Tag: lankabusinessonline
Sri Lanka to bring back tough law to curb media: reports
June 29, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka plans to bring back a tough criminal defamation law that was scrapped five years ago, reports said on Friday, drawing fire from media rights activists.Under the earlier law, journalists could be sentenced to two years in jail, but it was scrapped after local and international pressure. The reports […]
Sri Lanka says huge truck bomb found in eastern port town
June 29, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan authorities Friday discovered a huge truck bomb in the north-eastern port district of Trincomalee, three days after finding a powerful mine in the capital, officials said.About 1,000 kilos (2,200 pounds) of explosives packed into a freezer truck was found at a fishing village in Trincomalee, 260 kilometres (160 […]
Upward Revision
June 29, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has raised fuel prices by around 5 percent almost two months after the last price increase, after allowing petroleum utilities to run huge losses and the national currency to come under pressure. . Standard 90-octane petrol would increase by 5 rupees to 111 while standard auto Diesel would […]
Britain prosecutes Sri Lanka Tamil Tiger members for helping terrorism
LONDON, June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Two men appeared in court in London Thursday accused of membership of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels, banned in Britain as a terrorist organisation. Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar, also known as AC Shanthan, 50, and Goldan Lambert, 29, appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court, central London, charged under the Terrorism Act 2000. […]
Seven people wounded in Sri Lanka blasts
COLOMBO, June 29, 2007 (AFP) – At least seven people, including three soldiers, were wounded in two roadside bomb attacks in Sri Lanka’s north on Friday, officials said.Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a Claymore mine at Cheddikulam in the district of Vavuniya as a civilian bus passed the area and wounded four civilian passengers […]
Sri Lanka media rights body slams moves to bring back law that curbed critical reporting
June 28, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement (FMM) has expressed shock at attempts to bring back a repealed law which it said was used in the past to silence critical reportage and to persecute editors and journalists. An international media rights mission that was in Sri Lanka this month called on the […]
Sri Lanka reports 430 killings in five months
June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Some 430 Sri Lankans were slain during a five-month period, most of them minority Tamils, a commission said on Thursday, amid growing controversy over rights abuses in the conflict-hit island. The Special Presidential Commission on Disappearances said the killings were reported between September 2006 and February 2007 as the country […]
Ruling Roost
LONDON, June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Ten years after British energy markets were liberalised the customer is king and can put pressure on prices with a click of a computer mouse to change provider.Since Britain first prised open its gas and electricity markets to private households in 1998-1999, the market has settled down and prices […]
Sri Lanka hopeful Norway meeting will help peace process
TOKYO, June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Thursday he was optimistic that a meeting of top donors this week would help to revive the island nation’s moribund peace process.Peace broker Norway is holding the crucial meeting of Sri Lanka’s top aid donors in a bid to halt a new […]
” in Western aid cut
WASHINGTON, June 26, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka told Western donor nations Tuesday that it would be a “tragic error” to cut aid to the island nation due to alleged human rights abuses linked to a longstanding ethnic conflict.Britain, Germany and the Netherlands have already slashed various forms of aid to Colombo due to human […]
Japan voices concern over Sri Lanka economy, human rights
TOKYO, June 27, 2007 (AFP) – Japan, the single largest donor to Sri Lanka, on Wednesday expressed concern about the human rights situation in the island nation during a visit by Colombo’s foreign minister, the government said. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso raised “the Japanese public’s heightening concerns over the human rights situation in Sri […]
” in Sri Lanka murder probe
GENEVA, June 25, 2007 (AFP) – A bullet being used in an investigation into the killings in Sri Lanka of 17 aid workers last August may have been removed from evidence, an international legal watchdog said on Monday. The International Commission of Jurists said its observer on the probe, senior British lawyer Michael Birnbaum, found […]