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A Saudi official has denied a Sri Lankan maid’s allegations that the couple she worked for in the Gulf kingdom hammered nails and needles into her body.

Doctors removed 13 nails and five needles from a Sri Lankan maid who says the couple she worked for in Saudi Arabia hammered them into her body.

Sri Lanka’s ex-army chief called the government a “total dictatorship” and said Thursday that he will appeal his recent conviction by a military court, which he described as a political vendetta.

Sri Lanka’s president approved the dishonorable discharge of his former army chief and political rival Saturday, a day after a military court convicted the general of involvement in politics while in service.

A military court convicted former Sri Lankan army chief and presidential candidate Gen. Sarath Fonseka of involvement in politics while in service and stripped him of his rank and military honors, the government announced Friday.

A Sri Lankan government-appointed commission to look into the country’s civil war opened public hearings Wednesday amid international skepticism about its credibility and mandate to probe and punish war crimes.

A man died and was buried at sea last month as hundreds of ethnic Tamils fleeing Sri Lanka spent a grueling several months at sea in a cramped, rusting cargo ship, the Canadian Tamil Congress said Sunday.

Hundreds of Tamil asylum seekers from war-ravaged Sri Lanka spent a grueling three months at sea in a cramped, ramshackle cargo ship but arrived in fairly good condition, Canadian officials said Saturday.

Hundreds of Tamil asylum seekers from war-ravaged Sri Lanka who spent a grueling three months at sea in the belly of a cramped, ramshackle cargo ship may be traumatized, a lawyer with the Canadian Tamil Congress said Saturday.

At sea for three crowded and grueling months, hundreds of Tamil asylum seekers from war-ravaged Sri Lanka sought refuge in Canada on Friday when their rusty, ramshackle cargo ship finally edged just after sunrise into the shelter of a naval port.

A small cargo ship crammed with hundreds of Tamil asylum seekers from Sri Lanka docked at a Canadian navy base on Friday after a grueling three-month journey.

Canada’s top security official says the navy has boarded a cargo ship carrying 490 asylum seekers, including some people Canada has said may be terrorists.

Canadian authorities said Wednesday that they will intercept a ship of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka before it reaches the coast because the passengers may include people Canada considers terrorists.

Canada’s top security official said Monday he was getting regular briefings on a ship of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka that could be carrying terrorists.

Canada’s top security official says he’s concerned a ship carrying asylum seekers from Sri Lanka could be carrying members of a terrorist organization.

Political turmoil paralyzing the Maldives deepened Monday after the attorney-general resigned in frustration over parliament’s refusal to appoint a new Supreme Court.

A top U.S. diplomat urged Sri Lanka on Wednesday to investigate allegations of war crimes during its civil war and to resettle tens of thousands of displaced ethnic Tamils as a means of reconciliation.

A nocturnal, forest-dwelling primate with orb-like eyes and short limbs was photographed in central Sri Lanka late last year after being feared extinct, researchers said Monday.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon closed the main U.N. office in Sri Lanka and recalled a top official Thursday in a deepening standoff over the U.N.’s refusal to stop investigating alleged abuses in the country’s civil war.

A Sri Lankan Cabinet minister on Saturday ended a three-day fast aimed at forcing the United Nations to abandon an investigation into war crimes allegedly committed during the final months of the country’s civil war.

A Sri Lankan Cabinet minister continued a hunger strike for a second day Friday to demand the U.N. halt its investigation into alleged wartime abuses, despite the world body’s decision to recall its top Colombo-based official and shut its regional office.

Sri Lanka’s housing minister started a hunger strike Thursday in front of the U.N. office after the world body refused to halt its investigation into alleged human rights abuses during the country’s civil war.

Sri Lankan protesters threatened hunger strikes and nationwide demonstrations Wednesday if the United Nations doesn’t halt its investigation into possible abuses committed during the final bloody months of the civil war here.

A small group of protesters continued to demonstrate in front of the U.N. compound in Sri Lanka’s capital Wednesday, demanding the world body scrap its probe into alleged rights violations during the country’s bloody civil war.

Hundreds of protesters, led by a government minister, laid siege to the U.N. compound in Colombo on Tuesday, trapping workers inside for hours in an effort to force the world body to cancel its investigation of alleged abuses committed during Sri Lanka’s civil war.

Fifty-three couples of former Tamil Tiger rebels were married Sunday in a colorful mass ceremony at a government camp in northern Sri Lanka with a Bollywood star as witness.

