Dhaka, Nov. 29 -- Sri Lanka has closed government offices and schools as the death toll from floods and landslides across the country has risen to 56, with more than 600 houses damaged, according to officials.
Sri Lanka began grappling with severe weather last week, and the conditions worsened on Thursday with heavy downpours that flooded homes, fields and roads, and triggered landslides across the country.
More than 25 people were killed on Thursday in landslides in the central mountainous tea-growing regions of Badulla and Nuwara Eliya, which is about 300km (186 miles) east of the capital, Colombo.
Another 21 people were missing and 14 were injured in the Badulla and Nuwara Eliya areas, according to the government's disaster management...