President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday expressed hope that discussions with India over the fishermen’s issue will bring a viable solution. He added that the Government provides multi - day fishing trawlers for fisheries communities for the development of the sector and some elements are using them for human smuggling activities.

He said these activities using fishing boats would be ended soon. “Fishing boats leaving the Tangalle fisheries harbour for fishing are caught with people on board seeking greener past

Parliament member Sivaganam Sritharan's Kilinochchi office was searched for the second time yesterday by the Terrorism Prevention unit. During the search operation a computer which was in his officer was taken away.

 

Yesterday at about 9.30 a.m, the personnel from the Terrorism Prevention unit visited Sritharan's office and were searching the area for an hour.

 

Parliament member Sritharan's Personnel Assistant Ponnambalam Lakshmikanthan was arrested by Terrorism Preventio

With the war victory impact fast receding amidst an unprecedented crime wave and rising cost of living, the government was whipping up communalism to ensure it did not lose the next Presidential Election, which was most likely to be held late next year, an opposition legislator charged.

Informed sources said that Senior Vice President of the UNP, Kabir Hashim had, at Monday’s crucial UNP Working Committee Meeting, which elected the office bearers for this year with the exception of a Deputy Leader, urged the UNP as the m

The Education and the Higher Education Ministries in a collaborative effort towards battling the escalating unemployment rates among graduates and to open up more opportunities for higher education have introduced a new technology subject stream for the A/Ls that is available with effect from this year.

Education Minister Bandula Gunwardena speaking at a media briefing at the ministry yesterday said, “The technology subject stream will open up avenues for students to enter lucrative sectors, including food technology, ag

The Anglican Bishop of Colombo, the Rt. Revd. Dhiloraj R. Canagasabey, in a strongly worded  letter to his diocese, has said that over the past few days there has been a complete collapse of democracy in Sri Lanka.

In his letter the Bishop says Sri Lanka no longer appears to be a constitutional democracy after the Executive and Legislator disregarded the Constitution despite repeated warnings by the Church and other religious organisations as well as civil society.

Situation in northern Sri Lanka, which bore the brunt of decade-long war, has improved, its Foreign Minister G L Peiris said while asking "cynics" not to be guided by propaganda.

He also said that the Sri Lankan government is ready to form an all-party Parliamentary Select Committee to discuss issues faced by ethnic Tamils and asked Tamil National Alliance to join the process as soon as possible.

"Those who are objective and fair minded and open, as opposed to those who have made up their minds, have

 The JVP yesterday called for a high level probe into the Matale mass grave, from which 79 human skulls and the skeletal remains of 78 persons, believed to have been killed during the second JVP uprising in the late 1980s, were unearthed.

JVP Propaganda Secretary and MP Vijitha Herath told The Island yesterday that according to his information there were many more mass graves containing remains of JVP activists and other youth in several parts of the country.

The incident that received a massive media attention is a conspicuous reflection of the social, economic and political tragedy the Sri Lankan society has been dragged into. This is not the first time a Sri Lankan woman who had gone for employment abroad has been sentenced to death. Even thought,  the incident could easily  be defined as another instance of punishment for the crime of murder, Rizana’s execution points out several other special angles we need to pay heed as a nation.

Rizana decides to seek foreig

“Keep your mouth shut if you don’t want to end up like Rizana,” Dharmawathie was threatened when she reported horrible abuse by her employer to a Sri Lankan official representative there.

The mother of three from Galle went to Bahrain as a housemaid expecting to wash and clean as her Colombo agent had promised. Dharmawathie ended up in a household with 10 members, doing everything they asked from early morning to late night. One day the madam’s eldest daughter forced nails into her mouth and told

While the government publicly says that normalcy has returned to the north after four years of war, the actual ground situation seems to reflect the very opposite, at least to some extent according to Tamil political parties.
The biggest issue is the military presence. While Tamil political parties still claim the army is involved in civil administration in the north the army insists such claims are baseless.
However what can be seen through media reports in Jaffna is a sense of instability following the clashes, which erupted