Rights groups accused Sri Lankan police Wednesday of failing to stop a wave of hate crimes against Muslim businesses and mosques in the Buddhist-majority country. Police are yet to make any arrests in connection with more than a dozen arson attacks against Muslims shops, mosques and a burial ground in the past month. Prominent rights … Read more
Sri Lankan cricketing legend Kumar Sangakkara said Monday he will retire from first-class cricket at the end of the present English county championship season in September. The 39-year-old — fifth in the list of all-time Test run scorers averaging more than 57 runs in 134 Tests, making 11 double centuries — is still in prime … Read more
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena announced his first cabinet reshuffle Monday, switching his finance and foreign ministers as he resists mounting pressure from a breakaway faction in his own party. Sirisena swapped the portfolios held by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera in a shake up aimed at quelling dissent within the … Read more
Not content with scoring one century at Lord’s in a match where his portrait was unveiled in the Pavilion, Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara added another for Surrey against county champions Middlesex on Sunday. The veteran left-hander’s 114 had been the cornerstone of the visitors’ first-innings 313. Sangakkara topped that on Sunday with an unbeaten … Read more
Sri Lanka said Friday it will demolish an estimated 10,000 illegally built homes and offices in Colombo, a day after a seven-storey wedding hall collapsed, killing one and wounding 23. Urban Development Minister Champika Ranawaka said the casualties could have been much higher if the hall had been hosting a wedding at the time of … Read more
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Friday his desire for a “quantum jump” in relations with Sri Lanka, as New Delhi jostles with regional rival Beijing for influence in the island nation. India had always considered its smaller neighbour to be within its sphere of influence but watched Sri Lanka drift closer to China under … Read more
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Sri Lanka on Thursday on a charm offensive as New Delhi seeks to reassert its influence on the island amid signs of a Chinese comeback. Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in January 2015 promising to loosen ties with China after a decade of hefty funding … Read more
Former Sri Lanka captain Aravinda de Silva has stepped down as chairman of the national board’s cricket committee for personal reasons after roughly a year in the top post, the committee said Friday. The veteran’s resignation from the post will take effect from June 30. “It is understandable that (de Silva) needs to prioritise his … Read more
Sri Lanka’s foreign minister on Friday accused the previous administration of using its embassies abroad as “safe houses” for murderers accused of perpetrating human rights abuses during the civil war. Mangala Samaraweera told parliament a deputy ambassador posted to Brazil and two staffers sent to Germany were among those suspected of murders and war crimes … Read more
Sri Lanka on Wednesday ended the grim search for survivors five days after a huge garbage mountain collapsed onto a slum, killing 32 people and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents. Another 11 people were injured when the 300-foot (90-metre) dump partially collapsed on Friday as Sri Lankans celebrated their traditional new year. “We … Read more
Sri Lanka has moved over 400 families to temporary shelters after tonnes of rotting garbage collapsed onto a slum on Friday, killing 26 people. Some 145 homes were destroyed when the 300-foot (90-metre) rubbish mountain came crashing down and police say many more buildings were damaged and could collapse at any time. Hundreds of soldiers … Read more
Hopes of finding anyone alive under a collapsed mountain of garbage in Sri Lanka’s capital faded Sunday as the death toll reached 21, police said. Hundreds of soldiers were digging through the rubbish and the wreckage of some 145 homes that were destroyed when a side of the 300-foot (90-metre) high dump crashed on Friday. … Read more
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said Wednesday he would not protect anyone guilty of murder during the civil war, flagging arrests for a spate of high-profile crimes allegedly perpetrated by security forces. Sirisena, who has been criticised for failing to establish credible investigations into war-era abuses, said he would not stand by murderers but would … Read more
The brother of Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapakse denied Tuesday involvement in war-era death squads, blaming the then army chief for an alleged secretive campaign of extrajudicial murders. Gotabhaya Rajapakse has been accused of giving orders to a shadowy military outfit allegedly involved in murdering journalists and political dissidents during Sri Lanka’s long-running civil … Read more
Former Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapakse’s brother Gotabhaya directed a top-secret death squad which targeted journalists and dissidents, a court was told Monday. Criminal Investigations Department (CID) told the Mount Lavinia magistrate’s court that Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who was Sri Lanka’s defence secretary during his brother’s rule, directed a secret unit which is accused of assassinating … Read more
President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in Sri Lanka promising justice for war crimes, breaking from his hawkish predecessor and presenting the island with its first real shot at a lasting peace. But that optimism has been sorely tested as Sirisena, having missed a two-year deadline to investigate war-era abuses, declared he would never prosecute … Read more
Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is to scale back a profitable but controversial deal to sell a deep-sea port to a Chinese company after widespread protests, the ports minister said Thursday. Arjuna Ranatunga said the government was renegotiating the sale of the debt-laden but strategically-located Hambantota port. It had hoped to transfer an 80 percent stake to … Read more
Sri Lanka Monday vowed to honour government bonds of up to 1,780 billion rupees ($11.86 billion) even as the central bank admitted “procedural shortcomings” in state-issued securities. Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake hastily summoned reporters to announce that Sri Lanka will meet its domestic debt repayment commitments despite legal issues uncovered during a recent insider trading … Read more
Several people have been injured in southern Sri Lanka during a protest against allowing China to build a port and industrial zone. The plan envisages the eviction of thousands of villagers around Hambantota port, 240km (150 miles) south-east of the capital Colombo. Police used tear gas as the protest delayed a ceremony being attended by … Read more