COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Japan’s ambassador to Sri Lanka on Thursday highlighted plans to supply unmanned aerial vehicles to the Sri Lanka Navy and a new exchange programme for military personnel. Both are part of a security relationship that Tokyo has widened over the past year. The ambassador, Akio Isomata, described the initiatives at a reception the Japanese Embassy in Colombo held for the 72nd anniversary of the founding of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. Guests included Sri Lanka’s deputy defenc

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka- Kamzy Gunaratnam, Norway’s Minister of Transport, marked Father’s Day on Sunday with a tribute to her father, a refugee from Sri Lanka’s civil war who worked for years in Norway’s fishing industry and in kitchens before going to evening school to earn a cook’s trade certificate at 59. In a Facebook post written in Norwegian, Ms. Gunaratnam, 38, who was born in Jaffna and arrived in Norway at the age of three, called her father her greatest role model. She wrote about the cour

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s counterterrorism police questioned a former local government official for about three hours on Saturday about the funding of statues honouring two founding leaders of a Tamil militant group. It was the latest step in an inquiry that began with his arrest in July. Kanthasamy Satheesh, a former deputy chairman of the Valvettithurai Urban Council, was questioned at the Jaffna office of the Terrorism Investigation Division. Investigators focused on how the money for

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Licensed liquor shops across Sri Lanka’s Northern Province will close on Sunday for Deepavali on the orders of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the provincial governor’s office said. The closure covers liquor bars and retail outlets in all five of the province’s districts: Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya. Establishments approved by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority and hotels holding special star-class liquor licenses are exempt. Hindu reli