Grade 5 scholarship exam results - The top rankers

As in previous years, students from outstation schools have obtained highest marks at the Grade 5 Scholarship examination 2016, according to the cut-off marks released by the Examinations Department on Tuesday night.

Commissioner General of Examinations, W. M. N. J. Pushpakumara said Sithija Niran Samarawickrema of Urugamuwa Methodist Kanishta Vidyalaya at Dickwella in the Matara District has scored the highest marks. He obtained 196 out of 200 marks.

Pushpakumara said two students had obtained identical marks, 195, for the second place. They were Ruwanya Methmini Gunasekera of Assedduma Subarathie Kanishta Vidyalaya in Kuliyapitiya and Kokulanasan Ahisigan of Rambekulam Maha Vidyalaya in Vavuniya.

Pushpakumara said Nadini Sandesna Rajapaksa of Dedigama Primary School at Thuntota in Kegalle, Thejana Kawsith Wijekoon of Assedduma Subarathie Kanishta Vidyalaya in Kuliyapitiya, Mapa Mudiyanselage Nethmi Subodini of Ibbagamuwa Model Maha Vidyalaya,

Udayarajan Koshikan of R. K. M. Sri Koneshwara Hindu Vidyalaya in Trincomalee, Senith Dilwan Rajapaksa of Wickramashila Central College, Giriulla, Inesh Dulanjana Chandrasiri of St. Joseph Vaaz College, Wennappuwa, Lisandi Imethma Handapangoda of Royal College, Horana, Rehara Binoli Miskin of Bomiriya Munidasa Cumaratunga Kanishta Vidyalaya in Kaduwela and Umashankar Jayeni of Hindu Primary School, Jaffna scored identical 194 marks for the third place.

He said the pass mark in the Sinhala medium for Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Kandy, Matale, Kurunegala, Galle, Matara and Kegalle districts

was 159, for Ratnapura, Puttalam and Hambantota Districts 156 and Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Mullaitivu Districts 154.

The pass marks for other districts were: 153 for Badulla, 152 for Ampara and Moneragala Districts; 151 for Nuwara Eliya District; 150 for Trincomalee and Mannar Districts and 142 for Vavuniya District, Pushpakumara said.

The Examinations Chief said in the Tamil medium the pass mark of 153 was for Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Kandy, Matale, Kurunegala and Kegalle districts. The second highest pass mark for Tamil medium was 152 for Jaffna District and 151 for Vavuniya, Batticaloa, Ampara, Trincomalee, Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Badulla and Ratnapura District.

The pass marks for other districts in the Tamil medium are: 150 for Nuwara Eliya, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu Districts, 149 for Hambantota and Moneragala Districts.

Pushpakumara said applications for re-corrections could be submitted through school heads before November 04.

He said the Grade Five Scholarship examination 2016 results had been released on the Internet Tuesday night and posted the results to respective schools yesterday.

Pushpakumara said more than 350,740 candidates had sat the examination on August 21.

He said anyone can inquire regarding the results from the department hotline 1911 or on telephone numbers 0112784208, 0112784537, 0113188350 and 0113140314.

Restraining order on 'Usawiya Nihandai'

An interim injunction by the Colombo District Court has temporarily halted the screening of Prasanna Vithanage’s latest film, ‘Usaviya Nihadai’ (Silence in the Courts’).

The film opened at the Regal Cinema in Colombo on Tuesday (4).

Colombo District Judge N.U. Gunasekara made the order consequent to a lawsuit filed by former District Judge Lenin Rathnayake, seeking a permanent injunction to prevent the screening of the film.

In his lawsuit, former District Judge Lenin Rathnayake said the film, based on the story of a woman sexually abused by a District Judge, was causing damage to his character and the reputation of the entire judiciary.

He said the allegations against him were baseless, unproven and unfounded and that no legal action had been taken against him in this regard.

The former District Judge said he had also filed suit against a TV programme, for making similar allegations. 

The film was screened at several international film festivals, including the Ottawa Human Rights Festival, before screening in Sri Lanka.

The temporary injunction is effective until October 19.

MR rejects President’s claims on Nelum Pokuna

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today rejected the statement made by President Maithripala Sirisena in Polonnaruwa, that the foundation stone originally laid by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga to construct the Nelum Pokuna Theatre had been bulldozed.

Media Secretary to former President Rajapaksa said in a statement that even though Mr. Rajapaksa had constructed another memorial to initiate the construction work of the theatre, the memorial erected by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga was intact.

