S.Lanka reveals haul of civilian gold from war zone

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government has said its troops collected more than four million dollars worth of gold jewellery during the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Chief government whip Dinesh Gunawardena told parliament on Wednesday that security forces picked up the precious items during the final months of the decades-long civil war last year.

“The army’s 58th division and the military police found 110 kilos of gold jewellery. The value of the jewellery is about 490 million rupees (4.4 million dollars),” Gunawardena said.

The haul “was being legally handed over to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka,” he said, without giving further details.

The Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), a Tamil rights group, said the government should trace owners and return all the goods.

“We don’t know where the military found this jewellery, but what is clear is

US convicts Singapore man in Tamil Tigers arms plot

WASHINGTON: A federal jury in Baltimorehas convicted a Singapore national of conspiring to provideweapons to Tamil Tiger rebels operating in Sri Lanka, the U.S.Justice Department said on Monday.

Balraj Naidu, 48, was charged in a conspiracy to provide material support to the rebel group designated in 1997 by the U.S. Department of State as a foreign terrorist organization.

According to evidence presented at his trial, Naidu and four co-conspirators arranged to buy some 28 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition from an undercover business in Maryland.

Tamil Tiger representatives made a $250,000 down-payment on the $900,000 weapons deal with the bogus company in the summer of 2006, the Justice Department said.

Naidu’s partners were arrested in Sept. 2006, after inspecting the weapons that had been delivered to Guam and making another payment of

Sri Lanka accidental blast kills 25: military

COLOMBO: Three trucks carrying explosives blew up inside a police compound in eastern Sri Lanka on Friday, killing at least 25 people in what the military called an accident.

The blast occurred in Karayinadaru, about 50 km from the eastern port of Batticaloa and in an ethnically mixed area controlled by the Tamil Tiger separatists until 2007.

“The final death toll figure is 25 including 16 police officers and nine civilians including two Chinese nationals,” military spokesman Major-General Ubaya Medawela said.

Earlier, he had given a death toll of 60 killed, saying most were police officers. He did not elaborate on why the death toll had been reduced by more than half.

At least 52 were wounded, with three dying in hospital, P. Murugananda, director at Batticaloa General Hospital, told Reuters by telephone.

Two Chinese employees of a Chinese

Mass wedding for former Tamil fighters

VAVUNIYA: Fifty-three couples of former Tamil Tiger rebels were married Sunday in a colorful mass ceremony at a government camp in northern Sri Lanka with a Bollywood star as witness.

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Mass wedding for former Tamil fighters

Indian leaders pay homage to Rajiv Gandhi

NEW DEHLI: Indian President Pratibha Patil on Friday led the nation to pay homage to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on the 19th anniversary of his killing by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber.

The president, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rajiv Gandhi”s widow and Congress president Sonia Gandhi visited Veer Bhumi, the late prime minister”s memorial here, and placed flowers.

Rajiv Gandhi”s son and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka and other members of the family also visited Veer Bhumi besides Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Congress MPs and other leaders.

Gandhi, son of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sriperumbudur near Chennai during an election rally May 21, 1991.

He became the youngest prime minister of the country at the age of 40 in 1984, soon after his mother was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

Free Sri Lanka Child Soldiers: UN Envoy

Colombo: Free Sri Lanka Child Soldiers: UN Envoy, A top United Nations envoy asked Sri Lanka today to release detained Tamil Tiger child soldiers and asked the authorities to re-unite them with their families.

Retired Major General Patrick Cammaert, the UN special envoy on children and armed conflict, said children who had been conscripted by the Tiger rebels should be allowed to return to their families.

“Hundreds of children are still missing or separated from their parents. They must be reunited as soon as possible,” the Dutch UN official told reporters.

Cammaert met nearly 300 children who were forcibly recruited by the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels during his visit, UN spokesman Gordon Weiss said.

“The best practice in other parts of the world show that children recover better from traumatic experiences when living with their loved ones,” Cammaert said at the end of a five-day visit to the island.

Government forces crushed the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May and detained thousands, including child soldiers, who are still held in camps which are off limits for international aid agencies.

He said children in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) were also at risk.

The government allowed tens of thousands of civilians held in the IDP camps to go in and out freely from December 1, but aid agencies and reporters are still barred from entering them and speaking with inmates.

Obama arrives in China

SHANGHAI: U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in China on Sunday, taking his push to energise ties with Asia to the region’s emerging super-power and world’s third biggest economy.

Late in the evening local time, Obama landed in a rainy Shanghai, eastern China’s coastal commercial hub, where he is due to meet city officials and hold a “town hall” session with young people on Monday, before heading on to Beijing. Obama had no meetings or events scheduled for Sunday.

The U.S. President’s talks in Beijing with President Hu Jintao and officials will cover sometimes tense economic ties, international trouble-spots such as North Korea and Iran, and international efforts to fight climate change.

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Obama arrives in China was first posted on November 15, 2009 at 9:09 pm.

Sri Lankan President postpones poll announcement

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka News : Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday postponed the expected announcement of dates for early presidential and parliamentary elections due by April without giving a reason.

The delay followed the resignation on Friday of the chief of defence staff, General Sarath Fonseka, who is expected to stand against his former commander-in-chief as an opposition candidate.

Fonseka was widely credited with the army’s dominant role in winning a 25-year war against Tamil Tiger rebels which ended in May. Political analysts say he could split Rajapaksa’s voter base and attract those happy with the war victory.

At his Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s annual convention, Rajapaksa, said only that he would decide “in due course” after more than 100,000 party stalwarts urged him to call the presidential poll first. The government had said he would announce the dates at the convention.

Analysts say the move for early polls is part of Rajapaksa’s plan to win a second six-year term before his post-war popularity fades over issues such as the cost of living, public wage rises and labour unrest.

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Sri Lankan President postpones poll announcement was first posted on November 15, 2009 at 9:20 pm.