The Court of Appeal has fixed for hearing a case filed seeking to disqualify Jaffna District Independent MP Ramanathan Archchuna from holding a parliamentary seat.
Accordingly, the court ordered the petition to be taken up to confirm the facts on June 26, 2025.
The petition, filed by social activist Oshala Herath, was taken up before the two-member Appeals Court bench comprising Justices Mayadunne Corea and Mahen Gopallawa this morning (14).
Elections Commission Chairman R.M.A.L. Rathnayake announced that the official term of the newly elected Local Government authorities will commence on June 2.
Before convening the inaugural meetings of these bodies, the names of the elected members must be gazetted at Divisional level, he added.
Accordingly, the Elections Commission has requested political Parties and Independent Groups that secured majorities in their respective local authorities to submit, within one week, the names of individuals nominated for the positions of Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Chairman and Vice Chairman of those institutions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday praised Operation Sindoor, stating that it is not just a name but a reflection of the nation’s countless emotions.
He added that the operation embodies India’s unwavering commitment to justice, highlighting how Pakistan, after slumping into gloom following the attack on terror camps, dared to attack instead of helping fight terror.
He said that today, every terrorist knows the consequences of wiping sindoor (vermilion) from the foreheads of our sisters and daughters.
“The terrorists removed the ‘sindoor’ of our sisters. That’s why India annihilated the terror headquarters. More than 100 dreaded terrorists were slaughtered in an Indian attack. Terrorists who were openly conspiring against India were openly roaming in Pakistan, but India slaughtered them in just one go. India’s actions were a huge setback for Pakistan,” PM Modi said in his address to the nation.
He also said that Operation Sindoor has redefined the fight against terror, setting a new benchmark and establishing a new normal. He added that while Pakistan had prepared to strike at our borders, India hit them directly at their core.
“We have only paused our retaliatory action on Pakistan’s terrorist and military infrastructures for now. In upcoming days, every step taken by Pakistan will be keenly observed based on the approach and conduct it adopts,” said PM Modi.
Under Operation Sindoor, terror headquarters of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen were targeted, with the Indian Air Force conducting night raids on nine hideouts in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, officials confirmed on Wednesday.
Among the precise targets hit were the Markaz Subhan Allah at Bahawalpur, Sarjal at Tehra Kalan, Markaz Abbas in Kotli, and Syedna Bilal camp in Muzaffarabad, all linked to the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Other targets included the Markaz Taiba at Murdike, Markaz Ahle Hadith at Barnala, and Shwawai Nalla camp at Muzaffarabad, all associated with the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba. Additionally, Makaz Raheel Shahid in Kotli and Mehmoona Joya in Sialkot, belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen, were also hit.
Of the nine targets, four were located in Pakistan and five in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.
Source: Hindustan Times
In a renewed push to attract foreign investment into the energy sector, the Cabinet of Ministers at their meeting on Wednesday approved the exploration and potential production of petroleum and natural gas in four offshore plots within the Mannar Basin.
To support this initiative, the Cabinet of Ministers also approved the engagement of a qualified marketing consultant to develop and implement a targeted promotion strategy.
Addressing the weekly post-Cabinet meeting media briefing yesterday, Cabinet Spokesman and Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa said the aim is to woo credible investors with the technical and financial capacity to explore and develop the identified blocks.
The move follows earlier discoveries made by Cairn Lanka Ltd., in 2011, which confirmed two viable natural gas deposits in the M2 exploration block.
These findings validated the existence of a functioning hydrocarbon system in the region, raising the Basin’s profile as a prospective area for offshore energy development.
In accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum Resources Act, No. 21 of 2021, the Sri Lanka Petroleum Development Authority (SLPDA) has been vested the powers to call for investment proposals for the offshore petroleum and natural gas exploration plots in terms of the prescribed procedures of the regulations approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.
In 2021, a Government Gazette notification published a map of blocks for joint exploration for oil and gas in the Mannar Basin (https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Oil-and-gas-exploration-in-Mannar-Basin-mapped/44-721329).
Responding to questions about the outcomes of earlier exploration efforts, Dr. Jayatissa said the fresh push for investors is to secure new partnerships and commercialise the untapped resources, based on those studies conducted under previous administrations.
“It has been identified that two natural gas deposits are in the Basin. Now, we want to attract possible investors for these,” he added.
Japanese Ambassador Akio Isomata said that Japan was a victim of corruption in Sri Lanka , and expressed optimism that the government would tackle the issue.
