Private bus operators on 9 routes on strike

Private bus operators on nine routes including Gampaha-Colombo, Kadawatha-Fort, Nittambuwa-Colombo are currently on strike following a permit issue, President of Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association Gemunu Wijeratne said.

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Sexual assault in bus

 

A man who had allegedly sexually harassed a Japanese woman while she was travelling in a bus near Union Place, Colombo 2 was remanded till September 12 by the Colombo Fort Magistrate today.

The Japanese woman complaining to the Slave Island police, accused a person who stood beside her in the bus of touching her in an inappropriate manner.

She had further told police that she was a resident of Kammachi in Japan and arrived in Sri Lanka for a short holiday tour.

The suspect was produced before Magistrate Ms. Lanka Jayaratne, who ordered the suspect to be remanded till September 12.

The Slave Island police are conducting further investigations

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Sri Lanka to woo 2.5 million tourists by 2016

Sri Lanka on Monday set an ambitious target of attracting 2.5 million foreign holiday-makers in the next five years, as the island nation emerges from decades of war.

“We had 650,000 tourists last year, but this year we crossed the 500,000 mark in the first eight months alone,” tourism chief Nalaka Godahewa said. “We have set a target of attracting 2.5 million tourists by 2016.”

Sri Lanka Tourism, the main regulatory authority for the tourism sector, said it will streamline approvals and seek greater investments in hotels to double room capacity to 45,000 by 2016.

Godahewa said he expected arrivals to rise more rapidly with the increase in hotel rooms. Sri Lanka hopes to increase its tourism earnings to $2.75 billion by 2016, he added.

The government is also expecting a boom in domestic aviation to meet the increasing tourism demand.

The island banned domestic flying during the height of fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.

The guerrillas had used light aircraft to bomb military as well as civilian targets before they were crushed in an onslaught by security forces in May 2009.

The fighting seriously hurt the leisure sector with many hotels closing down.

However, hotel rates have more than doubled since the end of the separatist conflict and tourism is seen as a key sector contributing to an average eight percent annual economic growth since the end of the fighting.

Sri Lanka wants to push its beaches, tea-growing mountains, heritage sites and wildlife parks to woo high-spending foreign holiday-makers, AFP reports.

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Lankans stealing abandoned cars in Dubai

Six men — four Sri Lankans and two Syrians — have been accused of forming a gang that specialised in stealing cars that had been abandoned by their owners on the streets of Dubai for months.

Prosecutors said the six men would search for deserted cars that had Dubai Municipality warning notices on their windshields.

Then they would wash the cars before breaking the locks open, cutting new keys and driving off, reported Gulf News.

When the defendants appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday, they pleaded not guilty.

According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the suspects, aged between 23 and 46, stole a victim’s Toyota Previa car from the Al Qusais Area.

Prosecutors said the Sri Lankan defendants washed the car and waited for the Syrian suspects to break the lock and cut a new key. Then they gave the new key to one of the Sri Lankan suspects, 35-year-old N.H., who stole the car.

An Emirati police major told prosecutors that three of the Sri Lankan suspects had been arrested.

“They confessed that they worked for N.H. Police seized large amounts of liquor bottles hidden in the stolen Toyota,” he said.

The major told prosecutors that the three had confessed that N.H. would search for deserted cars with notices from Dubai Municipality on their windshields. The notices informed the car’s owners that the cars would be confiscated if they were not moved.

“Then they would clean the cars and wait for the Syrian suspects to open the cars and copy new keys. During questioning, the suspects confessed that they had [stolen] ten cars,” the major said.

According to records, one of the Syrian suspects would collect Dh800 for supplying new keys.

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President orders strict action against child rapists

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has instructed to take the strictest actions against the perpetrators involved in the raping of a 10-year-old girl at an examination center in Matara, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena told Parliament today.

Media revealed recently that an alleged air force deserter, two examination officers had sexually molested a 10-year-old school girl at Thelijjawila, Matara while the victim had visited the school with her mother for cleaning duties.

The examination officers had reportedly been consuming liquor at the time while engaging in G.C.E. A/L examination related duties.

Answering a question by UNP Parliamentarian Buddhika Pathirana, the Minister pointed out that the President dished out instructoions regarding action to be taken against the examination officers on a ministerial level and legal measures to be taken through court.

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Car lock – do it from the door control!!

 
How to Lock Your Car and Why ?

I locked my car. As I walked away I heard my car door unlock. I went back and locked my car again three times .. Each time, as soon as I started to walk away, I would hear it unlock again!! Naturally alarmed, I looked around and there were two guys sitting in a car in the fire lane next to the store. They were obviously watching me intently, and there was no doubt they were somehow involved in this very weird situation. I quickly chucked the errand I was on, jumped in my car and sped away. I went straight to the police station, told them what had happened, and found out I was part of a new, and very successful, scheme being used to gain entry into cars. Two weeks later, my friend’s son had a similar happening….

While traveling, my friend’s son stopped at a roadside rest to use the bathroom. When he came out to his car less than 4-5 minutes later, someone had gotten into his car and stolen his cell phone, laptop computer, GPS navigator, briefcase……you name it. He called the police and since there were no signs of his car being broken into, the police told him he had been a victim of the latest robbery tactic — there is a device that robbers are using now to clone your security code when you lock your doors on your car using your key-chain locking device..
They sit a distance away and watch for their next victim. They know you are going inside of the store, restaurant, or bathroom and that they now have a few minutes to steal and run. The police officer said to manually lock your car door-by hitting the lock button inside the car — that way if there is someone sitting in a parking lot watching for their next victim, it will not be you.
When you hit the lock button on your car upon exiting, it does not send the security code, but if you walk away and use the door lock on your key chain, it sends the code through the airwaves where it can be instantly stolen. This is very real.
Be wisely aware of what you just read and please pass this note on. Look how many times we all lock our doors with our remote just to be sure we remembered to lock them — and bingo, someone has our code…and whatever was in our car.
Snopes Approved –Please share with everyone you know!!
Note: The receiving device is known as a “Spectrum Analyzer” and the signal can be recorded and played back to unlock the car door. True!
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This was published as provided by Khushi Keswani.

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