No point in Northern elections if powers with provinces are curtailed

TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran says the government is compelled to hold the Northern Provincial Council elections, but that it would be useless to hold the elections after amending the 13th Amendment and reducing powers vested with the provinces. He observed that there won’t be a need for a Provincial Council system if the government goes ahead with its proposed amendments to the 13th Amendment. “The current President and the government

The uncertainty that prevailed for quite a while over the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor for the University of Colombo, was ended several days ago with the appointment of Dr Kumara Hirimburegama to the post. Probably never before has the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor taken so long and generated so much controversy. What followed the appointment was even more unprecedented.  The Federation of University Teachers’ Unions (FUTA) issued a two week ultimatum to the newly appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of C

With last week’s acquisition of a prime Colombo property owned by Mrs. Sicille Kotelawala, the special Golden Key (GK) Task Force led by the DIG (CID) is poised to seize more assets and properties worth over Rs 1.3 billion belonging to the nine directors of this collapsed Ceylinco subsidiary in the weeks to follow, officials said.

"More valuable assets have already been identified and the Task Force appointed by the Supreme Court is expected to move in to acquire and liquidate them to raise funds to repay depo

Vasu proposes that PTA provision be incorporated in Penal Code

National Languages Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara wants the Government to incorporate in the Penal Code a provision in the Prevention of Terrorism Act that deals with offences relating to religious and racial disharmony. He has told his ministerial colleagues that the move is intended to “prevent, enmity by signs or otherwise between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste, community or other grounds and doing

Former owner of Leader Publications Lal Wickrematunge, Canadian parliamentarian, Senator Hugh Segal and British journalist, author of the "Still counting the Dead" Frances Harisson appeared on BBC TV program "Impact", debating whether it was right to hold Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka last week. Presenter Mishal Husain said Sri Lankan Government were invited to take part in this debate but they declined to do so.

Opening the debate Wickrematunge said that the CHOGM shou

The Inter-University Student Federation (IUSF) says it will take its protest against the suspension of five students of Sabaragamuwa University to international forums. Higher Education Ministry Secretary  Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawarathne said the suspensions – for indiscipline and for causing a public disturbance by taking student protests to the streets – would continue for eight months.

Sabaragamuwa University students taking their protests to the streets

Police are yet to identify those responsible for the attack on the students at the Science Faculty hostel of the Kelaniya University on Thursday night.
Six students were admitted to the Kiribathgoda and Ragama hospitals following the assault.

Peliyagoda police carrying out investigations said that they had not identified any attackers nor arrested anyone responsible for the attack.
Inter-University Students’ Federation Convenor Sanjeewa Bandara said the government was behind the attack.

The Nuwara Eliya Municipal Council has decided to ban cattle slaughter from January 2014 in the Nuwara Eliya municipality area.  This proposal was presented to the monthly meeting of the Nuwara Eliya Municipal Council by the United National Freedom Alliance (UPFA) representative, R. Rajaraman. It was approved without a vote count as the majority of the Council members were in favour of the proposal, including Mayor D.G. Mahinda Kumara and Deputy Mayor, Tissa Seneviratne.

The Sri Lankan government today said that while it recognizes the Special Procedures as an important mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council, there have been certain instances where some special procedures mandate holders have exceeded their respective mandates and as such, acted in violation of the Code of Conduct.

“For example, we have noted instances where joint urgent appeals have been transmitted by same mandate holders based on erroneous information and in connection with situations which do not warrant urgent app

Women’s Action for Social Justice (WASJ) recently organized a panel discussion on the theme Violence Against Women is ‘Violence Against Humanity,’ which was held at the Public Library auditorium.


Over 10,000 signatures, which have been gathered against Violence Against Women, from 10 December 2012 to May 2013, were also handed over to the United Nations Office in Colombo.

Signatures were gathered from the general public in 15 areas in 13 districts (Anuradhapura, Badulla, Colombo, Galle, Gampa