The Ambassador made these remarks in response to a query raised during a round table discussion organised by Pathfinder Foundation last week in Colombo.
Earlier, there were reports about some Japanese companies facing issues in Sri Lanka in securing investments. Japanese companies are strictly observe compliance obligations and therefore never offer bribes or kickbacks. Former Japanese Ambassador Mizukoshi Hideaki said in an interview with Daily Mirror last year that Sri Lanka has a very high potential of growth considering the strategic location in the Indian Ocean, but Sri Lanka needs improvement in creating a fair, credible, transparent business environment.
Ambassador Isomata , meanwhile said at last week’s round table discussion, he also attended the function to mark the launch of the National Anti -corruption Action Plan and listened to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake speaking of efforts to address the issue. The ambassador emphasized the need to implement the plan.
Responding to the President’s remarks that politicians belonging to his National People’s Power (NPP) are not involved in any form of corruption, he said it is equally important to address the same involving bureaucrats.
Commenting on Japan- Sri Lanka bilateral relations , he said Sri Lanka is a very important partner for Japan in many ways.” As Sri Lanka’s economy is getting back on track with the IMF( International Monetary Fund) agreement, with debt restructuring agreement, I don’t think Japanese companies will come immediately to make new investments at this stage. But as Sri Lankan economy goes back on track in a stable manner, I think we can cultivate interest of Japanese investors to take a closer look at opportunities in Sri Lanka for further investment. We need cooperation with Sri Lankan people,” he said.
“We are seeing increasing numbers of young Sri Lankans going to Japan for employment in Japanese companies. There are two kind of programmes for inviting young foreign workers in Japan right now. One is called the TITP -Technical Intern Training Programme . The second one, a newly started one several years ago, is SSW -Specified Skilled Worker Programme. Under these two programmes, an increasing number of Sri Lankan youngsters are going to Japan right now. We have opened up eight industrial sectors for Sri Lankan workers, starting with caregiving, hotel accommodation, food industry, agriculture, construction, and most recently, transportation sector like bus driver, truck driver. This will strengthen Japan’s labour market. We need young labour force because Japan is facing a problem of ageing society,” he said.
Asked whether Japan is ready to undertake fresh loan projects since the country has completed debt restructuring, he said Japan is ready to consider if there is a request from the Sri Lankan end. However, he said that it depends on Sri Lanka’s debt servicing ability
Ruling JVP-NPP strategists would be tearing their hair to make head or tail out of Tuesday’s nationwide Local Government (LG) Election results. Independent of their unconvincing cover-ups, of which there are many already, they should be wondering as to why they lost a substantial 18 per cent vote share that they had added in the parliamentary elections over the presidential polls, but vanished again this time round.
For the ruling combine, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake polled 42.31 per cent votes. This went up to a heady 61.56 per cent in the parliamentary elections but is back to 43.26 per cent now. In the magic called ‘second-preference vote-count’, the addition of just 100,000-plus votes could skyrocket this figure to a surprisingly high 55.89 per cent is what now stands exposed, so to speak.
Against this, the runner-up Sajith Premadasa’s (SJB) tally went up from a moderate 32.76 per cent to a substantial 44.11 per cent, by the addition of 167,000-plus votes between the two rounds is what added mystery to the JVP-NPP myth. The additional 18 per cent that the Dissanayake leadership added to the pool in the parliamentary elections, giving them a convincing 159 members in the 225 Parliament, is what political magic is made of in this country.
Simply put, this 18 per cent add-on voters between the presidential and parliamentary elections have deserted the JVP-NPP combine. Or, that is what the vote count in the Local Council Polls. True, the issues are different among all three elections, and they are very complex in the LG Polls, where personalities and personal relations at the grassroots level, too, play a substantial part.
All told, yet, there are reasons to conclude that this 18 per cent were mostly the votes of the traditional pool of ‘non-committed voters’, whose actual figures are much more. When voting in the Presidential Election, they were possibly wary about the JVP, going by their unforgettable and at times unforgivable track record.
Yet, when it came to the question of ‘political stability’, this 18 per cent ensured that President Dissanayake had the right numbers in Parliament, to give him a full five-year term without threat from his political adversaries. Recall how UNP campaigners were telling the nation that past President Ranil Wickremesinghe would be back in power in six months and how SJB leaders, starting with Sajith Premadasa, were parroting that the Government would not last more than two months, and they made the decision for the undecided voters.
