Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa today filed a writ petition in the Court of Appeal against moves to arrest him.
Rajapaksa was expected to be arrested earlier over the alleged misappropriation of over Rs. 90 million of Government funds for the construction of a memorial for his parents when he was the Defence Secretary.
Today on Maaveerar Naal Tamils around the world gather in memory of those who died fighting Sri Lankan state oppression. Emboldened by the thousands that gathered at destroyed LTTE resting homes (Thuyilum Illams) last year, preparations this year have been on the largest scale since the end of the armed conflict. Tamils across the North-East have braved intimidation from the military and intelligence personnel to clear and decorate Thuyilum Illams. This November has like those past seen a deliberate campaign of fear-mongering by
Hundreds of thousands of Tamils across the world on November 27 and preceding days held events to mark Tamil National Remembrance Day or Maaveerar Naal.
Maaveerar Naal, which remembers those who sacrificed their lives in the Tamil struggle for freedom, is marked on November 27 yearly, in memory of the first death of a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadre in fighting - Lt. Shankar died in combat on November 27, 1982.
Sri Lankan police said Monday that they have arrested 22 people who were attempting to migrate illegally to Australia by boat.
The suspects were arrested on a tip Sunday in the coastal town of Puttalam, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Colombo, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara's office said. They were to appear in court on Monday.
Sri Lankan and Australian authorities are cooperating to combat human smuggling. No Sri Lankan asylum seekers have reached Australia by boat since 2013.
The British All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils called on Sri Lanka’s government to allow Tamils to freely remember their war-dead in the North-East.
During the war, the LTTE held week-long celebrations in the last week of November with Prabhakaran making his policy statement.
Condemning the destruction of cemeteries in the North-East, the cross-party group of British
When the State fails, everything else tends to fail as well. This is what we observe around us today. Parliament does not enact urgent legislation in a timely fashion. The Government does not come up with comprehensive public policies in critically important areas. State institutions do not function effectively due to a whole host of reasons. The result is public disillusionment leading to many adverse consequences.
An electoral contest is the last thing the present government wants. If the National Election Commission (NEC) makes good on its promise to hold elections at least to some of the local councils which have been in the bardo for more than two years, the government will go to any extent to weaken the Joint Opposition (JO); it may even resort to mass arrests in a bid to cover up its failure to substantiate damning allegations they have been levelling against their opponents.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe warned the UNP Parliamentary Group to refrain from criticizing President Maithripala Sirisena.
The UNP Parliamentarians were specifically informed not make any statement in public which would harm the consensus of the unity government.
Addressing the UNP Parliamentary Group at the Parliamentary complex, the Premier made a
The Government has noted that China is a dependable friend and has been there during good times and bad.
State Minister of Foreign Affairs Vasantha Senanayake noted that Sri Lanka’s relations with China grew stronger during former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s tenure and when former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in office.
He said China helped defeat terrorism in Sri Lanka both economically and in the form of military assistance and by crucial support at international fora.
A balance sheet of any organisation such as a firm or even a family shows either income and expenditure, or receipts and payments, or credits and debits, or assets and liabilities. The balance sheet projects the financial position and financial progress. If the balance sheet does not look healthy, then there should be changes and reforms, which are painful sometimes.
The government also has a balance sheet, which is presented annually to the Parliament and to the people of the country – that is the government’s budget. There is, however, a problem
History lines up many events in a profound as well as amazing manner. Those incidents are random unexpected events. The photograph published herewith shows such a destined meeting. This youth here is the son of revolutionary leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), whom many people of this country were fond of, Rohana Wijeweera's son.
In the close up photograph with him is the daughter of supreme revolutionary leader of the twentieth century the entire world loved, Ernesto Che Guevara's daughter. She is a Consultant Paediatrician in Cuba. He is an Engineering Student in the Moscow University in Russia.
• Both factions appoint teams to negotiate moves to jointly contest local polls, but Rajapaksa places tough conditions
• Senasinghe’s media conference remarks pushes President to ‘JO’ corner, insists on total commitment to a clean and corruption-free Govt
• Party leaders discuss various means of holding LG polls early, Musthapha no-confidence motions unlikely to come up before committee stage vote on his ministry
With a new thaw in relations, feuding factions of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) are inching their way towards reconciliation.
Sri Lanka on Saturday clarified it has no personal rift with North Korea and that it only supported a recent UN resolution on the country as part of its commitments to the UN.
Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera told Parliament that when sanctions were imposed by the UN on North Korea recently, Sri Lanka implemented the resolution as a UN member state.
He said that Sri Lanka had to comply with the UN resolution and it had no personal rift with North Korea.
More than 3,700 persons were arrested in a countrywide crackdown on criminal and other elements starting from 10:00 p.m. on Friday to the early hours of yesterday morning, a senior Policeman said.
A total of 3,769 persons were taken into custody in connection with various issues throughout most parts of the country, Police Media official said. A large quantity of narcotics, illicit alcohol and illegal firearms were also seized during the crackdown that involved 18,127 policemen from different ranks assisted by trained sniffer dogs, Police said.
The Government says it will use Lord Naseby’s statement to counter claims on war crimes allegations against the country.
Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana told Parliamenton Saturday, the Government was grateful to the statement made on Sri Lanka by Lord Naseby at the British Parliament recently.
Lord Naseby had in his statement rejected claims that the death toll during the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka was over 40,000.
When her daughter turned seven, and it was time for the "khatna" - a female genital mutilation (FGM) ritual - a close friend advised Naqiyah to try the butter knife method.
A trusted doctor in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo would simply run a blunt knife against little Tanzeem's vagina, and Naqiyah could tell her relatives that the ceremony had been carried out. There would be no bleeding, no pain.
Gloriosa Superba a red and yellow coloured wild flower is found blooming in a big way in the jungles of Wanni in the Northern Province in the month of November and because the colour of the flower is that of the LTTE flag, it became significant even for the outfit.
As November is known as Karthikai in Tamil, the wild flower with its botanical name Gloriosa Superba is known among the Northerners as Karthikaipookal (flowers of November).
by Zacki Jabbar
The law would be applied strictly to deal with some of the "raw filth and distorted reports" that were being published and broadcast, says Co-Cabinet Spokesman and Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne.
The Minister said on Friday that some journalists were abusing their new found freedom to slander government leaders in "raw filth and in the most atrocious manner. I have never seen such low journalism, even in the most underdeveloped countries."
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya expressed happiness that there exists transparency and people are now making use of the Right to Information Act (RTI).
"I am surprised by the interest generated by the RTI, though some think it is a nuisance. We have asked them to bear with us. We will see the fruits of what we are doing in about two or three years time. People are now alert to stamp out corruption and wastage", he noted.
Simmering tensions within Sri Lanka's governing coalition came to a head in parliament Thursday with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's party firing what it called the first salvo against the President.
Two backbenchers from the United National Party (UNP) blamed President Maithripala Sirisena's faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) for delaying local council elections.
UNP MP Kavinda Jayawardena, the son of UNP stalwart, the late Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, blamed Local Government minister Faiszer Musthapha for a fiasco in drawing electoral boundaries that has held up the vote.
People are aware of the enormous and exorbitant expense in terms of human lives and resources that revolutions necessitate.
The truth is that the New Left, be it the JVP or the Frontline Socialists, is the only proper movement in this country which defends the public sphere against the private
Not too long ago before the American election unfolded and upset what was predicted to be a Hillary Clinton victory, I posted the following comment: “Clinton is a domestic dove and
Nobel Laureate, Dr. Barbara Lopes Cardozo will visit Sri Lanka to conduct research about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of war victims in the North.
Dr. Cardozo is a founding member of Doctors Without Borders–Holland (MSF) and served in several countries. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. She has treated victims of natural disasters and man-made disasters.
Leader of the House Minister Lakshman Kiriella says the current government is committed to protecting the rights of citizens of all communities.
Raising a question Chief Opposition Whip JVP leader Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake charged the government of failing to compensate the public whose houses were damaged in the Gintota unrest recently.
Minister Kiriella responding said regardless of race and religion the government is devoted to ensuring rights for all.
TNA MP S. Sridharan had allocated Rs.4 million out of his decentralized budget to renovate the Mahaviru Mausoleum where the bodies of dead LTTE members are buried in Kanakapuram in Kilinochchi, it is reported.
This sum is to be taken out of the decentralized allocations made to the MP for development work of the Kilinochchi District. Approval for this had been granted by both the Karachchi divisional secretariat and the Kilinochchi Divisional Secretariat, it was revealed.
India and Sri Lanka discussed the entire gamut of their bilateral relationship during a luncheon meeting hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted for his visiting Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe here on Thursday.
"During the luncheon meeting with the Prime Minister, the two sides discussed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and ways to further deepen the historically close and friendly relations between the two countries," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in his weekly media briefing here.
