A strong SL team leave for Under 19 Asia Cup
St. Benedict’s face Ananda in U19 Division I Tier ‘B’ quarter-final
Firaz, Thathsara secure semi-final berth for St. Thomas’
Colombo Junior Open Squash Championship concludes successfully
SJB and Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa is scheduled to host Sri Lankan Leopard Day 2026 today (01), bringing together wildlife experts, policymakers, conservationists and youth representatives to strengthen national efforts to protect the country’s endemic leopard.
The event, scheduled to be held from 2 pm to 5 pm at No. 30, Sir Marcus Fernando Mawatha, Colombo 7, is expected to attract representatives from government institutions, universities, research organisations, civil society groups, the private sector, diplomatic missions, environmental organisations and the media.
The Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) , an endemic subspecies found only in Sri Lanka, is regarded as the island’s apex predator and plays a critical role in maintaining the ecological balance of its forests and natural ecosystems.
Organisers said the event aims to provide a national platform for dialogue and collaboration on leopard conservation amid mounting threats to the species, including habitat fragmentation, snaring, poisoning, road accidents, human-induced mortality and other forms of wildlife crime.
The programme will feature discussions on the latest scientific research, practical conservation strategies and policy measures while encouraging stronger partnerships among government agencies, researchers, conservation organisations and local communities.
A special focus will be placed on engaging students and young conservation leaders, providing them with an opportunity to interact directly with scientists and wildlife experts in a bid to inspire greater youth participation in biodiversity conservation.
Premadasa said protecting the Sri Lankan leopard was not merely a wildlife conservation issue but a national responsibility.
He said conserving the iconic species would help safeguard the country’s ecosystems, strengthen Sri Lanka’s natural heritage and demonstrate a broader commitment to sustainable development and responsible environmental stewardship.
Organisers said the event is expected to reaffirm a shared commitment among stakeholders to ensuring the long-term survival of the Sri Lankan leopard and advancing collaborative conservation initiatives across the country.
Commemorative issue honours the late Major Ramani Bandara one year on
Australia announces enhanced cooperation with Sri Lanka in key sectors
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Seven passenger planes across Europe, two of which departed from the UK, have been inspected following a series of suspected bomb threats.
Two Ryanair flights, one originating from Dublin and the other from Lisbon, were searched after landing in Rome following anonymous tips but no explosives were found, sources at the city’s Fiumicino airport told the BBC .
The Dublin flight was escorted by the Italian Air Force until landing. Authorities have also searched planes in Poland, Spain and Bulgaria.
While officially there is no link between them, authorities from various countries will be co-operating to assess whether this was a co-ordinated attack, designed to disrupt airspace.
The UK government described the incidents as “malicious hoax threats”.
In a statement it said it had “one of the most robust aviation security systems in the world, with well-tested processes for dealing with any potential threats, as well as malicious hoax threats, like those we’ve seen today”.
Aviation security expert Paul Mason said bomb threats on passenger planes “don’t happen that frequently”, which made the latest incidents “unusual”.
“It sounds like they’ve been made in a credible manner across a broad range of airlines,” Mason told BBC Radio 5 Live. “That would suggest to me that it’s been a very deliberate act by a typical actor rather than a load of coincidental, malicious calls.”
He said “there are a lot of processes” that the onboard crew and people on the ground must go through “to validate the credibility of the threat”.
A flight may be asked to divert if the credibility of a threat “is of a certain level”, Mason added, and in some cases the onboard crew may not even be advised on what the ground operators were dealing with.
In Rome, sources at Fiumicino airport told the BBC police bomb disposal experts carried out standard security protocols to ensure the safety of all passengers and crew.
Inspections of the passengers, luggage, and the aircraft yielded negative results, and the alert has since been cleared.
One plane which landed in Murcia, southern Spain – a Ryanair flight coming from Manchester – was also found not to have any explosives on board, Spanish authorities said.
One passenger later said she was unaware of the bomb threat until after the plane landed.
“We weren’t told anything during the flight,” Sarah told BBC Radio 5 Live. “The plane stopped quite suddenly and then we were kept on the runway for around 30 minutes.”
“Then the fire engines turned up, the bomb squad turned up and we were asked to evacuate,” she continues.
Sarah said the plane had not been on the ground a minute before it was “surrounded by fire engines and police and a bomb squad”. All the passengers were then escorted by police, leaving all their belongings.
“We were only later told that it was an actual threat, a bomb threat to the plane itself,” she added.
Two flights heading to Warsaw were also affected, including one from London Heathrow.
The Heathrow flight was originally meant to land at the Polish capital’s main airport, Chopin, but was diverted instead to the smaller Modlin airport, briefly forcing its closure.