There was no such threat to the stability of the Government or the President’s command over Parliament when it came to the LG Polls, so the undecided voters decided to go their way. Or, so it seems. Did they necessarily want to desert the JVP-SJB out of sheer habit, or did the latter fail to retain them? The latter seems to be the case.
Figure of speech
The ‘figure of speech’, if that is one, over the poll percentages does not stop there. Interestingly, the Rajapaksas’ SLPP, which polled a measly 2.57 and 3.14 per cent vote shares in the past two outings, has trebled the figure to nine-plus per cent this time. Already, you have Namal Rajapaksa shouting from rooftops how it was the first step towards the SLPP (and the Rajapaksas) reclaiming power in the next Presidential Election.
Against this, incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was pushed to a distant third place in the presidential poll with a 17 per cent vote share and a low 4.49 per cent in the parliamentary election, has just managed to retain 4.69 per cent in the LG Polls. By itself, the UNP-led combine’s vote share in the parliamentary polls and the local government elections should hold the electoral logic in place.
If Wickremesinghe got more votes than what the UNP combine’s core entailed, it owed to the belief that he had managed the economy well in the post-Aragalaya era, and needed to be thanked and even allowed a full elected term. Today, after the LG Polls, the Wickremesinghe camp may not have it in them to talk about an early return of the ageing leader. Former Minister and camp-crosser Rajitha Senaratne, too, would have to think many times more before coming up with such wild claims hereafter.
For now, for the UNP combine, Wickremesinghe has promised to support SJB in local bodies, starting with the prestigious Colombo Municipal Council, if that would help keep the JVP-NPP wolf away. Figures for the Colombo Council will require more than the UNP seats and votes to make it happen, given the distance that the SJB has to cover to catch up with the ruling combine – which, however, has not crossed the halfway mark this time, either.
The Colombo Council has 117 seats, of which the NPP has obtained only 48. They are followed by the SJB (29) and the UNP (13). The SLPP has five, and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), ordinarily an ally of the SJB, has four.
Even granting that all of them stay together, both the NPP and the NPP-rivals would require more support to make the numbers to be able to run the city council. The worst part is that either camp that gets to have its major is going to face defection threats at every turn, and could well begin wondering if it was at all worth the risks to their national image, after a point.
For the record, the UNP is losing the capital’s cosmopolitan council for the first time in 50-plus years. For the same reason, the centre
-left JVP-NPP would want to have their mayor hoisted on the city council, in a now-or-never battle of minds rather than of wits. For the very same reason, the other, centre-right camp would not want to have it.
Grassroots presence
Where does it all lead to? The JVP-NPP needed to win as many local councils, or at least as many local council seats as possible, for more reasons than one. To begin with, they needed control over downstream elected bodies to smooth out the governmental processes, where they are still in the long and unending learning curve.
Two, and more importantly, the NPP / JVP strategists should acknowledge at least now that their previous performances were ‘accidental’ after a point, and that they needed to have a greater grassroots-level presence if they could hope to retain it. The Local Government Election results have helped them do just that. It has, however, not given them the dominance at the grassroots, as they had wished and hoped for.
More importantly, the JVP-NPP needs this grassroots-level support, which they did not have, at least as much, in the past. They will need to stabilise it and expand it, if they have to win the Provincial Council Elections that are now due for years, if not ages, followed by the next round of presidential and parliamentary polls.
The question now is whether the PC Polls will be held, as indicated later this year, or if the Government will want to delay it further, based on the visible outcomes of the LG Elections. If so, what if someone moves the Supreme Court as they did in the case of the LG Polls and the Honourable Judges set a deadline for the Election Commission (EC), and also the Government, in the matter.
After all, the JVP, while in the Opposition, was crying loud over the delayed LG and PC polls, and rightfully argued that there was no justification for either – barring the Covid period. It is another matter that the Covid hit the nation and the world long after the legitimate deadlines for the two elections had long since passed – and more so in the case of the Provincial Council Elections.
The fact remains that the Government combine has to prove itself between now and the PC Polls if it has to make the grade. Then, it will have to win most, if not all, PCs if it has to be seen as the front-runner in the Presidential Election, whose fate would also be decided by the constitutional reforms that President Dissanayake has put off until his third year in office.
It is here that the LG Poll results in the Tamil North and East will stand out. After snubbing their own Tamil polity and leaders of long, relatively in favour of the JVP-NPP, if only to make a point, the Tamil voters of the North, especially, have gone the ITAK way in particular.
