Several industrial and tourism zones being set up by the government will help increase the Per Capita Growth Rate and accelerate development, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said.

Colombo: Sri Lanka’s president on Sunday reimposed a four-decade-long ban on women buying liquor, just days after his finance minister had lifted the restriction.

Sri Lanka’s Northern Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran has sought greater collaboration between the Government of India and the provincial administration in the Tamil-majority north in development projects.

Marking this year’s Thai Pongal festival as an occasion to make the efforts taken by the government to take the country towards self-sufficiency in food meaningful and providing strength to these efforts, President Maithripala Sirisena extended his greetings to all Hindus across the world celebrating the festival that expresses gratitude to nature.

The Indo-Sri Lankan agreement drafted in 1987 is a sound framework that can be improved upon, say politicians and those who were involved closely with the political developments then.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) envisages Sri Lanka’s economy normalising in 2018 with the real GDP growth projected to reach about 4.6% over the medium term; however, the global lender called on the Government to continue its reform process centered on fiscal consolidation to maintain stabilisation momentum.

Sri Lanka’s central bank said it has suspended four officers and taken disciplinary action against several others following alleged irregularities in a 2015 government bond auction.

The incumbent President who was elected on January 8, 2015 had assumed duties in the office of President on January 9, 2015 for a period of six years.

According to a new system to monitor traffic offences, CCTV cameras in strategic places in Colombo would take pictures of offenders, and the picture along with the fine would be mailed to their homes, Law and Order and Southern Development Minister Sagala Ratnayaka said yesterday.

Ministry Finance and Mass media yesterday revoked the prohibition on selling liquor to women and employing women in places where liquor is manufactured or sold.

A 17-year-old detainee has committed suicide at the Pettah Police Station by hanging himself inside a cell.

The Sri Lankan rupee closed marginally firmer on Wednesday in dull trade, as dollar conversions by exporters surpassed mild demand for the U.S. currency from importers and banks, dealers said.

At the first-ever conference of sitting Indian origin MPs representing 23 countries across the world, a disquiet on the rising incidences of intolerance and hostility towards religious minorities in their ancestral land was palpable.

PETALING JAYA: The Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar (pic), is making an investment into the US$100mil industrial zone for pharmaceutical manufacturers in Sri Lanka.

One of the youngest billionaires of China, Cai Xiaoru, arrived in Sri Lanka on Monday demonstrating renewed investor confidence on the nation.

Hashini Amendra, the wife of veteran singer Victor Ratnayake, was arrested by the Tangalle Police this morning for the alleged misappropriation of Rs. 1.28 million worth of jewelry belonging to a state bank.