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Commander of the Sri Lanka military is under pressure to probe his spy network to locate missing military records on a journalist abducted and disappeared eight years ago.

Prageeth Eknaligoda last seen on 24 January 2010 in the capital, a few days before the presidential election, had been abducted allegedly by military spies.

Shocked by a recent claim by the army chief that files on the case have gone missing, wife of Prageeth is calling for an investigation.

"If the files are destroyed, it is the commander's responsibility to conduct a thorough investigation and take legal action against officers who have got rid of evidence," Sandhya Eknaligoda said.

"We were not in charge of files with the military. If records with the military intelligence have been destroyed, it is clearly their work."

Investigators had earlier informed courts that members of military intelligence have taken Prageeth to an army camp in the north-central town of Giritale, 215 kilometres away from Colombo.

Not practical

Sri Lanka army commander said last week that it is not "practical" for records on the abduction of the journalist to last this long "if the military intelligence was intelligent".

"If someone is involved in this, if they are aware of an investigation, if it is the intelligence unit, aren't they intelligent?" Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake told the BBC.

In an attempt to deny his responsibility for the absence of vital evidence, Lt. Gen. Senanayake said that he was appointed as the head of the military in 2017.

The lawyer representing Sandhya says that the army commanders statement is ample proof that Sri Lanka military intelligence abducts people and destroys evidence.

"The statement by the army commander is very serious," Attorney at Law Upul Kumarapperuma said.

Who is he trying to protect? Aren't they members of the military intelligence who have allegedly abducted a person and made him disappear?"

No progress

Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake says that he has been "restricted" in helping the investigation on the abduction.

Sandhya Eknaligoda suspects that military officers suspected of abducting her husband has been given access to military records following their release on bail.

"It is the commander's responsibility to remove restrictions if any. Which means that he needs to find out who destroyed the evidence and take action against them."

Following his appointment as the Army Commander by the present government that came to power on a mandate of good governance, Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake pledged to take action against military personnel accused of committing crimes.

However, no progress of any probe against members of the armed forces accused of offences including war crimes and crimes against humanity has been reported so far.

Source : Journalists for Democracy Sri Lanka

A special sitting of Parliament would be convened on January 10 following a request made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Acting Secretary General of Parliament Neil Iddawala said today.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had earlier said that he requested Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to convene Parliament to hold a debate on Bond Commission report.

The Prime Minister made this remark at the special UNP convention held at Campbell Park Borella yesterday.

Sri Lanka marked a significant milestone today (8) when the waters of the last but biggest reservoir of the multipurpose Mahaweli Project at Moragahakanda opened its sluice gates to irrigate parched dry lands in faraway Vanni in the Northern Province on one side and Rajarata, Wayamba, Central and Eastern Provinces on the other.

President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declared open Moragahakanda a short while ago.

With the commissioning of the Moragahakanda-Kalu Ganga reservoir of the Kalu Ganga Dam, an increase of 64,000,000 cubic metres of water will flow from the reservoir to far flung regions including, the Vanni, Matale, Anuradhapura, Trincomalee and Polonnaruwa areas.

Water from both the Moragahakanda and Kalu Ganga reservoirs will be primarily used to support agricultural needs in an area of at least 81,422 hectares. This would increase rice production by 81% or 109,000 tons, amounting to an annual estimated monetary benefit of US$1.67 million.

In addition to the irrigation of land, water from the Moragahakanda Reservoir will be used to power the 25-megawatt Moragahakanda Hydroelectric Power Station.

President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe vested the Rajagiriya flyover with the public today (08), providing a long term solution for the heavy traffic congestion prevalent in the Rajagiriya area.

Considered as the longest flyover in Sri Lanka, it will comprise of four lanes with a total length of 533 meters and a total width of 21.4 meters.

In parallel to this project, plans are afoot to develop several roads around the Rajagiriya area as well as to develop an alternative road towards Narahenpita via Buthgamuwa.

