Tag: politics

GENEVA, February 23, 2011 (AFP) – Several thousand foreign migrants from Libya have crossed the Tunisian border in the first major exodus to Tunisia since the Libyan turmoil began, the International Organisation for Migration said on Wednesday. The UNHCR was locating possible sites for camps in case larger numbers arrive. Fleeing migrants said they had […]

Feb 24, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is seeking rescue by ship nationals stranded in Libya from where foreigners and migrant workers are fleeing the violence triggered by a public uprising against the government, a spokesman said. “We have despatched a ship,” media minister Keheliya Rambukwella told a news conference. AFP news agency reported that […]

February 7, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s latest monsoon rains have claimed at least 17 lives and left around 1.2 million people flooded out of their homes, officials said Monday. The Disaster Management Centre in Colombo said 311,000 people had sought refuge in state-run relief shelters by Monday morning, while approximately 900,000 were living with […]

February 5, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main opposition on Saturday warned of an uprising, a day after ruling party activists unleashed violent attacks against demonstrators seeking the release of a jailed opposition leader. The United National Party (UNP) said repeated violence against the opposition, arson attacks on anti-government news organisations and arrests of student […]

February 5, 2011 (AFP) – Renewed rains in Sri Lanka have flooded a large number of towns and villages and killed at least 13 people, officials said Saturday. The new flooding came after the United Nations issued an appeal for 51 million dollars in emergency aid to help up to a million people affected by […]

WASHINGTON, February 2, 2011 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced hope for a “just and democratic” Sri Lanka as she offered congratulations ahead of the war-torn island’s Independence Day on Friday. Clinton said in a statement Wednesday that the United States and Sri Lanka have historically enjoyed “a strong relationship based on […]

Feb 01, 2011 (AFP) – Dozens of Sri Lankan journalists took to the capital’s streets Tuesday to condemn an arson attack on a popular independent website and protest against assaults on press freedom in the country. Reporters, photographers and employees of privately-run media joined a demonstration in central Colombo a day after the arson attack […]

January 31, 2011 (AFP) – Unidentified attackers in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo set ablaze the offices of an anti-establishment news website on Monday. The lankaenews.com premises were torched in a pre-dawn attack but there were no reports of casualties, a police officer at the scene told AFP. Monday’s attack appeared similar to the July […]

GALLE, January 28, 2011 (AFP) – Does it make sense to defend freedom of speech by calling on writers not to speak at a literary festival? South African novelist Damon Galgut pulled out explicitly because of the campaign, while Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and fellow writer Kiran Desai withdrew last week for reasons which […]

January 25, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s jailed former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who tried to unseat the president in elections, on Tuesday lost an appeal to retain his parliamentary seat. The Supreme Court ruled that a court martial verdict in September finding him guilty of arms procurement offences meant that he was no longer […]

January 23, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka rejected Sunday suggestions that the novelist and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk had decided to boycott a literary festival on the island because of human rights concerns. Any attempt to link Pamuk’s non-participation at the Galle Literary Festival to “an alleged situation about freedom of expression in Sri Lanka […]

PARIS, January 20, 2011 (AFP) – Leading media freedom group Reporters Without Borders on Thursday accused Nobel-winning author Orhan Pamuk and other writers of legitimising repression in Sri Lanka by attending a literary festival there. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was “disturbing” that Sri Lanka should celebrate literature while suppressing freedom of expression […]