Although the Court of Appeal has ordered UNP’s Earl Gunasekara who represents the Polonnaruwa District, to return the land he is alleged to have forcibly acquired at Hingurakgoda, Patapihilikande, he continues to occupy the land and has not given it over to the authorities. The MP is alleged to have built a mansion in forest reserve land, disregarding Forest Department warnings. More >>

Sri Lankan industries suffered millions in losses due to the volcanic eruption in Southern Iceland. According to the views of some leading Sri Lankan industrialists, the eruption has had both direct and indirect impacts on the local economy.
Industries such as tourism, international trade and export faced the largest blow as there were many cancellations of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka. More >>

The usual spills - - and some thrills - - of the new Cabinet appointments were almost a matter of routine. The second Rajapaksa administration is firmly anchored now, and last week’s love-fest between the president and Ranil Wickremesinghe when they met at Temple Trees was testament, if any was needed, that there would be at least in the initial phase, great cooperation between the giant government and the now emasculated opposition.
There was instant agreement to allow the appointment of Chamal Rajapaksa as Speaker.. More >>

The low voter turnout at the April 08th General Election has shown that the people’s faith in the electoral system has reached an all time low. And the allegations made by several defeated United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) candidates about preferential votes are doing further damage to the already shaky reputation of the Department of Elections. Controversy surrounding the manipulation of preferential votes is nothing new to Sri Lanka but it is only in the last three elections that it has become one of the most popular topics for public discussion. More >>

South Asia’s fastest man Shehan Ambepitiya suggests that only a rewarding system could bring back the golden era of athletics which helped Sri Lanka reach new heights in the late 90’s as most of the young athletes are a demoralized lot at present.
While attending a pre-season training session along with some 20 athletes, Ambepitiya said that if Sri Lanka is to be the driving force in track in field in the region, the country should reintroduce the rewarding system that was there in the 90’s, where the athletes are rewarded based on their performances.More >>

St. Peter’s College produced a power-packed performance to smash Isipathana MV 27-8 in a one-sided President’s Trophy League inter-school rugby match played in sodden underfoot conditions at Havelock Park last evening.
The winners collected their points from two converted tries, two tries and a penalty goal to which the home side replied with a try and a penalty goal in a game played in pitch darkness in the end.
The Peterites possessing the superior outfit on the day excelled in all facets of the game and could have even prevailed by a much bigger margin. More >>

My first ever visit to Jaffna when I was just a kid was way back in the early fifties. My uncle Mr. Tissa Ratnatunga was an important government official in Jaffna. He had a large bungalow within the Jaffna Fort and our family spent a holiday with my uncle and his family in this bungalow. The only memories I have of that visit over five and a half decades ago was this majestic old Dutch bungalow and the small but beautiful Jaffna Fort with its impressive entrance across an equally enchanting moat and the herds of wild ponies that we saw running freely in great numbers all over the Delft island. More >>

Human bonding is an amazing phenomenon; I do not wish for a better word than that to explain the impact that such bonding had on me this Avurudu season.
Relationships between human beings amaze me for their simultaneous inconsistency and consistency; in other words, they are constant beyond their numerous inconsistencies. For instance, how many times have you rolled your eyes and claimed that you must have been unconscious while being married to the man or woman whom you are married to? .. More >>

With North Korea isolated even from its communist allies, unable to feed its own people and hobbled by an irreparably broken economy, Kim Jong Il would appear to be a man with everything to lose from provoking the rich and well-armed South - but the sinking of Cheonan has shown once again how few options the global powers have for dealing with the world’s most tenacious dictatorship. More >>

The Himalayan Nation, Nepal is likely to get its new constitution by May 2010. Plan for a new constitution was adopted last year after Nepal’s main political party and Maoist rebels had signed a peace deal in 2006. With just 36 days to meet the May 28 deadline for the promulgation of the new constitution, lawmakers continued the blame game against each other manifesting the deepening mistrust among the major parties. The ruling Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-UML charged the UCPN-Maoist for the stalemate, More >>

Thirty seven new Cabinet ministers and thirty nine Deputy Ministers were sworn in before President Mahinda Rajapksa on Friday. Though the most talked about changes were the appointments to the ministries of Health, Education and Media, there were mixed reactions over the composition of the new Cabinet. UNP’s chief economic advisor Harsha de Silva expressed surprise over the cabinet portfolios. More >>

The week ending April 23, was the only full working week of the month that saw indices at the CSE pass a milestone, when the ASI crossed the 4,000 mark on Monday (19th) in the first 30 minutes of trading.
The ASI, which tracks the movement of all the 232 companies listed on the stock exchange finally ended the week with a gain of 155 points or 4%, to finish off at 4122. The MPI, which tracks the prices of the most liquid 25 stocks, gained 178 points, 4% as well, to close at 4,696 More >>

The Great Sphinx of Giza is a statue of a reclining lion with a human head that stands on the Giza Plateau in Giza on the west bank of the Nile, near modern-day Cairo, in Egypt. It is the largest monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres (241 ft) long, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft) high. It is the oldest known monumental sculpture, and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of Old Kingdom in 2555 BC to 2532 BC. More >>

Adam’s Peak or the Smanala Kanda (“butterfly mountain”), a 2243 metres (7,359 ft) tall conical mountain located in central part of Sri Lanka. It is well-known for the Sri Pada “sacred footprint”, a 1.8 m rock formation near the summit, in Buddhist tradition held to be the footprint of the Buddha, in Hindu tradition that of Shiva and in Muslim tradition that of Adam.
Geography
The mountain is located in the southern reaches of the Central Highlands, More >>