Ministers Lakshman Kiriella, Champika Ranawaka, Vajira Abeywardena, Mahinda Amaraweera, Dilan Perera and Deputy Minister Harsha De Silva also participated on this occasion.

The 9th death anniversary of Lasantha Wickrematunge, the former editor of the Sunday Leader was marked today by a sombre gathering at his gravesite located at the Borella Cemetery. Family, friends, colleagues in the industry gathered in remembrance of him.

The brother of the slain editor Lal Wickrematunge, at the gathering today is said to have noted that the failure to bring to justice those responsible for the murder could even open the door to Prime suspect or suspects to be elected President or PM of our land at a future date.

The founding editor of The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was also an Attorney-at-Law, was killed by unidentified assailants on Attidiya Road, as he drove to his newspaper office in Ratmalana. The investigation into his murder was re-opened by the Criminal Investigation Department in 2015 after remaining dormant for five years.

Co-Cabinet Spokesman, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, speaking yesterday at the 71st General Convention of the UNP at Campbell Park made startling revelations regarding the brutal assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge.

“Lasantha was privy to confidential information emanating from a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ukranian government,” Minister Senaratne stated. “Lasantha knew of the extent of corruption and went on to publish an article on it, but couldn’t prove his claims later in a court case.”

The Minister added that the then government engineered a scheme to enter into a second MoU. “By this time, Lasantha gathered much more information and intended to publish an article. The government got to know and felt it would be better if they got rid of him before tabling the second MoU.”

Minister Senaratne said that the investigations were ongoing and that that he was confident of the Police bringing the culprits to book. In 2016, a military intelligence officer was arrested for abducting Wickematunge’s driver and intimidating him against implicating former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the assassination. Wickrematunge’s body was exhumed in September 2016, and it was revealed in courts that Lasantha died from a blunt blow to the head and that the cause of death certificate initially submitted to the court by the then Judicial Medical Officer Dr K. Sunil Kumara contained false and misleading statements.

The Chairman of the National Agency for Public Private Partnerships Thilan Wijesinghe is tipped to chair the Sri Lankan Airlines interim board, the Sunday Times reported today.

With the government accepting the resignations of the Board of Directors of the cash strapped airline, a new interim committee was preparing to take over amidst a shake-up in the airline's top management, informed sources said.

Serela Athulathmudali, the daughter of prominent Sri Lankan politicians the late Lalith and Srimathi Athulathmudali met President Maithripala Sirisena at his official residence yesterday. Joining her on the visit was her seven-year-old son.

Recalling her father’s efforts to build a free and democratic nation, Serela is said to have expressed her support to President Sirisena in his endeavours to achieve the same for the country. She is also said to have appreciated his efforts to make Sri Lanka an internationally accepted nation by ensuring democracy and freedom.

Lalith Athulathmudali was a former Minister of National Security and Agriculture. He was also a powerful minister in the J.R Jayewardene government between a 1977-1988. He was slain by an unidentified gunman in 1993.

Basil Rajapaksa is said to be attempting to bring in an impeachment motion against President Maithripala Sirisena by utilizing his media contacts to instigate UNP backbenchers to do his bidding sources say.

According to reports, he has instructed the tussles between the President and the UNP to be used in this regard.

Currently, many successful political social media groups are being controlled by Basil Rajapaksa sources claim.

He is currently said to be controlling several social media campaigns which were against the Rajapaksa’s at the last presidential election and general election.

''Get out from the government!!'' : Publicity for Harin

Following instructions from Basil, statements being made against the President and the SLFP by certain UNP MP’s are now being promoted widely while the special focus is being given to statements of Minister Harin Fernando.

A video showing Minister Fernando making the following statement saying “Get out of our government and we will show you how the UNP forms a government alone” is now being widely circulated by Basil’s media stooges sources have pointed out.

Video

The President is said to have inquired about government newspaper the Daily News’s failure to carry sections of the President’s statement regarding the bond issue which named the former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake.

