Tag: news

May 5, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka plans to set up a reconciliation commission to foster ethnic unity as the island emerges from nearly four decades of bloody conflict, a state-run newspaper said Wednesday. Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne said the government hoped the panel would ensure that majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils did not […]

May 5, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s parliament on Wednesday scaled down tough state of emergency laws that were first introduced 27 years ago to deal with separatist Tamil rebels. Government troops finally defeated the Tamil Tiger guerrillas a year ago after a massive military offensive swiped out the rebels’ territory and killed their leaders. […]

May 4, 2010 (AFP) – Media rights groups Tuesday welcomed Sri Lanka’s decision to pardon a Tamil editor sentenced to 20 years in prison, but urged the government to ensure he was allowed to return to work freely. Paris-based RSF — Reporters Without Borders — said J. S. Tissainayagam, who wrote about the plight of […]

May 4, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka stopped national cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara and another player from calling on the Dalai Lama out of fear that a meeting would anger China, an official said Tuesday. Sangakkara and former skipper Mahela Jayawardene were advised not to join their Indian Premier League teammates who paid a courtesy […]

May 03, 2010 (LBO) – The US embassy in Colombo says the World Press Freedom Day which falls on May 03 is a reminder to citizens and government that a free media is an essential part of democracy. “In democracies, the people are sovereign, and representatives and elected officials derive their power from them,” the […]

May 3, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Monday pardoned a convicted Tamil editor whose 20-year prison term last year for supporting “terrorism” drew international criticism, the foreign minister said Monday. J. S. Tissainayagam, who edited North Eastern Monthly magazine in Colombo, has been pardoned by President Mahinda Rajapakse to coincide with World Press Freedom […]

May 3, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s court of appeal on Monday suspended a court martial against former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who tried to unseat the president in elections earlier this year. The court ordered the military tribunal that began hearings against Fonseka in March to halt its work until a decision has been […]

PARIS, May 3, 2010 (AFP) – Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders named Monday the world’s 40 worst “predators of the press” including politicians, religious leaders and militias to mark World Press Freedom Day. “They are powerful, dangerous, violent and above the law,” the Paris-based watchdog RSF said. “These predators of press freedom have the power […]

May 1, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s political parties were holding May Day rallies on Saturday for the first time since the ending of nearly four decades of ethnic bloodshed. Nearly a dozen meetings were scheduled in the capital and suburbs, but labour day celebrations by opposition parties were low-key following their drubbing in two […]

NEW YORK, April 30, 2010 (AFP) – From the deck of New York Harbor’s tour boat the Statue of Liberty looks as welcoming today as when greeting new immigrants a century ago. But the soaring figure and even loftier inscription — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” — […]

April 29, 2010 (AFP) – The ancestral home of Sri Lanka’s slain Tamil Tiger rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has been demolished as it was becoming a tourist attraction, a Tamil politician said Thursday. M. K. Sivajilingam, secretary of the Tamil National Liberation Alliance, accused security forces of destroying the house a year after Prabhakaran was […]

April 28, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s ruling party will press ahead with constitutional reforms to allow President Mahinda Rajapakse to run for a third term in office, a press report said Wednesday. With the support of smaller parties and defectors, Rajapakse’s party could soon muster the six seats needed to have the two-thirds majority […]