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GENEVA, Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – Evacuations of thousands of Asian and Ethiopian migrant workers trapped in war-torn Lebanon have resumed, the International Organisation for Migration said Monday. About 750 people a day are expected to travel to Syria in coach convoys over the next five days, unless the security situation deteriorates further, the IOM […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka will order a “clean and independent” investigation into the reported killing of 15 workers of a French charity during fighting in the northeast, the human rights minister told AFP Monday.The government will grant “very high priority” to probe charges that 11 men and four women, all locals employed […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – A French aid agency said Monday it would review its presence in Sri Lanka after 15 of its workers were found shot dead in the worst attack since its inception 25 years ago.Paris-based Action Against Hunger, or ACF, said 11 men and four women, all Sri Lankans, had been killed […]

KALLAR, Sri Lanka, Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – Tired and hungry aid workers labor ceaselessly in crowded refugee camps on the edge of Sri Lanka’s conflict zone amid the thundering sound of artillery.“We will not go to Muttur unless we deem it safe.” Their steely resolve gives hope to nearly 30,000 people displaced by heavy […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka mounted fresh artillery attacks against Tamil Tiger rebels Monday, a day after the guerrillas warned that shelling could lead to all-out war, military officials said. Troops kept up attacks in the northeastern district of Trincomalee even as Norway tried to broker a peaceful end to a water dispute […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – A French aid agency was Monday trying to find out who shot dead 15 of its employees as a Nordic truce monitor hit out at the Sri Lankan government for shelling Tamil rebels as they tried to reopen a bitterly contested waterway.An estimated 60,000 people have been killed since the […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s chief truce monitor has criticised government troops for shelling Tamil rebels as they tried to reopen a bitterly contested waterway at the centre of the heaviest clashes in years.An estimated 60,000 people have been killed since the Tamil insurgency began around three decades ago. Ulf Henriksson, head of […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – A French aid agency said it was trying to find out who shot dead 15 of its employees in northern Sri Lanka but that government troops had sealed off the scene of the massacre.The military has also accused the Tiger rebels of killing 100 Muslim residents, a charge denied by […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – A senior police officer was killed and his driver critically wounded in a powerful mine explosion in central Sri Lanka Monday, police said, blaming Tamil Tiger rebels for the attack. The latest blast came as government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels were locked in a bitter battle over the control […]