Sat, Apr 25th, 2009 | Most Viewed, Top Stories, World |

Children as young as 12 are being given guns and forced to fight on the frontline alongside desperate Tamil Tiger rebels cornered inside Sri Lanka's no-fire zone, the UN said today. Those forcibly recruited included the 16-year-old daughter of a member ...Read More

Sri Lanka Plans to Let Tamil Refugees Leave Camps

Sat, Nov 21st, 2009 | Top Stories, World |

MANIK FARM, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka plans to release the remaining 136,000 Tamil refugees still in the squalid and overrun government camps where they have been detained since the country's civil war ended six months ago, a top ...Read More

Sri Lanka agrees to release 130000 Tamils displaced by war

Sat, Nov 21st, 2009 | World |

Sri Lanka agrees to release 130000 Tamils displaced by war Colombo, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- The Sri Lankan government said Saturday it will lift restrictions on thousands of war-displaced ethnic Tamils still residing in squalid internment camps. More than 300,000 people displaced by the fighting between the government and Tamil Tiger ...Read More

Sri Lanka to release 136,000 war-displaced Tamils

Sat, Nov 21st, 2009 | Top Stories, World |

Sri Lanka to release 136,000 war-displaced Tamils MANIK FARM, Sri Lanka—Sri Lanka will release next month the remaining 136,000 Tamil refugees still in the squalid and overrun government camps where they've been detained since the country's civil war ended six months ago, a top official said Saturday. Some ...Read More

UN confirms Tamil camps exodus

Thu, Nov 19th, 2009 | World |

UN confirms Tamil camps exodus UN aid chief John Holmes says those who have returned are glad UN humanitarian chief John Holmes has confirmed that more than half the Tamils who were in refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka have now left them. The camps were ...Read More

Retiring Sri Lankan Gen. Contends Gov. Politicians Planted Coup Rumors

Sat, Nov 14th, 2009 | World |

Retiring Sri Lankan Gen. Contends Gov. Politicians Planted Coup Rumors Sri Lanka's president Friday gave the country's top military figurepermission to leave his post immediately, a day after the army generalsubmitted retirement papers to his commander-in-chief. In his2,200-word retirement request submitted Thursday General Sarath Fonsekasays he was misled about his promotion ...Read More

Sri Lanka frees up top general to run for president

Fri, Nov 13th, 2009 | Top Stories |

COLOMBO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka has accepted the retirement of a top general who oversaw the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels after 25 years of war, an official said on Friday, leaving him free to run for president. General ...Read More

Sri Lanka's top general resigns amid speculation he plans to make presidential bid

Thu, Nov 12th, 2009 | Politics |

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's top general, who led the battle to crush the Tamil Tiger rebels and ended the island's 30-year civil war, resigned from his post Thursday but declined to discuss his future plans. Gen. Sarath Fonseka's resignation ...Read More

Sri Lanka's top general resigns amid speculation

Thu, Nov 12th, 2009 | Politics |

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka's top general, who led the battle to crush the Tamil Tiger rebels and ended the island's 30-year civil war, resigned from his post Thursday but declined to discuss his future plans. Gen. Sarath Fonseka's ...Read More

Sri Lanka Says 164000 War Refugees Remain in Northern Camps

Mon, Nov 9th, 2009 | World |

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka said 164,000 civiliansdisplaced by the civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels remain incamps in the north and the government intends to reduce thenumber to less than 50,000 by the end of January. “We are now ...Read More

Sri Lanka to Boost Investment in Tamil Provinces Devastated by Civil War

Mon, Nov 9th, 2009 | World |

Sri Lanka to Boost Investment in Tamil Provinces Devastated by Civil War Sri Lanka plans to pour development money into Tamil-dominated provinces that suffered economically during years of civil war. A Sri Lankan cabinet minister spoke at the World Economic Forum's India summit. Sri Lankan government officials are predicting the island nation's $41 ...Read More

UN Calls for War Crimes Investigation in Sri Lanka

Sun, Oct 25th, 2009 | World |

UN Calls for War Crimes Investigation in Sri Lanka The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling for an independent, international investigation of possible war crimes committed during the last few months of the war in Sri Lanka. The UN agency says there should be a ...Read More

Sri Lanka to Release Thousands of Tamil Refugees

Fri, Oct 23rd, 2009 | Most Viewed, Top Stories, World |

Sri Lanka to Release Thousands of Tamil Refugees Over the coming weeks, the Sri Lankan government plans to release nearly 40,000 ethnic Tamils confined in military run-refugee camps. The first group has already left the camps. The government has also come under renewed international pressure to investigate charges ...Read More

Abuses may hit EU-Sri Lanka ties

Mon, Oct 19th, 2009 | World |

Abuses may hit EU-Sri Lanka ties Sri Lanka has been condemned over its delay in freeing displaced Tamils Sri Lanka could lose special trading rights with the bloc because of a failure to improve its human rights record, the European Union has warned. A year-long inquiry by ...Read More

Sri Lankan billionaire's US arrest stirs new scrutiny

Mon, Oct 19th, 2009 | Top Stories, World |

COLOMBO (Reuters) - A Sri Lankan-born billionaire's arrest in the largest U.S. hedge fund insider trading case triggered new scrutiny on Monday in his native country over the possibility his money found its way to the Tamil Tiger rebels. U.S. authorities ...Read More

13 hurt as bomb-rigged car explodes in Sri Lanka

Fri, Oct 2nd, 2009 | World |

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A car bomb exploded in northwest Sri Lanka on Friday and wounded 13 people, including 12 schoolchildren about to travel in the vehicle, the military said. It was the first major bomb blast reported in the country ...Read More

13 wounded in explosion in Sri Lanka

Fri, Oct 2nd, 2009 | World |

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka's military says a bomb has exploded inside a car transporting schoolchildren in the country's northwest province, wounding 13. Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara says that the blast occurred Friday near the town of Kurunegala. He says ...Read More

Sri Lanka wounds 2 trying to flee refugee camp

Sun, Sep 27th, 2009 | World |

Sri Lankan soldiers fired on a group of war refugees trying to flee a camp in the north of the island, wounding two, the military said Sunday. The foiled escape bid happened late Saturday in the northern district of Vavuniya, near ...Read More

UN concerned over S Lankan refugees

Fri, Sep 18th, 2009 | World |

UN has expressed "strong concerns" over Sri Lanka's war refugees, warning that any delay in resettlement would undermine efforts to reconcile with the country's estranged Tamil minority. Lynn Pascoe, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, said the world body had not ...Read More

Sri Lanka Pledges to Send Home Tamils Displaced by Fighting

Fri, Sep 18th, 2009 | World |

Sri Lanka has pledged to send home nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamils beingheld in refugee camps. Theassurance to send them home by the end of January came as a top UnitedNations envoy visited the country to urge the government to hasten ...Read More

Sri Lankan War Refugees Impatient to Leave Camps, UN Envoy Says

Thu, Sep 17th, 2009 | World |

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lankan refugees held in campssince the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels in May are “impatient”to return to their homes, Lynn Pascoe, the United Nationspolitical chief, said after visiting centers in the north. “I saw some efforts ...Read More