Posts Tagged ‘AP’
UN: staff came under fire in Sri Lanka ‘safe zone’
[ AP ] Dozens of U.N. workers and their relatives spent a terrifying night huddling in hastily built bunkers as artillery fire pounded a civilian “safe zone” in Sri Lanka’s war-wracked north, according to an internal U.N. memo. The memo, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, said the artillery shells killed nine civilians in a…
Read MoreSri Lankan official says army shelled hospital
[AP] COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Three artillery barrages struck a hospital in Sri Lanka’s chaotic war zone, slamming into its pediatrics ward and its women’s wing and killing many patients, the region’s top health official and international aid groups said. Dr. Thurairajah Varatharajah said the shells in one of the attacks Sunday appeared to have been…
Read MoreSri Lankan editor points finger from the grave
[AP] Lasantha Wickrematunge, a prominent Sri Lankan journalist and outspoken critic of the government’s war on ethnic Tamil rebels, knew he was marked for death — and thought he knew why. Three days after he was gunned down execution-style, Wickrematunge’s newspaper published a haunting, self-written obituary Sunday in which he says he was targeted for…
Read MoreSri Lanka reimposes ban on Tamil Tiger rebels, ruling out peace talks
[ AP ] The Sri Lankan government officially outlawed the Tamil Tiger rebel group Wednesday, ruling out the possibility of restarting peace talks any time soon to end a quarter-century of civil war. The Tamil Tigers had long been outlawed in Sri Lanka, but the government lifted the ban in 2002 when the sides agreed…
Read MoreSri Lankan rebels open to peace talks
[ AP ] Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger separatists are open to restarting peace talks with the government, despite the continuing military offensive aimed at crushing the group, a senior rebel official said. The two sides have been fighting for more than 25 years over the rebels’ demands for an independent state for minority Tamils in…
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