Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena has plenty of links to the country’s bloody past but now he needs to look to the future. He has five years left of a generous six year presidential term and will need all that time — and more — to introduce the reforms the country so urgently needs.

Italian olive grower Federico Manni is at the end of his tether.

IT’S BAD enough at children’s bathtime, telling the little darlings to desist from displacing the water all over the walls and floor. Imagine trying to bring order to 20 baby elephants as they gambol towards a river for their daily session of splash ’n’ squirt at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka.

Just over a year after a new leader was elected and Sri Lanka's business ties with China came under close scrutiny, Colombo is reversing course by resuming a stalled port project and naming Beijing as the front runner for a new special economic zone.

From Suppa Devi to 'Lion Beer' ;
A Preface for "Sinha-lé"

To restore sight to damaged eyes, doctors often need to transplant the cornea - the transparent covering of the iris and the pupil - from a donor's dead body. There is a worldwide shortage, but one country, Sri Lanka, is doing its best to satisfy demand, without seeking any reward - at least in this life.

I fell in love in Sri Lanka. It's been 24 years now, but my love endures. If anyone asks me where they should go on holiday, I invariably say Sri Lanka. Not because they'll end up marrying the person they go with (as I did), but because they will form an ardent, lifelong love for the food (as I did).