Category: Legal
No Bribery
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 […]
Decent Conditions
KATHMANDU, September 27, 2013 (AFP) – Rights groups urged South Asian governments Friday to demand proper protection for their migrant workers amid outrage over the deaths of dozens of Nepalis on projects linked to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.While Nepal’s government said it would not try to halt the flow of migrant workers after […]
Corporate Code
Sept 26, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s chartered accountants and the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a revised ‘Code of Best Practice on Corporate Governance.’ “Good corporate governance is fundamental to an organization’s competitiveness, growth and most importantly its sustainability,” The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) said in a […]
Landmark Case
COLOMBO, Sept 16, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Monday brought criminal charges of corruption against former chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake whose sacking earlier this year was internationally criticised as a blow to judicial independence.The impeachment process was launched in November after several Supreme Court decisions went against the government of Rajapakse, who has tightened his […]
Rape Crisis
BANGKOK, September 10, 2013 (AFP) – Nearly a quarter of men surveyed in six Asia-Pacific countries admit to committing rape, often against their own partners, according to a UN report published Tuesday that exposes widespread violence against women.Based on anonymous interviews with more than 10,000 men aged between 18 and 49-years-old in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, […]
Arrested
COLOMBO, September 7, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lankan police have arrested a navy officer suspected of involvement in smuggling people in fishing boats to Australia, officials said Saturday. Australia announced tough new measures in mid-July to discourage illegal boatpeople. Since then, local police have apprehended three boats and detained 300 Sri Lankans, including 56 women […]
Migration
SYDNEY, September 2, 2013 (AFP) – New policies targeting asylum-seekers taking boats to Australia had “broken the back” of the people-smuggling trade, Immigration Minister Tony Burke said Monday, claiming victory on the sensitive election issue. Burke said the ruling Labor party’s plan to send all asylum-seekers arriving by boat to Papua New Guinea and Nauru […]
Forestry Case
Aug 02, 2013 (LBO) – A provincial High Court in Sri Lanka is to hear a petition to wind up Touchwood Investments, a Colombo-based forestry firm, according to a newspaper notice placed by lawyers. A notice in Sri Lanka’s Daily News, newspaper said, a resident of Rajagiriya, a suburb of Colombo has petitioned the High […]
Not Us
August 25, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s army Sunday denied involvement in an armed robbery at the home of a journalist who has been critical of the government.Media rights groups have said Sri Lanka remains a dangerous place for journalists despite the end of a decades-long war between the military and Tamil separatist rebels in […]
Separate
August 23, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president has bowed to international pressure and relinquished the defence ministry’s authority over the police department, an official said Friday. President Mahinda Rajapakse has created a new ministry for law and order, and placed it in charge of the 80,000-strong police which had been overseen by the defence […]
Threatened
COLOMBO, August 24, 2013 (AFP) – Five armed men held a Sri Lankan newspaper editor at knifepoint as they searched her home on Saturday before police burst in and shot one of the intruders dead, officials said.The latest incident came a day ahead of a fact-finding mission to the island by the UN’s human rights […]
Missing Probe
August 14, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president Wednesday ordered a new investigation into the disappearance of thousands of people in the island’s northeast during an ethnic war which ended four years ago.The announcement comes just days before UN human rights chief Navi Pillay is due to visit the island, amid international criticism of Colombo’s […]