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A Myanmar military court has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to a further seven years in prison, taking her overall jail time to 33 years.

The country's former democratically-elected leader has been under house arrest since a military ousted her government in a coup in February 2021.

Since then she's faced 18 months of trials on 19 charges - which rights groups say are a sham.

The UN Security Council called for her release last week.

On Friday she was sentenced on the final five charges she faced. A court found her guilty of corruption because she had not followed regulations in renting a helicopter for a government minister.

She had already been convicted of 14 different crimes including breaching Covid public safety rules, importing walkie-talkies and violating the official secrets act.

Her trials this year have been set behind closed-doors where the public and media are barred access and her lawyers are also banned from speaking to journalists. She has denied all the charges against her.

The 77-year-old Nobel laureate has spent most of her time in detention under house arrest in the capital Nay Pyi Taw.

Ms Suu Kyi and many members of her party are among more than 16,600 people who have been arrested by the junta since they seized power - 13,000 remain in prison, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

Last week the UN Security Council called for an end to violence in Myanmar and the release of all political prisoners. China and Russia abstained from the vote and did not use their veto power following amendments to the resolution's wording.

Amnesty International has previously said the "relentless legal assault" on Ms Suu Kyi shows how the military has "weaponised the courts to bring politically motivated or farcical charges against opponents".

The military's violent seizure of power last February triggered widespread demonstrations, prompting Myanmar's military to crack down on pro-democracy protesters and activists.

It also triggered renewed internal fighting between separate ethnic rebel groups, a civilian force resisting the military and the junta rulers.

The junta has been accused of extrajudicial killings and launching airstrikes on civilian villages. It's estimated more than 2,600 people have been killed in the military's crackdown on dissent so far.

BBC

A total of 309 inmates who were imprisoned for minor offenses and several other reasons have been released on the occasions of Christmas.

Accordingly, 306 male inmates and three female inmates have been released, the Department of Prisons announced.

The Criminal Investigations Department on Thursday (29) arrested the Former Chairman of the Student Union of the University of Peradeniya Anuradha Vidanage.

Sri Lanka Police said that he was arrested over the incident where the Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya, and his son were assaulted by a group.

The arrest was made opposite the Kandy Court Complex on Thursday (29) evening.

The current Chairman of the Student Union of the University of Peradeniya Chamid Sathsara said that the Former Chairman was arrested while returning from a legal matter in court.

Former MP and Presidential Advisor Professor Ashu Marasinghe has lodged a complaint to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) today.

“A false doctored video and pictures regarding my client Prof. Ashu Marasinghe has been released at a press conference” Lawyer Pravi Karunaratne who accompanied Prof. Ashu Marasinghe to CID told reporters.

Lawyer Pravi Karunaratne said that his client filed a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department, prior to this press conference, regarding the existing threat.

“My client and a female had a dispute in a company in which they are directors and a large sum of money was being demanded from my client over the dispute, this threat came in that backdrop” he added.

Former MP Hirunika Premachandra along with a woman claiming as Prof Marasinghe’s ex-lover held a media briefing yesterday and accused Prof. Marasinghe of sexually abusing a pet dog.

“This false incident is now in the hands of the courts. Therefore I will not comment on this any further and my lawyer will explain all details” Prof. Marasinghe said near the CID premises today.

President’s office announced yesterday that Prof.Marasinghe resigned from his Presidential Advisor position.

Bangladesh’s capital now has its first metro rail, a Japanese-funded project that aims to ease commuting in one of the most congested cities in the world.

A section of the over 20-kilometer (12.427 miles) urban rail project, known as Line 6, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday.

The line connects the northern zone of Dhaka to a hub of government offices and hospitals in the middle for now. Eventually it will cut through the city to the financial district of Motijheel in the south.

While the project is likely to bring significant changes to how people travel in Dhaka, its inauguration will also give some much-needed political mileage to Hasina’s government. With elections expected in January 2024, the leader and her party are under pressure as the South Asian nation’s foreign currency reserves dwindle and it battles inflation and energy crises.

The metro rail “added another feather” to Bangladesh’s cap and is “another milestone in development,” Hasina said at the opening ceremony. She was the first passenger to ride the train amid tight security. The service will open to the public Thursday.

In Dhaka, with 10.3 million people packed in 305 square kilometers (117.76 square miles), the average driving speeds have dropped to less than 7 kilometers (4.3496 miles) an hour right now from 21 kilometers an hour 10 years ago. Given the current trends, a World Bank report has estimated it could drop as low as 4 kilometers an hour, slower than walking.

“It’s an extremely important development for a city like Dhaka,” Martín Rama, a consultant with the World Bank’s presidency and former regional chief economist for South Asia, said in an interview. “If you look at the case of India in many cities, it has changed a lot the way people go to work. It’s a safe means of transportation, for instance, for women, which in South Asia is not trivial.”

At the same time, Rama said it would be “naive to think that congestion problems will go away” immediately because every time a country builds public transport infrastructure and adds more capacity, 90-95% of the freed up road space is taken up by additional traffic.

Traffic congestion wastes about 3.2 million working hours each day and costs Bangladesh’s economy billions of dollars every year. Dhaka is the seventh least livable in a list of 172 cities in the world on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Livability Index for 2022.

“The bigger your city is, the more time you spend typically commuting,” said Rama. “So it’s a congestion cost that detracts from what the city has to offer.”

Bangladesh approved 219.85 billion taka ($2.1 billion) fund for the Line 6 project in 2012, with Japan providing 165.95 billion taka at the time. The cost later escalated to 334.72 billion taka as the authorities added a new section linking the metro rail to Kamalapur, the central railway station that connects Dhaka and the rest of the country.

