Sep 6 (AN) A senior Sri Lankan physician and university lecturer said in a telephone interview on Sunday that the maid found with nails and needles embedded in her body could have inflicted the damage to herself. "I wish to make it clear that this is not to say that she has not been tormented or tortured by her employer in Saudi Arabia," said Dr. Susirith Mendis from the University of Ruhuna. more..

Sep 6 (TC) A President’s immunity is not for life. It is only for the period that he or she is President. Once a President steps down from office he or she may be sued like any other citizen for any wrongful act committed while in office. A powerful deterrent on a President committing an offence while in power is the knowledge that, once his or her terms ends, which end will be at a time in the foreseeable future, liability under the normal law of the land will resume. more..

Sep 6 (LG) Hitherto, the left in general considered the UNP to be the party of the pro imperialist, conservative bourgeois. Hence the breakaway party led by the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranayke was accepted as the party of liberal nationalist capitalism. People were made to accept that the western colonial traditions were protected by the UNP, whilst the SLFP stood for local traditions. Even Sajith Premadasa insists that the UNP is not a party of the Colombo 7 elite, more..

Sep 6 (LG) A lawsuit accusing a Wall Street hedge fund manager and his father of using a charitable foundation to funnel millions of dollars to the Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lankan terrorist group, can go forward, a federal judge in New Jersey says. The suit, filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, concerns the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), a non-profit that the U.S. Treasury Department shut down in 2007 for allegedly more..

Sep 6 (LG) The odd story about former undergraduate Mervyn de Silva would be retailed around the corridors of Peradeniya campus when I was residing there as an undergraduate from 1957, an indication that he had etched his mark in campus memories. But I never encountered him or his work till I was a lecturer much later in the 1960s and 1970s when I was teaching in the Department of History from 1966 and became heavily involved in the discussions of the Ceylon Studies Seminar from 1969. more..

Sep 6 (LG) There is a certain bitter irony over the weeping and wringing of hands indulged in by some this week in respect of what the draft 18th Amendment to Sri Lanka's Constitution seeks to do to the country's constitutional structures. In the first instance, the utter consternation that is being expressed over this constitutional amendment is hard to understand in the natural order of things. The 18th Amendment Bill, in all its deeply subversive glory, more..

Sep 6 (Guardian) During the Vietnam conflict, the US military developed some creative ways to increase the numbers of Viet Cong insurgents it claimed to have killed. "If they're dead, they're Viet Cong," meant that any Vietnamese killed by American soldiers would automatically count as enemy fighters. Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has taken such creative accounting to new heights. more..

Sep 6 (GV) There is no doubt that the proposed constitutional amendment is merely a means of consolidating the dynastic ambitions of the Rajapakses. And clearly, the largest opposition, the UNP is quietly imploding and incapable of fulfilling its responsibilities and it is futile to hope that the amendment will be defeated in parliament. At this moment, probably the most crucial moment in Sri Lanka’s contemporary history, the Leader of the Opposition is out of the country on a ‘private visit’! more..

Sep 6 (SL) UNP members who have said they would vote in favor of the constitutional amendments in parliament this week have warned they would join the government if disciplinary action is taken against them. The UNP yesterday (4) said the party would take disciplinary action against UNP MPs who vote with the government on the constitutional amendments following a deicison arrived at by the Working Committee last week. more..

Sep 6 (SL) UNP Moneragala District parliamentarian Ranjith Madduma Bandara says his decision on the constitutional amendments would depend on the wishes of those who voted for him at the last general election. Madduma Bandara has told the media that his decision on whether or not to support the constitutional amendments in parliament this week depended on his supporters. He has said that he would have to listen to his voters, as more..

Sep 6 (CTV) The hundreds of Tamil migrants who travelled across oceans on rickety boats to come to Canada faced danger at every turn. They left their homeland, cut deals with dangerous people and put their lives at risk. David Poopalapillai, the national spokesperson for the Canadian Tamil Congress, said his organization routinely hears from Tamils who have been burned trying to get out of Sri Lanka. Recently he spoke with a woman who was calling from Malaysia. more..

Sep 6 (SL) Former Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva has said today (5) that he was still the SLFP organizer for the Kelaniya area and that he never tied a Samurdhi official to a tree. Silva has observed that he not worried about ministerial portfolios as he was still an organizer and a member of parliament, hence would continue to serve the people in the Gampaha District. more..

