Jaffna MP Shritharan’s Insidious Campaign Against his own party ITAK

Retiring Supreme Court Judge Gamini Amarasekara made several important observations while addressing court recently.

Bureaucratic inefficiency slows down NPP Govt’s targets: Samantha Vidyaratna

Minister of Plantation and Community Infrastructure Samantha Vidyaratna, in an interview with Daily Mirror, shares views on challenging confronting the National People’s Power (NPP) government and development plans in the pipeline. Excerpts:

Krishanthi Kumaraswamy case and Chemmani mass grave : A landmark case and a prosecutor’s call for accountability

Ongoing excavations at the Chemmani mass grave reveal harrowing atrocities committed during the war. But this mass grave site would have been a secret buried under Lankan soil if not for a statement made by a death row convict. The convict, who is the main accused in the Krishanthi Kumaraswamy case, revealed the Chemmani mass grave in 1998 upon being sentenced to death. Recently, the Supreme Court rejected a petition filed by this convict and oth

STRONG GOVERNANCE GIVES CONFIDENCE TO INVESTORS - ITC CHAIRMAN

Sanjiv Puri, the immediate past President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Chairman and managing Director of ITC Ltd is in Sri Lanka leading a delegation of a dozen Indian business leaders for high level engagements.

Attachment to the machine and detachment from family

It’s time we move beyond the once-revered motto from Silicon Valley to “move fast and break things”. This quote-turned-operating mode is widespread across the world; you might even see it on the office walls of some IT companies in Colombo. The result? The digital products rolled out fueled by this idea have successfully broken our societies, democracies, planet, and our willingness to experience life or, at the extreme, to live at all. Yet, thes

Downside of tourism: No support for local tourists

Discrimination against Sri Lankan visitors was reported recently from Ella area, a former backwater whose tourism potential was suddenly discovered 15-20 years ago.

Will Israeli PM Netanyahu be Convicted of Charges of Corruption?

It is no secret that US president Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are both members of an exclusive mutual admiration society.

Environmental groups demand accountability for Plastic pellet pollution along Sri Lankan shores

When questioned about the spread of plastic pellets following the recent shipwrecks, Prof. Sanath Hettiarachchi, Chairman of the National Aquatic Resources and Research and Development Agency (NARA), said that they started observations as soon as the incident occurred. “We have noted that areas such as Jaffna, Mannar and Puttalam were affected around seven days after the incident. The plastic nurdles are drifting towards Delft, Nagadeepa and Pung

LIOC dealers blow fumes as commission margins are slashed

Petroleum dealers of Lanka Indian Oil Company PLC (LIOC) are up in arms against its management for the failure to ‘raise the dealer commission’ that was pruned, despite gaining profits in billions of rupees annually. Following the new scheme implemented by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) to withdraw the 3% dealer margin, paid over the past several years as and when the retail price was determined, LIOC too followed suit although the other

The Four in one man Frederick Forsyth: Pilot, Journalist, Spy and Writer

Is there a connection between popular English novelist Frederick Forsyth who breathed his last on 9th June 2025 and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that was militarily defeated by the Sri Lankan armed forces in May 2009?

Displaced families in Northern Muhamalai return following landmine clearance project

Rasadurai Rasendram (64) from Intherapuram, Muhamalai, was displaced with his family of 9 on multiple occasions, once in 1996 and then again in 2000 as a result of the protracted civil war.

Trump’s Madman Theory fuels Iran-Israel war

Will the United States join Israel’s war on Iran? This is the biggest question today, as Iran and Israel continue their war of attrition. On the eighth consecutive day of escalating hostilities—with missiles and drones striking each other’s cities—the US president’s decision could alter the course of the conflict. It could either de-escalate tensions or add fuel to the confrontation that risks engulfing the entire region for months to come. Which

What went wrong with Air India plane that crashed Veteran ex SriLankan pilot responds

Days after the crash of an Air India flight, former SriLankan Airlines pilot captain Sri. Segaram speaks to Daily Mirror on the possible causes that might lead to an air crash.

SAC ART Amsterdam Bridging Europe and South Asia with contemporary and modern art

In the heart of Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, lies a cozy art space dedicated to South Asian Contemporary Art.

Iran-Israel war a looming storm for Sri Lanka’s economy and national security

The recent, dramatic escalation of hostilities between Iran and Israel - with reports of 200 Israeli fighter jets striking Iranian military and nuclear facilities on June 13 and Iran responding with 100 drone attacks and vows of harsher retaliation - signals a perilous new phase in Middle Eastern geopolitics.

