the Trump Administration’s anti-China agenda in his talks with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena here on Wednesday. But the Sri Lankan leaders refused to fall in line... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 29/10/20)
by Dhairya Maheshwari Courtesy Sputnik
In the run-up to Mike Pompeo’s Sri Lankan visit, the US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Dean Thompson asked Colombo “to make difficult but necessary decisions,” referring to cutting reliance on Chinese investment. However, America's hopes were dashed on Wednesday as Sri Lankan foreign minister told Pompeo that Colombo will stay "neutral". The US lacks the political will to invest in big-ticket infrastructure projects in the South Asian region to compete with China, Professor Sumit Ganguly, a South Asian expert and the Rabindranath Tagore Professor at US' Indiana University, tells Sputnik. "The... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 29/10/20)
Courtesy The Straits Times
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan yesterday visited Colombo's St Anthony's church, which was among the sites of last year's militant suicide attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE COLOMBO • US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called China's communist government a "predator" yesterday, during a trip to boost ties with Sri Lanka, which has received huge investment and diplomatic support from Beijing. He made his latest attack on China after talks with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on security cooperation to keep open... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 29/10/20)
By Yang Sheng Source: Global Times
Aerial photo taken on Sept. 23, 2020 shows a view of the construction site of the Colombo Port City in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo:Xinhua US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Sri Lanka to pressure the South Asian country to stand with the US in containing China, but China has expressed strong confidence in its ties with Sri Lanka on Wednesday. A Chinese expert said the US has underestimated the interests that other countries can get from the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.Chinese Foreign... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 29/10/20)
Courtesy USGOV
QUESTION: Thank you for your time here with us in Colombo, Secretary Pompeo. Your visit here is termed crucial. It’s seen as a rare one and peculiar given the timing of the visit. What’s so important that you had to communicate at this juncture? SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, thanks for giving me a chance to be with you. I appreciate it. It’s been wonderful to be here in Colombo. Look, the – I’m in this region a lot. I had planned to come here earlier. The world got away and I had to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 29/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stressed at the meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he was not ready to compromise the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation in maintaining foreign relations whatever the circumstances may be, a press release from his office said. The press release said the President noted that China assisted in the development of the country’s infrastructure since the end of the separatist war. The President reiterated that Sri Lanka not caught in a debt trap as a result. According to the press release,... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 28/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
In an exclusive interview with Ada Derana, US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo says that the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement is one of many opportunities offered by the United States, and that it is ultimately up to Sri Lanka to choose whether to accept it. He made these remarks while speaking to ‘
HydePark’ with Indeerwari Amuwatte on Ada Derana 24, during his two-day visit to Sri Lanka. Secretary Pompeo held bilateral talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena during the visit. He stated that... -Full Story-
(LankaWeb - 28/10/20)
It is not every day that the US Secretary of State receives letters from unknown, undisclosed and unheard of countries and people calling themselves “Prime Minister “while living in the US, working in the US and claiming he is head of a utopian country while in the US. Maybe the US Secretary of State should fire a call & ask his staff to find out where the hell this so-called country is located. This must be a first time a Prime Minister of some utopian country is begging a Secretary for intervention. What Mike Pompeo may like in... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 28/10/20)
Charles S.Perera
Last time we had a US Secretary of State was John Kerry, who came to rejoice the change of regime in Sri Lanka to which the USA had generously distributed 485 million dollars among Sri Lanka, Burma and Nigeria to re establish democracy. It is no secret that there was also a presence of Secret Service Personnel from the USA, UK and India during the 2015 Presidential election in Sri Lanka working behind the scenes to make a success of USA efforts of putting developing countries into political peril by its strategic regime change... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 28/10/20)
By Tom Fowdy, a British writer and analyst of politics and international relations with a primary focus on East Asia. Courtesy RT
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrive for their joint news conference at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India, February 25, 2020 © REUTERS / Adnan Abidi Having signed a new military agreement with the US, Indian PM Narendra Modi is moving ever closer to the west and further away from Beijing. But his bid to position India as a rival superpower to China will be hard to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 28/10/20)
A communique issued by the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka
With the identification of the first local case of COVID-19 on 11th March 2020, Sri Lanka responded urgently and aggressively via a multitude of health and non-health sector measures to control its spread. Sri Lanka being a middle-income country was commended for its timely and pro-active “whole-of-government and whole-of-society” epidemic response. However, COVID-19 epidemic is dynamic, demanding the control strategies to be responsive to its dynamic nature. While continuing the key control measures such as, tracing, testing detecting, isolating and... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 28/10/20)
ALI SUKHANVER
A very successful way to entrap dangerous rather very intelligent criminals is the Sting Operation. Not only in the Asian countries but everywhere all over the world the tool of Sting Operation has always been frequently used. Even in Israel and USA the law enforcement agencies take support of the Sting Operations. In most of the countries Sting Operations are considered a legal action against the criminals but there are a few countries like Sweden and France where sting operations are not permitted. According to a definition, “A sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 28/10/20)
Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1
October 27, 2020The EditorTHE OTTAWA CITIZEN Dear Editor: You asked a very simple question, Can a Tamil Tiger Change his Stripes? This is about Suresh Sriskandaraja, "Waterloo Suresh", a smart Tamil Tiger, an extremely intelligent Tamil Tiger, a clever Tamil Tiger, who almost hoodwinked the American and Canadian Intelligence, but was charged in the FBI probe and arrested in New York after a meeting to buy anti-aircraft missiles and other military weapons, and also researching and acquiring communications, aviation and warship-design software, to win a separatist war to create... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 28/10/20)
Press Release
ග්‍රාමීය ආර්ථිකය නගාසිටුවීමේ ජාතික වැඩපිළිවෙළට සමගාමීව ඌව පළාතේ බදුල්ල සහ මොණරාගල දිස්ත්‍රික්ක වලට අයත් ග්‍රාමීය ආර්ථික නගා සිටුවීම පිළිබඳව විශේෂ සාකච්ඡාවක් ඌව පළාත් ගරු ආණ්ඩුකාරවර ඒ.ජේ.එම්. මුසම්මිල් මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් (27) ඌව පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාරවර කර්යලයේදී පවත්වන ලදි. මෙහිදී ජනාධිපති කාර්ය සාධක බලකායේ සභාපති බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අරලිය ගහ මන්දිරයේ පැවැති ග්‍රාමීය ආර්ථිකය නගා සිටුවීමේ ජාතික වැඩපිළිවෙළේ පිහිටුවන ලද කමිටු හතරම ක්‍රියාත්මක වන ආකාරය පිළිබඳව පැහැදිලි කෙරිණි. එමෙන්ම ග්‍රාමීය ආර්ථිකය නඟාසිටුවීමට අවශ්‍ය වන මූලික ක්‍රමවේද පිළිබඳව දීර්ඝව සාකච්ඡාවට බදුන් විය. එම අවස්ථාවට බදුල්ල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ සම්බන්ධීකරණ කමිටු සභාපති පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී සුදර්ශන දෙනිපිටිය මහතා, ප්‍රධාන ලේකම්, ආණ්ඩුකාර ලේකම්,... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 28/10/20)
Courtesy Sputnik
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will leave for Sri Lanka on a two-day visit starting Tuesday, after he concludes a 2+2 Dialogue with India. From Colombo, Pompeo will be travelling to the Maldives and Indonesia to further America’s Indo-Pacific strategy. Sri Lankans haven't taken kindly to the Trump administration’s advice that Colombo must pick between the US and China, with many social media users rejecting any foreign interference in the nation's domestic affairs. Foreign policy observers have also reckoned that there is “not a chance that Pompeo can make Sri Lanka... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 28/10/20)
Keegan Elmer in Beijing Courtesy The South China Morning Post
Secretary of State is visiting at a time when Covid-19 cases are surging, prompting fiery statement from Chinese diplomatsUS is accused of sending a ‘huge’ delegation to prepare for the visit and even demanding that new roads be built Health workers carry out coronavirus tests at a bus terminal in Colombo. Photo: EPA-EFE China’s envoy in Colombo has accused the US of “importing risk” to a nation battling the coronavirus ahead of a visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
By Li Qingqing Source: Global Times
Aerial photo taken on Sept. 23, 2020 shows a view of the construction site of the Colombo Port City in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo:Xinhua The Diplomat on Tuesday published an article titled "Sri Lanka will soon have to pick a side in the China-US rivalry." The article mentioned the mounting US pressure on Sri Lanka in terms of human rights and investment. "Sri Lanka is a weak country without any assurance of protection from major powers; it has no defense treaty with any country," the article said. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
Pranay Sharma in New Delhi Courtesy The South China Morning Post
Burst of diplomatic activities on island, including US secretary of state’s visit, seen as attempt by US, India and Japan to counter ChinaPompeo is expected to discuss proposed – and controversial – economic and military pacts with Sri Lanka. Demonstrators outside the US embassy in Colombo on Tuesday expressed their displeasure with the visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Photo: EPA-EFEUS Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo’s visit to Sri Lanka on Tuesday and Wednesday comes at a time when key powers in... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
China Daily editorial
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who began a trip on Sunday that takes him to India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia, said that he will work with each of the four countries to find the best ways they can cooperate to preserve "a free and open Indo-Pacific". At the same time he said that his talks with these countries would include discussions on how they can work together to thwart what he claimed were the threats posed by China. His remarks are contradictory. If his mission is meant to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
UPDATE (10.15 PM): The Department of Government Information says Moratuwa, Homagama, Panadura North and Panadura South police jurisdictions will be under curfew with immediate effect. Quarantine curfew has been imposed in more police jurisdictions of Colombo and Kalutara districts with immediate effect, says the Commander of Army, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva. https://youtu.be/5CR9FKESmvA Thereby, Panadura Moratuwa and Homagama police areas will be under curfew until further notice. Quarantine curfew is currently effective in 64 other police jurisdictions in the country: 37 in Gampaha District, 15 in the Colombo city, 05 in Kuliyapitiya area, 04... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Department of Government Information confirms that 164 more persons linked to the Minuwangoda-Peliyagoda cluster have tested positive for Covid-19 in Sri Lanka today (27). https://youtu.be/YuikGjHM4ew According to reports, 156 of them are contacts of coronavirus positive cases found from the Peliyagoda Fish Market. The remaining 08 have been identified from quarantine centres. Thereby, the total number of Covid-19 infections registered by the Minuwangoda-Peliyagoda cluster reached 5,396. Sri Lanka has reported 457 positive cases so far within the day, the state information bureau said.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Attorney General has directed the Acting IGP to investigate the spread of COVID-19 from the Brandix apparel factory in Minuwangoda. He has also instructed the police to submit a progress report on the investigations within two weeks. Coordinating Officer to the AG, State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne stated that the Attorney General’s attention was drawn towards the dangerous condition facing human lives due to the Brandix Covid-19 cluster and that today he held a discussion with the DIG (Legal Division) Ajith Rohana and gave relevant instructions. The Attorney General Instructed... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Ministry of Health confirms that two more Covid-19 related deaths have been reported in the country today (27), bringing the death toll from the virus in Sri Lanka to 19. https://youtu.be/4jDE0meCwYY A 19-year-old youth and an 87-year-old woman had passed away by the time they were both admitted to the Colombo National Hospital, the Secretary to the Health Ministry has announced. The Judicial Medical Officer subsequently conducted PCR tests on the deceased and the test results have confirmed that they were infected with novel coronavirus, he has... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Ministry of Health is currently looking into admitting asymptomatic COVID-19 patients into specialized centers instead of hospitalization, stated Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Sudath Samaraweera. Dr. Samaraweera stated that it has been planned to use quarantine centers for this purpose. Speaking further, he said, “The patients identified through self-quarantine will be admitted to a treatment center. In the future, we plan to keep the patients who do not show any outward symptoms in a non-hospital observation center and take necessary action. Our objective is to properly manage all the patients, to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
This is a right of reply to an article appearing on Daily FT titled “History repeating – Are we going to lose MCC or not?” by an anonymous international development expert on 22 October 2020. It would be nice for this so-called international development expert with 25 year’s experience to reveal his name if he claims to have contributed to Sri Lanka’s ‘development’ over a quarter of a decade. It is no surprise Sri Lanka is in a sorry mess economically with such experts promoting the advantages for the ‘other side’ and not considering what Sri Lanka is to gain... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
Mike Pompeo is arriving amidst a sudden & unexpected covid surge in Sri Lanka and coming from two of the worst covid-hit countries. He is arriving to fulfil objectives of 2 designations. He is the Chair of the Board of Directors of MCC as well as the US Secretary of State.He most certainly is not arriving to shake hands with Sri Lanka’s President & congratulate him on passing the 20amendment or shake hands with Sri Lanka’s Army Commander whom he has designated ‘war criminal’. He does not even wish to meet the Prime Minister. What will his demands be, how nicely will... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
By Garvin Karunaratne, PhD. Michigan State University
The Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact has come up with an easy, novel method of poverty alleviation. It requires the identification and separation of a mass of land, the creation of “a cadastral map of land parcels and a complete inventory of State land...improve the valuation of State and private land parcels by improving data collection…improving deeds registry… and research in support of measures to improve land administration policies"(The Island:15/7/2019) The aim is also” increase tenure security and tradability of land for small holders. The method involves a "transportation project... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 27/10/20)
RANJITH SOYSA
Sri Lanka is getting ready to welcome and meet Mike Pompeo to discuss issues which are important to both countries and to reiterate their commitment to democracy and long friendship. Sri Lanka which is following a non-aligned foreign policy should strive to uphold the spirit of neutrality as a small country located in a geo-politically important and a sensitive area. It is a well known fact that there are competing international forces attempting to establish their dictates in the Indian Ocean region to achieve their global agenda. Sri Lanka is not interested in being a part... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
Chandre Dharmawardana.
Please listen to an interview of Dr. Mendis ((https://youtu.be/Lh4D4qGE854) which touches on US policy and Sri Lanka, and hear between the words. See how a Sri Lankan young man straight out of a Pollonaruwa school system gets educated in the US via a scholarship to becomes a complete supporter of the “American Manifest Destiny” that he teaches to US soldiers. US policies to lead the world has only helped to enrich the elite classes of the US and impoverish the rest. But Dr. Mendis is very comfortable with US policy. It is unlikely that Dr.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
KAMALIKA PIERIS
India and Sri Lanka signed an FTA in 1998, it was done very fast. Discussion started in August 1998and the FTA signed in November 1998 with just 4 consultations. The FTA became effective in 2000, but only the criteria were laid down not the procedures, observed critics. A Joint Study Group (JSG) was set up in April, 2003 to expand the FTA to go beyond goods and include services. The JSG report was ready in October, 2003 CEPA negotiations were started in February, 2005 and concluded in July 2008 after thirteen rounds of... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
KAMALIKA PIERIS
Sri Lanka is important to India, because of its location and India is determined to bring Sri Lanka under its control. India set up consulates in Hambantota and Jaffna in 2010. India has a long-standing consulate in Kandy. Critics wanted to know why does India want consulates in Jaffna and Hambantota. Consulates are established to look after nationals. India wants a consulate in Jaffna, mainly to station some RAW official there to monitor what is going on and to foment trouble in Jaffna to create another insurgency like last time, said one critic. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
By ASOKA BANDARAGE
Small states are leading the fight to make the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty legally binding A survivor walks through the ruins of atomic-bombed Hiroshima in August 1945. Photo: AFP Of all the weapons created throughout human history, nuclear weapons are the most destructive and indiscriminate. They are capable of causing enormous devastation involving “uniquely persistent, spreading, genetically damaging radioactive fallout.” Whereas a single nuclear bomb detonated over a large city could kill millions of people, the deployment of tens or hundreds of them could disrupt the global climate, creating... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ස්විට්සර්ලන්ත තානාපති ඩොමිනික් ෆර්ග්ලර් මහතා හා ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අතර හමුවක් අද 2020.10.26 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවැත්විණි. ආයෝජන, අපනයන, සංචාරක සහ කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගතයට එරෙහිව සටන් කිරීම ඇතුළු දෙරට අතර සහයෝගීතාව වර්ධනය කරගත හැකි ක්ෂේත්‍ර ගණනාවක් පිළිබඳව මෙහිදී සාකච්ඡා විය. පැහැදිලි නීති පනවමින් හා ඒවා බලාත්මක කරමින් රජය කොවිඩ්-19 වයිරසයට ප්‍රතිචාර දක්වන ආකාරය පිළිබඳව තානාපතිවරයා මෙහිදී අගය කළේය. සෞඛ්‍ය මාර්ගෝපදේශයන් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම හා රට අගුලු දැමීම සියලු දෙනාටම ඉතා අසීරු කාරණාවක් වුව ද සමස්ත ජනතාව ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමට එය ඉවහල් වන බව අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
Prime Minister’s Media Unit
During a meeting with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa this morning in Colombo, the Ambassador (Apostolic Nuncio) of the Holy See Archbishop Brian Ngozi Udaigwe praised and expressed appreciation for the “wonderful cooperation between the State and the Catholic Church” in Sri Lanka. Prime Minister Rajapaksa fondly recalled his two visits to the Vatican in 2012 and 2014. It was during his last visit that he invited His Holiness Pope Francis to make a state visit to Sri Lanka, which Pope Francis accepted. The state visit took place the following year. The Archbishop... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
Prime Minister’s Media Unit
Calling on Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo this morning, Ambassador of Switzerland to Sri Lanka Dominik Furgler discussed a number of areas to further cooperation between the two countries, including investment, exports, tourism and fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ambassador commended the manner in which the Government is responding to the Coronavirus outbreak by “publishing clear rules and enforcing them.” Prime Minister Rajapaksa said that while lockdowns and health precautions can be difficult on everyone, sometimes it’s necessary to keep people safe. “I admire the way you... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන, වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන, පර්යේෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය
සම්බන්ධීකරණ කෙටි දුරකථන අංකය ලෙස 1966 හඳුන්වා දී තිබේ නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන, වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන, හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය සීතා අරඹේපොල මැතිනියගේ සංකල්පයක් අනුව තාක්ෂණ, පර්යේෂණ හා නවෝත්පාදන සම්බන්ධ සේවාවන් ජනතාවට සමීප කරවීමට මෙන්ම එම ක්ෂ්‍රේත්‍රයට අදාලව ජනතාවට ඇති ගැටඵ නිරාකරණය හා තාක්ෂණික මාර්ගෝපදේශ කඩිනමින් සැපයීම අරමුණු කරගත් සම්බන්ධීකරණ ඒකකයක් ලෙස නවෝත්පාදන සහය පියස සෑම සඳුදා දිනකම, සෙත්සිරිපාය දෙවන අදියරේ 6 වන මහලේ ඇති අමාත්‍යාංශ පරිශ්‍රයේ දි ක්‍රියාත්මක කෙරේ. ගරු අමාත්‍යතුමියගෙ මුලීකත්වයෙන් පසුගියදා මෙහි සේවා සම්බන්ධීකරණ කෙටි දුරකථන අංකය ලෙස 1966 හඳුන්වා දී ක්‍රියාත්මක විය. රට තුළ උදුගත වී... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
SUMANE LIYANAARACHCHI JP Sydney, Australia
Dual citizenship issue has become prominent in Sri Lankan politics. The Sri Lankan Government has taken extraordinary steps to allow dual citizens to serve their country without losing citizenship status of their adopted country. This is a forward and visionary step taken by the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government, considering its numerous benefits to this developing nation. Sri Lanka needs foreign experts for developing the country for the benefit of current and future generations. Many Sri Lankan expatriates have a high level of skills, knowledge and necessary linkages in vast technical areas, for... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
By Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy The Island
Ex-Chairman of National Thowheed Jamaath tells PCoI Muslims from all over the world donated to the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), a former chairman of the terrorist organisation, Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed Tawfiq Moulavi, who is currently in remand custody told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) investigating the Easter Sunday attacks on Saturday. “I don’t know much about the specifics. I don’t know who exactly donated to the NTJ account. But there is a ledger on the expenses. I maintained that with the NTJ Treasurer, a man named Mastakeen.”... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Non-admission of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients to hospitals for indoor treatment will be the option if the caseload increases exponentially, an official said yesterday. Dr Jayaruwan Bandara, who has been requested to work as the spokesman of the Health Ministry told Daily Mirror this in response to speculation about the government looking at such a possibility. He said more than 80 per cent of COVID-19 patients who are currently under treatment are asymptomatic. Sri Lanka now has well over 7,000 cases reported in the country. Nearly 4,000 of them have recovered.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
While accusing the US for the blatant violation of diplomatic protocols by way of interfering in Sri Lanka-China relations, the Chinese Embassy yesterday said that at a time Sri Lanka was facing the most severe challenge since the outbreak of COVID-19, the US had made various requests for the US State Secretary Mike Pompeo’s upcoming visit and even for an ‘emergent road construction’. “Currently, Sri Lanka is facing the most severe challenge since the outbreak of COVID-19, and the local health system can no longer bear any imported risks. The United States... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The First contacts of COVID-19 infected patients will be placed under home quarantine from today onwards, Army Commander Shavendra Silva said. “Although the first contacts of the COVID-19 infected patients were earlier sent for quarantine centres, such positive patients will no longer be sent for quarantine centres but placed under home quarantine,” he said. Therefore, the Army Commander requested such patients to remain indoors without any interactions with other persons. This new practice came into effect following the instruction of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after reviewing the quarantine process... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Ministry of Health confirms that another 280 new cases of novel coronavirus have been reported today from the Minuwangoda and Peliyagoda clusters. https://youtu.be/edOrkxNVJXA Fifteen (15) of them are from quarantine centers while the remaining 265 are contacts of positive patients from the two clusters. This brings the total number of confirmed cases reported from Minuwangoda and Peliyagoda clusters to 4,678. The death toll from the virus in Sri Lanka is 16. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Parliament of Sri Lanka will remain closed for business today (October 26) and tomorrow (October 27), Chief of Staff and Deputy Secretary-General of Parliament Neil Iddawala announced. https://youtu.be/JkDznqKCZZU As the Parliament premises will be disinfected during these two days, all staff have been instructed not to report for duty. While operations will resume from Wednesday (October 28), the staff needs to report for duty only if informed by the relevant department heads, Iddawala added. A Sub-Inspector of the Parliamentary Special Intelligence Unit was recently reported... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
By Noor Nizam - Peace and Politcal Activist, Political Researcher, SLFP/SLPP Stalwart and Convener "The Muslim Voice - )ctober 25th., 2020.
