The United Nations Human Rights Council urged Sri Lanka Thursday to thoroughly investigate allegations of atrocities committed during the island nation's long and brutal civil war.
Sri Lanka's response to a scathing United Nations report alleging war crimes and human rights violations has reached the president's desk.
A six-year state of emergency in Sri Lanka is scheduled to end September 14, a government spokesman told CNN Thursday night.
At their president's urging, Sri Lankans took to the streets Sunday to rail against a critical United Nations report that found credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both sides during the final stages of the country's civil war.
The Sri Lankan government cried foul Tuesday after a U.N. panel said it has found credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both sides during the final stages of the country's civil war.
The U.N. has found war crimes allegations against both sides of Sri Lanka's conflict credible. CNN's Richard Roth reports.
A United Nations panel has found credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both sides during the final stages of Sri Lanka's armed conflict, according to a U.N. report released Monday.
A United Nations panel investigating alleged war crimes in the Sri Lankan conflict has found credible evidence that the military shelled civilians in no-fire zones and sought to silence critics in brutal fashion, according to the panel's report, leaked to a Sri Lankan newspaper.
Unknown assailants torched the offices of a Sri Lankan website critical of the government Monday.
Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, pledged to end underworld crimes, illicit drugs and corruption as he was sworn in for a second term Friday.
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa is slated to be sworn in Thursday for a second six-year term at a nationally televised ceremony outside Colombo's presidential secretariat overlooking the Indian Ocean.
Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka's former armed forces chief who led troops to defeat Tamil Tiger rebels last year, has been moved to a high security prison, officials said Friday.
CNN's Sara Sidner gains rare access to areas hardest hit by Sri Lanka's 25-year-long civil war.
A protest at the U.N. compound and a cabinet minister's three-day "fast unto death" has not deterred U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from proceeding with a probe into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka.
A Sri Lanka politician ended his "fast unto death" on Saturday when the nation's president gave him water and an ambulance rushed him to a hospital.
A Sri Lankan Cabinet minister on a "fast unto death" to protest a U.N. human rights panel announced Friday that he had resigned his post as his supporters marched in Colombo carrying placards condemning the world body.
The U.N. secretary-general is recalling an envoy from Sri Lanka and closing a U.N. office there because authorities in that country "failed to prevent" protests disrupting the "normal functioning" of the world body's offices in Colombo, the nation's capital.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa Monday assured the country's main Tamil political parties his government would soon address grievances of the Tamil minority.
Though tourism is bouncing back in Sri Lanka and authorities are busy building roads and bridges in former war-torn areas, troops are still finding weapons in old battlefields and the nation remains under a state of emergency one year after a decades-long civil conflict ended.
General Sarath Fonseka, hailed as a hero after leading a military campaign that defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels, was released from detention Thursday and driven under heavy armed escort to be sworn in to Sri Lanka's Parliament.
Contrary to earlier plans, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will only swear in a new Prime Minister Wednesday, with the rest of his Cabinet ministers taking their oaths of office on Friday, a government spokesman said.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will swear in a new cabinet on Wednesday, just a day ahead of the first session of the island nation's new parliament.
Just over half of Sri Lanka's 14 million registered voters cast their votes in Thursday's parliamentary elections, the lowest in the island nation's history.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's party is on the verge of victory in parliamentary elections, the first such contests since the end of the island nation's long and bloody civil war.
A Sri Lankan journalist who was fatally shot last year has been recognized by the International Press Institute as a hero for freedom of the press, the group announced Thursday.
Sri Lanka's opposition Tuesday called for nationwide protests over the "barbaric and extra-judicial" arrest of the country's former army chief, accusing President Mahinda Rajapaksa of undermining the country's democratic institutions.
Sri Lankan state television says the incumbent has won, but the challenger accuses the government of intimidation.
Sri Lanka has held its first presidential election since government forces put down a 26-year insurgency by Tamil Tiger rebels.
