newslanka.org

Sri Lanka hailed elections Saturday near an area once dominated by the Tamil Tiger rebels as the first seeds of democracy sprouting along the former battlefields of its recently ended civil war.

The arrest of the Tamil Tigers’ new leader has dealt a major blow to the rebels’ efforts to regroup and push on with their separatist struggle after being routed by Sri Lankan forces, the government said Friday.

Sri Lanka says that a wanted arms smuggler who recently took over as the new leader of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels has been arrested overseas.

An international media rights group has expressed outrage at the Sri Lanka’s decision to ban journalists from covering the first local elections in the north since the military defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The United States on Monday expressed concern over hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans displaced by war who are currently confined to military-run camps and pledged funds to help their resettlement.

The International Monetary Fund has given final approval for a $2.6 billion loan for Sri Lanka despite calls from human rights groups that the island nation should first address concerns over its human rights record.

The Associated Press bureau chief in Sri Lanka, who broke news of private U.N. reports outlining civilian death tolls, has been denied permission to remain in the country.

In just six months, one of the world’s largest camps for war refugees has been carved out of the jungles of northern Sri Lanka, complete with banks, post offices, schools and a supermarket. But no one is allowed out, and hardly anyone is allowed in.

In just six months, one of the world’s largest camps for war refugees has been carved out of the jungles of northern Sri Lanka, complete with banks, post offices, schools and a supermarket. But no one is allowed out, and hardly anyone is allowed in.

Sri Lanka’s government should be forced to rectify serious human rights abuses before it receives an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund, a human rights group said Thursday.

Sri Lanka’s defeated Tamil Tiger rebels have named a man accused of running a vast arms smuggling operation as their new leader, two months after government forces crushed the separatist movement.

A French aid agency is demanding an international investigation into the massacre of 17 of its workers in Sri Lanka three years ago, after a government inquiry reportedly failed to identify the killers.

The Sri Lankan military was not operating in the area when 17 workers for a French aid agency were gunned down execution-style in 2006, the chairman of a government commission investigating the massacre said Tuesday.

A group of Sri Lankan doctors who have been in police custody for nearly two months were brought before the media Wednesday to recant their reports of mass civilian casualties during the final days of the civil war.

Midway through his five-year term, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he isn’t concerned that he’s not a household name.

Sri Lankan police say they have arrested a popular astrologer for publicly predicting President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s imminent ouster from office.

At least 11 Sri Lankan journalists were driven into exile in the past 12 months amid an intensive government crackdown on critical reporters and editors, the Committee to Protect Journalists says in a new survey.

The Obama administration is reviving efforts to have the United States sign onto a global children’s rights treaty ratified by every U.N. member except the U.S. and Somalia, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said Monday.

The United States joined the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday, a body widely criticized for failing to confront abuses around the world and for acting primarily to condemn Israel, one of Washington’s closest allies.

Indian sports minister Manohar Singh Gill says organizers are ready to counter the risk of a terrorist attack during the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next year.

Human rights groups called Thursday for an international investigation into wartime abuses in Sri Lanka, saying the government lacks the political will to investigate the incidents on its own.

Human rights groups called Thursday for an international investigation into wartime abuses in Sri Lanka, saying the government lacks the political will to investigate the incidents on its own.

Human rights groups called Thursday for an international investigation into wartime abuses in Sri Lanka, saying the government lacks the political will to investigate the incidents on its own.

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels are trying to rise from the ashes of their devastating battlefield defeat, swearing off violence and pledging to transform their internationally shunned terror group into a democratic movement for Tamil statehood.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says Macy’s will voluntarily recall about 33,000 hooded children’s sweatshirts that pose a strangulation risk.

Pakistani police have made their first arrest in the attack on Sri Lanka’s cricket team, and determined that the assailants planned to take the athletes hostage, a senior official said Wednesday.

Pakistani police say they have made their first arrest in the attack on Sri Lanka’s cricket team in the eastern city of Lahore in March.

Gunmen killed two journalists in separate attacks in the central Philippines last week, a media watchdog said Wednesday.

The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI has named a Vatican official, Monsignor Albert Malcolm Ranjith, to head the Colombo, Sri Lanka archdiocese.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva brought a message of worker solidarity and economic responsibility to the United Nations on Monday. He left with some rare, sharp criticism from human rights groups that once championed his government.

