The United National Party Working Committee has unanimously decided to suspend the party memberships of 1,137 UNP Local Government body members who supported other parties.

The decision was taken at the UNP Working Committee meeting held this evening (21).

The group who had thus lost the party membership, had been elected to 341 LG bodies in 2018. According to reports from the UNP HQ, some have even handed in nominations to contest for the upcoming LG polls from other parties.

Türkiye quake: Red balloons placed on rubble to honour child victims (Video)

Volunteers in Türkiyehave placed red balloons on the rubble of destroyed buildings, to remember child victims of the recent earthquakes.

Led by photographer Ogun Sever Okur, they climbed up the debris in Hatay and attached balloons to metal wires sticking out of the piles of debris.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in southern Türkiye and northern Syria.

(Video : BBC News)

Cabinet approval has been granted to a proposal by the Minister of Wildlife and Forest Conservation to make the Narangala mountain range a sanctuary.

The mountain range, which lies in the Badulla District 1450m above sea level is home to over a 100 springs, which provides water for rivers and fulfills the water necessities of villages situated down the rivers.

Hence, the 239,276 hectares upon which the mountain range is situated would be made into a sanctuary and any private land or land owned by the Janatha Estates Development Board would be expropriated accordingly.