Nishantha Wickremasinghe, Chairman SriLankan Talks to Maheen Senanayake of the Sunday Island during a candid interview on how he hopes to bring his brand of expertise to the national carrier.

I met him outside his office on the 22nd Floor on the East Tower at the World Trade Centre. From his handshake to his gait, here was a man who was very much a people’s person. Sans pretense, Nishantha Wickremasinghe generated warmth and made you feel at home.

I was circumspect and did not want to be taken off guard. However, it took him under a few minutes to penetrate my journalistic shield - his unmistakable signature being his ability to stay within the realms of his own understanding, avoidance of speculation and an innate ability to avoid being dragged into speculative debate.

The Obama administration on Monday has exempted Sri Lanka India and five other nations from U.S. economic sanctions after they significantly reduced their imports of Iranian oil.

Washington Post reports that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also granted waivers to Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Taiwan, meaning that banks and other financial institutions based there won’t be hit with penalties under U.S. law for a renewable 180-day period.

Gale force winds swept through Matara, Hambantota and Gampaha on Tuesday night and early yesterday morning causing severe damage to 88 buildings

Deputy Director of Media at the Disaster Management Centre, Sarath Lal Kumara told The Island that the affected buildings were partially damaged but one house in Ranna was completely destroyed.

It has been learnt that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has signed papers for the release of jailed former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka.
The papers are expected to be sent to the Ministry of Justice on Monday.

If I name him my three children could lose their father - Arun Thambimuttu

Political activist from Batticaloa, Arun Thambimuttu has been threatened, abused and called as a ‘traitor’ by pro-LTTE lobbyists in the UK after he spoke at the Frontline Club debate on Sri Lanka last week.

While BBC Hardtalk host Stephen Sackur chaired the debate, journalist, filmmaker and director of both Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields and Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished, Callum Macrae, spokesperson for Tamils Aginst Genocide (TAG), Jan Jananayagam, Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka researcher, Yolanda Foster and adviser to the President on Reconciliation Professor, Rajiv Wijesinha MP were amongst the speakers.

Reacting to Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) combining forces against the GoSL, Sri Lanka’s war time External Affairs Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama emphasized that none of those shedding crocodile tears for Tamil civilians caught in the cross-fire dared to pressure the LTTE over despicable use of human shields on the Vanni East front.

Those involved in the GTF, TGTE et al remained silent as long as they felt the LTTE could halt the multi-pronged army advance and launch a counter-offensive of its own, Bogollagama told The Sunday Island in a brief interview yesterday.