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UNICEF calls for halt to child recruitment by Karuna Group [TamilNet, June 22, 2006 11:27 GMT] Following reports from the field in the past week of abductions and forced recruitment of children in the areas of Santhiveli, Kiran, Mankerni, Valaichchenai and Iruthayapuram in Manmunai North, the UNICEF, in a press release issued Thursday, condemned the abductions, and called for an immediate halt to the recruitment of children by Karuna Group. Full text of the press release follows: UNICEF condemns abduction and recruitment of Sri Lankan children by the Karuna group Colombo, 22 June 2006: UNICEF in Sri Lanka is calling for immediate action to halt the…

UNICEF says the Karuna group is conscripting children, with 30 cases verified in one week in June alone. "What we have seen is recruitment by a new faction, the Karuna faction, with fairly significant numbers recruited between the months of April and June," said JoAnna VanGerpen, the UNICEF representative in Sri Lanka. "It was off in July but now we're hearing new reports again of recruitment. This is a very unfortunate development." Ross from Human Rights Watch says it is very worrying that the government apparently is complicit in the Karuna group's conscripting of children. "The fact that abductions appear to be taking place in Batticaloa area by th…

Nearly two months after its tenure ended, the Centre has granted a one-year extension to CBI's Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), which is probing the wider conspiracy behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The term of MDMA, which is headed by a CBI official and comprises officers from IB, RAW and Revenue Intelligence, ended on May 31 this year. It has now been given a post-facto approval for extension. Sources said that the role of Sri Lanka national Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP, who is alleged to be a key actor in the conspiracy, is under investigation. KP is believed to be the man responsible for arranging arms for LTT…

By M. A. Sumanthiran - M A Sumanthiran ‘I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent’. Grief is the inevitable consequence of violence. The tragic and inexcusable events of Weliweriya have left its residents with unimaginable grief. Akila Dinesh Jayawardena was a 17 year-old student of Chandrajothi Vidhyalaya, Yakkala. He was killed by a soldier’s bullet as he inched through protestors searching for his mother. As his body lay at the mortuary of the Gampaha hospital on the evening of August 1, two others, Ravishan Perera and Nilantha Pushpakumara, fought for their lives. But they too did…

United Sri Lanka," cannot be accepted as a pre-negotiation parameter - Rudrakumaran During peace negotiations in South Sudan, Northern Ireland, Montenegro and Bougainville, the international community did not set "united country" as a pre-negotiation parameter for the expected outcome of a negotiated solution. The international community's stand that solution to the Tamil national question should be found within a united Sri Lanka, runs contrary to the current international practice, and to the law of self-determination, argued Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, legal advisor to the Liberation Tigers, in a paper presented at a conference held in Zurich in April. The…

August 10, 2007 Universal Music Will Sell Songs Without Copy Protection By JEFF LEEDS Signaling another departure from the music industry’s longtime antipiracy strategy, the Universal Music Group will sell a significant portion of its catalog without the customary copy protection software for at least the next few months, the company announced yesterday. Universal, the world’s biggest music conglomerate, said it would offer albums and songs without the software, known as digital rights management, through existing digital music retail services like RealNetworks and Wal-Mart, nascent services from Amazon.com and Google, and some artists’ Web sites. …

University Medalist Radhika Kannan speaks at Commencement ccded4b0f9317d81dce1cc9b7dc9bb8f

Sri Lanka's main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), once again reiterated their unwillingness to co-operate with an international inquiry into war crimes, on Monday. Stating that the government's LLRC was adequate enough to deal with the allegatios, the UNP general secretary, Tissa Attanayake stated, "We are opposed to any international inquiry. That has been our position". UNP united with government against foreign intervention – Premadasa (17 November 2013) http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=9278&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

