BBC WS speak to Shehan Karunatilaka whose debut novel set in Cricket-mad Sri Lanka won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

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BBC: At least 31 people have been injured in clashes between guards and rioting inmates at Welikada prison yesterday. Most of the injured are prisoners who were shot by guards. Police deny claims that three inmates were killed. Several buildings were set alight in the remand wing of Colombo’

Sri Lanka has reportedly ordered 161 foreign Muslim preachers to leave the country for flouting visa regulations. A senior immigration official was quoted as saying that the clerics had no right to preach in mosques because they had arrived on tourist visas, BBC reports. .

It’s December 2010, and two young law students are sitting for their exam. The one is in a hall full of students, who are being monitored closely by the examiner to make sure they’re following the rules: no phones, no electronic devices, no cheating. The other, meanwhile is taken to a private air conditioned room with a computer ...

By Tisaranee Gunasekara “Nothing is closer to the law of the jungle than a system of distorted laws and procedures” Haaretz Editorial (2.1.2012) President Rajapaksa won the Eelam War, with the help of countless others (including the imprisoned Gen. Fonseka). In fairytales, the hero who saves a country from some deadly peril is rewarded with ...

The Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover’s sensational new SUV – a car that won 34 international awards in the three months after its first production model came off the line in September 2011 – has arrived in Sri Lanka. The smallest, lightest, most fuel-efficient Range Rover ever produced, the Evoque has been described as ‘one ...

Below is an interview with Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleke published in the French Diplomatic Review – La Lettre Diplomatique (The Diplomatic Letter) Two years after the end of a three decades conflict, the lifting of the emergency rule in late August 2011 confirmed the beginning of a new era for Sri Lanka. With the recent discovery of ...

(Srilankamirror) - Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has denied the Sri Lankan government was under pressure from India to devolve more powers to the provinces. "No no no no, there was no pressure. Neither India nor other country can dictate how our country is governed," he has said. Mr. de Silva, who is heading the SLFP delegation to talks with the TNA, was responding to a question...

The head of a UK charity that sent a consignment of wheelchairs to Sri Lanka has condemned the decision to impose customs duties of over $8,000 (£5,180), the BBC reported. Peter Thompson, of the Yorkshire-based PhysioNet charity, said the shipment for Tamil war victims

“…by clever and persevering use of propaganda, even heaven can be represented as  hell to the people, and conversely the most wretched life as paradise”. Hitler (Mein Kampf) By Tisaranee Gunasekara Impunity is illimitable.   If the law was allowed to take its normal course after the Kolonnawa mini-war, the Christmas Eve murder of a ...

The head of a UK charity has condemned the imposing of a customs duty of over US$ 8000  for a consignment of wheel chairs that were sent to Sri Lanka for war victims, the BBC website reported. Peter Thompson, of the Yorkshire-based PhysioNet charity, said the shipment for war victims

More than 26,000 displaced people are yet to be allowed to resettle in their ancestral lands occupied by high security zones (HSZ) in Jaffna, according to Sri Lanka's main Tamil political party, the BBC reported.   The BBC reported that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has submitted a report

Tributes have been paid to a "committed" Red Cross worker who died after being attacked on Christmas Day while on holiday, the Press Association reported Khuram Shaikh, 32, from Manchester, a physiotherapist working for the International Red Cross in the Middle East, was killed in the tourist resort of Tangalle, about 100 miles south of the capital Colombo.   Unmarried Mr Shaikh was t...

The Tamil hit song ‘Kolaveri di’ has become a hit in India and Sri Lanka thanks to its catchy beat and words. Now a Sri Lankan born British singer Arjun Coomaraswamy has released an English remix of the track in London and it has reached almost 2 million hits on YouTube. The English version of ...

A British man killed on holiday in Sri Lanka has been described as a “committed” Red Cross worker. Khuram Shaikh, 32, from Manchester, was a physiotherapist working for the International Red Cross in Gaza. He died early on December 25 after an attack on him and a colleague in the tourist resort of Tangalle. Four people have ...

(Srilankamirror) - Upali Dharmadasa, the main contender for the presidency of Sri Lanka Cricket has said that he was confident of taking the cash-strapped body back on track if he wins the elections on January 03. He has told BBC Sandeshaya that the main reason for the SLC to be “

Sydney Morning HeraldSri Lanka president declared poll victorFinancial TimesMahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan president, was on Wednesday declared the winner of a second six-year term in the country's first ...World Agenda: troop movements ruined Sri Lanka's reputation, observers claimTimes OnlineSri Lanka's Fonseka seeks fresh pollAFPBeaten Sri Lankan general considers asylum in Austr...

BBC NewsSri Lankan leg spinner Malinga Bandara signs for KentBBC NewsKent have signed Sri Lankan leg-spinner Malinga Bandara as an overseas player for the second half of next season. Bandara, 30, is due to arrive in mid to ...and more »

Sri Lanka may take action against defeated opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka, the defence secretary says.

Robert O. Blake, Jr. Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Washington, DC February 22, 2010 ~ Interview With BBC World News ~ BBC: What is the American view of what is taking place in Sri Lanka? Live...

The BBC's Swaminathan Natarajan reports on escalating fears about a crackdown on media and political freedom in Sri Lanka.

Defeated Sri Lankan presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka - currently detained in military custody - is to stand in April’s parliamentary polls. Party sources told the BBC that he would lead a new opposition alliance. Sri Lanka’s authorities have meanwhile announced a raft

Persons of Sri Lanka Peoples Party (SLPP), a constituent of ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), caught and held N. Parameswaran, a senior Tamil journalist in Jaffna peninsula, the correspondent of BBC Tamil service and Daily Mirror, Saturday from 9:00 a.m til 9:30 in front of the SLFP

A Sri Lankan born Tamil man has been sentenced to nearly five years of jail in Britain for creating a website trading in stolen financial information, BBC reported.

A woman in northern Sri Lanka wins a top award from the US state department for her work to unite Muslims and Tamils.

A woman in northern Sri Lanka wins a top award from the US state department for her work to unite Muslims and Tamils.

fighting of the civil war took place in 2009," BBC reported. Howitt said that there should be full ...

A teenager was arrested on suspicion of murder over the death of a Sri Lankan  shop assistant in Merseyside, UK, the BBC reported.  Mahesh Wickramasingha, 30, died after being stabbed in the neck while working at Stanley News in Kingsway, Huyton on 29 November. A police spokesman

(Srilankamirror) - Convicted Sri Lankan-born hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam has arrived at a US federal prison to begin serving the longest-ever sentence for insider trading. Rajaratnam, who was sentenced to 11 years in jail, reported to a facility in Massachusetts, BBC Sandeshaya reports