Former Sri Lanka rebels 'abused in detention' By Swaminathan Natarajan BBC Tamil service Former Tamil Tiger rebels detained in Sri Lanka say they have been ill-treated in government camps with no basic facilities. In letters and phone calls to BBC...

By Oliver Brett It looked like a Test match that would attract only cursory interest in a calendar so bogged down with international fixtures. But now Sri Lanka’s match against India in Galle starting on July 18 will be a very special one, bringing to an end the phenomenal test career of one of the ...

By Vangeesa Sumenasekara One of the central weaknesses of the recent debate or discussion in Sri Lanka around the strange term "private" universities apropos its possible consequences to the men and women living within the national boundaries of Sri Lanka...

from BBC News: The UN's secretary-general has recalled his top envoy to Sri Lanka and is closing an office in Colombo because of angry protests over a war crimes panel....

from BBC News A Sri Lankan minister says he has begun a hunger strike outside the UN's Colombo offices demanding that it stop its probe into alleged war crimes. Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa's announcement follows two days of demonstrations outside...

By Charles HavilandBBC News, Colombo On a leafy Colombo corner, surrounded by hundreds of his nationalist supporters and Buddhist monks, Sri Lankan cabinet minister Wimal Weerawansa burns an effigy of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Mr Ban is a figure of...

Excerpts of Minister Weerawansa's interview (in Sinhala) with BBC's Colombo correspondent, Charles Haviland:...

Sri Lankan cricket legend Muttiah Muralitharan is planning to retire within the next few days, the BBC Sinhala Service reported. A source close to the player said he is definitely...

Sri Lankan cricket legend Muttiah Muralitharan is planning to retire within the next few days, the BBC Sinhala Service can exclusively reveal. ....

Sri Lankan cricket legend Muralitharan is planning to retire within the next few days, BBC Sandeshaya can exclusively reveal.

by Charles Haviland In a horrific turn of events in Sri Lanka's biggest city, Colombo, between seven and ten hawkers, homeless people or beggars have been murdered in the space of a few weeks....

Pradeep Amirthanayagam was installed as the Golden Jubilee President of the Rotary Club of Colombo West yesterday (3). The glittering event was held at the Cinnamon Grand, amidst a large and distinguished gathering comprising of parliamentarians, members of the diplomatic corps and the business community. Performances by Soul Sounds and the Police Band added to ...

Current moves undermine further Democracy in Sri Lanka By Dr. S. Narapalasingam The Government of Sri Lanka has been successful in brushing off the alleged accusations of war crimes during the final stage of the war and violations of the...

BBC Sandeshaya The detained former military commander in Sri Lanka says he is prepared to meet the special panel appointed to advice the UN chief on alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka. Gen Sarath Fonseka told BBC Sandeshaya that...

By Charles Haviland, BBC News, Colombo Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has denied reports that the government is forming an "alliance" with the "rump" of the Tamil Tigers. The rebels, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),...

The Sri Lankan Government has shown deep concern over what are called ‘Buddha Bars’ in international restaurants, states the BBC’s Thamil Osai. ....

Sri Lanka played host to its first surfing championship at Arugam Bay, just over a year after the end of the long war against the LTTE. As dawn breaks over Arugam Bay, a fisherman casts his net into the lagoon near the long, low bridge that links the remote village to the rest of the ...

By S.V.Kirubaharan, France The recent BBC series of hard talk programmes on Sri Lanka presented by Stephen Sackur was well-received globally. This telecasting has shown the good, bad and ugly sides of Sri Lanka...

By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka I hope everyone saw Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, with Russell Crowe in the title role. The BBC History channel backed it up with a two hour programme, piecing together the legend from historical fact and circumstance....

Inquiries are to be held over allegations that pregnancy test are being held prior to employing workers in tea plantations of Sri Lanka, BBC’s Tamil service Thamil Osai has reported quoting Plantations Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe. ....

from the BBC: The Sri Lankan foreign minister has said that a UN panel on human rights will not be allowed into the country. GL Peiris said that there was "no need" for the panel to come to the country...

The recent BBC series of hard talk programmes on Sri Lanka presented by Stephen Sackur was well-received globally. This telecasting has shown the good, bad and ugly sides of Sri Lanka. The true stories about the return of the internally displaced people – IDPs, the present feelings of the Tamils

BBC HARDtalk 4: Presented by Stephen Sackur: "HARDtalk has come to Sri Lanka, a year after government forces finally defeated the Tamil Tigers, to end Asia's longest running war. But now the talk is of reconciliation and rebuilding; but how...

By Matthew Russell Lee Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa administration insists that its panel on "Lessons Learned" is a sufficient response to reports of tens of thousands of civilians killed in the final stage of the conflict last year. On June 18,...

BBC HARDtalk III In the third of a special HARDtalk series in Sri Lanka, Stephen Sackur reports on what is happening to the thousands of child soldiers who took part in the war. HARDtalk is the hard-hitting flagship news programme...

June 16, 2010: 11.00 am Siobhain McDonagh: (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab): I am grateful for the chance to highlight again the appalling treatment of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan Government....

BBC HARDTalk, June 2010 In the second of Hardtalk's exclusive series of programmes in Sri Lanka, Stephen Sackur talks to journalists who live with the threat of intimidation and murder. He talks to the opposition presidential candidate, former General Sarath...

With its foreboding lighting effects that appear to have been plucked straight out of Dante's dark epic Inferno-and cleverly devised one suspects to reduce its willing, and oftentimes unsuspecting, "victims" to submission-the BBC's HARDtalk program has attained a universal reputation...

HARDtalk - Sri Lanka Part 1 - The Tamils and the North: Hardtalk on the road in Sri Lanka: In May 2009, after almost 30 years of civil war, Sri Lanka's government announced its defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers...

With its foreboding lighting effects that appear to have been plucked straight out of Dante's dark epic Inferno-and cleverly devised one suspects to reduce its willing, and oftentimes unsuspecting, "victims" to submission-the BBC's HARDtalk program has attained a universal reputation (or should that be notoriety?) for tough and bruising interviews that border on intimidation.