Connect to share and comment

China, Sri Lanka agree loans, defence; seek to allay Indian worries

May 29, 2013 12:04
By Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING (Reuters) - China has offered Sri Lanka about $2.2 billion in loans for infrastructure projects and a free trade pact, the island nation said on Wednesday, moves that could stoke fresh unease in India about Beijing's expanding influence in its neighborhood. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris, however, said the agreements with China including a separate one to enhance defense ties, should not be a cause for concern.

Sri Lanka frees Muslim leader held under anti-terror law

Agence France-PresseMay 11, 2013 11:49
Sri Lanka freed an opposition Muslim political leader from jail without charge after detaining him earlier in the week under a tough anti-terrorism law, his lawyer said Saturday. Azath Sally, 49, the former deputy mayor of Colombo, was arrested on Sunday and detained in police custody in what the minority Muslim community described as the latest attack on them in the Buddhist-dominated island nation.

RPT-Gunmen shoot Sri Lanka investigative journalist

February 16, 2013 04:45
COLOMBO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen have shot and seriously wounded a Sri Lankan investigative journalist, colleagues and officials said on Saturday, an incident likely to draw further attention to the Indian Ocean island nation's human rights record. Political violence has eased since Sri Lanka's army crushed a three-decade Tamil separatist rebellion in May 2009, but international human rights groups say rule of law problems persist, including abductions and attacks on media and government critics.

Afghan deployment report causes stir in Sri Lanka

February 5, 2013 04:15
Sri Lanka said Tuesday it had rejected a US request to send troops to Afghanistan but retracted the claim within hours, triggering angry responses on social media about the government's credibility. "President Mahinda Rajapakse has rejected a call by US to send Lankan troops to Afghanistan," the government's information department said in an SMS news alert which was immediately rebroadcast by almost all local media outlets. US diplomats in Colombo appeared puzzled over the Sri Lankan government claim and privately said that there was no pending request.

U.S. to criticise Sri Lanka at U.N. rights council

January 28, 2013 16:30
COLOMBO, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The United States will deliver a sharp public rebuke to Sri Lanka at the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in March for failing to pursue those responsible for abuses as government forces were crushing Tamil rebels in 2009, officials said on Monday. A three-member U.S. delegation is in Colombo on a five-day visit to discuss issues including progress in implementing the recommendations of Sri Lanka's own official investigation into the war, which called for the prosecution of soldiers suspected of killing civilians.

Sri Lanka president picks ally as chief justice, lawyers protest

January 15, 2013 08:15
* Elite police force deployed at Supreme Court * Lawyers protest against the appointment * Supreme Court says removal of former justice illegal By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal COLOMBO, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's President Mahindra Rajapaksa appointed a close ally as chief justice on Tuesday, two days after he controversially sacked the country's top judge for impeachment in the face of opposition from the Supreme Court.
Syndicate content