UNP creates broad front while UPFA leads a retreat to the past by Harim Peiris - on 07/14/2015 Photo courtesy Fatalnews As nominations closed earlier this week, the contours of the battle lines for the general election to Parliament became clear. The two major political formations in the country, the UNP and the UPFA are vying for a parliamentary majority and with it effective control of the next government. The UNP spent an useful weekend, creating a broad political front, styled the United National Front for Good Governance, (UNFGG) which will contest the elections under the UNP’s elephant symbol and be registered as a party after the elections. The UNFGG is a b…

Unprecedented carnage, SLA turns firepower on civilian zone [TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 05:42 GMT] Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Wednesday morning turned its artillery, mortar, 40 mm cannon, Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) and gunfire ranging from 50 caliber machine guns to LMG fire into the so-called safety zone, causing a carnage within a short period of time between 7:40 and 10:40 a.m. killing and maiming hundreds of civilians, according to the latest update by TamilNet correspondent in Vanni reporting from the area under attack. Civilians were struggling to transport the wounded to the hospital and many of the injured were lying along the roadside as gunfire and ar…

CP24 How are the local Tamil protests affecting your views of the conflict in Sri Lanka? It's making me more aware of the issue - please click this It's turning me off issue due to local/traffic disruptions Undecided Please go to 40 St. Clair Ave., Sri Lankan Consulate to nab Banduley Rush!

Urgent Appeal from Jaffna nandmana@sltnet.lk to ajeevan An independent group of Catholic Priest (who wish to remain anonymous) who are working with the people in dire need on a humanitarian basis regardless of the curfew imposed would like to disseminate the following information and would like to place an urgent appeal to the international community especially the European Union, Co-Chairs, and Peace envoys of Norway and Japan. This urgent appeal comes to the conscience of the world from the war-torn Jaffna city. The present critical situation started on the 11th Friday at 06.45 p.m. Within the last six days the situation deteriorated drastically and …

These were proposed during Tigers' time. Taken from the TEEDOR website for archive purposes. ------------------------------------------------------- The following projects are proposed to fulfil urgent requirements of development in the Vanni Area. Detailed proposals with a breakdown of costs are available for NGOs, Development Agencies, Private Enterprises or individuals who may wish to support these projects financially or by providing equipment or skilled resources. No Project Title Location Total in Sri Lankan Rupees[in Millions] T…

Optimism Our correspondent says that there is a sense of something new developing in Nepal and a mood of optimism that the former rebels - who have moved from the battlefield to forming a likely government in less than two years - can give Nepal the new start that it needs. Sectors previously wary of the former rebels are now putting out feelers towards them. A senior army figure, Brigadier General Shiva Ram Pradhan, has expressed the willingness of the military to work with the new government. The chairman of the country's chamber of commerce has praised Maoist leaders for their promise to listen to the private sector when working out economic pol…

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit has scheduled March 8th, 9:30 am for the oral argument in the appeal case against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse for civil damages on war-crimes charges filed by three Tamil plaintiffs whose relatives were extra-judicially executed or unlawfully killed under the "command responsibility" of Rajapakse. "The key legal issue in this case is whether the U.S.'s Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) deputed the Executive Branch with authority to extinguish TVPA claims against sitting heads of state based on professed foreign policy concerns," plaintiff-appellants' attorney, Bruce Fein, said. Judges Merr…

The United States (US) has denied reports it has softened its stand on Sri Lanka with US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki insisting that there has not been a change of US policy on Sri Lanka. Psaki said that US Secretary of State John Kerry had met President Mahinda Rajapaksa during the recent visit to the US by the President for the UN General Assembly. Asked, during the daily press briefing at the US State Department if, at that meeting, the US had softened its stance on Sri Lanka as was reported in a local newspaper, Psaki said “absolutely not”. “I saw the same story. The only thing that was right was that the Secretary did speak with the Sri Lan…

US Dollar Faces A Rebellion China and Brazil have struck a deal to trade in their local currencies instead of the US dollar. Saudi Arabia has become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It’s a security block led by China. What does this shift in West Asia mean? Palki Sharma explains

