May 14 (FT) Prez Gotabaya Rajapaksa faces an existential and strategic choice which will determine the direction, destination and destiny of the country and his presidency. His constituency, the authoritarian-ultranationalist Sinhala Right, believes that its project is akin to those of Putin, Xi Jinping, Lee Kuan Yew and Mahathir Mohammed, comprising a mural of Eurasian modernity. On the other hand, it also believes that the Sinhala Buddhist, therefore Sinhala–and by extension more..

May 14 (DN) The second contempt of court action filed against Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagoda Atte Gnanasara Thera and two others for violating a court order regarding the cremation of the late Gurukanda Raja Maha Vihara chief monk’s body in a kovil compound in Mullaitivu was yesterday re-fixed for support by Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal made this order pursuant to a fresh contempt of court action filed by TNA MP Shanthi Sriskandaraja. more..

May 14 (EN) SriLankan Airlines said it had carried 45 tonnes of supplies including 7 million masks to South Africa from China to help the country’s battle against Coronavirus. The cargo was carried from Beijing and Guangzhou in China to O R Tambo Int'l Airport – Johannesburg. Three SriLankan Airlines long haul A330 aircraft were involved in the airlift. Cargo capacity had been boosted with cabin loading. Each seat can carry around 60 kg of cargo in place of a human passenger. more..

May 14 (FT) LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed 11 years ago in combat with the armed forces of SL on 19 May 2009. The longest war in South Asia came to an end after the military debacle of the LTTE on the shores of Nandikadal Lagoon in the Mullaitivu District of northern SL. Though Prabhakaran is no more, the SL Tamil people are yet to recover fully from the ravages of the lengthy war fought by Tigers. more..

May 14 (BBC) The coronavirus may never go away, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. WHO emergencies director Dr Mike Ryan warned against trying to predict when the virus would disappear. He added that even if a vaccine is found, controlling the virus will require a massive effort. Almost 300,000 people worldwide are reported to have died with coronavirus, and more than 4.3m cases recorded. The UN meanwhile warned the pandemic was causing widespread distress more..

May 14 (Island) The Global Sri Lanka Forum (GSLF) has complained to the British authorities that LTTE activists displayed the logo of their organisation, which is banned in the UK, at an event, where food and beverages were donated to the St. Mark’s Hospital, in Harrow. The GSLF has said that the Tamil Coordinating Committee (UK) organised the event and used the donation as an excuse for displaying the LTTE logo. Although the organizers couldn't be faulted for providing required more..

~May 14 (AD) Ongoing curfew in Colombo and Gampaha districts will continue until further notice, says the PMD. In other districts, the curfew will be effective between 8 pm and 5 am daily, until Saturday (16). Thereby, a countrywide curfew will go into effect on Sunday (17). On May 18, the curfew for 23 districts, except for Colombo and Gampaha, will be lifted at 5 am and re-imposed at 8 pm on the same day. more..

May 14 (TRT) The WHO says burials are safe for Covid-19 victims. So why is SL's govt insisting on cremating all bodies? The meme Dying While Muslim may not be as familiar as Flying While Muslim - which came into prominence in the post-9/11 years when Muslims began to experience Islamophobia after being singled out at airports and airlines. But this meme has now gained popularity in the SL context, where Muslims are at the butt end of compulsory state-sanctioned cremations more..

May 14 (DM) Election Commission’s Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya asserted at Tuesday’s meeting with the political party representatives that his office was prepared to conduct the general election, but not at the cost of human lives. Mr. Deshapriya said people would be denied of sovereignty without elections. He said sovereignty was the inalienable right of people. However, he underscored that the Election Commission would not proceed with elections over the dead bodies of people. more..

May 14 (EN) SL Navy is vowing that it will not allow the COVID 19 pandemic that has caused a lockdown of the Navy’s massive Welisara camp to escape outside our facility. Navy spokesman said this as another 20 Navy personnel were diagnosed with the Coronavirus bringing the number of confirmed COVID 19 cases in Sri Lanka to 915. The total number of Armed Forces personnel infected with the virus is 485 with 474 from the Navy, more..

May 14 (AD) Prez Rajapaksa has donated the equivalent of three months of his salary to the COVID-19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund. The relevant cheque has been handed over to the Secretary to the Prez P.B. Jayasundera today at the Prez Secretariat. Prez set up a special fund named COVID-19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund in March, to strengthen the mitigation activities aimed at controlling the spread of virus outbreak in the country and related social welfare programs. more..

May 14 (EN) Private sector Employers’ Union has agreed not to terminate any employee due to the financial crisis created in the country by COVID-19 pandemic, Minister Bandula Gunawardena said. He said that as a result of the lengthy discussions held between Minister of Foreign Relations, Skills Development, Employment & Labour Relations Dinesh Gunawardena and factory owners unions, Employers’ Federation of Ceylon and trade unions they were able to come to this agreement. more..

