August 2026

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's weather authority says an unusually powerful El Niño is likely to develop by the end of the year, arriving just as reservoirs across the country are running low. The Department of Meteorology now puts the probability of a "very strong" El Niño at about 90 percent, said Ajith Wijemanna, the department's director general. He said there was roughly a 70 percent chance the event would exceed the intensity of any El Niño recorded since 1950. The forecast tracks closely with re

COLOMBO — Japan has provided Sri Lanka with a grant of 282 million yen, about 591 million Sri Lankan rupees, to fund postgraduate study in Japan for 15 Sri Lankan public-sector officials, the Japanese Embassy in Colombo said Monday. The funding, provided under Japan’s Human Resource Development Scholarship program, known as JDS, will enable the officials to pursue two-year master’s degree programs at Japanese universities beginning in 2027. The scholarship program aims to develop a new generat