Category: Local News

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will personally receive Narendra Modi when the Indian leader arrives in Colombo today for a packed three-hour visit.

Security agencies could not piece together vital intelligence that could have possibly averted or minimised the casualties from the Easter Sunday attacks even at the eleventh hour due to systemic failure in the national security apparatus.

Investigations currently being conducted by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), to inquire into the Easter Sunday attacks, which took place on 21 April, could only be brought to a halt by Parliament itself and not by the Speaker.

Chief of the State Intelligence Service, former DIG Sisira Mendis, who testified before the Parliamentary Select committee on Easter Sunday attacks, has resigned citing health reasons, a senior defence official confirmed.

The United National Party’s candidate for the upcoming presidential election will be selected from Ranil Wickremesinghe, Karu Jayasuriya and Sajith Premadasa trio, says UNP MP Hesha Withanage.

Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday urged President Maithripala Sirisena to reconsider the decision to ban ‘Wadu Madu’ or carpenter-workshops and chainsaws.

President Maithripala Sirisena said he disapproves summoning State Intelligence officers before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) and revealing sensitive information.

In a dramatic turn of events, local Muslim leaders, who resigned from their Cabinet portfolios, are now preparing to internationalise the issues they are faced with. They will shortly be meeting the United Nations (UN) Resident Representative in Sri Lanka and also the powerful Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) – the world’s second largest inter-governmental organization after the UN.

Three suspects including a Chinese national have been arrested after STF personnel raided a house at Eththukala in Negombo and discovered various telecommunication equipment including 17,400 SIM cards, over 400 iPhones and 60 internet routers.

The SriLankan Airlines has been named as the world’s most punctual airline with 90.75 per cent of its flights in May 2019 being ‘on-time’ throughout its route network, SriLankan Airlines said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament yesterday morning that the letters of resignation of some of the Muslim Ministers, State and Deputy Ministers had already been submitted by then and all the others would follow during the course of the day.

Legal and administrative steps would be taken by the government shortly to prohibit the import of tree cutting machines, chainsaws, mechanical saws and the carpenter sheds popularly known as ‘wadu maduwa’, in a bid to protect the environment – in particular, the forest density of the country, President Maithripala Sirisena declared today.

British travellers are no longer being warned against travelling to Sri Lanka following a change in the UK Foreign Office’s advice.

The Education Ministry said there is no further need to summon parents to assure security of schools.

Former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, yesterday, told the parliamentary select committee probing the Easter Sunday carnage that the President had specifically told him not to invite the Prime Minister, the State Minister of Defence and the IGP to National Security Council meetings from Nov 13, 2018.

One of the bombers at Cinnamon Grand Hotel Colombo on Easter Sunday, Mohammed Ibrahim Inshaf, has been identified as a main suspect in a case currently being heard before the Colombo Magistrates Court over the theft of a container with aluminum, brass and iron valued at 6.2 million rupees.