Left parties in government are planning to agitate to force the government to grant a pay hike to workers and bring down the cost of living. As per plan, left parties in the government will hold a demonstration and distribute leaflets on August 12th, demanding that the government addresses various grievances of the people including the cost of living, the poll pledge to increase salaries by Rs. 2500 and to provide compensation to those who lost their jobs because of political victimization, United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MP and presidential advisor Vasudeva Nanayakkara said. More >>

Senior government officials have admitted that the government has no contingency plan so far to offset the difficulties faced by industries or to provide assistance to thousands of workers who will lose their jobs with the discontinuation of the GSP + trade concession, said National Trade Union Centre (NTUC) convenor Wasantha Samarasinghe. “We met the director of the department of commerce on July 20th at the National Labour Advisory Council.He had to admit that the government has not yet prepared a contingency plan, they haven’t even met factory owners,” Samarasinghe said. More >>

Technically, the UNP working committee decided last week that all top posts for the party leadership would be decided by consensus. However, there is a rider that if consensus is not available with regard to any particular post, such a post will be subject an internal party vote. Though this is so, nothing else seems to be decided. Who will be the electors?
Apart from and working committee members MPs and the other obvious cadre entitled to vote at such an election there is a tremendous tug of war to decide whether members of local government bodies and pradesheeya sabhas will also be among the electors. More >>

When the president invited the opposition leader for talks on constitutional change, there was cheer that the debate on this vital national issue was finally broadening.
Then, after just a few rounds of discussion, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe proposed the introduction of an elected executive prime minister — a system which has only been tried once before in the world and abolished after proving to be an unqualified failure. More >>

Close on the heels of Muttiah Muralitharan’s retirement, Sri Lanka suffered a telling blow ahead of Monday’s second Test as slinger Lasith Malinga was ruled out on medical advice, a position Indian batsmen would savour in their attempt to square the series.
Thus Muralitharan and Malinga, the architects of Sri Lanka’s 10-wicket win, in Galle will not be available for the second Test at SSC, making way for mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis and paceman Dilhara Fernando to come into the side. More >>

Navy SC created a major shock when they stunned fancied CR & FC 17-12 in extra-time to set up a showdown with defending champs Kandy SC in the final next Saturday (July 31), in their absorbing Caltex Clifford Cup semi final fixture at Royal Sports Complex yesterday.
The sailors and the red shirts were deadlocked at 12-all at the end of full-time, which forced referee Allan Witcombe of Arabian Gulf to play 10-minutes of extra-time with the team to score first adjudged winners in a sudden death scenario. More >>

Sunny Sri Lanka, a land like no other, a land of many treasures including pristine beaches and smiling people. Or so say all the tourism brochures, adverts and other tourist-y paraphernalia. And they’ve all got pictures of children and grown-ups smiling. Big toothy grins. Gleaming white teeth. Smiles that actually reach the eyes, lighting up the faces. I recently read that not only are we Sri Lankans known for our hospitality but we are also known as the Smiling People. Yeah! Screw you Thailand with your multihued shirts, we’re officially the land of smiling people. More >>

“Don’t under any circumstances go to Hunas Falls,” said a wizened old man whilst doing his pujas at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. When I asked why I should avoid going to such a stunning spot, he responded in a hushed whisper, “It’s the site of an old Hindu graveyard and the entire place is full of ghosts.” He paused, “Lost spirits from all sorts of weird accidents that have somehow occurred there, they wander around the mountains looking for...” he looked away and fell into silence, before saying mysteriously, “You don’t want to know what they are looking for or hiding for that matter...” More >>

North Korea today threatened a “physical response” to planned military exercises by the US and South Korea this weekend, as tensions on the Korean peninsula dominated a regional security forum in Hanoi. The regime did not specify what that response might be, but said it interpreted the launch on Sunday of four days of naval and air drills in the Sea of Japan as another sign of US “hostility”.
“It is a threat to the Korean peninsula and the region of Asia as a whole,” a North Korea spokesman, More >>

Two Muslim women wearing the specialised bathing suit have been banned from a public swimming pool in France Two Muslim women were ordered out of a swimming pool in France because they were wearing ‘burkinis’. They jumped into the water wearing garments that covered their entire bodies, including veils over their heads. The incident came ten days after French MPs voted to outlaw the burka in public places. The new law, which brands the garment ‘an insult to the country’s values’, More >>

Dell has agreed to pay $100m to settle charges that the computer maker used accounting fraud to make it appear it was meeting analysts’ profit forecasts.
Under the settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dell’s chairman Michael Dell will pay a separate $4m civil penalty.
The SEC alleged that Dell did not disclose large payments received from Intel to not use chips made by a rival. Dell and its executives have not admitted or denied the charges. More >>

The Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) floor price of Rs. 2 imposed on all voice calls would be subject to review after a period of 6 months, signaling further changes in telecom prices.
Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel has filed a petition against the TRC move to extend and increase floor prices. N. Jayaweera, the Director- Economic Affairs TRC said, “Airtel is a new operator and each operator faced pricing problems at the beginning. More >>

The Sahara Desert is one of the world’s most recognizable places. It is also one of the harshest places to live. The desert stretches 3,000 miles across the northern part of Africa. More than one-quarter of its surface is sand dunes, some as high as 500 feet. A handful of mountains can be found in the Sahara, with the summit being Mount Koussi, at 11,204 feet.
The climate
As would be expected, the climate of the Sahara Desert is hot and dry. More >>

Kandy - The Hill Capital of Sri Lanka nestling among the misty hills in the central region of this paradise island is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It was here that the Sinhala kings ruled majestically. Next to Colombo, it is also the most visited city in Sri Lanka. As the shrine holding the sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha is placed in the heart of the city, it’s also the most venerated city in Sri Lanka. Because of the history, pageantry and veneration associated with this exquisite city, Kandy is classed as a World Heritage City by UNESCO. More >>