Latest Colombo News
Sri Lankan doctors strike over salary 'injustice'
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Doctors at state-run hospitals across Sri Lanka began a 24-hour strike on Wednesday, demanding that the government resolve what they say is a salary "injustice." Two years ago, the government gave an unusually high salary increase to legal officers in the government sector,...
Elephant injures 18 in Sri Lanka Buddhist pageant
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — An elephant taking part in a Buddhist pageant in Sri Lanka has run berserk, injuring at least 18 people. Video on Derana Television of Saturday night's pageant in Kotte, near Colombo, showed an elephant in a procession suddenly running forward. Terrified people scattered, with...
Sri Lanka court orders reburial of suicide bomber's remains
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan court on Friday ordered police to exhume the remains of an Easter Sunday suicide bomber from a public cemetery after hundreds of people, including relatives of victims, blocked roads in an angry protest. Police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters, who complained...
Archbishop of Canterbury mourns victims of Sri Lanka attacks
NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The Archbishop of Canterbury emphasized the need for Christian unity on Thursday as he paid tribute to the victims of the Easter Sunday bomb attacks at a Roman Catholic church in Sri Lanka. The figurehead of the Church of England, Justin Welby visited St. Sebastian's Church in the...
Sri Lanka attacks boost feared ex-official's bid for power
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — He is a feared former defense official accused of condoning rape, torture and shadowy disappearances of critics, but to many Sri Lankans, the opposition's presidential candidate is the best choice to protect the South Asian island nation after attacks that killed over 250 people...
Sri Lanka ends emergency rule imposed after Easter bombings
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka has ended four months of emergency rule imposed after Easter Sunday suicide attacks killed more than 260 people, the president's office said Friday. President Maithripala Sirisena allowed the emergency rule to lapse by not signing a decree extending it for another month....
Sri Lanka rejects criticism of army chief's appointment
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's government on Tuesday hit out at foreign criticism of its appointment of a general accused of war abuses as the new army commander. The foreign ministry said in a statement that the decision to appoint a new commander was a sovereign decision by the head of state....
General accused of war abuses named Sri Lanka's army chief
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's president on Monday appointed a general accused of grave human rights abuses in the final stages of its long civil war as the country's new army chief, a move a top United Nations human rights official said is likely to impact contributions to U.N peacekeeping...
Former Sri Lankan strongman's brother to run for president
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was a livewire in Sri Lanka's military campaign to end a long civil war but faces allegations of human rights violations, was nominated Sunday as the opposition's candidate for the presidential election to be held later this year. Gotabaya, a...
Sri Lanka's feared wartime official now in presidential fray
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was nominated as the Sri Lankan opposition's presidential candidate on Sunday, is a national hero to some for his role in ending the island nation's long civil war. But to his critics and victims of war and shadowy disappearances, he's a feared...
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