Indian trawlers threaten Sri Lanka fisheries

Officials say country loses more than $50m a year due to illegal poaching by Indian fishermen.

Sri Lanka says it loses more than $50m a year due to poaching by Indian fishermen. The problem is crippling the country's local fisheries, particularly in the eastern and northern parts of the island, where Al Jazeera shot exclusive photos of Indian trawlers fishing just 4km off the Sri Lankan coast. India has admitted to "issues relating to the straying of fishermen from both countries into each other's territorial waters" and says it is working to address the problem. Al Jazeera's Minelle Fernandez reports from Pesalai in northwest Sri Lanka.        Full Story>>> ================================================ Single Women Begin to Rebuild SRI LANKA By Amantha Perera Almost a quarter of all households in the former conflict zone are headed by single women.  Credit:Amantha Perera/IPS. Buy this picture COLOMBO, Sep 25, 2011 (IPS) - For Magei Kasai the battle against hardships did not end when the guns fell silent two years ago in the Sri Lankan civil war. New battles began for survival, for herself and for what was left of her family. The 45-year-old mother of two lost her husband and a son to the war. Since the war ended in May 2009, more than 300,000 survivors like Kasai have returned to their native villages. Kasai returned to almost nothing in her village Allankulam, about 320 km from capital Colombo in the Mulaithivu districts, where the battles were at their worst. "No house, no garden, no vegetable plants,  no nothing," she tells IPS.  MORE >>