Even then, they have not trusted the ITAK entirely. For ITAK to make sense of the outcome, they will have to (learn to) work with other Tamil groups, especially Gajan Ponnambalam, who is steadfast in his politics and personal ambitions. But ‘Tamil demands’, starting with a common federal platform, is going to haunt the NPP, which has been taunting them all through the past months, since the Parliamentary Poll victories, especially in the northernmost Jaffna District.
All of it together says more than what is visible, and all of it hides more than what is visible!
(The writer is a Chennai-based Policy Analyst and Political Commentator. Email: sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com)
Telo leader srisabaratnam 39th remeberance public meeting
Place : Vavuniya town council hall
10-05-2025 Saturday
Time: 3:30 PM
The French Navy Ship ‘Beautemps-Beaupré’ arrived at the Port of Colombo on a goodwill visit today (09 May 25).
The Sri Lanka Navy welcomed the visiting ship in compliance with time-honoured naval traditions, it said in a statement.
The 80.65m long ‘Beautemps-Beaupré’ is a Hydrographic Vessel commanded by Commander Bertheau Dimitri and she is manned by 58 crew members, the SLN added.
Meanwhile, the Commanding Officer and a group of crew members of the ship are scheduled to call on senior officers of the Sri Lanka National Hydrographic Office (SLNHO) to discuss key hydrographic matters of bilateral importance.
During the stay in the island, crew members of the ship will explore some tourist attractions within the country and the ship is scheduled to set sail from Colombo on 13 May, according to Sri Lanka Navy.
Pope Leo XIV, history’s first North American pope, celebrated his first Mass as pontiff on Friday, presiding in the Sistine Chapel with the cardinals who elected him to succeed Pope Francis and follow in his social justice-minded footsteps.
Wearing white vestments, Leo processed into the Sistine Chapel and blessed the cardinals as he approached the altar and Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” behind it.
It was in the same frescoed chapel that Leo, the Chicago-born missionary Robert Prevost, was elected Thursday afternoon as the 267th pope and the first from the United States.
Leo, the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost, surprised the world Thursday when he emerged on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica as the 267th pontiff, overcoming the traditional prohibition against a pope from the United States.
The 69-year-old wore the traditional red cape — which Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013 — and trappings of the papacy, suggesting a return to some degree of rule-following after Francis’ unorthodox pontificate.
But in naming himself Leo and referring to some of Francis’ more social justice-minded priorities, the new pope could also have wanted to signal a strong line of continuity: Brother Leo was the 13th century friar who was a great companion to St. Francis of Assisi, the late pope’s namesake.
“Together, we must try to find out how to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, establishes dialogue, that’s always open to receive — like on this piazza with open arms — to be able to receive everybody that needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love,” Leo said in near-perfect Italian in his first comments to the world.
Francis, the first Latin American pope, clearly had his eye on Prevost and in many ways saw him as his heir apparent. He sent Prevost, who had spent years as a missionary in Peru, to take over a complicated diocese there in 2014. Francis then brought Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 to head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops, which vets bishop nominations around the world and is one of the most important jobs in church governance.
Earlier this year, Francis elevated Prevost into the senior ranks of cardinals, giving him prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals had.
There had long been a taboo on a U.S. pope, given America’s superpower status in the secular world. But Prevost prevailed, perhaps because he’s also a Peruvian citizen and had lived for two decades in Peru, first as a missionary and then as bishop.
As if to drive that home, Leo spoke in Italian and Spanish from the loggia, but not English.
Since arriving in Rome, Prevost had kept a low public profile but was well-known to the men who count, and respected by those who worked with him. Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.
In a 2023 interview with Vatican News, the then-cardinal said the women had enriched the process and reaffirmed the need for the laity to have a greater role in the church.
“Even the bishops of Peru called him the saint, the Saint of the North, and he had time for everyone,” said the Rev. Alexander Lam, an Augustinian friar from Peru who knows the new pope.
The crowd in St. Peter’s Square erupted in cheers Thursday when white smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel shortly after 6 p.m. on the second day of the conclave. Waving flags from around the world, tens of thousands of people were surprised an hour later when the senior cardinal deacon announced the winner was Prevost.
U.S. President Donald Trump said it was “such an honor for our country” for the new pope to be American. The president added that “we’re a little bit surprised and we’re happy.”
