September 2026

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Two senior United States maritime regulators will visit Sri Lanka next week for talks on shipping, trade and investment, the U.S. Embassy in Colombo said Friday. Laura DiBella, chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission, and Commissioner Robert J. Harvey are scheduled to be in the country from Sept. 6 to 10. The visit will include meetings with senior Sri Lankan government officials and leaders of the country’s maritime industry, with discussions expected to focus

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Namal Rajapaksa, a lawmaker and the eldest son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was arrested Friday after being questioned for more than five hours over an alleged bribery case linked to SriLankan Airlines’ purchase of Airbus aircraft. The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, or CIABOC, arrested Mr. Rajapaksa after he appeared at its Colombo office on Friday morning in response to a summons. Mr. Rajapaksa, 40, is the national organizer of t

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka — An 11-year-old boy collapsed and died in eastern Sri Lanka on Thursday evening, minutes after eating a fruit he had picked up from the ground outside his home, the police said, prompting an investigation into a theory that medical evidence does not readily support: that the fruit had been contaminated with snake venom. The boy, R. Sanjeev, lived on Hospital Road in Palaiyadivattai, a village in Batticaloa District, and was a sixth grader at Navagiri Vidyalayam in 37th Vi

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka and India moved closer on Thursday to finalizing an agreement to redevelop the Kankesanthurai port in the island’s north, with officials from the two countries saying they had made progress on outstanding issues that have delayed the Indian-funded project. The talks were held at the Ministry of Energy, Ports and Civil Aviation in Colombo and led by the minister, Anura Karunathilaka. India was represented by a delegation that included Maitrey Kulkarni, the deputy h

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — M.K. Sivajilingam, a veteran Tamil nationalist politician and former member of Parliament who underwent a kidney transplant in June, has been moved to the intensive care unit of a private hospital in Colombo, according to people familiar with his condition. Mr. Sivajilingam, who currently serves as chairman of the Valvettithurai Urban Council, had remained in Colombo for continuing treatment after undergoing the transplant. He was admitted to the hospital again last week and