Category: Legal

WASHINGTON, January 9, 2014 (AFP) – An American jailed for nine months in the United Arab Emirates for making a spoof YouTube video mocking Dubai teenagers returned home Thursday, comparing the experience to being in a “cage.” Being back on American soil “feels great,” Shezanne Cassim, 29, told an impromptu press conference just a few […]

COLOMBO, December 22, 2013 (AFP) – An unmarked mass grave has been found in Sri Lanka’s former war zone, the first discovery of an unmarked gravesite since troops defeated Tamil rebels more than four years ago, police said Sunday. The insurgency by the mainly Sinhalese JVP was unrelated to the separatist campaign in the north […]

DOHA, December 18, 2013 (AFP) – Migrants who have worked for nearly a year without pay on a Qatar skyscraper are facing “severe foot shortages” and cannot leave or seek other employment, Amnesty International said Wednesday.Qatar has come under mounting criticism from rights groups, particularly after being chosen to host the 2022 World Cup, which […]

Nov 13, 2013 (LBO) – A debate over the legality of casinos in Sri Lanka is heating up with ministers of the administration and opposition legislators trading charges and counter chargers.At least four casinos are now operating under a de facto arrangement where an annual levy had been paid to the state revenue office under […]

COLOMBO, November 4, 2013 (AFP) – A media rights group Monday expressed fears for the safety of journalists in Sri Lanka after Colombo grilled two Australian activists and seized computer data before kicking them out.The Free Media Movement (FMM) said it expected a crackdown by the authorities following last week’s questioning of the two International […]

LONDON, November 3, 2013 (AFP) – Britain is scrapping a plan to force visitors from six “high-risk” countries to pay a cash bond of £3,000 (US ,800, 3,500 euros), the interior ministry said on Sunday.Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, told BBC television in September that he was “absolutely not interested in a bond […]

COLOMBO, November 1, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lankan authorities on Friday wiped all the data from the computer of an Australian media rights activist as she and a colleague were kicked out of the country, a local rights group said.Jacqui Park and fellow Australian Jean Worthington were packed onto a plane that flew out of […]

COLOMBO, October 30, 2013 (AFP) – Immigration authorities raided a meeting of journalists in Sri Lanka’s capital Wednesday and detained an Australian activist on a charge of working without a visa, a local rights group said.The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) representative for the Asia-Pacific region, Jacqui Park, was taken into custody by immigration officials, […]

MONTEVIDEO, October 26, 2013 (AFP) – Unions representing domestic workers met here Saturday to urge countries to ratify a year-old international convention that sets minimal labor standards for domestic workers.So far only 10 countries have ratified the International Convention on Domestic Workers, which went into effect a year ago in September. But Myrtle Witbooi, president […]

Oct 08, 2013 (LBO) – Ceylon Tobacco Company, a unit of British American Tobacco has denied media reports which gave the impression that it had attempted to bribe the island’s health minister to stop pictorial health warnings.Sri Lankan media carried reports last month attributed to health minister Maithripala Sirisena that the tobacco industry had attempted […]