Sri Lankans voted overwhelmingly today to elect their new president. Between 70% and 80% of those registered on the electoral rolls voted according to election observers. This is the first presidential election since May 2009, the end of a 40-year war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which left more than 80,000 dead….
They are accused of stealing hundreds of endangered animals and exotic plants from reserves and forests in Sri Lanka. Three Russians, arrested in February, in possession of 529 protected animals, are due to stand trial at the end of the month. In Sri Lanka, three Russians have been accused of stealing hundreds of endangered animals…
Attacks on Easter Sunday targeting hotel churches in Sri Lanka left 290 dead and 500 injured. Among the victims, the children of Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen at the head of a ready-to-wear group. Several dozen foreigners perished in the attacks, including a Frenchman. Three of the four children of Anders Holch Povlsen, considered Denmark’s…
Sri Lanka has lifted the 39-year ban on women buying alcohol or working in establishments where alcoholic beverages are sold or manufactured. The 1979 law that banned the sale of any alcoholic beverage to women on the island of 21 million people was abolished as part of a broader fight against sexism in legislation, the…
The toll of the jihadist attacks on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka rose to 258 dead, after the death of a US official stationed in that country for the US Department of Commerce. A US official injured in the jihadist attacks on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka died of her injuries, the United States Embassy…
Near Kalmunai, a town on the east coast of Sri Lanka, sixteen people, including six children, were killed overnight from Friday to Saturday in an assault by the country’s security forces on suspected members of the Islamic State group. The terrorist organization has confirmed to have been targeted. The Islamic State group has confirmed that…
Visiting Sri Lanka, Pope Francis urged respect for human rights and the search for truth, in this country which is struggling to heal from civil war. The pope, who will then travel to the Philippines, is expected to preach reconciliation and unity throughout this trip which comes just after the surprise election of a new…
On Sunday, a series of attacks on Sri Lankan soil left several hundred dead and injured. Dilip Fernando, a Sri Lankan Catholic recounts how, for lack of space, his life was saved that day. His family, who remained outside the church, are convinced of having crossed paths with the suicide bomber, a young man who…
Completion of Dredging Operation at KKS Harbour High Commissioner of India H.E. Ashok K. Kantha, participated in a brief ceremony on 6 May 2013 at Kankesanthurai (KKS) Harbour to mark the completion of the dredging operation.The “Joint Post Dredging Survey” chart was formally handed over by the High Commissioner to Capt. Nihal Keppetipola, Managing Director…
Sri Lankan veterinarians have launched a strike to protest inadequacies in elephant protection, as deadly conflicts between locals and pachyderms escalate, a union official said on Tuesday. “There is not a good management of the wild elephants which are relegated to increasingly limited spaces because the government allows the inhabitants to encroach on their areas…
The leader of the jihadist attacks on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka succeeded in training young men in his wake to become suicide bombers by radicalizing them via the internet, say investigators and Muslim officials. At least 257 people died on Sunday April 21 when a series of suicide bombings targeted luxury hotels and Christian…
Sri Lankan government fired security official after his teams chased couples holding hands at a public Colombo site In Sri Lanka, a conservative Buddhist country, this decision marks a significant departure from the previous government which regularly allowed the police to arrest young lovers kissing in public. Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva said he…
The death toll from the collapse of a mountain of garbage in Sri Lanka rose to 26 on Monday after three people in hospital died of their injuries. Without much optimism, hundreds of soldiers continued to dig in the debris of the rubbish and the 145 houses destroyed by this disaster on Friday in the…
The toll of Sunday’s attacks in Sri Lanka in the midst of the celebration of Easter rose on Tuesday, April 23 to 320 dead after several wounded succumbed to their injuries. The toll is still growing in Sri Lanka . The wave of deadly attacks in the country on Sunday April 21 during Easter celebrations…
Relations between Sri Lanka and India have calmed down for some time, and could continue thanks to the project to build a bridge between the two countries. It is only when we gain height, then more and more until reaching the satellites of NASA, that we distinctly see an isthmus, across the sea, connecting India…
