Category: Economy and Markets

Mar.30 (AFP) – Sri Lankans were voting Thursday to elect local government bodies, but there was no balloting in the island’s embattled northern and eastern regions, officials said. Some 10.1 million people are eligible to vote for municipal and urban councils as well as village councils responsible for the maintenance of utilities, but electoral officials […]

Mar.30 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s independent human rights watchdog may collapse as the government has failed to replace the outgoing panel of commissioners, the Asian Human Rights Commission said Thursday. The Hong Kong-based AHRC said Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission will be without commissioners from April 3 because the island’s Constitutional Council, which is empowered […]

Mar.30 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Thursday voted at local elections after a lack-lustre campaign where even the usually divisive peace process was pushed to the background, officials and analysts said. Voting was slow across the country, elections officials said adding, however, that there was no balloting in the island’s restive northern and eastern regions where […]

Mar. 30 (AFP) – A low turnout marred municipal elections in Sri Lanka Thursday after a campaign which unexpectedly focused on local issues instead of the usual electoral favourite, the island’s divisive peace process.Election officials estimated that only about half the 10.1 million eligible voters turned out to cast their ballots to elect municipal, urban […]

Mar. 29 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Nordic peace envoys will visit the island next week for a series of meetings with the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels, the Norwegian embassy said Wednesday. New special envoy Jon Hanssen-Baur will make his maiden visit to the island on Monday April 3 for four-days. Hanssen-Baur, a Middle […]

Mar. 29 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Nordic peace envoys will visit the island next week for a series of meetings with the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels, the Norwegian embassy said Wednesday. New special envoy Jon Hanssen-Baur will make his maiden visit to the island on Monday April 3 for four-days. Hanssen-Baur, a Middle […]

Mar. 29 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government Wednesday pledged to continue talks with Tamil Tiger rebels despite the killing of eight sailors in a suicide blast and fears the island could slip back to full scale war.Colombo’s chief peace negotiator Nimal Siripala de Silva said Sri Lanka’s government will go ahead with talks next month […]

BONN, Mar.28 (AFP) – Wars were one of the main problems hampering efforts to save lives in natural disasters but catastrophes like the Asian tsunami have helped to promote peace, UN experts said here on Tuesday.The death toll in Sri Lanka, one of the countries hit by the December 2004 tsunami, was aggravated by the […]

OSLO, Mar. 28 (AFP) – The top mediator in Sri Lanka’s peace process, Erik Solheim of Norway, will meet with the rebels’ leading negotiator in London on Wednesday to discuss peace progress on the war-torn island, the Norwegian government said.Solheim and Tamil rebel negotiator Anton Balasingham will prepare the groundwork for a meeting between the […]

ROME, Mar. 28 (AFP) – Thousands of replacement fishing vessels constructed since the Asian tsunami of December 26, 2004 are unsafe and flat-out dangerous, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned Tuesday.Tsunami-affected countries must “redouble their efforts to ensure that fishing boats built to replace those destroyed during the 2004 disaster meet minimum safety standards,” […]

Mar. 27 (AFP) – Sri Lanka banned deep-sea fishing off its troubled northern coast from Monday, two days after Tiger rebels blew up a navy gunboat and killed eight sailors, a defence official said.The ban would apply to all fishing trawlers and vessels would need written permission from navy chief Wasantha Karannagoda to enter the […]