A suspect has been arrested in the Ambalangoda, Balapitiya area for the possession of a foreign-manufactured pistol, one magazine, 16 live rounds of ammunition, and 11.5 grams of the narcotic substance ‘‘Ice’’ (Crystal Methamphetamine).

The arrest was made during a raid carried out by a team of officers from the Ahungalla Police Station.

The suspect has been identified as a 31-year-old resident of Balapitiya, police said. 

Investigations have revealed that the firearm had been handed over to him a few days earlier by another individual, aged a 22-year-old and a resident of Balapitiya, who was also arrested on May 02 in the Ambalangoda, Wadduwa area. 

Further inquiries have uncovered that both suspects are associates of the notorious underworld criminal figure known as ‘‘Loku Pattie.’’ 

It is believed that the firearm had been provided to them with the intention of carrying out a crime.

Ahungalla Police are conducting further investigations into the incident.

The Illegal Assets Investigation Division has frozen property allegedly acquired through illegal earnings by a suspected drug trafficker.

The investigation was launched following a complaint received by the Illegal Assets Investigation Division regarding the unlawful accumulation of wealth through drug trafficking activities.

According to investigations, a vehicle valued at Rs. 15.5 million, which had been purchased under the name of the suspect’s wife using money allegedly earned through drug trafficking, was ordered to be frozen under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The order was subsequently extended by the Colombo High Court.

The female suspect was also arrested by investigating officers and produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court.

Further investigations revealed that the suspected drug trafficker had also purchased a three-storey house and land worth approximately Rs. 40 million in the Weligampitiya area within the Ja-Ela Police Division, under the name of the same suspect. 

Accordingly, an order has been issued to freeze the property for seven days starting from March 13, 2026.

Further investigations are being carried out by the Illegal Assets Investigation Division.

 

Traders watching Bitcoin climb alongside US software stocks last week may have drawn the wrong conclusion. According to NYDIG, a financial services company focused on Bitcoin, the visual parallel is misleading.

Only about 25% of BTC price movement can be traced back to its relationship with equity markets. The remaining 75% is driven by forces that have nothing to do with the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq.

Greg Cipolaro, head of research at NYDIG, made the case in a Friday note. His argument: when Bitcoin and software stocks move in the same direction, it is not because they are structurally linked. Both are reacting to the same macro pressures — the kind that push investors toward or away from risk assets broadly.

“The conclusion that Bitcoin and software equities have structurally converged is overstated,” Cipolaro wrote.

A Shared Macro Trigger, Not A Common Identity

Bitcoin’s 90-day rolling correlation with software stocks has climbed since the cryptocurrency hit a record above $126,000 in early October. But Cipolaro pointed out that its correlations with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have risen at the same time.

90-Day Rolling Correlation Between Bitcoin and Major Indices. Source: NYDIG

Liquidity Sensitive Assets

That pattern suggests the shift is not specific to software stocks — it is a wider phenomenon tied to investor appetite for risk.

Data shows that both the alpha crypto and software equities are being treated as long-duration, liquidity-sensitive assets. When macro conditions favor risk-taking, both go up. When they don’t, both get hit.

That shared sensitivity to monetary conditions is what has been driving the parallel movement, not any deeper connection between the two.

Image: CoinFlip.tech

The “Bitcoin is a tech stock” narrative has circulated before. It tends to resurface during periods when correlations tick higher and the assets appear to move in lockstep. Cipolaro’s note pushes back on that framing directly.

Crypto’s Distinct Drivers Keep It In A Category Of Its Own

Despite the elevated correlations, NYDIG argues that Bitcoin has a market structure that sets it apart. Network activity, adoption trends, and policy developments all shape its price in ways that do not apply to software companies.

Those factors, Cipolaro said, support Bitcoin’s role as a portfolio diversifier even when cross-asset correlations are climbing.

BTCUSD trading at $67,465 on the 24-hour chart: TradingView

One tension the note acknowledges is Bitcoin’s failure to trade like gold. It has long been called “digital gold,” but reports indicate it is not being bought as a hedge against economic instability.

