The parliamentary election will create a coalition government, as the defeat of ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa is certain, while Ranil Wickremesinghe cannot gain a majority, says JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

By exercising his powers as Sri Lanka Freedom Party chairman to appoint new General Secretaries to the SLFP and UPFA, President - Maithripala Sirisena has paved the way for several possible political changes, the 'BBC Sinhala Service' reports.

North Korea has switched to a new time zone by putting its clocks back by half an hour.

Ten cases of election violations have been reported since campaigning for the General election ended on midnight yesterday (14), reports say.

Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has called for an immediate halt of the CID investigation probing into the disappearance of Lanka E News journalist - Prageeth Ekneligoda, the 'Sath Handa' newspaper reveals, citing police sources.

Continuing climate change caused by carbon emissions from power stations and vehicles is set to have catastrophic consequences for British butterflies including currently widespread species such as the large white, small white and large skipper.