Colombo - Sri Lankan authorities were seeking Friday nearly a dozen men who beat a leopard to death after it strayed into a village and attacked people, a minister said.

Colombo - A firebrand Buddhist monk was sentenced to six months in jail by a Sri Lankan court Thursday for intimidating a woman whose cartoonist husband has been missing since his abduction by the military.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's jinxed second international airport was left without a single scheduled flight from Friday after the only airline using the remote facility scrapped its daily service.

Colombo - The Maldives has set the date for its next presidential election with incumbent Abdulla Yameen in a commanding position -- and his two main rivals either in jail or exiled abroad.

Colombo - Three months after Sri Lanka was rocked by deadly anti-Muslim riots fuelled by online vitriol, Facebook is training its staff to identify inflammatory content in the country's local languages.

Colombo - A Sri Lanka court on Thursday found a radical Buddhist monk guilty of criminal intimidation, the first time the notorious extremist has faced the prospect of jail.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's president Saturday warned that Tamil extremists were regrouping abroad to revive their demand to divide the island nation nine years after the end of its decades-long ethnic war.

Colombo - At a garbage dump in central Sri Lanka a herd of wild elephants forage among a mountain of rubbish, swallowing dangerous scraps of plastic mixed with rotting food in what experts warn is an increasing problem for the revered animals.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's president announced Monday he will not retire at the end of his term despite a previous pledge, and said he will seek to form a new government excluding politicians who have committed murder.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday reinstated his justice minister, who was sacked nine months ago for publicly criticising a billion-dollar deal to lease a loss-making harbour to China.

Colombo - Sri Lanka announced Friday it would establish new police posts and step up patrols at popular resorts after a spate of sexual attacks and violence targeting foreign tourists.

Colombo - Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Thursday suspended parliament until next month in a shock move amid a deepening power struggle between him and his unity government's prime minister.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe faced a no-confidence motion on Wednesday that has widened a rift in the ruling coalition and worsened political turmoil in the island nation.

Colombo - Sri Lankan police Thursday arrested a top prison official over a massacre of 27 inmates that became an icon of grave rights abuses under former president Mahinda Rajapakse.

Colombo - Maldivian authorities arrested more than 140 activists who defied a ban on rallies and demonstrated against a state of emergency imposed by President Abdulla Yameen, the opposition said Saturday.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's prime minister said Thursday that a spate of anti-Muslim riots had damaged the island's reputation as a tourism hotspot as it prepares to host an international cricket tournament.

Colombo - Sri Lankan police said petrol bombs were hurled at a mosque on Thursday as hundreds of troops patrolled a troubled central district where anti-Muslim violence has left three people dead.

Colombo - Mobs torched Muslim-owned businesses in a central Sri Lanka district on Wednesday as hundreds of police and troops struggled to restore order after days of rioting.

Colombo - Police fired teargas to disperse rioters in curfew-bound central Sri Lanka hours after a state of emergency was imposed in a bid to quell anti-Muslim violence, an official said Wednesday.

Colombo - Sri Lanka declared a nationwide state of emergency Tuesday after anti-Muslim riots left two people dead and more than 100 homes and shops ablaze in the popular hill resort of Kandy.