britishtamil.com

Anuradhapura district in the North Central Provincial Council (NCPC) has recorded highest number of election related violence with two weeks more for the election that is scheduled to be held on August 23. Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) has received 102 complaints related to forthcoming elections to NCPC and Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council (SPC).

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The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has begun to arrest deserted soldiers who fail to return for duty on the expiry of amnesty period granted by the government. So far 1,700 such soldiers rejoined their ranks, said Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, military spokesman to the media.

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The Government of Japan has provided US$175,000 through the Grant Assistance for
Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP), of which 50% is allocated to “Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies” to construct a bridge across Badulu Oya in the Badulla District, and the remaining 50% to the “Lanka
Jathika Sarvodaya Sharamadana Sangamaya Inc.”, to ensure food security to the resettled
IDP families in the Batticaloa District, a press release issued by the Japanese Embassy in
Colombo said Friday. The Batticaloa project will also provide help to IDP families to enhance
income sources in Manmunai South West to get back to normalcy.

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More than a hundred media persons and political leaders staged a protest demonstration Friday around 12:00 noon at Colpetty junction in Colombo, organized by five leading media associations, condemning Minster Mervin Silva?s assault on media persons who went to participate in the opening ceremony of Kelaniya flyover recently, sources in Colombo said.

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A 56-year-old family man was killed Friday around 8:00 a.m at Maruthoadai in Nedungkea?ni division as he was riding on his bicyle to his farm in Nedungkea?ni, in a Claymore attack by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Deep Penetration Unit.

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A 56-year-old family man was killed Friday around 8:00 a.m at Maruthoadai in Nedungkea?ni division as he was riding on his bicyle to his farm in Nedungkea?ni, in a Claymore attack by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Deep Penetration Unit, sources in Vanni said.

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A United States military jury sentenced Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, to 5 year 6 months, making Hamdan eligible for release from custody in 5 months after taking into account the pre-trial incarceration, Washington Post reported. “The sentence was a stunning rebuke to prosecutors who had insisted on a prison term of atleast 30 years and portrayed Hamdan thoroughout the trial as a hardened Al Queda warrior,” the paper said.

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Documenting that during June and July, an additional 70,800 people registered with the Kilinochchi and Mullaitheevu Secretariats as new Internally Displaced People from areas proximity to Mannar, Vavuniyaa, Ma’nalaa’ru, and Mukamaalai Foward Defence Lines (FDLs), a report released Friday by NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), a Vanni based rights group, said that restrictions imposed by the Sri Lanka Government on taking essential items to Vanni have further hampered assistance given by the humanitarian agencies.

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Expressing deep concern at Sri Lanka Government’s “disregard for Sri Lankan and international law,” the Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York based rights watchdog, in a press release issued Friday said, Tissainayagam and two others arrested by Sri Lanka’s Terrrorism Investigation Division (TID) “have spent more than 150 days in custody, yet no charges have been filed and no evidence of any crime has been produced…If the authorities have no credible basis to charge Tissainayagam and the two others, they should be immediately released.?

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Five cattle breeders in Thoppikkal area have gone missing following the Claymore ambush at Periyavaddavaan in Tharavai (Thoppikkal) area in Batticaloa district Tuesday evening where 23 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed, sources in Batticaloa said. Meanwhile, more than 500 persons who had gone to the above area on errands were made to kneel by the SLA for a whole day while assaulting some of them, the sources added.

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