News Room : Hoping against hope in the new year – The Island
“The sorrow we feel when we lose a loved one is the price we pay to have had them in our lives.”– Rob Liano By Susantha Hewa It was somewhere in the late 1980s that I saw the street-drama legend, Kalakeerthi Dr. Gamini Haththotuwegama. One evening, he came to our area leading his drama troupe. I went to see the play...
News Room : World welcomes the New Year with fireworks and prayers
Sydney and Auckland were the first major world cities to welcome the arrival of 2024. Over a million revellers celebrated the New Year on Sunday night amid stunning fireworks displays, illuminating the skies over Australia’s Sydney Harbour and New Zealand’s tallest structure, the Sky Tower in Auckland. Light rain that had persisted throughout the day in Auckland had cleared by midnight,...
News Room : Queen Margrethe II: Danish monarch announces abdication live on TV
Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II has announced her surprise abdication in a new year TV address. She will formally step down on 14 January, which will be 52 years to the day since she became queen. “I will leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik,” she announced. The 83-year-old is the world’s only reigning queen and the longest serving current...
News Room : Sri Lanka inflation climbs as new tax looms – The Island
by Amal Jayasinghe The controversial arrest of Sri Lanka’s senior most Kapuwa, or the intermediary between devotee and deity, has renewed a debate over who should benefit from the valuable offerings to the gods. Somipala Ratnayake, the chief “Kapuwa” at the Kataragama Maha Devale was taken into custody on Wednesday over a missing gold tray said to be worth over 6.4...
News Room : Central Bank’s Financial Stability Review 2023 reveals strained balance sheets, deterioration in credit quality, and sectoral risks – The Island
by Amal Jayasinghe The controversial arrest of Sri Lanka’s senior most Kapuwa, or the intermediary between devotee and deity, has renewed a debate over who should benefit from the valuable offerings to the gods. Somipala Ratnayake, the chief “Kapuwa” at the Kataragama Maha Devale was taken into custody on Wednesday over a missing gold tray said to be worth over 6.4...
News Room : Sri Lanka tourism lacks direct consumer marketing: Industry experts
By APSARA RODRIGO ECONOMYNEXT –The lack of consumer marketing was a hinderance for the development of tourism in Sri Lanka, hospitality experts said at a panel discussion held recently. “The travel agents know what we offer but we are not, even in a good year, positioning this destination by communicating to consumers. The decision maker for a holiday in Sri Lanka is...
News Room : Only 0.4% of loans recovered using Parate laws – CBSL – The Island
By A.J.A. Abeynayake Four persons, including the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, filed separate petitions in the Supreme Court yesterday (29) against the appointment of Deshabandu Tennakoon as the Acting IGP. The other petitioners are three victims of the Easter Sunday carnage, representatives for Lawyers for Truth and Justice, and a person who was wounded when Rajapaksa supporters attacked the...
News Room : Way forward
Saturday 30th December, 2023 Sri Lankans are gripped by an anticipatory dread of another surge in the cost of living owing to the crippling effect of enhanced VAT and the expansion of its application. Hardly a day passes without people being shown on television cursing the government for the untold suffering it has inflicted on them. Their consternation is understandable,...
News Room : Pathfinder Foundation to develop a blueprint to double Sri Lanka’s growth rate – The Island
The Pathfinder Foundation has formed a Study Group of Experts to develop a blueprint and framework aimed at doubling Sri Lanka’s economic growth rate through accelerated economic integration and infrastructural connectivity with India. The framework document is expected to be formally launched in March 2024. Most economic forecasts place Sri Lanka on an average growth trajectory of 3% per annum for the next...
News Room : Donald Trump kicked off 2024 primary ballot in US state of Maine – The Island
On May 30, the United States accused China of intercepting one of its spy planes in an “unnecessarily aggressive manoeuvre” over the South China Sea. The American RC-135 plane, according to the US military, was conducting routine operations over the sensitive waterway when the Chinese fighter jet flew directly in front of its nose. A video shared by the US...