AL JAZEERA: President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Interview
Posted: May 29, 2010 | Leave a CommentBLOOMBERG: ADB’s Kuroda Says Sri Lanka Should Cut Deficit to Spur Growth
Posted: May 29, 2010 | Leave a CommentSri Lanka should reduce its budget deficit to sustain growth in the island’s economy, which may expand 6 percent this year, Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda said.
“Macro-economic stability is crucial for sustained economic growth,” Kuroda told reporters in Colombo yesterday. Full Story
MTV: M.I.A. Attacks New York Times Journalist On Twitter
Posted: May 29, 2010 | Leave a CommentBy now, you may have read the rather lengthy New York Times Magazine feature on M.I.A. (and if you haven’t, well, here it is). If you’re like us, there were probably more than a few passages that made you go, “Wait, what?”
Journalist Lynn Hirschberg pulled no punches while profiling M.I.A. — debunking her claims that she hasn’t seen her father in years, contacting the Sri Lanka Democracy Forum to balance out her version of the country’s war against the Tamil Tiger military group, pointing out that she lives in “very white, very wealthy Brentwood [California]” with her fiancé, Ben Bronfman — and, in the process, painted a less-than-flattering portrait of her. And boy, was M.I.A. mad. Full Story
COLOMBO PAGE: Sri Lanka to introduce new education act
Posted: May 29, 2010 | Leave a CommentSri Lankan government is preparing to introduce a new national education policy to revamp the country’s education system before the end of the year, Minister of Education Bandula Gunawardena said. Full Story
VATICAN RADIO: Christians and Buddhists Together for Well Being of World
Posted: May 28, 2010 | Leave a CommentOn the occasion of your feast of Vesakh, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue extends congratulations and heartfelt best wishes for peace and joy to all of you around the world. May this message help strengthen our existing bonds of friendship and collaboration in service to humanity.
The efforts of both of our communities to engage in interreligious dialogue have brought about a new awareness of the social and spiritual importance of our respective religious traditions in this area. We recognize that we hold in common a regard for values like respect for the nature of all things, contemplation, humility, simplicity, compassion, and generosity. These values contribute to a life of nonviolence, equilibrium, and contentment with sufficiency. Full Story
Amnesty International Condemns Australia for Refusing Sri Lankan Asylum-Seekers
Posted: May 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment
In its annual State of the World’s Human Rights report, Amnesty International criticizes Australia for the “discriminatory freeze on processing of asylum claims from Afghan and Sri Lankan Nationals.” Read more
US State Department Cancels Sri Lanka Travel Warning
Posted: May 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment
The U.S. Department of State on Wednesday cancelled the travel warning for Sri Lanka that was issued Nov. 19, 2009. The travel alert cites “improvements in safety and security conditions throughout the country” as the reason for lifting the warning to visitors planning to travel to Sri Lanka. Read more
DAILY MIRROR: Death certificates soon for those killed in the war – D.E.W. Gunasekera
Posted: May 26, 2010 | Leave a CommentThe family members and next of kin of the civilians and others who died during the three-decade long ethnic conflict are to receive the relevant death certificates soon — after the circumstances of the deaths are established.
The deaths of thousands of civilians have not been brought under any Coroner’s or Judicial Magistrate’s scrutiny to establish the circumstances of those deaths for the relevant authorities to issue death certificates. This has caused several human problems. Full Story
RELIEF WEB: SRI LANKA: One year later, “some kind of peace”
Posted: May 26, 2010 | Leave a CommentAs Sri Lanka marked the first anniversary of its victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), many internally displaced people (IDPs) are still battling to rebuild their lives.
Tens of thousands were killed in the decades-long war, according to government figures, and another 280,000 fled their homes during the last phase of the war in 2009, only to find themselves forced to live in hastily erected government-run camps. Full Story
THE INDEPENDENT: How Beijing won Sri Lanka’s civil war
Posted: May 26, 2010 | Leave a CommentA year ago, one of the world’s most brutal and pitiless terrorist groups, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was hunted down and exterminated on a strip of beach in the far north-east of Sri Lanka.
In a war that had dragged on for 27 years, more than 80,000 on both sides had died, hundreds of thousands had lost their homes and the future of one of the most idyllic tropical islands in the world hung in the balance. Suddenly it was all over. Full Story