COLOMBO (AFP)— Sri Lanka has ordered a group of 161 foreign Islamic clerics to leave the country, for flouting visa regulations by preaching to pockets of Muslims around the country, an official said Sunday.
Controller of Immigration and Emigration Chulananda Perera said the clerics, who were mostly Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, Maldivian and Arab, had travelled into the country on tourist visas.
COLOMBO (AFP) Chinese authorities are seeking permission to explore Sri Lanka’s coastline for possible Chinese ship wrecks from the ancient Silk Route era, an official said Wednesday.
Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean island, was a key trading post along the ancient Silk Route which saw silk, spices and handicrafts travel by road and sea between Asia and Europe.
COLOMBO, Jan 17 (Reuters) - India’s foreign minister on Tuesday urged Sri Lanka to forge ahead with political reconciliation steps recommended by a presidential inquiry into the end of its civil war, and signed economic cooperation agreements worth $443 million.
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, on a three-day visit to India’s island neighbour, said the presidentially-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission(LLRC) had several points which needed follow-up to spur recovery from the 25-year ethnic civil war that ended in 2009.
COLOMBO (AFP)— Sri Lanka has reacted furiously to a spate of “personalised” foreign postage stamps bearing the image of slain Tamil Tiger rebel supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The stamps, from Britain, Canada and France, were reportedly put together by overseas Tamil Tiger support groups, using services sanctioned by state postal agencies that allow people to combine personal photos with official stamps.
COLOMBO, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka’s rupee currency can be “flexible” in the future given pressure on the island nation’s balance of payments and declining reserves declining but the central bank will not allow “volatile” moves, Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said on Tuesday.
Announcing the bank’s broader monetary and financial policies for 2012, Cabraal also said the country would negotiate with the International Monetary Fund for a follow-up programme as Sri Lanka nears completion of the Fund’s $2.6 billion loan programme this year.
