Tag: politics

NUSA DUA, March 30, 2011 (AFP) – Asian countries pledged Wednesday to take a collective approach to people smuggling and asylum seekers including a possible regional processing centre, after talks in Indonesia. Ministers from around the Asia-Pacific region signed a non-binding framework agreement to tackle smuggling networks and humanely process the large numbers of irregular […]

SYDNEY, March 21, 2011 (AFP) – Australia said Monday it would reduce the number of asylum seekers at an overcrowded detention centre on Christmas Island but would not abandon the camp which has endured days of riots and escapes. But Bowen said whatever their frustrations, violence was unacceptable. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the government […]

March 19, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president said Saturday his party’s landslide victory in local elections was an endorsement of the government’s focus on rebuilding rural areas after decades of civil war. Results showed that Rajapakse’s United People’s Freedom Alliance swept 205 of the 234 councils that went to the polls Thursday, the first […]

March 19, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president said Saturday his party’s landslide victory in local elections was an endorsement of the government’s focus on rebuilding rural areas after decades of civil war. The Tamil National Alliance, a party of minority Tamils, won 12 councils after fielding candidates in the island’s former war zones. The […]

SYDNEY, March 16, 2011 (AFP) – Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday defended the police reaction to riots at the remote Christmas Island detention centre after “bean-bag bullets” and tear gas was used. The facility, which houses some 2,539 boat people, has been hit by a series of disturbances this week involving hundreds of […]

Mar 16, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankans travelling to India will be required to apply for visas online from March 25, the Indian High Commission said in a statement. “Henceforth, applicants will be required to apply online at www.indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa,” it said. Applicant will be required to download the filled-in application, sign and submit it with […]

SYDNEY, March 15, 2011 (AFP) – Australia’s remote Christmas Island detention centre was hit by a second night of riots on Tuesday, with up to 200 asylum seekers destroying closed-circuit television cameras. It followed a “significant and serious incident” on Monday when police used tear gas to quell a protest of 300 detainees. “We saw […]

NEW DELHI, March 14, 2011 (AFP) – The Indian navy has captured 61 suspected Somali pirates and rescued 13 fishermen after a firefight with a pirate mothership in the Arabian Sea, a navy spokesman said Monday. “A total of 74 men have been apprehended of which 61 are suspected to be Somali pirates,” Indian navy […]

SYDNEY, March 14, 2011 (AFP) – Australian police used tear gas to quell a protest of 300 asylum seekers on remote Christmas Island on Monday, as the government warned of a tense mood within the under-pressure detention centre. More than 6,500 refugees — mostly from Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka — arrived in Australia last […]

Mar 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ministry of External Affairs said it has set up an information desk to help nationals seek news of relations in Japan in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami there. It said in a statement those who cannot get information about their next of kin in Japan following […]

March 4, 2011 (AFP) – A call by the US Senate for an international probe into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka was “unfortunate”, the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse said Friday. The Sri Lankan government said “well motivated groups” had pressured the Senate to adopt a resolution earlier this week calling for an international […]

March 1, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka could be hauled before a war crimes tribunal over the killing of “many thousands of civilians” in the final months of its separatist war with Tamil rebels, a top US official said. In the toughest warning since the end of fighting in May 2009, US Assistant Secretary of […]