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Sri Lanka stock market roiled by scandal

Sri Lankan investor Dilith Jayaweera at a press conference to defend himself against allegations of wrongdoing in the Colombo Stock Exchange by him or companies associated with him

Sri Lanka’s stock market, once a darling of investors, has seen its value plummet 26% in the past year and now faces a crisis of confidence after its regulator quit in a storm of controversy.
The tiny bourse became the world’s top gainer soon after the country ended decades of ethnic war, but three years later […]

By AFP | Published on August 27, 2012 at 12:01 pm

US asks Sri Lanka to stop ‘harassing’ media

Saturday 30 June 2012: The United States yesterday joined rights groups in demanding that Sri Lanka stop “harassing” media organizations, a day after police shut down opposition news websites and arrested nine employees.
The US embassy in Colombo said it was closely following Colombo’s shutting down of the websites and the arrest of employees, including several […]

By AFP | Published on July 1, 2012 at 11:28 am

US praises ‘very serious’ Sri Lanka reconciliation plan

The United States said Sri Lanka had on Friday put forward “a very serious” reconciliation …
The United States said Sri Lanka had put forward “a very serious” plan Friday for reconciliation after its 27-year war, and urged the island to move forward on protecting human rights.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris met with Secretary […]

By AFP | Published on May 19, 2012 at 8:25 pm

Sri Lanka faces impatience in US over rights record

Sri Lanka is looking to ease growing friction with the United States, but it faces exasperation from policy makers who see little progress on concerns three years after a bloody civil war ended.
Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris was to meet yesterday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after a week of talks in Washington that […]

By AFP | Published on May 19, 2012 at 8:19 pm

Sri Lanka rejects call to withdraw troops from north

Mahinda Rajapakse Sri Lanka’s president has rejected a call by Indian legislators to withdraw soldiers from the island’s former war zone in the north where minority Tamils are concentrated, his spokesman said yesterday.
President Mahinda Rajapakse told a delegation of visiting Indian lawmakers that troops could not be pulled out despite the end of the decades-long […]

By AFP | Published on April 23, 2012 at 12:23 pm

Sri Lanka has not followed up on recommendations says US

The United States said Thursday it wanted Sri Lanka to take “concrete steps” on reconciliation as the Colombo government vowed mass protests against US-backed calls for a UN censure on human rights. Sri Lanka has faced strong international criticism over the bloody finale of its civil war in 2009 but has avoided censure at the UN […]

By AFP | Published on February 23, 2012 at 8:55 am