"Hey Mom, Look! There's a Negro woman on TV – and she ain't cooking dinner!"

So exclaimed a young Whoopi Goldberg when she saw an unusual kind of TV show, which started airing on US network television in late 1966.

It featured a black woman ...
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2013-05-19 02:00:00 Hits: (41) Comments (0)

By Nalaka Gunawardena

Tuna Wars are hotting up in the Indian Ocean.

At stake are the jobs of tens of thousands of fishermen, and nutrition of hundreds of millions of people living in the Indian Ocean rim ...
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2013-05-12 07:05:00 Hits: (92) Comments (0)

May 3rd was World Press Freedom Day – a misnomer in this multimedia age, but nevertheless a cause worth celebrating and defending.

There are various indicators of media freedom including direct and indirect censorship, diversity of media ownership, and ...
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2013-05-05 12:01:00 Hits: (50) Comments (0)

One of my favourite cartoons on energy is one drawn years ago by Australian cartoonist Ron Tandberg. It shows two men standing on a bare land, looking down at the ground. One says to the other: “There must be a source of energy down ...
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2013-04-28 12:38:00 Hits: (74) Comments (0)

I enjoyed the mid-April traditional New Year holidays for a very practical (and selfish) reason.

When much of the country shuts down, traffic congestion on Colombo and suburban streets disappear, as do crowds in most public spaces. For a few days, we natives ...
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2013-04-21 12:17:00 Hits: (73) Comments (0)

By Nalaka Gunawardena

Last week’s column, on Sri Lanka’s climate change adaptation needs and priorities, elicited some predictable reactions.

Environmentalist friends, with whom I frequently disagree, faulted ...
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2013-04-14 05:31:00 Hits: (92) Comments (0)

As Sri Lanka sizzles in April heat, some ask: is this due to global warming?

Well, not exactly: high temperatures are typical for this time of the year. At the same time, meteorologists confirm that average temperatures in Sri Lanka have risen by almost one ...
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2013-04-07 12:13:00 Hits: (100) Comments (0)

Now it can be revealed. A highly advanced, but devious alien race has been sapping the island of Sri Lanka of its freshwater, and secretively dispatching it to their parched and dying planet.

Deepening the mystery, the aliens have either intimidated or ...
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2013-03-31 11:59:00 Hits: (122) Comments (0)

By Nalaka Gunawardene

When it comes to collectively and rationally managing our freshwater, many Lankans seem to suspend their good judgement. Any passing conspiracy theory, no matter how far-fetched or implausible, is uncritically ...
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2013-03-24 12:22:00 Hits: (78) Comments (0)

By Nalaka Gunawardene

“You lay crushed

Under twisted metal.

I held you, stunned

until someone in the crowd ...
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2013-03-17 11:10:00 Hits: (89) Comments (0)

Chairman of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha (PS), Prasanna Ranawaeera, who was assaulted yesterday (23) and had to be hospitalized, alleged he was attacked ...

Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) Parliamentarian, Athuraliye Rathana Thera said, yesterday the government must be compelled to change its stand on the 13th ...

Colombo Mayor, A.J.M. Muzammil, has informed Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Planning, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Friedrich Naumann ...

An army corporal has been remanded till 30 May by the Trincomalee Acting Magistrate, S. Thiruchenthilnathan, for misbehaving with a woman passenger who was ...

One lane along Olcott Mawatha, Colombo 11 has been closed due to the protest carried out by JVP in the Punchi Borella- Maradana area against the increased ...

The Nawagaththegama Police have discovered 14 locally manufactured trap guns in a house in the Nawagaththegama area, the Police Media Unit told Ceylon Today ...

A resident from the Ambilipitiya area has been arrested by the Special Police Unit of the Walana Police for the possession of dry cannabis weighing 367 Kg ...

Thirteen persons who were injured after the bus they were travelling in had veered off the road and toppled in the Udapussellawa area in Walimada at around ...

Nissan has said it plans to recall about 841,000 vehicles worldwide due to a faulty steering wheel.

There will be showers at several places in the Western, Southern, Sabaragamuwa and Central provinces.

Chairman of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha Prasanna Ranaweera has been admitted to the Kiribathgoda Hospital this morning, Hospital sources told Ceylon today ...

A French Naval Ship arrived at the Port of Colombo on a goodwill visit on Wednesday (22) with 56 naval personnel on board.

China Development Bank Corporation will lend US$580 million to Sri Lanka to help implement key infrastructure projects, a government document released on ...

Eighteen people have been arrested on suspicion of helping to smuggle Sri Lankan illegal immigrants into Britain in a series of dawn raids across Europe, ...