Water cut in parts of Colombo tomorrow

Maithripala tells Mahinda he will not be PM

President Maithripala Sirisena has written to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa saying he will not be made Prime Minister even if the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) gets the number of seats required in Parliament to form the next Government. In a letter to Rajapaksa, President Sirisena, who is also the chairman of the UPFA, said that a senior member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) who has not been the Prime Minister before, should be made the new Prime Minister in a UPFA Governm

13 Aug, 2015

Tamil detainees in Lanka still tortured, says charity

Sri Lankan security forces have continued to torture Tamil detainees even after the election of reformist president Maithripala Sirisena in January, according to a report. The report, by the UK-based charity Freedom From Torture (FFT) and published on Thursday, comes just four days before critical parliamentary elections on 17 August, the Guardian newspaper reported. The charity said that more than a third of the alleged torture victims in the report had returned to Sri Lanka from the UK, some

13 Aug, 2015

America is keen to partner with Sri Lanka

The new US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives Atul Keshap says the American people want to partner with the people of Sri Lanka as they forge a diverse, prosperous, unified, reconciled and democratic nation. He said this after taking oaths yesterday and?becoming the second Indian-origin diplomat to be posted to the region after Richard Rahul Verma, the New Indian Express reported. Keshap, 44, a former official at the US Embassy in India, was administered the oath of office by Deputy US Secre

13 Aug, 2015