26th November 2017

By Shaahidah Riza Startling news broke out last week when Saudi Arabian Princess Ameera Al Taweel revealed that the ruling Saudi regime engaged in acts of buying and renting children, especially orphans, from countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Djibouti, Somalia, Nigeria, Romania and Bulgaria. In her exclusive statement to French newspaper Le Monde, she claimed that slavery in Saudi Arabia has different forms, but it is done in secrecy and permitted only among primary beneficiaries of the princess of the House of Saudi. She had also stated that even Asian domestic workers who seek employment in Saudi Arabia often find themselves in a kind of slave-like situation and that young girls are divided into smaller groups and exploited for immoral acts. Corruption purge […]

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) says arrangements have not been made for the Tamil diaspora to return to their homes in the North and East. TNA member of Parliament S. Shritharan told Parliament on Saturday that several Tamils living overseas are keen to return home. However he said the Government has not set the groundwork for those Tamils to return. Shritharan also said that the Army continues to operate military installations in the North despite the end of the war. The TNA MP also hailed the sacrifices made by LTTE fighters during the war in an attempt to protect the rights of the Tamils. (Colombo Gazette)

Leader of both the Joint Opposition (JO) and the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) Dinesh Gunawardena yesterday (24), called upon all political forces in Sri Lanka to team up with them to defeat the ruling United National Party (UNP) and to end the rule of the Government at all levels. “The JO and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) are also holding negotiations with each other so, that we may contest together. The discussions are yet at a formative stage and the announcements will be made after the nominations are finalized,” Gunawardena told a news conference at the MEP headquarters at Maharagama yesterday. He said, that he had invited the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) led by Arumugam Thondaman and the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) led […]

Jaffna High Court Judge M. Illancheliyan on 15 November ordered Army Commander Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake to appear in Court on 18 January 2018. The Jaffna High Court Judge made this order having perused a petition filed by a group of relatives, who have alleged that 24 youths had gone missing after they were taken into custody by the Army on 19 July 1996 from the Nawakkuliya area in the Jaffna District. The case pertaining to the petition which seeks to find the whereabouts of 12 youths out of 24 who had disappeared, was taken for hearing at the Jaffna High Court on 9 November when the Court heard the case against three suspects who were named by the Attorney General. The initial examination of […]