UNDP’s Global Human Development Report launched in Sri Lanka.

UNDP commits support to define and operationalize a national development plan underpinned by Green Development thinking Report notes it is time for all countries to redesign their paths to progress by fully accounting for dangerous pressures humans impose on the planet The Gl…

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Indonesia’s Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737 plane missing after take-off.

A Sriwijaya Air plane with more than 50 people on board lost contact after taking off from Indonesian capital Jakarta on Saturday en route to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province, local media reported. Reliable tracking service Flightradar24 said on its Twitter feed that Fl…

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Air India women pilots to fly over North Pole on world's longest air route.

An all-woman cockpit crew will create Indian aviation history on Saturday 09 January 2021 when it operates the inaugural San Francisco-Bengaluru flight, going over the North Pole and taking the Atlantic route to reach the Karnataka capital at the other end of the world.  Thi…

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Pakistan Successfully Test Fires Indigenously Developed Rocket “Fatah-1”.

Pakistan on Thursday successfully conducted the test-flight of an indigenously developed Guided Multi Launch Rocket System, capable of precisely delivering conventional warheads deep into “enemy territory.” According to Director General of Pakistan Army, Media Wing, Major Ge…

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Twitter bans President Trump permanently.

Twitter has suspended President Trump from its platform, the company said Friday (08) evening. Twitter's decision followed two tweets by Trump Friday (08) afternoon that would end up being his last.  The first tweet was about Trump's supporters. "The 75,000,000 gr…

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Elon Musk overtakes Amazon's Jeff Bezos to become world's richest person.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Tesla CEO Elon Musk overtakes Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person. Elon Musk had a net worth of more than $188.5 billion. A 6% rise in Tesla (TSLA) shares lifted the value of its CEO's stock holdings and…

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Central African Republic President Touadera wins Election.

Faustin-Archange Touadera was re-elected as the president of the Central African Republic with more than 53% votes. The 63-year-old president has been in power since 2016 but has struggled to seize control of vast parts of the nation from armed militias. The Central African…

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Boeing agreed to pay $2.5bn to settle US government’s 737 Max investigation.

Boeing has agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a Department of Justice (DOJ) criminal investigation into circumstances surrounding the certification of the 737 Max. The US government launched the investigation in the wake of two Max crashes that killed 346 people. The DOJ c…

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Google suspends 'free speech' app Parler.

Google has suspended "free speech" social network Parler from its Play Store over its failure to remove "egregious content". Parler styles itself as "unbiased" social media and has proved popular with people banned from Twitter. But Google said t…

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Shehan Jayasuriya retires from Sri Lanka cricket.

Shehan Jayasuriya has informed Sri Lanka Cricket that he will no longer be available for domestic or international tournaments, as he is moving to the USA with his family. “National team player Shehan Jayasuriya, who represented Sri Lanka in both ODIs and T20I formats have i…

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Joe Biden nominates Indian-American Vanita Gupta as associate Attorney General.

US President-elect Joe Biden nominated Vanita Gupta, a respected civil rights lawyers in America, as his associate Attorney General and called her a "proud daughter of immigrants from India who has fought for greater equity.”  If confirmed by the Senate, the 46-year-old…

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Indian-American Raj Iyer becomes US Army's first Chief Information Officer.

Indian-American Dr Raj Iyer has taken over as the first Chief Information Officer of the US Army, after the Pentagon created the position in July 2020. One of the highest ranking Indian-American civilians in the US Department of Defense, Iyer, who holds a Ph. D. in Electrica…

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Sudan signs deal to normalise relations with Israel.

Sudan has signed the “Abraham Accords” with the United States on 06 January 2021, despite the move being rejected by its political parties when it was first announced in October last year. Sudan’s Acting Minister of Finance Hiba Ahmed and Mnuchin also signed a memorandum of …

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Elon Musk becomes world's richest person.

Elon Musk has just become the richest person in the world, with a personal fortune valued at $185 billion (£136 billion) This is the first time on 07 Jan 2021 the Tesla CEO has topped the global rankings . He takes the title from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who has been the world’s…

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India to chair 3 key bodies of UN Security Council.

India has been asked to Chair three important Committees of the Security Council, which include;    Taliban Sanctions Committee    Counterterrorism Committee    Libyan Sanctions Committee  said Ambassador of India to UN TS Tirumurti. This was aid Ambassador of India to UN TS Tir…

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US Congress certifies Joe Biden as next president.

The US Congress has certified Democrats Joe Biden as the next president and Kamala Harris as vice president of the United States. The action finalises the 2020 US electoral process and makes clear that Biden will be inaugurated as president on January 20, President Donald Tr…

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Public urged to ensure names are listed in electoral register.

The Election Commission has requested the members of the public to ensure if their names are listed in the electoral register for the year 2020. Electoral register can be accessed by contacting the Grama Niladhari in one’s respective area or via the official website of the e…

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Spectrify Artificial Intelligence (AI) to launch agri-tech revolution in Sri Lanka

Combines advancements in low-cost spectral imaging with artificial intelligence systems Offers molecular-level quality control of produce across entire value chain Enables optimization of fertilizer, pesticide, weedicide usage, prediction of yields, quality Already filed for t…

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Tick size changed for trading of equity securities on the CSE.

The Board of Directors of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) have made a decision to change the tick size applicable to equity securities traded on the Automated Trading system (ATS). The necessary rule changes have been carried out by the CSE to facilitate this change with t…

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Pasan Wanigasekara assumes duties as Director General of BOI.

Pasan Wanigasekara assumed duties today (07 January 2021) as the new Director General of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka, the Investment Promotion Agency of the Government of Sri Lanka . In his address to the senior staff  Wanigasekara shared his vision for the BOI: a dy…

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Jack Ma not missing but keeping a low profile, says report.

