Category: Local News

German prosecutors have charged a suspected member of the Tamil Tigers as an accessory to murder in the 2005 assassination of Sri Lanka’s foreign minister.

A Sri Lankan court granted bail on Thursday to a Muslim doctor accused of having sterilized over 4,000 women from the Sinhalese Buddhist majority, his lawyer said, a deeply sensitive case in a country long dogged by communal bloodshed.

Dr. Mohamed Shafi, who is accused of allegedly amassing assets through suspicious means, performing illegal sterilization surgeries and having links to terrorist activities, has been granted bail this evening (25) following a lengthy trial.

Special Task Force (STF) Commandant Senior DIG M.R. Latheef has arrived to give evidence before the parliament select committee.

United People’s Freedom Alliance Parliamentarian Chamal Rajapaksa said that he has still not taken a firm decision on contesting the forthcoming Presidential Poll.

Senior Superintendent of Police Shani Abeysekera, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department told the Parliament Select Committee on the Easter bombings yesterday that extensive investigations into the activities of Zahran Hashim by the CID had led them to Lactowatte, where the haul of explosives found was sufficient to make 25 or more bombs.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya assured Parliament yesterday that in future no government official would be allowed to act in a manner detrimental to the sovereignty of the country.

Sri Lankan police have not found enough evidence to prove that Islamic State (IS) militants were directly involved with the Easter Sunday bombings, the chief investigator said on Wednesday, even though the group had claimed responsibility.

Investigation into the missing of two T-56 assault riffles from the Panadura (North) Police Station had been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa who underwent a heart surgery in Singapore, arrived in the island earlier in the day.

The Mid-Year Fiscal Position Report 2019 which was submitted to Parliament by the Ministry of Finance yesterday estimates that the Easter Sunday terror attack had caused the country a revenue loss of Rs 50 billion.

While noting that the majority of the United National Party expects its Deputy Leader, Minister Sajith Premadasa to be named as the Party’s Presidential candidate, Minister Harin Fernando vowed to quit politics if the Party decides otherwise.

The government was planning to bring in new laws in September to enhance the scope and the independent decision-making capability of the Central Bank (CBSL) to further regulate the banking and the non-banking sectors.

The British government has launched an investigation after Sri Lankan authorities said they would send back more than hundred shipping containers because they appeared to contain human remains disguised as recyclable metals.

The Supreme Court today ordered the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) to register the students who obtained medical degrees from accepted foreign universities and the students who passed the SLMC qualifying examination.

A total 130 out of 241 garbage containers imported from the UK had been released by Customs to the Hayleys Free Zone company and were found in the Hayleys storage premises in the Katunayake Export Processing Zone 4, Customs officials said yesterday.