By M D P DISSANAYAKE Dr Gotabaya Rajapakse became our 7th President on 18 November 2019, just a week ago.  The busy Colombo Streets are already clean.  The make-shift vendors have moved out from pavements, so the pedestrians can move freely.  There is no visible garbage dumping in the City, the public responded to the […]

By M D P DISSANAYAKE The President has appointed Prof Lalith U Gamage as the new Governor of Central Province. The Governors of Sri Lanka were not busy people in the  past.   In the recent past we had some colourful and not so colourful names in our list of past Governors, including Gamini Fonseka, Karunaratne […]

ALI SUKHANVER The National Capital Territory of Delhi commonly known as the NCR has been facing the worst situation regarding pollution particularly air pollution since long.  And same is the situation in several districts surrounding Delhi from the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. In short, a strange blurriness in the shape of smog […]

Ada Derana

BY ASANGA ABEYAGOONASEKERA There are none so blind as those who do not see.” Matthew 9:26-27 The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and most wanted terrorist leader after Osama Bin Laden, was killed […]

Courtesy The Island Milinda Moragoda, Founder of the Pathfinder Foundation and former Cabinet Minister, in a statement called on the new Government to refrain from holding Provincial Council elections prior to the parliamentary elections. He suggested that the Government should, as part of the expected Constitutional overhaul, seek to mobilize the necessary two-thirds majority to […]

Editorial Courtesy The Island The blame game is on, in the UNP, with the Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sajith Premadasa factions holding each other responsible for the party’s crushing defeat at the recently concluded presidential election. The Sajith loyalists are raking their rivals over the coals for not having gone the whole hog to ensure the […]

By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya Courtesy The Island With ceremonies redolent with symbolism, followed by administrative moves that sent clear messages to the public, Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office as President of Sri Lanka signaling a clarity of purpose and a no-nonsense approach to his duties that lay ahead. The indications are that his will be a leadership […]

N.A. de S. Amaratunga Courtesy The Island The countries which have benefited from Chinese assistance in Asia, Africa and Europe have not suffered a breach of their independence and sovereignty or lost any significant extents of resources. The world economy, international relations, and geopolitics are at present influenced by two strong ideologies; neo-liberalism and nationalism. […]

W.K. Prasad Manju Courtesy Ceylon Today Former Leader of the House, Parliamentarian Lakshman Kiriella said the name of former Prime Minister and UNP Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe which was proposed for the post of Opposition Leader, had been officially accepted by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya during the Party leaders meeting which was convened yesterday (21). He said […]

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today Since the conclusion of the election, a number of interesting messages have been floating around in social media. Some of these are obviously in support of the Yahapalana Government that just ended.  The resigned Yahapalana loyalists write in hope that the new administration would continue the good work started […]

By: Padraig Colman Courtesy Ceylon Today The Western Media has predictably greeted the election of our new President with rehashed allegations of war crimes.  Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s election was reported on 17 November (over ten years since the LTTE’s defeat) On that same date, one newspaper, The London Sunday Times, owned by Rupert Murdoch, led with […]

Courtesy Adaderana Former Minister Rajitha Senaratne says that Sajith Premadasa is not yet suitable for the position of the Leader of the Opposition. Joining the ‘Mokada Wune?’ (What happened?) program on Ada Derana, the former Health Minister stated that the crisis within the party was the main reason for the defeat at the Presidential Election. […]

Courtesy Adaderana Chief Inspector Nishantha Silva attached to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has reportedly left the country this afternoon (24), stated Ada Derana reporter. Silva has been involved in several controversial investigation cases within the CID. Reportedly, the Chief Inspector has left the country to Switzerland with his family at around 12.50 pm this […]

By Vinod Moonesinghe Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, November 24 (The Sunday Observer): After a quiet Monday and Tuesday, things began to get back to normal on Wednesday, but with a difference. People set off for work with a new enthusiasm. Jaded by four years of ‘Yahapalanaya,’ the public anticipates great things from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. In […]

