Category: Politics

COLOMBO, February 28, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president on Friday acknowledged his discomfort at the prospect of being censured by the UN’s top rights body, as he accused Washington of treating Colombo like Muhammad Ali’s “punching bag”.Although the exact text of the resolution is still not known, the US has said it will file […]

COLOMBO, March 1, 2014 (AFP) – Another unmarked mass grave has been found in Sri Lanka’s former war zone, police said Saturday, as Colombo braced for a US-led censure resolution at the UN rights forum next week.A family on Friday stumbled upon nine bodies buried in the garden of their home in the district of […]

WASHINGTON, February 27, 2014 (AFP) – From China’s crackdown on activists to flawed elections in Cambodia and widespread violence against Muslims in Myanmar, Asia’s human rights record in 2013 remained poor, US officials said Thursday. Releasing its annual Human Rights report, the State Department documented a litany of abuses across the continent, with especially strong […]

COLOMBO, February 25, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Tuesday accused the UN rights chief of “unwarranted interference” by calling for an international inquiry into allegations troops killed thousands of civilians at the end of the civil war.The government of President Mahinda Rajapakse formally rejected the demand by rights chief Navi Pillay for an external investigation […]

COLOMBO, February 23, 2014 (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai cancelled a two-day state visit to Sri Lanka Sunday, the foreign ministry in Colombo said, as Taliban insurgents killed 20 of his soldiers in eastern Afghanistan.“Please note that the visit of the President of Afghanistan to Sri Lanka has been cancelled,” the ministry said without […]

NEW DELHI, February 20, 2014 (AFP) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh denounced plans to free former premier Rajiv Gandhi’s killers as an attack on the nation’s soul Thursday as his government launched a legal battle to stop their release. Seven Tamil extremists are due to walk free from prison by this weekend after the […]

COLOMBO, February 14, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government said Friday it is probing incorrect and insulting translations of signs into the minority Tamil language, including one that says seats “reserved for pregnant dogs” instead of women. The government said they have received 218 complaints of misleading, wrong or offensive public notices that were correctly […]

CHICAGO, February 15, 2014 (AFP) – Advances in genetic sequencing are giving rise to a new era of scientific racism, despite decades of efforts to reverse attitudes used to justify the slave trade and Nazi theology, experts said Friday.Another concern is the ancestry tests that are now commonly sold online, a trend which feeds the […]

VATICAN CITY, February 8, 2014 (AFP) – Pope Francis on Saturday turned his focus to Asia, announcing a possible trip to Sri Lanka and approving the beatification of 124 Korean martyrs. Asia has repeatedly been tipped as a destination for possible papal trips as Francis’s predecessor Benedict XVI did not travel there during his eight-year […]

Feb 05, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa called upon foreign nations to support an effort to build unity and reconciliation in a message marking an anniversary of gaining independence from British rule.Western nations, led by the US are expected to move a UN resolution calling on accountability for alleged war crimes citing […]

COLOMBO, February 1, 2014 (AFP) – Democracy is under threat in Sri Lanka and its rights record has deteriorated in the five years since the end of a bloody ethnic war, a top US envoy said Saturday.Nisha Biswal, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said Colombo had failed to ensure reconciliation, justice […]

COLOMBO, February 2, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Sunday rejected “patently unfair” allegations by the United States that its rights record had deteriorated in the five years since the end of a bloody separatist war.Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris said remarks by Nisha Biswal, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, […]