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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Parliament descended into disorder on Tuesday when opposition lawmakers protested the government’s refusal to allow an urgent debate on persistent judicial vacancies and a contentious proposal to extend the retirement age of senior judges, prompting the Speaker to suspend proceedings for 10 minutes. The confrontation began after opposition legislators, led by Ajith P. Perera of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, pressed for immediate discussion of long-unfilled positio

RATMALANA, Sri Lanka — The United States has transferred 10 TH-57 Sea Ranger (Bell 206) helicopters to the Sri Lanka Air Force, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Colombo on Tuesday. The handover took place at Ratmalana Air Force Base in the presence of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, U.S. Pacific Air Forces Commander General Kevin Schneider, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Paul Kapur, the embassy said. According to the U.S. Embassy, the helicopters were trans

COLOMBO — The Embassy of France in Sri Lanka and the Maldives will stage two free public concerts this month, in Colombo on June 21 and in Kandy on June 23, as part of the Fête de la Musique, the annual French music festival now celebrated in more than 120 countries. The French singer and writer Kelly ou moi, whose work draws on the blues, will headline both evenings, the embassy said. She will be joined by the disc jockey Chandana and the Sri Lankan band DotDotay. The Colombo concert will beg

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A day after a bitter confrontation with fellow Tamil lawmaker Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam at a local government coordination meeting, Member of Parliament Archchuna Ramanathan on Friday removed a protest cutout bearing his image that had been adorned with a garland of slippers. The incident followed a tense exchange on Thursday at a coordinating committee meeting in Tellippalai, where Mr. Ramanathan and Mr. Ponnambalam, leader of the Tamil National People’s Front, engaged in a

GALLE, Sri Lanka — Disaster-management officials from the United States and Sri Lanka concluded a three-day workshop in the southern coastal city of Galle on Thursday with a simulated emergency exercise aimed at strengthening coordination during major natural disasters and humanitarian crises. The workshop, held from June 16 to 18, was organized by the U.S. Embassy in Colombo in partnership with the U.S. military’s Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, the Mo

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal on Thursday postponed until June 24 a petition by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa seeking to prevent his arrest under the country’s anti-terrorism law in connection with the investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings. The court declined to issue interim relief restraining investigators from taking action against Mr. Rajapaksa while the case is pending, leaving open the possibility of his arrest before the next hearing. Mr. Rajapaksa