The Attorney General’s Department has decided to file a case before a Singapore commercial court tomorrow demanding compensation for the environmental pollution caused by the Express Pearl ship which caught fire while while within Sri Lankan waters.

The Singapore flagged X-Press Pearl, which caught fire and began sinking off Sri Lanka’s western coast on May 20, 2021 was the worst maritime disaster to have struck the country. It has had a significant impact on Sri Lanka’s sensitive coastal environment, local communities and the economy and killed a large number of marine life.

The Attorney General’s Department is scheduled to file a case before the Singapore Commercial Court on Monday against the ownets of the ship demanding compensation for the environmental pollution that occurred after the ship had sunk.

The National Eye Hospital in Colombo will resume full operations from tomorrow after surgeries were suspended last week.

The surgeries were suspended after complications were observed in some of the patients following the use of an eyedrop imported from India,

The use of the eyedrop has been suspended now.

A micro-bug Burkholderia cepacia (B. cepacia) has been identified as the culprit causing the infections among six patients who had undergone surgery at the National Eye Hospital in Colombo this week.

This bacterium had been isolated not only in opened and unopened bottles of a common eye-drop used on these patients but also in some tissue samples sent from the eyes of these patients as well as consumables (such as corneal buttons) used during the surgeries, the Sunday Times understands.

The eye-drop is Prednisolone Acetate Ophthalmic Suspension USP 10-PRED-S, a common steroid and anti-inflammatory medication used after eye surgery. These stocks have been imported from India. The Health Ministry has temporarily halted the use of this eye-drop.

(Sunday Times)

The police arrested the main suspect in the murder of five people in a house in the Delft area in Jaffna, last night (22 April).

Police media spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa stated that three gold necklaces, two pairs of gold bangles, eight rings, one pair of earrings, a gold pendant and two mobile phones were found in possession of the 51-year-old suspect.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the suspect had returned to Sri Lanka after living in Germany for about 20 years.

He was found in a house in the Punkudutivu area, the police said.

Five persons were found hacked to death in a house in the Delft area in Jaffna last morning (22 April).

Accordingly, three females and two males were found brutally hacked to death, while another female was admitted to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital after sustaining serious cut injuries.

The injured woman has also been identified to have returned to Sri Lanka from abroad.

Police mentioned that all the victims were adults and that it was revealed in the investigations that they all were relatives.