August 2026

Sri Lanka Weighs Executions for Drug Offenders, 50 Years After Its Last Hanging

Sri Lanka Weighs Executions for Drug Offenders, 50 Years After Its Last Hanging

COLOMBO — President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s anti-narcotics council took up the question of executing drug offenders on Monday, reopening a debate that has surfaced twice in three decades and collapsed both times. The President’s Media Division said the “Ratama Ekata,” or A Nation United, National Operations Council met at the Presidential Secretariat and concluded that trafficking now threatens the economy, the tourism industry, and the country’s social values, and that harsher laws were nee
August 2026 Article
Our Reporter

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In Shenzhen, APEC Finds a Laboratory for People-First Technology
Eduardo Pedrosa (R), executive director of the APEC Secretariat, tries a pair of smart glasses at Inno100 in Nanshan District on May 6. Zhen Jianhong

In Shenzhen, APEC Finds a Laboratory for People-First Technology

By: Sun Jin, Zhang Yu SHENZHEN — The drone hovered a moment above his open palm, then settled onto it. “Wow,” said Eduardo Pedrosa. The reaction was not on the schedule. The executive director of the APEC Secretariat was at Shenzhen Bay Culture Square on May 5, midway through the first of two working visits to the city that will host the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November. The following day, onstage at the “Tech for People” Nanshan Day event, he waved his spectacles at the audienc
Economics August 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Sallay’s Counsel Questions Political and Religious Influence Over Easter Sunday Investigation

Sallay’s Counsel Questions Political and Religious Influence Over Easter Sunday Investigation

COLOMBO — A lawyer for Sri Lanka’s former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay has questioned the independence of the continuing investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, arguing before the Court of Appeal that criminal investigations should remain free from political and religious influence. President’s Counsel Sanjeewa Jayawardena, appearing for Maj. Gen. Sallay, made the submissions on Monday, Aug. 10, as the court considered applications by several parties seeking to intervene in Sall
JM COURTS August 2026
Our Reporter

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Sri Lanka’s Judicial Age Fight Is About More Than Age

Sri Lanka’s Judicial Age Fight Is About More Than Age

COLOMBO — There were men in the hall on the morning of 29 July who have spent much of the past decade attacking one another in public. Ali Sabry, justice and then foreign minister under Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Udaya Gammanpila, a minister of the same period who has fought much of Colombo’s political class in court and on air. M.A. Sumanthiran of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi, who spent a career litigating against the governments the other two sat in. And Lal Wijenayake, of the National People’s Po
Opinion & Analysis Exclusive
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Pempalā

Pempalā

K. Mohammad Riyas Translated by eḻuttukkiṉiyavaṉ (https://ezi.asokan.org/about). from the Tamil story “பெம்பலா” (pempalā) by K. Mohammad Riyas from the short story collection titled “சிகரி மார்க்கம் (cikari mārkkam)” Pempalā ’s bicycle was absent from its usual place under the lone palmyra tree outside the village. Had he been in town, he would have been there by this time of day. He was absent yesterday, too. One of the men playing cards under the tree declared definitively that if he was a
August 2026 Story
Eḻuttukkiṉiyavaṉ

Eḻuttukkiṉiyavaṉ
India Sends a Message to Colombo — and to Tamil Leaders

India Sends a Message to Colombo — and to Tamil Leaders

By M.R. Narayan Swamy The Indian government has publicly raised a demand for early Provincial Council elections in Sri Lanka despite knowing that powerful interest groups in the country are arrayed against devolution of power. During a hectic day-long visit to Colombo on Wednesday, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri urged President Anura Dissanayake to hold the much-delayed balloting to the Provincial Councils “at the earliest”. It is the closest India has come to saying that the elections
Guest Column Opinion & Analysis
M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy
How Justice Was Derailed After the Muttur Massacre

How Justice Was Derailed After the Muttur Massacre

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — It was around 4:15 in the afternoon of Aug. 4, 2006. The men who came through the gate asked in Sinhala what the aid workers were doing there when everyone else in the town had fled, according to an account assembled by the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) from police sources in Muttur. The staff answered that their office in Trincomalee had told them to stay and wait to be collected. A home guard interrupted and said they were Tamil Tig
JM Exclusive August 2026
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
Cardinal Urges Court Not to Obstruct Easter Bombings Investigation

Cardinal Urges Court Not to Obstruct Easter Bombings Investigation

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has urged Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal to allow the ongoing investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings to proceed without interference, arguing that previous inquiries had failed to properly investigate the attacks and that the current investigation was moving in the right direction. The submissions were made Thursday by President's Counsel Shamil Perera, appearing for Cardinal Ranjith in an intervening petition filed in co
JM COURTS Story
Our Reporter

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