Sri Lanka Braces for a Powerful El Niño as Reservoirs Run Low

Sri Lanka Braces for a Powerful El Niño as Reservoirs Run Low

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's weather authority says an unusually powerful El Niño is likely to develop by the end of the year, arriving just as reservoirs across the country are running low. The Department of Meteorology now puts the probability of a "very strong" El Niño at about 90 percent, said Ajith Wijemanna, the department's director general. He said there was roughly a 70 percent chance the event would exceed the intensity of any El Niño recorded since 1950. The forecast tracks closely with re


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

New E.U. Packaging Rules Now Apply to Sri Lankan Exports

New E.U. Packaging Rules Now Apply to Sri Lankan Exports

COLOMBO — European rules governing packaging began to apply on 12 August, and they cover imports. Sri Lankan exporters of tea, spices, seafood and processed food must now be able to show that the pouches, cartons and wrappers they ship to Europe meet binding requirements on recyclability, recycled content, labelling and chemical safety. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation entered into force in February 2025 after years of negotiation in Brussels. It draws no distinction between packagi


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Tamil Lawmaker Questioned by Police Over Remarks on Federalism and Land

Tamil Lawmaker Questioned by Police Over Remarks on Federalism and Land

COLOMBO — Sri Lankan police questioned a senior Tamil lawmaker for about four hours over public remarks on power-sharing, federalism and land, in an inquiry examining whether his statements amounted to promoting separatism or stirring hostility between ethnic communities. R. Shanakiyan, the parliamentary group leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi, known as ITAK, was summoned after a complaint over comments he made to reporters following a meeting between the party’s lawmakers and President


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Kanjipani Imran Has Not Been Arrested, Sri Lanka's Deputy Defence Minister Says

Kanjipani Imran Has Not Been Arrested, Sri Lanka's Deputy Defence Minister Says

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's deputy defence minister denied Monday that fugitive underworld figure Kanjipani Imran, wanted in connection with international drug trafficking, had been arrested in Italy, saying police were still trying to catch him. Several local outlets reported earlier in the day that Imran, whose full name is Mohamed Nazeem Mohamed Imran, had been taken into custody there. Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekara said the reports were false and appeared to stem from confusion over r


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

UNAFRAID AND UNBOWED

Archbishop, Archbishop, why hast thou forsaken us in our hour of sorrow and slaughter?

Archbishop, Archbishop, why hast thou forsaken us in our hour of sorrow and slaughter?

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." - Isaiah 58:1 His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo and chief shepherd of the Catholic flock in all of Sri Lanka, has recently marked fifty years in the sacred priesthood. As the highest-ranking prelate whose dominion spans the entire island, he now stands as a mighty voice crying for justice, calling upon the nations of the earth for interv


Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran

Jaffna Library Burning: The Day They Burned the buddha and his dhamma

Jaffna Library Burning: The Day They Burned the buddha and his dhamma

Why South Asia Reveres Books-and Fears Their Destruction Irrespective of religion, across the Indian subcontinent, books have long held an exalted status. In the indigenous spiritual traditions that emerged from this land-Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism-knowledge is not merely valued; it is venerated in the highest order. In homes, temples, and schools across the region, people treat books with profound reverence-never touching them with their feet, and if done accidentally, offering a


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Chemmani: Where Justice Was Buried

Chemmani: Where Justice Was Buried

The dead do not speak - but the earth does A few years ago, I visited Cambodia. My original aim was to see the Angkor Wat temple complex. But, as always, my journalistic instincts led me deeper into rural Cambodia, where I found myself in quiet conversations with a few former soldiers of the Pol Pot regime, now living ordinary lives as toddy tappers, farmers, and small shop owners. One of them - a former henchman of the Khmer Rouge - opened up after a few glasses of toddy. In a hauntingly calm


Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran

Read More

Explore our archive of articles, interviews, and creative projects

Sri Lankan Police Seek Temple Priest Accused of Pawning Gold to Fund Gambling

Sri Lankan Police Seek Temple Priest Accused of Pawning Gold to Fund Gambling

COLOMBO — A Sri Lankan court has ordered the arrest of the chief priest of a Hindu temple in central Colombo after police said he repeatedly removed gold jewellery from the temple’s safe, pawned it and used the proceeds for gambling before redeeming and returning the valuables. The Fort Magistrate’s Court also imposed a travel ban on the priest, identified as Satheeskumar Gurukkal, 34, who served as the chief priest of the Sri Sivasubramaniyar Temple in Slave Island and has since gone into hidi


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Japan Gives Sri Lanka Rs. 591 Million to Educate Future Government Leaders

Japan Gives Sri Lanka Rs. 591 Million to Educate Future Government Leaders

COLOMBO — Japan has provided Sri Lanka with a grant of 282 million yen, about 591 million Sri Lankan rupees, to fund postgraduate study in Japan for 15 Sri Lankan public-sector officials, the Japanese Embassy in Colombo said Monday. The funding, provided under Japan’s Human Resource Development Scholarship program, known as JDS, will enable the officials to pursue two-year master’s degree programs at Japanese universities beginning in 2027. The scholarship program aims to develop a new generat


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Pillayan Among Four Indicted in Killing of Eastern University Vice-Chancellor

Pillayan Among Four Indicted in Killing of Eastern University Vice-Chancellor

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s attorney general has indicted former Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan and three other men in the abduction and killing of an Eastern University vice-chancellor who disappeared in Colombo nearly two decades ago, bringing one of the country’s most prominent wartime disappearance cases before a criminal court. The indictments were filed in the Polonnaruwa High Court over the abduction and killing of Prof. Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath, who was vic


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Sinhala Nationalist Monk Invokes Prabhakaran to Rebuke Sinhala Voters

Sinhala Nationalist Monk Invokes Prabhakaran to Rebuke Sinhala Voters

COLOMBO —A controversial Sinhala nationalist Buddhist monk invoked Velupillai Prabhakaran, the slain leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, to rebuke Sinhala voters for what he described as their tendency to quickly forget the past and repeatedly make poor political choices. Ittekande Saddhatissa Thera, general secretary of the Sinhala nationalist organisation Ravana Balaya, said Sinhala voters had proved correct a remark he attributed to Prabhakaran: that they remember events for only


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Meet Our Authors

Be the first to know

Join our community and get notified about upcoming stories

Subscribing...
You've been subscribed!
Something went wrong