May 14 (TM) ACMC Leader and former MP Rishad Bathiudeen joined by several former MPs has filed a Fundamental Rights Petition before the Supreme Court today, challenging the rules followed to dispose the bodies of Muslim COVID-19 victims, which he alleges is done contrary to the method practiced by followers of Islamic Faith. In his petition SCFR107/2020 filed 14 May, Bathiudeen cited the Minister of Health, more..

May 14 (Island) In the backdrop of uncertainties in the post Covid-19 labour market, there needs to be a wide consensus among employers, employees, trade unions and the Labour Department on continuing businesses and ensuring people's livelihoods, several senior members of the Bar Association of SL (BASL) said at a webinar recently. Kanishka Weerasinghe-Attorney-at-Law, Geoffrey Alagaratnam PC, Uditha Egalahewa PC, Sarath Ranaweera - former Commissioner of Labour more..

May 14 (DM) Two newly appointed Ambassadors and a High Commissioner presented credentials to Prez Rajapaksa through video conferencing today due to COVID-19 pandemic, the President's Media Division said. Accordingly, Ambassador for the Republic of Brazil, Ambassador for the Islamic Republic of Iran and the High Commissioner of the Republic of India, based in Colombo presented their credentials to President Rajapaksa who was at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo today. more..

May 14 (AD) Former MP Mangala Samaraweera has left the CID after recording a five-hour statement. The former Minister has arrived at the CID premises at around 2.00 p.m. today to record a statement over the investigations into an incident of misusing state property. He had been summoned by the CID to give a statement regarding allegations of using buses belonging to the SLTB to transport voters during the 2019 Prez Election. more..

May 14 (AD) Former Pan Asia Banking Corporation (PABC) Chairman and head of Esna Group of Companies Eshana De Silva has been appointed as the new chairman of National Development Bank (NDB). He succeeds Kavan Ratnayaka who submitted his resignation to take effect on 30 April citing personal reasons. NDB communicated this to the CSE on 28th April in a corporate disclosure. Having built his career in the business world, Mr. De Silva currently serves in the capacity of more..

May 14 (UNDP) With the emergence of COVID-19 in SL, the country has seen far reaching social and economic consequences affecting the livelihoods of many individuals. Every country needs to act immediately to prepare, respond, and recover; and innovative minds can become a bridge in overcoming these challenges. UN Development Programme in SL through its premier Youth Social Innovation Platform HackaDev has launched the HackaDev COVID-19 Innovation Challenge. more..

May 14 (CT) An incident was revealed yesterday, at the Fort Magistrate's Court where false documents had been prepared to facilitate employees of Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife & Christian Affairs to visit an exhibition in Canada in 2019, where four persons had obtained a sum of Rs 8 million, each getting a share of Rs 2 million, while Minister John Amaratunga had also been paid a sum of Rs 400,000. more..

May 14 (AD) The Supreme Court has appointed a 5-member Judge Bench to hear the multiple Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions filed challenging the date set by Elections Commission to hold the General Election 2020. Accordingly, CJ Jayantha Jayasuriya will serve as the Chairman of the Bench. Justices Buwaneka Aluvihare, Sisira de Abrew, Priyantha Jayawardena, and Vijith Malalgoda make up the remaining slots of the Bench. Seven parties including Att at Law Charitha Gunaratne, more..

May 14 (EN) Mattala Airport is facilitating crew changes along with the ports strengthening the island’s position as a logistics hub as a Coronavirus crisis is crippling global shipping and aviation, officials said. “Last week we got a special flight coming in to Mattala airport with 224 passengers for a specific requirement and we are getting another flight next week too,” G A Chandrasiri, Chairman of Sri Lanka Airport and Aviation Services said at an online forum. more..

May 14 (AD) The Public Utilities Commission of SL (PUCSL), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Lanka Electricity Company Private Limited (LECO) have taken steps to ensure fairness for electricity consumers in issuing monthly electricity bills and allowing a grace period to pay the monthly bills, stated PUCSL issuing a press release today (14). The release stated that the PUCSL has prepared guidelines with this regard and more..

May 14 (EN) SL has eased liquid asset rules for banks until June 30, 2021 as the island battles a Coronvirus crisis, allowing banks to count early bad loans to state enterprises, provident fund backed credit and arrears from the central govt. An interest subsidy due from the govt on a senior citizens deposit could be counted towards a statutory liquid assets ratio. Early overdue loans to state owned enterprises backed by govt guarantees (SLFRS 09: Stage 01) with a maturing below a year more..

May 14 (AD) The COVID-19 patient identified earlier this evening (14) is the only coronavirus case detected in the country today so far, stated the Ministry of Health. The previously identified patient is a close contact of a Sri Lanka Navy personnel attached to the Welisara Navy Camp, the Ministry said. One more patient has tested positive for Coronavirus increasing the tally of confirmed cases reported in the country to 916, the Ministry of Health said. more..

May 14 (EN) Brandix, a top apparel group said it had started shipping 200 million face masks to made at its factories to support the US in its battle against Coronavirus. Basil Rajapaksa, brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had made a symbolic presentation of a batch of masks to US Ambassador Alaina Teplitz. The fabric was produced in SL and ingredients of a coating on the mask that kills germs were brought from the US. more..

