Page 32 - Interdisciplinary Research News Today

During a special operation conducted in the northwestern and western waters of the island on Friday (07), the Navy seized 235 kg of Kerala cannabis being smuggled into the country from India. During a patrol in the seas off Kudiramalei Point in the northwestern seas, the Navy spotted an Indian fishing vessel in Sri Lankan waters across the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) with seven Indian nationals on board, the Navy said. Further search of the vessel led to the seizure of over 235 ...

By Shamindra Ferdinando A chance detection of a lorry transporting ethanol, on the Southern Expressway, over the weekend, revealed that an illicit distillery, situated in the Dankotuwa police area, was obtaining supplies from the Lanka Sugar Company Private Limited, Sevanagala. The demand for ethanol is extremely high since the government banned its import in January 2020. Ethanol is made by state sugar companies as well as private ones. Alcohol is produced by the fermentation of molasses which...

By Saman Indrajith The 2020 Central Bank annual report presented to Parliament last week is a testimony to the fact that the country’s economy is in dire straits, says the JVP. Addressing the media at the party headquarters in Pelawatte yesterday, JVP Politburo member and former MP Sunil Handunnetti alleged that the government was using the funds meant for the development of the country for its projects to cling on to power. “The Central Bank report confirms many warnings we have been issui...

By  Rathindra Kuruwita The government has stockpiled millions of PCR kits that are low in sensitivity and they may be incapable of identifying new variants that are spreading in Sri Lanka, President of the College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS,) Ravi Kumudesh says. Kumudesh said that out of the four variants , three had already spread in the country. However, there was still only one gene sequencing machine in the country to detect them, he said. “Our inability to identify variants tha...

By Sanath Nanayakkare The internationally accepted practice was to classify domestic debt and external debt based on the resident or non-resident status of the holder of such debt, Dr. Chandranath Amarasekara, the Director Economic Research at the Central Bank told  The Island yesterday. Dr. Amarasekera said so when he was asked to explain why the Central Bank had decided to reclassify US$ 2.2 billion worth of international sovereign bonds held by local entities as domestic debt. “We did no...

Miguel Angel Card Ayuso Guixot Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue has said that the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic would strengthen bonds of friendship and further unite people in service to the human family, adopting “a culture of dialogue as the path, mutual cooperation as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard.  The following is the text of the message issued by Miguel Angel Card Ayuso Guixot. MCCJ, President, to mark Vesak: On b...

By Shamindra Ferdinando The Influential Ontario Legislative Assembly has resolved that Sri Lanka subjected the Tamil community to genocide during the armed conflict. The Legislative Assembly voted in favour of Bill 104 (aka the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act),moved by Sri Lankan asylum seeker-turned Scarborough-Rouge Park member of Parliament Vijay Thanigasalam, at the third reading in the legislature, Canada and the UK-based sources told  The Island. The first reading took place on April ...

The High Commissioner noted that Gurudev Tagore was an incredible amalgamation of talents. The Indian High Commission said in a release that a special edition of ‘Sri Lanka Hindi Samachar’, the annual Hindi journal of Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre (SVCC), cultural arm of the High Commission, dedicated to Gurudev Tagore, was released by the High Commissioner on the occasion. This special edition comprises articles, essays, and art works of more than 70 scholars and students of Hindi from...

Senior MP W.D.J. Seneviratne was elected as the new President of the Sri Lanka-Indonesia Parliamentary Friendship Association recently at the revival meeting of the association for the ninth Parliament, communication division of Parliament said. The meeting was held under the patronage of Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Sri Lanka Gusti Ngurah Ardiyasa and Secretary General of Parliament Dhammika Dasanayake. At this meeting Member of Parliament Dr. Su...

Sunburn — The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics — 5.3.21 Good Monday morning. . The Seminole Tribe of Florida is out with a new 60-second ad, aiming to rally support for a new gaming Compact with the state. The ad drops around two weeks before a Special Legislative Session will convene to finalize that agreement. The new minute long-spot, titled “ The Seminole Story,” highlights existing economic benefits from the current gaming structure and argues the new compa...