The owner of ‘Marusira.com’ from Kandy is remanded

Gayan Roshantha Silva of Dharmapala Mawatha, Kandy who is the owner of Marusira.com web site, who is suspected for supplying software enabling to hack web sites has been arrested and remanded by the Colombo High Courts.

Sri Lanka leccy Sri Lankan's have taken the the streets to protest about the electricity price rises, which will hit the poor hardest

There's big controversy in Sri Lanka over a sudden and very large jump in domestic electricity prices.

Ordinary people, already suffering from regular and difficult rises in the cost of living, are now seeing their bills rise by 50%, 90%, even up to the biggest hike 127%. And the poorest people are seeing some of the biggest rises.

The United National Party (UNP) today announced that it had begun a battle to topple this government.

“We have given repeated warnings to the government over and over again and urged for relief for the people but we will not do it again and therefore will topple the government as soon as possible,” Leader of Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe said at a May Day meeting at the UNP Head quarters, Siri Kotha today.

He therefore appealed to the several sectors including the clergy and the civil society to take to the streets.

The Navy arrested five people as they attempted to enter Sri Lanka illegally by sea, the Navy media unit said today.

Naval troops attached to SLNS Thammanna of the North Central Naval Command arrested the five people in the General Area Urumalai.

The Navy said that the five people were believed to be residents of Chennai, India.

Among those arrested were two males and three females including a three-year old child.

They were handed over to TID for further investigations.

This current government is a carbon copy of the Premadasa Government, UNP MP Sajith Premadasa said today. He claimed that the ‘Gam Udawa’ of back then has now become ‘Deyata Kirula’, the ‘Jana Saviya’ has become ‘ Samurdhi’,  and the ‘Maga Saviya’ has become ‘Maga Neguma’.

Speaking at his father’s 20th death anniversary, Sajith claimed that despite the current regime copying his father’s projects, after the ‘Gam Udawa’ programme people were left with houses however now after a ‘Deyata Kirula’ programme all that’s left are empty grounds.

Parliamentarian Palitha Range Bandara convened a media briefing in Chilaw on Monday.

''The people of this country took to the streets asking for the electricity tariff to be reduced, the people of Chilaw took to the streets with me. No government henchmen disrupted this. It was the UNP Provincial Councillor and his group that started harassing and assaulting the demonstrators.''

The 1st of May is an important day for Trade Unions. It is a day when the rights of the working people are celebrated and where the battles that were fought to protect the rights and dignity of working people all over the world are celebrated and remembered.

Education is of vital importance for the working people. In Sri Lanka, the free education system enabled many generations of working people to seek a better future for their children. The Federation of University Teachers’ Association therefore, decided to use this occasion to generate awareness of the threats to free education faced by the people of Sri Lanka today. We are aware of the fact that the gradual shift of the financial burden of education on parents and families due to the government’s systematic withdrawal from the state education system has serious financial consequences of working people. We believe it is extremely important that the politically conscious working population of Sri Lanka, who will be celebrating May Day today are also made fully aware of the crisis in the education sector.

What exactly is New Delhi working on after voting for the second time with the US sponsored resolution at the UNHRC Sessions in Geneva, to diffuse separatist Thamilean agitations and tensions in Tamil Nadu ? TN politics funded and backed by different Tamil Diaspora groups, will not lie low though subdued for now, on their demand for a separate Tamil Eelam in N-E SL. Congress as a political party can not afford to get totally submerged in such extremist and separatist politics in TN or elsewhere.

Sri Lanka's Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) says the people in the country have a responsibility to join a broad struggle to win rights.

JVP politburo member and head of the National Trade Union Center (NTUC), K.D. Lalkantha said that while a broad programme with common causes has to be identified, people also have a responsibility to join in these struggles.

"We have continued our struggle and have given leadership to such struggles. The people also have a responsibility to join in these struggles," he noted.

The main opposition UNP claims several government members are in talks with the UNP to back the opposition.

UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said that a Government Minister is among those in talks with him.

However Attanayake said that the names of those in the government willing to support the UNP cannot be revealed at this moment.