Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Animal Deaths in Dehiwala Zoo

By R. Abeywickrema

The Jathika Hela Urumaya or JHU is a bundle of contradictions. In late September 2007 the ruling military junta in Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests being carried out by monks in that country.

Many including monks were killed in the process and hundreds ended up injured. The usually vocal JHU that takes upon itself the role of guardian angel of the sangha remained largely mum except for a curt statement by its Parliamentary Group Leader, Ellawala Medhananda Thero, who when pushed by mediamen for a comment on the brutal assault said the party did not condone the brutal assault on monks.

2009-11-12 19:14:31

General Sarath Fonseka, Chief of Defence Staff, who has sent his resignation told journalists that he would disclose his future plans only after his resgination comes into effect end of this month.

Gen Fonseka speaking after a visit to the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya said that he will be able to comment only when he retires.

Journalists posed several questions including whether he would contest the next Presidential elections, whether he will enter politics, whether he has been invited by political parties and whether his retirement was preamature.

General Sarath Fonseka resigned as the Chief of Defense Staff today MP Ravi Karunanayaka told Daily Mirror Online short while ago.
Updated @ 12/11/2009 02:59 PM

Posted: 10 November 2009 1753 hrs



COLOMBO: Myanmar`s junta leader General Than Shwe will visit Sri Lanka this week for bilateral talks and to tour Buddhist shrines, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The reclusive leader will arrive on Thursday at the invitation of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, a ministry official said, asking not to be named because she was not authorised to speak to the media.

by Shamindra Ferdinando

In an unprecedented move, trade unions affiliated to the JVP and UNP yesterday vowed to bring President Mahinda Rajapaksa`s government to its knees unless the government granted them a salary increase with immediate effect.

The anticipated move comes close on the heels of the JVP and the UNP agreeing to field a common candidate to face President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the event he called an early presidential election.

The policeman directly involved in the attack on a man in Bambalapitiya yesterday which led to his drowning, will be taken into police custody, Spokesman Senior DIG Nimal Mediwaka said. The body of the man that was swept out by the sea, was found a short while ago.



Speaking to Daily Mirror online the Senior DIG said that it had been brought to light that one of the men directly involved in the attack was a policeman attached to the Bambalapitiya police station, who had not been in uniform at the time.

General Sarath Fonseka in Washington DC. 10/25/2009

By Dianne Silva

Head of the delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives from the European Commission, Ambassador Bernard Savage says that Sri Lanka cannot ask for and keep the GSP plus concession without abiding by the laws to obtain the facility which includes investigating human rights.

But you can`t have your cake and eat it. The regulations of GSP under our laws and our regulations allows for investigations. There is no obligation on Sri Lanka to ask for and keep that concession. Sri Lanka was free to renounce that concession if it did not agree with the conditions under which it was granted, Ambassador Savage told Daily Mirror online.

The police today confirmed that they have been given instructions by the Ministry of Defence to take legal action against any media institution that carry false news items linking the names of serving Army officers with political propaganda.

Police spokesman DIG Nimal Mediwaka told Daily Mirror Online that the police were told to follow the instructions made public last week as was issued to the media by Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.

* Bribed top politico
* Fined 6.6 m by UK`s Fraud Office

By A Special Correspondent

A VVIP politician had handed over construction of seven flyovers to a blacklisted UK based company Mabey and Johnson and some of the bridges and flyovers built by this concern collapsed in several countries. (See page 7 for full story.)
A steelwork structure supplied by Mabey and Johnson to an Italian company and erected in Ethiopia came down in its entirety in 1996.
And, similar bridge structures overseen by this UK-based company in Ghana have also given way, which further highlights with grave urgency, the questionable engineering competence of Mabey and Johnson.

Sri Lanka has been ranked 162 in the latest press freedom ranking released by the Paris based Reporters without Borders today. The Asian countries that least respected press freedom were, predictably, North Korea, one of the infernal trio at the bottom of the rankings, Burma, which still suffers from prior censorship and imprisonment, and Laos, an unchanging dictatorship where no privately-owned media are permitted, RSF said.



Meanwhile Asia`s few democracies are well placed in the rankings. New Zealand (13th), Australia (16th) and Japan (17th) are all in the top 20. Respect for press freedom and the lack of targeted violence against journalists enable these three countries to be regional leaders.

The rift that split the UPFA during the recent Southern Provincial election erupted in full force at a Hilton dinner on Friday with provincial councillor Nishatha Mutuhettigama and Deputy Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage exchanging blows, eyewitnesses said.

They said fisticuffs broke out at the Royal College old boys` dinner after a heated exchange of words between the two politicians.

Prior to this, Mr. Mutuhettigama was seen talking to Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and UNP MPs Lakhsman Kiriella and Ravi Karunanayake all old Royalists. The controversial Southern politician who hit the headlines recently over his open clash with actress Anarkali Akarsha, who was also elected to the Southern Provincial Council on the UPFA ticket at last Saturday`s election, told the UNP politicians that he was invited to the dinner by a Royalist friend.

The fact that Gen. Fonseka`s speech came in the backdrop of a dialogue he had initiated with sections of the United National Party (UNP) leadership - and the newly formed Common Alliance, made matters worse. Readers will see the last two paragraphs of the General`s statement. In the penultimate paragraph he echoes the theme-song of the Opposition Alliance - the need to re-settle the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in the Wanni camps. In the final paragraph he makes but a formal muted acknowledgement to President Mahinda Rajapaksa `for the leadership` - that`s all, and then to the Defence Secretary it is an even more muted acknowledgment limited only to the `necessary support provided` to the war.

Lanka editor arrested
2009-10-17 17:43:12

The Editor of the Sinhalese language weekly Lanka Chandana Sirmalwatte was arrested a short while ago over a headline suggesting a serious rift between President Mahinda Rajapakse and former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka, a spokesperson for the newspaper said yesterday.

Mr. Sirimalwatte was picked up by a team of CID officials accompanied by the Homagama police at a play ground in Homagama, the spokesperson said.