Our contemporary culture war around secularism and the place of religion — primarily Catholicism in Ireland’s case — in public life can be heated, especially around health or education issues.

Sri Lankan soldiers have exchanged gunfire with suspects after attempting to raid a building in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province as part of the ongoing investigation into the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks.

Sri Lanka’s president has asked for the resignations of the country’s defence secretary and national police chief after the Easter bombings

Sri Lanka’s burgeoning reputation for Irish honeymooners and well-off holidaymakers will take a hit that will be difficult to recover from in the short term after the terror attacks on Easter Sunday.

The entire South Asian subcontinent once ruled by the British is seeing religious and ethnic attitudes harden and divisions deepen, writes Mihir Sharma.

Irish tourists in Sri Lanka have been advised to stay indoors after a wave of bombings on Easter Sunday killed 290 people and left more than 500 injured.

Sri Lanka offers emerald green tea plantations and awesome hilly hikes which contrast with lazy laid-back coastal retreats and perfect stretches of sand and bustling towns, writes Isabel Conway.

DUP MP Ian Paisley has made an emotional apology to the House of Commons for failing to register two family holidays funded by the Sri Lankan government.

The Sri Lankan holidays in 2013 included business-class air travel, accommodation at first-class hotels, helicopter trips and visits to tourist attractions for the North Antrim MP and his wider family.

Nineteen people, including 12 military personnel, have been injured after an explosion on board a passenger bus in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s government has reinstated a ban on women buying alcohol and being employed in places where the drinks are produced and sold, a senior official has said.

An elephant that was part of a Buddhist procession has attacked and killed a monk, police in Sri Lanka said.

The death toll from mudslides and floods in Sri Lanka has climbed past 200, with 96 others missing, the government has said.

Search and rescue head Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe said he does not expect any more survivors to be found as rescuers pulled out more bodies.

Ninety-one people have been killed and 110 others are missing amid flooding and torrents of mud unleashed by heavy rains in Sri Lanka.

Police and firefighters are searching for anyone who might be trapped inside the building.

The death toll from the collapse of a massive rubbish heap near Sri Lanka's capital has risen to 29, while dozens more are missing and feared to be beneath the rubble.

The death toll from the collapse of a massive rubbish mound near Sri Lanka's capital has climbed to 22 with up to 20 more people feared buried underneath the debris.

At least 16 people were killed and more than 600 others fled their homes after a massive heap of rubbish collapsed on part of a poor neighbourhood near Sri Lanka's capital during festivities to mark the local new year, officials said.

At least six people were killed and 10 injured in Sri Lanka's capital after a massive rubbish dump buried an estimated 40 homes.

At least 10 people were killed and seven others were rescued after a boat capsized off Sri Lanka during a religious festival.

A baby elephant has been rescued after getting itself stuck in a drain in Sri Lanka.

Heavy rain has pounded the central Sri Lankan region where at least three villages have been swallowed up by mountains of mud, forcing soldiers and police to suspend rescue efforts.

Heavy rain has pounded the central Sri Lankan region where at least three villages have been swallowed up by mountains of mud, forcing soldiers and police to suspend rescue efforts.

A massive landslide, triggered by torrential rains, has buried homes in three villages in the central hills of Sri Lanka.

A Saudi Arabian court has decided to reopen the case of a Sri Lankan woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, according to Sri Lanka’s government.

PRICE CUT

Sri Lankan state forces and Tamil Tiger rebels “most likely” committed war crimes including mass killings of civilians during their conflict that should be prosecuted by a special court with international judges, the United Nations said.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister has defeated the country’s former strongman in parliamentary elections, blocking his attempted political comeback eight months after he lost the presidency.

Sri Lanka’s former president says he has learned from his election defeat and has promised a new approach to relations between ethnic communities as he runs for prime minister in next month’s elections.

Sri Lankan authorities are warning of more landslides at a tea plantation where a deadly torrent of mud swept away scores of homes this week.

SRI LANKA: A British tourist is to be deported from Sri Lanka because of a tattoo of Buddha on her arm.

Sri Lanka has slammed a United Nations report on the conclusion of the island's civil war, saying allegations against the government are "unsubstantiated and erroneous".

Sri Lanka’s main opposition party has described the deaths of 27 inmates after a prison riot as a “cold-blooded massacre” and demanded a parliamentary investigation into the incident.

An accidental explosion outside a police station in Sri Lanka has killed 25 people, 16 of them police officers.

Sixty people were feared dead today in an accidental explosion of dynamite meant for road construction in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s parliament started debating a controversial government proposal that would enable the president to seek an unlimited number of terms.

Sri Lankans were voting today for a new Parliament, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa looking to consolidate his political dominance after winning re-election in January and then detaining his chief rival.

Sri Lanka's former army chief and presidential candidate was hauled away by military police today from his office, political allies said, after weeks of complaining of government harassment.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa won re-election today in a hard-fought race against his former army chief for control of a nation trying to rebuild after a devastating civil war.

Hundreds of Sri Lankan troops surrounded the hotel where the opposition candidate was holed up today as early returns from the nation’s hard-fought presidential election gave the incumbent a comfortable lead.

Sri Lankans crowded voting stations throughout Colombo today in a hard-fought election to decide whether the incumbent president or his former army chief should lead the nation’s recovery from a brutal civil war.

Sri Lankan children continue to be recruited for combat despite the end of the country’s civil war seven months ago, a United Nations envoy says.