Sarath Fonseka who had been remanded for illegally harbouring 10 army rider-soldiers during presidential election have been released on bail by the Colombo High Court a short while ago. He was granted Rs.1 million cash bail and two personal bails worth Rs.2.5 million each.
The court also barred Sarath Fonseka from leaving the country without its approval.
However, the former Army Commander was not present at the hearing as he is being treated in a private hospital in Colombo.
The next hearing of the case will take place on June 7.
(JNW)
May 18, 2012 at 11:35 am
A bus crash in central Vietnam has killed 34 people and injured at least 20 others. The bus plunged off a bridge and crashed into the bank of the Serepok river, where it was found early on Friday morning.
It was travelling from Buon Ma Thuot in central highlands province of Dak Lak to the southern city of Ho Chi Minh.
Officials have said they are investigating the cause of the accident and identifying victims.
Y Bliu Arul, deputy director of the General Hospital in Dak Lak, told Associated Press that the two bus drivers were among the 32 people who died at the scene.
Of the 21 people injured, 16 are said to be in a serious condition.
(BBC)
May 18, 2012 at 9:28 am
President Mahinda Rajapakse has obtained the approval of the cabinet of ministers to release Sarath Fonseka, Presidential Spokesman Bandula Jayasekara said.
(JNW)
May 17, 2012 at 7:43 pm
A new system is to be introduced to grant dual citizenship, Acting Minister of Mass Media and Cabinet Spokesman Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said.
He disclosed that the proposal made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in this regard has been approved by the Cabinet. Under this a new scheme called “Overseas Sri Lankans” with a view to affording facilities to persons who have terminated citizenship in Sri Lanka, and their under aged children to enter Sri Lanka and to stay in Sri Lanka.
It will also afford the opportunity of applying for dual citizenship to those who have registered under the above scheme, only after being subjected to a pre- examination after being placed in a state of probation for a period of 05 years, the Minister added.
(JNW)
May 17, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Sarath Fonseka has positively responded to discussions about his release with the President, DNA MP Tiran Alles said. He was speaking after he met Former Army Commander at the Nawaloka Hospital today(16). Tiran Alles also held discussions with President Mahinda Rajapakse earlier today(16).
(JNW)
May 16, 2012 at 1:24 pm
External Affairs Minister Prof.G.L. Peiris has begun a four-day, official visit to Washington, D.C. with a series of meetings with key U.S. Senate leaders and a talk on Sri Lanka’s post-conflict redevelopment and reconciliation programs, emphasizing that lasting peace, stability and growth in Sri Lanka will be achieved through home-grown solutions, not those prescribed by the international community.
Marking nearly three years to the day that Sri Lanka defeated the terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Prof. Peiris highlighted Sri Lanka’s accomplishments before a large and representative audience at a premiere Washington think-tank, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.
“We are conscious of the opportunity that has now presented itself,” Minister Peiris said. “We also realize that the process that we have in mind must be a domestic process. It can’t be donor-driven or foreign-owned. That will be unhelpful in implementing the reforms that are required at this moment in history.
“At the end of the day, the solution that everyone wants has got to have a home-grown element to it.”
In that vein, Prof. Peiris noted that Sri Lanka is already adopting recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, and that the government recently initiated a process to put the commission’s recommendations to work in “a meaningful way”, after extensive consultation within the government.
Prof. Peiris said that Sri Lanka’s immediate goal after the conflict was the resettlement of those displaced by the war, as well as economic development to provide livelihoods and new infrastructure to the Northern region, which was “devastated by the atrocities of the LTTE.”
(Govt Info)
May 16, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Lanka Electricity Company is to introduce a new SMS service for its customers tomorrow(17). The customers will be able to inquire or complaint about its services just sending a SMS, Ministry of Power and Energy said.
(JNW)
May 16, 2012 at 12:07 pm
Army is to be restructured in to two sections namely defence and development, Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya said. The main objective of this is to create a professional army which is ready to face any challenge, he added.
He further added that there is no room for the recurrence of terrorism in the country. The security divisions by now have taken all necessary measures in this regard. The defence intelligence divisions which were functioning separately, have been amalgamated. The strength of the army intelligence task force has been increased.
A programme is also underway to continuously expand the receipt of local and international intelligence information. The army training and intelligence task force are also carrying out investigations continuously. The army commander pointed out that however, the fullest support of the general public should be extended to the security forces to prevent terrorism raising its head once again in the country.
