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Sri Lanka's Central Bank may return to intervening in the exchange rate if inflows fluctuate significantly, a top official said here on Tuesday.
Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivaard Cabraal failed to rule out the possibility of intervention in the exchange rate during a press conference insisting that if necessary the monetary organization will intervene to control the rupee.
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AP via PTI | Deccan Chronicle
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Dozens of Buddhists led by monks joined a demonstration on Monday urging Sri Lanka's government to proceed with plans to dismantle a mosque located in a sacred Buddhist area.
The protesters marched peacefully through Kalutara town, south of Colombo. Last month, thousands of Buddhist monks and lay supporters stormed the mosque in the central town of Dambulla, saying it was constructed illegally.
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By R. K. Radhakrishnan | The Hindu
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At the end of a short-lived war waged through the media by a few diplomats, the Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said that it had transferred its Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Tamara Kunanayakam, and appointed “team player” Ravinatha Aryasinha as the new Ambassador.
Mr. Aryasinha, is now the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union. Ms. Kunanayakam, a Tamil, has been posted to Cuba.
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By Dr Kumar David | South Asia Analysis Group
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It is alarming,
what is happening to the Muslims in Sri Lanka. There is a 50:50 chance it will
blow up into unrest and instability – I will explain anon why I have hedged my
bets. However, there is a disease these events have exposed about which there
can be no doubt. This is a deep animosity towards Muslims, which remained
buried during the civil war against the Tamils, and has now broken out into the
open. Explicit expressions proliferate on the web and in the media – even
international sites like Youtube are used for an outpouring of hate mail. Here
are two printable quotes from the web to convey the gist of it – I cannot quote
more juicy examples littered with obscene expletives, or because they are in
Sinhala.
Quote 1: “My Muslim
brothers. Plz remember this is not a islamic republic where ‘sharia’ law is
practised…
Sri-lanka is a majority sinhala country where 74% of the population are
sinhalese.. YOU HAVE MORETHAN ENOUGH PREVILAGES HERE. NO PANIC PLZ….WE WILL NEVER LET YOU TO EAT INTO OUR HERITAGE AND OUR RELIGION..”
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P.K.Balachandran | Express News Service
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There are up to 90,000 war widows in the Tamil-speaking Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka, according to the latest report of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Human Rights and Democracy.
The report for 2011 released by Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday noted that disappearances and abductions continued in 2011 with a sharp rise in the number of disappearances towards the end of the year.
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By Ravi Nessman | Associated Press
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A report from a U.N. mine removal expert says unexploded cluster munitions have been found in northern Sri Lanka, appearing to confirm, for the first time, that they were used in that country's long civil war.
The revelation is likely to increase calls for an international investigation into possible war crimes stemming from the bloody final months of fighting in the quarter-century civil war that ended in May 2009. The government has repeatedly denied using cluster munitions during the final months of fighting.
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A strike is in force across Muslim areas of eastern Sri Lanka, following threats against a mosque in the central town of Dambulla.
Many public services have shut down, although Muslim-led demonstrations have been halted by the military.
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By BBC Sinhala
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A senior Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka who led the protest in Dambulla against a mosque and a Hindu Kovil charged the video footage reporting the attack was fake.
Over a thousand people waving Buddhist flags forcibly stopped Friday prayers in the Masjidul Kairiya mosque in Dambulla and destroyed the contents of the mosque.
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By R. K. Radhakrishnan | The Hindu
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An English newspaper in Sri Lanka has claimed that no discussion was held regarding devolution of powers to States when a delegation of Indian MPs met President Mahinda Rajapaksa on April 21, and when he met the leader of the delegation for an unscheduled meeting on April 20.
“The Sri Lankan government on Monday strongly denied a statement attributed to Indian Opposition Leader Sushma Swaraj, that her delegation had received an assurance from Mr. Rajapaksa on his commitment to the 13th Amendment, and his readiness to go even beyond it,” the newspaper, The Island, reported on Tuesday.
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AFP | NY Daily News
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Sri Lanka's president has rejected a call by Indian legislators to withdraw soldiers from the island's former war zone in the north where minority Tamils are concentrated, his spokesman said Sunday.
President Mahinda Rajapakse told a delegation of visiting Indian lawmakers that troops could not be pulled out despite the end of the decades-long Tamil separatist war in 2009.
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