Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: A 15-year-old Tamil girl who claims she was abducted by separatist rebels and forced to undergo guerrilla training has escaped a rebel camp in eastern Sri Lanka, the military and police said Friday.

The girl, who has not been named, told police that two women from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels snatched her from her home in eastern Batticaloa district on Dec. 18, and took her to Thoppigala, a jungle training camp in the east, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.

By C.J. Kurrien

HIKKADUWA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Glass bottom boats tethered to the shore, candlelit shacks serving seafood empty of patrons, a solitary bar open: Not the signs of a vibrant beach resort at the height of the holiday season.

Thousands of travellers normally flock to this sun-kissed, palm-fringed spot on Sri Lanka`s southwest coast, renowned for its coral reefs and ochre beaches.

But most tourists have stayed away this year, deterred by renewed civil war between the state and Tamil Tiger rebels that has killed 3,000 people this year alone amid a rash of land battles, air raids and suicide bombings.

Multi-ethnic experts panel for the province as unit of devolution.

THE `majority report` of the Sri Lankan Government`s multi-ethnic experts panel has recommended maximum devolution of power with the province as the unit of devolution, and provision for the appointment of two Vice-Presidents from communities other than that of the country`s President.

The report, a copy of which is available with The Hindu , was submitted to the Secretariat of President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday. Of the 17 members of the experts panel, 11 ? six Sinhalese, four Tamils, and the lone Muslim member ? endorsed the report.

Sri Lanka`s cabinet has announced sweeping anti-terror measures after months of worsening violence between security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Ministers stopped short of banning the rebels but tightened existing emergency laws which have been dormant since a 2002 ceasefire that is now in shreds.

Security forces will have wide-ranging powers to search, arrest and question.

Last week the rebels said the truce was defunct. They have yet to respond to Wednesday`s cabinet announcement.

COLOMBO: The multi-ethnic group of experts constituted by Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa to advise him on the resolution of the ethnic conflict in the island nation is expected to present its `preliminary` report on Wednesday.

Besides the group, Mr. Rajapaksa has also formed an All-Party Conference (APC) to evolve consensus on power-sharing and devolution. The APC is likely to give its report to the President by the middle of December. Consensus within the APC is not likely to pose a major problem particularly after the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the main Opposition, United National Party (UNP), agreed on common approach to the ethnic question.

Colombo, Dec. 3 (PTI): Sri Lanka today asked peace broker Norway to suspend contacts with Tamil Tigers amid intense pressure at home and abroad to outlaw the rebels and call off the Oslo initiative.

Norwegian envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer, who arrived here last week, was told that his planned visit to the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi on Tuesday would not meet with the government`s approval.

Palitha Kohona, the head of the administration`s secretariat coordinating the peace effort with Norway, said the government will take a decision after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday on future relations with the Tigers and until then the Norwegians have been asked not to contact the Tigers.

Speaks for itself.

Hilarious pic of a cat.

An interesting sign.

Seeing that most members of LNP are drenched in propaganda one way or another, believing only what their biased media and political groups tell them to believe, i feel there is a need for an article like this.

The painful reality, however is that people who are influenced by propaganda do not even know it. Its similar to when a mentally ill individual does not know their condition, but continue to act upon the belief that they are all well.

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Propaganda, simply put, is the manipulation of public opinion. It is generally carried out through media that is capable of reaching a large amount of people and effectively persuading them for or against a cause. The exact meaning of propaganda is constantly debated, however, and no specific definition is completely true. Some argue that any persuasive communication is propaganda, while others hold that propaganda specifically alters political opinions. However, it is doubtless that propaganda is material which is meant to persuade or change public opinion, and though it often varies in form and technique it always serves the same purpose. Propaganda is communication for the purpose of persuasion.

Fri Dec 1, 8:44 AM ET

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A blind Turkish pensioner has been sentenced to a 26-day reading and writing course at his local public library after he failed to vote on time in an election for his village cooperative, his son said Friday.

A prosecutor in the province of Kutahya in northwest Turkey sentenced Ismail Canseven, 73, to the education course after he did not show up for the election of the cooperative`s board of directors in May, Isa Canseven told Reuters.

`What am I going to do in a library? I can`t see out of either of my eyes, and I can`t read or write anyway,` Friday`s edition of the Hurriyet newspaper quoted Ismail as saying.