March 2026

COLOMBO, — March 24 — Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake spoke by telephone with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, with both leaders emphasizing the need to keep vital global shipping routes open amid rising tensions in West Asia. According to India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, the call was initiated by Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The two leaders “reiterated the importance of keeping shipping lines open and secure in the interest of the whole world,” it said i

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — March 24 — Iran’s ambassador to Sri Lanka said Monday that Sri Lankan naval authorities had invited Iranian vessels — including the ill-fated IRIS Dena — to visit the island, reinforcing an account first reported by Jaffna Monitor earlier this month. Speaking at a media briefing in Colombo on March 23, the ambassador, Dr. Alireza Delkhosh, said the invitation was extended during MILAN 2026, a multinational naval exercise held in Visakhapatnam, India. “During the exercise i

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — March 22, 2026 — A senior University of Jaffna lecturer killed in an alleged family plot was buried Sunday, as new details from police investigations painted a disturbing picture of the crime. Dr. (Mrs.) Thayalini Thileepan, 54, a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Siddha Medicine, was laid to rest following funeral rites held at her residence in Jaffna. Her 19-year-old daughter, one of the main suspects in the case, was permitted by court order to attend the funeral under

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s long-delayed provincial council elections appear set for further postponement, with a parliamentary panel now expected to submit only an initial report within three months. The select committee, chaired by Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, had originally been tasked with producing a report within that timeframe. But at its first meeting last week, Mr. Vijitha Herath indicated that only a preliminary report would be delivered, suggesting that further stages of rev