million. But Sports Minister Mahindananada Aluthgamage told BBC Sinhala ...

Let’s accept it, Sri Lanka made a statement to the world that we are open for business with Expo 2012, even though it had its limitations like the faulty air conditioner at the launch that grabbed media attention. Whilst some can say that the shine was taken off the event due to the very uncomfortable ...

By Firdous Syed DNA India: There seems to be no moral justification behind the United States-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council. The massacre of ‘40,000 civilians’ and continued persecution of Tamils is a fit case for international censure; even an international intervention could be justified. That the US, motivated, or ...

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

  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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

BBC: The International Cricket Council’s chief executives’ committee (CEC) has suggested that an associate or affiliate member such as Ireland could host a ICC World Twenty20 tournament. The CEC said non-Test-playing countries “should consider submitting a detailed proposition

To commemorate the bicentenary of Charles Dickens, the Prefects’ Guild and senior students of the Colombo International School present ‘Smike: The Musical’ on 9 and 10 March. ‘Smike’, a pop musical based on Dickens’ novel ‘Nicholas Nickleby’, was created by composer Simon May, in collaboration with Roger Holman and Clive Barnett in 1973. It follows ....

To commemorate the bicentenary of Charles Dickens, the Prefects’ Guild and senior students of the Colombo International School present ‘Smike: The Musical’ on 9 and 10 March. ‘Smike’, a pop musical based on Dickens’ novel ‘Nicholas Nickleby’, was created by composer Simon May, in collaboration with Roger Holman and Clive Barnett in 1973. It follows ....

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

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

“…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 ...

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...

A British man killed on holiday in Sri Lanka has been described as a “committed” Red Cross worker. Khuram Shaikh, 32, from Manchester, was a physiotherapist working for the International Red Cross in Gaza. He died early on December 25 after an attack on him and a colleague in the tourist resort of Tangalle. Four people have ...

What to expect on 16 DecemberThe organisers behind the exciting and highly anticipated weekend set to take Colombo by storm, are ready to share their inside plans with the public. After many months of logistics and operational planning, the 16 and 17 of December is looking to promise an event unlike any event Sri Lanka ...

(Srilankamirror) - Convicted Sri Lankan-born hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam has arrived at a US federal prison to begin serving the longest-ever sentence for insider trading. Rajaratnam, who was sentenced to 11 years in jail, reported to a facility in Massachusetts, BBC Sandeshaya reports

Srilankamirror - The International Cricket Council (ICC) has said it is currently discussing with the international cricket players union to look for a solution to the non-payment of Sri Lanka player salaries. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has told the BBC Sinhala service in October that the players

NEW Zealand is a stronger country brand than Australia, an international survey shows. FutureBrand’s country brand index, which is run in association with BBC World News, assessed 113 countries. The latest annual index released at the World Travel Market in London on Thursday (UK time) rated

Will the LLRC report re-write history? Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission will issue its report soon (hopefully to the public). It is not necessary to mention leaks; it is enough to simply look at the initial statement of purpose. “To inquire and report on the following matters that may have taken place during ...

Colombo is beefing up security ahead of the delivery of the verdict in the controversial white flag case against former army commander General Sarath Fonseka. While there are reports that a key witness against Fonseka has fled the country in fear on a Cathay Pacific Flight bound for Hong Kong, police have also moved in a ...