Day: 13 August 2015

Gampola Vidanelage Samantha Kumara alias ‘Wele Suda’ yesterday revealed in courts about his close connections with former UPFA Parliamentarian Duminda Silva a close assopciate of former President MAHINDA. Samantha Kumara told the Colombo High Court, that once he had loaned Rs. 2 million to Silva for his election campaign. However, Kumara said that when he asked Silva to return the money on a later date, white vans started appearing near his house and also police started visiting his home. Kumara revealed these details to the High Court when the trial…

UNP says Mahinda has accepted Thajudeen was murdered By Harischandra Gunaratna Deputy Foreign Minister and UNP Kalutara District candidate Ajith Perera yesterday said that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who when in power  said that former Havelocks Sports Club rugger captain and Sri Lanka player  Wasim Thajudeen died in an accident in 2012,  had today accepted that the top sportsman had been murdered, Perera said that the law would take its own course in finding the killers of Thajudeen though certain elements with vested interests were attempting to cover it up.…

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike said the people could vote for any animal and not for the betel leaf symbol or the hand symbol at the forthcoming general elections if they wanted to save the country from corrupt individuals. Addressing several public meetings in Embilipitiya and the Eheliyagoda towns the former President said the UNP, the Hela Urumaya, a faction of the SLFP and the Leftist parties had joined hands on January 8 to bring about a change and to form a national government. The JVP was not directly involved in…

 “Mahinda’s defeat is already written on his forehead. He will have no power to become the prime minister. UPFA has divided. Its election campaign is fractured at village level. Certain leaders of the UPFA publicly ask their supporters not to vote for the other fraction of the UPFA. Here is a conflict within the UPFA. As such, party members are looking for an alternative. Neither the UNP nor the UPFA can get 113 seats to form a government on their own,” said the Information Secretary of the JVP and the…

 Minister of Industry and Commerce, All Ceylon Makkal Congress Leader and Vanni ACMC Group Leader Rishad Bathiudeen, too, has backed the call for a new Coastal Administrative Unit in East on 09 August. The ACMC Leader said on 09 August. “If voters of Ampara District elect two new ACMC MPs from us and send the traditional Ampara SLMC MPs home, then it will be sufficient proof that (they) have given us, the ACMC, a mandate. Today, I tell you, the Eastern Muslims that I will promptly and formally pressure the…

‘American people want to partner with the people of Sri Lanka as they forge a diverse, prosperous, unified, reconciled and democratic nation,’ Atul Keshap said Indian-American Atul Keshap has been sworn in as the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives, becoming the second Indian-origin diplomat to be posted to the region after Richard Rahul Verma. Keshap, 44, a former official at the US Embassy in India, was administered the oath of office by Deputy US Secretary of State for Management and Resources Heather Anne Higginbottom. “American people want to…

By Harischandra Gunaratna Deputy Foreign Minister and Kalutara District UNP Parliamentarian Ajith Perera yesterday said that members of UPFA, which itself was  past its shelf life, were uttering nonsense at political rallies and talk shows as they had neither coherent policy nore action plan  nor an acceptable election manifesto which was full of false promises.  “The UPFA election campaign centred solely on Mahinda Rajapaksa was today was dependent on President Maithripala Sirisena for its survival,” he said.  Addressing a news conference at the UNP headquarters, Sirikotha at Pita Kotte, Perera…

CHAMIKARA WEERASINGHE Two cases have been filed in the Colombo Magistrates’ Court yesterday against former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Central Bank Governor, Ajith Nivad Cabraal on corruption charges. The cases filed under the Penal Code accuse them of causing a loss of Rs. 12 billion to the EPF fund and causing a loss of Rs. 2.14 billion to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Counsel Kelum Darshana Kumarasinghe filed charges against Rajapaksa and Cabraal at the Magistrates’ Courts. According to Counsel Kumarasinghe’s application, the former Central Bank Governor, has…