(PTI) Pointing to a smear campaign against it by international rights groups, Sri Lanka on Saturday said it is confident of facing the UN Human Rights Council at its next session later this month as it has a clean slate.

Human rights envoy and minister Mahinda Samarasinghe slammed international rights groups for what he called were attempts to slander the image of Sri Lanka for political gain. Samarasinghe said the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has commenced a [...]

(PTI) Sri Lankan government on Thursday claimed that it had succeeded in resettling over seven lakh war- displaced people in the north and eastern regions, leaving behind a little over 6,000 refugees in camps.

Gunaratna Weerakoon, the minister of resettlement told reporters that the resettlement process had made commendable progress, and that over 700,000 had been already resettled. "Since the end to the war we have successfully resettled 724,135 people or 216,412 families," Weerakoon said.

Officials said this included all [...]

(IANS ) India’s External Affairs Minister SM Krishna on Wednesday flew by chopper to Kilinochchi on way to Jaffna in the northern province of Sri Lanka to meet ethnic Tamils.

He will gift medical equipment to the district general hospital at Kilinochchi on the third day of his four-day visit after fruitful official talks on Tuesday with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prime Minister DM Jayarathna and his counterpart GL Peiris in this scenic capital.

"Krishna will hand over a [...]

(PTI) Rameswaram: Thirteen fishermen from Tamil Nadu have been arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly poaching in Lankan territorial waters.

The fishermen, hailing from Akkaraipettai in Nagapattinam district, had put to sea in two mechanised boats when they were arrested last night and taken to Trincomalee police station, official sources said today.

Earlier, the Lankan navalmen had allegedly hurled a bomb but it missed the target and the fishermen escaped, fisheries department officials said.

Meanwhile, some 442 fishermen, who had [...]

The anti-Tamil stand of the Sri Lankan government on Tuesday saw some supporters of the MDMK and Nam TamizharIyakkam venting their anger on a close relative of the Island nation’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa, when he was about to perform a ‘pooja’ in Rameshwaram.

According to reports, the mob barged into house of the Ramanathaswamy Temple priest and pelted stones and slippers, when they learnt that Tirukumaran Natesan, husband of Sri Lankan MP Nirupama Rajapaksa, was going to perform a ritual. [...]

(PTI) A Sri Lankan national has been arrested after his passport was found attested with fake seals of Chennai and Tiruchirappalli immigration authorities, police said today.

Police said M Ahsan Mohamed (26) of Kandy district in Sri Lanka had been in India for over three years after expiry of his tourist visa.

He had come to the airport here to board a flight to Colombo on Sunday when immigration officials detained him for forgery after cross-checking with their Chennai counterparts. [...]

(PTI) Mechanized boat fishermen began an indefinite strike here today,demanding immediate release of 13 fishermen arrested by Sri Lankan naval personnel since November 28, last year.

A decision in this regard was taken at an emergency meeting of fishermen’s associations, which urged the Centre to take steps to release all the fishermen, B Seshuraja, District Secretary of Tamil Nadu Coastal Mechanized Boats Fishermen Association and Emerit, leader of Rameswaram Fishermen Welfare Association told reporters here.

They also urged both Sri [...]

(PTI) The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday appeared to soften its stance on the issue of transferring land and police powers to the provinces in the devolution package being discussed with the major Tamil party TNA.

The thorny issues have kept the ongoing talks between the government and the Tamil National Alliance heated up, and the government said in a statement that it was ready to consider its scope as demanded by the Tamil group.

"Though the government is concerned about [...]

(PTI) Rameswaram: Protests over detention of five of their colleagues in Sri Lanka and rough sea conditions under the influence of severe cyclone ‘Thane’ have brought a sour end to the year for the fishermen of Rameswaram in south Tamil Nadu as they could not go for fishing for several days.

Fishermen here were cooling their heels on the shores since the beginning of the month demanding the release of the five and were unable to put out to sea [...]

(PTI) A ruling party politician has been arrested in Sri Lanka and remanded to custody in connection with the last week’s killing of a British national in a southern coastal resort.

A ruling party local politician was among the six people remanded in custody till January 6 in connection with the killing of Kuram Shaikah Zaman, a 32 year old British national.

His girlfriend was also injured in the attack.

Reacting to the killing, the Lanka government said better security [...]

(PTI) India on Sunday said it expected Sri Lanka to "act decisively" to achieve meaningful devolution of powers to its provinces in the backdrop of the military operation against the LTTE.

In its first comments on the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), India also asked Sri Lanka to set up an "independent and credible" mechanism to probe allegations of human rights violations.

"The LLRC report has underlined that the present situation provides a great window of [...]

(PTI) Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party TNA has said it wants to see a "positive conclusion" to the current dialogue with the government to address grievances of the minority ethnic community.

Amid criticism that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) had been going slow in addressing the issues of Tamil minority, party leader Rajavayothi Sampanthan said it was not possible for the TNA to come out with all details on the ongoing talks with the government.

But, he said his party [...]

(PTI) Twenty-two fishermen from Jagadapattinam and other coastal villages in Pudukottai district were on Wednesday taken into custody by Sri Lankan naval personnel when they were fishing near Katchatheevu in the Palk Straits, officials said.

Inspector of Fisheries Ramamurthy said they had received information about the detention of the fishermen and the Indian Coast Guard had been informed.

The Sri Lankan naval men, when contacted by the Coast Guard, informed them that the fishermen would be handed over to the [...]

New Delhi: As part of its efforts to rebuild war-torn northern region of Sri Lanka, India will undertake reconstruction and repair of 49,000 houses for Tamil civilians displaced due to the decades-old conflict at a cost of Rs 1300 crore.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here today in line with a promise made by him to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa during the latter’s visit here in June, [...]

After prolific oil discoveries in India, Cairn India Monday said it has made a second natural gas discovery in the offshore Mannar Basin of Sri Lanka.

"Cairn Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn India Ltd, has notified the appropriate authorities in the government of Sri Lanka of a gas discovery in the CLPL-Barracuda-1G/1 well, located in Block SL 2007-01-001, Mannar Basin, Sri Lanka," the company said in a press statement here.

This is the second well in a three-well [...]