News stories by Amantha Perera, page 18

If Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa appears unassailable after the September ratification of a constitutional amendment lifting a limit on presidential terms, blame the main opposition party.

The European Union’s decision to suspend trade preferences for Sri Lankan exports may have finally come into force, but the island nation is not budging an inch on any of the powerful bloc’s recommendations on its controversial human rights record.

It is an odd location to open a new restaurant, right in front of a row of buildings whose roofs have been blown off by artillery fire and whose walls are pockmarked by gunfire.

It was a typically hot, humid day in this eastern coastal village. The sun burned down from a cloudless sky, roasting the skin as an angry sea breeze swatted the faces of the few foolish enough to venture out onto the deserted main road that runs through town.

Janoshini Maurasini shakes like a leaf each time the sea belches a thunderous roar. And the 29-year-old mother of two has good reason to be nervous: Maurasini only narrowly escaped with her life in the Indian Ocean tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, which killed over 35,000 of her fellow Sri Lankans within minutes.

For almost two decades, Athanayakemudiyanselage Punchibanda lived without hope of ever returning here to his native village.

With thousands of war affected civilians still without livelihood and an economy still reeling from the aftermath of a decades-long conflict in Sri Lanka’s northern region, plans should be in place to revive local economies and jobs, says a top United Nations official.

Sri Lankans should be ready for more urban flash flooding, like those experienced in May, unless proper infrastructure is built to allow the onrushing waters to flow unhindered, experts warn.

It is Saturday morning and the Pollhana beach, 160 kilometres south of the capital Colombo, is jampacked as usual with local and foreign tourists alike, who are either playing in the sand or bathing in its calm, shallow water, which is gleaming under the sunlight.

It is Saturday morning and the Pollhana beach, 160 kilometres south of the capital Colombo, is jampacked as usual with local and foreign tourists alike, who are either playing in the sand or bathing in its calm, shallow water, which is gleaming under the sunlight.