President Maithripala Sirisena said in Parliament yesterday that British Premier David Cameron had vowed to intervene and take steps to lift the EU ban on Lankan fish exports and restore GSP+ (plus) export status to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has not made a formal request for International Monetary Fund help but the fund’s staff are looking at ways to help the island nation, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe said concessionary duty free vehicle permits will be given to public sector officers once in 10 years.

A well-known comedian and character actor Sunil Hettiarachchi passed away this morning at the age of 78. He was born in born 1937.

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) yesterday announced that it would join over 18 other professional unions to stage a countrywide token strike today (03) to force the government to abandon plans to downgrade the public service.

Sri Lanka’s finance minister said on Wednesday restrictions on foreigners buying freehold land would also apply to a suspended Chinese-backed real estate project, in a move seen as addressing India’s concerns about China’s growing clout in the region.

YOKOHAMA — Police arrested three Sri Lankan and four Japanese men Wednesday on suspicion of kidnapping a Sri Lankan man living in Kanagawa Prefecture to force his brother to pay the victim’s debt.

Gunmen opened fire on a holiday party on Wednesday at a social services agency in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 17 others before fleeing, authorities said.

The second reading of the 2016 Budget was passed in Parliament today with a majority of 107 votes. A total of 159 members voted in favour while 52 voted against.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday warned that ISIS actions could trigger economic instability in the Middle East in 2016 with adverse repercussions on Sri Lanka’s economy emerging from it.

Sri Lanka will set up a special court in the next few weeks to examine alleged war crimes committed in the final phase of its 26-year conflict with Tamil rebels, a top official in charge of reconciliation said on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said today the budget proposal to impose a levy on cash withdrawals was meant to encourage the use of bank drafts and cheques for the transferring of cash.

DMK chief M. Karunanidhi today urged the Indian government to get in touch with the Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag, now in Sri Lanka, to facilitate talks with that government so as to end problems faced by Indian fishermen.

President Maithripala Sirisena said that he loved Sri Lanka as much as or even more than any other Sri Lankan and wowed that he would never compromise of national security under any circumstance.

Refugee advocates are concerned for a Sri Lankan asylum seeker on Nauru who has been jailed after he attempted to commit suicide at the detention centre there.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take immediate action on the release of eight Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy.