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Matt Hancock rejected advice to Covid test all residents entering English care homes, an investigation based on a leaked trove of more than 100,000 WhatsApps alleges. The Telegraph claims chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty told the then health secretary in April 2020 there should be testing for 'all going into care homes'.

Representatives from the World Bank stated that the World Bank will continue to support Sri Lanka’s development reforms program.They stated that the World Bank will provide technical assistance in the drafting of laws for development policy operations, as well as work to provide additional guidance and support regarding the use of international media and welfare benefits.The delegation including the Vice President of the South Asian Region of World Bank, Martin Raiser, met President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Presidential Secretariat on Tuesday (28).The World Bank Development Policy Operational Program was fully investigated and the President and World Bank representatives commented on its progress.Improving financial supervision and credit management, improving tax administration, sovereign-financial sector linkages and reducing systemic risks; maintaining stability and confidence in the banking sector, restructuring and divestment, reducing policy uncertainty and increasing competitiveness in the economy, mobilizing private capital and competition in the broadband market, strengthening the social security institution, delivery system and targeting was discussed.Source: PMD

PHILADELPHIA - Mayor Jim Kenney and other city leaders announced the progress of their gun violence intervention program on Tuesday. City workers, law enforcement officials, and volunteers came up with a program that targets gang and group violence. The program, which launched in August 2020, is an evidence-based approach to gun violence.The program's creation is based on the premise that only about 0.5 of one percent of the city’s population may be linked to 60 to 70 percent of shootings and homicides.Program Director, Deion Sumpter, says they track social media activity and meet weekly with law enforcement and other partners to discuss those very individuals and how to approach them.

TOPSHOT - Iranian high school students sit for their university entrance examination in Tehran on June 25, 2009. Iran has jailed more than 140 political activists, journalists and university lecturers since the disputed election which returned Presid DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Over the past three months, hundreds of young girls attending different schools in Iran have become overpowered by what are believed to be noxious fumes wafting into their classrooms, with some ending up weakened on hospital beds.Officials in Iran's theocracy initially dismissed these incidents, but now describe them as intentional attacks involving some 30 schools identified in local media reports, with some speculating they could be aimed at trying to close schools for girls in this country of over 80 million people.The reported attacks come at a sensitive time for Iran, which already has faced months of protests after the September death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by the country's morality police.RELATED: Feds say Iranian-backed gang behind Brooklyn assassination attemptThe authorities have not named suspects, but the attacks have raised fears that other girls could be poisoned apparently just for seeking an education — something that's never been challenged before in the over 40 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

FILE- An elephant munches on hay while moving about inside her enclosure at the Chaffee Zoo in Fresno, California. (Craig Kohlruss/Fresno Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) FRESNO, Calif. - Mabu saunters across a grassy field and raises his long, gray trunk to wrangle food from a hole carved inside a large boulder, captivating the attention of a girl propped up on her father's shoulders.At this zoo in a central California farming community, the 32-year-old African elephant is key not only to drawing visitors but also to ensuring there are elephants for zoogoers to see in the years to come — a future some animal lovers want to avoid.Over the past year, the Fresno Chaffee Zoo has been pulled into a growing global debate over the future of elephants in zoos.

COLOMBO (News 1st); A 42-year-old man was shot dead in Kuligoda, Ambalangoda on Tuesday (28) morning. Police Spokesperson SSP Nihal Thalduwa told News 1st that the suspects who carried out the shooting had targeted the man who was traveling on a motorcycle.

A bullfrog is seen on the course during the second round of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club on May 27, 2022 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is encouraging people to help out the environment by hunting – and even eating – bullfrogs. "Since it's National Invasive Species Awareness Week, it's a good time to remind you that bullfrogs are invasive to Utah, so you can catch as many as you want," the agency said Thursday on Twitter, adding, "And bonus: they're tasty." According to Lee Kay, a public shooting range facilities and grounds supervisor at Utah DWR, bullfrogs are an invasive species and are voracious predators in Utah that will eat almost anything, including snakes, fish, toads and mice.Bullfrogs are typically green or gray-brown with brown spots and have easily identifiable circular eardrums — or tympanum — on either side of their heads, the agency explains. The largest of all North American frogs, bullfrogs can grow to a length of eight inches and can weigh up to 1.5 pounds. "So target the big ones — they have the most meat," Kay said in a 2019 blog post on the agency's website.