By Nikhil Sonnad/The Quartz Courtesy NewsIn.Asia With a few minor exceptions, there are really only two ways to say tea” in the world. One is like the English term—té in Spanish and tee in Afrikaans are two examples. The other is some variation of cha, like chay in Hindi. Both versions come from China. How […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස් රටේ කිසි විටකත් හමුදා පාලනයක් ඇති නොවන බවත්, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය ආරක්ෂා කිරීමට පියවර ගන්නා බවටත් ආරක්ෂක ලේකම් විශ්‍රාමික මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කමල් ගුණරත්න  මහතා පවසනවා. ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්වරයා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ මිහින්තලේ පුදබිමට පැමිණ ආශිර්වාද ලබාගැනීමෙන් අනතුරුව මාධ්‍යට අදහස් දක්වමින්. නව ආරක්ෂක ලේකම් විශ්‍රාමික මේජර් ජෙනරාල් කමල් ගුණරත්න මහතා ඊයේ මිහින්තලේ රජමහා විහාරයට […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස් සත්‍ය වශයෙන්ම ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට දැන් යහපාලනය උදාවී ඇති බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා රාමඤ්ඤ මහා නිකායේ අනුනායක පූජ්‍ය අංකුඹුරේ පේමවංශ හිමියන් පවසනවා. අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැණික්හින්න – හුරීකඩුව ශ්‍රී විද්‍යා සාගර පිරිවෙනට පැමිණි අවස්ථාවේදියි උන්වහන්සේ මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ. අද උදෑසන අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ දළදා සමිදුන් වැද පුදා ගැනීමෙන් අනතුරුව දළදා සමිදුන් වෙනුවෙන් […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස් අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ හිටපු අධ්‍යක්ෂ ශානි අබේසේකරට එරෙහිව වහාම නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතු බව සිංහලේ සංවිධානය පවසනවා. එහි මහලේකම් පූජ්‍ය මැඩිල්ලේ පඤ්ඤාලෝක හිමියන් මේ බව කියා සිටියේ කොළඹ අද පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට එක්වෙමින්. මේ අතර අපරාධ පරික්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ හිටපු අධ්‍යක්ෂ ශානි අබේසේකර මහතා විදෙස්ගතවීමේ සූදානමක් ඇති බැවින් එය වළැක්වීමට කටයුතු කරන […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස් අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ හිටපු අධ්‍යක්ෂ ශානි අබේසේකර සමඟ ආන්දෝලනාත්මක පරීක්ෂණ මෙහෙය වූ ප්‍රධාන පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක නිශාන්ත ද සිල්වා අද සිය දරු පවුල ද සමඟ හොර රහසේම ස්විට්සර්ලන්තය බලා පළා ගොස් තිබෙනවා. කටුනායක ගුවන් තොටුපළ හිරු වාර්තාකරු සඳහන් කළේ ඔහු සිය බිරිඳ සහ දරුවන් තුන් දෙනා සමඟ දහවල් 12.50ට පමණ ස්විස් ගුවන් […]

Courtesy Hiru News Defence Secretary Retired Major General Kamal Gunarathna says that a joint programme will be carried out with the involvement of the Tri Forces, Police and the general public, to combat the drug menace. He expressed these views after having visited the Mihinthale Raja Maha Viharaya. The Defence Secretary also said that attention […]

Courtesy Hiru News The government has informed newly appointed Ministers to pay attention towards curbing unwanted expenditure at state institutions. Accordingly, the Presidential Secretariat has informed to manage expenses carefully and that each Minister has to report regarding costs under their respective Ministries. However, instructions have been given not to make any changes in expenses […]

Courtesy Hiru News The Chief Inspector Nishantha Silva who conducted several controversial investigations with Former CID Director Shani Abeysekara has fled the country to Switzerland with his family. Former CID Director Shani Abeysekara and Chief Inspector Nishantha Silva had carried out investigations into several controversial incidents based on the political requirements of the previous government. […]

By M D P DISSANAYAKE The 15 Cabinet Ministers’ workload is quite challenging. Each Minister needs to have at least 2 State Ministers. Each State Minister needs to have qualified Professionals and Academics, consisting of at least one identified in each of the allocated Subjects.  In other words, the structure should provide a direct link […]

By Janaka Perera Throughout every Christmas season, customers at supermarkets in Sri Lanka can hear Christmas hymns being sung and the staff wearing red Santa Claus caps, though not all the staff may be Christians.  This no doubt is commercializing religion but why force-feed it on non-Christians too – both employees and customers?   During Buddhist […]

by C.A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island November 23, 2019, 7:46 pm * UNP’s Vibheeshana role* Communalism in minority politicsOpportunity for reset in majority-minority relations What we just experienced was undoubtedly the most eventful week since January 2015. The people of Sri Lanka have voted to end a five year long nightmare. Gota’s victory was not […]

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Former Permanent Secretary to Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranayaka and Ex- President of the Sri Lanka State Administrative Services Association (1991-19194) 22.11.2019. H.E. The President, Sir , Your decision to appoint 15 Cabinet Ministers only, is excellent and highly commendable. The whole country admires it as the beginning of a New Political Culture […]