"These reports send a very clear message that all governments have a responsibility to protect universal human rights and they help to blaze a path forward for places where those rights are either threatened or denied. We stand up for values and speaking out for people who often don’t have any chance whatsoever to speak out for themselves", was what Secretary of State John Kerry noted when he released the Country reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 in Washington on Friday.

Victoria Tkacheva, 24, a Russian languages graduate, fears that the men responsible for her rape and the murder of Khuram Shaikh, a 32-year-old Red Cross worker from Rochdale, will not be brought to justice.

One of the eight suspects who were arrested but later released is a local politician whose family have close ties to the Sri Lankan president.

There is currently no prospect of a trial, but Tkacheva insists she will not rest until justice is done. “I know if Khuram was in my place he would go on to the end

The Media Ministry says journalists who fled the country claiming their lives were at risk, can return to the country as there is no such threat. Media Ministry Secretary Charitha Herath said that even journalists who spoke against the government at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva can still return to Sri Lanka.

Herath told The Sunday Leader that the government had not forced any journalist to flee nor did it threaten anyone.
“We have not blacklisted any journalist,” Herath said.

The Ministry of Mass Media and Information is given the responsibility to coordinate the media coverage and other polity related events of the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Colombo.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will be held in Colombo from 15 to 17 November 2013. The summit will bring the leaders of 54 member countries of the Commonwealth to the island.

The Socialist student’s society accuses that the construction of the Dr Neville Fernando teaching hospital affiliated to the Malabe private medical College as illegal.

In the National organiser Nalinda Jayatissa claims that construction of a Teaching hospital affiliated to the private medical hospital is illegal had been informed by the Minister of health at the Parliament sessions?

During the 2013 Budget debate the Minister had confessed that a Teaching Hospital could be built only for the government but not

Ragging starts… political parties behind it….

It is revealed that the ragging the new comers to the universities has started once again.

Students Councils with political aims are planning these and they have appointed Leaders to different faculties.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Spokesperson, and Jaffna District MP, Suresh K. Premachandran was questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Friday (19), over a recent comment he made to an Indian newspaper over the military's presence in Jaffna.
Premachandran told Ceylon Today he was informed by the CID through the Kopay Police in Jaffna to be present at the CID Headquarters in Colombo on 12 April.

Major General Shavendra Silva yesterday said that a recent statement attributed to top United National Human Rights Council (UNHRC) official Ben Ammerson, QC, that America’s covert drone programme risked legitimizing al-Qaeda terrorism meant that those using the global rights body to undermine post-war Sri Lanka could be at the receiving end of the same apparatus.

British lawyer Ammerson’s statement was given wide international media coverage after bomb attacks on the Boston marathon killed three spectators,

Despite various false allegations levelled against Sri Lanka by local bodies with vested interests including the LTTE rump calling upon the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group to suspend the country from the Commonwealth, everything was in place to hold the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo in November, Deputy Minister of External Affairs Neomal Perera said.

The government yesterday yet again claimed the appointment of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo would be made ‘soon’. Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education, Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne said it was up to the President to make the appointment to the post, now that the University Grants Commission (UGC) has submitted the names of the candidates to him.

Dr. Nawaratne added he believed the appointment would be made soon now that the recommendations were with the President.
When contacted rega