ISIS leader poisoned

The ISIS leader was poisoned along with three of his commanders after all four consumed spiked meals in the Be'aaj District, southwest of Mosul in Iraq, according to Iraqi news agency WAA.

Al-Baghdadi, who is often credited with creating ISIS, has been rushed to "an unknown location under strict measures" along with his henchmen. The jihadi group is said to have arrested several suspects who it believes are undermining the self-proclaimed caliphate.

Al-Baghdadi is a powerful figure in the group and has evaded capture despite a rigorous US campaign offering a staggering US$ 10 million reward for information leading...

...to his capture or death. Earlier this year, he was reported to have been killed by US airstrikes targeting Raqqa, where he was believed to be living with US hostage Kayla Mueller – a 26-year-old aid worker al-Baghdadi kept locked up in a dungeon as a sex slave.

But, the reports of the ultra-Jihadi's death were inaccurate and the hunt for the ISIS mastermind continued. Last week, footage emerged of the terrorist issuing a last-ditch appeal to jihadis worldwide insisting they remain loyal to the group despite its loss of territory in Iraq and Syria. Al-Baghdadi said: "Our Muslim community is passing through a difficult time in its journey.

"This period has seen a massive change to its journey going all the way back through the history of the Caliphate.

"The breaking of the Sykes/Picko borders has allowed jihadists to begin appearing across the Islamic world and inside their own countries.

"Because of this everyone will be, and is, against us. The Mujaheddin are still in the Caliphate today, and those that are connected to it are still fighting for the Muslim Revolution."

Al-Baghdadi's poisoning comes as a fresh blow to ISIS, which is preparing to fight US troops in a showdown battle in Syria, which the terrorists believe will trigger the apocalypse. Turkish troops, backed by the US, are currently circling the tiny town of Dabiq in preparation for what ISIS has dubbed the "major apocalyptic showdown with the infidel".

(Express.co.uk)

There is a plot to murder me

Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran has charged elements in the South of plotting his murder.

“I have been receiving information continuously that there are efforts being taken to kill me and to put the blame on the LTTE,” he said, in a message read out at a recent book launch.

The Chief Minister’s accusations come a week after he led the ‘Eluga Tamil’ rally in Jaffna. The demonstration highlighted Tamil people’s concerns over militarisation and alleged Sinhala colonisation in the North. Several thousand Tamils flocked to the rally that some compared to the LTTE-linked ‘Pongu Tamil’ rallies in 2002-04.

Days after, Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), protested in Vavuniya, asserting Sinhalese rights. In one photograph of the demonstration, shared on social media, a man held a poster with the message “Bin Ladan, Prabakaran now Vignashwaran. Last episode will be televised soon”.

CEO of the BBS Dilantha Withanage, however, denied that the threat came from them. “We were only one of the organisations that participated in the Vavuniya rally, but unfortunately whenever our leader Gnanasara Thera goes somewhere, the media distorts the news,” he told The Hindu.

Meanwhile, the two rallies – in Jaffna and Vavuniya – have sparked debate, as a section of Tamils and Sinhalese voice concern over the rekindling of extreme nationalism in the North and South – something they blame for the country’s ethnic strife.

The Hindu

Navy recovers LTTE destroyed Valampuri after 16 years

The wreckage of a Navy passenger ferry Valampuri, that had been sunk by a suicide LTTE boat in 1998, was located by the Navy in the seas off Point Pedro on Monday.

Following information received from a civilian diver, a team of  Navy divers located the wreckage at a depth of 15 metres, eight nautical miles north of Point Pedro.

‘Valampuri’ was destroyed in an LTTE suicide boat attack on February 23, 1998 when the vessel was returning from Trincomalee. Twenty Navy personal died in the attack. Attempts to search the vessel were not successful due to rough sea conditions and the security conditions that prevailed during the time. The wreck has been lying on the sea bed for years and one fifth of keel is buried under the sand.

It has also been covered completely with a distinct level of marine growth and also a fish breeding ground.

Musthapha, Wijesiri in heated Parliament argument

A heated argument broke out in Parliament today between Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Faiszer Musthapha and UNP MP Chaminda Wijesiri, over the question if the Local Government Minister was aware that an account belonging to the Provincial Council, had been take over for the personal use of the Chief Minister of the Uva Province.

