Sri Lankan AI News Summary

SRI LANKA DAILY NEWS DIGEST — Tuesday, August 11, 2026 DRUGS AND CRIME The government is weighing the death penalty for drug-related offences, a possibility raised at Monday's meeting of the "Ratama Ekata" (Country Together) National Operation Council at the Presidential Secretariat. Separately, officials told the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Governance, Justice and Civil Protection that only 1,506 of the 4,962 inmates convicted of drug offences are currently in rehabilitation programmes. In a cross-border policing success, 41-year-old organised crime suspect Dhanushka Kaushalya, alias "Ratmalana Saima," wanted under an Interpol Red Notice, has been arrested in Malaysia and returned to Sri Lanka along with two other suspects, following a joint operation by local and international law enforcement. POLITICS AND COURTS Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam was released on bail after being produced before Kaduwela Magistrate Aruna Buddhadasa today. A company has been fined Rs. 80,000 by the Kurunegala Magistrate's Court for manufacturing and selling safety helmets carrying a falsely printed SLS standard logo without certification from the Sri Lanka Standards Institution. ENERGY AND ECONOMY Commercial-scale battery energy storage systems installed at 16 electricity transmission substations nationwide are expected to be connected to the national grid in early September. The Health Ministry has warned that misleading media reports on the use of firewood for cooking risk causing unnecessary public alarm and creating problems for the energy sector. The Colombo Stock Exchange opened the week mixed on Monday, 10 August. The All Share Price Index rose for a fourth consecutive session, while the S&P Sri Lanka 20 Index closed marginally lower. EDUCATION Sri Lanka ranks 73rd out of 123 countries and regions in the 2025 EF English Proficiency Index, placing it in the "Low Proficiency" band. INTERNATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENT The world's oceans recorded their hottest-ever July temperatures, driven in part by developing El Nino conditions in the Pacific, according to the EU's climate monitoring service. In Australia, police investigating a body found in a suitcase concluded the "victim" was a lifelike doll. TECHNOLOGY Google has confirmed that its Drive desktop app stopped supporting automatic Google Photos backup from August 10, 2026. Users who relied on the desktop client to sync photos and videos will no longer see new media backed up automatically.