News

Maithri Gunaratne, the General Secretary of the National Freedom Front (NFF) was arrested by the Police today for having two shotguns in his possession. He was arrested by the Kadugannawa Police.

However, he was released on bail later by the Kandy Magistrate, after producing two valid licenses for the two shotguns.

The US government is now seeking to start collecting the social media history of all individuals seeking a visa to enter the US.

The proposal, if approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), would require most immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants to list all social media identities they have used in the past five years.

Applicants would also be asked for five years of their telephone numbers, email addresses and travel history. They would be required to say if they had ever been deported from a country, or if any relatives had been involved in terrorist activity.

However, the above will not affect citizens from countries which the US grants visa-free travel status.

The United States’ GSP trade incentive programme for Sri Lanka will become active again on April 22, the US Embassy said on Friday.

“This will open our market up even more to Sri Lankan goods and create jobs,” said James Russo, a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Colombo.

The programme had lapsed on December 31, 2017, after Congress failed to reauthorize the law. The GSP scheme for developing countries, which gives preferential duties to certain products, was reinstated in a budget bill on March 23.

Russo said US importers who brought in Sri Lankan exports at the time in between could claim customs duties retroactively.

One hundred and twenty countries, including Sri Lanka and the Maldives, regained GSP support with the March spending bill.

The US is the largest market for Sri Lankan exports, taking in about $3 billion worth of goods last year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. About 75 percent of those exports are clothing items. The re-authorised GSP scheme runs through December 31, 2020.

Financial Crimes Investigations Division of the Police is said to be investigating three suspicious bank accounts containing a total of Rs. 957 million.

The accounts in question are held by three Chinese nationals and is being investigated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

According to the ‘B report’ filed in court, on March 15, the Financial Intelligence Unit of Sri Lanka at the Central Bank had made a complaint to the FCID citing suspicious transactions in accounts maintained by three Chinese nations at a private bank in Colombo 3.

Thereafter, the Colombo High Court had issued an order to freeze these accounts.

The FCID says one of the Chinese nationals had obtained visa to enter Sri Lanka using false information, claiming to be a translator at an establishment in Colombo 3.

The visas of the other two Chinese nationals are being investigated by law enforcement.

According to the ‘B report’, these Chinese nationals were informed to appear before the FCID yesterday (March 29) to record statements over their suspicious transactions, however, they had failed to do so.

Later it was revealed one of them had already left the country and authorities had obtained an order preventing the other two from leaving the country.

Earlier this year, the European Parliament has confirmed that Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Trinidad and Tobago were on the European Commission’s blacklist of countries at risk for acts of money laundering.

The long-awaited Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner which was purchased by public contribution has been installed in Apeksha Hospital and will be vested with the public from April 01, Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Rajitha Senaratne said.

The PET scanner which was purchased by public contribution arrived in the country on December 24, according to Minister Senaratne.

The President of Kadijah Foundation M. S. H. Mohamed along with several media institutions collected donations towards the purpose from the public going on to hand over the proceeds to the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine to purchase the machine.

The High Tech state of the art machine which costs around Rs. 202 million is a “Siemens” branded product from Germany with a capacity of performing over 100 scans per month.

Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Central Bank Governor Dr Indrajit Coomaraswamy met Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Vigneswaran in Jaffna yesterday.

They discussed the implementation of projects in the Northern Province as proposed by the 2018 Budget.

Senior officials of the Ministry and the Central Bank also participated in the discussions on the best possible manner in which the allocated Rs. 1000 million can be spent in the North.

The District Secretaries of five districts in the Northern Province also participated in the discussion.

Minister Samaraweera explained that the Budget had also made provisions to help resettle former LTTE cadres, provide them with soft loans for businesses and provide help in livelihood opportunities.

Chief Minister Vigneswaran had requested that the government work with the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) when implementing these projects.

Minister Samaraweera in response asked that Vigneswaran appoint a group from the NPC to implement these projects and link them with his ministry.

Source : Daily News

A scheme to choose a new Prime Minister is ongoing behind the scenes according to political sources. Several political groups are said to be holding discussions to choose a PM in case the no-confidence motion against Ranil Wickramasinghe becomes successful.

The SLFP ministers have suggested that Transport Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva be appointed to the post of Prime Minister. But if it is not successful several others of the SLFP have also suggested the name of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. The group is said to be also checking the possibility of getting support from several UNP MP’s for this proposal.

The UNP also might suggest the name of Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara sources say.

Majority of the UNP is of the opinion that the party should be reformed. One group of the party wants Minister Rajitha Senaratne to be appointed sources said. The group standing for good governance consists of Tamil and Muslims MPs sources further added.

'Who will replace Ranil?' - Wijedasa asks

''We asked those bringing the NCM who will be brought in next to be the PM. We do not need to exchange a cripple for a blind man”

Wijedasa Rajapaksa

 President's Counsel Wijedasa Rajapakse stated that the two parties have not revealed any permanent program after the defeat or victory at the no confidence motion.

