August 2026

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka is drawing up contingency plans to guard against disruptions to essential food imports from India, as the anticipated return of El Niño raises fears that adverse weather could damage Indian agricultural output and prompt New Delhi to restrict exports, a government minister said. R.M. Jayawardena, the deputy minister of trade, commerce and food security, said officials were examining how the country should respond if India- -one of its most important sources of foo

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A restaurant in Jaffna that had previously drawn attention for its pricing has been fined 950,000 rupees after selling a one-liter bottle of drinking water for 200 rupees, well above the government-set maximum retail price of 120 rupees, Sri Lanka’s Consumer Affairs Authority said. The Jaffna Magistrate’s Court imposed the fine on Lavin’s Vegetarian Family Restaurant on Aug. 25, following legal action brought by investigators from the Consumer Affairs Authority’s Jaffna dist

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Harshana Nanayakkara, Sri Lanka’s justice minister, said the government would repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act by the end of this year, calling the 47-year-old law incompatible with fundamental human rights. But the government is not abandoning special counterterrorism legislation. It plans to replace the law with the Protection of the State from Terrorism Act, or PSTA, an effort that has already faced opposition from rights groups and civil society organizations that

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Two Sri Lankan cabinet ministers invited journalists to a news conference in Jaffna on Wednesday, delivered lengthy remarks and then left after taking only a few questions, angering reporters who said some of them had traveled considerable distances expecting an opportunity to question the officials. Bimal Rathnayake, the minister of transport and highways, and Ramalingam Chandrasekar, the minister of fisheries, aquatic and ocean resources, held the briefing at the National