Category: Politics

Feb 8, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Thursday said it was not ‘unduly worried’ over a proposal to US President George W.Bush by American lawmakers to appoint a special envoy to help bring peace to the embattled Indian Ocean island.Sri Lanka cabinet spokesman and Media Minister Anura Yapa said Colombo believed the US would continue […]

Feb 7, 2007 (AFP) – International media rights groups have demanded the release of three Sri Lankan journalists who went missing earlier this week in the capital Colombo.Media organisations have described Sri Lanka as one of the most dangerous places for journalists in South Asia. The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged President Mahinda Rajapakse […]

COLOMBO, Feb 6, 2007 (AFP) – At least 17 people were hurt Tuesday when a grenade was accidentally detonated during a demonstration by a police officer at an exhibition in the capital marking Sri Lanka’s independence, police said.. Headline corrected “We have ruled out anyone hurling a grenade at the stall of the STF (Special […]

WASHINGTON, Feb 5, 2007 (AFP) – A group of 38 US lawmakers have asked President George W.Bush to appoint a special envoy to help bring about peace in conflict-ridden Sri Lanka. The legislators from the House of Representatives said in a letter to Bush that they were troubled by renewed violence and a rising number […]

LONDON, Feb 4, 2007 (AFP) – Ethnic Tamils living in Britain are being pressured into donating money to support Tiger rebels in their native Sri Lanka, facing harassment if they refuse, The Times reported in an early edition of its Monday newspaper. According to the newspaper, which interviewed a number of Sri Lankan Tamils living […]

COLOMBO, Feb 5, 2007 (AFP) – Two people were killed and five others injured in ethnic violence in Sri Lanka, a day after the president invited Tiger rebel proxies to join his government, the defence ministry said Monday.Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels hit an army camp in the island’s restive northern town of Vavuniya, killing a […]

Feb 4, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka was set to mark independence day on Sunday amid heightened security and calls from the president for fresh peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels to end more than three decades of bloodshed.As the island prepared to celebrate its national day, police discovered a powerful bomb in the capital […]

February 04 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s president invited the largest political party representing north-eastern Tamils to work with the government in his Independance Day speech and promised democratic rule to territory recently wrested back from Tamil Tiger control. . President Mahinda Rajapakse said the Tamil National Alliance, widely considered to be Tiger proxies, had so […]

Feb 3, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan police Saturday found a powerful bomb hidden in a taxi in capital Colombo — a day ahead of independence day celebrations, police said.The bomb, weighing 2.5 kilos (5.5 pounds) was found in a three-wheeler taxi parked in a garage near the Khettarama Cricket Stadium, where troops who will […]

VAKARAI, Sri Lanka, Feb 3, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapkse offered fresh peace talks on Saturday and asked Tiger rebels to lay down weapons as he visited this former guerrilla-held town.The president said he was ready to offer a political package to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end the […]

Feb 3, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan police on Saturday arrested 266 people on the eve of independence day celebrations in a security roundup after finding a powerful bomb in the capital. Mass arrests in Sri Lanka after Colombo bomb find ATTENTION – UPDATES with arrests /// The 2.5-kilo (5.5-pound) was found in a three-wheeler […]

Feb 02, 2007 (LBO) – Seven media workers were killed in Sri Lanka in the past year, with Tamil journalists bearing the brunt of the oppression, an international media rights group has said. “No suspects have so far been arrested,” the Paris based Reporters without Borders, (RSF) said in a report. “There is total impunity […]