It is said that Lake House authorities had then claimed the fax received by the organization made no mention of Karunanayake. It was later revealed that the fault was with the President’s media unit which had faxed the statement sans the page mentioning the Former Finance Minister.

While the unit is said to have re-faxed the statement, they had however failed to inform the necessary individuals at Lake House resulting in Karunanayake being left out in the news which featured on the paper.

Due to efficient management of the State revenue and expenditure, the government, for the first time in over 63 years, has been able to record a LKR 21.9 billion surplus in the primary balance of the fiscal accounts during the first ten months of the year 2017, the finance ministry spokesperson said.

Treasury officials opine that the favourable situation in the primary balance is a sign of positive growth in economic development and it would further enhance the capacity to manage the debt repayment efficiently. The primary budget balance equals the government budget balance before interest payments.

During the first ten months of the year 2017, the surplus in the budget primary balance was LKR 21.9 billion. It was in negative by LKR 37 billion during the corresponding period of 2016.

State revenue when compared with the first ten months of 2016 has increased by 10.4 percent to LKR 1473 billion in 2017. It was LKR 1333 billion during the same period in 2016. The tax revenue during the same period has increased by 14.2 percent to LKR 1470 billion in 2017.

With the appointment of Mangala Samaraweera as the Finance Minister in May last year, many predicted that the country's coffers will continue to deplete. However with the introduction of progressive policies by the new Finance Minister and the country recording a primary surplus for the first time in over 6 decades, there seems to be some hope for Sri Lanka to come out of the economic rot they are currently entangled in.

plastic surgery clinic in Bangkok has made headlines in Thailand after it reportedly shared a video on Facebook of an unconventional new “beauty” treatment: penis bleaching.

“These days a lot of people are asking about it. We get around 100 clients a month, three to four clients a day,” Bunthita Wattanasiri, a manager for the Skin and Laser department at Lelax Hospital told the AFP.

According to the German news agency DPA, a Facebook entry on Wednesday from one of the clinic’s representatives that advertised the procedure had received over 6,800 reactions and 22,500 comments as of Thursday. At the time of writing, the Facebook post couldn’t be found, but this picture was still circulating from credible news sources:

According to the AFP, the process employs a laser to whiten the skin over five sessions for $20,000 Thai Baht ($621 US).

Skin whitening is big business. The BBC Thai Service reports that the whitening industry in the Asia-Pacific region measures up to about $ 2 billion a year. Advertisements for skin lightening treatments are shown widely on billboards and in newspapers, while pharmacies stock over-the-counter skin lightening products.

The cultural trend is attributed to an old-fashioned perception that darker skin implies being part of the working class, while lighter skin implies never having worked in the fields.

The BBC interviewed one patient, called ‘X’, who claimed that the treatment made him feel more confident, inexplicably say, “I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs.”

On Thursday, the viral news of the Lelax treatment prompted Thailand’s public health ministry to issue a warning about penis whitening, saying it was dangerous, not worth the pain, and a waste of money.

Laser treatments break up the skin’s pigmentation, and the process can definitely be dangerous. The BBC Thai Service reports that if the power of the laser is high, it can cause redness, bloody sores, and subsequently possible infection. If the lasers are less intense, it could cause a freckling effect. For one of the body’s most sensitive areas, it seems especially not worth the risk.

Source : BBC

Ministry of Tourism data have revealed that China has become the second largest market for Sri Lanka with over 268,000 Chinese tourists coming to the island in 2017.

Over 19,0000 tourists have visited Sri Lanka during the month of December alone.
Minister of Tourism John Amaratunga stated that Sri Lanka will attract at least 1 million tourists from China per year by 2020 and that China is a strong market for Sri Lanka.

According to the statement from the Tourism Ministry, tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka reached an all-time high of 2,116,407 in 2017 which represented a 3.2 percent growth compared to the previous year, with India continuing to be the top source market with 384,628 arrivals followed by China and Britain.