England lost their last six wickets for 31 runs as they collapsed to a 75-run defeat in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. Chasing a record 340, England seemed well set as Jonathan Trott (112) and Matt Prior took them to 233-4. But Prior’s dismissal to Rangana Herath (6-97) for 41 sparked ...

A group of world leaders formed by Nelson Mandela has urged Sri Lanka to try and avoid another showdown in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by adhering to the recent resolution adopted by the body, BBC reports.

A group of world leaders formed by Nelson Mandela has urged Sri Lanka to try and avoid another showdown in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by adhering to the recent resolution adopted by the body. Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson told BBC Sandeshaya that The Elders

  A cultured unbeaten 168 from Mahela Jayawardene lifted Sri Lanka to 289-8 after the opening day of the two-Test series against England in Galle. Sri Lanka were 15-3 after three wickets fell in 10 balls, Kumar Sangakkara out first ball to James Anderson (3-56). The skipper survived four chances, two badly spilled late on ...

Two hundred bogus asylum seekers from Sri Lanka are reportedly stranded in West Africa, according to a BBC news report.

Women who have lost their husbands and sons in Sri Lanka’s decades-long conflict have been forced to turn to prostitution, say women’s rights activists. Geetha Lakmini of World Fisherfolk Solidarity Movement said over 85,000 women were widowed in the north and east after the war. “One village in Madhu area is infamous for prostitution because ...

  The sports minister in Sri Lanka says that exclusive broadcasting rights of 2012 Olympics obtained by state-owned Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) will not be sold to private channel as reported by media. The Sunday Leader newspaper said the Carlton Sports Network (CSN), reportedly owned by President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s family, has sought the broadcasting ...

Almost three years after the end of the civil war, Sri Lanka is still dogged by allegations of human rights violations. Amid fresh moves in the UN's Human Rights Council to hold Sri Lanka to account, the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo reports on a rise ...

Below are excerpts of a 38 page paper by Brian Senewiratne (MA. MD. FRCP.FRACP) of  Brisbane, Australia titled UN Human Rights Council Meeting – Another Farce. Excerpts: “This is not a document for easy reading, nor is it meant to be. It is a reasonably comprehensive record of the abysmal record of the UN and the UN ...

Former UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes has said that the United Nations did not succeed in rescuing the innocent Tamil civilians used by the LTTE as human shields. Mr. Holmes emphasized that the United Nations had no authority under whatever circumstances to forcibly interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign ...

The director of a British documentary on last stages of Sri Lanka’s civil war has accused the West and the UN of failing to take any “effective action” to prevent alleged war crimes by the country’s security forces BBC Sandeshaya reports.

In May, 2003, I travelled around Iraq reporting on its oil industry. Before reaching Baghdad, I got in touch with Marie Colvin, who was there covering the war and its aftermath for the Sunday Times, where I worked from 1986 to 1993. She wrote back to say that she was staying at a hunt club in ...

  Girls as young as seven have been sexually abused and sexual violence against women is on the increase in northern Sri Lanka, say health officials. According to a senior health official in Jaffna peninsula 32 incidents of child abuse and sexual abuse have been reported during the last two months. Dr S Sivaruban, the ...

Sri Lanka s human rights issue are causing huge divisions in the United Nations. The member st..

The British Embassy in Colombo today monitored the return of a group of failed asylum seekers who had been deported from Britain. According to the Embassy, the British Deputy High Commission in Sri Lanka Robbie Bulloch monitored the return of 52 failed asylum seekers at the Katnayake airport. “I visited Colombo airport today to observe ...

Britain has questioned concerns raised by two charities which say that Sri Lankan Tamils deported from the UK are at danger of being tortured or raped. Another charter flight returning people to the island nation, including Tamil and Sinhala failed asylum-seekers, is due to leave on Tuesday. But Human Rights Watch and Freedom from Torture ...

Reporters Without Borders calls on all members of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council, which began its 19th session yesterday, to pass a resolution condemning the Sri Lankan government’s violations of freedom of information and to demand an end to threats and violence against news media and human rights defenders in Sri Lanka. “For ...

A teenager has admitted to killing a Sri Lankan shop worker on Merseyside, the BBC reported. Mahesh Wickramasingha, 30,  a father of two suffered fatal stab wounds while working at Stanley News in Huyton on  November 29. Sam Harrison, 19, of Salerno Drive, Huyton, appeared by video

British journalist Marie Colvin, who was contacted by the LTTE to broker a surrender during the final stages of the war, has been killed in Syria while she was covering the fighting in that country, the BBC reported a short while ago. Colvin and photographer Remi Ochlik both died in the attack

(Srilankamirror) - Mr. Rajitha Seneratne, the Cabinet Minister for Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development, when answering a question to a BBC Sinhala Service correspondent regarding the shooting of a fisherman at a peaceful demonstration in Chilaw stated that the shooting of demonstrators

Students of the Buddhist Pali University in Sri Lanka have accused university authorities of failing to take action against corrupt officials despite parliament damning the university, BBC reports. .

A few days left to the UNHRC sessions in Geneva, the Colombo-based nominated parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Mr. M.A. Sumanthiran, has come out with a statement to BBC Sinhala Service on Wednesday, bailing out the regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa. TNA backs a domestic process

(Srilankamirror) - The European Parliament has called on the United Nations to establish an inquiry into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. In a motion for a resolution, the European Parliament has called on the EU presidency, among many other issues, to urge the UN to implement the recommendations of the expert panel appointed by the UN secretary general on Sri Lanka. It comes as US Ass...

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..