Category: Politics

NEW DELHI, (AFP) – India called for an alliance of navies to boost security at sea at its first naval summit Thursday with nations that have a stake in the busy maritime lanes of the Indian Ocean.The summit will wind up on Friday with a closed-door conclave of the naval chiefs in the Indian seaside […]

Feb 15, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan war planes carried out bombing raids Friday inside territory held by Tamil Tiger guerrillas, the defence ministry said.A training camp of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was targeted in Friday’s attack, which followed a similar raid on Thursday, the ministry said. The air attacks are part […]

Feb 14, 2008 (AFP) – A United Nations agency Thursday appealed for 44 million dollars to feed thousands of people displaced by fighting between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels. The World Food Programme (WFP) currently feeds more than a million Sri Lankans, of whom 400,000 have been internally displaced. “For now, we urgently […]

Feb 13, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Wednesday accused international human rights groups of being silent in the wake of a string of bomb attacks blamed on the Tamil Tigers that killed scores of civilians including 14 school children. “None of the international human rights organizations have even raised a voice or given a statement […]

Feb 12, 2008 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels shelled a key military base in northern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, officials said, as the defence ministry said dozens of rebels were killed in new fighting.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) attacked the Thallady military camp in the district of Mannar early Tuesday, drawing retaliatory fire […]

Feb 11, 2008 (AFP) – Two policemen were killed in a land mine blast in northern Sri Lanka on Monday, military officials said as the defence ministry said it had killed at least 68 Tiger rebels in weekend clashes. An inspector and a constable were blown up in the district of Vavuniya while on a […]

Feb 10, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s army chief again vowed to defeat Tamil separatists but refused to set a deadline for the end of the decades-old conflict, saying the rebels remain a potent force, a report said Sunday. Army general Sarath Fonseka said in an interview with the Lakbima weekly newspaper that a military […]

Feb 9, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan government troops and Tamil Tiger guerrillas claimed on Saturday to have inflicted heavy casualties against each other in fierce fighting in the country’s north. The defence ministry said 25 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in heavy fighting on Friday, while the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) […]

Feb 09, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan rebel lawmaker Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi who broke away from the ruling party of President Mahinda Rajapakse last year, died in a car crash Saturday, police said. Police spokesman DIG NK Illangakoon said the car had crashed near the north-central town of Galgamuwa. His two police guards were also killed, […]

Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops smashed bunkers of Tamil Tiger rebels in the island’s embattled north and kept up attacks elsewhere leaving 39 guerrillas dead, the island’s defence ministry said Friday. In the clashes along the front lines in Vavuniya district, security forces killed 22 guerrillas while destroying three of their bunkers […]

SYDNEY, Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) – Australia’s widely criticised “Pacific Solution” policy of holding asylum seekers on remote islands ended Friday when the last detainees flew out of Nauru, the government said.The 21 Sri Lankans who had been held on the tiny island in the South Pacific for nearly a year would be resettled in […]

Feb 7, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s former colonial ruler Britain has called for a “political process” to end Sri Lanka’s spiralling violence and condemned the latest wave of bombings against civilians.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in a statement released here said that the Sri Lankan government’s unilateral withdrawal from a ceasefire with separatist rebels […]