Minister Musthapha, responding, said that information with regard to such an incident and account had not been revealed to him. He said that all accounts belonging tothe Uva Provincial Council complied with existing Financial Regulations and Provincial Council Regulations.

The Minister said further said that the question raised by the UNP MP is not even relevant to his ministry, since no illegal or improper transaction related to the Uva Provincial Council has been revealed.  

The question was raised by the UNP MP during the question-and-answer time.

Raising an additional question, the UNP MP asked if Minister Musthapha was attempting to safeguard the Uva Province Minister or take necessary measures to take him before the law. 

Responding to him, Minister Musthapha said the UNP MP had raised a defamatory question and that MPs should be more responsible and ask questions in a respectable manner without resorting to defamation.

The Minister went further to question the Speaker on if a MP has right to ask a question related to a private account maintained by a Minister at the Ministry.

He also said that UNP MP Wijesiri had previously raised a series of questions regarding alleged financial misappropriation by the Uva Provincial Council Chief Minister Chamara Sampath Dasanayake, and asked if the MP had a personal dispute with the Uva Province Chief Minister.

Public Enterprise Development Minister Kabir Hashim intervened at this point, saying MPs had the right to ask any questions they wanted to, in Parliament, and none of the Minister can ask them not to.

Public Administration Minister Ranjith Maddumabandara waded in, and asked the Minister to answer the questions raised by the MP, claiming that it was his right.

Chief Opposition Whip and JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said though the Minister claimed that MPs should ask questions in a respectable manner, questions related to a theft cannot be asked by respecting the person involved in that theft, because the thief is the thief and there are no other respectable words to define him. 

UPFA MP Dinesh Gunawardane said that a MP ask a question once it was included it in the order paper after receiving the approval of the Speaker. So a Minister has no right to refute a question approved by the Speaker.

UPFA MP Bandula Gunawardane also said that no body can breach the right of a MP.

UPFA MP Wimal Weerawansa said not only today when the MP raised the same question before, both Minister and the State Minister acted like this. They only questioned the MP without responding him. So I think this is like "Horage ammagen pena ahanawa" since the Minister is the who provided legal advice to the Chief Minister to maintain such an account. 

Speaker Karu Jayasooriya said that there is no wrong in asking questions in Parliament reminded that it is a privilege of the MPs and it is necessary to protect this right of MPs. 

US Green Card Lottery 2018 opens for Sri Lankans

The application period for the 2018 Diversity Visa Program (DV-2018) also known as Green Card Lottery offered by the US would be commenced tonight from 9.30 till November 7 same time, for the applicants from Sri Lanka and Maldives, the US Embassy in Colombo said today.

The programme would be open for online registration for free of charge and eligible applicants would be randomly selected at the first phase of the procedure.

“Once selected, the applicants would be called for an interview. Unless an applicant is called for an interview, there is no requirement to make a payment. For the interview, a fee of USD 330 would be charged,” Deputy Consular Officer of the Embassy David Wagner told a news conference.

He said the DV was offered for immigrants to become legal permanent residents (LPR) of the US. Commenting on the process of the lottery, he said the applicants who registered this year would be interviewed in 2017 and would receive Green Cards in 2018, if selected.

“This is a great opportunity to work and live in the US legally. Those who have successfully passed the GCE A/L examination, have a degree from an approved university or have two years of minimum work experience in certain occupations are eligible to apply. Any applicant, born in Sri Lanka or Maldives, should make sure that they have fulfilled all criteria prior to apply,” Wagner said.

He said applicants could go online to the Entrant Status Check page on www.dvlottery.state.gov May next year to see if they had been selected for the DV program.

Under the second phase, the applicants who were selected would be asked to submit additional information and would be notified when they are selected for an interview.

“The in-person interview would be held with a US Consular Officer, who will decide if the applicant is eligible to receive the visa,” he said and warned applicants to beware of scams, of persons or companies which claim to offers Green Card Visa.

Consular Wagner said applicants could only send in one application as multiple entries would result in disqualification and advised to keep with them the application confirmation number received after applying.

A total of 50,000 individual applications had been received from Sri Lanka for the lottery programme last year and about 200-400 applicants had been selected.

The Embassy requested applicants to reach US Embassy Colombo’s website at https://lk.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/diversity-visa/ to find out more about the program, including qualification requirements and detailed instructions on how to apply in Sinhala, Tamil, and English. They way to apply is online at www.dvlottery.state.gov  (Lahiru Pothmulla)