Sri Lanka is likely to feature during a meeting of the Commonwealth’s most powerful eight-member body in London today, with Canada hinting it is seeking a shift in the venue and Tamil Nadu political parties,  international lawyers grouping and human rights activists lobbying against allowing Colombo to host a key Commonwealth summit in November.

The Government has consistently denied that Sri Lanka would feature on the agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) 26 April meet, which will be chaired by

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 is sig

The Commonwealth will rightly face international ridicule if it goes ahead with its summit in Sri Lanka. The CMAG meeting should send a message to the Sri Lankan government that the scale and severity of its abuses violate the Commonwealth’s core values and will not be rewarded.
Brad Adams, Asia director

(New York) – A senior Commonwealth advisory group should  recommend the organization shift the venue of its November 2013 Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) from Sri Lanka unless the government makes prom

Prime Minister Stephen Harper responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, April 24, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is hinting he'd like to see this year's Commonwealth summit moved out of Sri Lanka in protest of the country's human rights record.

Harper has made it clear for more than a year that, without major reforms, he personally will not be attending next fall's Commonwealth Head

A forum represented by several Muslim organizations and individuals, which will be an apolitical body, has been established to look into issues faced by Muslims in Sri Lanka.

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL) convoked a meeting of Muslim civil society members, religious leaders, businesspersons, academics and professionals with the objective of building consensus within the Muslim community and establishing a Muslim Consultative Committee.

The Committee comprising of over 75 prominent members of the Muslim soci

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.

He said that

Sri Lanka, whose leaders are accused of committing war crimes against Tamils in the civil war that ended May 2009, and subverting democracy, is to host the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November.

In the past the Commonwealth, the 54-member intergovernmental grouping of mostly Britain’s former colonies, has emphasised human rights and democracy as core principles and chastised member countries that violated them. Sri Lanka however has not been censured but rewarded: named as CHOGM’s next v

While a dearth of medical officers is experienced in rural areas there is an excess of doctors at the National Hospital as many of them refuse to accept transfers as per last year’s list, despite having served in the country’s premier state hospital for more than the stipulated four years.

A consultant, attached to a general hospital in the North Central Province, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Island that some of the doctors in his province had to work double shifts, while some doctors in Colombo and

Indian police reportedly busted a human trafficking racket in Mangalore and rescued around 68 Sri Lankan refugees preparing to be ferried to Australia.

It is said that Sri Lankan refugees who were in Tamil Nadu were promised jobs in Australia, and for this purpose they were brought to Mangalore, and from here arrangements were being made to send them off to Australia by sea, media reports said.

A few of the persons who were brought to the city were spotted wandering around in various places in the district, which ar

The debate about the ‘emergence’ or ‘re-emergence’ of India as an important player at the world stage goes on the one hand. On the other, the Indian state is confronted with a major challenge, as regions (provinces) are asserting their rights and able to influence the foreign policy discourse.

In addition, critics point out recent setbacks of Indian foreign policy in the Maldives and to a certain extent in Sri Lanka as signs of its non-arrival at the international arena since Indian foreign policy