There is a budget plan to introduce a new tax that every citizen will have to pay directly, reliable sources say.

Before leaving the country, former Central Bank governor Arjun Mahendran had reportedly gone to the Kollupitiya home of state minister Sujeewa Senasinghe, who is a member of COPE.

Deputy minister Ranjan Ramanayake has bought a television set from a duty free shop at Katunayake airport only to find that it has been one that had been on display at the shop.

The woman, who had been beaten with a coconut frond as punishment for alleged infidelity by the Jumma Mosque at Nallandaluwa in Puttalam, has gone missing.

The extension of retirement age for both state and private sector employees to 65 years is under consideration, says the government.

The CEB, not the consumers, will have to bear the two per cent nation building tax (NBT) on electricity charges, says director of the State Financial Policy Department A.K. Seneviratne.