The SBJ should be happy that these Muslim MP's of the SLMC and ACMC, an MP of the SJB (female) and an MP of the joint ACMC - SLMC front and a Tamil MP of the TPA had helped parliament yeaterday to "SAVE" Sri Lankan from the "TREACHERY" created by the Ranil-Maithripala" Yahapalan government 19th., amendment. "The Muslim Voice" wishes to thank these Muslim MP's for supporting the 20th., amendment and for voting in favour of the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 26/10/20)
BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS
When evaluates the export industry structure of Sri Lanka, we would find that the industry has been instigated changes in the market structure since the early 1960s with the results of foreign advice as well as findings of domestic researches. This changing trend has been continually incorporating new industries into the sector. The remarkable advice on the diversification of the export industry was logically and practically given by Prof.Dudley Seers in the late i960s, and the garment industry emerged as a vital contributor to the market structure. Garments like food are fundamental needs of humans... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
by Dharshan Weerasekera, Attorney-at-Law
Legend has it that when King Vijayabahu was in hiding and regrouping to fight the Cholas an old woman advised him that just as it is easy to break a single stick of firewood but much harder to break a bunch of sticks when held together he should first find the right allies to advance his objectives. The story is very useful when thinking about how to address Sri Lanka’s present-day foreign policy challenges the most important of which is the “Pivot to Asia” by the United States. The Pivot has the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
KAMALIKA PIERIS
When India gained Independence as a sovereign state in 1947, it considered itself the natural leader of South Asia because of its size, its antiquity and its classy leader, Jawaharlal Nehru. It considered itself a regional power and took a very arrogant attitude towards it neighbors. This haughty, aggressive policy only succeeded in angering India’s neighbors. India has interfered in the internal affairs of neighboring countries and tried to bully them. As a result, India became heartily disliked by its neighbors. Indian analysts are concerned. One after another of India’s immediate neighbors in... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
By M D P DISSANAYAKE
During both Presidential and General Elections, the main promise was to scrap 19A. Rarely we heard a counter view that some of the conditions will be retained. The public would have been suspicious as to which articles would be retained requiring the SLPP to provide an explanation. The strategy to promise to scrap 19A in its entirety worked well, on both occasions. Then, in the process of drafting 20A, the government wanted to curry favour the public, for which it gave publicity that under the new draft the President’s term will... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM Wellington , NZ
The US Secretary of State Pompeo’s visit takes the pressure on the SL govt to an unprecedented level to sign the SOFA & MCC agreement. Pompeo’s bargaining chips are not only the $480 million grant associated with the MCC agreement. They also include US being SL’s biggest export market where nearly 30% of it’s exports enter at a a concessionary tariff , allowed for by the BSP provisions that come up for renewal in a few weeks. Risking these , especially now with the economic havoc caused... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
Prime Minister’s Media Unit
There has been a circulation of false news that a member of Security staff from the Prime Minister’s Office has tested positive. It is with complete responsibility that we confirm this news to be false, no internal security member from the Prime Minister’s Office, Temple Trees or the Wijerama Residence has tested positive. It is in fact a member of the external unit of the Prime Minister’s advanced security division that has been diagnosed positive with COVID-19. The respective individual has not reported to work since the 17th of October,... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
අග්රාමාත්ය කාර්යාලය, ආරලියගහ මන්දිරය හෝ විජේරාම පිහිටි අග්රාමාත්ය නිල නිවසේ සේවය කරනු ලබන අග්රාමාත්ය ආරක්ෂක අංශයේ කිසිඳු නිලධාරියෙකුට කොවිඩ්-19 රෝගය වැළඳී නොමැති බවට සහතික කරමි. අග්රාමාත්ය කාර්යාලයේ සේවයේ නියුතු පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙකුට කොවිඩ්-19 රෝගය වැළඳී ඇති බවට පැතිරය යන පුවතේ කිසිඳු සත්‍යතාවයක් නොමැති අතර කොවිඩ් ආසාධිත ආරක්ෂක අංශ නිලධාරියෙකු හමු වී ඇත්තේ අග්රාමාත්ය ආරක්ෂක අංශයට අනුබද්ධිත බාහිර ඒකකයකිනි. ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා සහභාගීවන, බාහිර උත්සවවල පූර්ව ආරක්ෂක කටයුතු පිළිබඳ සූදානම් කිරීම්වලට අදාළව පමණක් සම්බන්ධවන එම නිලධාරීවරයා ඔක්තෝම්බර් මස 17දින සිට සේවයට වාර්තා කර නොමැත.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Express Courtesy NewsIn.Asia
Officials say President, PM will politely reject his gratuitous advice; tell him government decisions guided by electoral mandates, law and the Constitution Colombo, October 25: The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who will be here on October 28, is expected to ask Sri Lankan leaders, point blank, to review relations with China; consider the options US is offering; and accept American advice on domestic and foreign policy. A top foreign ministry official told Daily Express on Sunday, that Lankan leaders, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
By Frances Bulathsinghala/Sunday Observer Courtesy NewsIn.Asia
Ayurvedic and Sinhala beheth doctors need to be co-opted, says Frances Bulathsinghala Colombo, October 25: As Sri Lanka faces the second – test, which caught the country unawares after about four months of respite, common sense calls for a collaborative approach of all medical experts of Sri Lanka, to prevent an over burdening of Allopathic professionals and to assist overall stabilization of health and the economy. The threat of the Western medical hospitals and its profession being overwhelmed by the comparatively large numbers of Covid-19 patients... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
Courtesy The Hindustan Times
The new curfew zones are mostly from capital district Colombo and eastern district Batticaloa. Police officers wearing protective gear stand in formation near the Sri Lankan parliament.(REUTERS) Authorities in Sri Lanka increased the coronavirus-related curfew zones to 56 police divisions on Sunday, to check the virus spread through community-level transmission. So far, the island nation has reported 7,521 Covid-19 cases. The virus death toll rose to 15 on Saturday after a 56-year-old heart patient died in the North Western Province due to coronavirus complication. “There are 56 police... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
Andrew Korybko Courtesy CGTN
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo participates in a press conference at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 18, 2019. /Getty Editor's Note: Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on a four-nation tour of the Indo-Pacific this week that will take him to India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia. It represents the most assertive thrust yet of America's attempt to "contain" China in the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
Courtesy Lifesyle
The airline will fly direct from Muscat to Colombo, Muharraq and Kuwait twice per week throughout winter Oman Air is resuming flights to three more destinations as part of its winter network update. The national airline of the sultanate will begin flying to Sri Lanka, Bahrain and Kuwait from Monday, October 25. The airline is also set to increase frequency to domestic destinations across Oman. From Muscat, Oman Air will operate twice weekly flights to Kuwait, Bahrain and Colombo. Travellers flying to Sri Lanka should be aware that... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
Courtesy Global Times
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing in Washington D.C., the United States, April 22, 2019. (Photo: Xinhua)US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday kicked off his last foreign trip before the US presidential election, with India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Indonesia on his itinerary. Top of his agenda is to mobilize those countries to confront China alongside with the US. In New Delhi, the US and India, two of the countries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, will hold the 2+2... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Another person infected with Covid-19 died today, bringing the total number of deaths reported in Sri Lanka to 16, says the Director General of Health Services. The deceased was identified as a 70-year-old male from Colombo 02 area. According to reports, he was admitted to the Colombo National Hospital on the 23rd of October to be treated for blood infection. Due to complications, he had been moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital, where he was under medical until he passed away this morning.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
UPDATE: Covid-19 cases confirmed in Sri Lanka shot up again as 88 more individuals were tested positive for the virus. According to reports, 85 of the fresh cases have been identified as close contacts Peliyagoda Fish Market and several fisheries harbours. The Department of Government Information said 03 arrivals (01 from the United Arab Emirates and -02 Filipino navymen have also been exposed to novel coronavirus. Thereby, Sri Lanka registered 351 new infections so far today (25). With the new development, the total number of positive cases confirmed in... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
This question is being asked across numerous public portals and begs the Government to answer & relieve all doubts. Having got itself tagged as a ‘nationalist’ government (on top of all the other nasty words plucked out of the dictionary), no citizen expects the Government to do anything ‘anti-national’ especially in secret. The people’s apprehensions are with historical reason. Our island nation weathered countless invasions from South India & three western invasions but they came to occupy & plunder our resources and murdered our people, only because some amongst us, betrayed us. It is this trail of betrayal DNA that... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 25/10/20)
By Raj Gonsalkorale
With positive cases exceeding 7000, and a national daily high of 865 and cases being reported in many parts of the country, what is striking is the sound of silence from health officials. While it is understandable to have one spokesperson, many other countries have generally had a non-health person as the chief spokesperson, at times a President or a Prime Minister, but in equal standing with the most senior health official of the country. The logic is simple. This is a health matter. The people of the country have to know how... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි
69 ලක්ෂයක්වූ ජනතාව මෙරට ජනාධිපතිවරයා වශයෙන් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාව තෝරාගත්තේය. ඒ ඔහු ද්විත්ව පුරවැසිභාවය අත්හැර දමා මෙහි දේශපාලන පිටියට පැමිණි නිසා නොව, ද්විත්ව පුරවැසිභාවය තිබුනද ඔහු මේ රටේ ඕනෑම කටයුත්තක් සඳහා සුදුසුම පුද්ගලයා ලෙස ජනමනස තුල දිදුලමින් සිටි පුද්ගලයා බැවිනි. බලයට පත්වූ එතුමාගේ බලතල ව්යාවස්තාවෙන් කප්පාදු කර තිබු බැවින් තමන්ට වැඩ කිරීමට ඇති බාදාව ජනතාවට පෙන්නා දුන් එතුමා මේ බාධක ඉවත් කිරීම සඳහා තමන්ට 2/3ක් පාර්ලිමේන්තු බලයක් ලබාදෙන ලෙස ජනතාවගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියහ. ප්‍රතිපලය වුයේ එතුමා ඉල්ලා සිටි ආකාරයටම ජනතාව එතුමාට් 2/3 ජනවරමක් ලබාදීමයි. මේ ජනතාව අවශ්‍යදේ අවශ්‍ය ආකාරයට තේරුම්ගෙන කටයුතු කල හැකි ජනබලවේගයක් බව... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ අග්රාමාත්ය
පත්තිනි මෑණියන්ගේ කරුණාව උදෙසා පැවැත්වූ නවරාත්රී උපවාසයේ අවසාන දිනය වන විජයදසමි දිනය භක්තියෙන් සමරන මාගේ ආදරණීය ශ්රී ලාංකික හින්දු භක්තිකයින්ට මාගේ හෘදයාංගම සුබපැතුම් පිරිනමමි. මිනිස් සමාජයේ මූලික අවශ්‍යතා තුන වන ධෛර්යය, අධ්‍යාපනය සහ ධනය ලබා දෙන මහා බලවතුන් වන දුර්ගා, සරස්වතී සහ ලක්ෂ්මි දෙවියන් වෙත අපගේ කෘතවේදීත්වය, නමස්කාරය පුදකිරීම සහ එම දෙවියන් අයැදීම නවරාත‍්‍රි යනුවෙන් ව්‍යවහාර වෙයි. ජයග‍්‍රාහී මංගල්‍යය දිනය වන විජයදසමි දින, සියලු යහපත් දේ සාර්ථක වනු ඇතැයි යන බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන් දෙවියන් නමස්කාර කර, අධ්‍යාපනය, කලාව, වෘත්තිය යනාදී සුබ කටයුතු ආරම්භ කරන හින්දු බැතිමතුන් මෙදින මහත් භක්තියකින් යුතුව සමරති. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගත තත්ත්වය හමුවේ ගරු ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා හා ගරු අග්‍රමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා ප්‍රමුඛ රට වැසියාට සෙත් පතා දින 07ක් පුරා පවත්වනු ලබන රතන සූත්‍රය සඡ්ඡායනා කිරීමේ පිරිත් දේශනාව නාරාහෙන්පිට අභයාරාම පුරාණ විහාරස්ථානය කේන්ද්‍ර කර ගනිමින් ඊයේ දින ආරම්භ විය. පිරිත් දේශනාව සඳහා සහභාගී වූ ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා ආගමික වතාවත්වල නිරත වීමෙන් අනතුරුව පිරිත් දේශනාව ශ්‍රවණය කිරීම සඳහා එක්විය. කොවිඩ් - 19 වසංගතය දුරුවේවායි ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරමින් මීට සමඟාමීව ඊයේ දින සිට දින 07 ක කාලයක් පුරා දිවයිනේ විහාරස්ථාන 200 කට අධික සංඛ්‍යාවක රතන සූත්‍රය දේශනා කිරීම ආරම්භ වූ බව නාරාහේන්පිට අභයාරාමාධිපති, බස්නාහිර... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Courtesy Asia Times
Pompeo to visit Delhi, Colombo, the Maldives and Jakarta in coming days; US wants Rajapaksa government to loosen ties with Beijing, but it has already proposed a free-trade agreement with China Sri Lanka’s government bonds fell heavily on Friday after the United States urged the country’s government to make “difficult but necessary choices” regarding its ties with China. Worries that this year’s Covid-19 crisis could see the country struggle to pay its debts have already seen its bonds slump almost 40% this year. On Friday its 2021 and 2022... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Courtesy CNA
COLOMBO: Authorities in Sri Lanka on Saturday (Oct 24) closed at least two fishery harbours and many stalls after a surge of 609 cases linked to the country’s main fish market. The government also widened the curfew in parts of Colombo. At least 11 villages were isolated in the densely populated Western province, which includes the capital. Health authorities on Wednesday temporarily closed the fish market on Colombo’s outskirts after 49 traders tested positive for the coronavirus. By Saturday, the number of cases went up to 609. Hundreds of traders and fishermen... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Courtesy Lancashire Telegraph
What More UK director Tony Grimshaw OBE has unveild the company's new export destination ONE OF the county's most notable exporters has announced plans to extend its international reach further still with a deal to trade with Sri Lanka. Padiham-based What More UK hopes that the deal, which will make its range of home accessories available to the 20 million inhabitants of Sri Lanka, will encourage other British firms to consider the opportunities that could lie ahead thanks to thinking internationally. This comes only weeks after... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Hilton Colombo has temporarily suspended operations after one of its employees has tested positive for COVID-19, the Daily Mirror learns. When contacted, the hotel confirmed that it had temporarily halted operations since Friday but failed to share more details. The hotel is expected to release a statement shortly. Health officers from the Colombo Municipal Council confirmed that a positive COVID-19 patient was found from the area where the hotel was located but could not confirm whether it was from the hotel premises. Further investigations are ongoing. The Daily Mirror learns... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Diana Gamage yesterday said she would continue to support President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to build the nation. Speaking during an adjournment debate in the House, she said she decided to support President Gotabaya as she felt he is capable of building the nation. https://youtu.be/aDw-r6ZVB-4 “During his tenure as the Defence Secretary he did a lot of work. Thousands use walking tracks built by him,” she said. She said the country does not need a President without powers. “We need a powerful... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
While claiming that the Brandix Apparel Ltd. should take the responsibility for the second wave of the COVID-19, National Peoples’ Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said yesterday a thorough investigation should be carried out against the company and take necessary action. Moving the adjournment debate on COVID-19, he told parliament that Brandix had acted in an irresponsible manner where they had neglected health guidelines. “It is reported that Brandix had neglected health conditions of their workers. The factory had forced them to work disregarding their health condition. When the workers were... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
he World Health Organisation (WHO) had informed the Health Ministry that a vaccine approved by the WHO may be available for COVID-19 shortly and the ministry was preparing for that, Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi said yesterday. In her reply speech on the adjournment debate, she told Parliament that the WHO had instructed the ministry to prepare the country for the vaccine. “The WHO has advised us to prepare the country for the vaccine. They have not informed us exactly what the injection is. The ministry is preparing for that at... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy Adaderana
Even though the Government had shortcomings in their past decisions with regard to containing the COVID-19 virus, the recent decisions taken by the Government are satisfactory, and if it continues in this manner, the situation would gradually return to normalcy, Public Health Inspectors Union of Sri Lanka (PHIUSL) said. Its Secretary M. Balasooriya told Daily Mirror the health and law enforcement authorities were doing their best in promptly tracing cases and attending whenever there was a positive case. “It is of utmost importance to maintain this momentum in order to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Quarantine curfew is imposed in several more police division in Colombo with immediate effect, stated the Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva. Accordingly, Maligawatte, Keselwatte, Dam Street, Barber Street, and Foreshore Police Division will be under quarantine curfew from here on. https://youtu.be/eOhU6DOGfuE The decision will be in effect until further notice. Nine other police areas in Colombo District, namely Mattakkuliya, Modara, Wellampitiya, Bloemendhal and Grandpass, Kotahena, Dematagoda, Maradana, Gothatuwa, and Mulleriyawaare also currently under quarantine curfew until further notice. In the meantime, quarantine curfew... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Ninety-two more individuals have tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19, Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva said. According to the Army Chief, all of them are close contacts of the coronavirus patients linked to Peliyagoda Fish Market. Meanwhile, a total of 368 cases of COVID-19 positive cases have been identified within the day far. Thus, the Minuwangoda and Peliyagoda cluster has registered a total of 4,050 positive cases. Following the latest update, the total number of Covid-19 confirmed in Sri Lanka shot up to 7,521. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
A team of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers has recovered a T-56 rifle and a revolver, which allegedly belong to the notorious underworld figure ‘Podi Lassie’. https://youtu.be/mhm0LERzqrI The firearms have been found from the house of the suspect’s grandmother in Telwatte, Ambalangoda, according to reports. The CID officers had led ‘Podi Lassie’ to the location where the two firearms were recovered last evening (23). ‘Podi Lassie’ who was recently granted bail by the Galle Magistrate, continues to be held by the CID under detention orders. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
By Rohana R. Wasala
The Sinhalese in independent Sri Lanka have been nationalistic, but never narrowly communalistic; they have never illtreated non-Sinhala minorities on the basis of race or religion. Those who are wallowing in a sea of misinformation having been swept there by tides of hostile propaganda over the decades, may bristle at this, but the truth must be stated. The nationalism of the Sinhalese is not a construct of the last colonial era. Contrary to what Eurocentric theorists, their local clones, imperialist lackeys and their modern dupes believe, it is an inclusive nationalism. In their long... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
By Raj Gonsalkorale
Nought from the Greeks towards me hath sped well. So now I find that ancient proverb true, Foes' gifts are no gifts: profit bring they none - Sophocles (496 - 406 BC), Don't look a gift horse in the mouth is a proverb about not questioning the value of a gift. The proverb refers to the practice of evaluating the age of a horse by looking at its teeth. A certain exception to this rule would be the MCC agreement which reportedly is very high in the agenda of US Secretary of State Mark Pompeo’s... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
Maithripala Sirisena was not born with a silver spoon. He was no presidential material but he controversially became President with a thumbs up by 62lakh voters in January 2015 aided even by foreign governments & a coterie of civil society organizations & NGOs. Today, these entities regret that decision. His impassioned address to the Nation in October 2018, drew our attention to the shabby treatment he was subject to by the Colombo 7 UNP gang. With all of these odds against him, he still managed to prevent not only the signing of MCC inspite of the preconditions associated with it... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
There are some ground realities all of us need to come to terms with. While in Sri Lanka, only the TNA chants ‘Eelam’ & Pro-LTTE slogans, that too closer to some election or event, to give themselves some cheap publicity, all of the demands for Eelam are coming from Tamils living on foreign shores. Not only are these Tamils holding foreign passports but are working overseas, educating their children overseas, have bought property overseas and are either foreign citizens or standing in line to becoming one. So why would they take such pains to declare Eelam in Sri Lanka, when... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 24/10/20)
By M D P DISSANAYAKE
First year of President Gotabaya Rajapakse is almost coming to an end. Firstly he had to work without a parliament, then Covid 19 followed by 19A, The poor performers of the government in the first year had a field day during the period without parliament. Then these inefficient Ministers used Covid 19 as an excuse for not performing. The President need a team of committed, loyal men and women to whom he can delegate tasks confidently. But, we have seen the emergence of toothless tigers in the cabinet attempting... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
KAMALIKA PIERIS
Part 2 of this series is on international relations. The series starts with India. Despite its impressive size, India is a very young sovereign state, dating only from 1947. Before foreign rule, India consisted of a number of separate kingdoms. These vanished under Muslim and British rule. The responsibility of creating the new Republic of India in 1947, from an inherited jumble of princely states and British ruled states, was given to Nehru, who solved the problem by creating a set of linguistic states. In the process all sorts of adjacent areas were dragged... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ්රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්රාමාත්ය
ලෝක සාමය හා ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කරන ප්‍රමුඛතම සංවිධානය ලෙස ජාතීන් අතර මිත්‍ර සබඳතා වර්ධනය කරමින් ජාත්‍යන්තර සහයෝගීතාවය සාක්ෂාත් කරන එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ 75 වැනි සංවත්සරයට සුබ පැතුම් එක්කරනුයේ ඉමහත් සතුටිනි. දෙවැනි ලෝක සංග්‍රාමය අවසානයේ ලෝක සාමය සහ ආරක්ෂාවේ අවශ්‍යතාවය පිළිඹිබු කරමින් යෝජනාවන එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ප්‍රඥප්තිය නිල වශයෙන් බලාත්මක වූයේ 1945 ඔක්තෝබර් 24 දාය. එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය තරම් නීත්‍යානුකූලභාවය, බලය කැදවීම සහ ප්‍රමිතිගත බලපෑමක් සහිත වෙනත් ගෝලීය සංවිධානයක් ලොව නොමැතිතරම්ය. මෙම සංවිධානය ආරම්භ වී වසර දහයක් ගතවනවිට 1955 දෙසැම්බර් 14 වැනිදා ශ්‍රි ලංකාවට නිල වශයෙන් එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Prime Minister’s Media Unit
Oct. 23, 2020 Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, participating in the celebration to mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, reiterated Sri Lanka’s commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. “We are firm in our commitment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and create a greener and more sustainable environment for the future,” Prime Minister Rajapaksa said. “I call upon my fellow world leaders to work collectively in restoring compassion back to the eco-system in our respective countries.” Due to the prevailing pandemic, the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Prime Minister’s Media Unit
Calling on Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees this evening, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea Woonjin Jeong called Sri Lanka “one of the safest countries,” and said he is actively encouraging Korean investors to explore opportunities in Sri Lanka. Several decades ago, Korea was one of the largest investors in Sri Lanka. Currently, there are more than 115 Korean companies operating in the country, and total trade between the two countries stood at US$ 327 million last year. Both countries are keen on increasing that number. Ambassador Jeong... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
දෙදහස් තිහ වසරවනවිට ගෝලීය තිරසර සංවර්ධන ඉලක්ක සාක්ෂාත් කර ගැනීම උදෙසා ශ්‍රි ලංකාව කැපවන බව ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අද 2020.10.23 දින පැවැසීය. අන්තර්ජාල වීඩියෝ තාක්ෂණය ඔස්සේ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ 75 වැනි සංවත්සර දින සැමරුමට එක්වෙමින් අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා මේ බව අවධාරණය කළේය. අනාගතය උදෙසා හරිත හා තිරසර පරිසරයක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව පෙන්වා දුන් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා විවිධ බලපෑම් සහ දූෂණයට ලක්වූ අපගේ පරිසර පද්ධති ප්‍රතිස්ථාපනය කිරීම උදෙසා ක්‍රියාකාරී මට්ටමෙන් සාමූහිකව මැදිහත්වන්නැයි ලෝක නායකයන්ගෙන් මෙහිදී ඉල්ලා සිටියේය. අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා කළ සම්පූර්ණ කතාව මෙසේය. එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානයේ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
මෙරට කොරියානු තානාපති වුන්ජින් ජියොන්ග් මහතා සහ ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අතර හමුවක් අද 2020.10.23 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවැත්විණි. මෙම හමුවේදී ශ්රී ලංකාව “ආරක්ෂිත රටක්” ලෙස පැවසූ කොරියානු තානාපති වුන්ජින් ජියොන්ග් මහතා ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ආයෝජනය කිරීමට ඉදිරිපත්වන්නැයි කොරියානු ආයෝජකයන්ට ආරාධනා කළේය. දශක කිහිපයකට පෙර කොරියාව මෙරට විශාලතම ආයෝජකයෙකි. මේ වන විට කොරියානු සමාගම් 115 කට වැඩි ප්‍රමාණයක් රට තුළ ක්‍රියාත්මක වන අතර දෙරට අතර සමස්ත වෙළඳාම පසුගිය වසරේදී ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 327 ක් ඉක්මවිය. මෙම වෙළඳාම තවත් ඉහළ දැමීම සඳහා රටවල් දෙකම උනන්දුවෙයි. පසුගිය මහ මැතිවරණයෙන් ලැබූ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Andrew Fidel Fernando Courtesy The Hindu
Critics have cast Murali as a ‘generic’ Sri Lankan Tamil to inflame their biases, but his story is more deeply layered Occasionally, Muttiah Muralitharan has spoken of the anti-Tamil pogrom in 1977 when Sinhalese mobs ran a blade 12 inches across his father’s back, then burned down the family’s biscuit factory on the outskirts of the hill capital of Kandy, Sri Lanka. In recent years, this harrowing story has been recounted at political events in support of Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP or... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Hassan M Kamal Courtesy First Post
All New Delhi can hope for is that next time the Chines comes to collect, Sri Lanka doesn't give up another portion of its sovereign territory, further strengthening the Chinese in India's backyard File image of Sri Lankan prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Reuters India's fears of Sri Lanka, under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, dipping further into Chinese debt seems to be proving true earlier than thought with the country seeking an additional grant of $700 million from the China Development... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
By Savithri Sellapperumage Courtesy The Diplomat
Can Sri Lanka live up to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s environmental commitments? Credit: Photo by Egle Sidaraviciute on Unsplash The focus on Sri Lanka’s deforestation and the conservation of forests this year can be traced back to widespread discussions about deforestation in Wilpattu National Park back in 2019. Deforestation in Wanathawillu, Anawilundawa and Sinharaja has been the recent focus of discussion. However, reports of more deforestation and illegal commercial or developmental projects have been reported from many parts of the country. Since then, the topic has become affiliated with politics and... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Courtesy RT
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, Beijing, China (FILE PHOTO) © REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins As the US demands Sri Lanka make a choice over its economic allegiances, the Chinese foreign ministry has warned that Washington’s attempt to bully nations into cutting their ties with Beijing won’t succeed. Speaking on Friday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters that American efforts to disrupt Chinese relations with other countries will not be successful, adding that the US is pressuring nations into picking sides. Zhao’s statement comes a day after... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Courtesy Aljazeera
Beijing says Washington acting with ‘Cold War mentality’ after US official urges Sri Lanka to make ‘difficult but necessary choices’. The latest trade of barbs comes before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Sri Lanka next week [AP] China says the United States is bullying other countries to pick sides over their ties to Beijing after a senior Washington official called on Sri Lanka to make “difficult but necessary choices” in an apparent reference at China deepening its influence over the South Asian country. In a news conference... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
By Umesh Moramudali Courtesy The Diplomat
Both the share and the type of loans from China are changing as Sri Lanka wrestles with persistent balance of payment issues. The recent visit of Yang Jiechi, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo member and previously China’s foreign minister, to Sri Lanka sparked interest among many. To begin with, Sri Lanka’s opposition raised concerns about the visit of the Chinese delegation amid a global pandemic and the delegation not being subject to usual quarantine practices. These concerns were followed by the widely speculated Chinese debt trap narrative in light of... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Diana Gamage yesterday said she would continue to support President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to build the nation. Speaking during an adjournment debate in the House, she said she decided to support President Gotabaya as she felt he is capable of building the nation. “During his tenure as the Defence Secretary he did a lot of work. Thousands use walking tracks built by him,” she said. She said the country does not need a President without powers. “We need a powerful President. Why should we spend... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Sri Lanka saw the highest daily record in Covid-19 cases today while the total number of confirmed infections surpassed the grim milestone of 7,000. As per the statistics of the Health Ministry, the confirmed cases count now stands at 7,153. The Department of Government Information said a total of 866 infections have been registered today: Galle fisheries harbour – 05Beruwala fisheries harbour – 20Peliyagoda Fish Market – 535Quarantine centres – 48Close contacts of Minuwangoda and Peliyagoda clusters – 257Arrival from South Korea under quarantine – 01 Thereby, positive... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Sri Lanka recorded the highest daily count of Covid-19 cases today (23) as 256 more persons were tested positive for the virus. Reports revealed that 39 of these fresh cases are connected to the Peliyagoda Fish Market and the remaining 217 are contacts of Minuwangoda and Peliyagoda clusters. Thereby, positive cases reported from the two clusters escalated to 3,682. A total of 865 infections have been registered so far within the day, according to the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID 19 Outbreak (NOCPCO). The country saw... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Calling on Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees this evening (23), Ambassador of the Republic of Korea Woonjin Jeong called Sri Lanka “one of the safest countries,” and said he is actively encouraging Korean investors to explore opportunities in Sri Lanka. In a press release, the Prime Minister’s Office said Korea was one of the largest investors in Sri Lanka some decades back. Currently, there are more than 115 Korean companies operating in the country, and total trade between the two countries stood at US$ 327 million last year. Both countries are keen... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
A group of parliamentarians of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) have called for the suspension of membership of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) members who voted in favour of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. https://youtu.be/oIajAIUO9bU In a letter directed to SJB’s General Secretary MP Ranjith Madduma Bandara today (23), 22 party members expressed dissent over the conduct of SLMC and ACMC members who supported the constitutional amendment during the vote in Parliament yesterday. Meanwhile, they conveyed their appreciation to the leaders of... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Attorney General has directed the Acting IGP to record statement of the victim of the LTTE attacks on Buddhist monks in the 1987 Aranthalawa massacre. Attorney General Dappula de Livera has also instructed police to commence criminal investigations and submit a progress report within two weeks, the AG’s coordinating officer said. The Aranthalawa Massacre took place on June 2, 1987, when a bus carrying several Buddhist monks and a few unarmed civilians was ambushed by 20 armed LTTE cadres near the village of Nuwaragalatenna. LTTE cadres brutally massacred 33... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
When the heroic armed forces of Sri Lanka eliminated the ground force of the LTTE including its top brass, they succeeded in ending 3 decades of terror and gave the 20mllion populace an elusive peace sans bombs, suicide missions and assassinations. The LTTE was vanquished in May 2009. That heroism did not come without sacrifice. Almost 30,000 brave men sacrificed their lives and an equal number remain injured for life. With the end of terror reign by LTTE, the baton was passed on to the Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry. Much was expected from the diplomatic corps of Sri Lanka. Did... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 23/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Third Reading of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution has been passed with amendment with a two-thirds majority. A total of 156 voted in favour of the constitutional amendment while 65 MPs voted against. https://youtu.be/06SpS-bAgfI The Second Reading of the 20th Amendment was also passed in Parliament with a two-thirds majority, this evening. A total of 213 Member of Parliament were present during the Second Reading with 156 voting in favour of the constitutional amendment and 65 voting against it. SJB MPs Dayana... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
විජය උඳුපිටිය
මහජන නියෝජිතයින්, රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් සහ රජය අතර පමණක් නොව සමාගමක අධ්‍යක්ෂ වරැන්, සේවකයින් සහ සමාගම් අතරත්, සංවිධානයක නිලධාරීන් සහ සංවිධානය අතරත් අභිලාශ ඝට්ටනයන් තිබිය හැක. සංක්ෂිප්තව පවසන්නේ නම් මහජනයාට සේවා සපයන ආයතන සහ එකී ආයතන මෙහෙයවන නිලධාරීන් අතර තම පෞද්ගලික අභිලාෂයන් සහ ආයතනීය අභිලාෂයන් අතර ගැටුම් වලට අභිලාශ ඝට්ටනය යැයි කිව හැක. දූෂණය අභිලාශ ගැටුමේ ආවේණික ලක්ෂණයක් වේ. මේ ලිපියෙන් මූලිකවම සාකච්ඡා කෙරෙන්නේ මහජන නියෝජිතයින්ගේ සහ රජයේ අභිලාෂයන් අතර ගැටුමත්, ඒ හේතුවෙන් ශ්‍රීලංකා වේ දියුණුව ඇනහිට සමාජ සහ දේශපාලනික ප්රශ්න ඔඩු දිවීමට පාදක හේතූන්ය. වර්තමාන ආරක්ෂක තත්වයට බලපා ඇත්තේ ද මෙම අභිලාශ ගැටුමි ය. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
විජය උඳුපිටිය
පාස්කු බොම්බයත් සමග ඉස්ලාම් අන්තවාදය පමණක් නොව ලිබරල් අන්තවාදය ගැනද සංවාද කලයුතුයැයි මම අදහස් කරමි. කිසියම් ජන කොට්ඨාසයක සංස්කෘතිය හෝ ඇඳුම් ආයිත්තම් වලට ප්‍රමාණය ඉක්මවා ඉවසා සිටීමද ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී අන්තවාදය නොහොත් ලිබරල් අන්තවාදය යැයි කිව යුතුය. ඒ ගැන කථා කරන්නාට "ජාති වාදියා" යැයි කීමට පෙර දෙවරක් සිතා බැලිය යුතුය. අපේ පාරවල්වල ප්‍රථම වරට හිකාබය දුටුවේ වසර 2000 න් පසුව හෝ ඊට ආසන්න කාලයක සිටය. 1980 ගනන්වල අපි ඉස්ලාම් ආගම ගැන දැන සිටියේ කාන්තාවන් 4 ක් විවාහ කරගත හැකි සරල දහමක් ලෙස පමණි. 1956 දී මගේ පංතියේ සිටි ෆාරැක් ට "පාරැවේ පුවක්" යනුවෙන් සරදම් කලා... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Dr . IMRC Iriyagolle A Buddhist Sinhalese
The Great Sinhala race in their wisdom embraced Buddhism, the path to salvation. Lord Sidhartha Gauthama Buddha (5C-4C) was and is the greatest reformer and revolutionary known to mankind. The Great Buddhist Kings and Leaders of Sri Lanka protected and preserved not only the Buddhist civilization but also the natural national heritage . This is a reflection of the attitude, lives of the Sinhalese that encompasses fundamental principles of Buddhism. A Nation living in harmony with nature with respect for all life forms. Message to The government... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප සහ පොදු සේවා සේවක සංගමය
අතින් භාරදීම. 2020 ඔක්තෝබර් මස 22 වන දින. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය, අරලියගහ මන්දිරය, කොළඹ 03. ගරු අග්රාමාත්යතුමනි, වර්තමානයේ කොවිඞ්-19 වසංගතය කටුනායක ආයෝජන ප‍්‍රවර්ධන කලාපය ඇතුළු අනෙකුත් ප‍්‍රදේශවල පැතිරීම නිසා පැන නැගී ඇති සේවක ගැටළු පිළිබඳව සාකච්ඡුා කිරීමට අවස්ථාවක් ලබා දෙන ලෙස කරනු ලබන ඉල්ලීම 2020 ඔක්තෝබර් මස ආරම්භයේදී මිනුවන්ගොඩ බ‍්‍රැන්ඩික්ස් කර්මාන්තශාලාවෙන් පටන් ගෙන මේ වන විට ගම්පහ දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය තුල, විශේෂයෙන්ම කටුනායක ආයෝජන ප‍්‍රවර්ධන කලාපයේ පැතිරීම හේතුවෙන් කර්මාන්තශාලා හතරක් (4* ක් තාවකාලිකව වසාදමා ඇති අතර අනෙකුත් කර්මාන්තශාලා සීමිත සේවක සංඛ්‍යාවකගෙන් නිෂ්පාදනයන් පවත්වාගෙන යමින් සිටී. මෙසේ වසා දමා ඇති කර්මාන්තශාලාවල... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
ජනමාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි.සංවර්ධන නිලධාරී සේවා සංගමය.
