Sri Lankan city bidding against Gold Coast caught up in Wikileaks controversy

couriermail.com.au   September 02, 2011

THE Sri Lankan city bidding against the Gold Coast for the 2018 Commonwealth Games has become the centre of a WikiLeaks controversy as the vote to decide the host nation nears.

A leaked email published on WikiLeaks claims the US Government believes the Chinese Government is bribing Sri Lankan officials to win contracts linked to the redevelopment of port city and potential Games host, Hambantota.

Hambantota has a population of about 10,000, about the size of Warwick, and on face value seems an ill-equipped rival to the Gold Coast.    Full Story
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UNP alleges lifting of emergency ruse to deceive int’l community

Demands MR explains extraordinary gazette issued on Aug. 6

August 31, 2011, 9:27 pm 

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The UNP alleged that President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s much publicized lifting of emergency was nothing but a transparent move to deceive the international community ahead of the forthcoming Geneva Sessions of the UN Human Rights Council.

Deputy Secretary General of the UNP Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, in an interview with The Island yesterday lashed out at the SLFP-led UPFA government for playing politics at the expense of the country.      Full Story>>>

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Lanka building Buddhist viharas in place of temples: Lankan MP

PTI | 08:09 PM,Sep 01,2011

Rajapalayam (TN), Sept 1 (PTI) A Sri Lankan Member of Parliament has charged that the Lankan government was not permitting rebuilding of Hindu temples destroyed or damaged during the war and was instead building Buddhist viharas in their place. "The original structure of the temples are being razed and Buddhist viharas and coming up in their place," claimed Seenithambi Yogeswaran, of the Sri Lankan Tamil National Council, here yesterday. So far, more than 1,400 Hindu temples had been affected, he said, adding the destruction of the temples threatened the culture of the native Tamil people itself. Yogeswaran claimed that even basic amenities had not been provided in areas where the Tamil population lived. He also rejected the Mahinda Rajapaksa government's claim that the civil war had come to an end, saying that so far no political solution had been found for the Tamils. Even the relief materials sent from India were not given to the Tamil people, he alleged. Yogeswaran claimed India had given the Lankan government funds to construct 50,000 houses, but the island nation government had not even completed 1,000 houses. He stressed on the need to implement the Rajiv Gandhi-Jayawardene accord, giving autonomy for Tamil areas.PTI COR/SSN ARP