Category: Legal

JAKARTA, July 27, 2013 (AFP) – Police detained four Indonesians allegedly involved in arranging an Australian-bound refugee boat which sank earlier this week, killing at least 15 people, a local police official said Saturday.The four men were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday in two nearby cities after the boat sank off the southwestern coast of […]

SYDNEY, July 26, 2013 (AFP) – The United Nations on Friday said it was “troubled” by Australia’s decision to send asylum-seekers arriving by boat to Papua New Guinea given conditions there failed to adequately protect refugees. In it’s first assessment of the hardline policy announced a week ago by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the United […]

July 19, 2013 (LBO) – Boat people arriving in Australia from countries like Sri Lanka and others may be settled in Papua New Guinea and other developing countries, media reports said. AFP news agency quoting the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said Australia has struck a deal with PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to process and settle […]

SYDNEY, July 19, 2013 (AFP) – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Friday announced that no more boatpeople will be resettled in Australia as refugees, with all unauthorised arrivals to be sent to poverty-stricken Papua New Guinea.Australia will also contribute funds to reform the impoverished Pacific nation’s university sector and support other health, education and law and […]

COLOMBO, July 15, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has halted a French cultural festival after it screened an internationally-acclaimed local film that the military considered insulting, authorities said Monday.The French Film Festival in Colombo was abruptly stopped by the management of the state-owned venue after the movie — set during Sri Lanka’s ethnic war — […]

July 5, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s police arrested 12 commandos in connection with the execution-style killing of five students during the island’s Tamil separatist war, an official said Friday.An inspector and 11 constables from the elite Police Special Task Force (STF) were taken before a magistrate in the port town of Trincomalee on Thursday, […]

July 2, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has banned the July 1 issue of Time magazine because its cover story on Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim clashes could hurt religious sentiment on the island, an official said Tuesday.Customs department spokesman Leslie Gamini said the issue carrying a photo of a prominent Myanmar monk under the headline: “The Face […]

June 28, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military has released a woman leader of the Tamil Tiger militant group from four years of detention after she completed training in “bridal dressing”, the president’s office said Friday.The Tigers were known for their spectacular suicide bomb attacks and controlled a third of Sri Lanka’s territory at the […]

June 23, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president has scrapped a contentious code of conduct for journalists after editors and rights groups condemned it as a further blow to press freedom, government and media sources said Sunday.President Mahinda Rajapakse ordered his information ministry not to proceed with the proposed code of conduct bill, but instead […]

June 24, 2013 (LBO) – A pilot scheme to charge a 3,000 sterling immigration bond from visitors in five countries including Sri Lanka will only apply to the “highest risk applicants”, the British High Commission in Colombo said. The pilot will be evaluated to make it permanent, the statement said. Children under 18-year will be […]

June 21, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will look into the possibility of setting up a casino regulator, a government minister said responding to a call by a legislator of the island’s main opposition.“We respect that idea,” information minister Keheliya Rambukwelle told reporters Thursday at a weekly news briefing to announce cabinet decisions. “Let’s see […]

June 20, 2013 (LBO) – A minimum age for employment may be raised to 16 years from 14 if proposals in a national policy on youth are adopted, officials said. Sri Lankan children however have had problems, especially in the past, where school-going age children in poor families were taken out of school and sent […]