ගරු රාජ්‍ය සේවා ,පළාත් සභා හා පළාත් පාලන අමාත්‍ය, ජනක බණ්ඩාර තෙන්නකෝන් මැතිතුමා, රාජ්‍ය සේවා ,පළාත් සභා හා පළාත් පාලන අමාත්‍යංශය, නිදහස් චතුරස‍්‍රය, කොළඹ - 07. ලේකම්, ජේ.ජේ.රත්නසිරි මහත්මා, රාජ්‍ය සේවා ,පළාත් සභා හා පළාත් පාලන අමාත්‍යංශය, ගරු අමාත්‍යතුමනි/ලේකම්තුමනි, කෝව්ඩ්- 19 Covid - 19 වසංගත තත්වය උග‍්‍ර වෙමින් තිබියදී රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ සංවර්ධන නිලධාරීන් ඇතුලූ රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින් සම්බන්ධයෙන් සෞඛ්‍යාරක්ෂිත විධිවිධාන විධිමත්ව කි‍්‍රයාත්මක නොවීම බරපතළ තත්වයකි. කෝව්ඩ්- 19 Covid - 19 වසංගත තත්වයක් රට පුරා ව්‍යාප්ත වෙමින් තිබියදි රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ සේවකයින් ඇතුලූ නිලධාරීන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් අනුගමනය කරන නොසැලකිලිමත්භාවය... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
ජනමාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි.සමස්ත ලංකා දුම්රිය සේවකයින්ගේ පොදු සේවක සංගමය.
දුම්රිය සාමාන්‍යධිකාරී, කොරෝනා පැතිරීමේ නීතිරීති හා දුම්රිය සේවකයින් සඳහා සෞඛ්‍ය ආරක්ෂක වැඩපිළිවෙලක් අනුගමනය කිරීම. කොරෝනා වෛරසය (කෝවිඩ්-19 Covid- 19) පැතිරීම නිසා ගම්පහ දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය ඇතුළු ප‍්‍රදේශ ගණනාවක් වසා දමා ඇත. එසේ වුවද, වෛරසය පැතිරීම හා සමාජගත වීම වේගවත් වී ඇත. දුම්රිය මූලස්ථානය ඇතුළු දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සේවා ස්ථාන කිහිපයකින්ම කොරෝනා ආසාධිත සේවකයින් මේ වන විටත් රෝහල්ගත කර හෝ නිරෝධායන ආයතන වල රඳවා ඇත. මේ තත්වය හමුවේ කොරෝනා වෛරසය මැඩලීම සඳහා වන නීති-රීති ඇතුලත් 2197/25 හා 2020. 10. 15 දිනැතිව ගැසට් නිවේදනයක් ද නිකුත්කර ඇත.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
UNESCAP හි ශ්රී ලංකා නිත්‍ය දූත මණ්ඩලය හා තානාපති කාර්යාලය බැංකොක්, තායිලන්තය
පවතින COVID-19 වසංගත තත්ත්වය සමාජ ආරක්ෂණය අන්කවරදාකටත් වඩා අවශ්‍ය බව ඔප්පු කර ඇතැයි බැංකොක්හි එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සම්මන්ත්‍රණ මධ්‍යස්ථානයේදී 2020 ඔක්තෝබර් 20 හා 21 දිනයන්හි පැවැති එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ආසියානු හා පැසිෆික් ආර්ථික හා සමාජ කොමිසමේ (UNESCAP) 6 වැනි සමාජ සංවර්ධන කමිටුවේ (CSD) සභාපතිත්වයට ඒකමතිකව පත්වූ UNESCAP හි ශ්රී ලංකා නිත්‍ය නියෝජිත, තානාපතිනි සමන්තා කේ. ජයසූරිය මහත්මිය සැසිවාරය ආරම්භ කරමින්පැවැසුවාය. කමිටුවේ මූලික තේමාව ‘සමාජ ආරක්ෂණය’ වූ අතර තවදුරටත් සමුළුව අමතමින්, කලාපීය රටවල් වසංගත තත්ත්වයෙන් ඇතිවන සමාජ ආර්ථික බිඳවැටීම්වලට ප්‍රතිචාර දැක්වීමට සහ ඒවායින් ආරක්ෂා වීමට සැළසුම්... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
The Embassy of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in Bangkok, Thailand and the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UNESCAP
Upon been elected as the Chair by acclamation, and opening the sixth session of the Committee on Social Development (CSD) of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), which was held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok from 20 to 21 October 2020, H.E. (Mrs.) Samantha K. Jayasuriya, Ambassador and the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UNESCAP, told the UN CSD that the ongoing COVID... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම යටතේ මෙරට ප්‍රධාන සහසම්බන්ධිත නගර සංචාරකයින් සඳහා ප්රවර්ධනය කිරීමේ වැඩසටහනට සමගාමීව නුවරඑළිය දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ සංවර්ධන කටයුතු පිළිබඳ සාකච්ඡා කිරීමේ හමුවක් ඊයේ 2020.10.21 දින ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී පැවැත්විණි. මෙම හමුවේදී නුවරඑළිය නගරය හා ඒ අවට ප්‍රදේශය දේශීය හා විදේශීය සංචාරකයින්ට සුදුසු සංචාරක පුරවරයක් බවට පත් කිරීම පිළිබඳව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගේ අවධානය යොමු විය. නුවරඑළිය නගරය ආශ්‍රිතව දෙස් විදෙස් සංචාරකයින්ගේ ආකර්ශනය දිනා ගත් ග්‍රෙගරි වැව හා තුරඟ තරග පිටිය ආශ්‍රිත ප්‍රදේශය සංවර්ධනය කිරීම සඳහා අග්‍රමාත්‍යතුමා මෙහිදී උපදෙස් ලබා දුන්නේය. ඒ යටතේ නුවරඑළිය නගරය උපරිම සංවර්ධනයක් කරා රැගෙන ඒම, තුරඟ තරග නැවත... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Courtesy Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is urging Sri Lanka to make “difficult but necessary choices” to secure its economic independence instead of choosing opaque practises, a senior State Department official said on Thursday, in an apparent reference at China deepening its influence over the South Asian country. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Sri Lanka next week as part of a wider trip that includes India, Maldives and Indonesia with the main goal expected to be garnering support in countering China. Pompeo’s trip comes a week before the Nov.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Courtesy The New Indian Express
It has also impounded the fishing boat, the Coast Guard said, adding the crew were being brought to Karaikal harbour, near Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. CHENNAI: Six Sri Lankan fishermen were detained by the Coast Guard while fishing in Indian territorial waters, the maritime agency said on Thursday. It has also impounded the fishing boat, the Coast Guard said, adding the crew were being brought to Karaikal harbour, near Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. VideoCopy video urlPlay / PauseMute / UnmuteReport a problemLanguageMox... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Anusha Ondaatjie and Asantha Sirimanne, Courtesy Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa succeeded in a bid to restore sweeping executive powers to his office after his government won a super majority vote to amend the constitution. After two days of debate in parliament, Rajapaksa’s supporters clinched 156 of 225 votes in the legislature in favor of changes that would concentrate authority in the hands of the president at the cost of the prime minister and the parliament, potentially putting at risk judicial independence and the law-making process. “The 20th amendment can... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Courtesy PEOPLE’S WORLD
Sri Lankan army soldiers at a check point during a curfew imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus in Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 1, 2020. In a town near the capital, soldiers from the army raided garment workers' dorms in the middle of the night and forced them into quarantine centers after their employer failed to control a COVID outbreak. | Eranga Jayawardena / AP Garment workers in Sri Lanka were herded off into quarantine by the army in the middle of the night following a rapid increase of... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Courtesy Mailonline
A Chinese laborer works in 2020 at a Chinese-funded project in Port City in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will warn of risks of ties with Beijing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will ask Sri Lanka to make "difficult" choices on its growing relationship with China amid criticism the island is sliding toward authoritarianism, an official said Thursday. Pompeo plans to warn of risks surrounding China on a trip next week that will take him to Colombo as well as India, Maldives and Indonesia.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Another 259 patients have tested positive for Covid-19 with a majority of them connected to the Peliyagoda Fish Market. Army Commander Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva said that out of the new positive cases, 182 are from the Peliyagoda Fish market, 02 are from quarantine centers and the remaining 75 are close contacts. A total of 309 new cases have been reported so far today, bringing the tally of positive cases from the Minuwangoda cluster to 2,817.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
https://youtu.be/xS0j3uAJqOI SJB National list MP Diana Gamage said that she voted in favour of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution NOT expecting any benefits from the Government. However, SJB General Secretary MP Ranjith Madduma Bandara states that disciplinary action will be taken against SJB National List MP Diana Gamage who voted in favour of the 20th amendment. Diana Gamage was a National List MP for the SJB. SJB MPs' Diana Gamage, Aravind Kumar, Ishak Rahman, M.S.Tawfeek, Fizer Casim, Nazeer Ahmad & S.M. Raheem... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Clause 17 of the draft bill of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which calls for removing the barrier on dual citizenship was passed in the Parliament with a majority of 93 votes a short while ago. Out of the 213 Members of Parliament who were present at the parliamentary sitting, 157 had voted in favour while 64 voted against it. The remaining MPs opted out of voting. During the Committee Stage Discussions, Chief Opposition Whip MP Lakshman Kiriella sought a vote in this regard. Several MPs of Samagi Jana... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Sri Lanka reported its fourteenth death from the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, a short while ago, confirmed the Ministry of Health. A 50-year-old female from Kuliyapitiya has succumbed to the virus in this manner. https://youtu.be/DwdOtKJpX-s She had passed away while receiving treatment at the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) in Angoda. The deceased patient had been transferred to IDH Hospital from Kuliyapitiya Hospital on October 17. She had been suffering from a number of chronic diseases and died due to complications caused by the relevant chronic... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Government of Sri Lanka says that it has been made aware of the Open Judgement by the Proscribed Organizations Appeals Commission (POAC) of the United Kingdom on delisting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a proscribed terrorist organization. The government also said that it will appeal against the judgement of the independent tribunal in the UK which has reportedly ordered the British Home Office to lift the ban on the LTTE. Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry, issuing a statement today, said that the decision of the POAC dated 21 October... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
The second reading of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution passed with a 2/3 majority in Parliament. 156 Voted for while 65 voted against.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප සහ පොදු සේවා සේවක සංගමය
2020 ඔක්තෝබර් මස 22 වන දින. ලූතිනන් ජෙනරාල් ශවේන‍ද්‍ර ශිල්වා මැතිතුමා හමුදාපති සහ සභාපති කොවිඩ්-19 සම්බන‍ධ ජනාධිපති කාර්ය සාධන බලකාය කාර්ය සාධන බලකා කාර්යාලය, රාජගිරිය. ප්‍රිය මහත්මයාණෙනි, කෝවිඩ් 19 වසංගතය හේතුකොටගෙන මේ වන විට කටුනායක නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාපයේ වසා දමා ඇති සහ සේවයට නොකැඳවා ඇති ආයතනවල සේවක සේවිකාවන් සඳහා වියළි ආහාර ද්‍රව්‍ය ඛෙදාදීමේ අප සංගමය ගෙන යන වැඩ පිළිවෙළට අවසර ලබා දෙන ලෙස කරනු ලබන ඉල්ලීම ඉහත කරුණ සම්බන‍ධයෙන් අද දින පහත අත්සන් කරන මා ඔබ සමග කරන ලද දුරකතන සාකච්ඡාවේදී පැහැදිලි කර දුන් පරිදි කටුනායක නිදහස් වෙළෙඳ කලපයේ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
from The Sri Lanka Study Circle
Dear Parliamentarians, We urge you to refrain from voting for any Amendment to the Constitution that would permit foreign citizens to enter Sri Lanka’s Parliament and hold political office. This is the newest tactic being used by the former Colonial Powers to re-colonise our Country. If you vote in favour of the Amendment this is probably the last Sri Lankan Parliament you would be in because thereafter the ‘foreigners’ with their money-power and with the backing of the Colonial powers will be taking over the leadership of the Parties... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 22/10/20)
By Senior Lawyer -- Sri Lanka Study Circle . srilankastudycircle
yahoo.com
Excellent analysis Shenali , yes we have very eminent personalities going out of their way to hold panel discussions and promote MCC parroting how lucky Sri Lanka is to benefit from this ‘gift’. Do they know the legal implications of the Land Project? Do they at least know that they are promoting a foreign law which takes away their inalienable fundamental right to access court enshrined in the constitution. After signing the MCC, the land rights will be sans the land laws of this country,... -Full Story-
(LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) has been recognised as one of the effective methods that can be used to treat PTSD. The Cognitive processing therapy was developed by Dr Patricia Resick - a renowned Psychologist in 1988 and she did a lot of single cases until the first publication on it in 1992. Many studies have shown the efficacy of Cognitive processing therapy. Dr Resick defines (CPT) as a manualized therapy that includes common elements from general cognitive-behavioral treatments. Its developed with both cognitive therapy and written trauma accounts.CPT is an evidence-based approach to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
රාජ්‍ය ඉංජිනේරු සංස්ථාව හා ඉන්සි සිමෙන්ති සමාගම අතර ගිවිසුමක් අත්සන් තැබීම ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා ඉදිරියේ දී අද 2020.10.21 දින පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී සිදු විය. මාතලේ ප්රදේශයේ පිහිටා ඇති රාජ්‍ය ඉංජිනේරු සංස්ථාවට අයත් ඩොලමයිට් නිධිය තුළින් ලබා ගන්නා ඩොලමයිට්, සිමෙන්ති නිෂ්පාදන ආයතනයක් වන පුත්තලම ඉන්සි සිමෙන්ති සමාගමට අලෙවි කිරීමට අදාළව මෙම ගිවිසුම අත්සන් තැබිණි. රාජ්‍ය ඉංජිනේරු සංස්ථාව වෙනුවෙන් සභාපති නීතීඥ රත්නසිරි කළුපහන මහතා සහ ඉන්සි සිමෙන්ති සමාගම වෙනුවෙන් සභාපති නන්දන ඒකනායක මහතා මෙම ගිවිසුමට අත්සන් තැබූහ. මෙම ගිවිසුම්ගතවීම ඔස්සේ සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම යටතේ කුඩා කර්මාන්ත නගා සිටුවීම, අවම මුදලක් යටතේ දේශීය... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
විසි වැනි සංශෝධනය ගෙනඑන්නේ රට අරාජික කළ ජනතාවට එපා වූ 19 වැනි සංශෝධනය ඉවත් කිරීමට බව ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අද 2020.10.21 දින පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී පැවැසීය. 20 වැනි ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත දෙවැනිවර කියවීමේ විවාදයට එක්වෙමින් අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා මේ බව අවධාරණය කළේය. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ලැබූ ජනවරම තුළ ජනාධිපති ශක්තිමත් කිරීමේ ප්‍රාර්ථනාව තිබෙන බව පෙන්වා දුන් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා, ඒ නිසා ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කරන 20 වැනි සංශෝධනය ගෙනවිත් රට අරාජික කරන 19 වැනි සංශෝධනය පරාජය කරන බව පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. 20 වැනි සංශෝධනය ගෙනඑමින් රජය සූදානම්වන්නේ පවතින ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව තවදුරටත්... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
අධ්‍යාත්මික ගුණ දහමින් පොහොසත්වීමට නම් සෑම පුරවැසියෙකුම නිවැරදි හා සැබෑ ආගමික අනුගාමිකයන් විය යුතු බව ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා 2020.10.20 දින පැවසීය. අග්රාමාත්ය කාර්යාලයේ අනුග්‍රහයෙන් අරලියහ මන්දිරයේ පැවැති නවරාත්රී උත්සව අවස්ථාවට එක්වෙමින් අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේය. කොවිඩ් - 19 වසංගත තත්ත්වය පැතිරීම පාලනය කිරීමට රජයක් ලෙස ගත හැකි උපරිම ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගන්නා බව පැවසූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා නවරාත්රී දිනයේදී කොවිඩ් උවඳුර තුරන් වී සැමට යහපත උදාවේවායි හෘදයාංගමව ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරන බව කියා සිටියේය. නවරාත්රී පූජාවේ යෙදීමට ජනතාව දිරිමත් කිරීම සඳහා කොවිඩ්-19 තර්ජනය හමුවේ වුව ද අග්රාමාත්ය කාර්යාලයේ සෞඛ්‍ය... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
By Shiran Illanperuma Courtesy NewsIn.Asia
On the "Chinese debt trap" Kohona said that 90% of Sri Lanka's debt is owed to Western and multilateral financial institutions COLOMBO, Oct. 21 (Xinhua): Sri Lankan exporters should particularly take advantage of the annual China International Import Expo set to open next month to boost exports, Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka’s ambassador-designate to China, told Xinhua in a recent interview. “I would like to see a number of tea companies, rubber products companies, spice companies, coconut products companies, gem and jewelry producers, and other service providers,... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
By Rienzie Wijetilleke Courtesy Ceylon Today
Sri Lankans around the world remain bemused at disclosures from the on-going 2019 Easter Attack investigations. The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) has so far seen a roll call of former leaders and high ranking officials from the previous regime providing any number of vague excuses and abdicating responsibility for their inaction. The former President, who is now a member of the ruling party and was the Minister of Defence and Commander in Chief at the time, must provide better answers than simply saying he was not informed. There is... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera
Health Minister Pavithra Vanniarachchi, who responded to a question in parliament, said a mechanism is in place together with the Health Ministry and army to trace contacts of COVID-19 patients and added that Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa who visited a Hotel in Yala recently was swiftly informed that he was a second contact. “That was done because of the effective mechanism in place,” she said. Opposition Leader Premadasa said he followed the health advises of the doctors. Minister Vanniarachchi said Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror
There is always a possibility of sub-clusters emerging from the Minuwangoda main cluster and one has already been created from a private apparel factory in Katunayake, Chief Epidemiologist Dr Sudath Samaraweera said today. He told the media that each case reported daily was either directly or indirectly linked to the Brandix apparel factory cluster. “There are Covid-19 positive cases reported from 18 companies in the Gampaha district and accordingly, a sub-cluster has been created from one of the private apparel factories in Katunayake,” Dr. Samaraweera said. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The sole objective of the 20th Amendment is to safeguard the unitary status of the country and to ensure the nation’s security, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told Parliament yesterday. Speaking during the debate on the 20th Amendment Prime Minister Rajapaksa said the 19th Amendment to the constitution destroyed the country’s security. “Look at what is being revealed at the Presidential Commission on the Easter Sunday attack. It has been revealed that more than 10,000 people had prior knowledge on the attacks. It is shameful that... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
57 personnel tested positive for COVID-19 increasing the total number of cases from the Minuwangoda cluster to 2,508, the Government Information Department said. Out of 57 tested positive today, one from quarantine centres, 56 are close contacts of previous patients. Earlier Another 109 personnel tested positive for COVID-19 increasing the total number of cases from the Minuwangoda cluster to 2,451, the Government Information Department said. Out of 109 tested positive today, 37 are from quarantine centres, 23 are close contacts of previous patients while 49 are from the Central Fish... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The US Department of State today said Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo will travel to Colombo to underscore the commitment of the United States to a partnership with a strong, sovereign Sri Lanka. In a statement, Department’s Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said, “the visit will also advance our common goals of for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.” State Secretary Pompeo is scheduled to travel to India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia from October 25 to 30. In New Delhi, Secretary Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark T.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Quarantine curfew will be imposed within the Gampaha District from 10.00 p.m. today to 5.00 a.m. on Monday (26), Army Commander Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva said. https://youtu.be/69m9_aMH37M The decision has been taken due to a surge in the number of coronavirus cases reported within the district. Currently quarantine curfew has been imposed in 24 police areas across the country. UPDATE: Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana says that vehicles will be allowed to pass through Gampaha District during the quarantine curfew, however vehicles are not allowed to stop.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The 20th Amendment to the Constitution is brought to remove the 19th Amendment which turned the country into anarchy, said Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at the parliament today (21). The proposed 20th Amendment was taken into the debate at the Parliament this morning. The recent parliamentary election and the presidential poll showed that the public’s desire to remove the 19A, stated the Prime Minister. He points out that the people trust the President of the country on the matter of national security. The unitary status and the solidarity... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 21/10/20)
By M. Lakshhman Wickramasinghe
In the public discussion about the merits and demerits of the 19th or 20th Amendments the most vital national issue, it seems, has not received high recognition that it deserves. Our two thousand plus years of history and the unfortunate developments that took place in the post- Independent era have taught Sri Lanka one vital lesson. And for a small country like Sri Lanka, placed as it is geographically, this is an absolute maxim. That is that Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity, its degree of ‘exercisable’ sovereignty, and independence of action locally... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
Aloysius Hettiarachchi
It has been announce yesterday (20/10/’20) that the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to visit in about a week’s time to our country. The GOSL cabinet spokes person Mr. Rambukwella said that we give a warm welcome to him just like to any other high official of a friendly country. I do not think majority of Sri Lankans would have serious objections to this visit from a country which has the highest commercial dealing with us. However we must not forget that there is a high level of suspicion among the majority... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
විමල් පටබැඳිගේ (ශාස්ත‍්‍රවේදී, නීතිඥ, විශ‍්‍රාමික සොලිසිටර්)
‘හැට පැන්නත් බිමින් යන්නෙ නැතැ’යි කියන කථාව මතකයට ගෙනෙමින් විග්නේස්වරම් අසූව පැන්නත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ පළමු දිනයේ ම වාර්ගික අධිමාන්නයෙන් යුතුව ගෝත‍්‍රවාදයේ මූලික නිගමන දෙකක් ප්රකාශ කළේ ය. ශී්ර ලංකා භූමියේ මුල් ම වාසීන් ඔහු අයත් වෙන දෙමළ ජනයා ය. මු`ඵ ලෝකයේ ම මුල් ම භාෂාව ඔහු කථා කරන දෙමළ භාෂාව ය. විනිසුරු අසුනින් බැස දේශපාලන පුටුවට ගොඩවුණු විග්නේස්වරම් කියන කරන දේ ගැන සිතා බලන විට පළමුව ඔහු කවුදැ’යි අඳුනා ගැනීම ද ප‍්‍රයෝජනවත් වෙනු ඇතැ’යි සිතේ. කොළඹ අඵත්කඬේ ප්රදේශයේ ඉපදුන කනකසබාපති... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
ආචාර්ය සුදත් ගුණසේකර මහනුවර
20.10.2020. "මුට්ටිය කේතලයට කලුයි කියන්නාසේ" යන්න සින්හල සමාජයේ ඉතා ජනප්‍රිය ආප්තෝපදේශයකි. එකෙකු තමන්ගේ වරද අනුන් පිට පටවන අවස්ථාවලදී මෙම ආප්තෝපදේශය යොදාගැනේ.එහෙත් මෙම කලුකිරීමට මුල් වරද කරුවා ලිප බව කිසිවෙකු නොකියයි.ඒ අනුව ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම මුට්ටිය සහ කේතලය යන දෙකම කලුකිරීමේ වරද භාරගතයුත්තේ ලිප නොවේදැයි යන ප්‍රශ්නය මතුවෙයි.එමනිසා "මුට්ටිය සහ කේතලය යන දෙකම කලුකොට ඒ දෙදෙනා සණ්ඩු කරද්දී සුදනා මෙන් අහක බලාගෙන නිහඩව සිටිනා ලිපසේ" මට මේ ආප්තෝපදේශය සින්හල භාෂාවට එකතුකරන්නට සිතුනේ මේ දිනවල අප්‍රේල් 21 බෝම්බ ප්‍රහාරය පිළිබද පැවැත්වෙන සාක්ෂි විභාගයේදී රනිල් සහ මයිත්‍රිපාල දෙදෙනා එකෙනෙකාට දෝෂාරොපනය කරගන්නා ආකාරය දෙස බලා සිටින විටය. මෙම බෝම්බ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
RANJITH SOYSA
When the recent top level Chinese delegation visited Sri Lanka they had a touching message for Sri Lanka. The message was.. “CHINA WILL STAND WITH SRI LANKA TO PROTECT ITS INDEPENDENCE, SOVEREIGNTY AND TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY AT INTERNATIONAL FORA” . In our present day world of varied challenges much to our discomfort , we are faced with lack of reciprocity and interdependence of world and regional powers, In such a scenario the Chinese assurance that they will stand by Sri Lanka in the world fora is commendable. Contrast this response with the attitude adopted by... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
Prime Minister’s Media Unit
Prime Minister of Korea Chung Sye-kyun called Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa this morning, and the two leaders discussed a number of areas of mutual bilateral interest while expressing the desire to further enhance relations between the two countries. While congratulating Prime Minister Rajapaksa on the victory at the recently-concluded General Election, Prime Minister Chung said he looks forward to continue working with Sri Lanka to further strengthen bilateral relations. The two leaders also discussed further technical assistance for the Ocean University, for which the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
ශ්රී ලංකා අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා සහ දකුණු කොරියානු අග්රාමාත්ය චුන්ග් සයි-කියුන් මැතිතුමා අතර අද 2020.10.20 දින පෙරවරුවේ දුරකථන සාකච්ඡාවක් පැවැත්විණි. අධ්‍යාපන, සංචාරක හා නව ආයෝජන අවස්ථා සම්බන්ධයෙන් දෙරටේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරු මෙහිදී සාකච්ඡා කළහ. අන්‍යෝන්‍ය අවබෝධය මත ද්විපාර්ශිකව උනන්දුවක් දක්වන අංශ ගණනාවක් පිළිබඳව අවධානය යොමු කළ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරුන් දෙපළ දෙරට අතර සබඳතා වර්ධනය කර ගැනීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවය ගැන විශ්වාසය පළ කළහ. පසු ගිය මහ මැතිවරණයේදී අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ ජයග්‍රහණය වෙනුවෙන් සුබ පැතුම් එක් කළ දකුණු කොරියානු අග්රාමාත්ය චුන්ග් සයි-කියුන් මැතිතුමා, ශ්රී ලංකාව සමඟ ද්විපාර්ශ්වික වශයෙන් සබඳතා තවදුරටත් ඉදිරියේදී ශක්තිමත් කිරීමට බලාපොරොත්තු... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
https://youtu.be/ffq1WF9EK0Y Justice Minister Ali Sabry states that the Government has decided to withdraw clauses 05 & 22 of the proposed 20th amendment to the constitution which were directed by the Supreme Court to be passed through a referendum. https://youtu.be/CKa-uqnnyfg... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
A total of 120 more persons have tested positive for Covid-19, says Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva.COVID-19 cases count soars as 120 more test positive. A total of 120 more persons linked to the Minuwangoda cluster have tested positive for Covid-19 today (20), says Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva. According to reports, 37 of them are apparel factory employees and their contacts who are currently at quarantine centres. The remaining 83 have been identified as close contacts of the staff members of the apparel factory. Thereby,... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Former Director of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) Nilantha Jayawardena was seriously contradicted at the Presidential Commission probing the Easter Sunday Attacks, during cross-examination. When Jayawardena said he only contacted the former President on 61 occasions from the 1st of December 2018 to the 1st of May 2019, the President’s Counsel Shamil Perera, representing Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith had shown the Commission otherwise. https://youtu.be/HlG43Qje9B4 Former SIS chief was also sternly warned by the Commission’s chairman over the manner in which he responded to the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
https://youtu.be/8X0IprwKnSs Notorious underworld figure and drug kingpin ‘Makandure Madush’ has been shot dead in a crossfire between police and other suspected underworld figures at Maligawatte Housing Complex. After uncovering information regarding a stock of 22 kg of heroin hidden at the Maligawatte Housing Complex, officers of the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) had visited that location along with Makandure Madush. However, suspected underworld figures and drug traffickers had then reportedly opened fire at them. Makandure Madush and two officers of the CCD were shot in the crossfire... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
By Thameenah Razeek Courtesy Ceylon Today
Minister of Environment, Mahinda Amaraweera, has instructed the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) and the Atomic Energy Board (AEB) to conduct an investigation regarding the claims made by the heads of certain authorities that the sand distributed and sold locally for construction purposes, subsequent to the removal of minerals, has an unusual amount of radiation and can be carcinogenic. Amaraweera has directed the two authorities to conduct the investigations with the professionals who are making claims about the high levels of radiation in the sand that is being sold... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 20/10/20)
By Raj Gonsalkorale
In the tea industry, the tea taster reigns supreme. Yet strangely enough tea tasting begins with the plucker. This is because the taster’s judgment depends on how the leaves have been plucked. There are two forms of plucking: fine and coarse. The former is essential to a good cup of tea, and as a rule it involves the plucking of the leaf and the bud. Coarse plucking, as the name suggests, on the other hand produces teas of inferior quality – A history of our tea – Uditha Devapriya Medium August 2019 The... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS
The scholarship examination has become a stressful test for parents, teachers, students, and the government. Many people in the country say it is an examination of parents as the interest of parents is greater than students take the test. Generally, the test may be a method of determination of the competitive quality of school administrators, teachers, and students. Has the test been used to evaluate the human rights of people, and to correct the issue in the country to giving justice to poor people? When I look at the conducting of the scholarship examination various... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි
සැවැත් නුවර බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ වැඩ වසන සමයෙහි, රාත්‍රී කාලයෙහි උන්වහන්සේ වෙත පැමිණි, දේව පුත්‍රයෙක්' අන්තෝ ජටා බහී ජටා ජටාය ජටිතා පජා තන් තන් ගොතමී පුච්චාමි කො ඉමං විජටයේ ජටං යන ප්‍රශ්නය ඇසිය. ඇතුලේ ගැට පිට ගැට -ලෝ සත ගැටෙති වෙලී අසමි හිමි ගොයුමාණෙනි -කවුරු මේ ගැට ලිහාදැයි දැන් මේ රට තුල පැන නැගී ඇති තත්වය දෙස බලන විට මිට සමානවූ ප්රශ්න කන්දරාවක් මෙරට ජනතාව විසින් අසමින්, විදිමින් සිටී. රට පටලවා ගසා ඇති ගැට ලිහා ලන්නේ කෙලෙසද? ඒ කවුරුන් විසින්ද? යන පැනය මෙරට ජනතාව අසමින් සිටි. ගැට පටලවන... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
ජනමාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි. ලංකා ගුරුසේවා සංගමය.
ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය හා මුදල් අමාත්‍ය, මහින්ද රාජපක‍ෂ මැතිතුමා, මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශය, කොළඹ 01.අග්රාමාත්යතුමනි, 2021 වර්ෂයට අදාලව සිදුකරනු ලබන අය - වැය යෝජනා සංවර්ධනය අරමුණු කර ගත් රටකට එහි වැදගත්ම සම්පත වනුයේ මානව සම්පතයි. එම මානව සම්පත සංවර්ධනයට අවශ්‍ය මුලික පදනම වැටෙනුයේ එරට අධ්‍යාපනය තුළිනි. ඒ අනුව අධ්‍යාපනයේ මුලික කාර්යභාරය පැවරි ඇත්තේ සමස්ත ගුරු පරපුරට වන අතර ඒ සදහා තම වෘත්තියේ ඉහළ නිපුණතාවන්ට ලගාවිමට අවස්ථාවක් ලබාදීමත් (වෘත්තිකභාවය), උසස් ජීවන තත්වයක් ලබාදීමත් අරමුණු කොට ගනිමින් 1994 දී දීප ව්‍යාප්ත වැටුප්තල වල පිහිටුවමින් ගුරු, විදුහල්පති සේවා ව්‍යවස්ථාවන් හදුන්වා දීමට ක්‍රියාකරන ලදි. මෙම... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
Andres Oppenheimer,Miami Herald
When people ask me why I’m so critical of President Trump, I tell them that it’s not just because — as I discovered first-hand when I interviewed him in 2013 — he’s a horrible human being and a terrible role model for our children. It’s for reasons that go far beyond his awful personality. I can’t support Trump because his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a world record of more than 218,000 deaths. With only 4 percent of the world’s population, America has more than 20 percent of the world’s... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
ජාතික ජල සම්පාදන හා ජලාපවහන මණ්ඩලයේ සේවකයෝ සිය දිනක වැටුප එක්කොට රුපියල් මිලියන 15ක මුදලක්, ඉටුකම කොවිඩ් - 19 අරමුදල සඳහා අද 2020.10.19 දින පස්වරුවේ අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාට භාර දුන්හ. ජාතික ජල සම්පාදන හා ජලාපවහන මණ්ඩලයේ සියලුම කාර්යය මණ්ඩලය හා කළමනාකාරීත්වය නියෝජනය කරමින් ඊට අදාළ චෙක්පත ජාතික ජල සම්පාදන හා ජලාපවහන මණ්ඩලයේ සභාපති නිශාන්ත රණතුංග මහතා විසින් ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා වෙත පිළිගැන්වූයේය. ඉටුකම කොවිඩ්-19 සෞඛ්‍ය හා සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ අරමුදල වෙනුවෙන් ජාතික ජල සම්පාදන හා ජලාපවහන මණ්ඩලයේ සේවකයින් 7500 ක් දායකත්වය දක්වා තිබේ. මෙම අවස්ථාව සඳහා... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
By Sugeeswara Senadhira/Ceylon Today
He wanted the Northern Province for the Tamils only, says Sugeeeswara Senadhira Colombo, Octobr 19: The inhuman order given to 90,000 Muslims of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province to leave the province in October 1990, giving them just a few hours to obey the diktat had proved to the international community the ultra-racist, chauvinist stance of the terrorist outfit. The entire Muslim population of Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Kilinochchi Districts were evicted from their homes at gun point and turned into Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) overnight by the LTTE. This ill-advised... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
Sonali Wijeratne Kotte Courtesy The Island
The latest massive Covid-19 surge of over 1,700 cases at the point of writing popularly referred to as the “Brandix Cluster” is fast becoming the most formidable and challenging denominator of the nation’s GDP and Public Health. Apparently, the contact source who impregnated the worker in Brandix with the virus is still not found. The charge must be criminal negligence since the Covid-19 which had hitherto been a localized threat is now, thanks to this dynamic infusion, is spreading its insidious tentacles across the island. The chase for contact tracing... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island
AG wants report within one month Close on the heels of Attorney General Dappula de Livera, PC, alleging serious lapses on the part of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), in respect of the probe on Riyaj Bathiudeen’s alleged involvement with those responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks, the premier investigating agency’s Director SSP Prasanna de Alwis has been moved out. The transfer took place consequent to an unprecedented meeting the AG had with the new Director CID Prasad Ranasinghe and three other officers, including SSP Alwis. The AG... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
A total of 40 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 increasing the number of patients in the Minuwangoda cluster to 2,162, the Government Information Department said. Nineteen of the infected have been reported from quarantine centres while the others were reported as their close associates.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The Government today reiterated that it would make several changes to the 20th Amendment to the Constitution at the committee stage including an amendment to allow citizens to challenge the President’s action by filling Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions. Education Minister Professor G.L. Peiris said the President’s immunity was constricted by the 19th Amendment as it allowed citizens to file FR petitions through the Attorney General against the President. This clause was proposed to be repealed by the 20A and Minister Peiris said the government would make an amendment... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
MP Rishad Bathiudeen who was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has been ordered to be remanded by the Fort Magistrate’s Court. https://youtu.be/dYG3dFsEsDY Accordingly, the parliamentarian will be held under remand custody until October 27. Former Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen, the director of the project Mohamed Yaseen Samsudeen and the project accountant Alagarathnam Manoranjan are accused of violating Article 82(1) of Presidential Elections Act, No. 15 of 1981 by misappropriating public funds to the tune of Rs. 9.5 million. They have allegedly... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Seven suspects have been arrested for aiding and abetting MP Rishad Bathiudeen to evade arrest, stated the Police Media Spokesman. https://youtu.be/5k0y8F2foBU The suspects arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) are to be produced before the Fort Magistrate’s Court this evening (19), stated DIG Ajith Rohana speaking at a press conference held earlier today. He further said that during the arrest of Bathiudeen, it was revealed that there was a group of people who provide protection to persons wanted by the police. The DIG said that... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Attorney General Dappula De Livera had advised the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) on the prudence to place MP Rishad Bathiudeen under surveillance 24 hours before the issuing of the directive to arrest the former minister. AG’s coordinating office State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne said that the arrest of MP Rishad Bathiudeen is not something that had happened suddenly. She stated that 24 hours before the Attorney General’s advice pertaining to the arrest was provided in writing to the CID officers and the Acting IGP, the AG had summoned the CID officers and verbally... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Former Director of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) Nilantha Jayawardena believes that the forewarning given to him by a foreign intelligence agency ahead of the Easter Sunday attacks might not have been so secretive a mere week later. https://youtu.be/bjk5MvTTUhA Testifying before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks, Jaywardena was insistent that around 15,000 people should have been aware of the intelligence if the former IGP had shared the intelligence as he claims he did. He said that the reach of it was... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Handing over the letters of appointment to the trainees selected from families of the lowest income category in the society under the program to recruit 100,000 individuals for employment commenced today (19). Under the first phase, 34,818 eligible candidates have been selected, stated President’s Media Division. Accordingly, the appointees will receive a 06-month formal training in 25 identified areas according to their skills and preferences. The National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority will oversee the training program. Those who successfully complete the training will be awarded a NVQ III certificate.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
There is a major misconception that Sri Lanka in its cash-strapped status should ignore all questionable aspects of the MCC and just sign MCC Compact as MCC is holding a carrot of $480m which they call a gift from US to the people of Sri Lanka. We have very eminent personalities going out of their way to hold panel discussions and promote MCC parroting how lucky Sri Lanka is to benefit from this ‘gift’. This is far from the truth. Out of the $480m across 5-year “gift”, the Transport Project allocation is $350m & Land Project allocation is only $67.3m... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 19/10/20)
H. L. D. Mahindapala
H. L. D. Mahindapala Taking an overview of the 20th century it can be argued that the seeds of the major forces that shaped the political landscape of post-independent era were sown in the thirties. Three events in particular stand out from the thirties as defining points of departure from the semi-feudal, semi-colonial, semi-capitalist past into the tumultuous future struggling to be born: 1. democratisation of the political system under the Donoughmore Constitution with universal franchise in 1931 -- a daring political experiment which was unique for the time: it... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 18/10/20)
මාර්ග සංවර්ධන සේවක සංගමය
අග්රාමාත්ය, මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අරලියගහ මන්දිරය, කොළඹ-01. අධිවේගී මාර්ග සම්බන්ධයෙන් නව සමාගමක් පිහිටුවීම පිළිබදව මාර්ග සංවර්ධන අධිකාරිය යටතේ ඒකකයක් ලෙස දැනට පවතින අධිවෙගී මාර්ග මෙහෙයුම් අංශය හා අධිවෙගී මාර්ග ඉදිකිරීම් ව්‍යාපෘතින් සියල්ලම මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරය යටතේ වෙනමම සමාගමක් වශයෙන් පිහිටුවීමට කැබිනට් අනුමැතිය ලබා දී ඇති බවට අප සංගමය වෙත දැන ගැණිමට ලැබී ඇත. 1986 වර්ෂයේ සිට ජාතික මහා මාර්ග පද්ධතිය නඩත්තු කිරීම හා නව මහා මාර්ග ඉදි කිරීම මාර්ග සංවර්ධන අධිකාරිය වෙත ව්‍යවස්ථාපිතවම පැවරී ඇති අතර එකී වගකීම මාර්ග සංවවර්ධන අධිකාරිය විසින් ඉටු කරමින් පවතිද්දී ඒ සදහා වෙනම තවත් සමාගමක් පිහිටුවීම තුලින් අධිවෙගී... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 18/10/20)
Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror
A 43-year-old woman was arrested for making defamatory remarks against Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith in a video uploaded to social media, Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said. The suspect was arrested in Battaramulla. He said the video also contained content that arouse hatred between Buddhist and Catholic communities. “She is to be produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate tomorrow,” DIG Rohana said. The Criminal Investigation Department is carrying out further inquiry into the incident.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 18/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) says its leader MP Rishad Bathiudeen will appear publicly after the 20th of October. The Deputy Leader of ACMC, Attorney-at-Law N.M. Shaheed stated this holding a press conference today (18). https://youtu.be/86fzL-IaKEY On October 15, MP Bathiudeen filed a writ application through his lawyer, seeking an order from the Court of Appeal to prevent his arrest. The writ application has also been fixed for support on the 20th of October before Appeals Court justices Kumudini Wickramasinghe and Sobhitha Rajakaruna. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 18/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Another 39 from Minuwangoda Brandix cluster tested positive for Covid-19; Among them 13 are from quarantine centres & 26 are close contacts. Accordingly, the number of infected people in the Brandix coronavirus cluster increased to 2075.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 18/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
The Boossa Prison was officially designated as a High Security Prison this morning (18) by the Commissioner General of Prisons Thushara Upuldeniya. https://youtu.be/ey5mXLlUt6A... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 18/10/20)
The Indo-Lanka Accord was signed on 29 July 1987 in Colombo under emergency while the 13thAmendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution was passed on 14 November 1987. Does the Indo-Lanka Accord mention, amending Sri Lanka’s Constitution? No.Does the text of the Indo-Lanka Accord have even the mention of ‘devolution’? No.There is no mention of constitutional amendment or devolution even in the exchange of letters between President J R Jayawardena or PM Rajiv Gandhi. More importantly, the Accord and the letters only mention North & East provinces & a system for these two provinces only.Then what is this hullabaloo related to India insisting on... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 18/10/20)
By Rohana R. Wasala
Feisal Mansoor (‘Muslims and ban on cattle slaughter’/The Island/October 9, 2020) opens his piece with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, obviously taken from the web: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” However, there is some doubt about the authenticity of that alleged Gandhi quote because it is not traceable to his writings or his speeches according to quote-researchers; besides, he was usually better known for his great concern for the weak members of the human society than for animals. But even... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
By Raj Gonsalkorale
55 largest SOEs delivered net Return on Assets (ROA) of only 0.64% in 2017. The combined losses among the loss-making entities reached Rs.87bn in 2017 compared to Rs.42bn in 2016. Some are in deep trouble. The Petroleum Corporation carries a negative equity. Sheer incompetence and corruption have pushed Sri Lankan Airlines close to financial collapse. Central budget support to SOEs amounted to Rs.41bn in 2017. The reports of COPE and the Auditor General highlight repeated instances of fraud, mismanagement, corruption and negligence. The issues no longer appear to be isolated incidents of opportunistic behaviour by... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
විදෙස් සේවයට පත් වූ නව රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික නිලධාරීන් සිව් දෙනෙක් අද 2020.10.16 පස්වරුවේ අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා හමු වූහ. නිව්යෝර්ක් හි එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානයේ ශ්රී ලංකාවේ නිත්‍ය නියෝජිත ලෙස පත් කළ මොහාන් පීරිස් මහතා, චීනයේ නව තානාපති ආචාර්ය පාලිත කොහොන මහතා, ජපානයේ නව තානාපති සාජිව් ගුණසේකර මහතා හා ජිනීවා හි ශ්රී ලංකාවේ නිත්‍ය නියෝජිත සී. ඒ. චන්ද්‍රපේම මහතා මෙසේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා හමුවූහ. විදෙස් තානාපති සේවයට යන රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික නියෝජිතයින්ට අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා මෙහිදී සුබ පැතුම් එක් කළේය. නව පත්වීම් ලද මෙම රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
Prime Minister’s Media Unit
Permanent Representative-designate of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York Mr. Mohan Peiris paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa this afternoon at Temple Trees. Ambassador-designate to China Dr. Palitha Kohona paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa this afternoon at Temple Trees. Permanent Representative-designate of Sri Lanka to Geneva Mr. C.A. Chandraprema paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa this afternoon at Temple Trees. Ambassador-designate to Japan Mr. Sajiv Gunasekara paid a courtesy call on Prime... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
Courtesy RT
India’s vaccines regulator has given the green light for a clinical study of the Russia-developed Covid-19 vaccine. Similar trials of the formulation are underway in Russia itself and in some other nations. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), a department in India’s drug regulator that is responsible for licensing vaccines, has given its approval for a domestic clinical study of the Russian candidate vaccine dubbed “Sputnik V,” Indian and Russian partners have announced in a joint statement. The “multi-center and randomized controlled study” will be conducted by Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, a Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical giant.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
Courtesy RT
With most of the world facing a deep recession due to the coronavirus pandemic, China will be the only major economy to climb back from the depths of the historic crisis in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Despite the reopening of economies, global growth is projected to contract by 4.4 percent, the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report published earlier this week. While the outlook signals an upward revision of 0.8 percent compared to the body’s previous forecast, this year still marks the worst crisis since... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
N.A.de S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island
Epithets like “Trojan Horse” and “Greeks bearing gifts” have been used to refer to offers of assistance by foreign countries to Sri Lanka, when the country is battling a Covid second wave and an economic crisis (The Island 12.10.2020). “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” is an apt repartee that comes to mind at this hour of need. A friend in need is a friend indeed. But there is nothing called a free lunch. Beggars can’t be choosers may be too harsh for us. Poor Sri Lanka has asked for... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
Ceylon Diary - Official Channel
https://youtu.be/CMvX21eqhM0 ඇහෙලේ පොළ කුමාරිහාමි මාවත දැන් කෝ | වීදි හා රටේ නොයෙකුත් ස්ථාන හා නම් වෙනස් කිරීමෙන් අයුක්තිය නිවැරදි කළ නොහැකිද ? ''වීදි නම් නගරයක භාෂාවේ හෝ අතීත සංස්කෘතියේ කොටසක් බවට පත්විය යුතුය. එවිට එය ජනතාවගේ මනෝභාවයේ කොටසක් බවට පත්වී දේශානුරාගය ද ඉන් වැඩිවේ'' -පාලිත ආරියරත්න 1: Picture Courtesy: Sinhala epic historical film directed by Sugath Samarakoon and produced by Gayan Ranadheera for Rupun Filmsi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahelepo... 2:ඇහැළේපොළ කුමාරිහාමිගේ අවතාරය. මට දෙතුන් සැරයක් ත‍්‍රීවිල් එක එලවද්දී මුණ ගැහිලා තියෙනවා – ත්‍රිරෝද රථ රියදුරා කියු ඇඟ කිළි පොළා යන කතාව:... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
By Suryamithra Vishwa/DailyFT-Harmony Page Courtesy NewsIn.Asia
Sri Lankan development specialists have not concentrated enough on the indigenous hydraulic civilization which had been the envy of the world. One of the problems of modernity could be that we have approached the concept of development totally forgetting or denouncing and being apathetic to our ancient wisdom, indigenous culture and traditional knowledge. We thereby have a kind of life that we have built for ourselves that gathers vast information separated from a holistic core as our ancestors had. We have discarded the salient truth... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Another 42 from Minuwangoda Brandix cluster tested positive for Covid-19; Among them 22 are from quarantine centres & 20 are close contacts. Therefore, with 115 new cases being reported from the Brandix Corona cluster in Minuwangoda today, the number of cases reported from that cluster has crossed the 2000 mark. At present the number of infected cases reported from Minuwangoda Covid cluster is 2014.<br /><br />The total number of coronavirus infections reported in the country is currently 5,475. https://youtu.be/TiIsMSdFjQQ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Sri Lankan born Vanushi Walters of New Zealand's Labour Party has won the race to be Upper Harbour MP in northwest Auckland, taking over from retiring National MP Paula Bennett, Stuff. CO. NZ reported today. She claimed a narrow victory over National candidate Jake Bezzant, a former tech company chief executive and cricketer for Hamilton, receiving 14,142 votes to Bezzant’s 12,727. During the campaign, Walters, a board member of Amnesty International, said she was passionate about the electorate because of its “diverse” and “warm” communities. Upper Harbour covers the north-western... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The Covid-19 cases, reported at present are not random cases but in someway linked to the Minuwangoda factory cluster, Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi said yesterday. She said it was true that cases were reported from several areas in the country but each case had either direct or indirect links to some of the positive cases of the Minuwangoda cluster. “Therefore, reports that cases are reported here and there randomly, are not just and correct,” she stressed. Minister Wanniarachchi also said they were doing their best to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) looking into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks heard that the ringleader of the carnage Zahran Hashim had planned to launch the attack using 20 suicide bombers. This was revealed by a police officer attached to the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID)’s team probing the Easter Sunday attacks. https://youtu.be/ECtvBQCttUI Testifying before the panel yesterday (16), the police officer in question has stated that the relevant piece of information came to light while interrogating a member of Zahran’s group who was arrested after the coordinated... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
A special probe has been launched with the State Intelligence Service (SIS) officers to uncover the origin of the Covid-19 cluster linked to the Brandix apparel factory in Minuwangoda, says Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana. https://youtu.be/Af7YsAeYnzI He commented that the all of the recently-identified novel coronavirus cases were traced to the Minuwangoda cluster, however, it is still a question as to how the Brandix employees contracted the virus. Hence, an investigation, assisted by health authorities and Sri Lanka Police, is being carried out to trace the root of... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
It has been made mandatory for all air passengers to undergo a PCR test before departing from Sri Lanka, stated the Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd (AASL). https://youtu.be/CAMfhT3KyNo The company states that passengers must undergo the test within 72 hours of their departure time. This decision will be in effect from 6.00 pm this evening (17), AASL said.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
H. L. D. Mahindapala
The Indian Government has repeatedly intervened in the domestic affairs of Sri Lanka based on the assumption that the policies of Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) needs correction by the Big Brother, using the cane if necessary. This interventionist policy continues to prevail even though the overall Indian experience as a regional power has proved that it is not the best policy for building up trust and easing tensions and confrontations among neighbours. In the latest summit between the two heads of statesPrime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse the usual interventionist... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
විදේශගත ශ්රී ලාංකේයන්ට ඡන්ද අයිතිය ලබාදීම ඇතුළු මැතිවරණ නීති සංශෝධනයට අවශ්‍ය තේරීම් කාරක සභාවක් ඉදිරියේදී යෝජනා කරන බව ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අද 2020.10.16 දින පැවැසීය. මැතිවරණ කොමිෂන් සභාවේ උපාය මාර්ගික සැලසුම් පිළිබඳ සාකච්ඡාවක් අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ පැවැති අවස්ථාවේ අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේය. මෙම හමුවේදී කරුණු පැහැදිලි කළ මැතිවරණ කොමිෂන් සභාවේ සභාපති මහින්ද දේශප්‍රිය මහතා 2020-2024 මැතිවරණ කොමිෂන් සභාවේ උපාය මාර්ගික සැලසුමට අදාළව මැතිවරණ නීති සංශෝධනය වීම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය කරුණක් බව පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. මැතිවරණයට අදාළ ඇප මුදල් සංශෝධනය කිරීම, මැතිවරණය පැවැත්වෙන දිනයේ ඡන්දය දැමීමට නොහැකි පුද්ගලයන් වෙනුවෙන්... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ්රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්රාමාත්ය
සංවර්ධනයට අනුව දරිද්‍රතා රේඛාවට පහළින් ජීවත් වන ජනතාවගේ ගැටලු කෙරෙහි අවධානය යොමු කිරීමේ අරමුණින් දරිද්‍රතාව තුරන් කිරීම සඳහා වූ ජාත්‍යන්තර දිනය ඔක්තෝබර් 17 වන දින ලෝකය පුරා සමරනු ලබයි. 1987 ඔක්තෝබර් 17 දා දරිද්‍රතාවයට එරෙහි ලෝක කම්කරු දිනයක් පැරීසියේ සමරනු ලැබීය. එහිදී ලෝක ජනගහනයෙන් දිළිඳුබවක් දක්වන, දිළිඳුබවට ගොඳුරු වී ඇති හා අනෙකුත් දරිද්‍රතා ගැටළු පිළිබඳව අවධානය යොමු වූ අතර දරිද්‍රතාවයේ ගැටලු පිළිබඳව සිහිපත් කරමින් සෑම වසරකම එම රැස්වීම පැවැත්විණි. දරිද්‍රතාවය යනු මානව අයිතිවාසිකම් උල්ලංඝනය කිරීමක් බව එහිදී ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කළ අතර එතැන් පටන් දරිද්‍රතාවයේ රැළිය... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
සුර්ය වංශ රත්න විභූෂණ පාලිත ආරියරත්න සෙන්කඩගල සිංහ ද්වාරයේ සිට
මගේ අවධාරනයට යොමුවූ දිවයින පත්‍රයේ උපුටා ගත් ලිපිය : ජාතීන් අනුව ඉඩම් මායිම් වෙන් කිරීම වත්මන් රජයේ මෙන්ම තමාගේ ද ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය නොවන බව නැෙඟනහිර පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාර අනුරාධා යහම්පත් මහත්මිය ඊයේ (14 දා* දෙමළ සන්ධාන පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රීවරුන් හමුවේ අවධාරණය කළාය. සිංහල දමිළ හෝ මුස්ලිම් යනුවෙන් ඉඩම් වෙන් කිරීමක් සිදුව නොමැති බව පෙන්වා දුන් ආණ්ඩුකාරවරිය දේශපාලන අරමුණු වෙනුවෙන් එවැනි වෙන් කිරීම් සිදු කිරීමට උත්සාහ නොකරන බව ද මෙහිදී අවධාරණය කළාය. මඩකලපුවල අම්පාර දිස්ත‍්‍රික් දෙක මායිම්ව පිහිටි දිවුලපතාන ප්රදේශයේ ඉඩම් කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය සඳහා ජනතාවට ලබාදීම... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය - නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන, වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන, තාක්ෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශය
නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන, වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන, තාක්ෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශය යටතේ පවතින ශ්රී ලංකා නව නිපැයුම්කරුවන්ගේ කොමිසමේ මග පෙන්වීම යටතේ කොවිඩ් -19 රෝගය පැතිරවීම අවම කිරීම සදහා සහ ඔවුන්ගේ ප්‍රතිකාර වෙනුවෙන් දේශිය නව නිර්මාණකරැවන් විසින් නිෂ්පාදනය කල නව නිර්මාණ රාශියක් අද දින නාරාහේන්පිට පිහිටි නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන, වෘත්තීය පුහුණු අමාත්‍යංශයේදී හදුන්වාදෙන ලදි. නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන, වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන, තාක්ෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය ඇමතිනී සීතා අරඹේපොල මහත්මිය මෙම නව නිෂ්පාදන පරීක්ෂා කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව ගම්පහ දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ කොවිඩ් - 19 මර්ධන සටනට සෘජුවම... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 17/10/20)
මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශය: තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණ වෘත්තීයවේදීන්ගේ සංසදය
... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 16/10/20)
Courtesy SPEAR'S
Sri Lanka has recovered before, from colonial rule and civil war. As the country’s vital tourism industry prepares to leap back into life, Andrew Harris recalls his pre-lockdown adventure in the land of serendipity Oblivious to the pandemic that was on the way, I had only a darting mongoose, a parading peacock and an Olympic-sized pool for company. In such surroundings, surrender to an off-grid tropical afternoon is inevitable. Eschewing Sri Lanka’s famous sinews of sand, I’d headed straight for the hills. The mongoose and peacock were waiting inside... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 16/10/20)
by Stephanie Takyi London courtesy https://www.standard.co.uk/
Planning a long haul escape for when things (finally) open up again? Stephanie Takyi gets lost in the lush landscapes of this unique South Asian island Sri Lanka has long been a destination for travellers seeking escapism. This small beautiful island, situated south of India, is larger than life with idyllic beaches, sprawling tea plantations and exquisite properties that have the luxury credentials to rival any major city in the world. There are plenty of towns hidden away from the well-trodden tourist paths of Sri Lanka. One is Piliyandala, where you’ll find... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 16/10/20)
Yoshitha Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) linked to the LTTE assisted the investigations conducted by former CID IP Nishantha Silva, who fled the country last year, former President Maithripala Sirisena informed the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks. Testifying before the Commission on Wednesday, the former President said that several Buddhist monks, military and intelligence officers had complained against IP Nishantha Silva's investigations. "As the President, I had to decide whether I'm allowing IP Silva to carry out those investigations. Most of the people complained that the investigations led by him... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 16/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
India's federal counter-terrorist force NSG has trained a select group of personnel who protect Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the chief of the commando force said on Friday. According to Economic Times, NSG director general (additional charge) S S Deswal said this in his address on the occasion of the force's 36th Raising Day. He said the force has acquired the most modern weapons and equipment to distinguish itself as a "world class zero-error force". "The NSG close protection force has trained 21 personnel of Sri Lanka's PM security... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 16/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Minuwangoda Covid-19 cluster has confirmed 49 more positive cases this evening (16), says the Commander of Sri Lanka Army, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva. Thirty-five of them have been identified as apparel factory workers and contacts who are in quarantine centers. The remaining 14 are contacts of Covid-19 positive patients from the cluster, according to reports. Sri Lanka registered 110 novel coronavirus infections so far within the day. Thereby, the total number of Covid-19 cases reported from the Minuwangoda cluster has soared to 1,899.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 16/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Three days have passed since the Attorney General directed the Police to arrest MP Rishad Bathiudeen, however the investigation officers are yet to locate him. https://youtu.be/j-njOglhg9o The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) meanwhile recorded statements from Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and MP Rauff Hakeem with regard to the phone conversations they have had with the parliamentarian. They also recorded a statement from MP Bathiudeen’s wife at their residence in Colombo last evening (15). However, she has told the investigating officers that the parliamentarian had not kept in touch with... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 16/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Notorious underworld figure Janith Madushanka, operating under the alias ‘Podi Lassie’, who was arrested and remanded for threatening the VIPs, has been granted bail. https://youtu.be/Rgx3GdaE9SU However, he will continue to be held by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on detention orders. The Galle Magistrate delivered the order when the suspect was produced before court today (16). During the proceeding, it was revealed in open court that ‘Podi Lassie’ had used cosmetic products which weighed up to 5kg in total, while in remand custody at the high-security... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 16/10/20)
What is this ‘creative balance & equilibrium in Sri Lanka’s favor’ that the Moragoda Doctrine espouses to achieve? Exactly how many votes would the Moragoda Doctrine have delivered to Gotabaya Rajapakse or the SLPP had that been the basis of their election manifestos & election campaigns?While Moragoda is the head of Pathfinder, the very organization that is promoting the implementation of the MCC, advocated via its Post-Covid Economic Proposal, MCC actually demands changes to the constitution and land policy and land laws prior to signing of the agreement. If so, how can Moragoda claim to ‘protect Sri Lanka’s interests and safeguard... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 16/10/20)
Backed by an overwhelming majority at the Presidential & General Elections, the Government in power rightly has decided to work towards a closure of the successive UNHRC Resolutions against Sri Lanka by initially withdrawing from the co-sponsorship of 30/1 & 34/1 Resolutions. UNHRC has every provision to take up human rights issues at the Universal Periodic Review. Four of Sri Lanka’s dearest friends are members of the UNHRC – China, Pakistan, Russia & Cuba and Sri Lanka must initiate their cooperation to bring all of the former legally questionable procedural error resolutions to a grand finale. Sri Lanka... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 16/10/20)
... -Full Story- (https:/factcheck.afp.com/ - 16/10/20)
Ratanapala
15 Oct 20 The nation is being entertained by some circus artistes at the CID. Who are the directors and producer of this grand illusion? First it was Rajitha and Ravi K. Then it was Sampayo. These are people who were only a day earlier in the view of the public. When warrants are issued for their arrest they disappear from their palaces – sometimes two three or more around the island. Today it is Rishard Baithudeen’s case. He seems to have disappeared while being protected by a ‘government issue’ police guard. They... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්
යහපාලන මෛත්‍රීපාල රනිල් ජෝඩුව සහ එවකට ආණ්ඩුබලයේ සිටි මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ප්‍රමුඛ මන්ත්‍රී කණ්ඩායම විසින් සම්මත කරගත් 19 වන සංශෝධනය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත්කරන ලද්දේ අධිකරණ ඇමතිව සිටි විජේදාස රජපක්ෂ මහතාය.රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ අවශ්‍යතාවය මත මෙම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන කොටුම්පත සකස් කරන ලද්දක් බව බොහෝ දෙනා දනී.විශේෂයෙන්ම එවකට ප්‍රබලව සිටි රාජපක්ෂ කණ්ඩායම දුර්වල කිරීම පිණිස එල්ල කළ විශේෂ සංශෝධන කීපයක් එහි විය.එසේම කුමන ප්‍රශ්ණ පැණ නැගුණද වසර හතරහමාරක කාලයක් ආණ්ඩුව පවත්වාගෙන යෑමට අවශ්‍ය ප්‍රතිපාදනද එහි ඇතුලත් විය.මෙම සංශෝධනය නිසා සිදු වූයේ යහපාලන රජය ආම්භයේ සිටම ඉතාමත් දුර්වල තත්වයකට පත් වීමයි.මෛත්‍රීපාල සහ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ යන දෙදෙනා අතර ව්‍යවස්ථාමය සන්ධානයක් ඇති... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
නව රාත්‍රි පූජා උත්සවයට සමගාමීව තෝරාගත් හින්දු කෝවිල් හතළිහක් සඳහා රුපියල් 50000 බැඟින් මුදල් ආධාර ප්‍රදානය කිරීම ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අද 2020.10.15 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවැත්විණි. කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගතය හේතුවෙන් මුළු ලෝකයම විශාල තර්ජන හා අර්බුධවලට මුහුණ පා ඇති අවස්ථාවක වුවත්, රජයක් ලෙස හින්දු ආගමික සාරධර්ම ආරක්ෂා කිරීම අප සැමගේ වගකීමක් බව අග්‍රමාත්‍යතුමා මෙහිදී පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. මුදල් ආධාර ප්‍රදානය සංකේතවත් කරමින් කෝවිල් භාරකාර මණ්ඩලවල සභාපතිවරු පැමිණ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා අතින් මුල්‍ය ආධාර චෙක්පත් ලබා ගත්හ. අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා හින්දු කෝවිල් සඳහා මූල්‍යාධාර ප්‍රදානය කිරීමේ උත්සවයේදී මෙසේ ද කීවේය. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