What are autoimmune diseases? The immune system is a network of cells and tissues throughout the body that work to defend you from viruses, bacteria and infections. However, those suffering from autoimmune diseases face problems with the body's immune system functioning. In such cases, the cells target the body’s own healthy tissues by mistake, signaling the body to attack them.

Justin Trudeau’s office, warning them that one of their candidates was part of a Chinese foreign interference network.According to sources, the candidate in question was Han Dong, then a former Ontario MPP whom Canada Security Intelligence Service started tracking in June of that year.National security officials also allege that Dong, now a sitting MP re-elected in 2021, is one of at least 11 Toronto-area riding candidates allegedly supported by Beijing in the 2019 contest. Sources say the service also believes Dong is a witting affiliate in China’s election interference networks.Three sources with knowledge of the investigation said Dong emerged as a successor to MP Geng Tan as the 2019 Liberal candidate in ways the service found suspicious.

, issued a  in response to two Tennessee bills that target the LGBTQ+ community: “Drag is not a crime. Gender-affirming health care for all, including our youth, is a necessity,” Williams weighed in, as state legislatures across the country consider bans and restrictions on both., on February 23, Tennessee lawmakers sent two bills to Governor Bill Lee’s desk to be signed into law: one written to target drag performances in public spaces—the first drag ban in the nation to pass a state legislature, Migdon noted—and another to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth.

Bullet holes are seen in the window of Tops Friendly Market at Jefferson Avenue and Riley Street, as federal investigators work the scene of a mass shooting on Monday, May 16, 2022, in Buffalo, NY. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images WASHINGTON - The number of U.S.

Keith Melvin Moses, 19, has been named as the suspect in multiple shootings in Orange County's Pine Hills neighborhood, Feb. 22, 2023. [Orange County Sheriff's Office] ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - A 19-year-old man is expected to face murder charges in the shooting deaths of an Orlando TV journalist, a 9-year-old girl, and a woman in a series of shootings Wednesday in Pine Hills, Florida that also injured a second journalist, and the girl's mother.The Orange County Sheriff's Office said a 20-year-old woman was shot and killed early Wednesday.

NORTH PHILADELPHIA - Police are investigating a shooting near Temple’s campus that occurred just blocks from where a Temple University police officer was killed in the line of duty Saturday night.Officers responded to reports shooting near 19th Street and Montgomery Avenue, in North Philadelphia, around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.Police say a 17-year-old boy was shot four times in the leg and a 13-year-old girl was shot once in the right forearm. Both victims were rushed to Temple University Hospital.

Club Q and the memorial for the victims of the shooting photographed in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Tuesday, November 29, 2022. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - It is no mystery who shot and killed five people at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs last year, but what motivated that person to target a venue that had long been a sanctuary for the LGBTQ community in the mostly conservative city remains unknown.That could change during a hearing that started Wednesday in a courtroom packed with victims and their relatives.

Kate McKenna starts her days much like the other parents on her street. She drives her kids to school and returns to her bungalow on a cul-de-sac south of Vancouver.

SEATTLE - The Seattle City Council has added caste to the city’s anti-discrimination laws, becoming the first U.S. city to specifically ban caste discrimination.Calls to outlaw discrimination based on caste, a division of people based on birth or descent, have grown louder among South Asian diaspora communities in the United States.

FILE IMAGE - Vehicles fill the parking lot of a Home Depot store in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) ATLANTA - Home Depot said Tuesday it’s investing $1 billion in wage increases for its U.S. and Canadian hourly workers.The Atlanta-based home improvement chain said every hourly employee will get a raise starting this month.

It was 5.30 a.m. on a cold winter’s morning at Antonov Airport, when Vitalii Rudenko, a commander of the Ukrainian airfield’s national guard base, awoke to a phone call.

People walk past a television showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on February 18, 2023. - North Korea fired a suspected long-range ballistic missile on February 18, South Korea's mi SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea on Saturday fired a long-range missile from its capital into the sea off Japan, according to its neighbors, a day after it threatened to take strong measures against South Korea and the U.S.

ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA, USA - JUNE 1: Mickey Mouse and friends take part in a cavalcade parade on Main Street USA at the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World in Orange County, Florida on June 1, 2022. Walt Disney World is celebrating its 50th anni Disney employees are pushing back on the company's announcement that it will be returning to four days a week of in-person work.More than 2,300 workers have signed a petition addressed to CEO Bob Iger urging the executive to abandon the planned return to offices, claiming it is "likely to have unintended consequences that cause long-term harm to the company."FLORIDA BILL REVOKING DISNEY'S SELF-GOVERNING STATUS HEADS TO DESANTIS' DESK"This policy will slow, or even reverse, our post-COVID recovery and growth by creating critical resource shortages and causing irreplaceable institutional knowledge loss," the employee petition reads.Iger’s original email announcing the return to pre-pandemic workspaces, obtained by FOX Business, informed Disney employees of the policy change going into effect March 1. DISNEY TO SLASH 7,000 JOBSAt that time, those "currently working in a hybrid fashion will be asked to spend four days a week on-site, targeting Monday through Thursday as in-person workdays," according to the email.He pointed to the "tremendous value in being together with the people you work with" as he explained his reasoning for the change, noting he has been holding meetings with various teams across Disney since returning to the company."As you’ve heard me say many times, creativity is the heart and soul of who we are and what we do at Disney," Iger said in the email.

Sailors assigned to Assault Craft Unit 4 prepare material recovered in the Atlantic Ocean from a balloon for transport to federal agents at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek Feb. 10, 2023. (Ryan Seelbach/U.S.

TREDYFFRIN TOWNSHIP, Pa. - Police say a man conned women into handing over their phones then helped himself to their personal information and photos.Police say this happened at a Target near the King of Prussia Mall.Officials say it all began when 32-year-old Justin Wilson, of Clifton Heights, tricked a woman into giving him her cell phone, after striking up a conversation."By her description, it was a little flirtatious and he eventually asked if he could join her social media sites," Lt. Tyler Moyer, with the Tredyffrin Township Police Department, explained.The woman agreed and that’s when police say he asked for her phone and then proceeded to text himself pictures and videos of the woman.Police say when the woman got her phone back and realized what happened, she confronted Wilson, who immediately made a b-line for the door, and left the store."We obviously had his cell phone number and our detectives tracked him down," Lt.

JUNIATA PARK - All those Kia and Hyundai car thefts being reported for months have gotten so out of hand, the car companies are installing software updates.Home surveillance video shows a person busting out some dance moves. But, Kelly McDade says he’s part of the ploy in stealing her red Kia.After about a minute, he walks over to McDade’s car, then the lights turn on as he runs off."Just like dancing and then he apparently breaks the back of our car window," McDade explained.

ATLANTA - The Fulton County special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies illegally tried to overturn his electoral defeat in Georgia says they found that there was "no widespread fraud" in the state's 2020 presidential election.The report’s introduction and conclusion, along with a section in which the grand jurors expressed concerns that some witnesses may have lied under oath, were released Thursday. But any recommendations on potential criminal charges will remain under wraps for now.For nearly eight months, the grand jury has considered evidence and heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, including high-profile Trump associates and top state officials. While the special grand jury, by law, cannot indict anyone, the jurors voted to have their findings made public.In the introduction, the special grand jury states that they received evidence or heard from 75 witnesses during the investigation.

Over a six-week period, as part of the ‘Out of Pocket’ series, Global News is examining how inflation is impacting Canadians from coast to coast.

READ MORE: Woman found guilty of murder after staging 2017 murder-suicide scene in Fairfax CountyThe inhabitants of the home called 911, prompting Ohse and Poindexter to flee and begin a high-speed chase with local authorities that neared 120 mph at times.Ohse and Poindexter, prosecutors said, were eventually apprehended with a pound of marijuana in their vehicle. According to prosecutors, Ohse had a previous romantic relationship with her target that ended over a year ago.On Feb.

Sierra Leone, a smallish coastal nation of 7 million in the West African tropics interlaced by savannah and forest and grassland, was well on its recovery path from a hard bout with Ebola from 2014-2016 when the Covid-19 pandemic arrived.  

BEIJING - China said Wednesday it will take measures against U.S. entities related to the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the American East Coast.At a daily briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gave no details and did not identify the targets of the measures.China says the balloon was a unmanned weather airship that was accidentally blown off course and accuses the U.S.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (Edwin J. Torres/Governor's Office)PHILADELPHIA - Democratic Gov.

