US, India to assist Sri Lanka military

By Indo Asian News Service | Yahoo! News

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India and the US have agreed to provide enhanced training facilities for military personnel from Sri Lanka, it was announced Tuesday.

This followed meetings Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had with General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Indian Defence Minister A.K. Anthony here.

The meetings took place on the margins of the Shangri-La Dialogue.

Sri Lanka official has 'no idea' of Prageeth's fate

By Charles Haviland | BBC News

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A senior Sri Lankan official has said that he has no idea about the whereabouts of a disappeared journalist seven months after saying he believed the man was alive and living abroad.

Human rights activists say that the remarks of former Attorney-General Mohan Peiris betray insensitivity to the plight of missing people.

Rajapaksa speech halted over Tamil protest fear

By Jonathan Miller | Channel 4

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A meeting in the City of London, due to have been addressed on Wednesday morning by the president of Sri Lanka, has been cancelled, owing to concerns over policing amid the threat of large demonstrations by Tamil rights groups.

But Mahinda Rajapakse – whose presidency has been tainted by persistent allegations of war crimes committed by Sri Lankan armed forces – will still attend a lunch for the Queen, hosted by the Commonwealth secretary general at Marlborough House on Pall Mall.

Tamils deported to Sri Lanka from Britain being tortured

By Shiv Malik | The Guardian

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The British government is forcibly deporting asylum seekers who are then tortured in Sri Lanka, according to the testimony of one victim who was left scarred and suicidal after a brutal two-week ordeal.

The victim told the Guardian he was tortured over the space of 17 days after being deported from the UK last year. His torturers accused him of passing on to British officials information about previous beatings at the hands of state officials and other human rights abuses, to ruin diplomatic relations between the two countries.