Sri Lanka News

June 18, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has spent 5.9 percent of country's GDP as public investment in 2012 to provide major services despite a shortfall in the revenues, the Finance and Planning Ministry said in its 2012 report.

June 18, Colombo: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has instructed all ministers and MPs of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party to cancel their foreign tours to devote time for the upcoming Provincial Council elections, government sources said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday told a delegation of Sri Lanka Tamil MPs that he was "dismayed" by reports suggesting that Colombo planned to dilute certain key provisions of the 13th Amendment on devolution of powers to provinces ahead of polls to the Northern Provincial Council.

June 18, Colombo: An ally of Sri Lanka's governing party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya today introduced a bill to abolish the provincial council system enacted by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1987.

June 18, Colombo: Analysis of rice samples from various fields in Sri Lanka have shown that rice grown locally in Sri Lanka does not contain any abnormal levels of cadmium, the Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena assured today.

June 18, Colombo: Sri Lanka Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa has ordered the officials to accelerate the preparatory work to build the railway line from Kurunegala to Habarana.

A tsunami in this area of the Western Indian Ocean could threaten the coastlines of India, Iran, Oman, Pakistan and further afield.

Sri Lankan Buddhist monks walk in line as they seek offerings of food in Colombo June 15, 2013.

June 17, Chennai: The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa today slammed the Government of India for failing to take any effective measures at the diplomatic level to secure the release of the fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy and detained in Sri Lanka.

June 17, Colombo: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has called and assured a female school teacher, who was humiliated by a ruling party local politician in the school premises, that he would do justice regarding the incident.

June 17, Colombo: Sri Lanka's Ministry of External Affairs Monday launched the official website of the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Colombo in November this year.

A Company in China has been graced with the rights to ply its fishing vessels with the flag of the genocidal State in Sri Lanka and to use the facilities of the Dikovita fishing harbour.

Colombo, June 17 : The Tamil Tiger rebel front organisations are still operating in Germany under the guise of community organisations, the Sri Lankan external affairs ministry claimed Monday.

There are claims that Sri Lankans at the detention centre on Christmas Island are being denied legal advice.

June 17, Colombo: Dr. Saman Weerasinghe, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mos-Lanka Holdings Group of Companies and an Advisor to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse was awarded the 'Order of Honor of the Russian Federation' on the 12th of June 2013 in Colombo at a ceremony held on the occasion of the National Day of the Russian Federation.

As a new screening process increases the likelihood of irreversible mistakes, Australia should rethink its attitude towards Sri Lankan asylum seekers At the end of last week the Australian Government flew another group of Sri Lankan boat arrivals back to Colombo , claiming that they failed to engage Australia 's international legal obligations.

The International Federation of Journalists joins partners and affiliates in Sri Lanka in calling on the Government of Sri Lanka to reconsider its move to introduce a code of ethics for the country's media.

Wandering about Anuradhapura's Sacred City you'll find lots of ancient ruins - pools, prayer halls, refectories, temples, residences; ruins great and small, in varying states of decay.

The Sinhala officials of the Eastern Provincial Council also back the move, the sources further said.

Australia, which is one of the contracting countries with UNHCR, is even keeping in detention, citing security threat, Tamil boat refugees who have been granted asylum.