Category: Local News

Samurdhi and Housing Minister, Sajith Premadasa, yesterday in Parliament requested the Minister of Defence to investigate two unofficial armouries allegedly being operated at Beliatta and Weeraketiya.

Statements have been recorded from SLFP General Secretary and former minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa by the CID over alleged forged document case of UNP’s former General Secrretary Tissa Attanayake.

Ninety-two Sri Lankan citizens hold a total of $58.3 million in 129 Swiss bank accounts, according to data released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and leaked by an HSBC whistleblower.

Colombo Additional Magistrate Priyantha Liyanage today ordered former ITN News Director Sudarman Radaliyagoda to be remanded till February 24.

Police said 60 percent of 82 accounts of MP Duminda Silva has been investigated so far. SSP Ajith Rohana said MP Silva was questioned by the CID for over six hours this morning.

Plans are under way to prepare a new national policy for the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, Tourism and Sports Minister Navin Dissanayake said.

President Maithripala Sirisena expressed his dismay at the delay in taking legal action against those who embezzled public money. Speaking at a rally held in Aralaganwila yesterday, he added that he will use his powers and appoint a special presidential commission to investigate alleged corruption.

Four people were killed and thirteen injured when a lorry toppled at the Ehelagahawanguwa on the Medawachchiya — Vavuniya road this evening, police said.

Self-Employed Persons Federation’s President Mahinda Kahanda Gamage has been arrested by the Fraud Investigation Unit of the Wellawatte police, this afternoon.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday that Parliament would be dissolved straightaway if the government failed to defeat the no-confidence motion against Public Order, Disaster Management and Christian Affairs Minister John Amaratunga.

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, in a startling revelation, said that the Northern expressway, for which the bids from the five contractors had been estimated at Rs 245 Billion, during the previous regime had overnight reduced by Rs 60 Billion!

A former BBC television producer is raising money to fund a film promoting reconciliation in Sri Lanka after decades of civil war. Chris Langdon, who lives in Lambolle Road, Belsize Park, recently returned from Sri Lanka having shot a trailer for Healing The Wounds, a film exploring the relationships between the country’s different communities since the war ended in 2009.

Sri Lanka’s Marxist party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) vows to continue pushing the new government to permanently halt the controversial Chinese funded Colombo Port City project.

Malik Samarawickrama, a onetime General Secretary of the UNP has been appointed as the new Chairman of the party today.

The Presidential Secretariat, under the previous UPFA Government, paid a staggering Rs. 1.39 billion to a middleman and two public relations agencies in the United States to promote Sri Lanka and lobby on behalf of the former Government.

Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala De Silva said his party would not support any hasty electoral reforms before the next parliamentary elections as there was barely any time to effect comprehensive changes to ensure fair representation in Parliament, electorate-wise.