For the first time, 18 Sri Lankan migrants arrived in Mayotte on Monday and were refused entry to France, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said. They were placed in the waiting area. The 18 migrants who arrived on a beach in Mayotte from Sri Lanka on Monday were refused entry into France and were placed in…
Holidaymakers from Saint-Pair, who left for Sri Lanka a few weeks ago on vacation, discovered with horror the attacks perpetrated in the country on Easter Day. “I cried” , says Frédérique. This Saint-Peers retiree was on vacation in Sri Lanka, from March 23 to April 7. Two weeks later, on April 21, the country was…
An Emirates Airbus A380 was forced to make an emergency landing in Sri Lanka at Bandaranaike airport. Smoke had been detected in the cockpit An Emirates A380 carrying more than 500 people was forced to make an emergency landing in Sri Lanka on Friday after pilots detected smoke in the cockpit, an official at Colombo…
Unusual scene in the town of Nochchiyagama, Sri Lanka: a two-meter crocodile broke into the police station. The building was evacuated while the animal was captured. A two-meter-long crocodile broke into a police station in Sri Lanka and settled there overnight, forcing its occupants to evacuate the scene until it was captured. The reptile entered…
Rescuers were hard at work Sunday to try to distribute aid to half a million Sri Lankans displaced by the worst flooding on the island in 10 years, which killed at least 146 people. A lull in precipitation has allowed the water level to drop in certain areas, opening up a window for the authorities…
In Sri Lanka, churches will remain closed “until further notice” after suicide bombings in churches and hotels on Easter Sunday that left 359 dead. All the Catholic churches in Sri Lanka will remain closed and no Mass will be celebrated until the “improvement of the security situation” after the Passover bombing s , who made…
Sri Lankan parliamentarians are due to meet next week to get out of the political crisis that is shaking the country since the surprise dismissal a week ago of the head of government Ranil Wickremesingh. The Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament on Friday ordered a parliamentary session next week in an attempt to break…
A huge swarm of wasps descended on a temple in Mundal, 110 kilometers north of Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, as pilgrims celebrated Buddha’s birthday there. Fifty of them had to be hospitalized. Wasp attacks are particularly feared in the country, which also proceeded on Tuesday to clean up nests in a tea plantation district in…
Sri Lanka declared a ten-day state of emergency nationwide on Tuesday after riots against the Muslim minority that left at least two dead. It was the Minister of Urban Planning Rauff Keem who announced it: a ten-day state of emergency has been declared in Sri Lanka . Reason? Riots directed against the Muslim minority which…
The government of Sri Lanka has reinstated the death penalty, but has no executioner. Next week, she will publish an advertisement for a post of “responsible for executions”. A job offer that may not find a taker right away. The government of Sri Lanka has reintroduced the death penalty for drug traffickers in the country,…
The death toll of the attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday 21, which the Islamic State (IS) group claimed, has been lowered to 253 dead The Sri Lankan authorities sharply revised downwards on Thursday April 25 the toll of the Easter attacks : 253 people perished and not 359 as previously…
The political crisis in Sri Lanka is likely to degenerate into a “bloodbath”, worried the Speaker on Monday after the disputed dismissal of the Prime Minister replaced by the former strongman of the island. In a surprise decision on Friday, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena removed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe from his post. Denouncing his…
The jihadist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks on Sunday, April 23, during the Easter weekend in Sri Lanka. The jihadist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for suicide attacks on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, a carnage that left more than 320 dead and 500 injured over Easter…
The Sri Lankan police discovered, this Monday, April 22, 87 detonators in a station of Colombo, the economic and political capital of the country. On Sunday, a wave of attacks left more than 290 dead and 500 injured in the country. Sri Lanka police on Monday discovered 87 detonators in a bus station in the…
Sri Lanka recognized this Wednesday April 24 a “failure” in terms of state security, unable to prevent the jihadist attacks on Easter Sunday which killed around 360 people, despite prior information from the intelligence community . The management of the Sri Lankan authorities in the days leading up to the suicide attacks that killed 359…