By Indo Asian News Service | Yahoo! News
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
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.
Read More
Summary only
By Charles Haviland | BBC News
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
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.
Read More
Summary only
By Jonathan Miller | Channel 4
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
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.
Read More
Summary only
By Shiv Malik | The Guardian
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
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.
Read More
Summary only
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Sri Lanka's rupee was quoted weaker around 131.40/50 to the US dollar in the spot market Tuesday while bond yields were flat from a day earlier, dealers said.
The rupee has weakened from around 129 rupees to current levels the US dollar over the past three weeks as rupee liquidity levels remained high particularly after a large unsterilized dollar purchase.
Read More
Summary only
By R. K. Radhakrishnan | The Hindu
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
The Foreign Office summoned the British High Commissioner here on Monday, taking exception to his comments on the “disproportionately high military presence in north Sri Lanka”.
“Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris made it clear that the British envoy John Rankin's comments were unacceptable and constituted interference in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka,” said a senior official.
Read More
Summary only
By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal | Reuters .............................................................................................................................................................................................
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered the early release from jail of his highest-profile political rival Sarath Fonseka, the president's spokesman said on Sunday, in an apparent bid to quell international criticism of the government's human rights record.
The authorisation for Fonseka's release will be sent to the justice ministry on Monday, spokesman Bandula Jayasekara said. The former general is expected to be free soon afterwards, but will not be able to leave the country.
Read More
Summary only
By Ramanan V.
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Three painful years have passed since the end of the bloody ethnic war. While the hawkish government of Sri Lanka is busy celebrating its military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), hundreds of thousands of Tamil people who have lost their loved once to the bloody war are forced to mourn silently. Mourning publicly is considered a traitorous act and a threat to the national security.
As usual, military parade in the Galle Face Green in the heart of the capital city is the highlight of the day’s events this year too. Foreign dignitaries and Colombo-based diplomatic heads of missions were seen shamelessly occupying the front seats of the celebrations, witnessing the military might of Sri Lanka.
Read More
Summary only
AFP | Khaleej Times
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
The United States said Sri Lanka had on Friday put forward “a very serious” reconciliation plan for the island nation following a 27-year civil war.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris held 45-minute talks here with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who kept up pressure on Colombo to probe alleged war crimes, the State Department said.
Read More
Summary only
By Associated Press | The Washington Post
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Sri Lanka’s president rejected international calls to remove military camps in the former northern war zone, as the island nation marked the third anniversary of the end of its civil war.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa said his government was not prepared to undermine national security by removing camps in the north because remnants of the separatist Tamil Tigers remain active.
Read More
Summary only
