Colombo - Brawling elephants triggered a stampede at a temple in southern Sri Lanka which left one woman dead and a dozen wounded, police said Saturday.

Colombo - Police in the Maldives raided the offices of a local media organisation just hours after a documentary aired accusing President Abdulla Yameen and his government of corruption, journalists said Thursday.

Colombo - The World Health Organization has certified Sri Lanka free of malaria, the second country in the region to earn the distinction after the Maldives, the health ministry said Tuesday.

Colombo - President Maithripala Sirisena Sunday pleaded for more time to bring about reconciliation and ensure accountability seven years after Sri Lanka's ethnic war that claimed over 100,000 lives.

Jaffna - UN chief Ban Ki-moon Friday toured Sri Lanka's former killing fields and met with war-battered minority Tamils after urging Colombo to reduce the army's presence to ease tensions following decades of ethnic bloodshed.

Colombo - The Maldives said Wednesday an arrest warrant has been issued for ex-president Mohamed Nasheed for failing to return to the troubled archipelago to complete a jail sentence after receiving medical care in Britain.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's national carrier has suspended a captain who failed a breathalyser test just before he was due to fly 274 passengers and crew from Frankfurt to Colombo, the airline said Sunday.

Colombo - Expensive and high-maintenance, baby elephants have become the ultimate status symbol for Sri Lanka's wealthy elite -- a trend that has horrified conservationists and prompted a government crackdown.

Colombo - Hundreds of Sri Lankans have been left homeless after explosions at an ammunition depot on the edge of Colombo flattened houses and killed a soldier, an official said Tuesday.

Colombo - A series of explosions rocked a military ammunition depot on the edge of Sri Lanka's capital into Monday, sparking huge fires and forcing thousands to flee as debris fell into populated neighbourhoods.

Colombo - Sri Lankan soldiers pulled more bodies from landslides and distributed food and water to hundreds of thousands of residents camped in shelters on Sunday after major floods hit the island.

Colombo - Foreign aid began arriving in Sri Lanka Saturday, bringing help to half a million people forced out of their homes by rains and landslides that have killed at least 71 in a week of extreme weather wreaking havoc in South Asia.

Colombo - Desperate Sri Lankans clambered onto rubber dinghies and makeshift rafts Friday to escape monster floods in the capital Colombo as officials said half a million people had fled their homes across the island.

Aranayaka - Sri Lankan troops were digging through tonnes of mud Thursday to search for more than 100 people reported missing after landslides buried two villages, claiming at least 24 lives.

Colombo - Four elephants, including two calves, were killed by lightning in northern Sri Lanka in one of the worst wildlife tragedies to hit the country in years, officials said Sunday.

Colombo - The Maldives on Wednesday stripped jailed former president Mohamed Nasheed of his pension entitlements and health insurance, after demanding he return from medical leave in Britain.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's government Thursday announced it would ban landmines and promised to destroy its stockpiles of the explosive devices, nearly seven years after its protracted civil war ended.

Colombo - Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed has requested two more months' leave from prison after travelling to London for urgent medical treatment, the honeymoon island nation's government said Tuesday.

Colombo - The UN human rights chief said on a visit to Sri Lanka Tuesday that Britain and Sweden should accept the findings of one of his panels that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had been arbitrarily detained.

Colombo - The United Nations' human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein began his first visit to Sri Lanka Saturday to gauge the island's progress in investigating allegations troops committed atrocities during a prolonged civil war.