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The Sri Lankan authorities should urgently investigate deadly violence against Muslims by Buddhist hardliners, Human Rights Watch said Friday. The violence, which began June 15 after a rally led by the Buddhist Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS), left several dead, 80 injured, and numerous homes and businesses destroyed in Aluthgama town and surrounding areas. Senior government officials as well as President Mahinda Rajapaksa have denounced the violence and promised compensation to the victims. But the government needs to seriously investigate who is responsible for the attacks on Muslim communities, Human Rights Watch said. Police have detained at least 40 people. “Sri Lankan authorities need to do more than arrest those carrying out the anti-Muslim violence. They need to investigate and identify any instigators,” said the US-based group.

The federal court in Virginia where the Justice Department has decided to charge Edward Snowden with leaking secrets about U.S. surveillance programs has a long track record of hearing cases related not only to national security cases but also to cyber crime. The United States filed a criminal complaint including charges under a U.S. espionage law against Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The charges are the government's first step in an effort to arrest and extradite Snowden from Hong Kong, where he is in hiding, to try him in the United States. Snowden has acknowledged leaking secrets about classified U.S. surveillance programs to the Washington Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper. On Saturday, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said Snowden had divulged information to the newspaper showing how computers in Hong Kong and China had been targeted. On Friday, the Guardian ...

Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha member Hasitha Madawala has died due to gunshot injuries. He was shot by an unknown man.

Militants from Sri Lanka’s war are posing as asylum seekers on boats headed for Australia - and could be financed by former Tamil Tiger combatants already here, The Australian reported. Six former combatants were arrested leaving Sri Lanka this year, with another six people smugglers also collared. Five of the six were arrested since June in a crackdown by Sri Lankan authorities. The arrests come after 14 asylum pirates stole a fishing boat, cutting one crewman’s throat before throwing at least two into the sea. They were flown directly to Sri Lanka on Saturday after being intercepted by Australian authorities off the Cocos Islands, The Australian reported yesterday(29). Superintendent Prashantha Jayakody confirmed three crew members were still missing, presumed dead. The pirates were being questioned in police custody, he added, and would face a long list of charges when they appeared in court. Sri Lankan High Commissioner Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe said t...

Following a search operation at the Galle Prison, authorities discovered 44 mobile phones among the inmates, the Prisons Department stated. The search operation was conducted last night (July 10) by the Prisons Intelligence officers. The Prisons Department stated that three high-tech mobile phones were also seized during the operation. Rehabilitation and Prisons Reform Minister Chandrasiri Gajanayake stated that stern legal action will be taken against any prison officials who are proven to have helped the inmates acquire these mobile phones.

Syria's conflict spilled further into Lebanon on Saturday when mortar fire from government forces crashed into villages in the north, killing two women and a man after rebels crossed the border for refuge, residents said. In contrast with Turkey, which openly harbors rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Lebanon was not expected to respond militarily and has played down the effect of regular clashes along the frontier. But rebels have used north Lebanon as a base and Assad's forces have at times bombed villages and even crossed the border in pursuit of militants, threatening to inflame tensions in Lebanon given a long history of Syrian domination there. Residents of Lebanon's Wadi Khaled region said several mortar bombs hit farm buildings five to 20 km (3 to 12 miles) from the border at around 2 a.m. At midday villagers reported more explosions and said they heard gunfire close to the border. In the village of al-Mahatta, a house was destr...

Under huge pressure from political parties in Tamil Nadu, the Indian government has decided to end the training of Sri Lankan personnel at the Tambaram Air force Station near Chennai. The nine Sri Lankans have been moved to the Yalahanka base in Bangalore.  Their nine month training is meant to help them learn ground handling of transport air craft. As a way of justifying their move from Chennai, the Indian government says that this phase of the Sri Lankans’ training is complete; the new one will begin in Bangalore. But Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa says Lankan airmen should not be trained anywhere in India. “Tamils will not accept the training being imparted in Bangalore. I insist that the Sri Lankan personnel should not be trained anywhere in India and the Centre should take steps for their return to Sri Lanka,” she demanded Ms Jayalalithaa had taken offense to the training being offered in her state. “This is anti-Tamil and inappropriate at a time when the whole wo...

Police Special Task Force (STF) personnel have arrested four persons for indecent behavior near the Moraketiya Temple in Embilipitiya. The men were under the influence of alcohol when they were arrested by officers of the Ambalantota STF camp and handed over to Embilipitiya Police for further inquiries.

Israel flew its ambassador home from Cairo on Saturday after protesters stormed its embassy building, plunging Egypt's military rulers into their worst diplomatic crisis since they took over from Hosni Mubarak. Three people were killed and 1,049 wounded in clashes between protesters and police, the Health Ministry said. The United States, which has poured billions of dollars of military aid into Egypt since it made peace with Israel in 1979, urged Cairo to protect the embassy after protesters hurled embassy documents and the Israeli flag from windows. "Our dignity has been restored," said Mohi Alaa, 24, a protester who was speaking near the site of overnight clashes with police around the building that houses the Israeli embassy. Bits of concrete and bullet casings were strewn over the street.

