Admits walls were on private land and should not have been pulled down; compensation to be discussed

The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) this week asked residents living in Kollupitiya to rebuild the walls the authorities pulled down last week, admitting they had made a mistake.

Angry residents had complained to Colombo Mayor M.J.M.Muzamil after workers broke down the walls in a move to link Galle Road to the Marine Drive, in spite of residents informing them that the walls were on private land and in some case

A Sri Lankan domestic worker was sentenced to one in year jail and 100 lashes following a conviction for practicing black magic among his friends in Riyadh.
Sri Lankan Embassy sources said the accused was Premanath Pereralage Thungasiri, who was working as a house driver in a Saudi home.
An embassy official, who had met Thungasiri in jail, said that Thungasiri had been booked by police in the Ummul Hammam district on charges of black magic and for violating local regulations by meeting an unknown woman, which is against Saudi l

Matale Magistrate issued an order on Thursday, preventing constructions around the mass grave found in the Matale Hospital premises, until the excavation work is finalized.

Matale Additional District Judge, Chathurika de Silva, issued the order after considering a request made by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Excavations were conducted till Thursday (7). The mass grave was found when excavations were carried out to build a bio-gas unit on 26 November 2012.

Justice Ministry Secretary Kamalini De Silva yesterday faulted the police and the acting Magistrate with regard to the unfortunate incident where a 13-year-old schoolgirl was produced in court by the Horana Police on charges of having stolen eight coconuts.

The teenager was later granted bail on a Rs.50,000 surety

Ms. De Silva said that in the first place the girl should have been referred to the Mediation Board instead of being produced in Court.

“The law says that if the accused is a minor (aged 18

A probe by a parliamentary committee on investments made by a state controlled retirement fund of private sector workers had been halted mid-way, an opposition legislator has said.Harsha de Silva, an opposition member told parliament that proceedings at a parliamentary committee examining investments by the Employees Provident Fund managed by Sri Lanka's Central Bank this week had come to an "abrupt halt".

A meeting of the parliament's committee on public accounts (COPA) was halted by its chairman, deputy fin

One-time peace facilitator Norway and Sri Lanka are on a collision course over NGO guru Dr. Kumar Rupesinghe moving the District Court of Colombo against the Nordic country for refusing to make payments amounting to millions of rupees to the Foundation of Co-Existence, headed by the plaintiff, in accordance with a tripartite agreement signed in June 2008.

The British government is party to the agreement which covered a three-year period.

The signatories to the agreement are Tore Hattrem, the then Norwegian Amb

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena vowed in Parliament yesterday that tough action would be taken against principals who collect money from children for purposes such as colour-washing and refurbishing of class rooms.

He said that such principals would be interdicted from the service. Already, a circular had been issued prohibiting the school principals soliciting money from pupils, the minister said adding that a fresh circular too would be issued soon to prevent them fleecing children.

"Suspicion has been the root cause of the rise in irrational hatred and intolerance towards Muslims and Islam as a religion, provoking some religious bigots in the country to embark on hate campaigns and hostile activities," Justice Minister and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Leader Rauff Hakeem told German Ambassador Dr. Juergen Morhard, when they met at at the Ministry of Justice yesterday.

Hakeem, responding to a query by the visiting Ambassador stated that communities must look beyond baseless suspicions and Muslims s

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 9 (IANS) Sri Lanka Saturday said it hoped India will vote for it in the upcoming UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.

India had voted for a US-sponsored resolution last year that pulled up Colombo on issues related to human rights and the re-settlement of Tamils displaced by the military conflict.

Sri Lankan Minister for Public Administration W.D.J. Seneviratne told reporters here that there had been "a remarkable improvement in the human rights situation" in his country.

I doubt the heading will have any appeal or meaning to the present generation, unless for those as myself who have seen both worlds. I was born in the ‘40s and the vestiges of the British rule and systems continued even till the mid ‘50s after the country have been granted Independence. Prior to the advent of the British where the whole country came under the British Monarch, only the coastal areas were under the Dutch and the Portuguese rule and there was no central administrative system as the British had established.