Traders appear to be allocating to it along a risk curve rather than out of any distinct monetary conviction.

Correlations with equities are elevated right now. But based on NYDIG’s analysis, they are far from the full story of what moves Bitcoin’s price — and far from enough to call it a software stock.

Featured image from ION, chart from TradingView

The U.S. said on Wednesday it had seized a Russian-flagged, Venezuela-linked tanker as part of President Donald Trump’s aggressive push to dictate oil flows in the Americas and force Caracas’ socialist government to become its ally.

Having deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, Washington is blockading sanctioned vessels in and out of waters off the South American OPEC member. The U.S. Coast Guard and military apprehended the Marinera tanker that refused to be boarded last month and switched to Moscow’s flag, officials said.

With a Russian submarine and vessels nearby after a two-week pursuit in the Atlantic, the move risked more confrontation with Moscow which has condemned U.S. actions over Venezuela and is already at odds with the West due to the Ukraine war.

Russian state broadcaster RT showed an image of a helicopter hovering near the Marinera, originally known as the Bella-1, and said it looked like U.S. forces were trying to board the U.S.-sanctioned tanker, which is empty.

The U.S. Coast Guard also intercepted another fully-loaded Venezuela-linked tanker, Sophia, near the northeast coast of South America, the officials said, in the fourth such case of recent weeks.

CHINA CONDEMNS US ‘BULLYING’

Trump’s administration was also pressing a deal with Venezuela to divert supplies from Beijing and import up to $2 billion worth of crude.

The deal could initially require cargoes bound for Venezuela’s top buyer China to be rerouted as Caracas seeks to unload millions of barrels stranded in tankers and storage.

“The United States’ brazen use of force against Venezuela and its demand for ‘America First’ when Venezuela disposes of its own oil resources are typical acts of bullying,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a press conference.

Trump has openly spoken of controlling Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, in conjunction with U.S. oil companies, after the removal of Maduro whom he has cast as a drug-trafficking dictator in league with Washington’s foes.

Maduro’s Socialist Party allies remain in power in Venezuela, where interim President Delcy Rodriguez is treading a fine line between denouncing his “kidnapping” and kick-starting cooperation with the U.S. under explicit threats from Trump.

He said the U.S. would refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of crude stuck in Venezuela under a U.S. blockade as a first step in his plan to revive a sector long in decline despite sitting on the largest reserves in the world.

“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” Trump posted on Tuesday.

Sources at state oil company PDVSA told Reuters negotiations for an export deal had progressed, though Venezuela’s government made no official announcement.

Crude oil prices fell on world markets due to anticipated increased supplies released by Trump’s plan.

China, Russia and leftist allies of Venezuela have all denounced the U.S. raid to capture Maduro, which was Washington’s biggest such intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama to topple Manuel Noriega.

Washington’s allies are also deeply uneasy at the extraordinary precedent of seizing a foreign head of state, with Trump making a slew of threats of more action – from Mexico to Greenland – to further U.S. interests.

DOZENS DIED DURING CAPTURE OF MADURO

Some details are still sketchy on just how U.S. Special Forces swooped into Caracas by helicopter under darkness on Saturday, smashing Maduro’s security cordon and seizing him at the door of a safe room, with no loss of U.S. lives.

Venezuela has not confirmed its total losses, though the army posted a list of 23 of its dead and ally Cuba said 32 members of its military and intelligence services died.

Maduro, 63, who had ruled Venezuela since the 2013 death of his predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez, pleaded not guilty on Monday to narcotics charges in a Manhattan court where he was shackled at the ankles and wore orange and beige prison garb.

Trump appears to be calculating that it is better for stability in Venezuela to work with Maduro’s senior allies for now. He is stressing revival of the oil sector with the help of U.S. firms as the priority, not the freeing of political prisoners or a new vote for a democratic transition.

VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION KEPT WAITING

Venezuela’s main anti-Maduro figure Maria Corina Machado, who left in disguise to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize in October, wants to return home where she says the opposition would easily win a free vote.

