Category: Local News

President Maithripala Sirisena , in a meeting last night, requested Sri Lanka Freedom Party( SLFP) MPs sitting in the Joint Opposition to refrain from forming any new political fronts and acting in a manner detrimental to the interests of the party.

Siam City Cement Pcl (SCCC) , Thailand’s second-largest cement maker, said on Monday it has signed a deal to buy a Sri Lankan cement company from Holderfin B.V., a unit of LafargeHolcim, for 13.1 billion baht ($374 million).

Sri Lanka has started talks with Chinese investors on the $10 billion Hambantota Economic Project to be implemented in the southern region of the island nation.

Four people were killed and another four injured in two separate road accidents in Warakapola and Mankulam yesterday, police said.

PIA, Pakistan’s national air carrier, is in talks with Sri Lanka to take four wide-bodied planes (A330s) on rent, which it will use for its premium flights to London that PIA intends to start from August 14, officials said.

Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday accused the country’s print media of backing the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa with a view to see him back in power.

Parliament sessions came alive with amusement when UPFA MP Geetha Kumarasinghe spoke during an adjournment debate last evening with the MP making some sarcastic remarks on the government and the ruling party MPs heckling her.

Considering the large number of the three-wheelers on the road at present, the import of the three-wheelers should be controlled in the future, opined the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva.

The Sri Lankan government will look to expand trade ties with China in the future, the Sri Lankan president’s office said.

Sri Lanka’s cash-strapped national airline is in talks to lease four of its Airbus A330 planes to Pakistan International Airlines Corp, a government minister said on Thursday, months after cancelling an order for four Airbus A350 aircraft.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of Malaysia Dato Seri Dr. Ahmed Zahid Hamidi, will pay an official visit to Sri Lanka from 21 to 22 July 2016.

Chief Minister C.V. Vigneswaran, and S. Thavarajah, Leader of Opposition in the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), have together asked the government to set up a “full-fledged” Commission of Inquiry to conduct an in-depth probe into last Saturday’s clash between Tamil and Sinhalese students in Jaffna University.

Improving on his 2003 idea of converting south India-Sri Lanka sub-region into a single market, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is now for economic collaboration among his country, Singapore and the five southern States of India.

The ‘National Unity’ government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is finding out the hard way that governing in a coalition of the two major political parties, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), is no walk in the park.

The government is to obtain US$1 billion from the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for various projects, Finance Minister Ravi Karunayake said yesterday.

Defence Secretary and engineer Karunasena Hettiarachchi called for a radical change of the media culture and stressed the local media should focus on news which does not give its readers a ‘criminal experience.’