Colombo - Sri Lanka's army chief came under fire Wednesday after apparently endorsing Gotabhaya Rajapakse for next month's presidential election, a day after the front-running candidate vowed to scrap a UN-sanctioned probe into alleged war crimes.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's front-running presidential candidate Gotabhaya Rajapakse vowed Tuesday that if elected he will scrap Colombo's pledge to investigate war crimes committed during his brother Mahinda's decade in power.

Colombo - Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has decided not to stand for re-election in November polls as the politically influential Rajapakse family nominated two candidates by final registration Sunday.

Colombo - Sri Lanka announced harsher penalties in a bid to protect wild elephants on Tuesday, as investigators probed whether seven jumbos found poisoned over the weekend were killed by villagers.

Colombo - The United Nations has suspended Sri Lankan troops from peacekeeping duties after Colombo ignored repeated warnings and appointed a general accused of war crimes to head its army.

Colombo - An emaciated 70-year-old elephant that caused a social media outcry after being forced to take part in an annual Buddhist pageant in Sri Lanka has died, officials said Wednesday.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's police Thursday issued an appeal to trace seven people thought to have survived the Easter bombings but who then went missing without speaking to investigators.

Colombo - Sri Lanka has ended a four-month state of emergency declared after Easter suicide bombings by Islamist extremists that killed 258 people, officials said Friday.

Colombo - Sri Lanka Tuesday rejected as "unwarranted and unacceptable" mounting international criticism of the appointment of a general accused of war crimes as the island nation's army chief.

Colombo - Sri Lanka Friday ordered an investigation following the collapse of a skeletal 70-year-old elephant after being forced to parade at a high-profile Buddhist pageant popular with local and foreign tourists.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's Easter attacks that killed 258 people were carried out by local Islamists who drew inspiration from but were not linked to the Islamic State group, a top investigator said Wednesday.

Colombo - Sri Lanka customs Tuesday ordered the return of container loads of hazardous mortuary and clinical waste illegally imported into the island from Britain under the cover of metal recycling.

Colombo - The head of Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic Church Sunday called for the government to resign over its alleged failure to investigate an "international conspiracy" behind the deadly Easter bombings.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's president has demanded capital punishment for the "terrorists" responsible for the deadly Easter Sunday attacks just days after he blamed international drug dealers for the suicide bombings.

Colombo - International drug syndicates orchestrated Sri Lanka's deadly Easter Sunday bombings, the country's leader claimed Monday, despite earlier blaming the attacks on Islamists.

Colombo - A Sri Lankan court Tuesday rejected prosecution demands that the country's police chief and a top defence official face murder charges for failing to prevent the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's President Saturday announced he will not allow his government to conclude a proposed military deal that would allow US troops free access to the island's ports.

Colombo - Sri Lankan police arrested their top commander and a former defence chief Tuesday over alleged failures to prevent the Easter Sunday bombings that killed 258 people, spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's police chief and a top defence official should be tried for "grave crimes against humanity" over failure to prevent Easter bombings that killed 258, the state prosecutor said Monday.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's president said Monday he had rejected a telephone appeal by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to reconsider his push to reintroduce the death penalty after 43 years.