"When making a decision as MPs for the No-Confidence vote, the people's opinion should be taken into consideration. Also, the security of the country should be taken into account he said.

''We asked those bringing the NCM who will be brought in next to be the PM. We do not need to exchange a cripple for a blind man” he said adding that it doesn't matter if the person belongs to the blue, green or red camp but it should be someone who can turn around this dire situation the country is in.

According to him for the people today the party nor colour of the person is not important. They only care about the policies he said adding that he will take a decision based on the unfolding events.

The Central Bank having considered the requests from the public and the difficulties faced by them in exchanging willfully-defaced currency notes at licensed commercial banks (LCBs), has further extended the time period for exchanging such currency notes until further notice.

The CB informed the public to submit such currency notes to its Head Office or Regional Offices located at Anuradhapura, Matale, Matara, Trincomalee, Nuwara Eliya, Kilinochchi or send the same by registered post to “The Superintendent Currency Department Central Bank of Sri Lanka, No.30 Janadhipathi Mawatha Colombo 1, Si Lanka together with the duly completed application form.

It said in a statement that the relevant application form can be obtained from the CB website (www.cbsl.gov.lk), Regional Offices and any branch of Licensed Commercial Banks (LCBs).

The statement said currency notes that have been mistakenly marked by a small dot or a line are not considered as willfully mutilated currency notes and such currency notes can be used for transactions.

“The service of accepting damaged currency notes by LCBs due to normal wear and tear or due to natural disasters will continue without any change,” it said.

Source : Daily Mirror

Former secretary to the Ministry of Mass Media said that the country needs to go back to their original stake holders and get a mandate from the people on the way forward. He mentioned the country is in a dead lock situation due to a brewing political crisis as well as a constitutional crisis. As a country that believes in representative democracy, we need to go back to the people and admit that we need a new mandate to move forward without further deteriorating the current crisis, Dr. Herath said. He also said that the best way to do this is to call for a general election.

After the local government election, the policy direction taken by the two key partners of the current government seems to be headed in opposite directions, he observed.

According to Dr. Herath, the political crisis is the result of the absence of educated politicians who are capable of driving the country forward. He urged the people, at least as a starting point, to appoint at least 30% of educated leaders as their representatives.

“Being the representative of people is a full-time job. It is not awarded because someone is known to you or because someone is popular in the village. It is same as giving the responsibility to a qualified pilot to take off the plane and land it safely. For the last 70 years the pilots who took this plane off has knocked it on many mountains and damaged it massively", he added.

Commenting on the economic front, Dr. Herath said that given the demography of Sri Lanka, the way forward is to facilitate healthy competition between government institutions and the private sector. He cited the telecommunication reforms initiated from 1994 – 1996, under then Minister of Telecommunications Mangala Samaraweera, as the best example. The telecommunication sector is no longer a problem since it has become a competitive market and both the government and the private sector are doing very well.

Prison Department’s Rehabilitation Commissioner and Magazine Prison’s former superintendent Emil Ranjan Lamahewa and IP Neomal Rangajeewa of the Police Narcotic Bureau who were admitted to the Colombo National Hospital were transferred to the Welikada Prison Hospital today.

The Colombo Magistrate who today visited the Colombo National Hospital remanded the two suspects till April 10. The CID arrested them last night in connection with the killing of 27 Welikada Prison inmates in November 2012.

However, it is unclear as to what medical conditions have warranted for the duo being admitted.

In September 2017, the Department of Prisons revised the rules of admittance to the hospital. Accordingly, Minister of Prisons had directed that the medical advice of three doctors need to be obtained for those who wish to be admitted to the Prison hospital. Prior to that inmates were admitted to the Prison’s Hospital based on the advice of one medical doctor.

The number of applications made by Sri Lankans seeking asylum in the UK has reduced relatively in the recent years, the British Government has said.

According to data presented by Minister of State, Baroness Williams of Trafford in response to a question asked by Lord Naseby in Parliament on Thursday as to how many Sri Lankans have sought asylum each year since January 2007; and how many were successful she said in 2007, some 988 applications had been made and 124 asylum status had been granted during the same year. 1,473 application had been made in 2008 followed by 1,115, 1,357 and 1,756 in the following years respectively upto 2011.

However, the number of total applications had been reduced to 961 in 2015 of which 179 asylum grants were made. In 2016, 845 applications have been made whereas only 687 applications have been made in the year 2017.

Grants by the British Government include grants of asylum, discretionary leave, humanitarian protection, and grants under family and private life rules.

The United National Party today unanimously decided to back its leader and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in the no-confidence motion submitted against him by the Joint Opposition. The decision was taken at the working committee meeting held today at the party headquarters under the patronage of Premier Wickremesinghe.

“At the policy making working committee meeting this morning, it was unanimously decided to back the Prime Minister in the no-confidence motion,” Education Minister Akila Viraj said. He said the party will meet for three days to deliberate on the reforms needed to implement them within two months.