More than been suspended within a period of one week in a 'mass-scale' attempt at student suppression by the Higher Education Ministry, the Socialist Students' Union (SSU), alleged yesterday (10).

Speaking to Ceylon Today, SSU National Organizer, Nalinda Jayatissa, said to date, over been suspended, and six student unions have been disbanded and banned in universities, while 138 students were suspended within a week.

 Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) Committee Member Dr. Nath Wijesooriya yesterday said the GMOA would take disciplinary action against Matara Hospital Directress Dr. Mrs. Samanthi Samarakoon for criticising the GMOA.

A few days ago, Dr. Mrs Samarakoon had made a statement to the media that the GMOA approach to the doctors’ welfare left much to be desired.

Lecturers of the Medical Faculty of the Jayewardenepura University are refraining from conducting lectures and classes for medical students, to express their displeasure over a protest conducted by the Medical Faculty undergraduates last week.The Medical Faculty Students' Action Committee (MFSAC), addressing a media briefing yesterday (10) said the academics of the Medical Faculty and teaching hospitals affiliated to the Jayewardenepura University had stopped their academic activities last Saturday. According to the MFSAC Co-convene

In many countries in Asia, perhaps because there seems to be a perception that with the media taking on new forms of conveying to the public, information which may not otherwise have been available, the power of the Print and Electronic Media has increased beyond all proportions, and become a powerful weapon, undermining the security and stability of States even at times when foreign powers had introduced restrictions on the Media.

DMDK founder and Leader of Opposition in the Tamil Nadu assembly A. Vijayakant has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reopen and review the 1974 agreement with which India transferred Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka.

"As circumstances change and unforeseen hardship is caused, it is quite natural for any treaty to be reviewed and altered if necessary," Vijayakant said in a letter to the prime minister, a copy of which was released to the media here Tuesday.

Sri Lanka's state education system is in the process of changing its structure from an exam centric one to a more interactive learning system, the island's education minister said.
"There should be a structural change in the education system to help with the employment requirements of the country," minister Bandula Gunawardena said.

"There should have about 25 percent of students qualifying from the arts stream (at university entrance level), 35 percent from the commerce stream and 45 percent from t

France said yesterday there was “no evidence at all” to suggest that journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda, who disappeared in Sri Lanka three years ago, was living in that country. “We have no official confirmation whatsoever,” a spokesperson for the French Embassy in Colombo said.

The UPFA’s Puttalam District Parliamentarian Arundika Fernando told Parliament on Wednesday that  Ekneligoda was living in France under disguise. In a clarifying statement on Friday, he claimed he had met Mr. Ekneligoda

Sri Lankan authorities should challenge a parliamentarian’s claim as to the whereabouts of a political cartoonist who was forcibly disappeared in 2010 and provide information on his fate, Human Rights Watch said today.

Sri Lankan lawmaker Arundika Fernando told Sri Lanka’s Parliament on June 5, 2013, that Prageeth Ekneligoda, a cartoonist and government critic who has not been seen since leaving work on January 24, 2010, is currently living in hiding in France.

The Sri Lankan government on Monday said it has made progress in addressing human rights concerns and reconciliation which it says has been acknowledged by many in the international community.

A government statement said it was surprised by claims made by Canada last week at the UN Human Rights Council currently meeting in Geneva that there are ongoing violations of human rights in Sri Lanka and that there is also a lack of reconciliation in the country.

The United States brought to the notice of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last week, what it says is a continuation of violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and reprisals against human rights defenders, members of civil society, and journalists in Sri Lanka.

In a statement at the general debate on human rights situations requiring council attention, the US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Eileen Donahoe said that there have been no credible investigations or prosecutions for