By Jonathan Power Foreign affairs columnist for the International Herald Tribune for 20 years and guest columnist for New York Times Not since the early Cold War days, when the US and NATO effectively encircled the Soviet Union, feeding Stalin’s paranoia, has America moved to be so profoundly counterproductive. It is now beginning to encircle China - at least that is how China is seeing it. Of course “encircling” is a bit of an exaggerated notion since the Soviet Union was too large ever to be totally encircled. Likewise today China is content with the state of affairs on its long Russian, Mongolian and North Korean borders. But “encircling” does suggest a proces…

The US Seventh Fleet has claimed in a Facebook post on Monday that its guided-missile destroyer, USS Barry, launched a live missile during an exercise in the Philippine Sea on Thursday last week. In the meantime, Hong Kong-based newspaper, South China Morning Post (SCMP), which is owned by a Chinese multinational technology company, described the development as an “unusual drill” on Tuesday. The paper said military observers in Beijing believed that it was a “signal to the PLA that American forces can counter advanced threats.” Also, the English version of the paper operated by the Communist Party of China (CPC), Global Times, on Sunday blamed the Trump Administration as …

US fighter jet crashes in South Korea US fighter jet crashes in South Korea By Jake Kwon, CNN Updated 11:31 PM EDT, Fri May 5, 2023 …

US loses last perfect credit rating amid rising debt Image source,Getty Images Image caption, Moody's warned in 2023 that the US' triple-A rating was at risk Ali Abbas Ahmadi BBC News Published 16 May 2025 Updated 17 May 2025 The US has lost its last perfect credit rating, as influential ratings firm Moody's expressed concern over the government's ability to pay back its debt. In lowering the US rating from 'AAA' to 'Aa1', Moody's noted that successive US administrations had failed to reverse ballooning deficits and interest costs. A triple-A rating signifies a country's highest possible credit reliability, and indicates it is considered to be in very good financial healt…

US may launch Sri Lanka war crimes investigation 25 March 2013 Last updated at 13:29 ET Help The US has warned that it may be forced to investigate alleged war crimes if the Sri Lankan government does not conduct its own "independent and credible" inquiry. The Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert Blake, said it was up to the Sri Lankan government to prove that it was genuine in investigating allegations of war crimes during the last phase of the conflict with the separatist group the Tamil Tigers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21930556

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 18:15 GMT] Former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage this week urged sweeping changes to current U.S. foreign policy, arguing that the superpower needs to replace its almost exclusive focus on fighting terrorism with a broader agenda. "If your foreign policy is just organized around the global war on terror, you’re missing the bet. I think a new paradigm will emerge. I don’t know what it will be, but in the interim we need to engage with friends and frankly engage with our enemies. Actually, it might be more important to engage with our enemies," he told The Washington Diplomat journal. "We’ve been exporting our …

States Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Robert F. Willard today (January 17) met Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Ministry of Defence, Colombo. He was accompanied by Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, US ambassador Robert Blake and a high-level U.S. Navy delegation. The discussion between Defence Secretary Rajapaksa and Admiral Willard focused on strengthening the bilateral relations between defence establishments of the two countries. Admiral Robert F. Willard is the commander of the world`s larges naval command encompassing 100 million square miles and approximately 178 ships, 1500 aircraft and 160,000 sailors, Marines and civ…

By MIKE STOBBE and MARILYNN MARCHIONEMay 8, 2019 Pregnancy-related deaths are rising in the United States and the main risk factor is being black, according to new reports that highlight racial disparities in care during and after childbirth. Black women, along with Native Americans and Alaska natives, are three times more likely to die before, during or after having a baby, and more than half of these deaths are preventable, Tuesday’s report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concludes. Although these deaths are rare — about 700 a year — they have been rising for decades. “An American mom today is 50% more likely to die in childbirth …