Category: Local News

Three persons have been killed and five others injured after two lorries collided at Kuruwita on the Colombo-Ratnapura road, Police said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s close relationship with the Rajapaksas was ‘a mystery’ to Sri Lankans, and that Australia’s new Immigration Minister Peter Dutton would be unlikely to get the warm welcome received under the previous government.

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, while addressing the corporate sector yesterday, confirmed that a positive outlook over the country’s economy had optimised investor confidence.

A Sri Lanka national who landed in Kochi airport was admitted to the Government Medical College, Ernakulam, on Monday after he attempted to smuggle gold into the country by swallowing it.

Shashi Weerawansa, wife of former Minister Wimal Weerawansa, who was arrested for allegedly submitting forged documents to obtain a diplomatic passport, has been remanded until 25 February, Police Spokesperson SSP Ajith Rohana said.

Some 39 persons were admitted to Dambulla hospital after a private bus and a lorry collided in Dambulla this morning.

Former minister and Leader of National Freedom Front Wimal Weerawansa has been summoned by the Special Investigation Unit of Police Headquarters this morning to record a statement with regard to a complaint made in 2011 against him.

Paintings at Temple Trees, this country’s White House, are still leaning against walls waiting to be hung, and the gated grounds are no longer teeming with guards and stewards who served the home’s previous occupant like supplicants at a royal court.

President Maithripala Sirisena in a bid to keep SLFP undivided has decided to not take disciplinary action against those who attended the political rally held in Nugegoda 18 February defying party decision. He has stressed those who attended the rally to think according to their conscience whether their act was timely or not.

MADURAI: Though Sri Lanka ordered the release of 81 boats of Tamil Nadu fishermen on February 12, ahead of President Maithripala Sirisena visit to India, the inordinate delay in repatriating the boats has become a cause of concern for the fishers in the state.

Sri Lankans worldwide are calling a reference US Secretary of State John Kerry made to Sri Lanka’s “30-year war on Tamils” a distortion of facts and urge that it be retracted.

Shashi Weerawansa, wife of former Minister Wimal Weerawansa, who was under investigation for allegedly submitting forged documents to get a diplomatic passport, has been arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Police Spokesperson SSP Ajith Rohana said.

Asked whether she feels confident justice will prevail in the case of the murder of her father – Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, Hirunika Premachandra, Western Provincial Councilor, said: ” I think so and very soon, maybe even next week.”

Nearly 18,000 soldiers who were deployed to work on development projects under the former Ministry of Defence and Urban Development will go back to their regiments soon. This is in keeping with the pledge made in the election manifesto of President Maithripala Sirisena who promised to stop the employment of military personnel in occupations that undermine their dignity.

Former minister Wimal Weerawansa’s wife Shashi Weerawansa who is alleged to have obtained diplomatic and general passports by submitting birth certificate with forged names and dates of birth, has reportedly fled her home according to the CID team assigned to arrest her said.

In a sign of improving relations with the U.S., Sri Lanka has terminated lobbying contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars a month that the previous government had signed to help it win friends in Washington amid war crimes allegations, the nation’s ambassador says.