Prevost has shared criticism of the Trump administration ‘s migration policies: In past social media posts, Prevost shared articles criticizing Vice President JD Vance’s justification of the administration’s mass deportation plans.
An Augustinian pope
The last pope to take the name Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softened the church’s confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics, and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. His most famous encyclical, Rerum Novarum of 1891, addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the beginning of the industrial revolution and was highlighted by the Vatican in explaining the new pope’s choice of name.
That Leo also had close ties to the Augustinian order: He rebuilt an ancient Augustinian church and convent near his hometown of Carpineto, outside Rome, which is still in use by the new pope’s order today.
Vatican watchers said Prevost’s decision to name himself Leo was particularly significant given the previous Leo’s legacy of social justice and reform, suggesting continuity with some of Francis’ chief concerns. Specifically, Leo cited one of Francis’ key priorities of making the Catholic Church more attentive to lay people and inclusive, a process known as synodality.
“He is continuing a lot of Francis’ ministry,’’ said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of religious studies at Manhattan University in the Bronx. But she also said his election could send a message to the U.S. church, which has been badly divided between conservatives and progressives, with much of the right-wing opposition to Francis coming from there.
“I think it is going to be exciting to see a different kind of American Catholicism in Rome,’’ Imperatori-Lee said.
Leo said in a 2023 interview with Vatican News that the polarization in the church was a wound that needed to be healed.
“Divisions and polemics in the church do not help anything. We bishops especially must accelerate this movement towards unity, towards communion in the church,” he said.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, told reporters he never thought he would see an American pope, given the questions of how he would navigate dealing with a U.S. president, especially someone like Trump.
“And so I just never imagined that we would have an American pope, and I have great confidence that Pope Leo will do a wonderful job of navigating that,” he said.
Leo’s brother, John Prevost, was so shocked that his brother had been elected pope that he missed several phone calls from Leo during an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. He called the pope back and Leo told him he wasn’t interested in being part of the interview.
John Prevost described his brother, a fan of Wordle, as being very concerned for the poor and those who don’t have a voice. He said he expects him to be a “second Pope Francis.”
“He’s not going to be real far left and he’s not going to be real far right,” he added. “Kind of right down the middle.”
Looking ahead
In his first hours as pope, Leo went back to his old apartment in the Sant’Uffizio Palace to see colleagues, according to selfies posted to social media. Vatican Media also showed him in the moments after his election praying at a kneeler in the Pauline Chapel before emerging on the loggia.
Leo was expected to celebrate Mass with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel on Friday, deliver his first Sunday noon blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s and attend an audience with the media on Monday in the Vatican auditorium, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
Beyond that, he has a possible first foreign trip at the end of May: Francis had been invited to travel to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a landmark event in Christian history and an important moment in Catholic-Orthodox relations.
The new pope was formerly the prior general, or leader, of the Order of St. Augustine, which was formed in the 13th century as a community of “mendicant” friars — dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization. Vatican News said Leo is the first Augustinian pope.
In Peru, he is known as the saintly missionary who waded through mud after torrential rains flooded the region, bringing help to needy people, and as the bishop who spearheaded the lifesaving purchase of oxygen production plants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“He has no problem fixing a broken-down truck until it runs,” said Janinna Sesa, who met Prevost while she worked for the church’s Caritas charity.
Source: AP
Five of the 12 individuals who were onboard the Bell 212 helicopter which crashed into the Maduru Oya Reservoir and were hospitalized in critical condition, have been pronounced dead following admission to the hospital.
The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) confirmed that all deceased persons are armed forces personnel, and includes three Special Forces (SF) personnel and two Sri Lanka Air Force Helicopter Gunmen.
Meanwhile, the remaining seven individuals, also tri-forces personnel, who sustained injuries during the incident, are currently receiving treatment at hospital, the SLAF said.
A Bell 212 Helicopter belonging to the Sri Lanka Air Force crashed into the Maduru Oya Reservoir this morning (09). The SLAF spokesperson stated that the accident occurred during a demonstration at a passing-out ceremony of the Sri Lanka Air Force.
UPDATE: Another Special Forces (SF) soldier who was onboard the Bell 212 Helicopter belonging to the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) that crashed into the Maduru Oya Reservoir this morning, has succumbed to his injuries while receiving treatment at the hospital, according to SLAF.
This brings the death toll from the fatal accident to six, while 6 other armed forces personnel, who sustained injuries in the incident, are currently receiving treatment at the hospital.
