Category: Politics

Dec 26, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s navy is investigating a ship off the island’s east coast on suspicion that it could be a Tamil Tiger arms smuggling vessel, navy officials said Wednesday The suspicious vessel was detected some 90 nautical miles east of Arugam Bay, a small coastal resort town in eastern Sri Lanka. […]

COLOMBO, Dec 26, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy Wednesday clashed with suspected Tamil Tiger vessels off the island’s northern coast of Jaffna, leaving at least 40 rebels dead, the defence ministry said. Twelve naval fast attack craft, backed by an Mi-24 helicopter gunship, confronted a flotilla of 16 rebel boats off the southern seas […]

Dec 25, 2007 (AFP) – At least 13 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed on Christmas Eve in heavy clashes with Sri Lankan security forces in northern Sri Lanka, the defence ministry said Tuesday.Six members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were killed in a confrontation in the district of Mannar on Monday while […]

VATICAN CITY, Dec 25, 2007 (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday lamented the “grim sound of arms” in the world’s conflict zones, from Sudan to Sri Lanka and especially the volatile Middle East, in his Christmas message.“On this day of peace, my thoughts turn especially to those places where the grim sound of arms […]

Dec 24, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement said it was “appalled” by an attempt to define journalists as people who hold a card issued by the Sri Lanka government, after an international rights body named Sri Lanka as the third most dangerous place for media workers in the world. “The Free Media […]

Dec 24, 2007 (AFP) – Torrential rains have driven more than 175,000 people from their homes in Sri Lanka, authorities said on Monday.Heavy monsoon rains over the weekend made some roads impassable while nearly 2,300 houses had been damaged, the national disaster management centre said. Worst hit was the eastern district of Batticaloa where close […]

Dec 22, 2007 (AFP) – Government forces captured a key defence line of Tamil Tiger guerrillas in northern Sri Lanka Saturday in fighting that killed six rebels and one soldier, the defence ministry said.Norwegian-brokered 2002 truce began to unravel in December 2005. Security forces smashed five bunkers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) […]

Dec 21, 2007 (AFP) – Clashes across frontlines in northern Sri Lanka have left at least 12 Tamil Tiger rebels dead, the defence ministry said Friday.Artillery duels took place on the Jaffna peninsula, and in Weli Oya, Vavuniya and Mannar, the military said, placing their own losses at two soldiers injured and one missing during […]

Dec 20, 2007 (LBO) – One of the best ways to combat poverty and inequality in Sri Lanka is to complete the all party process and the government has been given that opportunity with the passing of the budget, the United States envoy in Colombo said. Completing All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) will also lay […]

Dec 19, 2007 (AFP) – A trackside blast hit a passenger train in northeastern Sri Lanka Tuesday, but there were no casualties, police said.The incident occurred at Kantalai in the port district of Trincomalee, a police official in the area said by telephone. “There was some sort of an explosion by the side of the […]

Dec 17, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Monday summoned the head of UNICEF operations here and expressed Colombo’s “concern” over his visit to rebel-held territory in the island’s north, the foreign ministry said.The government insists it is working on a political package aimed at addressing the demands of ethnic Tamils, but at the same time […]

NEW YORK, Dec 18, 2007 (AFP) – Sixty-four journalists were killed on assignment in 2007, making it the deadliest year for reporters since 1994, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report published Tuesday. One of the most widely reported media deaths of 2007 was that of Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai, filmed […]