COLOMBO: A television cameraman was arrested on Thursday after a police officer assigned to former President Ranil Wickremesinghe's security detail alleged that the cameraman struck him on the head with a camera outside a Colombo court. The incident took place on Wednesday near the main entrance of the Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court as Wickremesinghe was leaving after a hearing in a case concerning the alleged misuse of public funds for a trip to Britain. Video footage recorded by journalists

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Japan has provided more than $447,000 for a new demining project in northern Sri Lanka, where land mines and unexploded ordnance from the civil war still restrict resettlement and economic activity more than 17 years after the fighting ended. The $447,432 grant, equivalent to about 148 million Sri Lankan rupees, will finance humanitarian demining by the Skavita Humanitarian Assistance and Relief Project, known as SHARP, according to the Japanese Embassy in Colombo. Akio Is

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal has ordered the arrest of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, the general secretary of the hard-line Buddhist organization Bodu Bala Sena, after he failed to appear in court in proceedings concerning a contempt-of-court sentence from which he had previously been released by a presidential pardon. A two-judge bench comprising Justices Mayadunne Corea and Lakmali Karunanayake issued the warrant on Tuesday, Sept. 29, directing the inspector general of

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ordered a former cabinet minister on Tuesday to pay about 6.6 million rupees to the state and publicly apologize after finding that his use of a government vehicle for personal purposes violated the constitutional right to equality. A.H.M. Fowzie, a veteran politician who served in several ministerial positions, was ordered to pay 1,664,334.93 rupees within one month to reimburse expenses associated with the vehicle and an additional 5 million rupe

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Douglas Devananda, a former Sri Lankan cabinet minister and longtime Tamil political leader, has demanded 100 million rupees in damages from the Tamil-language newspaper Uthayan, accusing it of publishing a false and defamatory account of his recent questioning by investigators. The demand follows an inquiry last week in which Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department questioned Mr. Devananda over statements made by Hanzeer Azad Maulana, a former aide to Sivanesathurai C

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Patali Champika Ranawaka, a former Sri Lankan cabinet minister, said on Monday that efforts were underway in the country’s east to revive the Islamist extremist network of Zahran Hashim, who led the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, and that some defendants acquitted last week in the main trial over the attacks had joined it. Speaking at a news conference in Colombo, Mr. Ranawaka said a man named Siyam had been appointed in the Kalmunai area, in the Eastern Province, as a new le

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka — Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, a Tamil opposition lawmaker and the parliamentary leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi, on Monday called Rohana Wijeweera a “terrorist” and questioned why the Sri Lankan state could officially commemorate the founder of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the main constituent of the governing National People’s Power coalition, while police removed a bust of the Tamil Tiger figure Thileepan from a memorial site in Nallur, Jaffna. “Tributes are hel