Up to 40 countries could boycott the next Olympic Games, making the whole event pointless, said Poland’s sport and tourism minister Kamil Bortniczuk.His comments came after Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia jointly rejected an International Olympic Committee (IOC) plan to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete in 2024. Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Paris […]

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in his first game in Saudi Arabia and Lionel Messi was also on the scoresheet as Paris St-Germain edged a Riyadh All-Star XI 5-4 in a thrilling contest.The exhibition match in the Saudi capital saw two of the greatest players of all time sharing a pitch together for possibly the final […]

BBC reported that a looted ancient Egyptian sarcophagus that was on display at a US museum has been returned to Egypt. The 2.9m (9.5ft) long “Green Coffin” dates back to the Late Dynastic Period, which spanned 664BC to 332BC, and belonged to a priest called Ankhenmaat. It was looted

by Sean GLEESON and Amal JAYASINGHE (AFP) Lankan security forces demolished the main anti-government protest camp in the capital Friday, evicting activists in a pre-dawn assault that raised international concern for dissent under the crisis-wracked country’s new pro-Western president. Troops and police Special Task Force commandos wielding batons and armed with automatic assault rifles charged on ...

The government of the Maldives is said to be looking for funding from the private sector for an advertising campaign to boost its tourism industry following turmoil earlier this year when its elected president was forced from office in what he later claimed was a coup. A report in Minivan News said the government had ...

Below is an interview with Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleke published in the French Diplomatic Review – La Lettre Diplomatique (The Diplomatic Letter) Two years after the end of a three decades conflict, the lifting of the emergency rule in late August 2011 confirmed the beginning of a new era for Sri Lanka. With the recent discovery of ...

“…by clever and persevering use of propaganda, even heaven can be represented as  hell to the people, and conversely the most wretched life as paradise”. Hitler (Mein Kampf) By Tisaranee Gunasekara Impunity is illimitable.   If the law was allowed to take its normal course after the Kolonnawa mini-war, the Christmas Eve murder of a ...

Noel Bruno Dawsan, a Sri Lankan, has been recognized as the world's best tour guide by the British travel magazine Wanderlust. The winner says he is delighted and will help disadvantaged people into further education with his bursary. A Tamil of Indian origin, he comes from a family of impoverished tea pickers in a remote Sri Lankan town. Mr. Dawsan was hailed by the judges as a ...

By Tisaranee Gunasekara Nazism offered….a society that had been scarred by deep divisions…a sense of lofty purpose, almost a national mission….” — Michael Burleigh (The Third Reich – A New History) Barring a last-minute judicial-intervention, the Rajapaksa plan to make ‘leadership training’ by army officers mandatory for all university-entrants will become a reality, this month. ...

The Galle Literary festival is a haven of civilised values in a country that is no stranger to strife by Robert McCrum Associate editor, The Observer, UK [Click for more pictures] Ever since the Hay festival set up shop overseas...

June 16, 2010: 11.00 am Siobhain McDonagh: (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab): I am grateful for the chance to highlight again the appalling treatment of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan Government....

The headline and two articles of four in the front page of The Sunday Leader of last week was on money. The lead article screamed “UNP Leader Got Rs. 48 mn From One ‘Donor’” . The other two titles were: “One Billion Rupees For IIFA”; “Sumal Wants Rs. 19 bn For Waters Edge”. With pulse racing ...