THERE are signs that the international community is gearing up for action to hold Sri Lanka accountable for alleged war crimes committed by its forces at the end of the brutal civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009. A resolution is being prepared for next month’s session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva ...

“I believe a journalist can change the world,” says exiled Sri Lankan journalist Sonali Samarasinghe, “if not why are we here then”. Sonali is one of three exiled journalists, from the minority Tamil and majority Sinhalese communities, whose stories are told in a new Norwegian film, Silenced Voices, by Beate Arnestadpreviewed last night at the Fritt ...

Francis Harrison, former BBC foreign correspondent whose book of accounts of survivors from Sri Lankas civil war is to be published this summer, says in an article in the Dawn, that there are "signs that the international community is gearing up for action to hold Sri Lanka accountable

A UN special envoy arrived Friday for talks with the new administration in the Maldives, as former president Mohamed Nasheed called for fresh elections after being ousted in what he called a coup d'etat, AFP reported. Assistant Secretary General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco reached the capital Male early Friday and was due to hold talks with new president Mohamed Waheed. “There will be a meetin...

During a meeting with the media the ousted Maldivian President said he will not consider leaving the country and would fight for a return to power, the BBC reported. Further a video clip on the BBC website captures President Nasheed commenting that should he leave the "

BBC Colombo correspondent Charles Haviland has been injured in a road accident in Sri Lanka's Yala National Park in the South, a report in a Sinhala website said.

BBC Colombo correspondent Charles Haviland has been injured in a road accident in Sri Lanka`s Yala N..

Feb 08, Colombo: BBC Colombo correspondent Charles Haviland has been injured in a road accident in Sri Lanka's Yala National Park in the South, a report in a Sinhala website said.

The extrajudicial killing of civilians, surrendering soldiers and dissident journalists under the direction of the Sri Lankan government has been alleged by a former general in the Army who was extremely well-placed to comment on military activity during the island nation’s bloody civil war. The source, whose name is withheld for reasons of safety, had high-level ...

The 200 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees stranded in West Africa are enduring miserable conditions in Togo, the BBC reported. They say they are living on meagre rations and face the prospect of imminent deportation home. The refugees say they are being detained by the army in an open sports stadium

 In a human smuggling operation gone sour, around 200 Sri Lankan refugee claimants hoping to come to Canada are stranded in West Africa, the BBC reported The BBC  reports that 200 Sri Lankans  travelled through India and Ethiopia before a smuggler abandoned them in Togo instead

Two hundred Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka are stranded in West Africa, BBC reports, after the human smuggling ring they hired to bring them to Canada marooned them in Togo. The BBC says the contingent travelled by ship from Sri Lanka to India, then on to Ethiopia before flying to Togo

Some two hundred Sri lankan refugees stranded in the tiny West African state of Togo have told the BBC that they fear for their life if they are deported back to their country. .

Stranded refugees from Sri Lanka, in the tiny West African state of Togo have told the BBC that they fear for their life if they are deported .

“Undercover Princes”: If the title makes you think of dashing Hohenzollerns trading secrets in romantic locales, think again. For one thing, the reality dating series of this title, beginning on Tuesday on TLC, is set not in Venice or Gstaad or even London but in the chip shops and seaside pubs of Brighton, England, which looks ...

News Pre-premiere of ‘Silenced Voices – Tales of Sri Lankan Journalists in Exile’ and panel debate   The Fritt Ord Foundation invites the public to a debate and film screening of Silenced Voices – Tales of Sri Lankan Journalists in Exile on Thursday 9 February 2012, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Vika Cinema (Vika 2) in Oslo. There will be ...

BBC WS speak to Shehan Karunatilaka whose debut novel set in Cricket-mad Sri Lanka won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

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BBC: At least 31 people have been injured in clashes between guards and rioting inmates at Welikada prison yesterday. Most of the injured are prisoners who were shot by guards. Police deny claims that three inmates were killed. Several buildings were set alight in the remand wing of Colombo’

Sri Lanka has reportedly ordered 161 foreign Muslim preachers to leave the country for flouting visa regulations. A senior immigration official was quoted as saying that the clerics had no right to preach in mosques because they had arrived on tourist visas, BBC reports. .

It’s December 2010, and two young law students are sitting for their exam. The one is in a hall full of students, who are being monitored closely by the examiner to make sure they’re following the rules: no phones, no electronic devices, no cheating. The other, meanwhile is taken to a private air conditioned room with a computer ...

By Tisaranee Gunasekara “Nothing is closer to the law of the jungle than a system of distorted laws and procedures” Haaretz Editorial (2.1.2012) President Rajapaksa won the Eelam War, with the help of countless others (including the imprisoned Gen. Fonseka). In fairytales, the hero who saves a country from some deadly peril is rewarded with ...

The Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover’s sensational new SUV – a car that won 34 international awards in the three months after its first production model came off the line in September 2011 – has arrived in Sri Lanka. The smallest, lightest, most fuel-efficient Range Rover ever produced, the Evoque has been described as ‘one ...

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 ...

(Srilankamirror) - Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has denied the Sri Lankan government was under pressure from India to devolve more powers to the provinces. "No no no no, there was no pressure. Neither India nor other country can dictate how our country is governed," he has said. Mr. de Silva, who is heading the SLFP delegation to talks with the TNA, was responding to a question...

The head of a UK charity that sent a consignment of wheelchairs to Sri Lanka has condemned the decision to impose customs duties of over $8,000 (£5,180), the BBC reported. Peter Thompson, of the Yorkshire-based PhysioNet charity, said the shipment for Tamil war victims

“…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 ...

The head of a UK charity has condemned the imposing of a customs duty of over US$ 8000  for a consignment of wheel chairs that were sent to Sri Lanka for war victims, the BBC website reported. Peter Thompson, of the Yorkshire-based PhysioNet charity, said the shipment for war victims

More than 26,000 displaced people are yet to be allowed to resettle in their ancestral lands occupied by high security zones (HSZ) in Jaffna, according to Sri Lanka's main Tamil political party, the BBC reported.   The BBC reported that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has submitted a report

Tributes have been paid to a "committed" Red Cross worker who died after being attacked on Christmas Day while on holiday, the Press Association reported Khuram Shaikh, 32, from Manchester, a physiotherapist working for the International Red Cross in the Middle East, was killed in the tourist resort of Tangalle, about 100 miles south of the capital Colombo.   Unmarried Mr Shaikh was t...