Category: Legal

LEOGANE, January 16, 2010 (AFP) – A first shipment of UN food aid arrived on Saturday in the ruined Haitian town of Leogane, where street after street of homes and businesses was torn apart by this week’s devastating earthquake. Just 17 kilometres (10 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince, Leogane was close to the epicentre […]

COLOMBO, January 11, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s court of appeal on Monday freed on bail a Tamil editor whose 20-year prison sentence last year for supporting “terrorism” drew international criticism, a court official said. Official figures show nine journalists have been killed and another 27 assaulted in the past three years in Sri Lanka […]

January 9, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Saturday released more than 700 former Tamil Tiger fighters from military custody following a rehabilitation program, an official said. The Tamil Tigers, who fought for a separate homeland from 1972, were defeated by Sri Lankan troops in mid-May when the military killed the top guerrilla leader Velupillai […]

January 8, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka was under new pressure Friday to submit to a war crimes investigation after the United Nations authenticated a video allegedly showing prisoners being executed by troops last year. The government in Colombo has faced repeated calls for a probe from Western countries and rights groups ever since it […]

NEW YORK, January 7, 2010 (AFP) – A former senior partner in the McKinsey & Co consulting firm pleaded guilty Thursday in New York to taking money for providing tips in the alleged Galleon hedge fund insider trading ring. Anil Kumar pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy and securities fraud and said he had […]

December 26, 2009 (AFP) – Nearly half a billion dollars in tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and over 600 million dollars has been spent on projects unrelated to the disaster, an anti-corruption watchdog said Saturday.Berlin-based Transparency International demanded an audit of the money received by the Sri Lankan government to help victims […]

SINGAPORE, December 25, 2009 (AFP) – A Singapore opposition party member has been extradited to the United States where he stands accused of trying to supply arms to Sri Lanka’s defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, according to a report Friday.Balldev Naidu, 47, a businessman and co-founder of the Reform Party, was extradited on December 18, the […]

RATHGAMA, December 23, 2009 (AFP) – Billions of dollars were pledged after the 2004 Asian tsunami to help people like Pradeepa Niroshani who waited in vain for money to rebuild her destroyed home. Five years after the disaster, the government in Sri Lanka is under pressure from a leading anti-corruption group to account for nearly […]

JAKARTA, December 20, 2009 (AFP) – Fifteen of the Sri Lankan asylum seekers who spent weeks refusing to get off the boat that rescued them near Indonesia have left the country, a foreign ministry official said Sunday.“They left Indonesia yesterday.Two were flown to Australia and the other 13 were taken to an evacuation centre in […]

SEOUL, December 21, 2009 (AFP) – A planeload of weapons from North Korea seized in Bangkok this month was bound for Iran, a newspaper report said Monday, citing documents obtained by arms trafficking experts.US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair had said last week that the 35-tonne cargo, shipped in defiance of UN sanctions on […]

Dec 20, 2009 (LBO) – Court appointed officials liquidating assets of Golden Key Credit Card Company, a failed finance firm in Sri Lanka’s Ceylinco group, are planning an auction of assets, and offers have been received for the sale of a hospital, a media report said.The Sunday Island newspaper said several offers have been received […]

NEW YORK, December 15, 2009 (AFP) – The founder of Galleon hedge fund, Raj Rajaratnam, was indicted Tuesday in a multi-million-dollar Wall Street insider-trading probe.Billionaire Rajaratnam and co-defendant Danielle Chiesi were indicted by a federal grand jury in New York on charges of using non-public information from company executives to earn about 20 million dollars […]