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Mine blasts kill five security personnel in Sri Lanka
Apr. 27, 2006 (AFP) – At least five security personnel were killed in three separate Claymore mine attacks in northern Sri Lanka Thursday, the military said. Three soldiers were killed and two wounded in Mannar district while two sailors riding a motorcycle were blown up in the Kayts islet, a military official said. He said […]
Sri Lanka to give aid to refugees fleeing violence
Apr. 27 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Thursday set aside one million dollars in aid for thousands of people who fled their homes after an upsurge in violence in the northeast. President Mahinda Rajapakse named a retired naval officer to head a “Presidential Task Force” to allocate the relief money to displaced civilians, an official […]
Sri Lanka: Ethnic melting pot on the boil
Apr. 27 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatist conflict is rooted in the nation’s history, but the past three decades have been the bloodiest on an island colonised by Europeans and invaded by Indians.At least 60,000 people have been killed since minority Tamils took up arms in 1972, about 24 years after the Indian Ocean […]
Five headless bodies found in Sri Lanka
Apr. 27 (AFP) – Five headless corpses were found in central Sri Lanka but police said Thursday the incident was not linked to the island’s conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels.The bodies were found in two places about 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of the capital, police said. “We suspect they may have been killed due […]
Tigers seek foreign pressure to halt air attacks
Apr. 27 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels Thursday pleaded with the international community to pressure Sri Lanka’s government to prevent further air strikes against them and to save a ceasefire from complete collapse.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they were “distressed” over the lack of foreign concern at the strikes carried out by […]
Thousands fleeing air strikes in northeast Sri Lanka: UN
HONG KONG, Apr. 27 (AFP) – Government air strikes in northeast Sri Lanka have caused thousands of people to flee their homes, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday.UNHCR spokesman Lyndon Jeffels said UN staff could not confirm local government figures in the district of Trincomalee that 40,000 had been driven from their homes by […]
‘s Central Bank calls for better fiscal policies to maintain stability
Apr.27 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank has called for better fiscal policies and continued reforms to maintain growth and economic stability, in its annual report on the country’s economic performance.The Bank said Thursday the country grew by 6 percent in 2005, a day after the Finance Ministry said it grew by 6.2 percent last […]
Sri Lanka aid donors to meet in Oslo
OSLO, Apr. 27, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main international aid donors will meet in Oslo on Friday to brainstorm on how best to provide assistance against a backdrop of renewed civil strife, the Norwegian government said Thursday.“The co-presidents of the donors conference will meet to discuss different means of furthering the peace process and […]
Sri Lankan exports fall as earnings from clothes decline
Apr.27 (LBO) – Exports from Sri Lanka fell four percent for the two months to February as the island shipped fewer clothes, the central bank said Thursday. Exports dropped to 748 million dollars from Jan-Feb, dragged down by a 9.6 percent fall or 425 million dollars in earnings from shipping clothes. Garments now accounts for […]
Norway condemns Sri Lanka bombings but remains ‘optimistic’
OSLO, Apr.26 (AFP) – The main mediator in the Sri Lankan conflict, Erik Solheim of Norway, on Wednesday condemned the flare-up of violence on the war-torn island but said he was optimistic that it would end shortly.Government forces have carried out coordinated air, sea and land attacks against rebel positions in the restive northeast since […]
Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers one of world’s deadliest militant groups
Apr. 26 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers, blamed for a suicide attack against a top military official that threatens to pitch the island back into civil war, is one of the world’s deadliest guerrilla groups.For Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief Velupillai Prabhakaran the most lethal weapon in his armoury is the young […]
The Black Tigers — Sri Lanka’s deadly suicide squads
Apr.26 (AFP) – “Black Tiger” suicide squads, secular Hindus driven by loyalty to the Tamil cause rather than religion, have been sowing terror in Sri Lanka for over two decades.The audacious bombing Tuesday inside Sri Lanka’s main military base, in which a female member of the Tamil Tigers feigning pregnancy blew herself up, was just […]