Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena and Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake would have been unheard of if there had been no free education in the country, said the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) yesterday.

JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said at media briefing that Mr. S. B. Dissanayake would have been a farmer if not for free education.

He charged that it was such people as these who were selling degrees at Rs 150,000 each today and thereby scrapping the free education system.

Paul Moorcraft, ‘Total Destruction of the Tamil Tigers: The Rare Victory of Sri Lanka’s Long War, UK, 2012.

The author, a visiting professor of Journalism at Cardiff, has written several books on recent wars. This work (hereafter, TDTT) is short but contains a wealth of information and detail. Moorcraft has read on Sri Lanka, visited sites, and conducted interviews including with army commanders, the Permanent Secretary (Defence), the President, Kumaran Pathmanathan (“K.P.”), Colonel Karuna and oth

Minister Rajitha Senaratne today stated that introducing laws to make floatation devices mandatory for fishermen is not practical and that they can make wearing lifejackets mandatory to “please ourselves”.

The Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development stated that they have distributed over 10,000 lifejackets and thousands of life preservers to fishermen.

“Some people are asking us to make these mandatory. We can make this mandatory to please ourselves,” he told reporters today.

Sri Lanka has been taken off the UN Secretary General’s annual report on children in armed conflict, the UN announced.

“Sri Lanka is no longer included following the delisting of all parties within their territories in 2012,” the report which was released on Wednesday in New York stated.

The army says a group of men have been arrested when they posed as security forces personnel and abducted a family in Batticaloa in a white van.

Army spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said that the police had arrested the men at Manmoonai in Batticaloa.

He said that a group of six males, claiming that they were from the security forces, had abducted a family of four (father, mother and two children) from Thunmankerni on Tuesday.  People in the area have alerted the Army and in turn the police in the area h

Controversy has surrounded the university system once again following the appointment of the new Colombo University Vice Chancellor Dr. Lakshman Hirimburegama last month.

It has been argued that Dr. Hirimburegama possesses only the minimal qualifications required for the post and that the post should have been filled by a more qualified candidate. Some academics have said that the university should maintain high standards by recruiting the most qualified academics and have questioned why this important principle has been overl

Regarding the story published in Colombo Telegraph titled ‘Jaffna Tamils Land Grab FR cases: Justice Sripavan Advices DSG how to Grab Lands Correctly’, a lawyer present in court clarifies as follows:

    There were only three typographical errors and not ‘lots of mistakes’ as your article claims that have to be corrected in the petition. The errors were first pointed out by Justice Sripavan and the counsel for the petitioners who was well aware of the errors conceded very early on in the

Former LTTE member and peace negotiator V. Rudrakumar, who is now the self appointed ‘Prime Minister’ of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), says the group wants to have good ties with India.

He says this has been mentioned in a ‘Tamil Eelam Freedom Charter’ released last month by the TGTE in the United States.

“Expressing solidarity with the people of India and to foster peace and security in the Indian Ocean region, Tamil Eelam will forge a special relationship with Indi

The government has appointed a special Board of Intellectuals to probe charges and allegations being made against NGOs and their operations, the government information department said today.

The government says it has also been made compulsory for all NGOs operating in the country to register themselves with the Office for the Registration of Non Governmental Organizations.

“This step is being taken to thwart certain NGOs from hatching conspiracies to effect regime change by engaging in politics in the guise o

Anoma Dissanayake, Chairperson of the National Child Protection Authority and the officials of the authority launched a sticker campaign in order to raise awareness regarding child abuse.
She was engaged in the programme while she was visiting Jaffna and actively participated in pasting sticker in vehicles.

Women’s organizations in Northern Province have revealed that a frequent increase of sexual abuse of underage girls has been identified since the end of the war.