News

Strong earthquake in Indian Ocean: Tremors in Colombo and other areas

Published

3 months ago

July 2, 2023

editor

A 5.8 Richter scale magnitude earthquake yesterday hit the southeast of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean, triggering widespread tremors across the country, including Colombo, the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau said.

The bureau’s Acting Director General Ajith Prema told the Sunday Times that the earthquake was felt in many areas such as Colombo, Battaramulla, Pepiliyana, Galle, and Akuressa.

The earthquake took place at 12.59 p.m., some 1,200 km southeast of Hambantota.

“The earthquake took place at a depth of 10 kilometers. Therefore, there is no threat of a tsunami or impact on Sri Lanka,” he said.

Mr Prema said they were expecting aftershocks as the initial earthquake recorded a 5.8 magnitude on the Richter scale. He added they were monitoring the situation to see if there would be aftershocks and further tremors.

The acting DG said Sri Lanka had been experiencing mild earth tremors during recent times but had not experienced strong earthquakes yet.

He said yesterday’s earthquake was a strong one as it was felt by Sri Lankans who are residing 1,260 km away from the epicentre. He added that geologists and scientists believed that a new plate margin was being created in the Indian Ocean’s south and southeastern regions, extending up to Australia. Therefore they believed tremors and earthquakes took place due to this phenomenon.

(sundaytimes.lk)

News

Video of Cargills staff brutally assaulting female goes viral

Published

2 hours ago

September 22, 2023

editor

A video showing a group of staff members from a Cargills supermarket outlet brutally assaulting a female customer is circulating on social media.

The incident is reported to have occurred at the Cargills outlet in the Hanwella area. However, police have launched an investigation to confirm the location and identify the suspects.

CCTV footage captured multiple male and female employees from the outlet brutally assaulting the customer, allegedly in response to suspected theft.

Mr. Ranjith Page is the chairman of the Cargills supermarket chain.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Cargills management on the incident is as follows:

News

Injunction on new SLFP General Secretary, extended

Published

7 hours ago

September 22, 2023

editor

The Colombo District Court today (22 Sep.) ordered that the interim injunction preventing Sarath Ekanayake, who was appointed as General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) after Dayasiri Jayasekara’s expulsion, from serving in his new position, be further extended.

Accordingly, the interim injunction was extended until 06 October, as per an order issued by Colombo District Judge Sandun Vithana this morning, after taking into consideration a petition filed by Jayasekara challenging SLFP leader and former President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to suspend his party membership.

Appearing on behalf of the accused former President Sirisena, President’s Counsel Faizer Mustapha informed the court that he opposes the relevant extension order, after which it was ordered that the objections be filed on the next court date.

News

SLCERT in talks with Anti-Virus developers over wiped email data

Published

7 hours ago

September 22, 2023

editor

The Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT) said that the assistance from international antivirus development agencies will be obtained to recover the emails that were lost following a ransomware attack that targeted multiple government websites recently.

Charuka Damunupola from SLCERT said that exchanges in this regard are already underway.

Sri Lanka’s government email network was hit by a ransomware attack that wiped months of data from thousands of email accounts.

The attack affected nearly 5,000 email addresses using the gov.lk email domain.