JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan security forces continue to occupy at least 12,861 acres of state and privately owned land across the five districts of the Northern Province, according to written responses from district authorities obtained under the country’s Right to Information law. But that figure captures only part of the military’s land footprint in the former war zone. The District Secretariats supplied figures for land classified as state or privately owned. The tally does not include t

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s dispute over a government proposal to extend the retirement age of senior judges widened this week after an opposition leader accused the administration of concealing a letter from the country’s most senior Buddhist prelates expressing concern over the plan. Patali Champika Ranawaka, a former cabinet minister and leader of the United Republican Front, said the Mahanayake Theras had written to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake setting out their position on the proposed con