The Chair informed Parliament on Friday that seven ministers that were to respond to 15 oral questions listed in the agenda in Parliament on that day were not present.

Deputy Speaker Chandima Weerakkody said that eight parliamentarians who were due to raise questions in Parliament were also not present.

Responses were made to only three oral questions in Parliament while the other questions remained unanswered.

Pussellawa Police arrested four persons, including three females, over an incident where a three-day-old infant was sold for a sum of Rs 35,000.

The arrested persons include the newborn baby’s parents, the woman who purchased the infant and another woman who mediated the transaction, police said.

The mother, a resident of Labukele in Nuwara Eliya, had given birth to the baby at the Wahugapitiya Hospital in Pussellawa on March 15.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has criticised the US-sponsored UNHRC resolution against his country and said the such "attacks would not defeat or intimidate us".

"This attack would not surprise us at all. These attacks would not subdue us either, nor would they defeat or intimidate us in any way," Mr Rajapaksa said in the northwestern provincial district Kurunegala's military headquarters yesterday.

The President said he was expecting such attacks from the pro-LTTE diaspora and anti-

While India-Sri Lanka ties hit another low after New Delhi's proactive efforts to censure Colombo at the UN Human Rights Council, Chinese President Xi Jinping elevated the island nation's profile by including President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the first list of five phone calls he made after formally taking over from Hu Jintao last week.

In fact, Xi spoke with Rajapaksa on March 16, the same day he spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, which signalled that Beijing had put Colombo at par with Islamabad. This,

Indian and Sri Lankan environment activists are planning a series of joint protests against the proposed Kudankulam nuclear plant in southern Tamil Nadu.

“Several environmental groups are protesting in that country (Sri Lanka), too. We are in touch with the environmental organisations there on a regular basis. Last week, one of them had organised a protest in front of the Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka and we are looking to take this tie-up forward,” said M Pushpanarayan, leader of the Tamil Nadu-based People’s

In spite of receiving 270,000 overseas job opportunities in 2010, Sri Lanka had managed to fill only 71,000 of them for want of skilled workers.

This was revealed by Youth Affairs and Skills Development Minister Dullas Alahapperuma, at the MoU signing ceremony between the Ministries of Construction and Engineering Services and Youth Affairs and Skills Development, on Wednesday (20) at the latter Ministry.

The government yesterday said it would appoint an Inter-Ministerial Sub Committee to implement the WHO recommendations on the Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown etiology (CKDu).

The spokesman for the Health Ministry said the committee would comprise representatives of the Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Irrigation, Water Supply and Drainage and, Local Government and Provincial Councils.

Sri Lanka's tourism industry is facing a growing concern over the increased number of crimes committed against tourists. According to officials, in December of 2012, there was an estimated 10% rise in the number of reported crimes against tourists.

S.P. Perera, of Bentota Police, explained, "The number of crimes reported by tourists holidaying along the Southern coast has increased. In December 2012, our station experienced nearly a 10% rise in the number of reported crimes." He added this was due mainly to the i

Human Rights Watch has criticised the Federal Government for waiting until the last minute to endorse a UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for a war crimes investigation in Sri Lanka.

The US-sponsored resolution, which passed on Thursday night, says the Sri Lankan government should conduct independent investigations into violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law during the country’s 30-year civil war.

Of the 47-member UN forum, 25 countries voted in favour, 13

woman s 1Sri Lanka Army on Thursday (21)     marked a new turning point in its life span of more than 63 years, by taking the salute of 95 recently-enlisted Tamil woman soldiers who passed out during a colourful Passing out Parade (PoP) at Security Force Headquarters- Kilinochchi (SFHQ-KLN) premises.

 

This was the first time the Army saw such a large group of Tamil women joining the organization en bloc, although the Army has had a fair number of Tamil woman officers serving it ever since i