(JNW)
May 15, 2012 at 3:06 pm
18 persons have been admitted to Dankotuwa hospital after a gas leak occurred at a soap factory in Haldanduwana, Koswatta, JNW reporter said. Five persons have been transferred to Negambo Hospital.
(JNW)
May 15, 2012 at 2:36 pm
Security forces have made their biggest-ever arms haul recovering explosives yesterday.
The huge arms cache of 6,250 kgs of C-4 explosives was busted in a joint search operation of Army and police in Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts yesterday.
The joint operation of the Army and police busted arms dump at Iranamadu and Nanthikadal in the Kilinochchi district.
Police spokesman SP Ajith Rohana said, “This is the largest ever quantity of explosives uncovered and it was enough to blow up an entire town”. He said, the bust was made on a civilian tip off.
The explosives were neatly packed in 200 bags and hidden in a bunker used by the LTTE during their days of the military campaign.
SP Rohana said in the adjoining Mullaitivu district another 300 kgs of C-4 were uncovered in the Puthukudyiruppu area along with other weaponry.
(Priu)
May 13, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Nearly six years have passed since U.S. authorities took the unusual step of rounding up a group of Sri Lankan immigrants and charging them with breaking terror financing laws by raising money and trying to get weapons for the Tamil Tigers rebel forces.
Since then, 14 defendants charged in New York have been convicted. Some were given 25 years in prison. Back home, the Tamil Tigers were finally vanquished after a bloody civil war.
But there’s still no finality to the criminal case.
After countless delays, one of five defendants left in legal limbo — a naturalized U.S. citizen and former cab driver named Karunakaran Kandasamy — is up for sentencing Friday in federal court in Brooklyn. Two others who also pleaded guilty are awaiting sentencing, while another pair is fighting extradition in Canada.
For the 55-year-old Kandasamy, the stakes are high: Prosecutors have argued that as the top U.S. representative for the Tamil Tigers, he deserves a lengthy sentence — the maximum is 20 years — for raising money for the separatist group. The defense believes Kandasamy, who suffers from diabetes and other ailments, already has done enough time.
Kandasamy, a native Tamil who’s been jailed for five years, “is a fundamentally good and decent man who wanted to help the community he clearly loved — a community that suffered terribly for many years,” defense attorney Charles Ross wrote in a recent letter to the judge.
“There is no question that Mr. Kandasamy went too far and broke the law, but like other defendants in this case, he was motivated by a deep desire to help his people,” the letter adds.
In 2009, the Tamil Tigers admitted defeat in their 25-year war with the Sri Lankan government that left more than 70,000 people dead.
The rebels, who once controlled a de facto state in the island nation’s north, had been fighting since 1983 for a separate state for minority Tamils after decades of oppression by the Sinhalese majority. Blamed for hundreds of suicide attacks, the Tamil Tigers were shunned internationally and branded terrorists by the U.S., European Union and India.
Federal authorities in New York had sought to cut off support for the group by arresting sympathizers in their East Coast immigrant communities in 2006 and 2007 on charges of conspiring to provide material aid to a terrorist organization. Some like Kandasamy were tied to a covert campaign to raise and launder millions of dollars through a charity front organization.
Prosecutors say there’s evidence Kandasamy helped raise millions of dollars for the Tamil Tigers, and that he went to Sri Lanka to meet with rebel commanders.
The defense argued in it recent letter that Kandasamy’s motives were humanitarian. It says in Sri Lanka, he “personally witnessed the brutality of the Sri Lankan government on many occasions. … For more than 25 year, he lived in constant fear for his life and safety and the lives and safety of his family, friends and neighbors.”
The U.S. government, “recognizing the systematic victimization of the Tamil people, granted Mr. Kandasamy political asylum in the early 1980s,” the letter adds. After that, “he lived an upstanding, law-abiding life.”
(AP)
May 12, 2012 at 5:25 am
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj has criticized the demand for a separate ‘Tamil Eelam’ by some political parties in Tamil Nadu, even though the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) — the main political force of the Tamils in the island nation — favoured a genuine political solution within a united Sri Lanka.
Addressing the fifth State conference of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here, she said the TNA leader, R. Sampanthan, whom she met as leader of a parliamentary delegation that went to Sri Lanka recently to study the Tamils’ issue, emphasised that he wanted the Tamils to remain within a united Sri Lanka. He insisted only on a genuine political settlement.
Mr. Sampanthan was for a political settlement that would ensure equal rights and a dignified life for the Tamils, devolution of power and implementation of recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. “When such a respected leader of the Tamils was for a political solution within a united Sri Lanka, why are some parties here raising the separatist issue?” she asked. She insisted that the unity and integrity of Sri Lanka be respected the way India’s unity and integrity were respected.
