JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday took up a long-running dispute over grazing land in the country’s east, after the petitioner’s side asked it to reopen the case on the grounds that an earlier ruling had not been carried out. The case was filed by Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, a member of Parliament from Batticaloa District. It concerns the Mayilathamadu and Madhavanai pastures, which Tamil cattle and dairy farmers say they have used for generations. M.A. Sumanthiran, a Pre

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Oct. 21 — Douglas Devananda, the former Sri Lankan cabinet minister and leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), has thanked President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's government for searching his party's offices, saying the operations would help clear its name of longstanding allegations. Officers of the Criminal Investigation Department, acting on a court warrant, first searched the EPDP’s office at 273 Stanley Road in Jaffna before proceeding to its office in Kayts

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The first expert report on the excavation at Chemmani, the largest mass grave recorded in Sri Lanka, suggests that some of the 583 people whose remains were recovered there may have died in an epidemic or natural disaster. The 190-page report, titled “Forensic Archaeological Excavation in Chemmani, Jaffna (2025/2026): A Summary Report on Findings,” was prepared by Professor Raj Somadeva, the lead archaeologist on the excavation, and the archaeologist Anusha Wanninayake. It w