May 15 (CT) Imagine, if you will, a craftily designed small-scale platform to manipulate and defraud the securities market. Name a PM; his Finance Minister, a Central Bank Governor, and a big player on the exchanges market, and you get a cabal as vicious as possible to wipe out the Stock Exchange. But you leave behind telephone evidence, diary scribblings, and angry whistleblowers. And power with investigators and there are time killer ways to endlessly postpone Court hearings. more..

May 15 (CT) The year 2009 marked a turning point in the history of SL. It was not simply a year of military victory alone, but lot more than that. From the point of view of the Sinhalese and specially Buddhists, that victory wiped out from memory the historic fear they carried over centuries of a possible Tamil invasion from the subcontinent. The betrayal of the India and particularly Tamil Nadu during the final stages of the civil war taught LTTE and the Tamils that in international politics more..

May 15 (ST) 1955 was a landmark year for Ceylonese Buddhists. They had long been petitioning for Vesak to be made a public holiday. For five years committees had been fussing and pondering- till finally in Sir John Kotelawela’s last year of premiership the holiday was granted. From that point on Vesak was to gather more dazzle- each year the pandals would vie with each other for size and pyrotechnics- and with the passage of time more..

May 15 (CT) On 11 and 12 May 2020 several newspaper and websites quoted the Attorney General as stating in court that day that he cannot represent the Election Commission in the ongoing FR petitions on the Parliamentary Elections. The Attorney General represented by ASG Indika Devamuni de Silva said that the AG would represent only state institutions named as Respondents. The EC was not considered a public institution; it was an independent commission. more..

May 15 (DM) It seems that only one cluster of Coronavirus infected persons –the Navy cluster that constitutes half of the total infected persons so far - is active now in Sri Lanka, according to the health and defence authorities, who are in the frontline in fighting the COVID-19 threat. As if to confirm this point they always emphasise these days that almost all new detection of infections are related to the Navy personnel, who are believed to have been infected with the deadly virus while more..

May 15 (CT) As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the economic, social, political, religious and financial stability of our Country as well as the world. To control the COVID-19 contamination, countries had to lockdown either completely or in sections and as a result, peoples life styles completely changed. They were asked to safe-distance themselves as per instructions given by the health sector. more..

May 15 (ST) Sounds familiar? The list of items banned from being imported is like going back to the 1970s when people were starved of foreign goods like wheat flour, shirts, dresses, etc, during a period when people queued for food which was in short supply. While for the adults it was serious stuff with rice also being rationed and long and snaking bread queues, for youngsters it was fun going on bicycles to fetch these goods – bicycles being a popular mode of transport. more..

May 15 (DM) Parents would be anxious when their children return to school following the resumption of classroom sessions in the near future. Minister Dulles Alahapperuma has said that classroom sessions will be held seven days a week once schools reopen. Next to the health concerns what troubles parents and their children is whether syllabuses would be covered for those sitting for the A/L and O/L Exams this year. For the record children had lost 276 school hours by May 12 due to more..

May 15 (GV) Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant shutdown of social and community life has meant that the political debate and dialogue in SL, has moved from more traditional forms of communications, to exclusively electronic and especially social media platforms. Of these, the electronic media’s reach is universal in SL, with almost every one of SL’s four million households either owning a TV set or having ready access to one, though not entirely being news and more..

May 15 (Island) Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth, so said Marcus Aurelius the great Emperor and Philosopher. Apocalyptic or not, one thing is certain about COVID19. There has indeed been a revelation that the only way of emancipation available for the world is to return to the fundamentals of good hygiene but only if they are practicable in the modern context. In the fight against the spread of Corona virus masks more..

May 15 (FT) With the world focusing more on creating a positive impact to the society and environment rather than financial returns, the concept of social entrepreneurship is breaking the barriers and coming forward. Social entrepreneurs are those who operate businesses with the main objective of creating a social, environmental or cultural impact while also creating returns to ensure sustainability. more..

May 15 (Island) Can you believe this? Intrepid, venom spitting, caustic and corrosive mouthed Cassandra woke up on Sunday 10 May 2020 with a sinking feeling in her heart and a whiff of fear clouding her mind: Aney, how to get out of the house and go about? Two months of hibernation have sent deep roots down into Cass’ security zone – her flat. So how venture forth? Sensible Cass intervened: Stupid! You only need to go to the bank and, if poss, pay your SLT bill. more..

May 15 (Island) Former Minister Rajitha Senaratne, remanded by the Colombo Chief Magistrate until 27 May, has been sent to a quarantine centre, of all places. He is in hot water over what has come to be dubbed the white van press briefing. The problem with political stunts is that they often go wrong. In the run-up to last year’s prez election, flanked by two men in disguise, Dr. Senaratne told a media briefing that there was irrefutable evidence to prove that the Rajapaksa govt had carried out abductions more..