But she is also taking care not to antagonise Trump, saying she would like to personally give him the Nobel prize which he had coveted and which she dedicated to him at the time. She backs Trump’s desire to make Venezuela a major ally and the energy hub of the Americas.

While working with Rodriguez and other top Venezuelan officials, the U.S. has warned they must cooperate or risk sharing Maduro’s fate.

Hardline Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who controls security forces accused of widespread rights abuses, is under particular scrutiny, sources told Reuters.

Rodriguez herself is under U.S. sanctions, with her foreign financial assets identified as potential leverage, one source briefed on U.S. administration thinking said.

Source: Reuters

-Agencies 

The Mount Lavinia Divisional Crime Investigation Division has arrested four gang members connected to two underworld criminals, who currently hiding overseas, and have recovered three firearms used in multiple crimes including murders, police said.

The recovered firearms allegedly belong to the organized criminals Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Avishka Heshan alias, “Bodhiyawatte Avishka” and Adhikarige Samantha Perera, alias “Chuva Samantha.” 

During the raid, the police also seized drugs found in their possession, according to the police. 

Police said arrested suspects include individuals who provided weapons, accommodation, and motorcycle transport for crimes, as well as a person who was in charge of the firearms. 

Police recovered three foreign-manufactured 3.8 revolver-type firearms, six rounds of 9mm ammunition, six rounds of 3.8 ammunition, 50 grams of heroin with an estimated street value of Rs. 1.5 million, 55 grams of crystal methamphetamine (“Ice”) worth about Rs. 800,000, and three smartphones. 

Investigations revealed that one of the seized firearms was used in the shooting of a 16-year-old girl in Bodhiyawatte, Kohuwala, on December 30, 2025. 

All suspects were arrested while they were staying at homes in the Kalubowila Hospital Road, Saranankara Road, Kalubowila Kevumwatta, and Bodhiyawatte areas of the Kohuwala Police Division.

Police further stated that the firearms had been used in numerous crimes, including murders carried out across the Dehiwala, Kohuwala, and Mount Lavinia police divisions. 

The suspects have been handed over to Kohuwala Police for further investigations.

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Friday said it has reported a borrowal fraud of Rs 2,434 crore to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), involving the erstwhile promoters of SREI Equipment Finance (SEFL) and SREI Infrastructure Finance (SIFL).

The borrower fraud related to SEFL stood at Rs 1,240.94 crore and the PSU bank has made 100% provision for the outstanding amount, the lender said in its filing to the exchanges.

The amount for SIFL stood at Rs 1,193.06 crore and PNB has made full provision for its exposure to the company, the filing said.

Both companies were successfully resolved under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) by the National Company Appellate Tribunal (NCLT).

PNB disclosed the development after market hours; its shares closed 0.6% lower at Rs 120.25 on the NSE.

The cases had been referred for insolvency in October 2021 after the banking watchdog stepped in and superseded the boards of the companies amid concerns over governance and mounting repayment failures involving dues of nearly Rs 28,000 crore.

(Disclaimer: The recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times.)

According to a post by former Canaan (a Chinese tech company) executive Jianping Kong, Bitcoin’s estimated hashrate fell roughly 10% in a single day, sliding from about 1,053 TH/s to just under 943 TH/s.

Kong said the decline equated to roughly 100 TH/s to 110 TH/s lost since Sunday and blamed the change on mining farms in China’s Xinjiang region shutting down.

He wrote that “at least 400,000 machines” were taken offline, using an assumed rate of 250 TH/s per ASIC as his basis.

China Mining Instability

Based on reports, China remains a volatile source of hashrate. Before 2021, China supplied a majority of the network’s computing power. Now estimates place its share closer to 14% to 20% depending on the data provider.

Cheap power has drawn miners back, but political and regulatory swings can push large clusters off the grid with little warning.

Kong framed the recent shutdowns bluntly, saying the temporary loss hands an advantage to other countries, adding that “the US wins without lifting a finger.”

