Sri Lanka clashes claim 43: military

May 4, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka bombed a rebel storage facility on Sunday, while heavy fighting in the island’s north claimed the lives of at least 35 Tiger rebels and eight soldiers, the defence ministry said.Air force fighter jets dropped bombs over a rebel supply and storage facility in the guerrilla-controlled northern district of […]

Sri Lanka fighting claims 7 lives: military

May 3, 2008 (AFP) – At least seven combatants have been killed in fresh ground fighting between security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka’s embattled north, the defence ministry said Saturday. Government troops shot dead four Tiger rebels in clashes in the Weli Oya, Mannar and Jaffna regions on Friday, a ministry statement […]

Sri Lanka media watchdog slams govt, Tamil Tigers

May 03, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement (FMM) has said media freedom in the island remains under threat by both parties to the internal conflict, the government and the Tamil Tigers. In a World Press freedom day statement, the media watchdog urged an immediately halt to all threats, harassment, abductions and attacks […]

Fighting kills 35 in Sri Lanka: military

May 2, 2008 (AFP) – At least 34 Tamil Tiger rebels and a soldier died in the latest battles in the island’s restive north, the defence ministry said Friday.Security forces smashed rebel bunkers and engaged in artillery fire with Tamil separatists in the regions of Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar and Weli Oya on Thursday killing 34 […]

UNITED NATIONS, April 30, 2008 (AFP) – India, the Philippines, Mexico and Colombia — all democracies — were cited Wednesday among 13 countries with the poorest records of prosecuting murders of journalists, in a list released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The CPJ noted that while Iraq, Sierra Leone and Somalia, all four […]

Sri Lankan police arrest UN aid worker for carrying pistol

April 30, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Wednesday arrested a local staff member attached to a United Nation organisation for carrying a pistol with him, the defence ministry said. Thiagaraja Prabhakaran, working with the World Food Programme office in the northern district of Kilinochchi, was held while he was being searched at a roadblock in […]

Sri Lanka mine kills two police commandos: military

May 1, 2008 (AFP) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels on Thursday set off a roadside mine in northern Sri Lanka, killing two police commandos, the defence ministry said. The Claymore mine, packed with steel balls, exploded in Kebethigollewa as troops were clearing the road for mines, the military said, adding that troops fired at fleeing […]

British police get more time to quiz Tamil Tiger suspects

LONDON, May 1, 2008 (AFP) – British police have been given more time to question three men held as part of a police probe into the Tamil Tiger guerrillas in Sri Lanka, a spokesman said Thursday.Detectives have been granted until Tuesday to hold the trio at the high-security Paddington Green police station in London. “We […]

Three arrested in Britain over Tamil Tiger probe: police

April 29, 2008 (AFP) – Three men were arrested in London and Wales Tuesday as part of a long-term police investigation into the Tamil Tigers guerrillas in Sri Lanka, Scotland Yard said.The trio were arrested in dawn raids at homes and business addresses in Newtown, mid-Wales; Mitcham, southwest London; and in the county of Surrey, […]

Iranian president touch down in Pakistan before Sri Lanka vist

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, April 28, 2008 (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived Monday in Pakistan for a brief visit to meet the country’s new government and his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf.Ahmadinejad’s plane touched down at Chaklala Airbase in Rawalpindi, a garrison city adjoining Islamabad, where an air force honour guard greeted him on the tarmac, […]

Sri Lanka bomb defused at bus station: police

April 28, 2008 (AFP) – A powerful bomb was found and defused at a crowded bus station in northwestern Sri Lanka early Monday, minutes before the device had been set to go off, police said. The parcel bomb equipped with a timing device was discovered in Galgamuwa, some 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of the […]

Tamil Tiger aircraft bomb Sri Lanka military targets

April 27, 2008 (AFP) – Tiger rebels using light aircraft bombed military targets in northeastern Sri Lanka early Sunday as security forces launched a fresh ground offensive after a deadly bus bombing, officials said. . The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) hit two military installations in the Weli Oya region, where security forces launched […]

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