The United Nations has sought an explanation from Sri Lanka on the death of three top Tamil Tiger leaders after former Army chief Sarath Fonseka alleged that surrendering Tamil rebels were killed in cold blood.
An official at the Pakistan high commission in Colombo planned strikes on American and Israeli consulates in south India, reports Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com
The prime mission behind the new Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Professor Gamini Lakshman Peiris' meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is to repair the strained relations between the US and Sri Lanka, which took a beating last year when the Sri Lankan forces were crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The US had alleged that there were large scale human rights violations during the military offensive against the tigers.
A host of issues ranging from demand for President's rule in Uttar Pradesh over "deteriorating" law and order to the plight of ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka rocked Parliament on Tuesday.
The cooperation of the two main parties will be useful to pass required laws in parliament if required to implement any decisions taken at the negotiating table.
The United States on Friday asked Sri Lanka to speed up its probe into allegations of rights abuses during the civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, resume talks with Tamil parties on power sharing and reduce the role of the military in the former conflict zone.
A suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam suicide bomber blew himself up when troops surrounded him in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula, where two Tamil Tiger rebels and a soldier were killed in separate incidents, the army said in Colombo on Monday.
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Thursday suspended a contentious deal between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels to disburse billions of dollars of foreign aid to tsunami survivors.
The arrested man is Charles Gnanakone.
If India is to follow a smart cultural diplomacy, it has unmatched advantages over both China and Pakistan, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
With the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam out of its way, Sri Lanka on Thursday assured India that it will implement a law for devolving powers to Tamil-dominated areas, as both the countries agreed on the need for a lasting political solution to the ethnic conflict. The assurance was contained in a joint statement issued after National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon met President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo.
Over 67 Tamil Tigers and three soldiers were killed in fierce clashes in Sri Lanka's embattled northern region, officials said in Colombo on Thursday.
PVR Inox shares hit a 44-month low of Rs 1,154, declining 8 per cent on the BSE in Tuesday's intra-day trade in an otherwise firm market, driven by growth concerns. The stock has slipped 23 per cent from its December high of Rs 1,620, touched on December 5, 2024. It has fallen below its previous low of Rs 1,203.7 from June 4, 2024, and is trading at its lowest level since May 2021.
At least 34 Indian fishermen have been arrested and their boats seized by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in the country's waters, authorities in Colombo said on Tuesday.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, during the discussions he had with the Sri Lankan leaders including President Mahinda Rajapaksa as part of his two-day visit to Colombo, welcomed the Island nation's commitment for a devolution package in the embattled north. Menon, who concluded his visit on Saturday, 'urged early movement towards a peacefully negotiated political settlement in the island, including in the north', an Indian High Commission release said on Sunday.
India is ready to release more funds to Sri Lanka for rehabilitation of the displaced Tamils in the country in addition to Rs 500 crore allocated earlier, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Sunday.
'There is no clarity in the government's offer,' the LTTE said. 'It does not specifically address the concerns raised by the Tigers.'
India on Tuesday assured that it will take all measures to ensure safety and security of Sri Lankans in the country, saying the Centre was in "close consultation" with the concerned state governments regarding this.
It may not be desirable in the 21st century, in the context of the emergence of human rights as a powerful emotive factor and of India's rise as an important player on the regional and global scene, to place self-imposed restrictions on the way we deem fit to vote on human rights resolutions, says Satish Chandra
With Tamil Nadu's Members of Parliament insisting that India make its stand clear on the United States-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka in United Nations Human Rights Commission, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said efforts are on to achieve a "forward-looking" outcome which would avoid "deepening confrontation and mistrust."
Elsewhere, the guerrillas abducted 21 students and later freed them.
According to a Pro-LTTE website, the rebels claimed they thwarted an attack from the Sri Lankan Armed Forces at Muhamalai in Jaffna peninsula on Saturday morning.
In the endlessly entertaining and absorbing soap opera that is India-Sri Lanka relations, wait for the next episode, Aditi Phadnis reports.
'We should expect a cold-blooded, transactional relation that requires a lot of engagement and mutual trust to sustain,' says Constantino Xavier, Fellow, foreign policy, Brookings India.
The delegation said it was suspending its role until the president and prime minister resolved their differences.
Over 12 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed and three soldiers injured in separate gun battles triggered by the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam's attempts to breach the de facto front line in northern Sri Lanka, the military said in Colombo on Wednesday.
Talking tough, the United States on Friday told Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to immediately end the war in the island's north and cautioned Colombo that its unity and reconciliation could be at stake if it continued with its current endeavours to end the ethnic conflict 'militarily'. The White House said it was taking 'very seriously' the allegations of violations of international humanitarian law by both sides.
MDMK chief Vaiko, in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said Tamils in Tamil Nadu and all over the world were 'terribly' concerned about the safety, security and normal life of the Tamil population in the island.
S M Krishna's praise for the Sri Lankan government-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission will diminish our credibility as an honest broker in the eyes of the Sri Lankan Tamils who are becoming increasingly bitter towards India, feels Satish Chandra.
Sri Lankan authorities are verifying with police in Thailand reports about the arrest of top Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam leader Kumaran Padmanathan, who allegedly financed the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The meeting is being attended by United States, Japan, the European Union and Norway.
"My heart goes out to the families of the victims and the injured," Modi said.
Seven persons accused of being involved in smuggling activities for Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels and the Maoist movement have been detained under the National Security Act (NSA). While three of them were involved in smuggling activities for the LTTE, the others were part of the Maoist movement, a release said.
A man, one of the six accused in the explosion case in Coimbatore, confessed during interrogation that he met two men in a Kerala prison who had links with an ISIS group involved in the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka, police sources said on Friday.
Amid the political controversy over India's participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government meet in Sri Lanka, the Congress top brass on Friday met to take a call on whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should attend the event.
"The results of these elections really open the way for President Rajapaksa to take important action to unify the country and get it back on a path of growth. It's a particularly important opportunity now to make progress on these important issues of reconciliation, power-sharing and accountability," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake told media persons.
The Karuna factor is 'one of the main obstacles' to a negotiated settlement between the Government and the LTTE at the peace talks scheduled in Geneva Saturday,
Sri Lanka claimed on Wednesday that an inquiry had found no truth in reports that military guards had traded sex for food in welfare camps set up for Tamil refugees during the final phase of the country's war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
DRDO says it is working with the navy to fit the Rustom-1 with an Automatic Identification System that will identify Indian fishing vessels along the maritime boundary
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