Sep 6 (SL) There has been a total of 49 incidents involving illegal fishing since January this year, with 234 offenders being arrested by the Navy, said Navy Spokesman Captain Athula Senarath. This includes incidents involving the use of illegal fishing nets, as well as other methods, such as the use of gelignite explosives, he said. “Those arrested were subsequently reported to either the police or the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources,” more..

Sep 6 (GV) Groundviews created this timeline to highlight various promises and statements made by the President and government over abolishing the office of the Executive President. Click and drag the slider at the bottom of the timeline above to adjust the time scale. Click here to view larger version of this timeline, where you can also view it as a list of events / stories. Click on any pop-up / event to get a URL link to the full news story. more..

Sep 5 (LBO) Sri Lanka's main English weeklies have slammed a proposed change to the country's constitution as the latest in a long list of moves by rulers to destroy individual liberties and break remaining democratic institutions. The constitutional change will see the term limits for the President currently set at two being lifted. Earlier this year Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa won a landslide second term. more..

Sep 5 (Island) The SLFP says crossovers may not be welcomed once the ruling coalition passed the proposed 18th Amendment to the Constitution with a two-thirds majority. Senior party sources say the bottom line is that anyone interested in throwing his or her weight behind President Mahinda Rajapaksa should do it on Wednesday when parliament take the vote on the new amendment following a day long debate. more..

Sep 5 (NS) Economic Development Minister and Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa says that Government is confident of passing the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the controversial constitutional reforms, with 156 MPs voting in favour. The Minister also said that he had no doubt that the MPs representing the leftist parties would vote for the amendment. more..

Sep 5 (NS) Ratnapura District UNP Parliamentarian and popular film star Ranjan Ramanayake denied allegations leveled against him by the Derana TV talk show host Dilka Samanmali. Stating that all that he gave Dilka’s father was a courtesy call, Ramanayake said that he did give a call to Dilka Samanmali’s father living in Australia and complained that his daughter was being biased in her show. more..

Sep 5 (ST) The watchdogs may bark, but the caravan moves on. That might sum up the credo of the all-powerful Government as it motors along with the proposed constitutional amendments that would, in effect, turn the country's political establishment on its head in time to come. In a sense it is a circus we are watching. Musclemen carrying the burdens of office; trapeze artists swinging from one side to the other; clowns playing to the gallery - some cheering, some unamused. more..

Sep 5 (LB) In the aftermath of the spot fixing scandal involving Pakistan cricketers in England, a sinister campaign has started to divert the attention with Indian newspapers masterminding a campaign to tarnish Sri Lanka’s cricket image. Sri Lanka which has remained clean in the decades long match fixing scandal of which its South Asian neighbors were found guilty of are being implicated in two match fixing scandals. more..

Sep 5 (Island) With the brutally victimised L. P. Ariyawathie now discharged from the Kamburupitiya Base Hospital, the million dollar question is how did this poor Sri Lankan housemaid with 24 metal objects in her body limp through the Riyadh International Airport undetected by the hi-tech security screens and scanners? Saudi Arabia had taken up the position that if nails and needles had been driven into her body, more..

Sep 5 (Island) The TNA parliamentary group will meet tomorrow to take a decision on the party’s stand on the 18th Amendment to the Constitution due to be debated and voted in parliament on September 8, Mr. M.A. Sumanthiran, National List MP and TNA legal advisor said yesterday. Party leader R. Sampanthan is still under intensive care at a Chennai Hospital and tomorrow’s meeting will be chaired by Mr. Mavai Senathirajah, a senior MP of the TNA, he said. more..

Sep 5 (LB) Internal divisions have erupted within the left parties, the Democratic Left Front (DLF), Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and Communist Party (CP) on whether they should support the 18th amendment to be presented in parliament on September 8, or not, internal party sources revealed. The Central Committee of the DLF and LSSP has decided not to vote in favour of the 18th amendment but the position of the CP is not clear yet. more..

