Tag: lankabusinessonline

Mar 05, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan civil society groups Wednesday warned that the government’s contempt for the rule of law and the constitution was bringing the country into disrepute and could cause economic harm. The Organisation of Professional Associations said way President Mahinda Rajapakse and the government was ignoring established norms of good governance […]

Mar 05, 2008 (LBO) – A librarian working for a Sri Lanka state television station where a junior minister was held hostage after he stormed its newsroom had been knifed while travelling on a bus, an official said. .Updated Convenor of the Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement (FMM) Sunanda Deshapriya said Ranjini Aluthge is being […]

March 4, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan forces pushed deeper into Tamil Tiger territory in an offensive that has left at least 69 guerrillas and nine government soldiers over the weekend, the defence ministry said Tuesday.Sri Lanka plans to spend a record 1.57 billion dollars on defence in calendar 2008, up 20 percent from last […]

March 03, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan naval vessels have been deployed to intercept a suspicious vessel 150 nautical miles off the island’s eastern coast, the country’s security media centre said Monday.The suspicious ship had been detected yesterday. The Sri Lanka Navy has previously destroyed a series of ships which were believed to have been […]

COLOMBO, March 3, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy on Monday rescued 71 Myanmar and Bangladeshi survivors adrift in the Indian Ocean after 20 people died aboard their wooden boat, a navy spokesman said.The survivors would be brought to the capital Colombo, navy officials said. The craft developed engine trouble and was towed to Sri […]

March 3, 2008 (AFP) – Artillery exchanges between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger separatists across the embattled tropical island’s north left at least 25 rebels and two soldiers dead, the defence ministry said Monday.Heavy fighting in Vavuniya and Weli Oya left 21 rebels dead on Sunday, the ministry said in a statement, putting government […]

March 2, 2008 (AFP) – A government soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack carried out by Tamil Tiger guerrillas Sunday in northern Sri Lanka, the army said.Casualty figures provided by both sides differ vastly and cannot be independently verified since the government bars journalists and human rights workers from frontline and rebel-held areas. […]

Mar 01, 2008 (LBO) – Another mediaman who filmed a confrontation between state TV workers and a minister who stormed the station’s newsroom has been threatened by gangsters, a media rights body said. Assistant camera news director Priyal Ranjith Perera had been threatened by a four-member gang who came to his residence and appeared to […]

March 1, 2008 (AFP) – A police officer wounded in a suicide bombing died in hospital Saturday, a hospital spokesman said as Sri Lanka’s defence ministry claimed security forces had killed 45 rebels in fresh fighting.The policeman died of his injuries a day after being caught in a huge blast detonated by a suspected Tamil […]

Feb 29, 2008 (AFP) – A Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew himself up on Friday injuring seven people as police moved in to search his house in the Sri Lankan capital, police and military officials said. Casualty figures provided by both sides differ vastly and cannot be independently verified. The government bars journalists and human […]

Feb 29, 2008 (AFP) – A powerful explosion ripped through a house in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo early Friday, police said, adding that at least seven people were wounded.“At least seven people were taken to hospital after the blast,” a police official at the scene said. The blast came as the authorities had stepped up […]