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NEW DELHI (Xinhua) -- India said on Tuesday it will not buckle under any threat from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels of Sri Lanka, who warned New Delhi with consequences for demanding a safe passage of civilians caught in the fighting between government forces and LTTE.

The Sri Lankan cricket team's exposure to the civil war back home helped them react swiftly when they were ambushed by gunmen in Pakistan, skipper Mahela Jayawardene says.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa unequivocally condemned the cowardly terrorist attack targeting the Sri Lankan Cricket Team in Lahore , Pakistan , today emphasizing that the Sri Lankan team had gone to Pakistan as ambassadors of goodwill.

Response of Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat and Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights to the Presentation to the 44th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the UN High Commission for Refugees by Janet Lim, Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific

Six (06) Sri Lankan cricketers were reported injured including skipper Mahaela Jayawardene, wicketkeeper/batsman Kumar Sangakkara and Tilan Samaraweera in a shootout at Lahore in Pakistan this morning (March 3). According to Pakistan news sources, the visiting Sri Lankan cricketers were on their way to the Gaddafi international stadium minutes before commencing of the 3rd day's play of the second test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Reports received confirm that seamer Chaminda Vaas, open batsman Tharanga Paranawithana, spin sensation Ajantha Mendis also among the injured including the 4th umpire Ashan Raza.

By RIZWAN ALI, Associated Press  LAHORE, Pakistan – At least a dozen men attacked Sri Lanka's cricket team with rifles, grenades and rocket launchers Tuesday ahead of a match in Pakistan, wounding seven players, an umpire and an assistant coach from Britain in a brazen assault on South Asia's most beloved sport. Six policemen and a civilian were killed. 

There seems to have been some confusion over the most recent statement by the Indian Foreign Minister, with some media outlets claiming that he was calling for a Ceasefire. Such confusion is perhaps understandable, with such a finely worded statement, and it was necessary to point out that that interpretation was inappropriate in the context of the Government’s determination, shared with the Indian Government, to eradicate terrorism.

The latest critique of Sri Lanka in the London Telegraph, in what is termed a blog by one of its Foreign Correspondents, Peter Foster, continues with misinformation based on what it terms a ‘veteran international aid worker’. The diatribe goes far to explain why such self-appointed guardians of morality are thought to be concerned more with their personal agendas than the work they are paid to do.

Before the official opening of the 10th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Sri Lankan delegation led by Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, attended a working breakfast hosted by Permanent Representative Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka for representatives of a number of Asian missions. This provided an opportunity for elucidation of the current situation in Sri Lanka.

On the instructions of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Vocational and Technical Training Ministry set up a number of vocational training centres at Manikfarm and Kadirgamar Welfare Villages to help impart different trades to young men and women who are sheltered as internally displaced persons.

Before the official opening of the 10^th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva today, the Sri Lankan delegation led by Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights attended a working breakfast hosted by Permanent Representative Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka for the Asian Ambassadors to brief them about the current situation in Sri Lanka. Thereafter, he addressed the High Level Segment of the Council attended by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms. Navanethem Pillay.

KATHMANDU: Amidst unprecedented security, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa Monday began his three-day state visit to Nepal, the highest-level visit ever to the Himalayan republic by a foreign government dignitary since 2002, when Kathmandu had hosted the 11th SAARC Summit.

On broadening the horizons of ‘nationalism’

by Malinda Seneviratne 

There is a question that has always bothered me in the nationalist discourse in this country. ‘Nationalism’, it is taken as a given, is exclusively about identity pertaining to ethnicity or religious faith or a mix of the two. The ‘national question’, therefore, is about sorting out identity issues/anomalies and nothing else. Somewhere along the way, we seem to have forgotten that human beings are not one-dimensional creatures, that nations are not only about an aggregate of communities and that nationalism is not about a national flag and national anthem.

Colombo (IANS) The Sri Lankan military has found photographs and videos showing politicians from India's Tamil Nadu state in the company of Tamil Tiger leaders in the island's north, it was announced Monday.

Colombo (IANS) Sri Lanka's northern highway that links Jaffna peninsula to the rest of the island was opened Monday for military traffic after 24 long years, military sources said.

Two convoys of soldiers - one group going home on leave from Jaffna and the other going to Jaffna after finishing leave - met each other on the way and exchanged greetings on the A-9 Jaffna-Kandy highway.

by Ruvani Seneviratne Freeman 

Perhaps it is the fact that Barack Obama appeared slightly stunned when Bono mentioned the people of Palestine right alongside the people of Israel during the ‘We Are One,’ concert on the mall during inauguration. Or that he couldn’t parlay the million-voiced roar of approval from the assembled into anything resembling a hope for peace in Gaza or the West Bank. Either way, the American media has been awash with a convenient amnesia regarding the ongoing massacre of Palestinians and American ineffectuality in the region, and a new found enthusiasm for throwing the word "genocide" at the Sri Lankan government.

A civilian had prevented an LTTE attempt to kidnap children from the No Fire Zone. The civilian had grabbed the fire-arm of one of the three LTTE cadres who came to kidnap children and fired at the kidnappers.

Human Rights Watch, standard bearers of what Michael Roberts has characterised as HRE - Human Rights Extremism - seems to have decided that it has a special relationship with me. I am the only person quoted by name in the presentation made by their Senior Researcher Dr. Anna Neistat to the US Senate Foreign Relations Sub-Committee that dealt with Sri Lanka.

I listened to the interview of Tavis Smiley of the Public Service Broadcasting (PBS) with Mathangi (aka Maya) Arulpragasam, a hip-hop artist (stage name M.I.A.- Missing in Action), who has been nominated for Grammy and Oscar Awards for 2009.

It ain't Over Till the Fat Laddie Swings

By: Dayan Jayatilleka

It ain’t over till it’s over, or as the Americans put it, in a reference to the opera, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings. The Mahaveera Day 2008 speech by Velupillai Prabhakaran, one of the world’s most notorious and certainly tubbiest terrorist leaders, demonstrates that there can be no solution to Sri Lanka’s conflict so long as he remains alive and active, and has not been brought to justice. In our case it ain’t over till the fat laddie swings.

 In the first place the man is an outrageously unrepentant liar and assumes that everyone suffers from amnesia. In his speech he says that "It may be noted that during the long history of our struggle, we have not conducted any act of aggression against any member state of the international community". Let us forget for a moment that Sri Lanka is a member state of the international community, a fact that is proved by his complaint in the same speech, of the military and diplomatic assistance that Sri Lanka has obtained from members of the international community on precisely that basis. The man obviously believes that the assassination by suicide bomber of India’s former Prime Minister and (at the time) leader of the Opposition, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, former chairperson of SAARC, son of legendary former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and grandson of the iconic first Prime Minister of independent India, Shri Nehru, is not "an act of aggression against any member of the international community"!