News

Six Sri Lankans involved in human smuggling have been arrested in Sicily, Italy by Italian law enforcement officials.  

According to Italian media reports the six Sri Lankans were arrested today following investigations conducted by authorities. The arrest was made after two Sri Lankans were nabbed having false documents in Sicily.

Six other Sri Lankans were arrested thereafter when it was revealed they were part of a human smuggling operation which were smuggling Sri Lankans in to Sicily.

he present government deserves 100% credit from the people for establishing a mature democracy in the country within the last three years, Minister Mangala Samaraweera said yesterday. He also said that despite many persons criticizing the government for being weak, the same traits they identify as weaknesses are the characteristics of a mature democracy.

“I don’t believe even in the 1950s there was a democracy as what we have now. Anybody can criticize or write against this government. There is freedom to hold public protests just like in democratic countries. Within these three years, two Cabinet ministers stepped down from their posts. The Prime Minister was summoned before a Presidential Commission and he willingly gave evidence before the Commission. There was freedom to bring in a No Confidence Motion against the Prime Minister as well. This is what democracy is.”

"This is not a weak government. Strikes, disagreements and head changes are not weak characteristics of a government. What we have here is a mature democracy now.” Minister Samaraweera pointed out.

Drawing from the investigation presently carried out against the US President Donald Trump’s election campaign, Minister Samaraweera said it is the similar class of democracy that prevails in Sri Lanka at present.

Minister Samaraweera was speaking at the launching of “Sathya” (Truth) Campaign and the UNP Central Media Unit at Sirikotha yesterday morning. UNP Ministers including Gayantha Karunatilake, Harin Fernando, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, State Ministers Eran Wickremeratne, Ajith P. Perera Dr. Harsha De Silva and UNP backbenchers were present at the occasion.

Minister Samaraweera further said that the present government has taken all initiatives to strengthen the reconciliation process . He pointed out that Sri Lanka cannot be economically developed if the ethnic groups in the country live in tension and disharmony. “The present government has made an enormous contribution to the country’s reconciliation process.
"President Maithripala Sirisena has visited Jaffna 17 times during his term of office so far and the Prime Minister has visited Jaffna on 12 occasions.” Minister Samaraweera pointed out.

The Minister also said that fake news have become the biggest threat to democracy in Sri Lanka as well as in the world.

He further said that certain groups were trying to portray truth as untruth and vice versa. While pointing out that the previous regime was a government that feared the word “Truth”, Minister Samaraweera said that the “Truth” campaign begins as a national movement that brings truth to the people.

He requested not to drag the country back to the dark era where the previous regime thrived. 
Source : Daily News

United National Party (UNP) Parliamentarian Ananda Kumarasiri has been elected as the 29th Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.

A secret ballot was held today (05) to determine the Deputy Speaker with the UNP nominating Kumarasiri and the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) nominating the name of Gamapaha District Parliamentarian Sudarshini Fenandopulle. 

Kumarasiri managed to receive 97 votes as opposed to Fernandopulle who was only able to garner 53 votes.

Parliament will elect a new Deputy Speaker when it meets today in terms of Article 64(3) of the Constitution.

The parliament will be convened this afternoon at 1 pm under the leadership of Karu Jayasuriya and the main task of today's session would be to appoint the new Deputy Speaker.

A voting will be held to elect the Deputy Speaker since many names have been nominated to the post.

Several parliamentarian have been nominated for the Deputy Speaker post left vacant by the resignation of parliamentarian Thilanga Sumathipala. Since several names have been nominated for the past a vote will be taken to appoint a new deputy Speaker, the Speaker said.
 
MP Ananda Kumarasiri from the United National Party (UNP), Sri Lanka Freedom party national list MP Angajan Ramanathan and UPFA Gampaha district MP and former Deputy Minister Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle who is representing the Group of 16 have been nominated for the post of Deputy Speaker.
 
Dr. Fernandopulle would be the first women Deputy Speaker in the Sri Lanka Parliamentary history if she is selected for the post.
 
Thilanga Sumathipala who served as Deputy Speaker since 01st of September 2015 resigned from the post of Deputy Speaker and Chairperson of Committees of the Parliament on May 25th after he left the government.

The foundation stone was laid for the construction of 250 new houses under the Indian Housing Project at a special ceremony held yesterday (04), at the Madakumbura Estate in Punduloya, Nuwara Eliya, the Indian High Commission said today.  

Minister for Hill Country, New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development, Palani Digambaram, State Minister for Education  V.S. Radhakrishnan and Acting High Commissioner of India Arindam Bagchi jointly laid the foundation stones.

In a similar ceremony held at Vellaioya Estate in Hatton the same day, the foundation stone for the construction of 50 new houses was laid with the participation of the Assistant High Commissioner of India in Kandy Dhirendra Singh.

India has committed a total of 14,000 houses in the Plantation areas including the 10,000 houses announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Around 1000 houses out of these are nearly complete. The foundation stones laid at Madakumbura and Vellaioya estates marks the start of another 3000 houses in phases in as many as 40 estates and around 70 locations/divisions.

President Maithripala Sirisena called on the people to fulfill their respective duties towards the environmental conservation with a continuous programme, not limiting that responsibility to only one day.

The President further said that it is not a duty of one party, but all the citizens, including the politicians, public servants and school children must be united in this regard.

He made these remarks addressing a ceremony held in Kegalle to commemorate the World Environment Day, today (04), the President’s Media Division said.

The President said that today’s environment degradation would become a problem for lives of future generation and many countries in the world that achieved rapid development have faced a similar tragedy. Hence, we must immediately take steps to protect our environment, he said.

