The prolonged drought that has gripped Sri Lanka has worsened food insecurity, with more people going hungry and indebtedness rising for lack of farm work, the United Nations office in Colombo said.
Despite the Southwest monsoon in late May, which triggered flooding and landslides in the country’s southwest provinces, country-wide drought conditions are ongoing, it said in its latest drought update.
Malaka Silva who was notorious for terrorizing guests at popular night clubs he patronized during the former Rajapaksa regime is once again back in business. Last Friday Malaka Silva accompanied by his friend Romesh Kulatunga and an alleged drug dealer named ‘Maama’ had badgered a reveler at the famous up market night spot the Park Street Mews.
This incident incidentally was blacked out by all main stream media outlets and also social media websites.
As the authorities continue investigations into the Welikada prison massacre, more eyewitnesses have come forward to reveal information about the incident.
Hewadalugodage Sahan Sri, an eyewitness to the incident who has since fled the country, spoke to The Sunday Leader on what he saw. He had been arrested in 2007 under the terrorism prevention act and had served eight years behind bars and was eventually released being cleared of all charges.
The government is attempting to postpone the Provincial Council Elections through a proposal during the committee stage on September 20th, the Executive Director of the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon claims.
Issuing a press release today, he said that the gazette of the draft bill allocating 30% of seats in provincial councils for female representatives has been issued and that this is to be
Plans are on the drawing board for the two coalition partners – the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) – to contest each other at an upcoming Provincial Council or Local Government election. It is most likely the PC polls will come first followed by elections to local government institutions.
Friday was World Democracy Day and Elections Commission officials are seen carrying placards calling for the protection of the rights of voters
The government has decided to give up on its efforts to pass the 20th Amendment to the Constitution which contains provisions to hold elections to all Provincial Councils on the same day, as well the decision to postpone elections for the North Central, Sabaragamuwa and Eastern Provincial Councils.
The debate on the amendment was scheduled to be held on Wednesday (20).
The Joint Opposition (JO) yesterday said that it had received an assurance from President Maithripala Sirisena that the controversial International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances Bill wouldn’t be taken up for debate on Thursday (21)
The Bill is to give effect to the ‘International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance’, to which Sri Lanka became a signatory on Dec. 10, 2015.
The northern economy is mainly agricultural, and the challenges facing its revival after the war also relate to agriculture. If the war disrupted agricultural production in the north for decades, the post-war years have not provided much respite. The long drought over the last two years, has been devastating for the northern farmers. However, untimely rains, floods and crop diseases have also crippled the northern farmers in the preceding years. Significantly, these
At the on-going September 2017 sessions of the UN Human Rights Council, the UK has written to the President of the Council to assert that a long standing dispute it has with the Mauritius cannot be referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) because "those States must have consented to the ICJ’s jurisdiction. Neither the UK nor Mauritius have consented to disputes between them going to the ICJ."
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has indicated a possibility of an islandwide campaign to garner wider consensus among the public for the new Constitution, once an agreement is reached on the final document among members of the steering committee. “Yes. We would go for a broader campaign among the people, including those in the South to garner their consensus on the new Constitution,” TNA MP, M.A. Sumanthiran PC told the Nation last
Two weeks after Myanmar armed forces and their murderous thugs led by saffron butcher Ashin Wirathu began ethnic cleansing Rohingya Muslims, the United Nations Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said on 11 September that “the situation in Myanmar is a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
With the view of enhancing the participation of females in politics, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) is currently engaged in conducting educational awareness campaigns for Muslim women, men and the clergy for the purpose of getting more females to contribute nationally.
The SLMC is currently reorganizing the Party at the grass root level and the youth arm of the Congress and the ladies congress of the Congress are to be pivotal in this regard for them.
Victims of bogus employment related defrauding residing in the Northern Province will be filing a petition including against a prominent politician of the area with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) within two weeks. The Association for Friendship and Love (AFRIEL), a Vavuniya based youth organization with a
The Joint Opposition yesterday announced that several United National Party stalwarts will desert the government, and join them in the opposition in the near future.
Speaking to NewsRadio, Kalutara District United People’s Freedom Alliance Parliamentarian Rohitha Abeygunawardena stressed that he is confident that no one from the JO will crossover to the government.
The Writ Application (CA/Writs/254/2017) initiated against the Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya by the rights activist Nagananda Kodituwakku, for his failure to charge Ravi Karunanayake, the former Finance Minister was taken up yesterday for support before the President of the Court of Appeal Justice L T B Dehideniya and Justice A L Shiran Gunaratne. Originally Ravi Karunanayake had been charged on an indictment for his connivance in a
At least 150 remand prisoners, sentenced to death and serving life imprisonment in the Welikada Prison, launched a hunger strike yesterday, Prisons Spokesperson Thushara Upuldeniya said.
This follows close on the heels of a hunger strike launched by around 50 inmates of the Bogambara Prison on Thursday (14).
Minister Lakshman Kiriella says an interim report on the draft pertaining to the proposed new Constitution will be tabled in Parliament on the 21st of September.
Addressing a gathering in Kandy Minister Kiriella said all aspects in the report will be debated in the House.
Minister Kiriella said the government we will table an interim report on the draft pertaining
This has extra special significance for Sri Lanka where in January 2015 the people elected a new government which said its main aim would be to restore democracy and the rule of law, transparency, accountability and other virtues of a just society.
There are positives and negatives on the extent to which the National Unity Government has progressed with the main complaint being the failure to bring to justice former VIP
Former Minister of Education and Sports of the North Western Province Sandhya Kumara Rajapaksha said he was not disappointed by the decision to remove him from his post claiming he was expected to politicize the Education Ministry.
The President’s Media Division said the Chief Minister of the North Western Province Dharmasiri Dasanayake has been assigned with the Education Ministerial portfolio.
A pindapatha (alms begging) tour organized by several Buddhist clergy members to raise funds in aid of former President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and former Director of the TRC Anusha Palpita who were convicted over the ‘sil redi’ case began earlier today (15).
The tour began at the Sambuddhaloka Viharaya on Lotus road amidst the chanting of ‘seth
The Ministry of Hindu Religious Affairs has made a financial allocation of Rs 10 million to restore 50 kovils island-wide. Granting financial assistance for the restorations of kovils was carried out on Wednesday (13) under the patronage of Minster of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation and Hindu Religious Affairs, D.M. Swaminathan. Representatives of 50 kovils, selected from around the country, participated in the function conducted by the
The United States Senate Committee on Appropriations last week approved the FY 2018 Department of State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill with $51.35 billion for diplomatic and humanitarian programs that strengthen U.S. national security and support American values abroad.
Despite the Trump administration’s soft-peddling of American values abroad – democracy promotion, good governance, human rights, and rule of law etc. – the Senate Appropriations
‘If you want to become rich, you will have to build the road first’, so goes the traditional Chinese saying. In other words, it is reference to the infrastructure development as the solid basis to propel or boost economic growth. In the analysis of things in this context, it became apparent that China, under its ambitious ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) has stepped in to develop the Hambantota Port and the industrial park integrated with it.
The Ministry of Defence will receive the biggest budgetary allocation amounting to a massive Rs.1,583,507,600 or Rs.158.83 billion in the 2018 Budget, which would be presented in Parliament by Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera on November 9.
This amount is in addition to the budgetary allocations for the three armed forces.
The leader of the National Congress ALM Athaullah charges that attempts are being made to combine the Northern and Eastern Provinces based on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution.
Addressing a media briefing Athaullah said the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the Tamil National Alliance are also of the same view
