Latest News
M. M. C. P. Mohottigedara appointed to the Post of Director General of the Department of Information Technology Management
A committee has been appointed by the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to provide recommendations on appointment of an appropriate officer to the post of Director General of the Department of Information Technology Management since the post is vacant at present.
Based on the recommendations furnished by the said Committee, approval of the Cabinet of Ministers is granted to the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to appoint M. M. C. P. Mohottigedara, a Special Grade officer in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service currently serving as the Additional Director General (Human Resource Management, Institutional and Cabinet and Parliamentary Affairs) of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to the post of Director General of the Department of Information Technology Management with immediate effect.
An enormous whale graveyard around 1,200km (745 miles) long has been discovered in the south-eastern Indian Ocean.
The site, which is 7km (four miles) deep, has been found in the Diamantina fracture zone, a range on the sea floor of ridges and trenches.
But it is the age of the remains – some from 5.3 million years ago – that has prompted huge excitement in the scientific community.
The underwater necropolis, which was discovered by a team of researchers from China, Italy and New Zealand, is teeming with organisms and species that “may be new to science”, according to journal Nature.
One of the study’s authors Xiaotong Peng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said: “Discovering a necropolis of this scale was completely unexpected.
“The size of distribution, the depth and the age range were far beyond anything we had imagined.”
During 32 dives to the site, explorers collected samples from 485 whale-fossil sites and active whale falls, and found a treasure trove of remains, including one extinct whale’s skeleton.
The beaked Pterocetus benguelae, which is 5.3 million years old, was discovered to be one of the fossilised skulls in the graves.
A five-metre long Antarctic minke whale’s carcass was the largest discovery made.
A new species which the team has called Pterocetus diamantinae, after the site, was also uncovered.
Jellyfish, worms and crustaceans are among the community of creatures living off the huge spread of carcasses.
“Peng and colleagues’ encounter with a vast fossil graveyard is a truly unique discovery,” Stephen J Godfrey of the Calvert Marine Museum wrote in Nature.
“Although the site has limited accessibility, it seems likely to hold many other exciting finds, and it will no doubt inspire more submersible dives in similar environments.
“Peng and colleagues’ paper reminded me of a trailer for the first in a series of epic movies. I hope that there will be many more of these blockbusters to come.”
[BBC]
bb
President Donald Trump has said on Wednesday that the US will hit Iran “hard” , after the two sides exchanged strikes overnight.
“We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them hard again today,” he said, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office.
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on X following Trump’s briefing that Iran “will stand firm against any pressure or threat”.
US Central Command (Centcom) said on Wednesday night that forces had begun launching strikes at 17:15 Eastern Time (22:15 BST) against “multiple targets” in Iran.
It added in a post on X that the strikes were “in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression”.
The US also launched strikes on Iran on Tuesday after Trump said Iran had downed a US Army helicopter.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it responded with strikes on US bases in the region.
Trump reiterated a call for Iran to “sign a deal” during his briefing on Wednesday, while US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters later that day that bombs would be “dropping on key facilities in Iran”.
He added: “President Trump said we will be hitting Iran hard and we will be”.
Earlier on Wednesday Trump wrote on his social media account: “They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!”
He said Iran had been “completely defeated” militarily.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqai meanwhile accused the US of “damaging this diplomatic process through the contradictory messages it sends, its repeated shifts in positions and demands, and, worst of all, through repeated violations of the ceasefire”.
He said Iran needed to re-assess the situation, adding that any diplomatic process required a minimum of stability.
Separately on Wednesday, the US military said it had struck an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman that had “violated the ongoing blockade by attempting to transport oil from Iran”.
The Indian government said three Indian sailors were missing and 21 crew had been rescued after an attack on the Settebello off the coast of Oman.
The US is blockading Iranian ports after the key Strait of Hormuz shipping route was effectively closed by Iran in response to the US and Israeli attacks on Tehran in February. The Settebello is the eighth ship the US has fired on.
Tuesday’s US strikes on Iran targeted Iranian defence systems, ground control stations and radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz, Centcom said.
Iranian state media said US strikes had hit two reservoirs in the area, leaving thousands of people in the southern port town of Sirik without access to drinking water for 12 hours.
Iran’s IRGC said it had launched strikes on 21 targets at American bases in the region, one in Bahrain and the other in Jordan, while Kuwait’s army said it was also intercepting an attack.
Reuters cited a US official on Wednesday as saying nearly all of the Iranian missiles and drones launched at US bases in the Middle East in response were intercepted, with no reported casualties.
On Tuesday, Centcom described its strikes on Iran as “a proportional response” for the Apache helicopter downing on Monday.
Trump previously said on Truth Social that the helicopter had been “shot down” as it was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz. Fox News quoted Trump on Wednesday as saying that an Iranian drone had hit the helicopter without exploding as it flew “very low” .
The two crew members survived and were rescued by an American sea drone.
Iran’s semi-official Iranian Mehr News Agency reported that Iran had not claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft.
The war began on 28 February, after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran that killed the country’s supreme leader.
Iran responded by launching attacks on Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf. The fighting escalated quickly across the region, with Lebanon drawn into the conflict in March.
In April, the US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire that was initially meant to last for a period of two weeks.
Both sides have since exchanged intermittent fire, without returning to full-scale hostilities.
Meanwhile, the countries’ representatives have engaged in fraught negotiations, including a meeting in Pakistan, in an attempt to find a lasting solution to the conflict.
Trump said during his press briefing on Wednesday that the deal being offered to Iran “doesn’t give them a right to have a nuclear weapon, in fact it totally prohibits them from ever having a nuclear weapon”.
Separately on Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – the UN nuclear watchdog – approved a US-backed resolution telling Iran to provide details on its uranium stockpile and production facilities.
The Iran Mission to the UN in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, criticised the move, saying “the resolution hypocritically expresses support for a diplomatic solution, while the US simultaneously engages in further acts of aggression including against Iranian civilian infrastructure”.
Iran’s nuclear programme is central to negotiations between it and the US and Israel, who have both led Western opposition to the programme, claiming Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and denies it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
[BBC]
An Everest guide’s miraculous survival raises questions for tourism industry
Whale graveyard dating back five million years discovered
Trump says US will hit Iran ‘hard’ again today
Showers will occur at times in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and in Galle, Matara, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts
‘Investigations won’t be stopped due to protests’
267,138 Lankan children dropped out of school system between 2018 and 2024
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
Features6 days agoPower crept into the Sangha and is now tearing it apart
-
Features6 days agoKondachchi wind farm and battery storage project to boost energy security, says Power Ministry Secretary
-
News4 days agoWomen’s T20 World Cup 2026 warm-up: Chamari Athapaththu’s 94 helps Sri Lanka beat Pakistan
-
Features6 days agoSaudi Arabia sets new benchmark in Hajj management as 1.7 million pilgrims complete sacred journey
-
News5 days agoAsst. Manager, security officer arrested over Rs 30 mn snatch at Horana PB branch
-
Editorial3 days agoProbe Sallay’s complaint
-
News4 days agoLankan-Canadian inducted to Toronto Sports Hall of Fame
-
News1 day agoLocal firms move millions of dollars overseas for phantom imports: Govt.