Ministry of Health launches SRP through free health camps

The Health Education Bureau (HEB) in collaboration with the Colombo National Hospital (CNH) conducted a two-day Free Health Camp (FHC) under its Social Responsibility Programme (SRP) for the employees of the Wijeya Newspapers Ltd (WNL)

The UN- a part of the progress of sl's journey a head

The United Nations Resident Co-ordinator in Sri Lanka Subinay Nandy spoke to the Daily Mirror on the future plans of the UN in Sri Lanka, the implications of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ visit to Sri Lanka, and the.....

A versatile politician who would have changed Sri Lanka's political destiny

  “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” - William Shakespeare from Twelfth Night

Packer and ills of gambling

The government encountered a rare spot of bother this week over regulations aimed at creating a new casino in Colombo-and the man at the centre of the controversy is Australian business magnate, James Packer.

The Budget and backdoor gazette - Editorial

The Appropriations Bill or the first reading of the 2014 Budget estimates of revenue and expenditure, presented to Parliament on Tuesday, shows that expenditure will rise to Rs. 1542 billion—about 30 percent more than the figure for this year.

Trample the Weak and Poor

What would the reaction of the United States of America and its ‘lap-dogs’ such as the once `Great’ Britain and now,

‘Unite the oppressed without racism’

The question raised by many is, who can rescue the masses from the misery that exists

Editorial-Where have the young people gone?

While towers and skyscrapers, five-star hotels, super-highways and infrastructure development projects are going on at an accelerated pace

Fishermen call for an end to the ‘invasion’

The poach­ing on Sri Lan­kan wa­ters by In­di­an fish­er­men is an is­sue that has strain­ed both the po­lit­i­cal and dip­lo­mat­ic re­la­tions of In­dia and Sri Lan­ka, how­ev­er, un­known to many and de­spite the.....

daha-The enigmatic, enchanting maverick

One this day, one hundred and eleven years ago, Wijayananda Dahanayake of Galle, the former caretaker Prime Minister of this nation came squealing into the world. He was accompanied soon after by an identical twin brother Kalyanapriya who is said to have been as precocious a handful as his elder sibling.

Beat them at their own game with heart and mind

Doctors and other health workers have been trying to get people to eat less sugar and less starch for several decades but people still eat lots of burgers and chocolates.

Identity politics - the springboard to power

Understandably, the boon and the bane of this country (more the bane than the boon) were the 1848 Colebrook Cameron legislative reforms - the root cause of identity politics.

Do not rock the boat -

A television station in its prime-time news bulletin on Saturday showed footage of TNA Parliamentarian Sivagnanam Sridharan arguing with a group of Sinhalese in Navatkuli, Jaffna last Tuesday, over allotment of land for them by the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA).

Are we ready to embrace a New Industrial Revolution?

According to the Mahawansa chronicles, when Prince Vijaya and his 700 strong men disembarked in Lanka, Princess Kuveni was spinning cotton under a giant tree. It proved the fact that our ancestors by then had known how to spin cotton to produce clothes.

What is Nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology is based on exploiting the experimentally observed and analysed changes which occur in materials when their physical sizes are shrunk to between 100 – 1 nanometres ( a nanometre is 1 billionth – 10-9- of a metre). These changes are seen as variations, at times drastic, in the chemical

Development, Car Culture and the Environment

There are not many countries that have been able to prevent the rise of a pervasive car culture following rapid economic growth. The motor car has become an important part of the affluent life style in both developed as well as developing countries. It is reported that there are already five million cars

Editorial - Gambling with the heritage of Sri Lanka

Leaders of all religions have appealed to the Government, ministers and MPs to vote against legislation to be presented in Parliament this week to approve the setting up of two huge casinos, which they say will seriously damage the spiritual and moral values, culture and civilisation of this country.

Editorial - Language goes beyond communication

Social anthropologist Prof. Sasanka Perera, in a keynote address delivered at a conference on Language and Social Cohesion underlined some vital issues on which the Government and the people of Sri Lanka need to reflect deeply in these crucial months and years.

There’s Nothing Wrong with Sri Lankan Universities

Upon reading the article on “What is wrong with our universities” in the Daily Mirror, I was for a moment bemused. It took me for a while to understand what it really means.

How Conscious ARE Consumers about their Purchases

Sri Lanka was faced with the dicyandiamide (DCD) contamination scare with regard to powdered milk and other imported dairy products a few months ago. Although various opinions were voiced concerning the issue,

Beyond Geneva, the goal of a world without nukes

Two days of talks between Iran and six world powers have ended on a cautiously optimistic note in Geneva although the much talked about breakthrough still appears to be somewhat elusive.

Violation of Rights of the dead

Sometimes you come across people who say they do not fear or care about death. This is more so when they are in good health, free of encumbrance and other problems of day to day life.

We still celebrate the bravery of King Rajasinghe II

The death of King Rajasinghe II closed the chapter of the Kandyan Kingdom. So much so that we are still celebrating the bravery of Rajasinghe who wiped out the Portuguese menace on March 29, 1638 - that is three hundred and seventy five years ago.

Buddhism expands….

Venerable Bhikkuni Kusuma, MA, PhD, is a fully ordained Buddhist nun from Sri Lanka who has pioneered the re-establishment of the Theravada Female Buddhist Order in Sri Lanka.

Why doesn’t the US implement its treaties?

The US Senate - usually the Republican members - reject multilateral treaties as if it were a sport. Others, it rejects through inaction - the Law of the Sea Treaty, for example, negotiated under President Jimmy Carter and fruitlessly pushed for ratification by every President since.

Food and drugs: Standards in the mortuary - Editorial

Sri Lanka this week joined the world in marking World Standards Day, but most people and independent analysts are raising questions as to whether this was just a one-day commemoration and whether standards in vital areas such as food and medicinal drugs were just dead letters.

CHOGM Elaborate security measures in place

The 24th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which is the second largest international summit hosted by Sri Lanka after the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting in 1976, will be held in Sri Lanka from November 15 to 17.

NPC DISSENT to be curbed by international players

Usually, intra party rivalry, triggered during an election, settles down soon. But, it has boiled into a new crisis   within the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) after the September 21 Provincial Council Election.Meanwhile, there is a similar crisis in the TNA over the allocation of provincial minister posts.

The unsolved mystery of Mangala’s ‘Innocence’

Never shy of controversy, former Minister and United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian Mangala Samaraweera was to make headlines this week for his alleged involvement in the attack on a faction of the party staging a protest march demanding the ouster of party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Oops the Central Bank did it again! - Editorial

Oops the Central Bank did it again! On Tuesday they reduced the policy interest rates by 50 basis points to spur economic growth, making it the third time they made adjustments to the monetary policy since last December.