UNP rebels say that they are not afraid of the party taking disciplinary action and will vote in favour of the 18th amendment . UNP MP for Polonnaruwa district Earl Gunasekera who had committed himself to supporting president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s proposed constitutional reforms says that there would be no problem for him to agree with the government, while remaining in the opposition, when the vote is taken up in parliament on Sept 8. More >>

Millions have been lost to government coffers due to corrupt ports authority officials working in connivance with a powerful politico and the underworld, depriving the state of millions of rupees. The police and the army have now begun a coordinated operation to eradicate underworld activities at the Ports Authority Auction -- More >>

The week was a precursor to what would be a momentous week in Sri Lankan politics.
By all accounts, the 18th amendment to the constitution will be passed this week and the 17th amendment would be annulled. It means a sitting president can contest for the presidency as long as he wants —- and there will be no independent Constitutional Council appointing the Elections Commissioner or the Inspector General of Police.
Now the opposition UNP is being accused of conniving in this process. More >>

Attorney-General Mohan Peiris made interesting use of the word “spurious” on Tuesday when the proposed 18th Amendment to the Constitution was taken up for determination before the Supreme Court.
Midway into Peiris’s submissions to court, Jayampathy Wickremeratne, PC, protested to the five-judge bench that the attorney-general was mentioning clauses that were not included in the cabinet paper intervening petitioners had managed to get their hands on. There was, for instance, no mention of a Parliamentary Council.. More >>

In the aftermath of the spot fixing scandal involving Pakistan cricketers in England, a sinister campaign has started to divert the attention with Indian newspapers masterminding a campaign to tarnish Sri Lanka’s cricket image.
Sri Lanka which has remained clean in the decades long match fixing scandal of which its South Asian neighbors were found guilty of are being implicated in two match fixing scandals. Reports alleged that Sri Lanka are responsible for two counts, More >>

A smear campaign purportedly orchestrated by a left-handed attacking batsman who has fallen foul of the selectors in the recent past, against dashing Sri Lanka opener TM Dilshan to tarnish the latter’s public image has surfaced, LAKBIMAnEWS reliably understands. According to sources this player has set in motion this malicious campaign implicating Dilshan to an alleged sex assault case during Sri Lanka’s tri-series tour of Zimbabwe last June, to win his place back in the team ahead of the 2011 World Cup in the Indian sub-continent,. .. More >>

In a general conversation about himself (who else?), a local top model called his ex girlfriend crazy. Not really hot stuff until he told me the reason. “I don’t use Facebook anymore. My ex keeps posting pictures of us together. She pretends we’re still together. Even posts messages as though we are spending time together. She’s crazy,” he reiterated. Whether he’s back on Facebook and if his former flame has finally found her sanity I cannot say for sure, More >>

Bambara Walalla is a unique crime movie in Sri Lankan cinema and it has similar characteristics to famous western movies of the like of Godfather. It is not a crime movie with excessive bloodshed and violence, but it touches on the unethical behaviour patterns of a cross section of our society. Throughout the movie the director has not deviated from the core subject matter. Music, excessive violence, or sex are not inserted purely for the purposes of attracting audience. More >>

A group of Iranian journalists sympathetic to the world view of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched barackobama.ir, a website set up to address “an Iranian viewpoint on Barack Obama’s opinions”.
The news of its creation first appeared this week in a series of government-sponsored websites and news agencies, which endorsed it as an independent source of information about the life of Obama, his administration and issues such as 9/11, Israel and Iran’s nuclear programme. More >>

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators cleared the first hurdle on Thursday in their elusive quest for Middle East peace: they agreed to keep talking, two weeks from now in Egypt. But on a richly choreographed day of diplomacy, filled with solemn promises to tackle the tough issues dividing them, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders did not confront the one issue that could sink these talks in three weeks: whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will extend a moratorium on the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. More >>

A recent Central Bank report stated that “Inflation, as measured by the Colombo Consumers’ Price Index (CCPI) (2002=100), computed by the Department of Census and Statistics, increased to 5.0 per cent in August 2010, on a point-to-point basis, as anticipated, from 4.3 per cent in July, mainly due to the lower base in August 2009. This increase has come after 5 consecutive months in which inflation declined. The United National Party MP and Consultant Economist Dr. Harsha de Silva amid doubts about the accuracy of the Central Bank report said the percentage increase is manageable, as long as it remains a single digit. More >>

A distinguished international delegation of designers, designing educationalists, journalists, retailers buyers and opinion leaders are to attend the Sri Lanka Design Festival 2010 (SLDF) scheduled to be held from November 11- 17. The event sponsored by MAS Holdings aims at promoting Sri Lanka’s creative industries both traditional and contemporary, on a global platform. Sri Lanka Design Festival 2010 will also showcase the Sri Lankan Apparel Industry’s manufacturing capabilities, creative strength and ethical fashion positioning, providing business opportunities for those seeking ethical apparel sourcing from Sri Lanka. More >>