Australia has vowed not to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka over allegations of human rights violations, despite mounting calls not to attend.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said it would be counter-productive to skip the summit in the Sri Lankan city of Hambantota in November.

"Any suggestion of a boycott would be counter-productive. It would simply isolate the country and render it defiant of international opinion," he told ABC television late Friday.

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) concluded its 39th meeting in London Friday with no discussion on Sri Lanka.

Secretary to the Sri Lanka Ministry of Foreign Affairs Karunathilaka Amunugama said Thursday that any matter pertaining to Sri Lanka was not included in the agenda of the meeting.

Various international groups critical of Sri Lanka's human rights record had attempted to include Sri Lanka in the CMAG's agenda for discussion asking the Group to consider shifting of the Commonwealth Heads

When they decided to have a meeting at their party office in the north of the island, the four Sri Lankan MPs probably didn't expect that it would start raining concrete boulders.

Before they knew it, a mob of about 60 people had surrounded the building. After half an hour of sustained assault, the roof broke and the elected representatives found themselves sheltering in the archways of the doors, as if it were an earthquake. All the while the police looked on, doing nothing. At the end, they caught a few of the atta

A leading human rights group urged the Commonwealth on Thursday to shift the venue of its November summit from Sri Lanka because of Colombo's failure to address accusations of rights violations in the final stages of the civil war.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly rejected calls for an independent, international probe into accusations of war crimes committed during the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which ended in May 2009.

The Canadian foreign minister tells Channel 4 News he is "appalled" the Commonwealth heads of government meeting will still take place in Sri Lanka despite concerns over human rights in the country.

Canada's foreign minister John Baird said it was "not a good day for the Commonwealth" that its secretariat was going ahead with plans to host the heads of government meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka in November.

The Harper government is setting the stage for a boycott of November’s Commonwealth leaders’ summit in Sri Lanka, delivering withering criticisms after ministers from the 54-nation organization took no action on the country’s human-rights record.

The Commonwealth’s Ministerial Action Group closed a meeting in London with no official mention of Sri Lanka – but Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s representatives emerged calling the prospect that the country will chair the Commonwealth summit &ldqu

Australia says it would continue to send back illegal Sri Lankan asylum seekers if their claims are not covered by the refugee convention.

“When people arrive in Australia unauthorised, any claims they make for their reasons to travel to Australia are assessed by the Department of Immigration. If these claims are not covered by the refugee convention, they will be returned to their home land wherever possible,” Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Brendan O’Connor said.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser is among dozens of prominent Australians calling on the federal government to consider boycotting a major Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka this year.

Mr Fraser has added his name to a petition calling on Australia to join with Canada in avoiding the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in the Sri Lankan city of Hambantota in November.

Organised by the Australian Tamil Congress, the petition calls on the government to insist on a new host country unless there

A voluntary, non-partisan, multi-ethnic/religious youth movement, committed to ending hate and injustice in Sri Lanka is to stage a rally against hate at Green Path in Colombo tomorrow.

“Still recovering from a 26 year long war, we see the signs of more hatred growing in our society. We feel it is our responsibility as the youth of this country to help build a hate-free Sri Lanka,” the organizers said.

The ‘Rally for Unity – Hate has NO place in Sri Lanka’ will be held from 10.45am &nda

Sri Lankan Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York Ambassador Major General Shavendra Silva said that the United States and other western countries should understand that terrorism wherever and in whatever form is terrorism and it should be eliminated.

Speaking to the national radio today Major General Silva said bombs used in the Boston attack are similar to the bombs used by the Tamil Tiger terrorists in Sri Lanka.

The Ambassador said the people of U.S. commended their security services f