Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa met on Saturday for a virtual summit. While this is the third virtual summit of Indian PM amid the COVID-19 crisis, after meeting with Australian and European Union leadership, it is the first such meet with any leader of a country in the neighbourhood.

Sri Lanka a priority, says PM Modi during virtual summit with PM Mahinda Rajapaksa

Sri Lanka's election commission said it would censor a state-owned TV station in an unprecedented move after accusing the network of bias against the former president's brother, who is standing in upcoming polls.

Sri Lanka election chief censors state TV ahead of polls

A record number of candidates for Sri Lanka's presidential poll next month has led to the longest-ever ballot paper and the most expensive vote in the country's history, the Election Commission said Tuesday.

Sri Lanka faces costliest election, longest ballot paper

Sri Lanka's Election Commission on Wednesday announced that it will hold presidential polls on November 16, nearly two months before the incumbent's term ends. Commission chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said nominations would be called on October 7 allowing a short campaign of less than six weeks.

Sri Lanka sets November date for Presidential elections

Sri Lanka on Monday opened a Chinese-backed massive partially built tower plagued by corruption allegations, one of the white elephants started during the former strongman president's regime.

Sri Lanka partially opens troubled Chinese-built tower

Sri Lanka's parliament has blocked a visiting UN human rights expert from meeting with judges hearing war crimes cases, citing fears of foreign interference in the judicial system.

Sri Lanka blocks United Nations meeting with judges hearing war crimes cases

Sri Lanka began construction Sunday of a nearly $4 billion oil refinery it hopes will revive foreign interest in its shipping facilities after Beijing's takeover of a nearby port spooked international investors.

Sri Lanka opens work on $3.85 billion refinery near strategic port

Sri Lankan police on Saturday hunted a former navy chief linked to the kidnap and murder of 11 people in an extortion case that has attracted international condemnation.

Sri Lanka in manhunt for ex-admiral linked to extortion killings

A Chinese state-owned company marked on Wednesday the completion of an ambitious land reclamation adjacent to Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, part of Beijing's "Belt and Road" infrastructure initiative that has alarmed India and the West.

China firm completes $1.4 billion Sri Lanka land reclamation

Lankan court restrains PM Rajapaksa, cabinet from functioning A Sri Lankan court today denied Mahinda Rajapakse authority to act as the prime minister. The court suspended Rajapakse's power and said it could not function till until its legitimacy was established.

News brief: Big stories of the day

Here are the main players in the volatile political scene of back-stabbing and shifting sands in the strategically important Indian Ocean island of 21 million people.

The key players in Sri Lanka's crisis

Sri Lanka's main political parties on Monday filed petitions challenging President Maithripala Sirisena's sacking of parliament and asked the Supreme Court to restore the legislature.

Sri Lanka crisis: Parties file petitions challenging President Sirisena's sacking

Sri Lanka's strongman leader Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday called his five-decade-long association with Sri Lanka Freedom Party, news agency PTI reported. According to reports, Rajapaksa has now joined hands with the newly-formed Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP).

Confident of 'sweeping' January 5 snap polls, Rajapaksa ends 50-year association with Sirisena's party

Sri Lanka's former strongman leader Mahinda Rajapaksa Sunday vowed snap elections would go ahead to "seek a mandate from the people" after the president's sacking of parliament plunged the country deeper into political turmoil.

Election will go ahead, I am confident we will sweep the polls: Rajapaksa

Confident of 'sweeping' January 5 snap polls, Rajapakse ends 50-year association with Sirisena's party Sri Lanka's strongman leader Mahinda Rajapakse on Sunday called his five-decade-long association with Sri Lanka Freedom Party, news agency PTI reported.

Sri Lanka's largest party announced Saturday a legal challenge to President Maithripala Sirisena's sacking of parliament, a move that has plunged the Indian Ocean island nation into fresh turmoil and alarmed the international community.

Legal challenge looms as Sri Lankan main party readies to challenge parliament sacking

Two weeks into a showdown between rival prime ministers, the Sri Lankan president's party admitted for the first time Friday that it does not have a majority to get its candidate through a parliamentary vote of confidence.

Sri Lanka's disputed government admits it lacks majority

A rally of hundreds of cars carrying supporters of Sri Lanka's deposed prime minister brought chaos to Colombo streets on Thursday as they demanded that parliament be reopened.

Sri Lanka political rally brings chaos to Colombo streets

The Sri Lankan president's party on Thursday reignited a constitutional crisis over which of two rival prime ministers heads the government by insisting that parliament will remain suspended.

Sri Lanka crisis: President Maithripala Sirisena's party backtracks on parliament suspension

Tens of thousands of supporters of sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe blocked roads in Sri Lanka's capital on Tuesday, stepping up a showdown with the country's newly appointed leader -- a former strongman accused of grave rights abuses.

Sri Lanka crisis: Thousands take to streets to protest against Ranil Wickremesinghe sacking

A constitutional crisis gripping Sri Lanka since the president's shock dismissal of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe erupted into violence Sunday, with a man shot dead and two others injured in Colombo.

One dead in Sri Lanka shooting as constitutional crisis escalates

Sacked Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday demanded the parliament speaker call an emergency session so he can prove his majority, officials said.

Ousted Sri Lanka PM Wickremesinghe seeks emergency parliament session

Sri Lanka is headed for a debt crisis, the finance ministry warned Sunday, blaming a series of costly projects commissioned by the previous government for record-high repayments

Sri Lanka warns of looming foreign debt crisis

Rajapakse's party comfortably won in all regions bar the battle-scarred north and east where, as president, he brutally crushed a separatist Tamil movement to end the island's ethnic war in 2009

Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa demands snap polls after victory