Use locally manufactured soya oil ; Bandula Gunawardane
Instead of depending on imports public should use and promote locally manufactured soya oil for cooking in Sri lanka; Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardane He suggested this alternative as promoting coconut oil production will result in the price increasing in coconut available for day today consumption as coconut oil is the most commonly used cooking oil variety in Sri Lanka. “If we increase coconut oil production, we will have to use more and more nuts for it. Then, coconut prices will increase. Therefore, we should promote soya oil as a cooking oil variety. It can be manufactured successfully here,” he said. (daily mirror)
Colombo Fashion Week 2021; UNFPA partners
HSBC Colombo Fashion Week (CFW) 2021 started on March 25 at the Shangri-La hotel Colombo. Colombo And it is scheduled to be held on 25, 26 and 27 March. Day 2 was held at the Shangri-La Hotel yesterday, with the final day set for today. It is featuring 11 designers and their creations this year and UNFPA recently partnered with HSBC Colombo Fashion Week Summer in 2021. UNFPA advocates for a world free of violence against women and girls and they had found in a survey in 2019 found that one in four women have experienced physical or sexual violence since age 15 in Sri Lanka.
240 million worth dishonored checks to be recovered expeditiously; IRD
The Inland Revenue Department had received 6878 dishonorable checks worth 240 million rupees last year according to the reports till 31 December 2020. This was revealed at Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) at parliment today. The committee stated that Inland Revenue Department had instructed to take appropriate action immediately to recover the relevant amount expeditiously. Also, it is revealed about a case filed at the Colombo Magistrate’s court about recovering 2670 million worth arrears of tax in the casino business.
Sachin Tendulkar tested positive with COVID 19
Former Indian cricketer released a social media statement that he had diagnosed with COVID 19 today (March 27) He further added that his symptoms are mild while none of his family members were infected and also he noted that he has gone in to isolation. He captained the indian legends team Road Safety World Series tournament where they met the Sri lankan legends team in March 2021.
Rs 490 million has spent over Elephant – Human conflict ; COPA
Government has spent 490 million rupees to prevent conflicts between human and elephants during the time period of 2019 – 2020. This was revealed in a meeting at committee on public accounts (COPA) The committee also explained how the conflict was yet not resolved even after spending that amount of money as 28 human deaths and 83 elephant deaths were reported this year. Government spend 275447639 rupees for the construction of electric fence in 2019 and 221505818 rupees in 2020. The electric fence has constructed to 4756 km using this budget.
Min Aung Hlaing vows to safeguard the democracy in the country ; Coup leader of Myanmar
Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing has promised to safeguard democracy while speaking on national Tv yesterday (March 26) for the Armed Forces day. Also he has promised to conduct a election but haven’t mentioned a date yet. He further noted that Russia as a true friend as two countries develop defence ties in recent years. But the state TV later states in a diffetrent broadcast, that protesters could have a risk of being shot in the head and back as the regime warned anti-coup protesters against taking to the streets. More than 320 people have been shot dead in the protests since February 1st. .
Thierry Henry stand up to online abuse; quits social media
Former France international foot ball player Thierry Henry convey about his decision to step away from the social media . And also he hopes his actions will inspire people to stand against the racists abuse and bullying using social media. He made this statement yesterday saying that he would quitting the social media untill the social media companies take action to manage the actions of their users. His decision inspired by the recent controversy of online racist abuse targeting Black foot ball players. He named Rangers player Kemar Roofe and Manchester United duo Anthony Martial and Fred as the some of the latest players who received racist messages on their social media account. Professional footballers from England and Wales boycotted all the social medias for racism in April 2019 but Henry is the prominent one who had a longer-term boycott Thierry Henry is a ex-Arsenal and Barcelona star, who won the World Cup with France in 1998 and has 2.3 million followers on Twitter. .
Prioritise the local citizens while giving the Sinopharm vaccines ; Chinese Embassy
Chinese Embassy in Sri lanka states that Sri Lanka will receive 600000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine on March 31. Also they said that only 1% of the vaccine will be dilivered to Chinese nationals residing here and local people will be prioritised when adminitering the vaccine. The Chinese Embassy officials said that this is a donation to the Sri lanka and mentioned about the Sri lankan governments decision to offer vaccine to Chinese Nationals in the country. Sinopharm is a production of China National Biotec Group (CNBG) and have 79% of success in clinical tests. As the vaccine recently undergone a controversy State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Prof. Channa Jayasumana states it got the approval from NMRA for the emergency use. But Pharmaceutical Corporation need to convey the approval officialy.
France accuses UK for ‘blackmail’ over vaccine exports
Despite of having a continuous tension of the supply chins of the COVID19 Vaccine France accused the UK for blackmailing while handling of export of coronavirus vaccine. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused EU for scamming by sending millions of doses of vaccine to UK. We need to build a co-operative relationship,” he told France Info radio. “But we cannot deal this way.” France request EU to implement tougher export controls as they can’t deal with the issue this way even they wanted to build a cooperative relationship. This discussion was concurred during a virtual summit that discussed about the vaccine supply chain. They dismissed about the problem of some pharmaceutical companies like primarily AstraZeneca – for not delivering its promised doses.
No travel restrictions, but Large gatherings will be prohibited during up coming festive season
State Minister of Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID Disease Control, Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle said that there isnt any decision to enforce travel restrictions during upcoming Sinhala and Tamil New Year. However, She further explained that government had decided to prohibit large gatherings to make sure there is no spread of the COVID 19 virus. The State Minister noted to urge the public to follow existing health guidelines to prevent the spreading COVID 19. She further explained why government isn’t enforcing travel restrictions as that will affect the family uniting for the festival.