Category: Local News

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has left for the USA to attend the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Johns Hopkins scientist of Sri Lankan origin, Ashani Weeraratna, PhD, a leading cancer researcher who specializes in melanoma and the effects of aging on cancer, has been appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board of the U.S.

Sri Lanka Navy seized another foreign fishing vessel, carrying a large consignment of heroin, with nine foreign suspects in international waters.

Sri Lanka received another shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from China containing 04 million Sinopharm doses today (Sep. 18).

121 COVID-19 deaths were confirmed for September 16, increasing the death toll to 11,938.

Parliamentarian Rishad Bathiudeen has been further remanded until October 01 in connection with the death of a teenage domestic worker who was serving at his residence.

The ongoing island-wide quarantine curfew orders will stay in effect until 4.00 a.m. on October 01 (Friday), the President’s Spokesman said.

Inmates in prisons should break the bones of State Ministers if they storm into prisons and harass them by keeping pistols on their heads, an SJB MP said yesterday.

The Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) has urged the government to extend the current lockdown until the beginning of next month.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya Parliamentarian Patali Champika Ranawaka says the government must take action to reopen schools prioritising Ordinary and Advanced Level students.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) says it is “deeply disturbed” at the reports of the alleged criminal conduct on the part of former State Minister of Prisons Management and Prisoners’ Rehabilitation Affairs Lohan Ratwatte.

118 COVID-19 deaths were confirmed for September 15, increasing the death toll to 11,817.

A delegation of the European Union is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka on September 27, the Foreign Secretary Admiral (Prof.) Jayanath Colombage said.

Paddy Marketing Board Chairman, Dr. J.D. Mannapperuma, tendered his resignation yesterday (15), saying he was “inconvenienced” the way the board has been functioning lately, with no policy in paddy and rice pricing. He said he “cannot function” the way he had been working earlier in such a backdrop.

Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila says that Sri Lanka has enough petroleum resources in Mannar to sort out the country’s USD 47 billion debt many times over.

New data from Moderna Inc’s (MRNA.O) large COVID-19 vaccine trial shows that the protection it offers wanes over time, supporting the case for booster doses, the company said in a news release on Wednesday.