Sri Lanka’s president met ethnic Tamil leaders on Monday and promised a political solution to a protracted ethnic conflict for the first time since his forces ended the country’s 25-year civil war last year.

Amnesty International accused the United States, Russia and China on Thursday of ignoring human rights violations by allies and failing to open their own records to scrutiny in an annual survey meant to pressure governments to act more compassionately.

The Sri Lankan government says 20 people have died in floods and mudslides after a week of powerful storms brought heavy rain across the country.

Representatives of an Afghan militant group are holding talks in the Maldives, officials said Thursday.

An international rights group said Friday it has new evidence that wartime abuses were perpetrated against civilians during the final phase of Sri Lanka’s long and bloody civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Accepting two Muslim detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention center will bring goodwill and honor to the Maldives, the country’s president said.

Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered the release Monday of a journalist sentenced to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has sworn in veteran politician Dissanayake Mudiyansalage Jayaratne as Sri Lanka’s new prime minister after his party’s landslide election victory.

Australia announced Friday that it would no longer accept refugee claims from Sri Lankans and Afghans, saying the situations in those countries has improved enough that their people may no longer need to seek protection elsewhere.

Sri Lanka’s leader has promised peace and prosperity to a nation battered by decades of civil war after his party’s convincing win in parliamentary elections.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition has won Sri Lanka’s first postwar parliamentary elections further consolidating his political dominance after the battlefield defeat of the Tamil Tigers last year.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition has won Sri Lanka’s first post-war parliamentary election, the election department said Friday.

Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition led in early results Friday from parliamentary elections in which President Mahinda Rajapaksa is seeking to strengthen his grip on power by gaining the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution.

Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition led early results Friday of parliamentary elections in which President Mahinda Rajapaksa is seeking to strengthen his grip on power by gaining a two-thirds majority.

Sri Lankans are voting for a new Parliament, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa looking to consolidate his political dominance after winning re-election in January.

Sri Lanka’s president called Thursday for minority ethnic Tamils to work with the government to settle their differences but indicated there will be no self-rule, as the country celebrated its first Independence Day since the end of a 25-year civil war.

Sri Lanka’s government is violating the rights of some of the 11,000 Tamil Tiger suspects currently in its custody, a leading rights group said Tuesday.

Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of Sri Lanka’s capital Wednesday to protest the results of the recent presidential election, which they say was marred by fraud.

Sri Lanka’s opposition accused the government Monday of hounding and detaining its activists following the country’s acrimonious presidential election.

Riding high on his battlefield victory against the Tamil Tiger rebels and his landslide re-election, Sri Lanka’s president appears under little pressure to tackle the deep ethnic tensions that fueled a generation of conflict here.

Profiles of the two main candidates in Sri Lanka’s presidential election Tuesday:

Key facts about Sri Lanka, which is holding its presidential election Tuesday.

Police raided the office of Sri Lanka’s defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka and arrested 15 of its workers Friday, his lawyer said, after he disputed this week’s election result and the government alleged he was planning a coup.

An opposition official says police have raided the office of Sri Lanka’s defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka.

Sri Lanka’s defeated presidential candidate will contest a parliamentary seat during general elections later this year, an opposition activist said Friday.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa pledged Thursday to seek reconciliation with minority Tamils after his sweeping re-election, but did not indicate how he plans to deal with their demands for greater rights.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa won a resounding re-election victory Wednesday, beating back a challenge from his former army chief, who rejected the official results.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa won a resounding re-election victory Wednesday, beating back a challenge from his former army chief, who rejected the official results and said he feared arrest as troops surrounded his hotel.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa won re-election Wednesday in a hard-fought race against his former army chief for control of a nation trying to rebuild after a devastating civil war.

Early returns Wednesday showed Sri Lanka’s incumbent president ahead of his estranged former army chief in their bitter race to win the country’s first presidential election after its quarter-century war against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sri Lanka’s incumbent president vied with his estranged former army chief Tuesday in the country’s first election since the two men led government troops to victory in the quarter-century war against Tamil Tiger rebels.

When Sri Lanka’s president decided two months ago to call this week’s snap presidential poll, his re-election appeared assured — until his former army chief joined the race.

Sri Lanka’s ruling party plans to instigate violence to keep voters from the ballot box in an attempt to secure victory during the upcoming presidential election, the main opposition candidate alleged Saturday.

Assailants attacked the house of an opposition activist in Sri Lanka’s capital amid fears that election-related violence could mar the country’s first poll since the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels after decades of war.