COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — China’s new ambassador to Sri Lanka has pledged to deepen relations between the two countries and encourage greater Chinese investment, saying he had felt “no sense of being a foreigner” since arriving on the island, according to an account of his meeting with a senior leader of Sri Lanka’s governing political movement. Ambassador Wei Huaxiang made the remarks during a meeting with Tilvin Silva, general secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or J.V.P., at the party’s h

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan authorities have seized nearly half a ton of crystal methamphetamine concealed in a shipping container at the Port of Colombo and arrested several people, including three Pakistani nationals, in one of the country’s largest recent narcotics seizures. Police sources say Pakistan-linked drug trafficking has become a growing concern in Sri Lanka, with the number of major narcotics cases involving Pakistani nationals and networks rising sharply in recent years. The

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A local councillor from Sri Lanka’s governing National People’s Power has resigned a day after his arrest over an alleged late-night attack on the home of a retired government official in northern Jaffna. Santhirakumar Kanesaruban, a member of the Vadamaradchi South West Pradeshiya Sabha, formally notified election and local government authorities of his resignation on Monday, according to a letter announcing his decision. The letter was addressed to the returning officer i

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A 37-year-old government employee and mother of two was electrocuted Sunday evening at the Uduvil Divisional Secretariat after staff members were instructed to report to the office on what would ordinarily have been a day off to prepare for a government productivity assessment scheduled for Monday. The death of Nishanthan Sinthupiriya, a development officer attached to the Indigenous Medicine sector, has prompted questions about why employees were called in on a Sunday, who