Sep 5 (LB) UNP rebels say that they are not afraid of the party taking disciplinary action and will vote in favour of the 18th amendment. UNP MP for Polonnaruwa district Earl Gunasekera who had committed himself to supporting president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s proposed constitutional reforms says that there would be no problem for him to agree with the government, while remaining in the opposition, when the vote is taken up in parliament on Sept 8. more..

Sep 5 (LB) Millions have been lost to government coffers due to corrupt ports authority officials working in connivance with a powerful politico and the underworld, depriving the state of millions of rupees. The police and the army have now begun a coordinated operation to eradicate underworld activities at the Ports Authority Auction -- which is run with the blessings of a politico who is well-known for underworld operations. more..

Sep 5 (ST) "Cake eka genna" (Bring the cake) intoned President Mahinda Rajapaksa when last Monday's cabinet meeting ended. "Today is a special day," he told his ministers gathered at 'Temple Trees' for an even more special event - examine the changes to the Constitution. Rajapaksa said it was Minister Tissa Vitharana's 76th birthday. One of the Trotskyite LSSP leaders now, Vitharana, Minister for Technology and Research, cut the cake and helped himself to the first piece. more..

Sep 5 (ST) Immigration officers are to file action in the Supreme Court claiming that a Cabinet decision to allow ‘enforcing officers’ to carry out immigration duties at the Bandaranaike International Airport amounted to a contempt of court. The decision came after a Cabinet paper submitted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as the Defence Minister, was approved to allow 131 ‘enforcing officers’ who were earlier prevented by a court decision from more..

Sep 5 (NS) In a week of hectic political developments, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his ruling UPFA appear to have emerged as arguably the strongest political force in the country in its post-independent history, although the constitutional changes that it has planned are yet to be formally adopted by Parliament. Indeed, there were no surprises when the issue of constitutional amendments was first broached after the general election because that election was fought on more..

Sep 5 (ST) The much-publicised assault on a top official of the Department of Inland Revenue — a case tasked for CID detectives and later probed by a hundred strong Police team -- is being sent back for further inquiry by the Matara Police. They will examine whether the matter could be resolved, like most other assault cases, by the Mediation Board of the area. The Sunday Times learns that the move follows instructions from Police Chief Mahinda Balasuriya. more..

Sep 5 (NS) With threats of showdowns both in and outside parliament over the proposed controversial constitutional changes to be introduced in parliament next week, we posed some crucial questions to both main parties, the UNP and the SLFP. UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya, who has come forward as the chief critic of the government on this issue, and External Affairs Minister Prof. G L Peiris, who in addition to being a government minister, more..

Sep 5 (NS) The proposed 18th Amendment to the Constitution will strip the election commission of the power to appoint a Competent Authority during an election, legal experts points out. “The powers of the election commission will be drastically reduced and the regulations in place to safeguard the free and fair nature of elections will be removed. For example, the guidelines in place to ensure balanced reporting, especially the appointment of a Competent Authority, during more..

Sep 5 (LBO) Land around a lake in Colombo has been earmarked for hotels, a park, a shopping and an entertainment area and will be offered to private investors by the island's city development authority. The Sunday Island newspaper quoted Renuka Wickremasinghe, who manages the project at the UDA as saying that 18 hectares of land along one side of Colombo's Beira Lake will be offered for development first. more..

Sep 5 (Guardian) The International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit has been monitoring the activities of a leading Sri Lanka player since the World Twenty20 in England last year after team-mates became increasingly unsettled by his late-night fraternising with a man they believed to be an illegal bookmaker. They passed on their concerns to the captain, Kumar Sangakkara, who followed ICC protocol by contacting the anti-corruption unit. more..

Sep 5 (NS) The UNP has once again learnt a bitter lesson by accommodating smaller parties in their fold and thereby conceding many seats to a peripheral party such as the SLMC. This is not the first time and certainly not the last time as far as the SLMC is concerned, that they would contradict their own position within a space of few weeks. It was at a workshop organised by the Bakeer Markar Foundation that SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem launched a scathing attack on the government criticising more..

Sep 5 (NS) While the country comprehensively debates the proposed reforms to the Constitution that would remove the two-term limit on an individual holding the office of Executive President, and also effect changes to the 17th Amendment, another incident has gone barely noticed: The exoneration of Mervyn Silva, of charges related to tying a Samurdhi officer to a tree, because the latter did not obey his orders. more..