President Mahinda Rajapakse

Sri Lanka's sidelined military chief, General Sarath Fonseka, will stand against President Mahinda Rajapakse in elections to held before April, a press report said Sunday. The Sunday Times newspaper here said Fonseka, who is credited with crushing Tamil Tiger separatists earlier this year, had been chosen by a consortium of opposition parties to be their presidential nominee. Fonseka has been at loggerheads with the government in recent months after he was removed as army chief and made chief of defence staff, a more ceremonial post with no command responsibilities. "Constituent parties of the newly formed (opposition) United National Front reached consensus this week that ... Read Full Story

Sri Lanka's central bank on Saturday said it has been buying gold to diversify its reserves amid volatile currency markets, days after India announced it had purchased 200 tonnes of the precious metal. Central Bank assistant governor Nandalal Weerasinghe declined to confirm analysts' estimates that the tropical island nation had purchased around five tonnes of gold. "We have been observing that prices of gold have been going up so we have been strategically buying gold over the past several months as part of a reserve management process of diversifying our portfolio," he told AFP. The price of gold hit a record high above 1,100 ... Read Full Story

Sri Lanka's military commander returned home on Thursday after cutting short a visit to the United States to avoid questioning by authorities over alleged war crimes against Tamil civilians. The foreign ministry in Colombo said the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had wanted to interview Sarath Fonseka about war crimes allegedly committed during the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels earlier this year. "We facilitated General Fonseka's early departure ahead of his Wednesday meeting with the DHS," Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told reporters. He said Fonseka had earlier agreed to be questioned, but the Sri Lankan government feared he would be ... Read Full Story

Sri Lanka's top military officer returned home Thursday after he was allowed to complete a US visit without being questioned over alleged war crimes against Tamil civilians. General Sarath Fonseka arrived at Bandaranaike International Airport and was immediately driven away under tight security, an airport official said. "He arrived this morning in a commercial flight and was escorted out of the airport by his security convoy," an official said. The Foreign Ministry here said he ended his US visit without being quizzed by the Department of Homeland Security, which had asked to interview him about alleged war crimes during the final stages of fighting ... Read Full Story

Sri Lanka's president has announced an immediate salary increase for all members of the country's armed forces amid plans to boost the strength of the security services. President Mahinda Rajapakse granted the unspecified salary increase during a visit Wednesday to the island's northern regions, which were recently wrested from Tamil rebel control, his office said. "The president stated that this decision was taken while considering the great sacrifices the security forces made for the country for which he is extremely grateful," the office said in a statement. It said Rajapakse was addressing troops for the first time since the army crushed the leadership of ... Read Full Story