After various reports claimed that Chinese billionaire Jack Ma may have gone missing, CNBC, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that the Alibaba founder has been lying low for the time being. Several reports this week said that Ma has not made any public appea…

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NASA Approves Heliophysics Missions to Explore Sun, Earth’s Aurora.

NASA has approved two heliophysics missions to explore the Sun and the system that drives space weather near Earth. Together, NASA’s contribution to the Extreme Ultraviolet High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope Epsilon Mission, or EUVST, and the Electrojet Zeeman Imaging …

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President appoints De-Regulation Commission to simplify existing laws.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed 18-member De-Regulation Commission for the Simplification of the Existing Laws and Regulations in the interest of the people. The Commission is co-chaired by former Secretary to the President and Principal Advisor to the President M…

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World’s Largest Floating Solar Plant to come up in India, Madhya Pradesh.

At 600 MW – the world’s largest floating solar energy plant has been proposed to be constructed on the Omkareshwar Dam reservoir on the Narmada river in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh.  The project will begin power generation by the year 2022-23. The estimated investment …

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World Typing Day - 08 January.

Every year on January 8th, World Typing Day celebrates this written form of communication that ensures speed, accuracy, and efficiency. It’s also a day for typists to enter typing contests. History of the Typewriter Typewriting machines have been around since Christopher Lath…

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Oldest living first-class cricketer Alan Burgess passes away.

The world’s oldest living first-class cricketer Alan Burgess has passed away at the age of 100, the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) announced. A right-hand batsman and slow left-arm bowler, Alan appeared in 11 first-class matches for Canterbury from 1940/41 to 1951/52 and also for…

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Claire Polosak set to become first female match official in men’s Test Match.

Australia’s Claire Polosak is set to become the first female match official in a men’s Test match when she takes up the fourth umpire’s role in the third Test between India and Australia. The 32-year-old from New South Wales has already earned the distinction of being the fi…

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US President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Judge Merrick Garland as his nominee for attorney general.

In 2016, then President Barack Obama nominated Mr Garland to the US Supreme Court but Republican senators refused to hold a vote on his nomination. Mr Garland, 68, is currently the chief judge of the Washington appeals court. He previously worked in the Department of Justice …

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Israel and India test MRSAM air defense system.

Israel Aerospace Industries and the Indian government’s Defence Research and Development Organisation conducted a successful test of the MRSAM, a medium-range surface-to-air missile system. MRSAM was jointly developed by IAI and DRDO over the last several years, and they tes…

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India will host Global Healthcare Summit in Visakhapatnam.

The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin Jan. 7 announced that it will host the 14th edition of its Global Healthcare Summit in Visakhapatnam in January 2021. The summit will span Jan. 1 through Jan. 3, AAPI president-elect Dr. Sudhakar Jonnalagadda said at a …

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Gulf states sign ‘solidarity and stability’ deal at GCC summit.

Gulf leaders have signed a “solidarity and stability” agreement towards ending the diplomatic rift with Qatar at a summit in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has said. The announcement came at the Gulf Arab leaders meeting in Saudi Arabia, with the annual…

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Grammy Awards postponed.

The 2021 Grammy Awards has been postponed due to the current global pandemic concerns, say the organisers. The ceremony, one of the music industry's biggest awards, was due to take place on 31 January. The event will now take place on 14 March, due to rising infection num…

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Trump bans Alipay and seven other Chinese apps.

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese apps. The apps include popular payments platform Alipay, as well as QQ Wallet and WeChat Pay. The order, which takes effect in 45 days, says that the apps are being banned because …

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UK abolishes 'tampon tax' on menstrual products.

The UK has abolished the 5% rate of value-added-tax (VAT) on menstrual products, known as the tampon tax. It means that from January 1, period products will no longer be subject to VAT. This was a part of wider government action to "end period poverty " which includ…

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Bond actress Tanya Roberts dies at age 65.

Former Bond actress and Charlie's Angel Tanya Roberts has died in hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 65. Roberts appeared with Sir Roger Moore in his final Bond film, 1985's A View To A Kill, and had a recurring role in That '70s Show. She also starred in the f…

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Internet shutdowns in 2020 cost India $2.8 billion.

India suffered economic losses to the tune of $2.8 billion (Rs 20,474 crore approximately) due to internet shutdowns in 2020, according to a report released by a United Kingdom-based digital privacy firm Top10VPN. The report put India at the top of the list of 21 countries t…

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UNDP’s Global Human Development Report handed over to Prime Minister.

UNDP Resident Representative in Sri Lanka, Mr. Robert Juhkam officially handed over the Global Human Development Report (HDR 2020) to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa today (January 05 2021) at his official residence in Wijerama. The HDR is the annual flagship report publish…

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Cabinet approval to draft Port City Commission Bill.

Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal to draft Colombo Ports Commission Bill in accordance with the structure desired by the Government to meet national requirements and to attract foreign investments. The proposal has been tabled by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, th…

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Cristiano Ronaldo surpasses Pele's records.

Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has surpassed Brazil legend Pele to become the second-highest goalscorer in history and the highest for an active player. Juventus took on Udinese in Serie A on Sunday and ran out 4-1 winners with Ronaldo grabbing a brace. The two goals wer…

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Nancy Pelosi narrowly re-elected as US House speaker.

Nancy Pelosi has been narrowly re-elected speaker of the United States House of Representatives as a new Congress took office amid the surging current global pandemic and a plot by some Republicans to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump. …

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US House bill seeks termination of Pakistan status as non-Nato ally.

On 04th January 2021, a bill has been introduced in the US House of Representatives to terminate the designation of Pakistan as a major non-Nato ally. The bill was presented by Republican Congressman Andy Biggs to remove Pakistan's special status, which allows access to …

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