SRI LANKA on Tuesday (28 August 2012) began interviews for the post of hangman a year after two positions fell vacant, with at least 480 convicts on death row, a Reuters report said.
But it was not quite clear how the two successful candidates would fill their days – the death penalty has not been used […]

Sri Lanka’s stock market, once a darling of investors, has seen its value plummet 26% in the past year and now faces a crisis of confidence after its regulator quit in a storm of controversy.
The tiny bourse became the world’s top gainer soon after the country ended decades of ethnic war, but three years later […]

(Washington, DC) – The Australian parliament’s swift approval of an “offshore processing” law marks a shift in refugee policy that appears arbitrary and discriminatory on its face.
The Migration Legislation Amendment (Offshore Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2011, passed by the Senate on August 16, 2012, and by the House the previous day, authorizes the transfer […]

A US assassination drone attack has claimed the lives of at least 25 people in eastern Somalia, Press TV reports.
The attack took place in Somalia’s Garas Balley district near the capital Mogadishu, leaving at least another 40 injured.
The unmanned aircraft also destroyed two al-Shabab bases in the area.
The US has recently stepped up its drone operations in […]

A minority Tamil political party in Sri Lanka claimed yesterday that several prisoners had been assaulted and abused following a recent hostage drama at a prison in the northern Vavuniya town.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) met officials from foreign embassies in Sri Lanka and discussed the issue, TNA legislator Suresh Premachandran said.
Tamil Tiger suspects detained […]

9 July 2012: Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said the suspected irregular entry vessel had been intercepted.
The passengers will be transferred to Christmas Island for initial security, health and identity checks, he said.
Authorities have reportedly been working to upgrade quarantine facilities at the remote Cocos Islands amidst fears people smugglers from Sri Lanka and southern […]

Donor assistance is waning in northern Sri Lanka, where the critical priorities of food, shelter, protection and nutrition are not being covered, and many displaced people still need outside assistance more than three years after a decades-long civil war ended.
“We’re now at a critical juncture in time,” Vincent Lelei, head of the UN Office for […]

July 6, 2012, 11:01 am: Police in Sri Lanka have arrested 41 people on suspicion of attempting to migrate illegally by boat to Australia, officials say. The group was arrested in Vakarai, 280 kilometres east of the capital, as they were making preparations to board a boat, a senior police officer in the area said on Friday.
Most […]

Sri Lanka has seen a rise in the number of underage children being raped or abused this year, the police said yesterday.
Over 700 incidents of rape or abuse of children were reported during the first six months of this year, police spokesperson Ajith Rohana told Xinhua. He said this was out of a total of around […]

5 July 2012, 15:27 AEST: Sri Lanka has drawn condemnation from the United States and the European Union for shutting down two independent news websites. Authorities say they have been defaming the president and reporting in an “incorrect and vulgar manner.”
In March, mobile news alerts about the military and the police were also censored. The decision comes as […]