Lanka News – Lanka Gazette – Sri Lanka News Portal

Approximately 8.5 million rupees collected last July by school children for the Uthuru Mithuru Fund, never found its way to development projects in the North.

The Fund was established by the Education Ministry ostensibly for the construction of a railway station at Elephant’s Pass.

Children in schools in the south were asked to donate to help their uthuru mithuru or northern friends.  The money donated by the school children was supposed to be used for development projects in the North, primarily the reconstruction of the Railway line to Jaffna.  But now almost a year after the funds were collected construction has yet to commence and the money is, according to the former Minister for Education, tied up in various accounts scattered across the country. Continue Reading

UNP MP Sajith Premadasa declared that he would continue with his Jathika Jeewaya Programme despite being ordered by UNP General Tissa Attanyake to stop all meetings being held under the programme last week.

“I will go ahead – I will give the meetings a singular effort”, said Premadasa.
Decision to stop these meetings at the electorate level under the programme, which aimed at bringing Premadasa to the post of party leader, was made following an order by the party leadership. Continue Reading

The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be stepping down from his position as the Chairman of the Group of 15 (G -15) and handing over the title to President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the G-15 Summit which will be held in Tehran on May 17.

The summit for the Heads of State, meeting for the 14th time, represents and accounts for one third of the world population as well as fast developing economies. Though 17 in total, the group has held on to the name G-15 and consists of the following – Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Continue Reading

With inflationary pressure building up on the economy fuelled by increasing commodity prices, market sources didn’t expect a sharp decline in interest rates in the foreseeable future, with one predicting that the benchmark 364 day Treasury (T) Bill yield will not fall lower than ½ % in the next 2-3 months.

Last week’s primary T Bill auction saw the 364 day tenure fall by a nominal two basis points (0.02%) to 9.23%.

A slow rate decline will affect bank credit to the private sector, the engine of growth, which witnessed credit growth to the private sector increasing by a marginal 4% quarter on quarter, in the quarter ended March 31, 2010. Continue Reading

One year after the end of the war between the security forces and the LTTE, 73,000 displaced persons still remain in IDP camps in the North.
Following the end of the war, the resettlement of the war-displaced became a post war crisis faced by the country, which also raised widespread international concern. The announcement and celebrations of liberation were soon overcome by calls to rehabilitate and resettle thousands of persons displaced in the North and East due to the three decade-long war. Continue Reading

Prapaharan Thambithurai pleaded guilty to charges in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday. (Jane Wolsak/CBC)
The first person charged under Canada’s post-Sept. 11 law against raising funds for a terrorist group pleaded guilty in a Vancouver courtroom on Tuesday morning.
Prapaharan Thambithurai of Maple, Ont., admitted raising money from Tamil immigrants in the Vancouver area, knowing that some of it would end up funding the banned Tamil Tigers. Continue Reading

SriLankan Airline’s failure to provide the new uniform to all its crew members has led to in flight crew being dressed in two different colours – blue and green —  embarrassing the national carrier, SriLankan Airlines sources told The Sunday Leader.

The airline which introduced the new uniform  a few months ago, has failed to provide the full quantity of uniforms to all its crew members. Continue Reading

Senior members within the United National Party are demanding that Party Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe accounts for hundreds of millions of rupees worth of election campaign funds allegedly handed directly to him. Continue Reading

A committee headed by UNP MP Joseph Michael Perera is currently considering amending the party constitution.

A meeting will be held today at party headquarters Sirikotha. On the agenda will be discussions as to which party office bearers will be subject to an election.

The Working Committee recently decided that leadership posts within the UNP will be subject to an internal election. Continue Reading