නව මහා භාරකාරතුමා ලෙස පත්වීම් ලද අග්රාමාත්ය අතිරේක ලේකම් (නීති) ගනේෂ් ධර්මවර්ධන මහතා අද 2020.10.15 දින කොළඹ 07, බුලර්ස් පටුමගේ පිහිටි මහා භාරකාර දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේදී සිය ධූරයේ වැඩ ආරම්භ කළේය. ගනේෂ් ධර්මවර්ධන මහතා ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ අතිරේක ලේකම් (නීති) වශයෙන් ද කටයුතු කරයි. මෙම අවස්ථාව සඳහා පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ප්‍රේමනාත් සී. දොලවත්ත, අග්රාමාත්ය අතිරේක ලේකම්වරුන් වන චමින්ද කුලරත්න හා හර්ෂ විජේවර්ධන යන මහත්වරු ඇතුළු පිරිසක් එක්ව සිටියහ.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
ජෝන් කීල්ස් සමූහ ව්‍යාපාරය විසින් කොළඹ 12, ජස්ටිස් අක්බාර් වීදියේ ඉදි කරන ලද (Waterfront Integrated Resort) නිවාස සංකීර්ණයේ පැවති පිරිත් දේශනාව සඳහා ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමන් අද 2020.10.15 දින එක්විය. එම නිවාස සංකීර්ණයේ පළමු ගොඩනැගිල්ලේ මූලික වැඩ අවසන් කිරීමට සමඟාමීව මහා සංඝ රත්නයේ ආශිර්වාද ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා මෙම පිරිත් දේශනාව සංවිධානය කර තිබිණි. ගොඩනැගිලි 6කින් සමන්විත මෙම නිවාස සංකීර්ණයේ මූලික කටයුතු අවසන් කළ ගොඩනැගිල්ල මහල් 33 කින් සමන්විතය. මහල් 47 කින් යුත් නිවාස සංකීර්ණ දෙකක්, සිනමාහල්, සාප්පු සංකීර්ණ හා ආපනශාලාවලින් සමන්විත මෙම නිවාස සංකීර්ණය සුඛෝපභෝගී ජීවන රටාවකට... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ්රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්රාමාත්ය
ලෝක ආහාර දිනය (World Food Day) අද දිනයට යෙදී තිබේ. මෙවර එහි තේමාව වන්නේ “සැවොම එක්ව, වැඩෙන්න, පෝෂණය කරන්න, පවත්වා ගන්න, අපගේ ක්‍රියාවන් අපගේ අනාගතයයි” යන්නයි. 1945 වසරේ දී එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය විසින් ආහාර සහ කෘෂිකර්ම සංවිධානය හඳුන්වාදීම අනුස්මරණය කිරීමට සෑම වසරකම ඔක්තෝබර් 16 වැනිදා ලෝක ආහාර දිනය වශයෙන් නම් කරන ලදී. එතැන් පටන් කුසගින්න සහ මන්ද පෝෂණයෙන් තොර ලොවක් ගොඩනැගීමේ දී ජයග්‍රහණය කළ යුතු අභියෝග පිළිබඳ දැනුවත්භාවය වැඩි කිරීමේ අවස්ථාවක් ලෙස ලෝක ආහාර දිනය යොදා ගනී. ලෝකයේ සෞඛ්‍ය සම්පන්න ජනතාවක පැවැත්ම ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතභාවය, පෝෂණයට අවශ්‍යය... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
ජාත්‍යන්තර සුදු සැරයටි සුරක්ෂා දින 50 වන සැමරුම් උත්සවයට සමඟාමීව සමරු මුද්දරයක් හා විශේෂ සමරු කවරයක් නිකුත් කිරීම ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අද 2020.10.15 දින පස්වරුවේ අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවැත්විණි. තැපැල්පති රංජිත් ආරියරත්න මහතා විසින් ජාත්‍යන්තර සුදු සැරයටි සුරක්ෂා දින 50 වැනි සැමරුම් උත්සවය වෙනුවෙන් නිකුත් කළ සමරු මුද්දරය හා විශේෂ සමරු කවරය ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට පිළිගැන්වීය. එම විශේෂ සමරු කවරය හා සමරු මුද්දරය අග්රාමාත්ය ලේකම් ගාමිණී සෙනරත් සහ සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශ ලේකම් මේජර් ජනරාල් වෛද්‍ය සංජීව මුණසිංහ මහත්වරුන්ට ද පිළිගැන්විණි. අනතුරුව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා ජාත්‍යන්තර සුදු සැරයටි සුරක්ෂා... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
Prime Minister’s Media Unit
October 15, 2020 The High Commissioner of India Gopal Baglay called on Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa this afternoon at Temple Trees and discussed several ongoing projects as well as possible cooperation in new sectors. The primary purpose of the High Commissioners’s visit was to follow-up on the virtual summit that was held between Prime Minister Rajapaksa and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month. Both leaders have expressed satisfaction on the virtual summit, which was the first virtual engagement of Prime Minister Rajapaksa since resumption of office as the Prime... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ඉන්දීය මහ කොමසාරිස් ගෝපාල් බාග්ලේ මැතිතුමා අද 2020.10.15 දින පස්වරුවේ ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා හමුවිය. අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ පැවැති මෙම හමුවේදී දැනට ක්‍රියාත්මක ව්‍යාපෘති කිහිපයක් සහ ඉදිරියේදී සහයෝගීතාව ඇතිකරගත හැකි ක්ෂේත්‍රයන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් සාකච්ඡා පැවැත්විණි. මුලික වශයෙන් මෙම හමුව පසුගිය මාසයේදී ඉන්දීය අග්රාමාත්ය නරේන්ද්‍ර මෝදි මැතිතුමා සහ අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අතර අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ පැවැති සමුළුව පිළිබඳව පසුවිපරමක නිරතවීම අරමුණ වී තිබිණි. අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා නැවත අග්‍රාමාත්‍යධූරයට පත්වීමෙන් පසු ද්වීපාර්ශික සාකච්ඡාවක් ලෙස අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ වීඩියෝ තාක්ෂණයෙන් පැවැති පළමු සමුළුව පිළිබඳව දෙරටේම නායකයන් අතිශය සතුටට පත්වූ බව මෙම... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Attorneys-at-Law and other parties from curfew-imposed areas have been requested to refrain from entering the Supreme Court premises at the Superior Court Complex in Hulftsdorp. The Registrar of the Supreme Court, Pradeep Mahamutugala communicated the decision in a notice. Accordingly, the aforementioned parties have been advised not to enter the Supreme Court premises for any purposes including filing new cases, referencing of cases, obtaining certified copies and filing motions. The decision will be in effect until the quarantine curfew imposed in the Covid-19 affected areas is relaxed, the Supreme Court... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Another 19 from Minuwangoda Brandix cluster tested positive for Covid-19. Among them 09 are from quarantine centres & 10 are close contacts.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Attorney General Dappula de Livera has instructed DIG Prasad Ranaweera of the CID to act without disregarding the advice of the Attorney General and court orders. That was when the DIG of the CID was summoned to the Attorney General's Department this afternoon (15) to inquire into the delay in the arrest of MP Rishad Bathiudeen. The Attorney General yesterday ordered the police to arrest three persons, including the former Member of Parliament, on charges of misusing public property and violating election laws by transporting displaced voters to Mannar on... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing alleged incidents of political victimisation has issued notice to former President Maithripala Sirisena and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to appear before the Commission on 19 October. They were summoned to testify regarding a complaint made by former Ambassador to Russia Udayanga Weeratunga. In addition, former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, former Ministers Mangala Samaraweera, Ravi Karunanayake and MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake were also issued notices to appear before the Commission on the same day.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
Courtesy The Times of India
CHENNAI: Sri Lankan drug trafficker Sunil Gemini Fonseka alias ‘Katta’ Kamini has been arrested from his hideout in Bengaluru by the ‘Q’ branch of the Tamil Nadu police. He has been remanded in judicial custody. Read more at:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/78678489.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
Fact Check
An image that appears to show Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Yang Jiechi, a high-ranking Chinese official, holding a framed aerial photograph of the island of Sri Lanka has been shared hundreds of times in multiple Facebook posts. The image, however, has been doctored; the original photo shows Rajapaksa and Yang holding a framed photo of themselves during a recent diplomatic visit. The image of Rajapaksa and Yang, who previously served as China's foreign minister, was published on Facebook here on October 9, 2020. The post’s Sinhala-language caption translates to English as: “He is trying... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
N SATHIYA MOORTHY Courtesy ORF
Given the trajectory of the China relations — Sri Lanka’s ‘India First’ policy will obviously be confined to bilateral security issues and New Delhi’s concerns in the matter. The short-notice Colombo visit of a high-level Chinese delegation, to be followed now by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s this month-end should be of interest as much to the Indian strategic community as to their counterparts in Sri Lanka. The question is that if the Chinese visit was a reaction to the recent Quad Ministerial at Tokyo, and the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 15/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා සහ Mother Sri Lanka ආයතනයේ නියෝජිතයින් අතර හමුවක් ඊයේ 2020.10.13 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවැත්විණි. Mother Sri Lanka ආයතනයේ වර්තමාන ප්‍රගතිය හා ඉදිරි වැඩපිළිවෙළ පිළිබඳව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා දැනුම්වත් කිරීම මෙහි මූලික අරමුණ විය. 2008 වර්ෂයේ ස්ථාපනය කර ඇති Mother Sri Lanka ආයතනය, වගකිව යුතු පුරවැසියෙකුවීම සඳහා පෙර පාසල්, පාසල් දරුවන් හා ශ්රී ලංකා තරුණ ප්‍රජාවේ චර්යාවන් සංවර්ධනය කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය වැඩසටහන් සංවර්ධනය කිරීම අරමුණු කර ගනිමින් ආරම්භ වූ ආයතනයකි. මේ යටතේ පාසල් 2600ක Mother Sri Lanka සමාජ ගොඩ නැඟීම තුළින් රාජ්‍ය, පෞද්ගලික හා අන්තර්ජාතික පාසල්වල දරුවන්ට අධ්‍යාපනික, නායකත්ව... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
Xinhua
BEIJING, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- China will further strengthen its cooperation with Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Algeria and Serbia under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative with a new development pattern, a senior Chinese diplomat said Monday. Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, told Chinese press upon finishing his visits to the four countries. During the visits, the Chinese official... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
By Prarthana Basu Courtesy The Diplomat
Pompeo’s trip would come weeks after a high-level Chinese delegation visited the country. On October 8, a high-powered Chinese delegation headed by the Director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office and former ambassador to the United States, Yang Jiechi, visited Sri Lanka as part of his four-legged visit, which included the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, and Serbia. This was the first visit by the Chinese delegation to South Asia since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had led to curbs on international travel. It’s notably that Yang chose to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Colombo High Court has imposed a fine of Rs 12 million on the Captain of the crude oil tanker ‘MT New Diamond’ which caught on fire while on Sri Lankan waters. When the case was taken up today (14), the Greek Captain Stereo Sterio Ilias plead guilty for the charges filed against him in relation to the fire. Subsequently, the Attorney General sought a court order for compensation in a sum of Rs 200 million. However, the court has ruled for the accused to be released after the settlement... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
UPDATE: (5.10 p.m.) - The accountant arrested in connection with the case against former minister Rishad Bathiudeen, over transporting IDP voters in state-owned buses, has been remanded until October 26 after being produced before the Fort Magistrate’s Court. https://youtu.be/aFOa498Agrk Alagarathnam Manoranjan, the accountant of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Resettling project implemented under former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, has been placed under arrest. The arrest was made by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the area of Kirulapone on Tuesday night. In the meantime, a... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Attorney General Dappula de Livera has directed the Police to conduct investigations into MP Rishad Bathiudeen’s brother, Riyaj Bathiudeen under 07 counts, says the Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana. Riyaj Bathiudeen was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in April this year for allegedly having direct links to the terrorists involved in the Easter Sunday attacks. However, the CID released him in September, citing lack of evidence. The Police Spokesperson said 60 police officers with special investigation skills have been deployed under the supervision of a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
More individuals have tested positive for the novel coronavirus expanding the Minuwangoda COVID-19 cluster by another 113 cases. According to Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, 05 of them have been detected among the persons undergoing quarantine at quarantine centers. The remaining 108 cases are identified as close contacts of the Minuwangoda apparel factory employees. Meanwhile, the number of cases detected from the Katunayake Free Trade Zone has gone up by 72 cases. In addition, three persons –an expressway bus driver, its conductor and its owner –from Mathugama... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Police Curfew will be imposed in Katunayaka police area from 5.00 am tomorrow. https://youtu.be/atVc38ONY_Q Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva stated that Police curfew will be imposed in Katunayake police division from 05:00 a.m. tomorrow (15 October) until further notice. Army Commander states that employees in the Export Processing Zone can submit their identity cards to go to work, using it as a curfew pass.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
Stanley Gunaratne
After Sarath Weerasekera finally stating what patriots have long stated regarding the Indo Lanka Accord (in stark contrast to the "India first" mantra foolishly and treacherously stated by other members within the government), I share part 2 in the hope that citizens will call for an urgent correction of our nation's laws. This article is a continuation of the previous suggestions raised in the Lankaweb article "No more excuses. Get things done. 13A and Indo Lanka Accord be Gone" - http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/08/11/no-excuses-now-2-3-so-get-things-done-13a-indo-lanka-accord-be-gone/ Correcting the disastrous Language laws, Education Mediums and Lack of Opportunity for... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
Sunil Yatalamatta Gamage
Many countries especially western world wants our country to be vulnerable for attacks. They don’t want our country to be politically stable with strong national security! they will use NGO’s and various elements to destabilize the government. The people of this country had given the mandate to make that change immediately but constitutionally. The democratic mandate already has been given and there is no any other mandate needed any further. It is us came forward to form this government and it is our wish the country is governing according to will of... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
Shivanthi Ranasinghe
This is in response to the October 06, 2020 The Island editorial titled “Lajja!”. This particular editorial had most unfortunately deviated from its usual high standard of professionalism. Instead, this is quite presumptuous and in fact caters to fake news. It is true that the release of MP Rishad Bathiudeen’s brother has raised eyebrows. However, equally of concern is the manner in which this is being reported. It is with grave concern we note that a certain media channel seemed to be reporting this news with a deliberate twist. It appears... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
By Sri Lanka Study Circle
This is a response to the article by Shenali Waduge on MCC and relating it to the claim by a MP that the MCC will be signed but subject to Sri Lankan Law. Unfortunately, the statement from this MP has come AFTER the article showing how foreign laws will prevail after signing MCC. It makes a mockery of the MPs statement. [Daily Mirror article The proposed Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement will be signed only after studying and subjecting it into Sri Lankan law, a government MP told Parliament .http://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/MCC-will-only-be-signed-subject-to-SL-laws-Govt-MP/108-197496] Public are... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 14/10/20)
Dilrook Kannangara
Summary: At Least 40% of Chinese Loans to Sri Lanka Had Immediate Economic Benefits to Sri Lanka Private Sector All Chinese loans to Sri Lanka are for the construction of valuable physical assets. Even if only 40% of those projects are given to Lankan organisations and individuals, that is highly profitable. In other words, 40% of the loan that was taken for the project has immediately come back to Sri Lanka’s private sector by way of labour and material purchases. It is true the government holds 100% of the project debt. But when taken... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 13/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
දෙදහස් දහනවය වසරේ පහ ශ්‍රේණිය ශිෂ්‍යත්ව විභාගය සමත්වූ සේවා නියුක්තයන්ගේ භාර අරමුදලේ සාමාජිකයන්ගේ දූ දරුවන්ට ශිෂ්‍යත්ව ප්‍රදානය සඳහා ලබාදෙන රුපියල් මිලියන 90ක් (රු.89,895,000) වටිනා චෙක්පත අද 2020.10.13 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට පිරිනැමිණි. සේවා නියුක්තයන්ගේ භාර අරමුදල් මණ්ඩලයේ සභාපති ශ්‍රියාන් ද සිල්වා විජයරත්න මහතා විසින් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාට මෙම චෙක්පත භාරදෙන ලදී. 2019 වර්ෂයේ ශිෂ්‍යත්ව විභාගය සමත් වූ දූ දරුවන් 5993 දෙනෙකු වෙනුවෙන් පළමු අදියර යටතේ ශිෂ්‍යත්ව ප්‍රදානය සඳහා මෙම මුදල් මහජන බැංකුවට යොමුවනු ඇත. අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා 1994 වසරේ කම්කරු අමාත්‍යවරයාව සිටියදී රටේ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 13/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
ටවර් හෝල් නාට්‍ය හා රංගකලා පාසලේ සිසුන්ට ලබා දෙන රුපියල් දෙදහසක්වන මාසික ශිෂ්‍යත්ව අරමුදල රුපියල් තුන්දහස දක්වා වැඩිකිරීමට ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අද 2020.10.13 දින උපදෙස් දුන්නේය. ටවර් හෝල් රඟහල පදනමේ 296 වැනි භාරකාර මණ්ඩල රැස්වීම අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවැති අවස්ථාවේ මෙම තීරණයට එළැඹිණි. මෙයට අමතරව ටවර් හෝල් නාට්‍ය හා රංගකලා පාසලේ වාර්ෂිකව විශිෂ්ට දක්ෂතා දක්වන සිසුන්ට ලබා දෙන රුපියල් 5000ක මුදල් ත්‍යාගය රුපියල් 10000ක් දක්වා ඉහළ දැමීමට ද අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා උපදෙස් දුන්නේය. රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය විදුර වික්‍රමනායක මහතා ඊට අදාළ යෝජනාව ඉදිරිපත්... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 13/10/20)
By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando Courtesy Ceylon Today
The scientific community believes that all activities of the cosmos are governed by nature. Some believe that there is a massive force embracing gravity that consists of ‘the weak force; electromagnetic and the strong force’. These fundamental forces together seem to govern everything that occurs in the universe. It is called the universal force. Various religions identify this natural force by many names. Christians believe it to be the Almighty God, Muslims call it Allah and the Hindus call it Lord Siva and so forth.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 13/10/20)
Yoshitha Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Several issues cropped up after a relative of an LTTE member was appointed to a high position of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) by the previous government, former president Maithripala Sirisena told the PCoI into the Easter Sunday attacks. He said due to such issues, he had summoned the HRCSL's former chairperson and questioned her about is functions. Mr. Sirisena said the HRCSL had informed the United Nations' Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva that human rights violations were taking place in Sri Lanka during... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 13/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Most Ven. Napane Pemasiri Thero, the Mahanayake of the Sri Lanka Ramanna Maha Nikaya, says that he was not aware of the press conference held yesterday (12) with the participations of the Chief Secretary Thero of the Ramanna Maha NIkaya. https://youtu.be/AH8jGov4hl4 The Sri Lanka Amarapura - Ramanna Samagari Maha Sangha Sabha, holding a press conference, said yesterday that immediate action should be taken to deactivate the 20th Amendment to the Constitution which is against democracy. However, the Chief Prelate of the Ramanna Nikaya told the media today (13):... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 13/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
https://youtu.be/2-7B0kzsQV0 The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has dispatched 06 police teams to arrest MP Rishad Bathiudeen, the Police Spokesperson said. Earlier today (13), the Colombo Fort Magistrate ruled that the Police can proceed to arrest MP Bathiudeen and the two other suspects who are accused of misappropriating public funds during last year’s presidential election, without a warrant. Thereby, Attorney General Dappula de Livera directed the Police to arrest MP Bathiudeen, Project Director at the Ministry of Resettlement Mohamed Yaseen Samsudeen and the Accountant of the Project Alagarathnam Manoranjan... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 13/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Total number of Covid-19 cases reported in Sri Lanka exceeds the 5,000 mark (5,038); 3328 recoveries & 1,697 still receiving treatment. Brandix Cluster update : 145 more coronavirus infected persons reported - Country total crosses 5,000 Another 145 from Minuwangoda Brandix cluster tested positive for Covid-19. Among them 48 are from quarantine centres & 97 are close contacts. The country total has crossed 5,000 cases. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 13/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
The government has decided to remove import duties on several essential commodities. Accordingly, import duties on dhal, canned fish, onions and sugar have been removed. The government has taken this decision considering the current cost of living and the difficulties associated with Covid-19. Due to the tax exemption, canned fish (big) can be bought for Rs. 200, a kilo of B-onion for Rs. 100 and a kilo of sugar for Rs. 85 from tonight. The President's Media Unit stated that arrangements have been made for customers... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 13/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Two CID teams sent to MP Rishad Bathiudeen's Colombo and Mannar residences to arrest him.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 13/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Fort Magistrate Priyantha Liyanage today (13) informed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that a court warrant is not required to arrest a person on charges under the Public Property Act. The Cour stated the above was rejecting a request by the CID to issue a warrant for the arrest of three suspects, including MP Rishad Bathiudeen. The Attorney General ordered the Acting Inspector General of Police today (13) to arrest of MP Bathiudeen on which the CID requested the Court to issue a warrant for his arrest. >The suspects have been charged with criminally misusing public... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 13/10/20)
Courtesy RT
https://youtu.be/AKCp-1OGGP4 Through constant vigilance and some good fortune, astronomers have managed to capture the moment a supermassive black hole in a galaxy 215 million light-years away tore a star apart. The so-called ‘tidal disruption event’ (TDE) is the closest such death of a star humanity has ever witnessed. Astronomers were alerted by the intense flash of light, visible hundreds of millions of light years away, just before parts of the star disappeared into the black hole’s event horizon after being ‘spaghettified’ by the immense gravity. The TDE,... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Courtesy RT
The World Health Organization has warned against the idea of allowing Covid-19 to simply spread through society, calling this “herd immunity” approach to fighting the pandemic “unethical.” “Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic,” WHO chief Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus said during a virtual briefing on Monday, calling the idea “unethical.” Tedros added that herd immunity to a virus is usually achieved when the vast majority of the population – 80 percent, in the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Express
To stem Chinese advance in Sri Lanka, US would like Sri Lanka to sign the MCC compact and SOFA, both of which have raised the hackles of nationalists. Colombo, October 11: The Sri Lankan government will not bend to the United States on the issue of the Millennium Challenges Corporation Compact (MCC) or the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) when the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits for talks with Lankan leaders, a top government source said. “The Gunaruwan committee appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had gone into the MCC... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Courtesy The South China Morning Post
Island’s president asks Beijing for help to disprove that Chinese-funded megaprojects involved impossible repaymentsFinancial injection follows visit to Colombo last week by Politburo member Yang Jiechi China announced Sunday that it was providing a US$90 million grant to Sri Lanka, two days after the island nation’s president sought help from a visiting Chinese delegation in disproving a perception that China-funded megaprojects are “debt traps”. Calling the financial help a “timely grant”, the Chinese embassy in Colombo said it would be used for medical care, education and... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR, Asia regional correspondent Courtesy Nikkei Asia
Sri Lanka's government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa desperately needs cash to service over $15 billion in foreign debt. (Source photos by Reuters) COLOMBO -- Sri Lanka's ultranationalist government looks set to receive a financial lifeline from China rather than an International Monetary Fund bailout to avoid defaulting on foreign debts, affirming the Asian giant as lender of the last resort to the strategically located South Asian island nation. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's government desperately needs cash to service over $15 billion dollars owed to foreign... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
By Sugeeswara Senadhira/Ceylon Today
Members of the opposition Samage Jana Balawegaya who make irresponsible remarks on the pandemic should follow the example set by its leader Sajith Premadasa. Colombo, October 12: The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most dangerous challenges we Sri Lankans have faced in our lifetime. It is a human crisis with severe health and socio-economic consequences. In the second phase, what initially began as a single case of a 39-year-old employee of a garment factory testing positive for COVID-19, shot up to 1000 infections in just 48 hours. The infected patients were... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Education Minister Professor G.L. Peiris today said there will be no legal requirement to go for a referendum in terms of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution’s draft when the government incorporates all proposals, if any, recommended by the Supreme Court. Speaking at the weekly SLPP news briefing, Minister Peiris said the Supreme Court’s determination on the constitutionality of the draft of the 20A will be presented in Parliament on October 20 by the Speaker. “If the Supreme Court has made any proposals to change the draft, the government will... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Former President Maithripala Sirisena informed the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks today that several Non-Governmental Organisations and politicians were directly involved in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) inquires, hampering it from conducting independent inquiries during the former Government's tenure. The former President made the above statement while responding to a question raised by the representative from the Attorney General's (AG) Department regarding a statement made before the Commission by former Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayaka. Earlier, testifying before the Commission, Mr. Ratnayaka said that pressure was bought upon Investigation... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) yesterday said it decided to stop all public agitations against the proposed 20th Amendment due to the latest outbreak of COVID-19, its National List MP Eran Wickramaratne said yesterday. Mr. Wickramaratne said the party would carry out its campaign against this piece of legislation via social media and the mainstream media. “We have cancelled the programmes planned earlier against the 20th Amendment and decided to confine our agitation campaign only to the platforms of social and mainstream media,” he said. The MP said his party is... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Negotiations were underway for a 10 billion RMB (Renminbi) currency swap agreement between the Central Bank and the People’s Bank of China, a Minister said yesterday. He said the currency swap would boost liquidity in the country. Money, Capital Markets and Public Enterprise Reforms Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal told Daily Mirror this would help the government tide over the present difficulties. He said there was a similar agreement signed by him, as the then Governor of the Central Bank. “We are seeking a similar arrangement with... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Attorney General met with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)’s Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and officers today (12). https://youtu.be/R1ncvHkE4Gw This is as the Attorney General summoned the DIG in charge of the CID and its Chief Investigating Officer over the release of Riyaj Bathiudeen, brother of MP Rishad Bathiudeen, who was recently released after being detained in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. The CID officers were asked to bring the investigative material related to the release of Bathiudeen. However, upon meeting, the Attorney General... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Former President Maithripala Sirisena says that he fought a line battle, when the former government, in which he was President, attempted to imprison pioneers of Sri Lanka’s victory in the conflict with the LTTE terrorists. His comments came during the proceedings of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks, during which he also criticized his own Defence Secretaries. He also told the Commission, that former Defence Secretaries lied to him about holding intelligence coordination meetings weekly, when he was shown evidence, that they weren’t. The... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Attorney General informs Acting IGP that stalling investigations in the case of Riyadh Bathiudeen by the CID is unjustified.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Update: Another 51 from Minuwangoda cluster have tested positive for Covid-19. Among them 15 are from quarantine centres while 36 are close contacts of apparel factory workers.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Former President Maithripala Sirisena says that Ranil Wickremesinghe had instructed the heads of state institutions including the Central Bank not to implement his orders. https://youtu.be/5us4BBvX8-A Giving evidence before the Easter Commission, he stated that under the good governance government, the CID conducted investigations under the influence of NGOs and politicians. Former President Maithripala Sirisena, who was Sri Lanka's defense minister at the time of the Easter attack, testified for the second day before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing into the Easter attacks.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Hawaii was annexed by US in 1898. The reason for Hawaii to be annexed was the fear of Hawaii becoming part of European empire. US doesn’t want to see Sri Lanka tilt to China and is exerting tremendous pressure via Quad partners. Are we interested enough to protect our sovereignty? Before that do we understand the dangers lurking at our door. Didn’t the wise say don’t accept any gift horse that can be a Trojan Horse! Hawaii was an independent state proved by the 2001 Permanent Court of Arbitration’s arbitral tribunal. By 1893 there were only 44 independent... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS
Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, has recently made a public statement that the establishment of deviated schools for kids in different religious and ethnic groups was a major reason to deflect society according to religions and ethnic groups. The policy created many issues in the process of building a united country and one nation. In the past, this issue was not reflected in society as people believed that society would be continued in the future without dynamism in attitudes and modernization has shown that society reflects it is an unstable condition as... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
By Kalinga Seneviratne
https://www.indepthnews.net/index.php/the-world/asia-pacific/3907-sri-lanka-bans-cow-slaughte-but-has-yet-to-pass-animal-welfare-bill This article is the 44th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports. SINGAPORE (IDN) – The Sri Lankan government will be amending the Animals Act (1958) after the Cabinet approved a proposal by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to ban the slaughter of cattle in this predominantly Buddhist country. However, animal rights activists point out that there are no animal welfare laws in the country, and an attempt to enact an Animal Welfare Bill... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
නීතිඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන (2020.10.11)
ලිපිය දීර්ඝ වීම වැළැක්වීම සදහා විසිවන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පතේ 14 වන වගන්තිය (70 වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව) ඇසුරෙන් පමණක් විග්‍රහ කරමින් මෙම ලිපිය ලියා ඇති අතර අනෙක් ව්‍යවස්ථා 3 අදාලවත් අවස්ථානුගතව එය අදාල කරගත හැකිය. මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලෙස 2015 ජනවාරි 08 තේරීපත් වීමෙන් පසු රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයා ලෙස පත්කර ගත්තේ ය. විධායක ජනාධිපති ධූරය යහපාලනයට බාධාවක් ලෙස දකිමින් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයා 19 වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය 2වන වරටත් 2015 දී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කළේය. පළමු වරට 19 වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයක් 2002 දී චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක ජනාධිපතිවරියව සිටියදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගෙන... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Sarath Bulathsinghala
11 Oct 2020 Perhaps very few realize the dilemma Sri Lanka is in with respect to the Quad's and their Indo-Pacific Strategy and its closest implications - earlier ACSA, SOFA and now MCC! When big powers move in they don't necessarily ask your permission to walk through your country. They just walk in prosecute their operations and sometimes leave a devastated country asking them to fend for themselves. This happened during World War I and World War II during the Vietnam War and more recently in Yugoslavia, Libya and the Middle... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
N.A.de S. Amaratunga
As discussions on drafting a new constitution gathers momentum the ethnic problem may assume significant importance as it has been an intractable issue in the politics of Sri Lanka. Some political scientists believe that ethnic based conflicts could be resolved by power sharing methods that strengthen democracy (Hartzell CA, 2015) while others disagree as results are rather disappointing in a large majority of countries (Horowitz D, 2015). This letter looks at these points of view in an attempt to see what useful information could be gleaned from these studies relevant to Sri Lanka. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි.
