Tag: lbo

Mar 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s former minister Anura Bandaranaike, a member of a powerful political family that has produced two prime ministers and a president, died Sunday at a private hospital, a senior ruling party official said. Anura Bandaranaike is the son of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) founder and former prime minister […]

March 15, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan government jets bombed a Tamil Tiger training base as fighting across the northern region claimed at least another 29 lives, the defence ministry said Saturday.Sri Lanka pulled out of a six-year-old truce with the LTTE in January, saying it had the upper hand to crush the rebels militarily. […]

COLOMBO, March 14, 2008 (AFP) – Heavy fighting between security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels in northern Sri Lanka has left at least 23 guerrillas dead and five government soldiers wounded, the defence ministry said Friday.Tens of thousands have been killed since the ethnic conflict erupted in 1972. Clashes erupted in the Wanni region as […]

Mar 14, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run television service, Rupavahini, has suspended live programs other than news broadcasts in protest against an attack on one of their employees Friday morning, television workers said. Anurasiri Hettige, a trade union official, had been attacked with a metal bar in the Kottikawatte area of Sri Lanka’s capital […]

March 14, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Friday announced plans to hold provincial council elections for the first time in two decades in a former stronghold of Tamil Tiger separatists. Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake said he would receive nominations for the Eastern Provincial Council for a week from March 27. Voting was expected […]

March 14, 2008 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government Friday said it had summoned the American envoy to protest against a critical U.S. human rights report but the US embassy said it was standing by the report. A Foreign Ministry statement said it “strongly protests” the U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report which criticised Sri […]

Mar 12, 2008 (LBO) – An international media rights watchdog says it is troubled by the arrests of several Sri Lankan journalists, some of them from the ethnic Tamil minority and called on authorities to charge or release them immediately. Six people connected to Outreachsl.com, a news website was arrested by terror sleuths of which […]

March 11, 2008 (AFP) – At least another 28 Tamil Tiger rebels have been killed by security forces in fresh fighting across Sri Lanka’s embattled north, the defence ministry said Wednesday.More than 60,000 people have been killed in the separatist conflict which erupted in 1972.The overnight clashes were in the districts of Jaffna, Vavuniya and […]

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka, March 11, 2008 (AFP) – A pro-government Tamil rebel group won a majority in almost all the local councils that went to the polls in Sri Lanka’s volatile east, officials results showed Tuesday.The armed Tamil People’s Liberation Party (TMVP) secured 72 out of the 101 seats in Monday’s vote to elect officials […]

Mar 10, 2008 (LBO) – A bomb had exploded in Wellawatte, a southern suburb of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo during the morning rush hour Monday, killing at least one person, police said. The explosion came as residents in Sri Lanka’s East were preparing to go to regional polls. Updated Authorities said at least three persons […]