Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Leader Minister Udaya Gammanpila yesterday requested the Supreme Court to appoint a nine-Judge bench to hear the Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions on dissolution of parliament.

The new government will sign Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with other countries only after the adoption of a national trade policy, International Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardane said yesterday.

Two girls aged 9 and 11-years were killed last night following a wild elephant attack in Mapakada Wewa area, Mahiyanganaya, Police said.

A gang dressed in police uniform had stolen a 750-carat diamond brought down from South Africa valued at more than 7 billion rupees along with several other gemstones in the possession of a gem merchant in Maharagama.

The Kopay Police today requested the Jaffna Magistrate to issue an injunction order preventing the students of the Jaffna University from holding an LTTE ‘Mahaviru Samaruma’ protest.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said it had submitted names of two MPs to the Secretary General of Parliament as their representatives to the Parliament Select Committee. The two MPs are Vijitha Herath and Nalinda Jayatissa.

A party Leaders’ meeting would be held at the Parliamentary Complex at 9 am tomorrow to discuss about the Friday’s agenda and appointing members to the Parliament Select Committee (PSC), the Speaker's Office said.

The House will be unable to function any further if the Parliament Select Committee (PSC) is not appointed tomorrow, MP Dullas Alahapperuma said.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has submitted the names of MPs Dharmalingam Sithadthan and Mavai S. Senathirajah as its representatives to the Parliament Select Committee.

A total of Rs.122.3 million is owed to SriLankan by the Presidential Secretariat, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Commonwealth Games Committee for charted flights they have booked between 2006 and 2014, SriLankan Airlines Network Planning Manager Sumudu Upattisa informed the PCoI on Wednesday.

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has advised the MPs of his party not to make statements if unaware of proper facts on cases pending in the Supreme Court or any other judicial body.

Akurana Town in the Kandy district is flooded due to inclement weather condition, Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said today.

Former Sri Lanka cricket team skipper Sanath Jayasuriya has been accused of smuggling rotten betel nuts to India along with two other cricketers, according to a report in The Dainik Bhaskar.

Rejecting media reports that the government was unable to repay loans next year, the Finance Ministry said loans would be serviced and repaid during the 2019 financial year.

The prices of vehicles would increase next year by 10 to 15  percent, the Vehicle Importers Association said yesterday.

The Finance Ministry will grant a huge relief package to those in the agricultural sector tomorrow, MP Dullas Alahapperuma said in a news briefing at the Prime Minister’s office today.

The United States Senator Chris Van Hollen has written to President Maithripala Sirisena raising deep concerns about his decision to remove Sri Lanka's Prime Minister and the subsequent rejection of the two No-Confidence Motions (NCMs) in the Sri Lankan parliament on President's choice of replacement Mahinda Rajapaksa.

A total of Rs.122.3 million is owed to SriLankan by the Presidential Secretariat, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Commonwealth Games Committee for charted flights they have booked between 2006 and 2014, SriLankan Airlines Network Planning Manager Sumudu Upattisa informed the PCoI on Wednesday.

There would not be a crisis in servicing debt in the next year, a team of top Government officials briefed the Cabinet today  

UNP National Organizer Navin Dissanayake yesterday charged that false allegations were being made by the Government MPs against him saying he was unduly influencing Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to make certain decisions.

The UNP would talk to all Opposition parties and decide on a collective stance on holding elections though it was not the most important factor at the moment, UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.

The ruling SLFP yesterday charged that the Western powers were in a covert move to create unrest in Sri Lanka similar to that of Arab Spring they staged in the Middle East in 2015 and the current political and Constitutional Impasse was their agenda.

The public and VIP galleries in Parliament will be closed next Friday (23) as well, Sergeant at Arms Narendra Fernando said today.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) today said it is of the view that the decision by Moody's to downgrade Sri Lankan Government's foreign currency issuer and senior unsecured ratings from B1 (Negative) to B2 (Stable) does not properly reflect the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals, and therefore unwarranted.

The Sri Lankan driver, who languished in prison in the Maldives for three years accused of involvement in a plot to assassinate a Maldivian President had been acquitted by court lacking evidence, Provincial Councils & Local Government Faiszer Mustapha said today.

The government group today submitted names of seven of its MPs to the Secretary-General of Parliament as the nominees of the Parliament Select Committee.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said today they would bring in a resolution to dissolve Parliament and pave way for a general election soon after defeating the current political coup.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday it had delayed discussions on Sri Lanka’s next loan tranche due to the country’s political crisis.

Former Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council C.V. Wigneswaran maintained that the political party newly created by him was formed amidst various difficulties and the objective of the party is not to enter into an alliance with another party and play second fiddle to them.

The United National Front (UNP) and its allies have decided to hold a series of protests and a death fast against what it called an unconstitutional instate of a new government, UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said yesterday.

The National Police Commission (NPC) said yesterday it had not directed the IGP to cancel the transfer of the CID’s Organised Crimes Investigation Unit OIC, IP Nishantha Silva.

Moody's Investors Service today downgraded Sri Lankan Government's foreign currency issuer and senior unsecured ratings to B2 from B1 and changed the outlook to stable from negative.

The expenditure head of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot be blocked because the funds for the Prime Minister’s Office has already been approved in this year's Budget, Minister Bandula Gunawardane said today.

At least 40 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a meeting of top clerics in Kabul today, officials said, in one of the deadliest attacks to strike the Afghan capital in months. 

All payments of government from January 1,  2019, would be illegal as a result of the actions of the ‘Sirisena-Rajapaksa coup’, former Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said today.