The first Sri Lanka born woman to be elected to Australia’s Federal Parliament in Canberra was here recently. Cassandra Fernando (35) migrated with her parents to Australia at the age of 11 and grew up in Dandenong, Southeast of Melbourne, North Victoria. There she worked at Woolworths in Dandenong Plaza for around 15 years, including […]

Ambassador of the Republic of Korea Miyon Lee said that during the second half of this year, 7,000 more Sri Lankans would be issued with visas to work in Korea. There were 25,000 Sri Lankan workers employed in Korea and by the end of this year that number would be increased to 32,000. The new […]

Thursday 27th July, 2023 There have been umpteen all-party conferences (APCs) to explore ways and means of resolving Sri Lanka’s ethnic issues, and the latest one was held yesterday. The Opposition would have the public believe that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has undertaken to devolve more powers to the provinces in a bid to woo the […]

The current spurt in the spiral of violence in the Middle East could easily lead the concerned observer to conclude fatalistically that the bloody conflict is not at all amenable to a political solution. Yet, all stakeholders to the Middle East problem need to inquire as to whether the exploration of all peaceful options has […]

By Jayantha Somasundaram (This articlecontinued from yesterday (25) is based on reporting by the international media on the events in Sri Lanka forty years ago.) “For day after day Tamils were beaten, hacked or burned to death in the streets, on buses, on trains – sometimes in the sight of horrified foreign tourists. Their homes […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Thilini Kahandawaarachchi, on behalf of the Norwegian Embassy, on July 06, 2023, reminded the media of the closing down of the mission on July 31, 2023. In her capacity as the Senior Political Advisor at the mission, Kahandawaarachchi, stated that with effect from August 1, 2023, the Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi […]

Tuesday 25th July, 2023 There is a widely-held misconception that Sri Lanka is a land where every prospect pleases, and only politicians are vile. The less said about politicians, the better; suffice it to say politics is a stinking swamp that has to be drained if the country is to achieve any progress, but the […]

Jawaharlal Nehru University facilitates talk on ‘structural genocide’ By Shamindra Ferdinando SLPP MP retired Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera yesterday (24) accused Canadian High Commissioner Eric Walsh of backing those propagating separatist sentiments. The former Public Security Minister, who is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on National Security, claimed that the HC’...

By Jehan Perera President Ranil Wickremesinghe has announced that he will convene a meeting with all political parties to decide on the implementation of the 13th Amendment in full or in part.  Shortly after being elected president by parliament he pledged to resolve the ethnic conflict and take the burden off the shoulders of future […]

Monday 24th July, 2023 President Ranil Wickremesinghe has returned from New Delhi with a to-do list given by the Modi government. He will have Big Brother breathing down his neck hereafter. It has been reported that the SLPP-UNP government is planning to hold an all-party conference on the ethnic issue. Some of India’s dictates have […]

by Dr Upul Wijayawardhana It is becoming increasingly clear that some ambassadors, assuming themselves to be the new viceroys, are undermining Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. It is also becoming pretty obvious that the project to oust Gota got underway no sooner had he been elected President. Western countries that extol the virtues of democracy, some not […]

Chief of Presidential Staff and Senior Adviser on National Security to the President Sagala Ratnayake stated that the government is not going to play any politics but to set the country right. Many individuals like to see the country collapse as they will not have any political opportunities if it succeeds, he continued. “We are […]

Sri Lanka is considering the possibility of allowing the use of the Indian rupee for local transactions, as the island nation struggles to build its depleted foreign reserves and to emerge from last year s unprecedented economic crisis.

(Excerpted from volume ii of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography) During one of my visits to Colombo I got a call to see the President at ‘Breamar’. Gamini Dissanayake had told him of my friendship with Parathasarathy and he wanted me to help him repair the damage done to their friendship due to the abuse heaped […]