Anthony McRae, 43, is captured on surveillance video just moments after the shooting on campus at Michigan State University. EAST LANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - Gunfire erupted inside the halls of two Michigan State University buildings on Monday.

sex-specific differences in a type of immune cell called regulatory T cells, or "Treg cells," and in the production of proteins called antibodies. The "humeral response," the production of antibodies, is dysregulated in Covid-19. Treg cells were suspected to be responsible for this, as their role in the immune system is to regulate other immune cells and suppress their activities to control the strength of the immune response.

NEW DELHI : Protecting the health of the Earth is our highest duty, said Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.  Addressing the inaugural session of the 1st Agriculture Deputies Meeting (ADM) of Agriculture Working Group (AWG) under India’s G20 presidency, the minister said that the reckless use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to increase production has badly affected the health of the Earth and the quality of the soil. “This has also had a bad effect on human health."  Chouhan added that it is necessary to adopt the campaign of Natural Farming started by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  “India has believed for centuries that nature should not be exploited, we should only harness natural resources.

Galentine's Day cards are displayed at a Target store in Falls Church, Virginia, on Feb. 9, 2019.

the nation's top infectious disease expert who became a household name — and the subject of partisan attacks — during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced this summer his retirement from the federal government. On Tuesday, he appeared at the White House podium to give likely his final message to Americans. His words came familiar and consistent messaging — get your COVID shot. The particular COVID shot that Fauci is referring to this time is a tweaked version of the vaccine, the second booster shot known as the bivalent booster.The first look at the new shots' real-world effectiveness shows they work, he explained."So my message, and what may be my final message from this podium," he added with his signature smile, "please, for your own safety, get your updated COVID-19 shot."The COVID-19 pandemic introduced Fauci to millions of Americans, though he's given straight talk to the nation about numerous other outbreaks including HIV/AIDS, SARS, pandemic flu, Ebola and the 2001 anthrax attacks.He directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and also leads a lab studying the immune system.In announcing his departure, the 81-year-old Fauci called his roles "the honor of a lifetime" but said it was time "to pursue the next chapter of my career."Dr.

HIP-HOP legend Trugoy the Dove who cofounded trio De La Soul has passed away after suffering from congestive heart failure. Dave Jolicoeur's death was confirmed by the group's publicist on Sunday. He was just 54.

  A statement noted that the Paris Club members held a meeting on January 25, 2023, in the presence of representatives from Hungary, Saudi Arabia, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and India, as well as from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to provide financing assurances to support the approval by the IMF Executive Board of the envisaged IMF program for Sri Lanka, which would allow to restore the country’s macroeconomic stability.They examined the macroeconomic and financial situation of Sri Lanka, including its long-term debt sustainability, and the need for a debt treatment by all bilateral creditors to both fill the financing gap and to ensure Sri Lanka’s debt sustainability in line with the proposed Extended Fund Facility."We acknowledge that the Sri Lankan authorities had the opportunity to present Sri Lanka’s economic and financial situation to their creditors, which underscored the need for debt treatment from all creditors.

We must ensure that those targets are met. Therefore, the Government of Sri Lanka instructed the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Environment to sound out other developing countries with whom they spoke last time on how a joint action plan could be made. Perhaps, a meeting of the heads of government, of the concerned countries could be convened in the UAE, prior to the next conference.That is the only way that we can achieve results and we must go hard on it as there is no halfway house.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – The Ad Hoc Group of Sri Lanka Bondholders (the "Bondholder Group") in a letter to the IMF Managing Director has confirmed it is prepared to engage, through its Steering Committee, with the Sri Lankan authorities in restructuring negotiations consistent with the parameters of an IMF Programme and the targets specified therein (the "IMF Programme Targets").The Ad Hoc Group of Sri Lanka Bondholders (the "Bondholder Group") has acknowledges the Sri Lankan authorities' engagement with their official creditors towards a resolution of the current crisis and restoration of debt sustainability.The Bondholder Group further acknowledged that such engagement has recently resulted in the Government of India (in its letter to the IMF, dated January 16, 2023 (the "India Letter")) delivering letters of financing assurances, committing to support Sri Lanka and contribute to its efforts to restore debt sustainability by providing debt relief and financing consistent with the IMF Extended Fund Facility Arrangement (the "IMF Programme") and the IMF Programme targets indicated in the India Letter.Similarly, the Bondholder Group through its Steering Committee stands ready to engage quickly and effectively with the Sri Lankan authorities to design and implement restructuring terms that would help Sri Lanka restore debt sustainability and allow the country to re-gain access to the international capital markets during the IMF Programme period.The Bondholder Group understands that the IMF Programme's debt sustainability targets are identified as (i) reducing the ratio of public debt to GDP to 95% by 2032,  (ii) limiting the central government's annual gross financing needs to GDP ratio to 13% in the period between 2027 and

