News.lk - The Official Government News Portal of Sri Lanka

The new President and Vice-President elected at the Maldives elections are expected to be sworn in on 17 November 2018, the Maldives Foreign Ministry said today.The Elections Commission of Maldives announced the provisional results of the elections to elect the President of the Maldives, for the next five years.

The Buddha’s open invitation for women to participate in the Sasana by making them eligible to enter the Bhikkuni Sangha– with ample opportunities for public life had greatly improved the status of women. In Islamic and Hindu societies a number of books have been authored on the changing status of women, but strangely little in Buddhism—apart from Miss I.B. Horner, Pali scholar, who wrote the book titled, Women under Primitive Buddhism, in 1930. The Buddha’s teachings undoubtedly have the least biased approach against women. Their importance to society was acknowledged very much enhancing their standing among men.

The Education Ministry is planning to hold both the Advanced Level Examination and the Ordinary Level Examination in December aiming at increasing the number of school days, Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said.

Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade has been conducting awareness programs on proposed Free Trade Agreements and trade policy since 2017.

The first case to be taken up by the three-judge bench of the Special Trial at Bar decided today, to hear the case filed by the FCID against Gamini Senarath, who was former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's chief of staff and Piyadasa Kudabalage, the former chairman and managing director of the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC), decides to hear the case daily, beginning from the 29th of October. They are charged with misappropriating SLIC funds by investing millions of rupees in various ventures including the Grand Hyatt Hotel project using the investments of Grand Hyatt, Colombo.

Several senior state counsel from the Attorney General’s Department will appear for the prosecution while the respondents have retained a team of President's Counsel and senior lawyers.The Trail at Bar comprises senior High Court judges Sampath Abeykoon, Sampath Wijeratne and Champa Janaki Rajaratne.

The court will sit in the morning and in the afternoon to expedite the hearing. Two more similar High Courts are also in the pipeline to hear other major frauds and crimes which are alleged to have taken place during the past 10 years.

Commenting on the reason that led to the government setting up the special High Court at Bar, Justice Minister Talatha Athukorale told the Cabinet that though a circular had been issued to judges by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) directing that trials of more than five years old to be held daily, it was observed more in the breach.

At the end of 2015, there were some 16,960, cases pending in the High Courts countrywide while the number of pending cases pending at the end of 2016 was 16,463, the number of pending cases as at September 2017 was 17,565.

The minister said laws delays have to be remedied resulting in an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure Act to make it mandatory to hold trials in the High courts, except in exceptional circumstances and for good reasons which have to be recorded.Accordingly, the section 263 of the Criminal Procedure Code was amended to make daily mandatory.

Stressing the importance of properly fulfilling duties and responsibilities, President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday gave a clarification on his decision to summon the staff of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Austria, back to the country last week.President Sirisena observed that the Ambassador and the staff will return to Sri Lanka within the next few days.