A Sri Lankan government investigation into human rights abuses during its war with Tamil Tiger rebels has been disbanded with more than half of its cases unresolved, an official said Tuesday.

The Sri Lankan government has never seriously investigated human rights abuses allegedly committed during 25 years of civil war and needs to rapidly overhaul its justice system to bring peace to the country, Amnesty International said Thursday.

The Sri Lankan government has never seriously investigated human rights abuses allegedly committed during 25 years of civil war and needs to rapidly overhaul its justice system to bring peace to the country, Amnesty International said Thursday.

Two retired Chilean generals have been sentenced to prison for shipping arms to Croatia at the time of its battle for independence from Yugoslavia.

Sri Lanka denied entry Wednesday to a Canadian lawmaker who was outspoken in his criticism of the military’s war against the Tamil Tiger rebels, an official said.

A look at some recent major attacks in Pakistan or blamed on Pakistan-based militants:

The U.N. chief lent credence Friday to the possibility of war crimes in Sri Lanka, saying an international probe is needed to examine the military actions of the government and defeated Tamil Tiger rebels during the civil war.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, criticized internationally for his conduct of the war against the Tamil Tigers, has been all but crowned king inside Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s president urged the military on Wednesday to win over the Tamil people and to ensure they live without “fear or suspicion” in the wake of the army’s victory over Tamil separatist rebels.

Sri Lanka is poised for an “economic takeoff” now that its military has routed the Tamil Tiger rebels, the country’s foreign minister said Sunday.

A senior UN official said the civilian death toll from the Sri Lankan government’s crushing of the Tamil Tiger insurgency was “unacceptably high” and should be the subject of an official inquiry.

“The United Nations human rights council has rejected calls to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by both sides in the final stages of Sri Lanka’s bloody 25-year conflict.

President Barack Obama pledged to bring change to Washington, but he is continuing one of the capital’s most entrenched traditions: rewarding political supporters with ambassadorships.

The Sri Lankan military says it has killed 11 suspected Tamil rebels in the eastern jungles, in the biggest clash since declaring victory against the insurgents last week.

The Sri Lankan government will maintain its state of emergency, including sweeping anti-terrorism powers, after the battlefield defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels, according to a statement posted online Wednesday.

A look at some recent major attacks in Pakistan or blamed on Pakistan-based militants:

Three teachers freed by Filipino militants said they were threatened and slapped during four months of jungle captivity, while the U.S. increased rewards for the capture of leaders of the brutal al-Qaida-linked guerrillas.

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights is demanding an independent investigation into atrocities committed in Sri Lanka’s civil war.

A leading human rights group has asked the United Nations to publicize its estimate of civilian deaths in the final weeks of Sri Lanka’s civil war amid escalating reports over how many died.

The parents of the Tamil Tigers’ slain rebel chief have been found in a government-run displacement camp and will be separated from the others there for their safety, the Sri Lankan military said Friday.

Sri Lanka’s military said Thursday it has proved conclusively through DNA testing that Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed last week, after supporters refused to believe a government video showing the leader’s dead body.

Lakshmi Rasamy reached through the barbed wire enclosing this displacement camp, grabbed her mother’s hand and wept for her four children who were killed in the last spasm of fighting in Sri Lanka’s civil war.

Of all the hardships in this sprawling displacement camp, people most bemoan not knowing what happened to relatives who disappeared in the chaos of the decisive battle that ended the prolonged war between the Sri Lankan military and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sri Lanka’s military said it plans to enlist at least 100,000 more soldiers to head off any resurgence of the separatist Tamil Tigers, who were routed by government forces last week to end a quarter century of civil war.

Behind sandbagged walls, a driveway lined with metal spikes, a battery of security cameras and rifle-wielding bodyguards sits the man who would be the next leader of Sri Lanka’s Tamil community.

The defeated Tamil Tiger rebels confirmed Sunday that their supreme leader was killed in the group’s final battle against Sri Lankan troops.

For die-hard followers, the almost mythic commander who led a terror-driven Tamil insurrection in Sri Lanka still lives — despite persuasive evidence to the contrary.

For die-hard followers, the almost mythic commander who led a terror-driven Tamil insurrection in Sri Lanka still lives — despite persuasive evidence to the contrary.

Today is Friday, May 29, the 149th day of 2009. There are 216 days left in the year.

Today is Thursday, May 28, the 148th day of 2009. There are 217 days left in the year.