COLOMBO (News 1st) – The International Federation for Human Rights in a new report detailing the relentless repression of a peaceful protest movement noted that the Sri Lankan authorities systematically violated international human rights law and standards with complete impunity in their crackdown on the Aragalaya.The protest movement, called aragalaya [“struggle” in Sinhala], was triggered by the government’s protracted economic mismanagement and the growing public discontent over corruption and nepotism. The protests, which initially started in the country’s capital, Colombo, quickly spread across all nine provinces of Sri Lanka.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Sri Lanka's Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe is hopeful that assurances from creditors can be obtained within the 1st quarter of the year.Speaking at the Monetary Policy Review No. 01 of 2023, the governor said that he is hopeful that the International Monetary Fund would be able to receive necessary financing assurances from all the creditors in a very short period."India has clearly given the financial assurances which are acceptable to the International Monetary Fund.

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. health officials want to make COVID-19 vaccinations more like the annual flu shot.The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed a simplified approach for future vaccination efforts, allowing most adults and children to get a once-a-year shot to protect against the mutating virus.This means Americans would no longer have to keep track of how many shots they’ve received or how many months it’s been since their last booster.The proposal comes as boosters have become a hard sell.

clinician, has long been a powerful tool “for unpacking and making sense of our thoughts and feelings,” says , a licensed marriage and family therapist in New York. Sometimes it can feel like the latest in mental health treatment is overwhelmingly tech-heavy or experimental—hello, and and post-traumatic stress disorder—but the recent rise in interest surrounding writing therapy feels refreshingly grounded and old school. “There are numerous studies linking journaling about our thoughts and feelings to a decrease in symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress,” says , a licensed marriage and family therapist in California.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Sri Lanka Police said the target of Wednesday (18) afternoon shooting down 6th Lane in Kotahena was a relative of wanter underworld gangster 'Kimbula Ele Guna'.Two armed on a motorcycle fired several shots at a person inside a car that was parked down 6th Lane in Kotahena at around 1:30 on Wednesday (18) afternoon.CCTV cameras captured the incident, and the car fleeing the hail of bullets.A 30-year-old man identified as Raveendran Deepan, a resident of Jinananda Mawatha Kotahena, was injured in the shooting.The man who is also known as Dileepan is a relative of wanted underworld gangster Sinniah Gunasekara commonly known as Kimbula Ele Guna.Sinniah Gunasekara commonly known as Kimbula Ele Guna is currently detained by the Indian National Intelligence Agency in Tamil Nadu.Kimbula Ele Guna's relative who was injured in the shooting in Kotahena was admitted to the Colombo National Hospital for treatment.Thereafter, according to a spokesperson from the National Hospital, Dileepan's relatives had beaten up a man who made inquiries about the injured man.This man too was admitted to the Colombo National Hospital accident ward for treatment.An individual identified as Sajith Ranga aka Mabima Ranga was killed when two men on a motorcycle opened fire at him close to the Kalu Palama in Peliyagoda on Tuesday (17) morningOn the 15th of January, a 36-year-old man was gunned down by motorcycle gunmen in the Kumbuka area located along the Piliyandala – Horana Road.On the 11th of January, a similar homicide was reported from Panamura.On the 31st of May 2022, two men were targetted by motorcycle gunmen in Fort, Colombo and since then over 50 people have been gunned down in Sri Lanka.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Sri Lanka Police arrested two men for aiding and abetting in the murder of a man in Bastian Mawatha, Colombo and injuring another.Sri Lanka Police said that it received information about the motorcycle that was used by the gunmen in last year's shooting, and visited Piliyandala to conduct a raid where officers arrested a suspect in possession of the motorcycle.Following the interrogation of the suspect, police officers arrested another suspect from Mattakuliya for handing over the motorcycle to the suspect from Piliyandala.On the 30th of May 2022, One person was killed and another was injured in a shooting near the Private Bus Terminal at Bastian Mawatha, Colombo.Police investigations revealed that the man who was gunned had attended a court hearing at the Hultsdorf Court with three others before he was targeted by two masked gunmen.According to Police, four men had exited the court and one of them had left on a motorcycle. Thereafter, two men on a motorcycle approached the three men at the Bus Terminal and opened fire using a T-56 Assault Rifle.Investigations revealed that the three men were previously employed as security officers attached to a restaurant in Cinnamon Gardens, and a case was filed against them following an incident said to have taken place at the restaurant.Police officers also uncovered that the men were supposed to pay a certain sum to the court over the incident.An eye-witness told News 1st that the shooters fired several rounds in broad daylight when hundreds were moving in and out of the Bastian Mawatha Private Bus Terminal.News 1st inquiries revealed that the three men who were targeted had once served in the Commando Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army, and after leaving service

COLOMBO (News 1st) – The Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar rejected the request for bail made on behalf of 25 suspects, including Naufer Maulavi, who are charged under 13,270 counts in relation to the 2019 Easter Sunday Terror Attacks.Issuing the order on Thursday (5), the court observed that it was not wise to grant bail to these suspects.The case was called up in the presence of Justices Damith Thotawatte, Amal Ranarajah, and Navaratne Marasinghe.Further examination of this case will take place on the 1st of February 2023.The string of attacks carried out on Easter Sunday on April 21, 2019, targeted three churches and three five-star hotels, killing a total of 267 people, including at least 45 foreign nationals.The attacks also injured about 500 people.

The Sri Lanka Air Force No 10 Fighter Squadron or the Kfir Squadron marked 27 years on Thursday (5).It was founded on 5th January 1996 with the induction of six new graceful tailless delta Kfir C2s based at SLAF Katunayake under the command of Squadron Leader Priyantha Gunasinghe. The Squadron was reinforced in the year 2000 with the arrival of another nine Kfir C2s and C7s enhancing the fleet up to fifteen fighters. The Kfir was developed by Israel as a multirole all weather day night fighter, which satisfied almost all the fighter capabilities of SLAF’s through Battlefield Air Strike, Air Interception, Air Interdiction, Maritime Air strikes with precision and deadly force.  At the outset, the No 10 Fighter Squadron was strengthened with four pilots, four engineering officers and seventy technicians, who were trained by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and instructor pilots from Israel Air Force. The present Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana was first Officer Commanding Operations and succeeded as the second Commanding Officer from 7th of June 2000.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced the official launch of a planned 5-year project in Sri Lanka and Maldives to reduce environmental plastics by decreasing industrial use of plastic and improving integrated solid waste management practices in Sri Lanka and Maldives.The project’s consortium, led by Research Triangle International (RTI) works alongside local partners to target system inefficiencies and areas of reliance on virgin plastics. The project’s overall goal is to increase participation in solid waste management and reduction programs, preventing thousands of tons of plastic from leaking into the environment.“USAID is proud to partner with the governments of Sri Lanka and Maldives, the private sector, civil society, and communities to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic products, which threaten the health and environment of the Sri Lankan and Maldivian people” stated Gabe Grau, the USAID/Sri Lanka and Maldives Mission Director.  “Combatting plastic pollution will reduce threats to marine ecosystems and livelihoods, food security, and ultimately, human health.”Ocean plastic pollution threatens the world’s delicate marine ecosystems, the fishing and tourism sectors, food security, and human health.

Colombo (News 1st): 75 people have been arrested in a special operation in schools in the Western Province, over the sale of drugs and narcotic pills targeting school children.They were arrested during operations carried out between noon and 3pm on Friday (16), in 122 schools in the Western Province.Police seized 2 kilograms and 148 grams of the narcotic known as 'Mawa', 9 grams and 375 milligrams of heroin, 1 gram and 522 milligrams of the narcotic known as 'ICE' and 10 narcotic pills.The operation is ongoing on the advice of Senior DIG in charge of the Western Province Deshabandu Tennakoon.