Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and High Commissioner of India, Taranjit Singh yesterday inaugurated Sri Lanka’s first vehicle assembly plant in Mathugama.

Huge losses running into billions of rupees suffered by the Hambantota Port were cleared in just three years after the current UNP-led government assumed office in January 2015, says Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Trying to reach a consensus on the existing UNP Presidential candidate conundrum, conditions have been laid down by Ranil Wickremesinghe’s faction, who have agreed to name Deputy UNP Leader, Sajith Premadasa as the Presidential candidate, internal sources said. However, the Premadasa faction has still to respond.

Mexican authorities say federal police found 65 severely dehydrated and hungry migrants from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka wandering on a highway in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

The JVP would announce its presidential candidate tomorrow, at Galle Face, and that candidate would be the one with the means to salvage the country and its people from the present plight and the public security threat, the party’s propaganda secretary, MP Vijitha Herath said yesterday.

President Maithripala Sirisena requested everyone to refrain from making statements which are detrimental to the national security of the country.

Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the murders of two underworld figures, who were hacked to death in broad daylight at Madampitiya yesterday (15).

Parliamentarian Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera said yesterday he would support, at the next presidential election, the candidate who could face Islamic extremism firmly.

Three persons including 2 females have died while another two sustained injuries in a collision between a van and a tipper truck.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, in Jaffna, yesterday, that the Podujana Peramuna Presidential candidate Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa had asked for another mandate from the people, saying that they wanted to strengthen the country’s security, but when they were in power they protected only themselves and those close to them.

Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution Dr. Harsha De Silva says the Presidential candidate fielded by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, former Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s name is not in the list of US citizens who have revoked their citizenship.

The European Commission, through its Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, has allocated 8.5 million euros to support Sri Lankan efforts to prevent violent extremism, build community resilience, and promote peace and tolerance.

A 26-year-old Sri Lankan national who had arrived at the Chennai city last month is missing. Based on the complaint by his mother, the Airport police have launched a search for the man.

The formation of the United National Party (UNP) led alliance, Democratic National Front (DNF), is being further delayed, and as a result, nominating a Presidential candidate has also been postponed, sources said.

Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Arjuna Ranatunge yesterday alleged that the bigwigs in the Finance Ministry had been trying to pull the rug under the feet of Transport Ministry officials during the last one and a half months.