Japan is also funding two other urban railway lines in Dhaka. When completed, three metro lines are projected to carry two million passengers daily, according to Japan International Cooperation Agency’s website.

The Dhaka metro rail follows six months after Hasina inaugurated the country’s longest river bridge, spanning over 6 kilometers over the Padma River. That is expected to connect 80 million people — half the country’s population — linking the southwest to the northeast.

Source: Bloomberg

The date for the local government election will be announced before the 5th of January 2023.

"The announcement was delayed by a few days due to several factors, although the NEC previously said the date will be announced before the end of December," said Chairman of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka Nimal Punchihewa.

"The calling of nominations will begin 14 days after the announcement," he added.

In the meantime, Executive Director of PAFFREL Rohana Hettiarachchi said, "I will resort to administrative action against the Election Commission if the date isn't announced before the 5th of January."

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe instructed the Nuwara Eliya District Secretary and Commissioner to immediately provide 30 acres of abandoned land adjacent to the Ambewela Farm to them and provide the necessary facilities to develop it as grazing land to meet the food requirement of the dairy cows.

President Wickremesinghe issued these instructions during an observation tour of the United Dairies Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd, which belongs to the Ambewela Farm Group.

The President commended the systematic growth achieved by the Ambewela Farm in the dairy production industry adding that it has set an example for other dairy farms as well. The President also instructed to open this farm for research activities for university students in the country to gain experience in the dairy farming field.

General Manager of the Ambewela Farm Group Sarath Bandara said that the Ambewela Farm is the main centre in Sri Lanka as well as in South Asia which can boast of the highest technical application in dairy production and farming technology.

Presently, there are about 1,000 dairy cows at the Ambewela Farm. All activities such as maintaining the dairy cows, providing necessary fodder, weighing, diagnosing diseases and separating them from others are done through an automated system. The cows are milked thrice a day and 40,000 litres of liquid milk is supplied to the market daily.

Around 4,500 cows are currently being fed within the entire Ambewela Farm network. While this institution was under the government before the establishment of the Ambewala Group in 2001, the daily milk production stood at a mere 1,500 litres.

The Ambewela Farm system has been working for the last 15 years to create the best dairy cows for Sri Lanka. Accordingly, none of these dairy cows is imported and only a very few male animals are imported once every few years.

Additionally, around one thousand indirect jobs have been created in the process of providing fodder for the animals on this farm. A mechanism is already in place to get the whole maize plant to the Ambewela Farm from the farmers after harvesting the crop. Accordingly, the Ambewela Farm has facilities to amass around 25,000 metric tons of maize plants annually and store them.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe also inspected the 30 acres of abandoned land in the vicinity of the Ambewela Farm which has been identified as suitable land for the cultivation of grass.

Source: PMD

A meeting took place today (23) to identify and rectify shortcomings in the Police Ordinance to suit the times.

Justice minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and public security minister Tiran Alles chaired the discussion.

A new act is to be formulated as per recommendations by three committees appointed by the Police Department as well as a draft prepared in 2017.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has ordered the expeditious amendment of the ordinance, the need of which has been highlighted since 2010.

Top officials who attended the meeting included attorney general Sanjaya Rajaratnam, additional solicitor general Nerin Pullai, IGP C.D. Wickremaratne and prisons commissioner general Thushara Upuldeniya.

The Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) today briefed the media on future power plans for Sri Lanka.

The Minister was confident that the 8-hour-long power cuts predicted by some trade unions will not materialise if the requested power tariff increase is granted.

Following are the five key updates provided by the minister and the CEB;

Three shipments of coal for the Norochcholai coal power plant are expected to arrive on the 05th, 09th, and 16th of January 2023. All religious places of worship will be provided with a free-of-charge 05 KW solar power unit. The solar power unit will be provided under an Indian credit facility within around three months. Approval of the Attorney General granted to award the coal tender to an Indonesian company with a local partner. The coal tender has been awarded to the lowest bidder. CEB says electricity tariffs should be increased between 60% – 65%.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has issued a special gazette notification, amending the portfolios of 08 ministries. The amendments are effective from Thursday (Dec 22).

As per the gazette, the Multipurpose Development Task Force Department, which was under the purview of the Ministry of Defence, has been listed under the Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils & Local Government.

Meanwhile, the Kidney Fund is now gazetted under the Ministry of Health after it was removed from the portfolio of the Ministry of Women, Child Affairs & Social Empowerment.

The Vidatha Centres, which were under the purview of the Ministry of Education, will now function under the Ministry of Industries.

As per the gazette, the Ministry of Agriculture has been assigned to oversee Regional Economic Centres and the broadening of the market for local farm products. These were previously assigned to the Ministry of Trade, Commerce & Food Security.

Meanwhile, Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duties, No. 02 of 2018 and Safeguard Measures Act, No. 03 of 2018 have been gazetted under the Ministry of Trade, Commerce & Food Security.

Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa left for the United States of America on Monday (26) morning.

He had left for Dubai via the VIP Terminal at the Bandaranaike International Airport, and thereafter will fly to the US.

He was accompanied by former First Lady Ayoma Rajapaksa, son Daminda Rajapaksa, daughter-in-law S. D. Rajapaksa, and his grandchild.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the island nation in July 2022 after a huge crowd stormed his official residence following months of demonstrations sparked by an unprecedented economic crisis.

The 73-year-old announced his resignation from Singapore and spent weeks under virtual house arrest at a Bangkok hotel before his return late on September 2nd.

Prof. Ashu Marasinghe has stepped down as the Presidential Advisor on Parliamentary Affairs with immediate effect.

Marasinghe resigned from the post citing personal reasons, according to the President’s Media Division (PMD).