JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan Tamil widow who has lived as a refugee in Indonesia since 2014 has publicly appealed for help returning home, saying that the organization that paid for her housing and food is ending its support and that she and her daughter may soon have nothing to eat. Geethabanu Pranavan, who is from Point Pedro on the northern tip of the Jaffna Peninsula, said in a Facebook post that she and her daughter, Anchana, had been registered with the United Nations refugee agency,

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Oct. 15 – Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of a Sri Lankan migrant worker convicted of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a Facebook comment and has ordered his case to be heard again, according to a Sri Lankan lawmaker who worked on the appeal. The ruling, issued on Wednesday, also set aside the five-year prison sentence that a trial court had originally imposed on the worker, Anojan Sivarasa, 27, a Tamil from Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province. It ca

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Hindu priest who spent about 22 years in prison in connection with the 1999 assassination attempt on President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has asked a Tamil nationalist Facebook page to stop publicising his case, saying the renewed attention has threatened the life he has rebuilt since his release. In an open letter posted on Facebook on Tuesday, the priest, Brahmasri Chandra Iyer Ragupathi Sharma, asked the page, Inam Ondrin Kural, or Voice of a Race, to stop usin

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: A member of Parliament from Batticaloa District has asked the Court of Appeal to reopen a case over the occupation of traditional cattle grazing land in the Eastern Province, saying state authorities did not carry out assurances given to the court that encroachers would be removed. Shanakiyan Rasamanickam filed an application seeking to revive proceedings the court closed several years ago. According to the application, people occupying the Mayilathamadu and Mathavanai grazi