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COLOMBO, Sept. 19 — Sri Lankan authorities have asked Interpol to help locate Basil Rajapaksa, the former finance minister and founder of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, who has remained overseas for more than a year while two magistrates’ courts have ordered his arrest. Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala said a Blue Notice had been issued in respect of Rajapaksa, enabling international law enforcement agencies to obtain information about his identity, location or activities in connectio

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — M.A. Sumanthiran said Saturday that two concerns led him to withhold his signature from a joint opposition declaration against Sri Lanka's proposed 22nd Amendment: the document had not been given to him in advance, and his party had reservations about aligning with politicians who had acted against the independence of the judiciary in the past. “The story is not different,” Mr. Sumanthiran, the general secretary of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, or ITAK, wrote in the comme

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Several opposition leaders who attended Thursday’s meeting against Sri Lanka’s proposed 22nd Amendment have disputed published accounts of why M.A. Sumanthiran declined to sign a joint declaration, saying the explanation he gave inside the meeting was that he needed time to consult his party before committing it to the document. Jaffna Monitor reported after the meeting that Mr. Sumanthiran, the general secretary of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, or ITAK, had declined to s

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The general secretary of Sri Lanka’s main Tamil political party refused on Thursday to sign a joint opposition statement against a proposed constitutional amendment, saying he would not campaign for judicial independence alongside politicians he accused of having undermined it, according to reports in the Tamil-language media. M.A. Sumanthiran, a President's Counsel and the general secretary of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) attended a meeting of opposition politicia

MANNAR, Sri Lanka — President Anura Kumara Dissanayake laid the foundation stones on Wednesday for four new hospital facilities in Sri Lanka's Northern, North Central and Eastern provinces, a roughly 7.15 billion rupee ($21.8 million) construction program financed through Indian grants and Japanese loans that is intended to narrow long-running gaps in emergency and specialist medical care outside Colombo. The projects include a two-storey accident and emergency unit at the District General Hosp

MULLAITIVU, Sri Lanka — The 39th annual commemoration of Thileepan opened on Tuesday at the Theravil Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam, one of the burial grounds the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam built for their dead during Sri Lanka’s civil war. A flame was lit before a garlanded portrait of Thileepan. Those present observed a moment of silence and laid flowers. Members of the committee that maintains the Theravil grounds were joined by political representatives, civil society activists and people f