Sri Lankan asylum-seekers intercepted at sea could be handed back to their home countries if a Labor government assessed they were not owed refugee protection, Leader of the Australian Labor Party Bill Shorten has said.

Sri Lanka will manufacture ships and cars in some years time with the help of foreign investors, said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday.

Former President and UPFA Prime Ministerial Candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday that there were no factions in the SLFP and the party would go ahead as one entity to defeat the common enemy, the UNP.

The white van, in which three army personnel were travelling with a pistol, came for President Maithripala Sirisena, United National Front National List candidate M.K.D.S. Gunawardena said.

A 38-year-old underworld kingpin Jayaweera Patabendige Indika Nilusha alias Ukkuwa has been killed by an unidentified group of people in Tangalle, this morning (26), the police said.

JVP which launched its manifesto last week has committed itseld to an ideological struggle to bring about political changes in the country. In an interview with the Sunday Observer, former MP and JVP Propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath said the party aims at taking ‘controlling power’ of the next Parliament to work for the people.

The Sri Lankan Army has maintained that its involvement in the Northern Province is limited “only to demining, construction works and infrastructure development in connection with the resettlement of people.”

In an emphatic response to UPFA MP Bandula Gunawardena, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said there was no attempt at all to privatize Litro Gas Lanka Ltd.

Sri Lanka is investigating a Chinese firm on suspicion of offering a bribe to Mahinda Rajapaksa’s failed presidential re-election campaign, a source close to the investigation said, weeks before he seeks to pull off a comeback in a general election.

Provincial Councils and Regional Development Minister Janaka Bandara Tennakoon has sent his resignation letter to President Maithripala Sirisena today.

Sri Lanka Navy has rendered assistance to an Indian fishing trawler with 4 fishermen in distress in Sri Lankan waters on 23rd July 2015.

Seven persons including former President Mahinda Rajapaksa have been noticed to appear before the Supreme Court on July 24 to show cause as respondents in a fundamental rights case filed against them by R. H. Senaka Perera, a candidate of the Nava Sama Samaja Party contesting the general election from the party’s National List.

Sri Lanka plans to store and use a billion cubic meters of rainwater per year, which would otherwise drain into the sea, in an ambitious effort to boost irrigation and power production.

The enjoining order that prevented the publication or circulation of the COPE subcommittee draft report on the sale of Central Bank bonds has been dissolved by Colombo district court following a request made by the petitioner Sujeewa Senasinghe.