Fuel ration on the cards
Excessive use of fuel in
the market has prompted the government to seriously
contemplate rationing fuel in a bid to trim down on the
importation of petroleum products.
A special committee to examine the possibility of
implementing this new scheme has already been appointed
under Prime Minister Ratnasiri ...
EU, Co-chairs to pass strictures on Lanka
The European Union (EU) and the Co-chairs are
likely to pass strictures on Sri Lanka over the prevailing situation here.
According to informed sources, the EU resolution is likely to come up again,
since the Human Rights Watch presented a devastating report against the human
rights abuses in Sri Lanka. |
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Please leave me
alone!
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PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE… appears to be what this 67-year
old woman is saying with her hands clasped in
supplication. She along with several other hundred of
Tamils was brought back to Colombo last afternoon from
Vavuniya after police on Thursday evicted them from
their lodges (Pic by Ishara S. Kodikara)
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Japan still hopeful
Japan has no immediate plans to
follow the lead of several other donor countries and freeze aid
to Sri Lanka, the country’s Special Peace Envoy Yasushi Akashi
said at the conclusion of his four-day visit to the island
yesterday.
The Japanese envoy said that while the ... |
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NEWS |
Ranil snubs Milinda?
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and
Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda were among the distinguished guests at the
wedding reception of former Central Bank Governor A.S. Jayawardene’s daughter,
which was held at a five-star hotel in Colombo on Thursday.
Telecom unions threaten legal action if demands
not met
Telecom trade unions will take both legal and trade union action if their
conditions are not incorporated in the new agreement entered into between the
Government and Malaysian telecom giant Maxis.
COPE probe on SLIC privatisation
Asia Box gives new dimension
Adding more spice to the already complicated
drama, a group of Sri Lankan Insurance (SLIC) officials led by business tycoon
Harry Jayawardene told a parliamentary committee that a hitherto unknown company
was part of the conglomerate which bought the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation
from the government in 2003.
Authorised constructions around Colombo Port
removed
Due to the deteoriating security situation in the country, the defence ministry
has ordered the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) to forcibly remove all
small-time ‘authorised’ constructions situated in close proximity to the Colombo
Port.
UNHCHR pushes SL to set up office
The United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human
Rights (UNHCHR) Louise Arbour is to push the Sri Lankan government to set up a
regional office in Colombo amidst mounting human rights violations in Colombo
and the region.
Govt. MPs want Rambukwella as deputy defence
minister?
Senior government parliamentarians are to
pressurise President Mahinda Rajapaksa to appoint a deputy minister of defense
to answer queries in Parliament.
Senior Cabinet ministers have already decided to seek an appointment with
President Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss this issue seriously.
Sri Lankans stage massive demo in London
Some 500 Sri Lankans from all walks of life
living in Britain gathered in front of the British Houses of Parliament in
Westminster on Friday to show their strongest protest at some British MPs who
recently formed a group called ‘’The All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT)’’.
More than 1000 killed in three months--PAFFREL
The People’s Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) issuing an interim
report on the ongoing human rights situation in the country has disclosed that
at least 1006 people have been killed in the country within a short span of
three months. |
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POLITICS |
Political
Affairs
Economic crisis to take Sri Lanka by storm
Politics is the art of
possible, they say. In Sri Lanka, nothing is impossible in
politics – today’s political enemy could be the best ally
tomorrow and vice versa and these are the characteristics of the
art of ‘possible’ politics
 This
is my Nation
Government in need of saner counsel
The
Mahinda Rajapaksa regime (or the Rajapaksas’ regime, as his
critics would call it) can never be faulted for being dull and
monotonous; it seems to thrive on making news as if believing
that any publicity is good publicity.
 Parliament
Seneviratne’s multi-barrelled fusillade
Chaos
reigned supreme when Parliament sat last week, with accusations
being levelled and charges being traded back and forth. |
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NEWS FEATURES |
What’s an
Opposition to do?
Fundamental to a thriving democracy, is a healthy, vibrant
opposition. In the corrupt political quagmire that is Sri Lanka
today, it would seem that the government’s impunity is largely a
result of an opposition that has consistently refused to engage
it.Millitary
Matters
Crouching
Tiger pounces on army in Vavuniya
With the East almost bagged and
a showdown expected at Toppigala- the last bastion of the Tigers
holed up there- the military began its forays into the North via
Vavuniya and Mannar during the past several months. The security
forces had advanced more than five kilometers into the LTTE-controlled
areas.
MURDER
most foul
One
of the most edifying remarks ever made in the recent past of the
current security situation in Sri Lanka was that by Rohan
Edirisinghe of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), who
said that there was a link between the culture of impunity and
the present situation.
Evictions
leave many a heart bleeding
The comedy of errors that was enacted in Colombo last week was a
dark one, which exposed the ugly malignancies of racial
discrimination that poison our nation.
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England
lefties rock Windies
MANCHESTER (AFP) - Ryan Sidebottom sparked a
West Indies collapse as England strengthened their grip on the third Test at Old
Trafford here Friday.
Fellow left-armer Monty Panesar followed up with two wickets in three balls as
England closed in on an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
TV
KILLING CRICKETERS - Sobers
Television, more than any other factor, has
contributed to the declining interest in cricket, believes Sir Garfield Sobers.
While his words were in context of West Indies cricket, it is as applicable
anywhere around the cricketing world.
Dilantha’s lone race to fame
The heydays of Sri Lankan motor racing appear to have gone into history. Those
days when the foreign drivers and riders used to come here the sport used to run
far more efficiently and was held in higher esteem. Dilantha Malagamuwa may
perhaps be the last link to that glorious past.
Point Blank
Asian dilemma
Asia’s headhunt for cricket coaches is getting
curious and curious by the day. It is by a strange coincidence that one finds
the four leading cricket nations in the subcontinent India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
and Bangladesh in a situation where they are all on the search for a suitable
foreign cricket coach for their respective national cricket teams. Seldom has it
happened in the past.
Lanka in
no hurry to appoint Tom Moody’s...
Australians Terry Oliver and Trevor Bayliss put themselves as front runners for
the post of Sri Lanka cricket coach to succeed Tom Moody even though its interim
committee president Jayantha Dharmadasa said that they were in no hurry to
appoint a coach immediately.
Dharmadasa speaking to The Nation yesterday stated that although Oliver had
already been interviewed by Sri Lanka
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INTERVIEWS |
‘Govt. is
becoming the mirror image of LTTE’
Q: Do you feel the state is losing control over the situation
regarding abductions? Alternatively, do you feel there is
complicity by sections of the security forces, together with
paramilitaries?
A: Well, I will put it this way – either it is a question of
complicity, commitment, collusion or loss of control. Whichever
way you look at it, the state cannot abdicate its primary,
fundamental responsibility for the protection of human rights of
all the citizens of this country.
Q: President Rajapaksa, in an interview with Al Jazeera, has
denied a government hand in abductions. What is the role of the
state in guaranteeing security of the people? |
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