Tag: news

Nov 09, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement said newspapers are not obliged to carry party statements after opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe pulled up a journalist for not publishing a party statement. “The Free Media Movement learns that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has pulled-up Daily Mirror lobby correspondent for not publishing the UNP […]

COLOMBO, Nov 9, 2007 (AFP) – A pro-government faction of Tamil Tiger defectors has been hit by major political in-fighting following the arrest in London of its leader, known as Colonel Karuna, military officials said Friday.Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, alias Karuna, was detained by immigration authorities in London last week and since then his followers in Sri […]

Nov 08, 2008 (LBO) – The United States has given Sri Lanka’s navy more equipment to improve maritime security against the Tamil Tigers while urging a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict. US Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr. handed over the equipment to navy commander Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda at a ceremony in eastern Trincomalee […]

Nov 4, 2007 (AFP) – The killing of a top Tamil Tiger rebel in a Sri Lankan government air raid is likely to strengthen hawks on both sides of the bitter ethnic divide and herald more violence on the troubled island, analysts say.The already dim hopes of salvaging a moribund peace process took another blow […]

Nov 4, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces on Sunday increased already tight security ahead of a funeral planned in rebel territory for a top Tamil Tiger leader killed in a air strike, officials said. Checks at all entry points into Colombo were intensified and snap road blocks set up within the city of […]

Nov 4, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces stepped up patrols and roadblocks Sunday, fearing reprisals after the death of a top Tamil Tiger leader in a government air strike. They boosted their presence in and around the capital Colombo as the Tigers’ overall leader vowed to step up the long and bloody battle […]

LONDON, Nov 2, 2007 (AFP) – Colonel Karuna, the leader of a breakaway faction of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers rebel group, has been arrested in Britain and is being held in immigration detention, the interior ministry said Friday.A 2002 truce brokered by Norway began to unravel in December 2005, and since then more than 5,400 […]

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 2, 2007 (AFP) – More than 110 Sri Lankan peacekeepers serving with the UN mission in Haiti are to be sent back home over charges that they paid for sex, the United Nations said Friday, in the latest such scandal to besmirch the world body. Most of the nearly 100,000 troops serving […]

Nov 3, 2007 (AFP) – The elusive leader of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels on Saturday paid his respects to his slain deputy and five others who died in a government air raid, as security was stepped up across the island.Velupillai Prabhakaran honoured S.P. Thamilselvan, head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) political […]

Nov 2, 2007 (AFP) – The political head of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels who was killed in an air strike on Friday was the guerrillas’ public face for scores of visiting dignitaries and media personnel.“It is always wrong to place us on a par with international terrorist acts that bring harm to innocent civilians […]

Nov 2, 2007 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger guerrillas on Friday said they had beaten back two attacks by government forces in northern Sri Lanka with the loss of seven of their own fighters.The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said there were two attempts by government forces to break into territory they hold and […]