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Tamil National Alliance ‘categorically rejects’ Sri Lankan President’s offer of 13th Amendment minus police powers

The Tamil National Alliance on Tuesday “categorically rejected” Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s offer to implement the 13th Amendment sans police powers, terming his proposal for development and power devolution “another hollow promise”. ‘No police powers’ A small section in the 16-page dossier that dealt with devolution said that the 13th Amendment would be implemented “with the exception of police …

No agreement in devolution talks with President Ranil Wickremesinghe: Tamil National Alliance

Thetalks on power devolution between Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Tamil legislators yielded no positive outcome, according to the Tamil National Alliance, the largest grouping of MPs from the island’s north and east. The Tamil National People’s Front, which has two MPs, stayed out of the talks that it said were “simply aimed at appeasing the international community”. After …

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The Sri Lankan government will “fully implement” the 13th Amendment, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Sunday, making a familiar promise to the Tamils on the nearly 40-year-old legislation guaranteeing a measure of power devolution to the island’s provinces. His remarks come even as his government is engaged in talks with the Tamil political leadership to find a durable political solution …

Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa thanks India for ‘invaluable assistance’

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday thanked visiting External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar for India’s “invaluable assistance” to Sri Lanka, which is grappling with one of its worst economic crises. Following Mr. Jaishankar’s meetings with President Gotabaya, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa on Monday, Reuters news agency, citing “two sources” in Colombo, reported that Sri Lanka has …

COLOMBO The Sri Lankan governmentwill set up a ‘North-East Development Fund’ to increase investments in the war-affected areas, while probing cases of enforced disappearances and land grabs that remain chief concerns of the Tamil people 13 years after the war ended. The President meanwhile agreed to focus on four key areas, including possibly releasing long-term detainees under the country’s draconian …

South Africa's former president Jacob Zuma along with Indian-origin Gupta brothers, who had "considerable" influence over him, misappropriated huge amount of public money, including diverting millions of rands to enrich the now defunct The New Age newspaper, according to a probe report on corruption during Mr. Zuma's tenure from 2009 to 2018. The first part deals with the Gupta family’s …

Commemorations for Tamil Tiger rebels killed in Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war were banned on Friday after court petitions by the government of strongman President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Sri Lanka’s 37-year conflict began in 1972 when Tamil Tigers waged a bloody war against government troops in a campaign for a separate homeland for their ethnic minority group. His government petitioned courts …

Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party on Tuesday urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa not to “regress into naked majoritarianism”, that in the past gave rise to a conflict, resulting in armed hostilities spanning over three decades. Referring to the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948, “a rank majoritarian act” that denied Indian origin Tamils citizenship, the Sinhala only Act of 1956, and the …

As many as 35 candidates are running for President in Sri Lanka’s November 16 election, but northern Tamils view it as a two-cornered fight between Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sajith Premadasa. However, voters across the Northern Province dread the possible return of a Rajapaksa — this time the former President’s brother and a powerful war-time Defence Secretary — to the helm. …