A Scandinavian Airlines flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw-Chopin landed as planned.
Later on Tuesday, Bulgarian Transport Minister Georgi Peev said there were bomb threats against two planes travelling to the country’s capital Sofia.
He told the state-owned Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) the flights were from the northern Italian city of Bergamo and Ireland’s capital Dublin.
The flights into Sofia were not diverted and no explosives were found when the planes were checked, Peev said.
Bulgaria’s border police said in a statement sent to the BBC that at around 10:35 (08:35 GMT) it had received an email about “the presence of an improvised explosive device on a flight returning from Bergamo”.
“Standard procedures for such incidents were immediately activated, and an operational headquarters comprising representatives of various institutions was convened,” the statement said.
The border police added that the same email also reported a “similar threat against aircraft arriving from Dublin”.
In a separate development, a bomb alert triggered the evacuation of 1,537 passengers and crew from an Israel-bound cruise ship in Greece, media reports from both countries say.
Initial checks of the Panama-flagged Crown Iris vessel currently docked at a port on the Aegean island of Syros found no explosives, they said citing the Greek Coast Guard, and the ship was due to resume its journey.
Tuesday’s aircraft incidents come a day after a Wizz Air flight from London Luton made an emergency landing in Budapest, escorted by a Hungarian fighter jet, after a bomb threat.
Wizz Air said later that security checks had been made and nothing was found.
BBC Verify has consulted aviation safety experts about what happens on board a plane when a bomb threat is issued.
Marco Chan, a former pilot for Cathay Pacific Airways and Hong Kong Airlines who is now a senior lecturer in aviation operations at Kingston University, said a bomb threat is considered “genuine until it is resolved, even though most turn out to be hoaxes”.
Chan said crews will “quietly search” toilets, galleys and storage areas and will not touch a suspicious item unless it has to be taken to an area on the aircraft designated as the least risky bomb location.
The aircraft’s captain will have multiple factors to assess, according to former airline pilot Terry Tozer, an aviation safety commentator.
He said these include what facilities are available at the airport they are being diverted to and how the plane can continue onwards should it turn out to be a false threat.
Chan added that once on the ground, the plane is generally “taken to an isolated stand, passengers are disembarked, and police and bomb disposal teams search it”.
Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya participated in the “ The Value of Vision – Global Summit for Eye Health and Exhibition ” and the Commonwealth Leaders and CEOs’ Summit on 2 November 2026, during her official visit to Antigua and Barbuda for the 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
Addressing the High-Level Segment of the Global Summit for Eye Health, the Prime Minister highlighted Sri Lanka’s longstanding commitment to universal healthcare, emphasising that eye health is an essential component of the country’s free public healthcare system. She also highlighted initiatives to promote eye care among children and young people, including school-based vision screening programmes and the President’s Fund initiative to provide spectacles to university students in need.
Participating in the Commonwealth Leaders and CEOs’ Summit, the Prime Minister highlighted two investment-ready projects in Sri Lanka supported by the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub: the Climate Resilient Agro-Ecosystems (CRAES) Project and the GreenPort Cornerstone: Green Hydrogen-Powered Zero-Emission Port Logistics Project.
She invited Commonwealth business leaders and potential investors to explore these opportunities and invest in the implementation of the projects.
The CEOs’ Summit provided a platform for strengthening partnerships and promoting investment across the Commonwealth.
It has been planned to implement waterfront environment development projects for the coastal and marine-related Hamilton Canal, Negombo Lagoon, and the surrounding waterfront environment in the Western Province as a nature-focused and historically heritage-focused tourism destination development project.
Under this, a project report has been formulated by the Western Provincial Council with the objective of developing the Hamilton Canal from King’s Island Jetty (Negombo Lagoon) to the Ma Oya estuary and utilizing it for the tourism industry.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the joint proposal furnished by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism, and the Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils, and Local Government to implement the aforementioned project for developing the waterfront environment, including Hamilton Canal, as a tourist attraction, utilizing the funds of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) under an estimated cost of Rs. 700 million.
CP warns of secret plan to establish ‘spaceport’ on Sri Lanka’s east coast
Over Rs. 8 mn worth of copper stolen from KDU Hospital lightning protection system
Dialog Touch partners with HelaGo to advance the future of cashless corporate mobility
Arrest and re-incarceration of Gnanasara Thera: An analysis
Iranian vessel with majority Indian crew leaves Lankan EEZ after receiving fuel, supplies
NCM against Speaker: New low in Parliament
Private sector salaries surge ahead of public sector pay structures as National Budget looms
Copyright © 2020 Upali Newspapers (Pvt) Ltd. Solution by LankaCom Privacy Policy
Loading comments…