Ms. Swaraj took a dig at both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for having withdrawn their representatives from the parliamentary panel that visited Sri Lanka. Asserting that it was not a picnic for the MPs, she said the panel insisted on visiting the internally displaced people who were kept in camps. “We told them that their visit would have no purpose at all, if they were not allowed to meet the affected Tamils,” she said.
The panel visited the affected people and interacted with them without any interference from the Sri Lankan officials, she said and added that the people revealed all their problems without any hesitation.
“We have made it clear to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa that it is not just Tamil Nadu that is bothered about the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils, but the entire nation was concerned about them,” she said.
(The Hindu)
May 11, 2012 at 10:14 am
The Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga has signed for Middlesex to play in the Friends Life t20. His debut will come in the their fourth match of the competition, against Essex at Lord’s on 21 June, after featuring in Sri Lanka’s one-day and Twenty20 series against Pakistan.
Middlesex’s managing director of cricket Angus Fraser said by signing the 28-year-old Malinga, Middlesex “will have the best [bowler] in the world”.
Malinga is currently playing for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, where he has taken a competition-leading 20 wickets.
Fraser added: “Every county is looking for a bowler that provides their attack with variety, the ability to bowl during powerplays and at the death … something different from the norm.”
The T20 competition begins on 12 June.
(The Guardian)
May 11, 2012 at 9:21 am
The inaugural edition of the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) will be played from August 10 to 31, Sri Lanka Cricket has confirmed. The tournament will feature seven provincial teams, and be played at two venues – the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo and the Pallekele International Stadium.
Each team will be allowed a maximum of six overseas players in their squads and four in their playing XI, SLC said in a release. Also, it will be necessary for each team to field a local under-21 player in every game. The SLC will name icons, from among the national players, for each team shortly. The teams’ branding will based on the unique features of the province they represent.
SLC had signed a new deal with Somerset Entertainment Ventures to hold the league on May 5, ESPNcricinfo had learned earlier. Initially, the SLPL was supposed to kick off last year, with SLC’s then interim committee signing a five-year deal with Somerset Entertainment Ventures to organise the event. However, the Sri Lankan board was forced to postpone the tournament after the BCCI refused to allow its players to participate at the last minute, causing a delay in the naming of the final composition of the teams and affecting overall preparations for the event. In addition, the interim committee that signed the deal was subsequently replaced and there was criticism of some of the clauses in the contract by the parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), prompting a new deal to be drawn up.
(ESPN)
May 10, 2012 at 4:13 pm
A National Center for Lightning Safety is to be established under the Department of Meteorology, Acting Minister of Mass Media and Cabinet Spokesman Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said. It will be comprised with an Interim Committee of Officials headed by the Director General of Meteorology.
The Cabinet has decided to grant its approval in this regard to a proposal submitted by Minister of Disaster Management Mahinda Amaraweera.
(JNW)
May 10, 2012 at 2:55 pm
Sri Lanka and Japan is to sign a MoU to provide 15 post graduate scholarships every year till 2014, Acting Minister of Mass Media and Cabinet Spokesman Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said. The main objective is this to develop the human resource of Sri Lanka, he added.
(JNW)
May 10, 2012 at 2:50 pm
A team of US State Department representatives and USAID met Commander Security Forces – Jaffna (SF-J) Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe at Headquarters SF-J in Palaly on Monday (May 07) morning.
Regional Refugee Coordinator from the office of Population, Refugees and Migration, US Department of State Ms. Amanda Jacobsen, Regional Advisor for South Asia Ms. Andrea Tracy and Disaster Assistance Officer of USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance in the USA along with two other officials met the SF-J Commander to get themselves acquainted on the security situation and development programmes in post-conflict Jaffna.
Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe during his presentation highlighted the Army’s commitment at upgrading living standard of needy families in Jaffna through various community-based projects.
Special attention was paid by the visiting officials on livelihood projects such as crab fattening and aloe-Vera farming initiated by the Headquarters SF-J for reintegrated ex-combatants in Kayts and Vadamarachchi areas.
Army’s commitment towards promoting life standard of civilians was appreciated by the US officials.
“Army is reducing its troops in Jaffna as the civil administration is now in effect in Jaffna under a Government Agent and Army is gradually reducing the troops further in future,” said Jaffna Commander.
The visiting US officials were briefed on accelerated de-mining in the peninsula.
(MoD)
May 9, 2012 at 12:06 pm
