Wing Commander Nirmal Siyambalapitiya, who lost his life in the recent helicopter crash in Lunuwila, Wennappuwa, has been posthumously promoted to the rank of Group Captain, the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) said.

Cyclone Ditwah which created terror during four frightening days finally moved away. It made landfall on Wednesday, November 26. The death toll is now put at 300, with almost 200 missing, displacing 78,000 and causing enough destruction to bring back

Concerning disaster management, successive Sri Lankan governments have behaved like monkeys attempting to build houses during a rainstorm, a damning but apt comparison for decades of reactive, haphazard crisis response.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 998,918 people across all 25 districts of Sri Lanka have been affected by the severe flooding and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah, which made landfall on November

In the wake of massive floods that have ravaged one-third of the country, Sri Lanka requires Rs. 31 billion as of November 28 for the restoration of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and damaged canals, according to a communication from the Foreign Mini

For more than a century, Ceylon Tea was not just an export crop, it was the main foreign exchange earner for the country. It was a national inheritance—an agricultural engine left behind by British planters who, whatever one may say of colonial exp

As noted last week, following the destruction of Portuguese captain general Constantino de Sa Noronha’s army at Randeniwela, King Senarat surrounded the fortress city of Colombo in September 1630 with 15,000 men.

I have an improvised gauge to predict when the JVP, the main constituent party of the National People’s Power government,captures the State. That would be the day you will witness astate-sponsored beatification of Rohana Wijeweera as the saviour o

The National People’s Power Government is moving away from science and repeatedly launching elephant-

Studies indicate a surge in the conversion of people from the Anglican and other Protestant churches to the Catholic church in the UK and the US. The converts are mainly young people but there is also a growing number of ordained Anglican priests amo

A three-year-old boy has astounded doctors with his progress after becoming the first person in the world with his devastating disease to receive a ground-breaking gene therapy.

A landmark wildlife survey in Sri Lanka’s central highlands has uncovered two rare free-tailed bat species,

Imagine that the recent incident in Trincomalee had happened inversely: A kovil, mosque, or a church is set up in Colombo, Galle, or somewhere in the South, and the Police storm the place, manhandle the clergy, and remove a statue of Jesus or Lord Vi

Colombo became the focal point of the global architectural world earlier this month as the American Institute of Architects (AIA) International Conference 2025, Sri Lanka was held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel from October 9-11.

Who hasn’t heard of Martin Wickramasinghe? The nation reveres him as a literary giant. But few know of another Martin — Martin Wijesinghe of Sinharaja — whose storytelling spirit bloomed not in bookshelves, but beneath the emerald canopy of Sri

Western colonial powers, starting with the Portuguese, ruled the coastal regions of Sri Lanka from the early 16th century AD to the early 19th century, when the British extended their rule over the entire country in 1815.

The most serious global crisis humanity faces at present — climate change — is advancing faster than we think. The final status report released by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2022 made it clear that the

Drug addiction is a complex condition that affects individuals physically and psychologically. To fully comprehend this condition, it is essential to examine the interplay of biological, environmental, and social influences that contribute to its on

The incident I am going to relate now may seem unrelated to what follows. But it is related to the theme of this week’s column – the chronic lack of accountability that Sri Lankan society suffers from. Its moral compass is spinning wildly out of

Governor Sir Robert Horton who succeeded Governor Sir Edward Barnes erected the 125 ft high Dawson tower with permission of the imperial government in appreciation of Engineer Capt. Dawson

President Dissanayake issued an ultimatum to police and military personnel involved in narcotics trafficking: resign immediately or face decisive action without protection. However, these treacherous officers are unlikely to voluntarily come forward.

An enthusiastic advocate of Renewable energy from Solar Power, has sent the following piece to the writer. ‘’More than 35 power companies have applied for the first-time, a tender issued on October 14, for a battery energy storage system on a b

With the international release of Sunny’s Mansion on the horizon, a new name has begun echoing through both Australian and Sri Lankan creative circles — Niva Perera, the Sri Lankan-Australian actress poised to make her mark as the first female ac

Radical Islamists are gaining ground in Bangladesh and Pakistan. In Pakistan, they are getting more organised, militant and terroristic, while in Bangladesh, they are expanding their ideological reach, a development which could reshape domestic elect

University Grant Commission’s failure to abide by the instructions given by Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, in her capacity as the Minister of Higher Education, on the process followed to establish the Faculty of Dental Sciences,University

The Endometriosis and Adenomyosis Association of Sri Lanka will be organising the 13th Asian Endometriosis Congress 2025 which will be held at Cinnamon Life Colombo during four days starting from 31st of this month. This year, this important event

Coconut cultivation in the Puttalam district is under threat by a yet unidentified pest, causing much anxiety to planters and coconut smallholders. A senior official of the Coconut Research Institute said the pest is spreading fast in Madurankuliya,

China’s rise to prosperity and the place it holds today as a world power is spectacular. But the road was long and hard. When Chinese President Xi Jinping talks of a ‘century of humiliation,’ he is referring to the chaos that Mao and his follow

For decades, the use of corporal punishment in schools has been justified as a means of enforcing discipline. Yet mounting evidence from psychological, neuroscientific, and sociological research reveals a stark reality: the practice does not instil l

Sri Lanka faces a renewed debate over prosecutorial independence as proposals to create a separate Public Prosecutor’s Office surface. Historical and international examples show dual prosecutorial systems often lead to fragmented evidence, politica