HEALTH-SRI LANKA: Regulators Target Advertisers’ Wild Claims

The Sri Lankan government is clamping down on advertisers' wild claims about the benefits of certain food products, starting with new restrictions on nutritional and protein claims to take effect on Apr. 1.

POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Tamil Tigers’ Split Brings Benefits to Some

Sri Lanka's mixed population in the east may finally get a fair share in a settlement of the ethnic conflict as a result of the head-on clash between Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his main eastern commander, a tussle that has resulted in a split in the rebels' ranks.

POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Polls Cast Pall Over Foreign Aid

Sri Lanka's aid donors face the prospect of renegotiating billions of dollars in loans and grants with a new, possibly left-leaning government after snap polls called as the ruling coalition disintegrates.

RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Soldiers Regain their Childhood

Three months ago, a group of young Tamil rebels walked reluctantly into a local children's centre dressed in military T-shirts and displaying an air of militancy: shouting at staff, scowling, and being extremely boisterous.

POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Economy, Jobs are Key Issues in April Poll

While Sri Lanka's last parliamentary poll two years ago was fought over a desperate need to halt 18 years of bloodshed between government troops and Tamil rebels, fresh elections on Apr. 2 will be a tussle over the economy and jobs.

SRI LANKA: Peace Dividend Hard to Come by in War-torn Region

Visitors driving through Sri Lanka's war-battered northern region are struck by lush vegetable fields ready for harvest, rows of coconut trees whose tops have been sliced off by constant bombing - and miles of unused land.

/CORRECTED REPEAT/SRI LANKA: Attacks on Churches Reflect Religious Tensions

The attacks on two churches in Buddhist-dominated Sri Lanka highlights the religious tensions that have been growing over the years between Buddhists and Christians in this South Asian country.

SRI LANKA: ‘Free Media’ Panel Part of Political Games

Sri Lanka's media have come under the microscope once again with this week's creation of a task force to formulate a free media policy, a move that has been praised but also slammed as a political move.

DEVELOPMENT-SRI LANKA: Worries Rise with ‘Water Reforms’

Sri Lankan rights groups may have won a temporary respite in the battle against the privatisation of water services after a court held in their favour, but the campaign against what critics call the equivalent of selling the family silver is far from over.

SRI LANKA: Opportunity Lurks under Crisis of Troubled Nation

Though much of the attention around Sri Lanka's political crisis centres around the instability it has caused, the current standoff could actually result in firmer cohabitation between the feuding camps of President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe - and give a boost to peace talks.

SRI LANKA: Opportunity Lurks under Crisis of Troubled Nation

Though much of the attention around Sri Lanka's political crisis centres around the instability it has caused, the current standoff could actually result in firmer cohabitation between the feuding camps of President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe - and give a boost to peace talks.

SRI LANKA: Dismissals of Ministers Unlikely to Upset Peace Process

The firing by Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga Tuesday of three ministers has triggered a major constitutional uproar, but is unlikely to upset the peace process and a 20-month long ceasefire, analysts here say.

DEVELOPMENT-SRI LANKA: Labour Woes Weaken Health Services

Sri Lanka's free health service is turmoil, what with at least five strikes crippling services across the island nation so far and forcing the government to mobilise hundreds of soldiers to help out in state hospitals.

ENVIRONMENT: No Easy Way of Managing Elephant-Human Conflict

Experts across the world are divided over whether it is governments or conservators that must take the first step towards saving the elephant, but agree that there are no quick and easy ways of mediating in this conflict.

RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Employers Zero in on Sexual Harassment

In Sri Lankan plantations, female tea pluckers are occasionally asked to sleep with the 'kangani' or field supervisor, or find tea dust poked into their blouses by male workers. Sexual harassment in the workplace and the seeking of sexual favours are a common but largely hidden occurrence, according to studies by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

SRI LANKA: Gov’t Counts on ‘Back to Rice’ Campaign to Ease Surplus

Cafeterias in the Sri Lankan Parliament have been selling only rice, instead of bread or other wheat-based food, for all three meals in a day. Half-page newspaper advertisements, taken out by the Ministry of Mass Communications, have been urging people to eat more rice.

RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Children Speak up to Shape Education Policy

Once, at a workshop for children, government officials were busy praising the efforts of a special desk for women and children in Sri Lankan police stations, until one child asked: "But how can it be successful if no one is at the desk?"

LABOUR-SRI LANKA: Activists Bask in Recent Victories

Trade union campaigners in Sri Lanka's export processing zones are relishing two recent victories: their success in securing unionisation through referendum and the European Union's decision to defer tariff reductions on the country's exports due to concerns about workers' rights.

SRI LANKA: War-torn North Has Little to Show as Peace Dividend

When Tamil rebels and the Sri Lankan government reached a ceasefire pact in February 2001, dozens of businessmen from the south rushed to the war-ravaged northern town of Jaffna, seeking business and commercial links and raising the hopes of residents.

SRI LANKA: War-torn North Has Little to Show as Peace Dividend

When Tamil rebels and the Sri Lankan government reached a ceasefire pact in February 2001, dozens of businessmen from the south rushed to the war-ravaged northern town of Jaffna, seeking business and commercial links and raising the hopes of residents.

SRI LANKA: Twenty Years Later, Wounds of Anti-Tamil Riots Fester

Twenty years after Sri Lanka's worst pogrom of minority Tamils, an event that shamed a nation while the world looked in horror, bitterness and pain among Tamils toward the majority Sinhalese has eased, but remains hard to forget.