Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Within a day of revising their fishing hours from 24 to 14 hours fearing the Sri Lankan navy, the Indian fishers at Rameswaram backtracked on their decision and decided to stick on to their regular schedule.

Mechanised boats at Rameswaram fishing harbour will enter sea on a 24-hour schedule from early morning to next day morning. It was decided to cut the trawling duration to 14 hours from last Saturday based on a resolution taken during the association meeting. The now-nixed move was taken to reduce the prolonged hours in sea and the resultant risk of crossing IMBL where Indian fishermen were caught by Sri Lankan Navy. However, after abandoning their revised schedule, the fishers ventured into the sea by early morning on Monday.

Witch-hunting: Man lynched in Assam tea garden
B B Goswami, TNN | Jun 8, 2013, 03.37 AM IST
READ MORE Witch-Hunting|Man Lynched In Assam Tea Garden|Narainpur Tea Estate|Jawaharlal Mura|Women

SILCHAR: About 2,000 people looked on as 80-odd tea workers drank and danced around 55-year-old Jawaharlal Mura - his hands and legs tied up with rope - chanting `Jai Ma Kali`, before lynching him for allegedly practising black magic on Thursday afternoon. The attack happened at Narainpur Tea Estate in Assam`s Cachar district, 80km from here.

US gives no quarter, even to India, when it comes to high-tech secrets.

WASHINGTON: Warm, fuzzy superlatives may be in vogue to describe current US-India ties, but when it comes to protecting its national interest and cutting edge intellectual property, Washington gives no quarter, even to its so-called `natural ally`.

The FBI on Wednesday came down like a ton of bricks on Ketankumar Maniar, an Indian national who had worked till recently in New Jersey medical technology company Becton, Dickinson, and Company, accusing him of stealing trade secrets pertaining to self-administered disposable pen injector still being developed by the 116-year old US firm.

Chennai:
The Chennai Police has rescued a kidnapped British couple of Sri Lankan origin six days after they were abducted from the city. They have also arrested eight people.

Chennai Police coordinated with Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard), London, and Serious Organised Crime Agency, United Kingdom, state and central intelligence agencies and rescued the couple of Sri Lankan origin from an SUV, bound for a house at Mandarakuppam in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu last night.

Self-imposed ban bars fishermen from venturing into SL

May 30, 2013 01:43 pm

When the sturdy hulls of fishing boats re-enter the waters in the small hours of Thursday, after the 45-day long hiatus, the boats would have been launched into a sea of altered realities the reality of the sanctity of maritime boundaries and the visibly depleting marine resources.

As if to acknowledge this, the 63 fishing habitations of the two districts of Nagapattinam and Karaikal, in a recently-convened meeting, have banned the use of dragnets and purse-seines to wean out bottom sea trawling.

The fact that Canada alone chose not to send its foreign minister to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo, however, may be more the result of domestic Canadian considerations such as increasing political support among Tamil voters than anything else, Fmr. Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka said today.

In his article to the Canadian National Post Collacott wrote, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird has announced that he will not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka this November because of that country`s sub-par human rights record. No other members of the Commonwealth, including Britain, Australia and New Zealand, have followed Canada`s example.

Sweden riots expose ugly side of `Nordic model`

By Niklas Pollard and Philip O`Connor
STOCKHOLM | Thu May 23, 2013 10:21am EDT
(Reuters) - The scene of Sweden`s worst riots in years, Husby is on the surface at least a typically neat suburb of colorful playgrounds, manicured parks and low rise apartment buildings.

Conversations with residents of this immigrant neighborhood soon bring tales of fruitless job hunts, police harassment, racial taunts and a feeling of living at the margins that are at odds with Sweden`s reputation for openness and tolerance.

The Indian government is planning deterrent action against Indian fishermen violating international waters with Sri Lanka, finding that trawlers and ships from India are the biggest source of confrontation with the island nation.

The decision to slap penalties and even suspend the licences of fishermen who are repeat offenders of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) stems from their refusal to heed the earlier warnings.

NEW YORK: Outsourcing of jobs by global financial institutions to Indian shores has come under scanner, with the perpetrators of a $45 million worldwide ATM heist apparently breaching computer systems of a payment processing firm in India for their con job.

According to charges filed by the US federal prosecutors here, eight persons have been indicted for participating in two worldwide cyberattacks culminating into a huge $45 million being withdrawn fraudulently from ATMs across the world in a matter of few hours earlier this year.

Let Prince do dirty work at CHOGM: Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 May 2013, 00:29 GMT]
While Colombo media advanced the theory that Queen Elizabeth`s age was factor in her skipping the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting [CHOGM] in Colombo, and the British media opined that the Queen was slowly scaling down her royal responsibilities and transferring duties to Prince Charles, Professor Francis Boyle who teaches law at College of Law, University of Illinois, surmised that the reason for Her Majesty the Queen skipping Colombo was, as a constitutional monarch, the Queen was not willing to be seen with genocidal Rajapaksas. `Let [Prince] Charles do the dirty work. He is not head of anything. So his being there [in Colombo] will not insult anyone or anything but himself,` Prof. Boyle said in a note sent to TamilNet.

LONDON: Deputy speaker of Britain`s lower house of parliament and Conservative gay lawmaker Nigel Evans has been arrested by police for allegedly raping a man and sexually assaulting another.

Detectives visited his home in Pendleton, Lancashire, yesterday following allegations by two men who were in their 20s at the time of the alleged attacks, which are said to have taken place at the property in July 2009 and March 2013.

The house was searched by officers and Deputy House of Commons speaker Evans was held in custody at Preston police station. He was subsequently released on bail till June 19.