CLIMATE CHANGE-SRI LANKA: Flash Floods – An Ominous Sign

As Tamil militant planes flew sorties over the national capital last week, the attention of political leaders were diverted from a worse disaster unfolding on the ground - flash floods, attributed by scientists, to climate change.

CLIMATE CHANGE-SRI LANKA: Flash Floods – An Ominous Sign

As Tamil militant planes flew sorties over the national capital last week, the attention of political leaders were diverted from a worse disaster unfolding on the ground - flash floods, attributed by scientists, to climate change.

SRI LANKA: Climate Change Worse Than Civil War – UN Expert

As the world prepares for yet another ‘scary' report by the United Nations panel on global warming and climate change, a Sri Lankan specialist in the group says Tamil rebels and government troops are actually fighting over land due to be submerged as sea-levels rise.

SRI LANKA: Labour Shortages Plunge Tea Estates Into Doldrums

Once Sri Lanka's sunshine crop and its top export earner, tea is no longer the answer to the country's economic ills, thanks to a serious shortage of plantation workers that began with the mass expulsion of 'Indian Tamils' in the 1960s.

HEALTH-ASIA PACIFIC: Stress on Community Approach to HIV/AIDS

Tired of waiting for governments to deliver on promises, activists, experts and people living with HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific will push for stronger community leadership in the battle against the disease at a regional summit to be held in this city in August.

POPULATION-SRI LANKA: Ageing Adds to Unemployment Worries

The clock is ticking fast for Sri Lanka to take advantage of its 'demographic dividend' and get young people to participate in the country's economic future - before ageing hits the population in the next 25 years.

LABOUR-SRI LANKA: &#39Ban on Young Mothers Working Abroad Hasty&#39

A ban by the Sri Lankan government on young mothers taking up jobs as housemaids in foreign countries, to minimise social disruption at home, has whipped up a storm of protests with rights groups slamming the move as hasty and poorly planned.

ENVIRONMENT-SRI LANKA: Elephants as Partners in Conservation

Decades after unsuccessful attempts to minimise the elephant-human conflict in Sri Lanka, authorities are trying out a bold experiment - allowing both mammals to live together in harmony with the environment.

SRI LANKA: Newsprint Shortage Adds to Curbs on Media

Residents of the embattled northern Sri Lankan town of Jaffna who get to see the ‘Uthayan’ newspaper often get a copy that is thumb-worn and soiled from having passed through the hands of many avid readers.

FINANCE: IMF Quits Sri Lanka – May Return

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) shut its Colombo office this month saying it no longer had a Sri Lankan programme, but economists and civil activists say the Fund is still expected to keep a watch over this war-battered nation.

RIGHTS: Maldives Unrest Worries International Community

Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia's longest running autocratic leader, is under international pressure to stop the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

RIGHTS: Maldives Unrest Worries International Community

Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia's longest running autocratic leader, is under international pressure to stop the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

SRI LANKA: Monk Parliamentarians Stir Hornets’ Nest

In the midst of the continuing debate in Sri Lanka over the moral right of the Buddhist clergy to take on politics, fresh controversy has been created by a group of Buddhist monk-MPs who have proposed laws to ban religious conversions.

SRI LANKA: Ethiopians Find Familiarity in Minefields

The slow and dangerous work of Sri Lankan de-miners, to clear the northern and eastern part of the island littered with landmines that maim and kill, is under study by Ethiopian officials currently in Sri Lanka.

SRI LANKA: Scourge of Child Sex Tourism Tarnishes Country’s Image

As tourism begins to overtake traditional sources of employment in Sri Lanka, children and young people are encouraged to migrate to tourist areas, in hopes they can earn an income for themselves and their families. The lure of this easy money has caused many young Sri Lankans, including children, to trade their bodies

SRI LANKA: Proposed Bill Indirectly Refers to Abortion Rights

When a participant rejoiced at a recent Sri Lankan discussion on the proposed Women's Rights Bill, others bluntly told her to remain silent. She had spotted a section that subtly deals with the controversial issue of abortion.

JORDAN: Away from Home, Sri Lankan Workers Seek New Relationships

Like any other domestic worker, Kanthi (not her real name) sends money home regularly to her family in Sri Lanka. But she leads a double life - she has a boyfriend and they have a child here in the Jordanian capital.

UAE: Workers, Businesses Worry as End of Export Quotas Nears

At the American Garment factory in Sharjah, an emirate about 25 kilometres from here, a few Sri Lankan workers dry clothes and chat while idling in the small factory compound. There are no sounds of machines running.

SRI LANKA: Peace Talks, Economics Priority of New Gov’t

Sri Lanka's new government is set to restart peace talks with the Tamil Tiger rebels, in a shaky process that has been complicated by a split in rebel ranks but now also has to pay equal attention to rural poverty and economic issues.

POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Peace Talks, Economics Priority of New Gov’t

Sri Lanka's new government is set to restart peace talks with the Tamil Tiger rebels, in a shaky process that has been complicated by a split in rebel ranks but now also has to pay equal attention to rural poverty and economic issues.

SOCIETY-SRI LANKA: Detained Would-be Migrants Live in Limbo

For almost three months, Shiran Russel and 268 others have been taken to a courthouse in the Sri Lankan capital every two weeks from a southern prison 45 kilometres away, unsure of their fate after having been caught trying to sneak into Italy by boat.