The National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) has issued landslide early warnings to the districts of Gampaha, Kalutara and Ratnapura valid untill 0300 hrs on 23rd May 2026.

Accordingly,

Level II landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Attanagalla in the Gampaha district and Ratnapura and Kuruvita in the Ratnapura district.

Level I landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Bulathsinghala in the Kalutara district and Eheliyagoda in the Ratnapura district.

WEATHER FORECAST FOR 22 MAY 2026
Issued at 05.30 a.m. on 22 May 2026 by the Department of Meteorology

The South-West monsoon is gradually getting established over the island and the current rainy conditions over the south-western parts of the island are expected to continue further for the next few hours.

Showers or thundershowers will occur at times in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and in Galle, Matara, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts. Very heavy showers above 200 mm are likely at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces. Heavy showers  above 100 mm are likely at some places in Galle, Matara, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts. Several spells of showers will occur in the Northern province and in Anuradhapura district while showers or thundershowers may occur at a few places in the Uva province and in Ampara and Batticaloa districts after 2.00 pm.

Fairly strong winds about (35-45) kmph can be expected at times over the Western slopes of the central hills, the Northern, North-central, North-western and Southern provinces and in Trincomalee district.

The general public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damage caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers

A French appeals court has found Airbus and Air France guilty of manslaughter in 2009 Rio de Janeiro – Paris crash that killed 228 people – the worst aviation disaster in the country’s history.

The Paris Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that both companies were “solely and entirely responsible for the crash of flight AF447”, and ordered a payment of 225,000 euros ($261,720) for each passenger, the maximum fine possible for corporate manslaughter.

Although the penalties are largely symbolic, they capped an eight-week trial that victims’ families saw as a last chance to find justice two years after a lower court acquited Airbus and Air France.

Both companies have repeatedly denied all charges.

Following the ruling, Airbus said it would appeal to France’s highest court, saying the latest finding contradicted submissions from prosecutors and the 2023 acquittal.

Prosecutors previously warned that an appeal was likely and denounced the companies’ behaviour throughout the decade-plus legal process.

“Nothing has come of it – not a single word of sincere comfort,” said prosecutor Rodolphe Juy-Birmann as the trial was under way last November. “One word sums up this whole circus: indecency.”

The crash unfolded on June 1, 2009, when flight AF447 disappeared from radar screens as it headed from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to the French capital Paris with 216 passengers and 12 crew.

Two years passed before a deep-sea search uncovered the plane’s black boxes, which record flight data.

Investigators found the pilots had pushed the jet into a climb as it struggled with sensors blocked with ice during a mid-Atlantic storm. The plane stalled and crashed into the ocean.

While Airbus and Air France have blamed pilot error, the lawyers for passengers’ families argued that both companies knew that there was a problem with the plane’s pitot tubes, which measure flight speed.

Pilots were not trained to deal with such an emergency as the tubes malfunctioned, prosecutors said, triggering alarms in the cockpit and turning off the plane’s autopilot function.

Air France lawyer Pascal Weil said in October that the company “had the means to conduct high-altitude training, but we did not do so because we sincerely believed it was unnecessary”.

[Aljazeera]