යමෙක් අපට බලශක්තිය ලබාදෙන සුර්යා තුල ජීවින් සිටින බවක් සදහන් කළහොත් ඔහුට අත්වෙන ඉරණම සම්බන්ධව අපට වටහා ගත හැක. සමාජයේ අති බහුතරයක් ඔහුට එරෙහිව නැගී සිටිනු ඒකාන්තය. ඒ නුතන විද්‍යාවට අනුව සුර්යා තුල ජීවයක් පැවතීමට කිසිදු ඉඩක් නැති බවට අප මනස තුල බලවත් මතයක් ගොඩනංවා ඇති බැවිනි. ඊට අමතරව අන් කිසිදු ග්‍රහ ලෝකයකවත් ජීවයක් පවතින බවක් වත් කීමට සමාජයේ එකද පුද්ගලයෙක්වත් මැලිවන්නේ නවීන විද්‍යාවයයි, තමන් අදහන බලවේගය මේ වනතෙක් එවැන්නක් ප්රකාශ කර නැති බැවිනි. ඒ අනුව නවීන විද්‍යාවද එක්තරා ආගමක ස්වරූපයකින් සමාජය තුල කටයුතු කරන බව පෙනේ. නවීන විද්‍යාව මේ මුළු ලෝකයේ පාලනය තමන්ගේ අතට... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
By James Gallagher Health and science correspondent Courtesy BBC
image captionBCG (Bacillus Calmette-Gurin) vaccine for tuberculosis, pictured at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in 1931. Scientists in the UK have begun testing the BCG vaccine, developed in 1921, to see if it can save lives from Covid. The vaccine was designed to stop tuberculosis, but there is some evidence it can protect against other infections as well. Around 1,000 people will take part in the trial at the University of Exeter. But while millions of people in the UK will have had the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Express Courtesy NewsIn.Asia
But the court has said that fundamental rights petitions can be filed against the Attorney General, “in respect of anything done or omitted to be done by the President in his official capacity.” Colombo, October 11 (newsin.asia): In the determination on the 20th Constitution Amendment Bill leaked to the Sunday Times, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court has let the basic structure of the proposed 20A bill remain unaffected while making a referendum necessary in the case of four relatively minor provisions. The Court’s determination suits the government because its basic requirements... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 12/10/20)
Health News
COVID-19 health regulations to be gazetted into laws Courtesy Adaderana
The Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi says that steps will be taken to gazette the recommendations issued by the Ministry of Health for the control of COVID-19 into a law. The Minister stated that the new laws regarding health regulations will be published in a gazette notification within the coming two days. As a result, the courts will be able to impose severe punishments on those who violate the quarantine laws, she added. “I hope to issue... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 11/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Attorney General has summoned the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and its Chief Investigating Officer. https://youtu.be/NA1757yCLyc This is over the release of Riyaj Bathiudeen, MP Rishad Bathiudeen’s brother, after being under arrest in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks. The officers have also been directed to bring all investigative material related to the matter, the Coordinating Officer of the Attorney General State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne. Accordingly, the duo are to appear before the Attorney General tomorrow (October 12).... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 11/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Another 60 persons from the Minuwangoda coronavirus cluster have tested positive for the virus, stated Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva. Among them, 48 have been detected from the Sri Lanka Army-operated quarantine centers. The remaining 12 patients are close contacts of the Minuwangoda apparel factory workers. So, a total of 121 COVID-19 patients have been detected from the Minuwangoda cluster. Accordingly, the Minuwangoda cluster has expanded to 1,307 infections.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 11/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
The person who pretended to be a van driver at the white van news conference which caused a great deal of controversy during the last government had called a press conference today. He said that he was pressurized by former Minister Rajitha Senaratne regarding the case related to that incident. He has lodged a complaint with the Meegahawatta Police Station requesting that he be given proper protection. https://youtu.be/DKN6LDddbTY... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 11/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Army Intelligence Officer Kanishka Gunaratne says that some officers of the CID had intimidated him and tried to obtain false evidence. This was while giving evidence for the first time before the Presidential Commission Investigating Political Victimization https://youtu.be/v4TViuD4190... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 11/10/20)
By Kelum Bandara Courtesy Daily Mirror
Sri Lanka and China also signed an agreement for a grant of 600 million RMB grant (Rs.16.5 billion) for livelihood development in the island. Colombo, October 10: China responded positively to Sri Lanka’s request to cooperate in the provision of a vaccine being developed by it against COVID-19, a diplomatic source said on Friday. Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is reported to have requested for this when a top-level Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi, who is a member of the politburo of the Communist Party of China,... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 10/10/20)
By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror
From the 16 th. to the 18 th.,Century, Jesus could be easily adopted as one of the Hindu gods like Vishnu and Natha and looked upon as a benevolent being. Virgin Mary could be absorbed as Pattini, Prof. Gananath Obeyesekere points out. Under the Sinhala Kings, Kandy showed a remarkable degree of cosmopolitanism which should be an inspiration to us in this day and age when nations are torn asunder by ethnic, linguistic and religious divisions. People of all faiths and ethnic groups, immigrants from the rest of the island and... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 10/10/20)
By Sugeeswara Senadhira Courtesy Newsin.asia
Opposition politicos and irresponsible social media blatantly misinterpreted police and court decisions on the release of Riaj Bathiudeen, brother controversial former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, says Sugeeswara Senadhidra Colombo October 9 (Daily News): Sri Lanka’s Opposition politicians are ready to grab any weapon to attack the government as they have run out of issues. In the rush to make allegations against the ruling party, they put their feet in their mouths again and again. The latest weapon they have picked up in their witch hunt is the release of... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 10/10/20)
Courtesy Newsin.Asia
The Lankan President said he will prove that Hambantota port is not a debt trap laid by China but is a development project with high potential Colombo, October 9: Yang Jiechi, a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo and a former Foreign Minister, told Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa here on Friday, that Chinese President Xi Jinping gives “key priority” to relations with Sri Lanka and that China will support Sri Lanka in world bodies including the United Nations Human Rights Council. Yang was on a two-day visit... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 10/10/20)
Courtesy Daily Mirror
Labour Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has directed the Labour Commissioner to immediately submit him a report regarding allegations levelled by several trade unions against the Brandix management that the company had allegedly failed to follow safety and health protocols. Minister de Silva said he informed the trade unions to file a written complaint with the ministry to consider further action. He also added that the management of such factories or any other companies were bound to follow the relevant safety and health protocols, gazetted by the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 10/10/20)
Courtesy Daily Mirror
The Public Health Inspectors Union of Sri Lanka claims that none of their members ever supervised any of those who were brought down from India in repatriation flights chartered by Brandix Apparel Ltd. who claim to have subjected all returnees to a 14 day self-quarantine. Secretary, Public Health Inspectors Union (PHIU), M. Balasooriya dismissing the contents of the media releases issued by Brandix Apparel Ltd and the Task Force of the National Operational Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak, said that, had any one of those who were brought to Sri Lanka from... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 10/10/20)
Courtesy Ada Derana
Eleven employees of another apparel factory in the Katunayake Export Processing Zone (EPZ) have tested positive for Covid-19, the Administrative Public Health Inspector at the Health Medical Officer’s office in Seeduwa, Mr Suresh Kumara said. It is reported that more employees of the apparel factory in question were referred to PCR tests on Friday (09) and the test results received today (10) had confirmed that they have been infected with the virus. Accordingly, 02 female workers and 09 male workers of the apparel factory had tested positive.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 10/10/20)
Courtesy AdaDerana
Two workers of the Minuwangoda apparel factory and 101 close contacts of factory workers have tested positive for the virus. This increases the total positive cases from the Minuwangoda Covid-19 cluster to 1,186.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 10/10/20)
... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 10/10/20)
KAMALIKA PIERIS
Revised 13.10.20 Buddha wanted to spread his ideas beyond the locality he lived in, and he sent sixty disciples in all directions. This was the start of Buddhist missionary work. 300 years later Emperor Dharmasoka (268 – 232 BC) took over the missionary task. He sent Buddhist missionaries to Syria, Macedonia, Cyrene, Epirus, Kashmir, Gandhara, Lower Burma and Thailand. Thanks to king Dharmasoka, Buddhism which till then, had covered only a few thousand square miles in north eastern India during the first two hundred years of its existence, became a world... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
By Rohana R. Wasala
While surfing the net this morning (October 6) I saw a flash of a You Tube video purportedly uploaded by Niroshan Premaratne, former UPFA Matara District MP (2015-20) from the Wimal Weerawansa-led Jatika Nidahas Peramuna. He failed to enter parliament in the general election held on August 5 this year. It must have been a great disappointment to him personally; but it certainly was more so to the JNP and its loyal followers, and the general public who loved to hear him talk in parliament while championing the nationalist cause and launching devastating verbal... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
By M D P DISSANAYAKE
Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara (V) expressed views openly against Mr Gotabaya Rajapakse seeking nomination for the Presidency. His main argument at that time was that the democracy will be threatened if military men occupy top roles in the country. Minister Wimal Weerawansa (W) was in the forefront to bring the military man for the top job. Mr V is the only surviving politician who contested the 1982 Presidential Election, scoring 17000 votes nationwide out of 6.5million valid votes. He is one of the MPs who maintain a very high record of attendance... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
හිටපු චීන විදේශ අමාත්‍ය සහ වත්මන් කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂ දේශපාලන කාර්යාංශයේ සාමාජික යැංග් ජියේචී (Yang Jiechi) මැතිතුමාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුත් ඉහළ පෙළේ චීන දූත පිරිස අද 2020.10.09 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමන් හමු වූහ. ගෝලීය කොරෝනා වසංගතයෙන් අනතුරුව චීන රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික දූත පිරිසක් දකුණු ආසියානු කලාපයේ සංචාරයේ නිරත වන ප්‍රථම අවස්ථාව මෙය වේ. කොවිඩ්-19 ගෝලීය වසංගතයට එරෙහිව සටන් කිරීම සහ ආර්ථික සබඳතා පුනර්ජීවනය කිරීම යන ක්ෂේත්‍රයන්හි ශ්රී ලංකා - චීන සහයෝගිතාවය තවත් ශක්තිමත් කිරීම උදෙසා මෙම හමුව පැවැත්විණි. හිටපු චීන විදේශ අමාත්‍ය සහ වත්මන් කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂ දේශපාලන... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
පාස්කු දිනයට අනුබල දීම මත සැකපිට අත්අඩංගුවට ගත්, හිටපු අමාත්‍ය රිෂාඩ් බදියුදීන් මහතාගේ සහෝදරයෙක් වන රියාජ් බදියුදීන් අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විසින් අත්තනෝමතික ලෙස නිදහස් කිරීමට එරෙහිව ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂයේ මන්ත්රීවරුන් 100 දෙනෙකුගේ අත්සනින් යුත් ලිපියක් අතිගරු ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට සහ ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී අද දින (2020.10.09) බාර දෙන ලදී. 2019 අප්‍රේල් මස 21 වන දින සිදුවූ පාස්කු දින ප්‍රහාරය එල්ල කළ ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ට අනුබල දීමට සැකපිට හිටපු අමාත්‍ය රිෂාඩ් බදියුදීන් මහතාගේ සහෝදරයෙක් වන රියාජ් බදියුදීන් පසුගිය අප්‍රේල් මස 14 වන දින අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විසින් අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්නා ලදී. මෙම... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
Courtesy Xinhua
COLOMBO, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday separately met with visiting senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and the two sides discussed closer cooperation between their countries. Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), arrived in the island country on Thursday for an official visit. During the meetings, Yang, who is also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, said that the traditional China-Sri Lanka... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
India has no moral right to ask for the fully implementation of the 13th amendment to the Constitution, Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Sarath Weerasekera told Parliament yesterday. Participating in a debate at the time of adjournment of the House on foreign agreements of Sri Lanka, the Minister said that the amendment has been interpreted as an outcome of Indo-Lanka Accord of which the role and commitment of India as a party to the agreement was at question because India did not fulfil its commitments. He said, “Indian Prime... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The Opposition yesterday challenged Brandix Ltd. to reveal the list of its employees who were said to have returned from India on September 22 and the places where they underwent quarantine process. Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella told Parliament that Brandix as a reputed apparel industry should submit the list of employees and the places where they underwent quarantine process in Parliament through a government MP. “I challenge the factory to submit the details in Parliament if it was telling the truth,” he said. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The head of the high-level delegation from the People’s Republic of China, who is currently visiting Sri Lanka assures that China will continue to assist Sri Lanka for the success of the country’s development drive, the President’s Media Division said. The present status of bilateral relations between China and Sri Lanka is highly satisfactory. Maintaining and promoting this friedship is a key priority of President Xi Jingping. The head of the delegation said that China will firmly stand with Sri Lanka extend to protect the country’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity at international fora... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
UPDATE: 14 Covid-19 positive cases reported. 01 worker from the Minuwangoda Brandix garment factory & 13 close contacts of the workers. Therefore, 30 coronavirus positive cases have been reported today. Minuwangoda Brandix Corona cluster has increased to 1080. The total cases in the country has now increased to 4,523. The reported cases of all infected persons; 5th October - 1116th October - 7397th October - 2078th October - 0299th October - 035... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Former Chairman of the Fisheries Harbor Corporation Upali Liyanage stated that when Rajitha Senaratne was the Minister of Fisheries, he was pressured to appoint former MP Hirunika Premachandra as the Legal Assistant of the Corporation. https://youtu.be/AqbEYk3ruWo... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
A letter signed by 100 Govt MPs' submitted to the President, protesting against releasing of MP Rishad Bathiutheen's brother Riyaj Bathiutheen.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
With the spread of the corona cluster reported from the Brandix garment factory in Minuwangoda, it was confirmed today that three employees of three other factories in the Katunayake Investment Zone have been infected with the coronavirus. The Board of Investment stated that these covid-19 infections have been reported from leading factories. All three factories employ more than 3,000 people, and the Board of investment stated that today they have started the PCR tests. On the 7th, a female employee of one of the garment factories was admitted... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
When the author is an attendee of UNSC Resolution 1373 proscribed LTTE front TGTE’s 9thsitting of a ‘utopian Parliament’ in Boston, USA from 18-20 May, 2018there is little that needs to be said about her anti-Sri Lankan article. However, let us address her harangue. https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/446604666/transnational-government-of-tamil-eelam-s-parliament-meets-in-boston-united-states-may-18th-to-20th https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/sri-lanka/2020-09-29/no-accountability-war-crimes-sri-lanka Author claims LTTE was decisively defeated at the cost of ‘tens of thousands of civilians’ can you please establish how many instead of producing vague sentences. Author claims ‘credible allegations” – how about providing the sources. Authora next say ‘evidence... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
The world was in for a shock with the dawning of 2020. An unknown virus hit first China and spread across the world like wildfire. Since the first death in January 2020 as of 7thOctober 2020 (10 months) the death toll worldwide is over 1million (1,060,443). No one still knows how the virus came about though there are plenty of theories. But, what we do know is that the virus is spreading still and causing a major danger to the world at every level of polity. Terrorism is the other global malady facing the world with some form of armed... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
KAMALIKA PIERIS
This essay is a preliminary to the study of the modern Sinhala Buddhist civilization of Sri Lanka. This essay draws attention to those aspects of Asia’s Buddhist civilization, which are not well known and have not received much attention in Sri Lanka. Buddhism, which originated in north India in the 6th century BC, spread over most of South and Southeast Asia, creating a vast Buddhist civilization, which included many sovereign states of today. Sri Lanka played an important role in preserving Buddhism and in spreading Buddhism within this region. Buddhism held... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
KAMALIKA PIERIS
The Buddhist doctrine was formalized in the three Councils held after the death of the Buddha. The first Council was held at Rajgir under King Ajatasattu (492 to 460 BC) three months after the death of the Buddha. A major part of the Sutta and Vinaya pitaka were decided at this Council. Second council was at Vaisali, under King Kalasoka (395 – 367 BC) hundred years after death of Buddha, This council met to discuss disputes regarding Vinaya rules. By this time, new schools of Buddhism had developed. These breakaway groups were present at... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
Sriyan de Silva
Contents Defining CharacteristicsA Historical Perspective of the Neo-Conservative Movement and Its AgendaGlobal Impact of Neo-Conservatism and the Ravages of WarAn Overall Conclusion Defining Characteristics In discussing the Neo-Conservative movement [the adherents of which are commonly referred to as ‘Neo-cons’, which term will be used throughout this Paper to refer to them], it is useful and even necessary to identify its defining characteristics. This movement might also be referred to as a set of beliefs. Many believe that the Neo-cons have done untold damage to other countries and also to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 09/10/20)
S. Akurugoda
According to the news item appeared in The Island under the heading ‘Address Tamils aspirations within united Sri Lanka, and implement 13th Amendment’ dated 28th September 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to carry forward the process of reconciliation with the implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment to our Constitution. The news item further said that PM Modi has offered a grant assistance of US$15 million for promotion of Buddhist ties between the two countries. The above advise and the offer of financial assistance remind us how the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප සහ පොදු සේවා සේවක සංගමය
2020 ඔක්තෝම්බර 07 වන දින මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය ප්‍රවෘත්ති කතෘ ප්‍රවෘත්ති අධ්‍යක‍ෂ සිය`ඵම විද්්‍යුත් සහ මුද්‍රිත මාධ්‍ය zzගෞරවනීය රැකියාZZ - ගරුත්වයක් ඇති රැකියා සහ වරදකාර හැගීමෙන් තොර ඇගළුම් කර්මාන්තයක් අද ඔක්තෝමබර 07 වන දින zzලෝක ගෞරවනීය රැකියා දිනයZZ වේ. ලොව පුරා රැකියා සම්බන්ධ ඇගයුම් කෙරෙන දිනය අද ය. ශී්ර ලංකාවේ සේවා තත්ත්වයන් පිළිබඳවද zzලෝක ගෞරවනීය රැකියා දිනයZZ වන අද ඇගයුමක් කළ යුතුව ඇත. මෙරටට විදේශ විනිමය උපයන අපනයන නිෂ්පාදන ක්ෂේත්‍රයෙහි ප්‍රධානම අංශයක් ලෙස උදම් අණන විශේෂයෙන් ඇ`ගළුම් කර්මාන්තයේ සේවකයින්ගේ දුක්ඛදායි සේවා තත්ත්වයන් ගැන... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
Garvin Karunaratne former Government Agent, Matara
“Buses, coaches, lorries and vans can easily be built in Sri Lanka using local timber. There are good carpenters who are experts at the job . When I was a young boy in the Forties I lived near the South Western Bus Co in Ratmalana and have seen coaches been built by our workmen. At that time every bus, coach and lorry was built in Sri Lanka. It is seen that from 1978 the import of chassis with engines has been drastically reduced while the import of buses, coaches, lorries and vans has increased. It can... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
By Rohana R. Wasala
While surfing the net this morning (October 6) I saw a flash of a You Tube video purportedly uploaded by Niroshan Premaratne, former UPFA Matara District MP (2015-20) from Wimal Weerawansa led Jatika Nidahas Peramuna. He failed to enter parliament in the general election held on August 5 this year. It must have been a great disappointment to him personally; but it certainly was more so to the JNP and its loyal followers, and the general public who loved to hear him talk in parliament while championing the nationalist cause and launching devastating verbal... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
Palitha Senanaake
The Press and social media in Sri Lanka had been awash these days with what transpired at the recent summit between the Sri Lankan Prime Minister and his Indian counterpart Hon. Narendra Modi. The reason for this media interest had been the controversial request made my Mr. Modi, in response to Sri Lanka’s assurance that their foreign policy is ‘India first’. Mr Modi in trun mentioned that Sri Lanka should implement the 13th amendment fully to grant equality to Tamils and to accommodate Tamil aspirations. In a sequel, Mahinda Rajapakse sidelined the Tamil part and... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම යටතේ සාගර විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ ධීවර, සමුද්‍රීය හා නාවික ඉංජිනේරු ක්ෂේත්‍රවල වෘත්තීය හා අධ්‍යාපන අවස්ථා පුළුල් කිරීමට අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අද 2020.10.08 දින උපදෙස් දුන්නේය. සාගර විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ භෞතික හා මානව සම්පත් සංවර්ධනයට අදාළව අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ පැවැති හමුවකදී අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේය. ශ්රී ලංකා සාගර විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ කලමැටියාන ප්රදේශයේ ස්ථාපිත කොට, සංවර්ධනය කිරීමට උපදෙස් දුන් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා එහි තාක්ෂණික පීඨය දැනට පවත්වාගෙන යන මට්ටක්කුලිය ප්රදේශයේ එම භූමිය කේන්ද්‍ර කර ගනිමින් සංවර්ධනය කිරීමට පියවර ගන්නැයි අවධාරණය කළේය. ශ්රී ලංකා සාගර විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය ස්ථාපිත වූයේ, අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ්රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්රාමාත්ය
වර්ෂ 1874 ඔක්තෝබර් 09 වැනිදා ඓතිහාසික බර්න් ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කරමින් ආරම්භ කළ ජෙනරල් පෝස්ට් යූනියන් (General Postal Union) සංවිධානය වර්ෂ 1878 දී විශ්ව තැපැල් සංගමය (Universal Postal Union -UPU) බවට පරිවර්තනය විය. ලෝක සමුළුවක් වශයෙන් 1874 දී තැපැල් සංගමය නිර්මාණය වීමත් සමඟ ඊටම ආවේනික වූ දිනයක් නොමැති අඩුපාඩුව කැපී පෙනෙන්නට විය. ඒ නිසාවෙන් බර්න් ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කළ ඔක්තෝබර් 09 වැනිදා විශ්ව තැපැල් දිනය වශයෙන් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කිරීමට, 1969 දී ටෝකියෝ නගරයේ පැවැති ලෝක සමුළුවේ දී තීරණය කෙරිණි. වර්ෂ 1984 දී හැම්බර්ග් සමුළුව විශ්ව තැපැල් දිනය ලෝක තැපැල් දිනය... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
By P. K. Balachandran/ Courtesy Daily Express
The US envoy's comments on Sino-Lankan relations drew a strong riposte from the Chinese embassy Colombo, October 7: The United States and China are now openly and officially fighting over Sri Lanka, shedding any reservations they may have had about making the island nation a bone of contention. US Ambassador Alaina Teplitz kicked off the fight with an interview to a local English daily in which she openly expressed concern about Sri Lanka being taken for a ride by the Chinese through their development... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
By Lakna Paranamanna/Ceylon Today
Lakna Paranamanna on why the US is losing out in the soft power game in Sri Lanka Hollywood has been one of the most effective soft power instruments of America; a medium that charmed the global citizen on liberal values, popular culture and the ‘American way of life’. The recent release of Disney’s live action remake of ‘Mulan’ – a story of a girl who breaks cultural stereotyping and barriers to become a soldier in China’s imperial army – marked an interesting turn of tables; the deputing of Hollywood into a vehicle... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
Courtesy Ceylon Today
Of the 1402 employees at the Minuwangoda Brandix Apparel factory, only 125 employees reported themselves to the Police today (8). However, 245 employees had reported themselves yesterday (7), said the Police Media Spokesperson, DIG Ajith Rohana. But, according to State Intelligence Service and the Department of Census and Statistics, few workers have evaded the police and are believed to have fled the city. Furthermore, the Police Media Spokesperson stressed on the fact that today (8) was the final day for the 'evaders' to report themselves in. Therefore, he urged the employees... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
The report of the Presidential Commission appointed to look into the irregularities of the ETI institution has been handed over to President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. The commission have pointed out in its report that there is a possibility of taking over the properties owned by ETI to the government and to take legal action against the owners. https://youtu.be/Hy6zcXqTO6E According to the report, it has been revealed before the Commission that the transaction of selling the property of E.A.P. Broadcasting including ETI to a foreign company has not... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
UPDATE: One more worker from the Minuwangoda Brandix garment factory & 8 close contacts of the workers tested positive for Covid-19.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
A 18 year old youth was arrested by CID in Meetiyagoda for publishing a false news item regarding curfew on social media using the Presidential Secretariat letterhead.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
https://youtu.be/gqnfvlnCkDc At present 14 hospitals have been allocated for the admission of coronavirus infected people.< Head of the Epidemiology Unit, Dr. Sudath Samaraweera stated that 14 hospitals including IDH, Welikanda, Minuwangoda and Theldeniya have been allocated. Meanwhile, 526 employees of the Minuwangoda Brandix garment factory and their associates are currently being quarantined at three quarantine centers in Habaraduwa and Koggala. The Galle District Epidemiology Unit stated that they have been sent to quarantine since the 6th of this month after conducting PCR tests.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 08/10/20)
චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D.
පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය පිළිඹඳව විමසන කොමිෂම ඉදිරියේ හිටපු ජනාධිපති සිරිසේන හා හිටපු අගමැතිවරයෙක්‌වූ රනිල් දුන් ශාක්‍ෂිවලදී මෙන්ම ඊට පෙර ශාක්‍ෂිදුන් පූජිත් ජයසුන්දර, හේමසිරි ප්‍රනාන්දු, නිලන්ත ජයව‌ර්‌ධන හා සිසිර මෙන්ඩිස් යන අයගෙන් ඇත්ත කියන්නේ කවුද, බොරු කියන්නේ කවුද යයි තෝරා බේරා ගැනීම කොමිෂමට දුෂ්කර කාර්‌යයක් වන්නේය. ඇසින් දුටු ශාක්‍ෂි පවා ඒ ශාක්‍ෂිය දෙන තැනැත්තාට සත්‍යයක් වුවත් නියම සත්‍යය නොවිය හැකි බව ෆුට්බෝල් ක්‍රීඩාවේදී ක්‍රීඩා විනිශ්චය කරුවන් විඩීයෝ පටි නැවත බලා තීරණ වෙනස් කිරීමෙන් පෙනේ. සියදෙනෙක් ඉන්නා ශාලාවකට යමෙක් ඇතුල්වී කරණ දෙයක් නොයෙක් අය නොයෙක් වෙනස් ආකාරයට වාර්තා කරණ අන්දම පර්යේෂණ කර පෙන්‌වාදී තිබේ. ඉඳගෙන... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
"කංසා" හා අනෙකුත් මත්ද්‍ර‍ව්‍ය ප්රවර්ධනය හා වෙළඳාම වැළැක්වීම පිළිබඳ පවත්නා යාන්ත්‍ර‍ණය ශක්තිමත් හා වේගවත් කිරීමට රජය කටයුතු කරන බවත්, එහි ඇති අහිතකර සෞඛ්‍ය තත්ත්වයන් පිළිබඳව සමාජය දැනුවත් කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන බවත් ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා පවසයි. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගේ ප්රශ්න ඇසීමේ අවස්ථාව යටතේ අද 2020.10.07 දින පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී බුද්ධික පතිරණ මහතා විසින් අසනු ලැබූ ප්රශ්න සඳහා පිළිතුරු දෙමින් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා මේ බව ප්රකාශ කළේය. "කංසා" භාවිතයේ කායජීවි මනෝ සමාජීය හා අනෙකුත් අහිතකර ප්‍ර‍තිවිපාකයන් පිළිබඳව පණිවිඩය ජනතාව වෙත තවදුරටත් ගෙන යාම සඳහා මත්ද්‍ර‍ව්‍ය ජාතික නිවාරණ වැඩසටහන ශක්තිමත් කර ඇති බව ද අගමැතිතුමා... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
මූල්‍ය අපරාධ විමර්ශන කොට්ඨාසයේ (FCID) නිලධාරීන් 2015 වර්ෂයේ සිට 2019 වර්ෂය දක්වා විමර්ශන කටයුතු සඳහා විදේශ සංචාරවලට සහභාගි වී ඇති අතර, එම සංචාර සඳහා සභභාගී වූ නිලධාරීන් 20 දෙනෙකුට, එම සංචාරවලට අදාළ ගුවන් ගමන් ගාස්තු හා විදෙස් ගමන් වියදම් දීමනා ලෙස රුපියල් ලක්ෂ එකසිය හතළිස් එකක පමණ මුදලක් වැය වී ඇති බව ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා පවසයි. ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගෙන් ප්රශ්න ඇසීමේ අවස්ථාව යටතේ අද 2020.10.07 දින පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී වසන්ත යාපා බණ්ඩාර මහතා විසින් අසනු ලැබූ ප්රශ්න සඳහා පිළිතුරු දෙමින් අගමැතිතුමා මේ බව පැවසීය. පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී වසන්ත යාපා බණ්ඩාර මහතා... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
ජනමාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි සමස්ත ලංකා වරාය පොදුසේවක සමිතිය
2020. 10. 07 යුද හමුදාපති, ලූතිනල් ජෙනරාල් ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා මහතා, ප‍්‍රධානී, කොවිඩ්-19 පාලන මධ්‍යස්ථානය, රාජගිරිය. ගරු යුද හමුදාපති තුමනි, වරාය තුළින් කොවිඩ්-19 Covid-19 පොකුරක් නිර්මාණය වීමේ අවධානම පිළිබඳව කොරෝනා වසංගතය ලොව පුරා සීග‍්‍රයෙන් ව්‍යාප්ත වෙමින් පවතින මොහොතක එම වෛරසය පාලනය කළ රටවල් අතර ශ්රී ලංකාව මුල් පෙලේ පැවතීම අප රටට ඉමහත් ගෞරවයකි. එහෙත් පසුගිය දා දිවුලපිටියෙන් හමුවූ නව කොරෝනා පොකුර මගින් නැවත වටයකින් අපේ රට කොරෝනා අවධානමට ලක්ව ඇත. එම අනතුර එසේ තිබියදී ශ්රී ලංකා වරාය අධිකාරිය විසින් නෞකා මෙහෙයවීමේදී නිසි... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
It was revealed at the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) held yesterday (06) that a loss of Rs. 1.1 billion has been incurred as a result of not specifying the quantity of coal required when calling for tenders for the purchase of coal by the Ceylon Coal Company (Pvt) Limited. It was also revealed that the Ceylon Coal Company (Pvt) Limited had purchased coal under the short-term method, without following the proper procurement process. This was revealed at the first meeting of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) held in Parliament convening... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Six more COVID-19 cases have been added to the growing Minuwangoda COVID-19 cluster, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva confirmed. https://youtu.be/luzXCda1xW8 Among the latest cases are 05 employees of the Minuwangoda apparel factory and 01 of their close contacts. Accordingly, a total of 1,034 cases have been identified from the Minuwangoda cluster.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
https://youtu.be/RkvkDBlI6PM... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
H. L. D. Mahindapala
Managing Indo-Sri Lanka relations is prioritised as the most important item in the agenda of the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry. In fact, the President and the Prime Minister have stretched every nerve since they came into power to go beyond the official diplomatic interactions to maintain a personal rapport of the best kind with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The recent meeting between the two prime ministers was meant to smoothen the rough patches and reinforce the good relations between the two heads of states. The official communique of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS
A few months ago, the country-wide highlighted problem that was directed to the president was difficulty in obtaining credit facilities for the small business sector and neglecting small business communities by organized banks in the country. The issue has been widely discussed by bankers as well as policy-makers of the country. The issue is a pressing question to all communities and it is not a question quickly emerged but it is a question existing in the country since the early 1990s. the budget speech in 1970, Dr.N.M.Perera highlighted the issue and later the government directed... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
UK, France, Canada and wherever LTTE asylum seekers are increasing their numbers and presence has seen an increase in violence and even murders. This attributes to the inherent violence that has been part and parcel of their modus operandi since taking up arms. At present there are knife & sword gangs and it is a matter of time that they will promote themselves to handling more sophisticated armory. The Western intelligence & law enforcement agencies do not need to be told that for a contract, LTTE even assassinated an Indian Prime Minister on Indian soil inducting even Indians for that... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි.
ස්වභාවය සම්බන්ධව සාකච්ඡා කිරිම බොහෝ තලයන් හිදී සිදුකරන සාමාන්‍යය කාර්යයකි. සැබැ ලෙසම ප්රාථමික වශයෙන් ස්වභාවය හඳුනා ගැනීමට යා යුතු සුදුසුම තැන වන්නේ මිනිස් පාලනයෙන් බැහැරව පවතින පාරිසරික රටාවකටය. උත්තර ධ්‍රැවය, ඇන්ටාක්ටිකාව, වැසිවනානතරය, හෝ ඝන වනානතරය මේ සඳහා සුදුසුම ස්ථානයන්ය. මිනිසුන් රහිත ආක්ටික් කලාපයේ සම්පූර්ණ පාලනය දරන්නේ ස්වභාවයයි. ස්වභාවය සෑම ජීවියකුම නිර්මාණය කරන්නේ පැහැදිලි අරමුණක් සහිතවය. ස්වභාවයට නිශ්චිත ඉලක්කයක් ඇති අතර, එම ඉලක්කය අරමුණු කරගෙන,ඊට අවශ්‍යකරන ජීවින් නිර්මාණය කිරීම ස්වභාවය අඛණ්ඩය ඉටුකරන ප්‍රධාන කාර්යයි. නිර්මාණිත ජීවියාට මේ භූමිය වෙනුවෙන් කලයුතු මහා කාර්යභාරයක් ස්වභාවය විසින් පවරන අතරම ඒ සම්බන්ධව අධීක්ෂණය කිරීමේ වගකීමද ස්වභාවය මත රදවා ගෙන... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
Dr Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara
“We are not here to lecture you but to offer any possible assistance. We are certain that Sri Lanka is capable of choosing what needs to be done. We are ready to extend our cooperation to achieve the development aspirations of Sri Lanka”, (Seubert and Furgler New Ambassadors to the Federal Republic of Germany and Dominik Furgler Switzerland) (This is a statement made by the two Diplomats at the Presidential Secretariat when they presented their credentials to President Gothabhaya Rajapaksa , as reported in CT on 30th Sept 2020... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
by Sri Lanka Study Circle
Mr. Basil Rajapaksa, Special Representative of the President and Head of the Presidential Task Force on Economic Revival and Poverty Eradication, symbolically handed over the first batch of face masks from a production of 200 million face masks for export by Brandix, to U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives Alaina B. Teplitz. The handover took place at the Brandix Headquarters on 14th May 2020 in the presence of Mr. A. Sukumaran – JAAF Chairman, Mr. Ashroff Omar - Brandix Group Chief Executive Officer and Ms. Ranga Ranmadugala – Board Member... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන, වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන, පර්යේෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය
කොවිඩ් - 19 වෛරසය හඳුනා ගැනීම සඳහා LAMP ( Loop- Mediated Isothermal Amplification ) පී. සී. ආර් පරීක්ෂණ කට්ටලයක් නිපදවීමට තාක්ෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය යටතේ ක්‍රියාත්මක වන ශ්‍රි ලංකා නැනෝ තාක්ෂණ ආයතනය සමත්ව තිබේ. මෙය මීට පෙර සිදු කරන ලද RT පී. සී. ආර් යන්ත්‍රය සදහා යොදාගත් පර්යේෂණ කට්ටලය හා සැසඳීමේදි මෙම කට්ටලය මගින් පී. සී. ආර් පරික්ෂණ සදහා යන කාලය අඩුකරගැනිම මෙන්ම වැය වන පිරිවැයද අඩු කරගත හැක. එලෙසම අපගේ රට තුළින්ම නිෂ්පාදිත පරීක්ෂණ කට්ටලයක් භාවිතා කිරිමෙන් අවශ්‍ය කට්ටල අඩුවක් නොමැතිව ලබා ගැනිමට... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ්රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්රාමාත්ය
''ලෝකය වෙනස් කිරීම පිණිස භාවිත කළ හැකි වඩාත්ම ප්‍රබලතම අවිය වන්නේ අධ්‍යාපනයයි'' - නෙල්සන් මැන්ඩෙලා මෙකී අපේක්‌ෂිත වෙනස සිදු කිරීමේ පෙර ගමන්කරු වන්නේ ගුරුවරයාය. ලොව ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨතම වෘත්තීන් අතර ගුරු වෘත්තිය මුල් තැන ගන්නේ ද ලෝකයේ හා මනුෂ්‍ය වර්ගයාගේ රඳා පැවැත්ම සඳහා වූ මඟ නොමඟ පසක් කරන මාර්ගෝපදේශකයා ගුරුවරයා වන හෙයිනි. රටක අනාගතය ගොඩනැගීම උදෙසා හා එම රටේ දරුවන් යහපත් පුරවැසියන් කිරීමේ මහඟු කාර්ය‍යේ පු‍රෝගාමී මෙ‍හෙවරක් ඉටු කරනු ලබන ආදරණීය ගුරුභවතුන් ඇගයීම, ඔවුන්ගේ කාර්යභාරය මනාව වටහා‍ගෙන ඒ පිළිබඳව සමාජය දැනුවත් කිරීම ලෝක ගුරු දිනයේ මුඛ්‍යය පරමාර්ථය වේ.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
A.J.M. Muzammil Media Unit
ඌව පළාත තුල කොවිඩ්-19 රෝගය හිස එසවීම වැළැක්වීමට ගත යුතු ක්‍රියාමාර්ග පිළිබඳව සාකච්ඡාවක් ඌව පළාත් ගරු ආණ්ඩුකාරවර ඒ.ජේ.එම්. මුසම්මිල් මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අද දින ඌව පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාරවර කාර්යාලයේ දී පවත්වන ලදී. මෙහිදී ක්‍රමක්‍රමයෙන් අක්‍රීය වෙමින් පැවති කෝවීඩ් ආරක්ෂක ක්‍රියාවලිය නැවතත් සියලු රාජ්‍ය ආයතන වල මෙන්ම පොදු ස්ථාන වල සක්‍රීය කිරීමට තීරණය කෙරුනි. එමෙන්ම ඌව ගුවන් විඳුලි සේවය ඔස්සේ දිගින් දිගටම සෞඛ්‍ය උපදෙස් ප්‍රචාරය කරන්නට උපදෙස් ලබා දුන් අතර ජනතාව වැඩි වශයෙන් එකතු වන ස්ථාන හා පොදු ප්රවාහන මාධ්‍යන් නිරන්තරයෙන් විෂබීජානුහරණයට ලක් කිරීම, මුඛ ආවරණ පැළදීම සහ මීටරයක පරතරය පිළිබඳව වඩාත් සැලකිලිමත්ව කටයුතු කරන ලෙස... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
Kalani Kumarasinghe Courtesy The Daily Mirror
All 101 PCR tests conducted on the students and teachers of the Divulapitiya School have returned negative for COVID-19, Public Health Inspectors Union of Sri Lanka (PHIUSL) Secretary M. Balasooriya told Daily Mirror. Mr. Balasooriya said the results of the tests that were done yesterday, came out at 6 p.m. today. “Only one result came back positive from all the PCR tests conducted so far, and that was the daughter of the patient who was identified first. A total of 80 PCR tests were carried out today and that included some... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 07/10/20)
Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Prabhakaran's youngest son was a commander of LTTE baby brigade, but the Sri Lankan army never killed him, SJB MP Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka told Parliament today. He said this in response to an allegation made by Tamil National People's Front MP Selvaraj Gajendran that the security forces killed Prabahakaran's little son after feeding him with biscuits. "Prabhakaran's wife was a member of the LTTE, his eldest son a colonel in the LTTE, his daughter a member of the LTTE women's wing and his youngest... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 06/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Stern legal actions will be taken against those who hide or assist to hide whereabouts of any Covid-19 patients and suspected cases, DIG Ajith Rohana said.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 06/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The employees, of the Brandix Company in Minuwangoda, who have not yet reported to health officials or law enforcement authorities, are requested to reach them immediately, Army Commander. Lt. General Shavendra Silva said. "Workers, who have failed to be present before health officials or law enforcement authorities to undergo medical procedures, are asked to reach them immediately," Army Commander said. Meanwhile, he stressed that there were also reports that some factory workers had visited several public places in the Colombo area. “Therefore, people in Colombo and suburbs are... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 06/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
With the recording of 124 Covid-19 positive workers from the Minuwangoda Brandix garment factory, a total of 729 infected persons were reported today from the cluster according to the Army Commander. Also, 10 more returnees from overseas have been identified as infected today. Therefore, the total infected persons in the country has increased to 4252.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 06/10/20)
By M D P DISSANAYAKE
In regard to last year Easter Sunday terror attacks, the President Gotabaya Rajapakse has initiated two separate bodies to investigate the incident. The traditional investigations by the Colombo Crime Division, Criminal Investigation Department and the Terrorism Investigation Department combined to nail down the culprits, so far it is reported more than 200 suspects have been arrested. In addition to this ongoing investigation, the new President Gotabaya Rajapakse has appointed a Presidential Commission with the widest terms of reference to determine the circumstances, culprits, financers and gather a larger picture... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
Ceylon Teachers Service Union
ගරු ආණ්ඩුකාරතුමා, ඌව පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාරවර කාර්යාලය, බදුල්ල. ආණ්ඩුකාරතුමනි, ඌව පළාත් හිටපු මහඇමතිවරයාගේ ගෝලයින් විදුහල්පතිවරයෙකුට පහර දීම සම්බන්ධව. ඌව පළාත් හිටපු මහඇමති පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ති‍්‍ර චාමර සම්පත් දසනායකගේ අනුගාමිකයින් වන ප‍්‍රාදේශීය සභා මන්තී‍්‍ර සමන්ත හා ඔහුගේ මාධ්‍ය ඒකකයේ කටයුතු කරන ප‍්‍රසන්න නම් පුද්ගලයින් විසින් ඔක්. 04 වැනිදා පස්වරුවේ ලූණුගල ප්රාථමික විද්‍යාලයේ විදුහල්පතිවරයාට ඔහුගේ නිවස තුළදි බිරි`ද හා දරුවන් ඉදිරියේ පහර දීම නිසා ලූණුුගල රෝහලට ඇතුළත් කර ඇති බව වාර්තා වේ.මෙම මිලේච්ඡු පහර දීම තරයේ හෙළා දකින ලංකා ගුරු සේවා සංගමය හිටපු මහ ඇමතිවරයාගේ මැරයින් වහාම අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන නීතීය කි‍්‍රයාත්මක කරන... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
Happy Soma Global Spiritual Art Center - Sunil Gamage- Director
Covid -19 has inflicted enormous stress into individuals, families, groups, companies; the way what they have been doing in everyday life. Human factor enhances in everyday life when they engage and sustain positive behavior with qualities of focus, empathy, collaboration, inclusion, etc. However, people cannot access to those qualities and traits when they are in uncertainty, anxiety, stress, and when they are in perpetual fight or flight mode. Even in this difficult time it is important to find human factor put into place and build from there onwards.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
Courtesy RT
It turns out that Earth might not be so special after all, as scientists have identified a plethora of planets outside our solar system with conditions that make them more suitable for life than our home. A study published in the journal Astrobiology identified two dozen planets with conditions which may be more suitable for life than those on Earth, including worlds that are older, larger, slightly warmer and possibly wetter. Some of the “superhabitable” other worlds also orbit stars that are friendlier to life than our sun, because they change more slowly... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
Courtesy RT
Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), walks past the headquarters of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, May 18, 2020. © Reuters / Denis Balibouse Roughly 10 percent of the world’s population may have been infected with the novel coronavirus – and this leaves the majority of the world at risk, the World Health Organization’s head of emergencies has warned. About one in 10 people may have been infected with the coronavirus globally, Mike Ryan, WHO head of emergencies, told the agency’s executive board on Monday.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The Sri Lanka Podujana Permauna (SLPP) today called for an immediate investigation into the release of MP Rishad Bathiudeen’s brother Riyaj Bathiudeen, who was arrested over alleged involvement in the Easter Sunday Attacks. Responding to a question asked at the SLPP weekly news briefing over the concerns raised by Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith over the release of Riyaj, Party Secretary MP Sagara Kariyawasam said police statements over the arrest seemed contradictory. “Therefore, we request the Defence Secretary to launch an immediate investigation into the incident and... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks was told by former President Maithripala Sirisena today (05), that he was left in the dark regarding the crucial foreign intelligence warning, up until the day following the attacks. The former Commander in Chief at the time added that then-Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and IGP Pujith Jayasundara had numerous opportunities to brief him on the warnings but failed to do so and if they had, he would have personally ensured that no attack took place on Sri Lankan soil. The... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
The President of the Sri Lanka Public Health Inspectors Association Upul Rohana stated that no information has been confirmed so far regarding the rumors that two Indians had visited the garment factory where 72 workers have been by infected with coronavirus. A 39 year old female worker in Divulapitiya from this factory was first diagnosed with the virus and 72 others have tested positive thereafter. President of the Sri Lanka Public Health Inspectors Association Upul Rohana stated that the health sector and the police are conducting further investigations in... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa instructed relevant parties to take immediate measures to contain the spread of COVID – 19 following the identification of close associates of the affected and to increase the number of PCR tests. Close associates of the infected have already being identified. They have been subjected to self-quarantine at their homes. President advised to send them to closest hotels to undergo the quarantine process https://youtu.be/EWSmNPxhNNs President Rajapaksa made these remarks at a discussion with the Presidential Task Force on COVID – 19 prevention held... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Several civil society organizations today lodged a complaint with the National Police Commission regarding the release of Riaz Bathiudeen, the brother of MP Rishad Bathiudeen. https://youtu.be/yTJH2ey8_Qs It was against the officers of the CID who were investigating Riaz Bathiudeen. Riaz Bathiudeen, who was arrested on suspicion of having links with the terrorists who were responsible for the Easter attacks and detained by the CID for nearly five months, was recently released. The Mahajana Uthukam Kendraya, the New Sinhale National Organization, the Sinhale Organization... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
The number of coronavirus infections in the country has increased to 3513, with the identification of seven more people with corona infection. The Government Information Department states that 101 people from Brandix, who were in close contact with the Minuwangoda coronavirus patient have been diagnosed with coronavirus infection so far as at 9.00 pm on 5th October, 2020.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
H. L. D. Mahindapala
Managing Indo-Sri Lanka relations is prioritised as the most important item in the agenda of the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry. In fact, the President and the Prime Minister have stretched every nerve since they came into power to go beyond the official diplomatic interactions to maintain a personal rapport of the best kind with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The recent meeting between the two prime ministers was meant to smoothen the rough patches and reinforce the good relations between the two heads of states. The official communique of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
The Judiciary is one of the 3 pillars representing the People’s sovereignty. If the other 2 pillars fail the People, the Judiciary is left to fill that lacuna. While the Judiciary must uphold its independence, it has to be biased towards safeguarding the sovereignty of a nation & upholding the fundamental rights of the citizens. By biased, the implication is that any judgment impacting the Nation & its future must always be swayed in the interest of the Nation & its People and no other. Sri Lanka’s judiciary has weathered many storms. We have had a... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
Courtesy BPS News Hour
ROME — Pope Francis says the coronavirus pandemic has proven that the “magic theories” of market capitalism have failed and that the world needs a new type of politics that promotes dialogue and solidarity and rejects war at all costs. Francis on Sunday laid out his vision for a post-COVID world by uniting the core elements of his social teachings into a new encyclical aimed at inspiring a revived sense of the human family. “Fratelli Tutti” (Brothers All) was released on the feast day of his namesake, the peace-loving St. Francis of... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 05/10/20)
චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D
ලංකාවේ ගොඨාභය භූමිකාව ලංකාවේ වංක පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයින් විසින්, මහජන සර්‌වාධිපත්‍යය හා නීතීයේ ආධිපත්‍යය නමැති මිථ්‍යා දෙකක් මවාගෙන, ඒවාට ඔක්‍ෂිජන් පිඹ දීමේ අසීරු කාරියට සුප්‍රීම් උසාවිය හා ඇපැල් උසාවිය හිරකර ගෙන තිබෙනවා නොවේද කියා මෙම නාඩගම දෙස ඇමෙරිකාවේ සිට බලා සිටිනා මට සිතේ. මෙය ඇන්ග්ලෝ-ඇමෙරිකන් නීති විද්‍යාව මත පදනම්‌වූ ලෝකයට (රුසියාවට හා චීනයට වෙනස්‌ව), තවමත් <සුද්දගෙ නීතිය> රජයන, ලංකාවෙන් එක් කර ඇති සුවිශේෂ සංසිද්‌ධියක් නොහොත් විහිළුවකි. 1987 ජූනි 4 වෙනිදා ඩෙන්සිල් කොබ්බෑකඩුව හා විජය විමලරත්න යටතේ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂද සටන්කල වදමරච්චි ප්‍රහාරය හදිසියේම නතරකිරීමෙන් පසු, 2005 දී ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්‌වූ ගොඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ විසින්, ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ මිත්‍රයාවූ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 04/10/20)
චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ
ගරු විමල් විරවංශ ඇමතිතුමනි, 20 වෙනි ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය සම්බන්ධව ඔබතුමා දරන මතය සම්බන්ධවයි. වසර ගණනාවක් පුරා කොටි සංවිධානයට එරෙහිව ගෙනගිය අරගලය තවම නිමාවී නැති බව ඔබ තුමා ඉතා හොදින් දන්නා දේශපාලඥයෙකි. වර්තමානයේදී මේ රජය ගෙන යන්නේද කොටි සංවිධානයේම තවත් පෙරමුණු බල ඇණියක් සමග කරන අරගලයකි. එදා කොටි සංවිධානයේ යුධ පෙරමුණ සමතලා කල දේශපාලන නායකයින්ම මෙදා කොටි සංවිධානයේ වර්තමාන ස්වරූපයන් සමග සටන් වැදී සිටි.මතුපිටින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය කතා කලද අද අප සටන් කරමින් සිටින්නේද ඕනෑම අවස්තාවක ආයුධ අතට ගෙන සටන් කිරීමට සුදානම් පෙරමුණු බල ඇණියක් සමගය. එබැවින් අපට ඔවුන් සමග කිසිදු දේශපාලන සංහිදියාවක් අවැසි නැත. ඔබතුමා ඉන්නා ස්ථාවරයද... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 04/10/20)
Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister
The opposition has been trying to propagate the idea that the Auditor General’s powers would be reduced by the proposed 20th Amendment. It’s seldom that the Constitutional provisions regarding the Auditor General comes to the attention of the public. This has made it easier for the opposition to propagate various falsehoods in this connection. One of the false claims being made is that the 19th Amendment set up an Audit Commission and that the 20th Amendment seeks to abolish it. What the 19th Amendment made provision for was not an Audit Commission... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 04/10/20)
මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය
විසි වන සංශෝධනයෙන් විගණකාධිපතිවරයාගේ බලතල කප්පාදු වෙන බවට විපක්‍ෂය විසින් සමාජය තුළ දුර්මතයක් ඇති කිරීමට උත්සාහ කරමින් සිටි. විගණකාධිපතිවරයා සම්බන්ධ ව්‍යවස්ථාමය ප්රතිපාදන ජනතාවගේ අවධානයට යොමු වන්නේ කළාතුරකිනි. එම නිසා මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් දුර්මත ප්‍රචාරය කිරීම විපක්‍ෂයට පහසු කාර්යක් වී ඇත. මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පවත්නා ප්‍රධානම දුර්මතය වන්නේ 19 වෙනි සංශෝධනයෙන් විගණන කොමිසමක් ඇති කළ බවත්, 20 වෙනි සංශෝධනයෙන් එය අහෝසි කිරීමට යන බවත්ය. 19 වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයෙන් විගණන කොමිසමක් ඇති කළේ නැත. 19 වැනි සංශෝධනයෙන් ඇති කළේ හුදෙක්ම විගණන ‘සේවා’ කොමිසමක් පමණි. මේ විගණන සේවා කොමිසමෙන් කිසිදු විගණන කටයුත්තක් සිදු වන්නේ නැත.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 04/10/20)
by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island
The 20th Amendment has given rise to a debate over whether dual citizens should be allowed to contest elections in this country. The dual citizenship law has been operational for decades and nobody had any issue with it until the yahapalana camp seized on it as a means of keeping the Rajapaksa brothers Gotabhaya and Basil out of politics. The yahapalana camp includes the majority of the foreign funded NGOs that have no purpose other than to interfere in, and influence the politics of Sri Lanka in order to push the agendas of their foreign paymasters. It... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 04/10/20)
Senior Citizen Courtesy The Island
Please Mr. President, wear your MASK and maintain social distancing at every meeting and village you visit. By going around UNMAKED you are endangerig yourself andall your countrymen. Please see what has happened to Trump playing Russian Roulette wih Covid-19 the virus won. Senior Citizen... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 04/10/20)
Courtesy The Island
Government wades into battle with facts, figures and projections In an extraordinary hard-hitting rejoinder to Moody’s downgrade of their Sri Lanka rating from B2 to Caa1 with a stable outlook, the Ministry of Finance, State Ministry of Money, Capital Markets and Public Enterprise Reforms (headed by former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal) and the Central Bank accused the well-known rating agency of an “unwarranted and erroneous” finding that suggests a “reckless reaction.” It said that “instead of understanding the economic turnaround as well as awaiting the Budget... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 04/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The 16-year-old daughter of the COVID-19 patient detected from Divulapitiya earlier today also tested positive for the Coronavirus, Army Commander Shavendra Silva said. The 39-year-old woman of four children from Divulapitiya had been admitted to the Gampaha Hospital after falling ill while working on September 30. She had returned home on October 2 after being subjected to a PCR test on October 1 after which she had tested positive and was admitted to the IDH Hospital. The woman's father, husband and four children were taken to the quarantine... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 04/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Police curfew has been imposed in the Veyangoda Police division as well with immediate effect until further notice, Army Commander Shavendra Siva told Daily Mirror. Earlier, Police curfew was imposed in the Divulapitiya and Minuwangoda police division following the detection of a Covid-19 patien... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 04/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith today expressed his dissatisfaction on the release of certain suspects held over involvement in the Easter Sunday attacks. https://youtu.be/9Iys3hM3Dmk Cardinal Ranjith told a press conference that it is sad to note the release of a suspect held in connection with the attacks. "It is sad and unfortunate that those who are alleged to have been involved in the attack is released and cleared" Cardinal Ranjith said. "There are those who were affected by the attack and others who have... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 04/10/20)
Dr. Sudath Gunasekara.Mahanuwara
“Govt cannot escape Indian pressure”: Sampanthan TNA Leader (news item) This is the latest statement from Sambandan on the ongoing debate about the abolition of the 13th Amendment. Although this is nothing new going by the regular statements and appeals they have made to the Indian Government and the so-called anti-Sri Lankan and anti-Sinhala Buddhist International community. I raised this issue firstly, to open a public debate on this subject and secondly, to draw the serious attention of the Government to put these anti--Sinhala and Anti-Sri Lankan Tamils in their correct place. Thirdly... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 03/10/20)
