Category: Politics

Feb 3, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s police Sunday sought public help to track down two men believed to have planted a powerful bomb on a crowded bus that killed 20 passengers and wounded more than 60.The parcel bomb, left on an overhead rack of a long-distance bus in northern Sri Lanka, was set off […]

Feb 3, 2008 (AFP) – A suicide bomber attacked a train at Colombo’s main rail station Sunday, killing at least 10 and injuring more than 100 others on the eve of Sri Lanka’s independence day celebrations, officials said. The government in January pulled out of a tattered peace pact with the rebels, who have been […]

Feb 03, 2008 (LBO) – An explosion ripped through a suburb of the Sri Lanka capital Colombo, residents and the military said, a day after a bus bombing killed 20 civillians in the central province of the island. Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said they were investigating the blast in the suburb of Dehiwala to the […]

Feb 3, 2008 (AFP) – At least seven people were killed and 97 hurt Sunday when a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew herself up aboard a crowded train at the main rail station in Colombo, Sri Lankan officials said. The woman set off the explosives as a train from the suburb of Ambepussa pulled […]

Feb 2, 2008 (AFP) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a powerful bomb on a crowded bus in north-central Sri Lanka Saturday, killing at least 20 people and wounding another 61, the military and hospital sources said.The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the majority Sinhalese nation since 1972 […]

Feb 2, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse blamed Tamil Tiger guerrillas for a bomb Saturday on a bus that killed at least 20 people, urging citizens not to be provoked by the rebels “brutality.” The parcel bomb went off as the crowded bus, carrying many Buddhist pilgrims belonging to the ethnic Sinhalese […]

NEW YORK, Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – Global concern is mounting over Sri Lanka’s worsening human rights record, but action by key international players has been “slow and lacked cohesion,” Human Rights Watch said in its annual report. The group said Sri Lanka managed to head off censure in the UN Human Rights Council by […]

Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) – Security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels have traded heavy artillery fire in northern Sri Lanka, killing 18 rebels, officials said Friday, a day after Japan warned it may stop aid unless fighting subsided. Backed by war planes and heavy guns, the military smashed several rebel bunkers and killed at least […]

Jan 30, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels Wednesday lodged a formal protest with the United Nations alleging that security forces bombed a school bus and killed 18 civilians, mostly children, and accused them of targeting non-combatants. Among those dead on the bus were 12 children between the ages of eight and 16, […]

Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – At least four people were killed in a powerful explosion in Sri Lanka’s embattled northern peninsula of Jaffna on Thursday, officials said.The explosion at Thirunelveli was believed to be the work of a suicide bomber, a military official here said, adding that initial reports said four civilians had been killed. […]

TOKYO, Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – Japan, Sri Lanka’s top donor, warned Thursday it could cut off aid if violence continued to escalate but said it hoped to provide long-term support to bring peace.“We could be forced to review our aid policy if military action keeps escalating, although Sri Lanka wants Japan to continue it,” […]

Jan 30, 2008 (LBO) – The safety of journalists in Sri Lanka is in jeopardy with increasing attacks and threats against them that are meant to stifle freedom of opinion, international media rights groups have said. Attacks against journalists were bringing the government into disrepute and eroding democracy in the island, the International Federation of […]