Category: Politics

December 30, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is to drop all remaining references to its British colonial name “Ceylon” from state institutions, a government spokesman said Thursday. The cabinet considered a proposal to rename the Ceylon Electricity Board and decided it should be extend to other official organisations, an information ministry official told AFP. “The […]

December 21, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Tuesday warned the United States to exercise “circumspection” in diplomatic cables after a message released by WikilLeaks suggested Colombo had colluded with murderous paramilitary groups. External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris told US Ambassador Patricia Butenis that leaked US cables contained “glaring instances of allegations totally unwarranted by […]

WASHINGTON, December 18, 2010 (AFP) – Dozens of US lawmakers on Friday urged a global probe into alleged rights violations by Sri Lanka in the last stages of its civil war, saying Colombo’s own efforts do not ensure accountability. In letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 17 senators and 30 members of the House […]

December 13, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka denied on Monday plans to outlaw the singing of the national anthem in Tamil after the main minority party raised strong objections to the mooted ban. The status quo will remain, said public administration minister John Seneviratne, who is in charge of managing the code of conduct for […]

December 13, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamils expressed concern on Monday over a media report suggesting that the government was set to ban singing the national anthem in their language. Language and discrimination were key issues used by the Tamil Tiger separatists to gain popular support for their campaign. The main Tamil party, the […]

December 9, 2010 (AFP) – A six-year-old girl found at a house in Colombo is believed to have been sold by a hospital worker soon after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Sri Lankan child protection authorities said Thursday. Staff at the National Child Protection Authority went to the house after neighbours complained that the girl […]

KIEV, December 9, 2010 (AFP) – Ukraine will send a diplomat to the Nobel peace prize ceremony for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiabo, a foreign ministry official said Thursday, after Kiev initially joined a boycott led by China. Ukraine will send the first secretary of the Ukrainian embassy in Norway to the ceremony on Friday, […]

Dec 10, 2010 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan customs officer who was gunned down after he exposed corruption in the customs service was posthumously awarded the National Integrity Award by the corruption watchdog Transparency International. “Corruption is deep rooted in human greed. The temptations and opportunities for corruption are greater today than ever before. Faced […]

OSLO, December 7, 2010 (AFP) – Nineteen countries will shun Friday’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Institute said, following Chinese pressure for a global boycott. “You only have to look at the figures. The vast majority of countries invited will be represented,” Nobel Institute director Geir […]

BANGKOK, December 8, 2010 (AFP) – Thai authorities said Wednesday they had arrested 45 migrants from Sri Lanka in the latest of a series of crackdowns in recent months. Sri Lanka’s crackdown on the Tamil Tigers, which ended a lengthy civil war last year, has resulted in a flood of people seeking asylum in other […]