COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A three-judge bench of the Colombo High Court ruled on Friday that a witness who has twice changed his account in the case of the abducted journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda may be recalled to testify again, after he told the court that the evidence he gave four years ago had been extracted from him under duress. The witness, Sumathipala Sureshkumar, known in the case papers as Thaveendran and, more commonly, as Murali, is the fourth prosecution witness in a trial-at-bar agains

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Literature can build bridges where politics sometimes cannot, Indian parliamentarian and author Shashi Tharoor said on Friday as he inaugurated the first Colombo Literary Festival, urging India and Sri Lanka to strengthen their ties through books, translation, and cultural exchange. Addressing an audience at Arcade Independence Square, Tharoor described the launch of the festival as “an act of optimism,” saying it affirmed that books, ideas, and meaningful conversations con

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — China’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, Qi Zhenhong, used a farewell message marking the end of his six-year posting to praise deepening political trust, expanding economic cooperation, and closer cultural ties between the two countries, while urging continued collaboration under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. In the letter, Mr. Qi reflected on what he called the longest diplomatic assignment of his career, describing Sri Lanka as a country of rich history, cultural diversity

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan deputy minister has accused former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and other senior figures associated with the United National Party of bearing responsibility for the political climate surrounding the 1981 burning of the Jaffna Public Library. Eranga Gunasekara, the deputy minister of urban development, said the destruction of the library, one of the most searing symbols of Tamil cultural loss in Sri Lanka, had “set fire to the hearts of the people” and contrib