Police says that individuals engaging in election propaganda in a manner that pollutes the environment will be arrested regardless of their political afflictions. Head of Police Election Secretariat, Senior DIG Gamini Navaratne said the police have received instructions to apprehend any person violating election laws. He stated that so far 17 individuals have been arrested for violating election laws while a majority of them are from Colombo and Nugegoda areas. In addition 17 complaints have been received thus far in connection to the upcoming Local Government election, the Senior DIG emphasized.

The Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Ministry has decided to reintegrate into society another batch of 500 rehabilitated former Tamil Tiger rebels on September 18. The former LTTE members will also be provided with an opportunity to tour the South before they are released, A. Dissanayake Secretary of the Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Ministry noted. He further added that measures are being taken to release and reintegrate into society all LTTE cadres currently under the custody of the Ministry before the end of September. 

Stern action will be taken against anyone who takes the law into their own hands while Security Forces are not involved in the Grease Devil rumours, Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated.

Sri Lankan women in the Kingdom who want to go home for their Eid holidays are panicking over recent incidents in the country caused by night prowlers dubbed “grease devils.” A grease devil is a thief who wears only underwear and covers his body in grease to make himself hard to grab if pursued. Panic over midnight assaults by the alleged grease devils is rising across rural Sri Lanka, leading to the deaths of at least three people last week. This has prompted women to stay indoors and men to arm themselves, police and local media said. At least seven were wounded fighting with police outside the navy base in Kinniya after hundreds of mainly Muslim residents in the eastern coastal area demanded soldiers hand over two men who tried to abduct a 28-year-old Muslim woman the night before. The incidents are happening mainly in areas where there is a concentration of minority communities such as Muslims and Tamils. According to police, incidents relating to grease devi...

Police have discovered a body in a lagoon near the village of Kumaravelliyar, Chenkalady in Batticaloa. The body is yet to be identified while Eravur Police suspect that he had died at least two days ago.  The body of the deceased, an approximately 50-year-old, has been placed at the Batticaloa Hospital.

A police officer was killed in an accident along the Colombo-Monaragala main road in the Thanamalwila area around midnight yesterday (August 13). Police said the officer was attached to the Thanamalwila Police. The driver of the vehicle drove off without stopping after hitting the policeman, Thanamalwila Police which is conducting investigations stated.

The Colombo Crimes Division informed the Fort Magistrates Court that an investigation was being conducted regarding a complaint made by Prison Officials regarding the obstruction of their duties while taking Sarath Fonseka to a private Hospital in Colombo. The prison officials had complained that an individual on crutches and another person wielding a camera had obstructed their duties during Fonseka’s visit to the hospital. The court ordered the relevant video evidence to be handed over in order to conduct the investigations into the incident.

Sri Lanka’s former president Chandrika Kumaratunga has warned of a “short-lived peace” unless the government shares power with the ethnic Tamil minority after the end of the island’s civil war, her office said Monday. Chandrika Kumaratunga, who ruled the island between 1994 and 2005, said her successor President Mahinda Rajapakse had followed a policy of “winner takes all” after crushing Tamil rebels in 2009. “If we persist in this policy of winner takes all, then we will lose the remaining members of the minority communities,” she was quoted as saying in a commemorative lecture for a late supreme court judge, K. Palakidnar. She urged Rajapakse to work towards an “inclusive society” and share political power with minority Tamils and not to club the Tamil civilians together with the Tamil Tiger guerrillas. “I too, am glad, extremely happy that the war has ended and terrorism defeated,” she said. “But, I cannot blind myself to the fact that although we have won the c...

Indian ‘Q’ Branch Police says it has received information claiming there are LTTE members in the Sri Lankan refugee camps in Sivaganga district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Roughly 100 families are currently taking shelter in the five refugee camps within the Sivaganga district, reports Indian Media.

Stickers and curtains on the rear glass of all buses entering Colombo have to be removed before July 20. Police headquarters informs that the driver of the bus has to be able to see clearly through the rear glass while only the bus route number can be placed in the rear glass. Legal action will be taken against buses not abiding by the rule after July 20, police further notified.

Police state that three suspects have been identified in connection to the murder of a mother and her daughter in the Nilwella area in Dikwella recently.   The 43-year-old mother and her 15-year-old daughter had been stabbed to death, with a sharp object, while inside their house on the night of July 08.   A senior police office of the Mathara Division said that a special police team has been deployed to track down the three individuals, identified in connection to the murders. Preliminary investigations had revealed that the two had been killed over a family dispute.