by Rohana R. Wasala
‘At least since Rousseau’s Social Contract and the end of the divine right of kings, the state has been seen as party to a contract with the people - a contract to guarantee or supply the necessary order in society. Without the state’s soldiers, police and the apparatus of control, we are told, gangs or brigands would take over our streets. Extortion, rape, robbery and murder would rip away the last threads of the “thin veneer of civilization.”’ - Alvin Toffler, Powershift, 1990. The late Alvin Toffler (American writer, journalist, educator, and... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 03/10/20)
Laksiri Warnakula
The news about the Presidents’ surprise visit a few days ago, to the Narahenpita Office of the ‘National Housing Development Authority’ made me pen this short article. He is said to be following a complaint by a customer, who was told by the officers that they were short of staff. And the President not surprisingly though found it otherwise that they indeed had enough staff to fulfil their duties properly. This isn’t the first time that he has done this. He did few unannounced visits to some other government institutions before. I am not... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 03/10/20)
මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ්රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්රාමාත්ය
ලෝක අමද්‍යප දිනය අදට යෙදී තිබේ. ලොව පුරා ව්‍යාප්තව ඇති මත්පැන් නිසා ඇති වන සමාජ නපුරට ප්‍රතිචාර වශයෙන් අමද්‍යප ව්‍යාපාරයන් බොහෝ රටවල සංවිධානය විය. පළමුව එක්සත් ජනපදයේ සහ පසුව එක්සත් රාජධානියේ ආරම්භ වූ අමද්‍යප ව්‍යාපාරයන් පසුව වෙනත් රටවල් ද එය අනුගමනය කළහ. ලොව රටවල් අතරින් අමද්‍යප ව්‍යාපාරයන් පිළිගත් රටවල් අතලොස්සකි. ඒ අතරින් ශ්රී ලංකාව යනු සුවිශේෂී ස්ථානයක් ගෙන තිබෙන්නේ සංස්කෘතිය සභ්‍යත්වය තුළින් පැවත එන්නා වූ ආචාරධර්මීය පැතිකඩයන්ගේ බලපෑම ප්‍රබල නිසාවෙනි. මත්පැන් පානය කිරීමට එරෙහි සමාජ ව්‍යාපාරයන් ශ්රී ලංකාව තුළ ආරම්භ වූයේ 19 වන සියවසේ අග... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 03/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
මහත්මා ගාන්ධිතුමන්ගේ 151 වැනි ජන්ම දිනය නිමිත්තෙන් ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා සහ කොළඹ ඉන්දීය මහ කොමසාරිස් කාර්යාලයේ නියෝජිත පිරිසක් ඊයේ 2020.10.02 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී එතුමාගේ පිළිරුවට පුෂ්පෝපහාර දැක්වුහ. ඉන්දියාවේ පියා යන ගෞරව නාමයෙන් හැඳින්වෙන මහත්මා ගාන්ධිතුමන් ඉන්දීය නිදහස් සටනේ පුරෝගාමියෙකු මෙන්ම අවිහිංසාවාදයේ පියා ලෙසින් නම් දරයි. අවිහිංසා වාදය පිළිබඳ සංකල්පය ඉන්දියාවට පමණක් නොව මුළු ලෝකය පුරා ප්‍රචලිත කිරීමටද එතුමා කටයුතු කළේය. වර්ෂ 1927 දී ශ්රී ලංකාවට පැමිණි මහත්මා ගාන්ධිතුමන් සති කීපයක් දිවයිනේ සංචාරය කර ඇති අතර, කොළඹ ආනන්ද විද්‍යාලයේ බුදු දහම පිළිබඳ දේශනයන් පවත්වා ඇත. ගාල්ලේ මහින්ද... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 03/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The Sri Lanka Customs had seized more than 300 luxury vehicles worth more than Rs.2,000 million which were imported illegally during the COVID-19 pandemic period, Customs Media spokesman and Deputy Director Sunil Jayarathne said. He told Daily Mirror that the most number of luxury vehicles were imported from Japan and several vehicles were imported from other countries such as the United Kingdom (UK) and Germany. "The vehicles have been imported without a valid Letter of Credit (LC), with changing the Shipped on Board Date and Bill of Lading date. Most of the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 03/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has raised concerns over the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) releasing Riyaj Bathiudeen, the brother of MP Rishad Bathiudeen, who was detained over the alleged links to the Easter Sunday terror attacks. https://youtu.be/rJKariaBoLo Over the last few days, it was observed that the suspects, whose actions were investigated over the allegations pertaining to the Easter Sunday bombings, were released from custody the CID, he remarked. In a special media briefing held this morning (03) at the Archbishop’s House in Colombo, the Cardinal said it... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 03/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Four more persons tested positive for COVID-19 this evening (03), taking the total number of confirmed cases to 3,392. The Department of Government Information said 02 arrivals from Kuwait and 01 each from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had tested positive for the virus. In the meantime, the COVID-19 recoveries tally reached 3,254 earlier today as 09 more infected with the virus returned to health. According to statistics, 125 active cases are currently receiving treatment at selected hospitals across the island.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 03/10/20)
Janaki Chandraratna
I like to thank Mr. C. A. Chandraperuma for his article ‘Closure Scrutiny of Criticisms Against 20A’, Sunday Island, 20th Sept. 2020, for clarifying some of the controversies relating to 20th Amendment. In fact much of the unwanted speculation and criticisms could have been avoided if the Govt., had informed at least the Cabinet, let alone the constituents, the reasons underpinning 20th Amendment at a much earlier date, as the right to information and sovereignty of the people are fundamental to any democracy. Governments are generally formed and un-formed at the will... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 03/10/20)
There is much hype about a corporate development entity under the US Government known as MCC offering Sri Lanka a ‘GIFT’ of $480m. We are supposed to be on our knees in gratitude. While the land project allocation is just $67m, Sri Lanka has to not only agree to a set of preconditions that include privatizing all state land, but amend our constitution, change our land laws, and even have the agreement passed by Sri Lanka’s Parliament – all these changes & more, just to have a disbursement of $480 across 5 years to a private company and for MCC... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 03/10/20)
A note from the history
Sixty-one years ago on September 25, 1959 Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (SWRDB) the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka known as Ceylon then was shot and seriously wounded by a Buddhist monk. Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike succumbed to his injuries and passed away the following day. Therefore September 26, 1959 got etched as an important date in the post-independence history annals of Sri Lanka. SWRD Bandaranaike The impact of that single assassination was tremendous at that time. The murder of a prime minister was... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
MALINDA SENEVIRATNE
Which country would not be happy if another country said ‘we have a you-first security policy?’ The cynical have the option of retorting ‘most countries would be terrified if, for example, the USA said something like that.’The world is not flat. Not all countries are equal in terms of financial might and fire power. So when Sri Lanka says that she has an India-first security policy, it’s almost like saying ‘don’t worry, we will align ourselves with your interests and we will not shift loyalty.’ India-first is essentially ‘China is not first.’India’s Deputy... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග
ජෝශප් කොන්රාඩ් පෝලන්ත ජාතික බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය නවකතාකරුවෙකි. කොන්රාඩ්ගේ කෘති රොමැන්ටික සංකේතවාදය සහ යථාර්ථවාදී හා නූතනවාදී අදහස් මත පදනම් වේ. ඔහුගේ සාහිත්‍ය කෘති චාල්ස් ඩිකන්ස් වැනි ලේඛකයන්ගේ යථාර්ථවාදී සාහිත්‍ය සම්ප්‍රදාය හා නැගී එන නූතනවාදී පාසල් අතර පරතරය පියවයි. බොහෝ විචාරකයින් ඔහුව නූතනවාදයේ පුරෝගාමියෙකු ලෙස හඳුන්වති. දොස්තයෙව්ස්කි මෙන් කොන්රාඩ් මිනිසාගේ සැඟවුණු ආත්මය ගැන උනන්දු විය. ඔහුගේ නිර්මාණ අධිරාජ්‍යවාදය සහ යටත් විජිතවාදය ඇතුළුව යුරෝපීය ආධිපත්‍යය සහිත ලෝකයක මිනිස් මනෝභාවය ගැඹුරින් ගවේෂණය කරයි. ජෝසෆ් කොන්රාඩ් (ජොසෙෆ් ටියෝඩර් කොන්රාඩ් කෝර්සෙනොව්ස්කි ) 1857 දෙසැම්බර් 3 වන දින යුක්රේනයේ බර්ඩිචිව් හි උපත ලැබීය. වංශාධිපතියෙකු, ලේඛකයෙකු සහ පරිවර්තකයෙකු වූ ඔහුගේ පියා... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
දරුවන්ට නිදහසේ සතුටින් ඉගෙන ගත හැකි අධ්‍යාපන ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණයක් වහාම මේ රටට අවශ්‍ය බව ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අද 2020.10.02 දින අපේ ගම පරිශ්‍රයේ පැවති ලෝක ළමා දින ජාතික සැමරුම් උත්සවයට එක්වෙමින් පැවසීය. අධ්‍යාපන ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණය ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණයට වඩා මේ රටේ අනාගතයට බලපාන බව පැවසූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා “අපි අධ්‍යාපනයට ජාතික ආදායමෙන් කොයිතරම් කොටසක් වෙන් කරත් වැඩක් නෑ දරුවන් ඉගෙන ගන්නේ නිදහසේ නෙමෙයි නම්” යැයි ද ප්රකාශ කළේය. සියලු දේවල් යළි ගොඩනගන යුගයක්, නැවත එළඹී ඇති බවත්, ගේ පිටිපස්සේ වැවෙන කහ පැළයේ සිට ඔබ පාසල් යනවිට අදින නිල ඇඳුම් රෙද්ද... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
හෝමාගම, පිටිපන ස්ලින්ටෙක් (SLINTEC) කලාපයේ ස්ථාපිත කළ මොරිසන් ඹෟෂධ නිෂ්පාදන හා පර්යේෂණ මධ්‍යස්ථානය විවෘත කිරීමේ අවස්ථාවට ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අද 2020.10.02 දින එක්විය. වසර තුනකට පෙර ඉදි කිරීම් ආරම්භ කළ මෙම ආයතනයේ වැඩ අවසන් කිරීම සඳහා වැය කළ මුදල අමෙරිකන් ඩොලර් මිලියන 13.8 කි. ශ්රී ලංකාවට වාර්ෂිකව ඹෟෂධ පෙති බිලියන 1.8 ක් ආනයනය කරන අතර මෙම ඹෟෂධ නිෂ්පාදන මධ්‍යස්ථානය මඟින් ඉදිරියේදී එම දේශීය අවශ්‍යතාවයෙන් කොටසක් සපුරාලීමට නියමිතය. සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම ප්‍රතිපත්ති ප්‍රකාශනයට සමඟාමීව දේශීය ඹෟෂධ නිෂ්පාදනය ඉහළ දැමීමේ හා දිරි ගැන්වීමේ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
නාරාහේන්පිට ශ්රී අභයාරාම පුරාණ විහාරස්ථානයේ විහාරාධිපති බස්නාහිර පළාත් ප්‍රධාන සංඝනායක, අති පූජ්‍ය මුරුත්තෙට්ටුවේ ආනන්ද නාහිමි බැහැ දැකීමට ඊයේ 2020.10.01 දින විහාරස්ථානයට ගිය ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා උන්වහන්සේගේ සුව දුක් විමසා බැලුවේය. රටේ ආර්ථික, සමාජීය හා දේශපාලන ක්‍රියාදාමයන්ට අදාළ ධර්මානුකූල පිළිවෙත් ගැන පූජ්‍ය මුරුත්තෙට්ටුවේ ආනන්ද නාහිමි මෙහිදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාට අනුශාසනා කළහ. විහාරස්ථානයට පැමිණි සැදැහැවතුන් හා දරුවන් සමඟ ද සුහද කතා බහක නිරත වූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා තමන් සමඟ ඡායාරූප ගැනීමට දරුවන්ට ඉඩ ලබා දුන්නේය. මෙම අවස්ථාවේදී කුඩා දරුවෙක් ගරු අග්‍රමාත්‍යතුමා හමු වී තමන්ට නිවසක් නොමැති බව පවසා ලිපියක් ඉදිරිපත් කළේය. ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Verity Bowman Courtesy The Telegraph
Elephants foraging for food on a refuse facility - Tharmaplan Tilaxan/Cover Images Dozens of elephants have begun foraging for food at a dump nestled in a Sri Lankan jungle after it encroached on their habitat. Photographs captured in the eastern Ampara district show the wild herd, which numbers almost 40, searching through mounds of plastic bags, which have since been discovered undigested in their excrement. Microplastics and non-digestive polythene were also found in the elephants’ stomachs during postmortem examinations. Such waste poses a serious threat to the health... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy NewsIn.Asia
The new upcoming airline was conceived by four former senior captains with SriLankan Airlines and other international airlines, citing a conducive environment to expand aviation in Sri Lanka. September 30 (Simple Flying) – Sri Lanka will be getting a new airline as of February 2021. The new startup, Spark Air, first plans to launch with cargo operations before expanding to carry passengers from the South Asian nation. These activities will be carried out with two dry-leased Airbus A330s. According to Sri Lankan media outlet DailyFT, Spark Air’s Uditha Danawatta spoke to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Ship Technology
The Chinese and Sri Lankan governments are set to discuss the progress of Colombo Port City project, which is a planned offshore city in Sri Lanka. The Chinese and Sri Lankan governments are set to discuss the progress of Colombo Port City project, which is a planned offshore city in Sri Lanka. Valued at $1.4bn, the China Communications Construction Co (CCCC)-funded project was scheduled to be launched on 17 September 2014 by the then Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaska and the Chinese President Xi Jinping. Under the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The UK’s new Student route and Child Student route will open on October 5, 2020 to the best and brightest international students from across the globe including from Sri Lanka, the British High Commission said today. British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Sarah Hulton, said,“ This is a great opportunity for students in Sri Lanka who wish to study in the UK. With four of the world’s top ten universities in the UK and over 150 universities to choose from, the UK offers phenomenal opportunities for students looking for outstanding personal development opportunities.”... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa today declared open Sri Lanka’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturing and research facility at Pitipana, Homagama. Morison PLC, the largest oral solid dosage pharmaceutical manufacturer in Sri Lanka and a subsidiary of Hemas Holdings PLC, has invested a total of USD 18.5 million for the new Research and Manufacturing facility. Several Cabinet Ministers and dignitaries also graced the event as special guests, including Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi, State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Prof. Channa Jayasumana, State Minister of Skills Development, Vocational Education, Research and Innovation... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Colombo has granted permission to the owners of the fire-stricken crude oil tanker ‘MT New Diamond’ to tow the vessel away from Sri Lankan maritime border. Permission has been given subject to the payment of compensation and cost incurred by the Government agencies. The Spokesperson of Sri Lanka Navy, Captain Indika De Silva said the owners of ‘MT New Diamond’ are already in the process of towing the vessel away from Sri Lankan waters. It is likely to sail towards the United Arab... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Six more persons tested positive for COVID-19 this evening (02), taking the total number of confirmed cases to 3,388. The Department of Government Information said the latest positive cases include 03 arrivals from Oman, Kuwait and the United States. In the meantime, the COVID-19 recoveries tally reached 3,245 earlier today as 12 more infected with the virus returned to health. According to statistics, 130 active cases are currently receiving treatment at selected hospitals across the island.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) today (02) successfully completed the settlement of the maturing International Sovereign Bond of USD 1 billion along with the due coupon payments, on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka. In a statement, the CBSL said this settlement reconfirms the Government’s unwavering commitment to honour its foreign liabilities, thereby bolstering investor confidence and dispelling any concerns foreign investors may have in relation to the Government’s ability and willingness to maintain its unblemished debt servicing record. The domestic foreign exchange market has already reacted positively to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing the Easter Sunday terror attacks that the value of national security was put on the back burner behind politics by the leaders of the country at the time. He alleged that the usual national security chain of command was left in tatters owing to certain officials reporting crucial intelligence information directly to then-President Maithripala Sirisena, bypassing the Defence Secretary. He further alleged that the open animosity between the former President and former Prime Minister left a massive gap in the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
By Ambassador M K BHADRAKUMAR Courtesy Rediff.com
Mahinda Rajapaksa is a democratically elected leader who received a massive mandate of 71% of votes, and he owes nothing to Delhi or Washington for staging his political comeback, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi holds a discussion with his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa, September 26, 2020 The virtual summit between the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa turned out to be somewhat surreal. The summit was the first of its kind Modi... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
N.A. de S. Amaratunga
A new constitution is being planned and a committee comprised of leading intellectuals has been appointed to draft it. One of the difficult issues the committee would have to grapple with would be the ethnic issue. Several aspects of the ethnic issue may have to be taken into consideration when tackling this matter; its genesis and evolution, involvement of foreign powers, attempts at resolution, 13th Amendment and Provincial Councils may be some of these aspects. Genesis and Evolution Origin and growth of the Tamil ultra-nationalism could be traced back to... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Dilrook Kannangara
Unfortunately for India, PM Modi follows the outdated approach of using Tamil problems as a negotiation tool with Sri Lanka. It never worked and does not work today. Tamil interests are neither in Sri Lanka’s nor India’s favour. Rajiv Gandhi did manage to gain some temporary leverage in 1985 and 1987 at a time when China played a minor role beyond its boundaries and USA was the biggest threat to India. Even then Sri Lanka reached out to Pakistan and China to counter Tamil interests. In 2009 India made another 1987-style last ditch attempt to save... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
By Raj Gonsalkorale
Sri Lanka’s debt to GDP ratio is expected to be more than 90% this year, and Moody's have downgraded Sri Lanka's sovereign credit rating by two notches, saying the South Asian nation would be hard-pressed to secure funding to service its huge foreign debt. Sri Lanka was pushed down from "B2" (high credit risk) to "Caa1" (very high credit risk), as the coronavirus pandemic compounded its economic woes, Moody's said in a statement. Brief pre Republic Constitutional history Sri Lankans should be asking themselves whether the country’s Constitutions have served them... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Senaka Weeraratna
The fundamental duty of all people living in Sri Lanka is to live in harmony with each other and particularly in harmony with the pre- dominant religious culture and beliefs and not hurt the moral sensitivities of the majority, which has made the biggest contribution throughout history to the building of the country and moreover to the civilization that sustains the national ethos. This requirement prevails in all Countries influenced by Abrahamic religions, especially in Islamic countries. This situation also prevailed in Sri Lanka prior to 1505. ‘When in Rome... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
රුසියාවේ හිටපු ශ්රී ලංකා තානාපති, කැලණිය රාජමහා විහාරයේ දායක සභාවේ සභාපති වෛද්‍ය සමන් වීරසිංහ මහතා ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා විසින් ඊයේ 2020.09.30 දින සිට අග්රාමාත්ය උපදේශක තනතුරට පත්කර තිබේ. වෛද්‍ය සමන් වීරසිංහ මහතා ඊට අදාළ පත්වීම් ලිපිය අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අතින් ඊයේ දිනයේදී ලබාගත්තේය. 2010-2015 කාල වකවානුවේ එවකට ජනාධිපති, අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ ජනාධිපති උපදේශක තනතුර හෙබවූ වෛද්‍ය සමන් වීරසිංහ මහතා, 2015 සැප්තැම්බර් සිට 2018 මාර්තු දක්වා රුසියාවේ ශ්රී ලංකා තානාපතිවරයා ලෙස කටයුතු කළේය. 2018 මැයි මාසයේ සිට 2019 නොවැම්බර් දක්වා ජනාධිපති... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
සෑම පළාතකටම ළමා රෝහලක් ඉදිවිය යුතු යැයි තමන් තරයේ විශ්වාස කරන බව අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා අද 2020.10.01 දින පැවැසීය. කොළඹ සහ මහනුවරට පමණක් දැනට සීමාවන ළමා රෝහල් මින් ඉදිරියට එක් පළාතකට එක් ළමා රෝහලක් ලෙස සංවර්ධනය කොට පවත්වාගෙන යෑම පිළිබඳව රජයේ අවධානය යොමු වී ඇතැයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමා සඳහන් කළේය. ලෝක ළමා දිනය හා රිජ්වේ ආර්යා ළමා රෝහලට වසර 125ක් සැපිරීමට සමඟාමීව මහල් නවයකින් යුතු දැඩි සත්කාර හා ශල්‍ය වාට්ටු සංකීර්ණයට මුල් ගල තැබීම සහ ඇට මිඳුළු බද්ධ කිරීමේ ඒකකය හා නව ශල්‍යාගාර සංකීර්ණය විවෘත කිරීමේ උත්සවයට එක්වෙමින් අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා මේ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
අග්රාමාත්ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය
බුද්ධශාසන ආගමික හා සංස්කෘතික කටයුතු ආමාත්‍යංශය මඟින් ක්‍රියාත්මක බෞද්ධ ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේලා 15000 ක් ආවරණය වන “බුදුපුත් සුරක්ෂා” සෞඛ්‍ය ආරක්ෂණ හිමිකම් ප්‍රදානය කිරීමේ සමාරම්භක උත්සවය අද 2020.10.01 දින ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවැත්විණි. ශ්රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ ඒකාබද්ධ අරමුදලෙන්, බුද්ධශාසන අරමුදලෙන් සහ පරිත්‍යාග ශීලීන්ගේ පරිත්‍යාග මත මෙම හිමිකම් ප්‍රදානය අඛණ්ඩව ඉදිරියට පවත්වාගෙන යාමට අපේක්ෂිතය. මෙම වැඩසටහනෙහි සමාරම්භය සංකේතවත් කරමින් භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා කිහිප නමක් උදෙසා ගරු අග්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගේ සුරතින් හිමිකම් ප්‍රදානය කෙරිණි. මෙහිදී පහත සඳහන් භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා අග්‍රමාත්‍යතුමා අතින් “බුදු පුත් සුරක්ෂා” සෞඛ්‍ය ආරක්ෂණ හිමිකම ලැබූහ. පූජ්‍ය... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ්රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්රාමාත්ය
ලොව පුරා වැඩිහිටියන් වෙනුවෙන් වූ ජාත්‍යන්තර වැඩිහිටි දිනය ඔක්තෝම්බර් පළමුවැනිදාට යෙදී තිබේ. ශ්රී ලාංකීය පුරවැසියන් ලෙස, මෙම දිනය අප සමරනු ලබන්නේ අනාදිමත් කාලයක් පුරා අප රැකගෙන ආ වටිනා ගුණධර්මයන් ලෝකයට පිළිබිඔු කරමිනි. මාපිය උපස්ථානය අනාදිමත් කාලයක සිටම අප සංස්කෘතියේ සුවිශේෂී අංගයක්ව පවතී. අපේ ආර්ථිකය, සංස්කෘතිය හා සාරධර්ම පෝෂණය කළ වැඩිහිටි ප්‍රජාව පිළිබඳ ලොව අන් කිසිඳු සමාජයකට නොදෙවෙනි ගෞරවයක් හා ආදරයක් ශ්රී ලාංකිකයින් වන අප සතුවේ. එදා පවුල මුල් කරගත් දැවැන්ත වගකීම් සම්භාරයක් අද ජීවිතයේ සැදෑ සමය ගෙවන වැඩිහිටියන් සතු විය. එදා ඔවුන් ගත් යහපත්... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
Sri Lanka reiterates that apart from operating routine security networks in the interest of national security, particularly after the devastating Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, local security forces and intelligence agencies are not engaged in monitoring specific group of people in the country. https://youtu.be/Bl6RYPuxMww Acting Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva, Dayani Gamage made this remark during the Interactive Dialogue with the Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights on the report of the Secretary-General on co-operation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa today (01) joined the World Children’s Day celebrations, donating libraries to schools in five districts, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said. President stated that the provision of a library and access to sports will help children to maintain the balance between physical and mental well-being. President added that he was convinced of this fact during his recent visits across the country. https://youtu.be/5-hSOmeDxrY Following requests by children, the construction of a large number of playgrounds in remote areas of the country is now underway. In addition,... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Adaderana
The Government of Sri Lankan is committed to protect and sustainably manage natural resources, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said addressing the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity on Friday (30). https://youtu.be/yLycYGoYJoc “Sri Lanka is home to two UNESCO Natural Heritage Sites: the Central Highlands, and the Sinharaja Rain Forest Reserve. We are also proud of our six sites recognized under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Sri Lanka firmly stands committed to protect and sustainably manage these natural assets that contribute to our unique and rich biodiversity” President Rajapaksa told the virtual gathering... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
MEPA informed the Attorney General that relevant authorities have been informed that approval permitting the MT New Diamond to leave will only be granted after negotiations are completed regarding oil pollution damage. MEPA has stated that they will grant approval to tow the ship away from of Sri Lankan waters as per the authority given to MEPA by the Marine Pollution Prevention Act No. 35 of 2008, once the negotiation process is completed. This is because they are in the process of negotiating through AG’s Dept., with the Owners / P & I Club... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Attorney General has informed MEPA that negotiations pertaining to the claim regarding Marine Pollution caused by MT New Diamond are pending and other claims have not been settled. MEPA informed the Attorney General that relevant authorities have been informed that approval permitting the MT New Diamond to leave will only be granted after negotiations are completed regarding oil pollution damage. MEPA has stated that they will grant approval to tow the ship away from of Sri Lankan waters as per the authority given to MEPA by the Marine Pollution Prevention Act No.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
Two arrivals from Oman tested positive for Covid-19, increasing total infected in Sri Lanka to 3,382.... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
Courtesy Hiru News
The Minister of Power and Energy Dullas Alahapperuma states that more than 100 mega watts could be added to the national grid using wind power before the end of this year. The Minister said this while inspecting the construction work of the Mannar Wind Power Plant, the largest wind power plant under construction in the country. https://youtu.be/AirP39w3lYc This wind power project is being constructed in the Mannar area with the aim of adding more than 100 mega watts of capacity to the national grid ... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 02/10/20)
The UN & foreign governments facing some form of terrorist threat should be worried about a new trend taking place with terrorist fronts forming virtual governments and referring to themselves as Prime Ministers.We are looking at shadow world governments setting up across the world where most of these terrorist organizations have kitty’s fatter than the GDP of sovereign states. By virtue of their ability to connect across the board and link international illicit and illegal operations, they would pose a formidable threat in the future. Rudrakumaran has no qualms about putting a terrorist flag alongside the mighty US National Flag and delivering... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 01/10/20)
We are living in times when international companies are taking governments to courts and winning millions in compensation. Sovereign governments cannot afford to hold the tax payers to ransom with irresponsible decision making that will only leave the People to suffer consequences. No compensation for wrongs of politicians has ever been paid by them. MCA-SriLankaisto be a private company set up AFTER signing MCC & AFTER the signed MCC Agreement is passed by Sri Lanka’s Parliament.In setting up a private company, the MCC/USA demands that Sri Lanka DELEGATES its POWERS to a private company.If the alarming nature of this has not digested into Sri... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 01/10/20)
Amnesty International projects itself as the watchdog on human rights worldwide with the stated mission to campaign for “a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments.†However, lesser known is the fact that Amnesty International was created by British Intelligence for intelligence gathering to carry out social engineering of targeted nations critical of the British Empire. Amnesty International was involved in not only the cover-up of torture and regime change by British agents but also in sparking a war.... -Full Story- (https:/blacklistednews.com/ - 01/10/20)
M.K. Bhadrakumar Courtesy Newsclick.in
Expectations were high from the summit with Rajapaksa, the first of its kind PM Modi has had with any South Asian leader, but the fault lines have appeared. The virtual summit between the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa turned out to be somewhat surreal. The summit was the first of its kind Modi has had with any South Asian leader. The expectations were high. But fault lines have appeared. On the core issue of the Sri Lankan Tamil problem, the joint statement issued after... -Full Story- (LankaWeb - 01/10/20)
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