Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday strongly criticized Western powers for using force to change regimes in other countries, a reference to Libya amid calls for a similar intervention in Syria, cautioning that societies cannot be re-engineered by outsiders.

In a direct criticism of Western military operations in Libya and likely action in Syria, the PM asserted at the United Nations General Assembly that absence of democracy and rule of law cannot be a pretext to violate sovereignty and integrity of countries.

Chandigarh: A MiG-21 `Bison` fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force today crashed near Shambu in Punjab`s Patiala district even as the pilot bailed out safely.

The plane had taken off from Ambala on a routine training sortie and crashed at 1047 hrs, an IAF spokesman said in Delhi.

According to preliminary information it crashed in the fields close to Shambu, about 30 kms from here, Patiala`s Senior Superintendent of Police, G S Gill told PTI over phone.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his cabinet ministers on Saturday declared their assets which were posted online, officials said.

The list of assets and liabilities of the prime minister and his council of ministers were put on the prime minister`s website - http://pmindia.nic.in/rti.htm.

The list included details of the Prime Minister, 32 cabinet ministers, seven ministers of state with independent charge and 37 ministers of state.

Urban development minister Kamal Nath is the richest cabinet minister with assets worth Rs 263 crore.

Chennai: Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah was today sworn-in as the Governor of Tamil Nadu.

Madras High Court Chief Justice M Y Eqbal administered the oath of office to Rosaiah at a function in Raj Bhavan in Chennai. He succeeds Surjit Singh Barnala.

The brief function was attended by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her cabinet colleagues among others.

BHOPAL: In a broad day light murder, an RTI activist and a strong supporter of Anna Hazare`s anti-corruption movement, Shehla Masood was shot dead around 11.30 am on Tuesday.

Unidentified assailant shot her dead from point blank range while she was leaving in her car to attend a demonstration in support of Anna Hazare.

About 35 years old, Shehla was still sitting in the driver`s seat when she was attacked, however, no one heard any gun shot. When the car didn`t move for a while, the family members came out only to find that she had collapsed on one side with blood oozing out from her chest.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, currently hospitalised in the United States, wishing her a speedy recovery.

In his letter, Mr. Rajapaksa said: Both Shiranthi [Mrs. Rajapaksa] and I were greatly concerned when we heard of your illness and hospitalisation. We are relieved, however, to learn that you are now in the process of recovery, which we hope will be a speedy one.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is understood to have undergone a surgery for cervical cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) private hospital in New York on Thursday.


The surgery, said informed medical sources, was successful and Sonia is now in the hospital`s intensive care unit and recuperating well.

The surgery, conducted by a team of doctors led by leading Indian-American physician Dattatreyudu Nori, took about an hour, said the sources. Sonia may have to spend up to a month`s time for post-surgery follow-up treatment. It is not clear if she will be spending time in MSKCC for the whole duration of the post-surgical treatments.

NEW DELHI, 29 JULY: Foreign secretary Ms Nirupama Rao left for Sri Lanka late this evening on a hush-hush visit. The ministry of external affairs did not issue any Press release prior to the visit and no official explanation was forthcoming on why the foreign secretary is spending the last three days of her tenure in Colombo.
According to sources in the government, Ms Rao was invited by Sri Lankan President Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa for a farewell visit and she has gone for that purpose. She is not expected to hold any meetings, sources said, though she will be meeting Mr Rajapaksa for breakfast tomorrow.

NEW DELHI: A group of women activists in India has blamed the Indian government for what they said were widespread human rights violations in Sri Lanka.

The `Indian Women`s Rights Activists in Solidarity with Women in Sri Lanka` also said it had stopped believing in Colombo`s periodic pledges to bring about reconciliation in the country.

`We no longer believe the empty promises of the Sri Lankan government to bring peace and reconciliation, and strongly demand immediate action that will convince us of the seriousness of this intent,` it said.

Hyderabad: Cash, gold and silver continue to tumble out of cupboards in the late Sathya Sai Baba `s residential quarters in Puttaparthi town of Andhra Pradesh, with valuables worth nearly Rs. 59 crore being found so far in three rounds of counting.

In the latest round of inventory taken up on Monday at Yajur Mandir in Prashanti Nilayam, Anantpur district officials found ornaments, cash and other valuables.

The inventory, the third in a month, yielded 34.5 kg of gold, 340 kg of silver and Rs.1.90 crore of cash till Monday night. The counting resumed Tuesday morning in the presence of Sathya Sai Central Trust officials.

Senior Indian officials have claimed that United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton`s first ever trip to Chennai will be a strictly non-governmental visit with no discussion on Sri Lanka.

But a senior official in the Barack Obama administration, who will accompany Clinton, has said that Sri Lanka would definitely figure in the discussions between the secretary of state and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa when they meet for the first time.

what can I do?

malayalees are working 24/7. To save the as* of MR.
these idiots will play the same cowardliness card Chinese dragon will be played to Indian ponnaiahs. That will be music to delhi ponnaiahs to skive away.

There will be hospital, roads and Tata buses ignoring their slums.

South Sudan has become the world`s newest nation, the climax of a process made possible by the 2005 peace deal that ended a long and bloody civil war.

Sudan`s President Omar al-Bashir and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon are among the international dignitaries attending the celebrations in the capital, Juba.

Sudan earlier became the first state to officially recognise its new neighbour.

Jayalalithaa`s words will also disturb the complacent czars of the Indian foreign policy establishment. As the International Crisis Group noted in a recent report on India and Sri Lanka, India is a country with the greatest influence over Sri Lanka, but its policies to encourage the Sri Lankan government towards sustainable peace are not working. This is because even though India is giving significant aid, it is not putting sufficient pressure to ensure that demilitarisation of the north takes place. It is not loud enough that minorities get their due rights, are fully rehabilitated and that democratic freedoms and institutions that were curbed are reinstituted.