Impact On Network

Data recorded the drop from 1,053 TH/s to about 943 TH/s, a decline of just over 110 TH/s and roughly 10%. That kind of move can change mining conditions.

Blocks may be found a little slower until the next difficulty adjustment. The network’s total hashrate is always an estimate inferred from on-chain data, so exact figures are not precise, but the size of this swing is large enough to show how concentrated pockets of mining can still move global metrics.

Kong’s machine-count estimate — and the 250 TH/s-per-ASIC figure he used — are his calculations, not a confirmed inventory count from operators on the ground.

Bitcoin Mining Operations And Market Shifts

Reports have disclosed that US mining companies are expanding capacity as global hashrate reallocates.

Image: CoinFlip

Hut 8 announced it is building four new mining sites in Texas, Louisiana and Illinois, adding 1.5 gigawatts of power capacity.

American Bitcoin, a company tied to the Trump family, is now part of that growth story; the firm acquired a fleet of 16,299 Antminer U3S21EXPH units from Bitmain and its board includes Eric Trump, the second-eldest of US President Donald Trump’s three sons. These moves underline a clear shift in where large-scale mining is happening.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

A New Jersey man is the first person believed to have died from a so-called meat allergy triggered by a tick bite, researchers say.

The man died in September 2024, but researchers just recently linked the death to the allergy, known as alpha-gal syndrome, or AGS.

According to experts, the bite of a Lone Star tick can lead an individual to develop a sensitivity or allergy to alpha galactose, a carbohydrate found in red meat and dairy products. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says AGS can cause hives, nausea, stomach pain, breathing issues and swelling.

Man died several hours after eating hamburger at barbecue

According to researchers, a 47-year-old New Jersey man went on a camping trip with his wife and children in summer 2024, and after spending the day outdoors, they had beef steak for dinner. About four hours later, researchers say the man experienced severe abdominal discomfort, diarrhea and vomiting that lasted about two hours.

The man apparently felt better the following morning, but when discussing what had happened with his family, he allegedly said, “I thought I was going to die.” However, he decided not to consult a doctor about the symptoms, researchers say.

About two weeks later, researchers say the man attended a barbecue where he ate a hamburger. About four hours after eating, the man was found unconscious on the bathroom floor with vomit around him. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead several hours later.

The man’s name was not released, nor was the location he went camping.  

Postmortem blood test reveals allergic reaction to alpha-gal

The man’s death was ruled a “sudden unexplained death,” but his wife asked a friend in the medical field to review the autopsy report. The doctor contacted researchers in Virginia to look into the possible role of AGS.

Earlier this year, the man’s blood was tested, and researchers say it was determined he had suffered an allergic reaction to alpha-gal consistent with fatal anaphylaxis.

The man’s wife said that earlier in the summer, he had gotten about a dozen bug bites around his ankles believed to be from Lone Star tick larvae.

According to researchers, this is “the first documented anaphylactic death related to AGS where the symptoms started several hours after consuming mammalian meat.”

Doctors want to raise awareness of alpha-gal syndrome

The researchers argue more public education on AGS is necessary, considering the increased presence of Lone Star ticks in northern states and the fact that abdominal pain is not widely recognized as a possible symptom of an allergic reaction.

“Although this is very, very uncommon– what happened to him is not likely to happen to other people. I’m not afraid of that,” said Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills with UVA Health. “But they should know about it.”

“If they start noticing they’re developing abdominal pain, rashes after eating red meat, they should talk to their physicians about the possibility that they’ve been sensitized to this specific carbohydrate within red meat,” said Dr. Suraj Saggar, chief of infectious disease at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, “and understand that if they continue to eat it, there is at least the potential for having a very serious and even fatal reaction.”

Experts say people who live in areas where Lone Star ticks are common, like New York and New Jersey, should do what they can to avoid tick bites.

“With the changing seasons, the warming of our climate, these ticks are increasing in their numbers. The potential exposures are increasing,” Saggar said. “People should take all the precautions they can to protect [from] tick bites.”

Doctors say awareness is key.

Nick Caloway

contributed to this report.