The Central Bank has reported economic growth at 8.3%, inflation at 6.7%, an unemployment rate of 4.2% and a per-capita income of US $ 2849 in 2011, a sharp increase from $ 2400 in 2010 – a success story which we should be proud of. This means the income of the average household in Sri Lanka which is 4 persons according to the Central Bank report has risen by Rs 14,035 per month between 2010 and 2011 - something which is difficult to imagine. This average income is obtained by dividing the national income by the population.
Omar Khadr is the only child soldier ever prosecuted, and Guantanamo's last western prisoner. In 2010, Omar entered into a plea deal with the Canadian and American governments in exchange for a promise that he could return home to Canada to finish his sentence. The U.S. has already signed off on his return, yet the Canadian Government has refused to follow through on its end of the deal. All the while Khadr sits in solitary confinement in Guantanamo Bay.
India and Sri Lanka discussed maritime matters, including the issue of fishermen straying in each other’s territorial waters, as they held a crucial annual meeting aimed at strengthening naval relationship. The 21st International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) meeting between Sri Lanka and India was held onboard the Sri Lanka Naval Ship Sagara at the Indo-Sri Lanka Maritime Boundary Line off Kankasanthurai yesterday, Lankan Navy said today.
Nimalaraja, a Tamil refugee who has fled persecution in Sri Lanka and moved to the UK after gaining asylum in Germany in 1993, has died following a confrontation with a group of teenagers in the east Midlands town of Leicester.
The local police have appealed for witnesses after launching a murder investigation into the death of Ponnuthurai Nimalaraja, 41, who died a week after he was found with serious head injuries sustained during the confrontation on June 9.
Expressing anger over the remarks of the TNA leader R Sampanthan , the Sri Lankan Power and Energy minister Champika Ranawaka from the JHU cautioned the island's Tamil population saying , "we appeal to the Tamil people not to go behind this kind of people and end up in getting 100 more Mullivaikkals".
The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) is a right wing constituent party of the ruling coalition, led by Buddhist monks
Referring to the shooting at the JVP meeting on 15 June in Katuwana in Hambantota District, opposition MP Mangala Samaraweera and Convenor of UNP Media Committee, has called on the Defence Minister to resign.
“As with all other extra judicial killings, abductions, involuntary disappearances and killing of protesters, we don't have any reason to believe, there will be independent investigations and a proper judicial process initiated, in this double murder. Such is the efficiency of this Secretary to the Defence Ministry, who brags that crime in Sri Lanka has not increased as opposition politicians claim”, said the MP.
Krishna Saravanamuttu, a 26 old Tamil Canadian and spokesperson for the National Council of Canadian Tamils, has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work with Canada’s student movement and as an advocate for human rights and justice for Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka. Krishna has been working with several organisations in Canada, including the Canadian Federation of Students, the Canadian Peace Alliance and the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War.