Sumanthiran Goes to Court Over Gazetting of 5941 Acres Northern Lands Issue

A controversial issue of grave concern to the Tamil people of the northern and eastern provinces in recent times has been the seizure of privately owned lands by the Sri Lankan State and some of its organs.

Sri Lanka’s pharma ambitions take shape, the largest plant set to take off

In the post-independence era, Sri Lanka achieved a lot in terms of social development compared to other countries in the region. Sri Lanka is way ahead of countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal in South Asia in this regard. The country can be proud of its achievements in terms of its progress in quality healthcare and high literacy level.

Govt. attempts to rectify ‘systemic failures in addressing child abuse cases’

A month has elapsed since investigations commenced to determine the actual cause behind 15-year old Dilshi Amshika’s suicide.

Right of Reply: JAAF responds to Our Thought on apparel sector workers

The following is a Right of Reply sent by the Joint Apparel Association Forum of Sri Lanka in response to Our Thought titled ‘Apparel sector workers are humans too’ published on May 22, 2025:

Sri Lanka joins global fight to protect maritime waters

Sri Lanka recently became the 109th signatory to the agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the Conservation and Sustainable use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) in February 2025.

CHINA TACKLES “relative poverty” after eradicating “extreme rural poverty”

Despite the negative impact of COVID-19, the government of China announced in 2020 that it had eradicated “extreme rural poverty” by lifting 800 million out of it.In 1981, 97% of China’s rural population lived in extreme poverty with an income below $1.90/day, as per 2011 Purchasing Power Parity. By 2020, this had dropped dramatically to being below 1%, with official claims of near-zero extreme poverty by 2021.

Improving livelihoods of coastal communities in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, an island nation graced by over 1,600 kilometres of coastline, is home to thousands of families whose lives are deeply intertwined with the sea.

Malini Fonseka : Why the Movie Queen Became a National List MP

The first Sinhala language feature film “Kadawunu Poronduwa”(Broken Promise) premiered on 21 January 1947 at the Kingsley theatre in Colombo.

Gaza food aid sham: Crumbs from the master’s table

The right to food is a universal human right. Yet this fundamental right is denied to Palestinians in Gaza. It is not only Israel that is inhumanely starving 2.2 million Palestinians; with the exception of a few countries such as Ireland, Spain, and Norway, the entire Western world is complicit in Israel’s crime of genocide, having failed to take meaningful action to stop the Zionist state’s barbarism.

Could the incumbent govt. resolve deep-rooted land conflicts in the North and East?

When incumbent President Anura Kumara Dissanayake visited Jaffna in January this year, he said that land belonging to people should rightfully remain with them and that the issue of land disputes in the Northern province is being reviewed. However, in March, the government issued a gazette notification (No. 2340) which gave three months’ time for people to claim their lands in what was termed as a land settlement gazette. If the ownership of 5941

IPKF could have finished the war long ago, Premadasa and JVP made us fight it and die

Last week, Sri Lanka commemorated the servicemen and women who paid with their life and limb, defending the territorial integrity of this country, so that the next generations could live in peace.

World’s longest Monkey Tapeworm found in a Lankan child in Kurunegala

An extraordinary discovery was made by the Parasitology team of the Medical Research Institute (MRI) when they found a parasitic worm belonging to the Bertiella genus. Commonly known as ‘Monkey tapeworm’ the parasitic worm which rarely infects humans was found in a 10-year-old boy in Kurunegala, and is the longest Bertiella worm (70cm) reported globally, according to available data.

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN A SOLDIER AND A TERRORIST

The scars of conflict run deep in Sri Lanka, a nation that endured decades of brutal civil war. As we reflect upon this tumultuous period, it is imperative to clearly distinguish between the forces that sought to uphold the integrity of the state and those that aimed to dismantle it through violence and terror.

ITAK’s Success at North-Eastern Local Govt. Elections Vindicates Sumanthiran

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) led National People’s Power (NPP) recorded a landslide victory at the Parliamentary elections held in November 2024.

’’Ocean is a shared resource, if one country pollutes, others get affected’’ - Norwegian ocean scientist

Peter M. Haugan, the policy director at the Institute of Marine Research, Norway and a professor at the Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen in Norway, shares his vision on the blue economy and what the ocean holds for the benefit of mankind. He has more than 30 years of experience in marine scientific research and international ocean science coordination covering ocean, climate and energy issues. His professional merits include fi