Category: Local News

The Labour Ministry yesterday requested the private sector, government corporations and statutory boards to grant a holiday on Monday, April 15 for their employees, as it had already been declared a public holiday. […]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa sent a message of condolence on the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in which he commended the Prime Minister for her commitment to fighting terrorism. […]

  – Submitted by Walter Jayawardhana – CHENNAI: Did India compensate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after the 1987 Indo-Lanka pact and the dispatch of Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka? The US administration believed so, according to a cable sent by its embassy here and released by Wikileaks. […]

– Submitted by Walter Jayawardhana – Colombo, Apr 9: A Buddhist nationalist group today staged a protest here for halting screening of Kollywood movies in Sri Lanka. Members of Ravana Balaya gathered outside the office of the cinema regulator Public Performance Board (PPB) and theatres to press for a ban on Tamil movies coming from […]

Had the then Indian government acted with responsibility, Sri Lanka wouldn’t have experienced a 30-year war, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said yesterday. […]

A woman and a one-year-old baby were killed when a motorbike collided with a lorry in the Anamaduwa Bangdeniya area of Pallama last night (April 9). […]

  – by Shenali Waduge – Mass media have a power far more than Governments to tilt public opinion to their line of thinking using a plethora of modes at both international and local levels with a dangerous ability to make mountains out of molehills. The scope of their manipulation is phenomenal and profit driven. […]

  – Submitted by Walter Jayawardhana – Five parliamentarians from India, who arrived here Monday night, met Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Chamal Rajapaksa and External Affairs Minister of Sri Lanka G.L. Peiris on Tuesday, it is reliably learnt. […]

– Submitted by Walter jayawardhana – Disregarding the appeal of Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, FICCI Tamil Nadu President Rafeeq Ahmed and its former president A C Muthiah to cancel a chambers-sponsored Indian Parliamentary delegation visit to Sri Lanka, five MPs—including Congress spokesperson Sandip Dikshit—left for Colombo by an evening flight on Monday. […]

A United States diplomat has expressed alarm at a rising anti-Muslim campaign in Sri Lanka and warned that such sentiments should not be allowed to fester. […]

– Submitted by Walter Jayawardhana – Tamil Tigers might have threatened the then Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, in 1989 “with a significant increase in the level of militant violence in Tamil Nadu” if he did not “boost their cause,” the United States surmised. […]

A number of areas were left without power following breakdowns at the Norochcholai coal fired power plant on Sunday and the Keralapitiya Combined Cycle plant yesterday. […]

– Submitted by Walter Jayawardhana – Sri Lanka on Monday reacted strongly to the recent Tamil Nadu assembly resolution against it, saying it was “disturbing” and asked the critics to visit the country to see the progress on the ground instead of going by “exaggerated” allegations of human rights abuses. […]

– Submitted by Walter Jayawardhana – CHENNAI: Union environment and forest Minister Jayanthi Natarajan has asked the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) to cancel a tour of Sri Lanka organized by it for a group of Indian parliamentarians to facilitate bilateral talks. […]

– by Walter Jayawardhana – The lead op-ed piece published by the Hindu in its latest edition said the resignation of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam from the United Progressive Alliance government is more likely that the party has used the Sri Lankan crisis to push for a separation from the UPA, because it is politically […]

Chennai, Apr 8: Finance Minister P Chidambaram has criticised Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not supporting the UPA government’s efforts to pass a resolution in Parliament on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue. […]