He pointed out that a special gazette has been issued to curtail use of polythene and plastic as that was a duty needed to be fulfilled today for the sake of tomorrow. Many people tried to stop that and it was an unfortunate situation, he recalled.

President Sirisena emphasized the adverse effects caused to the environment by limitless excavation of sand and stone for construction works and said the use of alternative raw materials is a timely need.

He also pointed out that corrupted businessmen harm the environment by illegal activities and they have also caused several deaths in recent years.

The environment day activities were organized to mark the World Environment Day. “Let’s avoid the environmental pollution caused by plastic waste” is the theme for this year’s World Environment Day.

The national ceremony of the commemoration of the World Environment Day started by the President by planting a sapling.

Launching the booklet on Environment profile of Kegalla district and launching the survey report regarding basic bio environment data conducted in the main ports of Colombo, Galle and Trincomalee districts also took place.

The sand mountain area ranging from 106 hectares of Pottuvil Panama and the mangroves of Shastrawela forest of Ampara district were declared as a conservation forest and announcing the catchment area of Pansalthanna of Ukuwela Divisional Secretariat of Matale district as an environmentally protected area.

Source: PMD

Popular television presenter, compere and journalist Hema Nalin Karunaratne has passed away at the age of 55. He had passed away at his home in Malabe following a heart attack sources said. Karunaratne was reportedly found dead inside a room at his house at Millagahawatta Road, Thalahena according to the Police after the home owners raised the alarm. 

With over 25 years of experience in the television industry serving in channels including Rupavahini and Swarnavahini, Karunaratne headed his own satellite channel in Heritage TV. 

Rupavahini’s education service was a milepost in his life and he gained fame for the popular programme “9.05” which was a mainstay in the channel programmes for a long period.

Source : Ada Derana

Chief Justice Priyasath Dep said that Sri Lanka is exploring the possibility of introducing an electronic filing system as part of improving the judiciary system. 

He made these remarks while representing Sri Lanka at the 13th Conference of the Presidents of Supreme Courts of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States that was held from 24-25 May 2018 in Beijing with the participation of a number of Chief Justices, Heads of Supreme Courts, Supreme Court and High Court Judges, other officials of the Judiciary and the diplomatic corps.

Chief Justice Dep also called on Chief Justice Zhou Qiang, Head of the Supreme Court of China, the Foreign Ministry said.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) has sealed TNL TV's transmission centre in Polgahewela.

The station, in a Facebook post, stated that the "TRC is currently attempting to take our equipment into its custody. We condemn this act with the contempt it deserves as we, as a TV station, have paid due charges to the TRC."

TNL TV is part of the TNL group which is owned by Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe's brother, Shan Wickremesinghe.

It is suspected that the TRC has moved to seal TNL TV after it aired news segments that were highly critical of President Maithripala Sirisena. The news segments in question had highlighted contradictory statements made by President Sirisena.

The TRC is an institution that comes under the purview of President Maithripala Sirisena with the Secretary to the President Austin Fernando acting as its Chairman.

Twenty-six nations including Sri Lanka, will participate at the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), the world’s largest international maritime exercise, scheduled between June 27 to Aug. 2, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. This is the first time Sri Lanka is participating in RIMPAC.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command reported that 47 surface ships, five submarines, 18 national land forces, and more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel will participate in the exercise.

As the world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity designed to foster and sustain cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s interconnected oceans. RIMPAC 2018 is the 26th exercise in the series that began in 1971.

The theme of RIMPAC 2018 is “Capable, Adaptive, Partners.” Participating nations and forces will exercise a wide range of capabilities and demonstrate the inherent flexibility of maritime forces. These capabilities range from disaster relief and maritime security operations to sea control and complex warfighting. The relevant, realistic training program includes amphibious operations, gunnery, missile, anti-submarine and air defense exercises, as well as counter-piracy operations, mine clearance operations, explosive ordnance disposal, and diving and salvage operations.

This year’s exercise includes forces from Australia, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.

This is the first time Brazil, Israel, Sri Lanka and Vietnam are participating in RIMPAC. Additional firsts include New Zealand serving as sea combat commander and Chile serving as combined force maritime  component commander. This is the first time a non-founding RIMPAC nation (Chile) will hold a component commander leadership position. This year will also feature live firing of a Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) from a U.S. Air Force aircraft, surface to ship missiles by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, and a Naval Strike Missile (NSM) from a launcher on the back of a Palletized Load System (PLS) by the U.S. Army. This marks the first time a land based unit will participate in the live fire event during RIMPAC. RIMPAC 18 will also include international band engagements and highlight fleet innovation during an Innovation Fair.

Minister of Finance and Media, Mangala Samaraweera has been appointed as the Vice Chairman of the United National Party by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. 

Posting a message on Twitter, Samaraweera said that "30 years ago, when I was first appointed as the SLFP organiser for the Matara district, I didn't even, in my wildest dreams, thought that I would get such a position in the grand old party."

Speaker of the Parliament Karu Jayasuriya says that the document listing the MPs who had telephone conversations with the former director of Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) Arjun Aloysius will be presented in parliament this week.
 
Speaker said that the names of the MPs mentioned according to the documents in the report of the Presidential Commission of Injury that investigated the Central Bank bond scam will also be revealed.
 
Jayasuriya said that he had requested the Secretary to the President to give him the list of names of the parliamentary members who had conversed with the owner of the Perpetual Treasuries.
 
According to the Speaker however there is no list of MPs who have taken money from Aloysius for campaign funding although some claim that there is a list of 118 MPs.