Soldiers surrounded the Colombo hotel where Sri Lanka's opposition leader was staying Wednesday, hours after President Mahinda Rajapaksa was declared the winner of the country's first peacetime election in more than two decades.
Sri Lanka's opposition presidential candidate accused the incumbent of intimidation, as early returns reported by state-run TV SLRC showed President Mahinda Rajapaksa leading the race.
Sri Lankans went to the polls on Tuesday in the island nation's first peacetime presidential election in 26 years, despite explosions and mortar fire in the capital of Northern Province hours before polls opened.
CNN's Sara Sidner reports on the battle between Sri Lanka's commander in chief and his former army commander.
CNN's Becky Anderson talks with a U.N. Special investigator investigating war crimes in Sri Lanka.
A video purportedly showing Sri Lankan soldiers executing bound, blindfolded and naked Tamils appears to be authentic, a U.N. investigator said Thursday.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will seek a fresh mandate in the upcoming elections in the South Asian nation, but he is facing a tough challenge from his one-time confidante and former Army commander, retired General Sarath Fonseka.
They are home movies of a different sort. Children scamper across the wooden deck. Parents lie on woven mats trying to fend off boredom. A handful of men share a single hose as a shower at the back of the boat.
A top Sri Lankan diplomat Monday strongly rejected charges his government is abusing human rights of members of the country's minority Tamil community in refugee camps after the country's quarter-century-long civil war.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour looks at Sri Lanka's upcoming elections. Is there political will for reconciliation?
Nearly 150,000 refugees from Sri Lanka's civil war remain detained in Sri Lankan government internment camps, according to the United Nations' chief humanitarian affairs official, John Holmes.
The Sri Lankan government said Saturday it will lift restrictions on thousands of war-displaced ethnic Tamils still residing in squalid internment camps.
Raj Rajaratnam, the New York-based billionaire and hedge fund manager charged in an alleged insider trading scheme on Friday, was funding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is considered a terrorist group by the US, the Sri Lankan government claimed on Sunday.
CNN's Colleen McEdwards talks with Douglas Burns, a former U.S. federal prosecutor, about the arrest of six executives.
Camps housing Sri Lankans displaced this year by fighting between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels are seriously overcrowded and at risk with the coming monsoon season, a British charity director said Friday.
Sri Lanka's human rights secretary Rajiva Wijesinha and Amnesty International's Sam Zarifi on the country's refugee camp.
The expulsion of a U.N. official from Sri Lanka is final and he has to leave the country by September 21, the government has told the agency.
The Sri Lankan government has ordered a UNICEF official to leave the country, accusing him of spreading propaganda supporting Tamil rebels, the agency -- the United Nations Children's Fund -- told CNN Sunday.
New concerns over camps for displaced Tamils. ITN's Nick Paton Walsh reports.
A U.N. special representative wants an "independent investigation into the authenticity of a video" purportedly showing Sri Lankan troops killing two "naked and helpless men," as other corpses lay nearby.
Naked, bound and blindfolded, a crudely shot video shows a man being pushed to the ground by men wearing what appear to be military, camouflage fatigues.
Disturbing video appears to show executions style killings during the Sri Lankan war. CNN's Sara SIdner reports.
Sri Lankan security forces have arrested a leader of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebel group and are questioning him, a defense official said Friday.
A leader of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebel group has been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, state television in Sri Lanka reported Thursday.
More than 20,000 civilians were killed in the final months of Sri Lanka's civil war -- nearly three times previous estimates, The Times newspaper in Britain reported Friday.
Tamil Tiger rebels acknowledged the death of their leader Sunday, nearly a week after the Sri Lankan government said it had recovered the body of Velupillai Prabhakaran and declared victory in the country's 25-year civil war with the rebels.
Shell-shocked and scarred both inside and out, they huddle in tents, water and medicine in short supply -- hundreds of thousands of people, civilian victims of Sri Lanka's recently-ended civil war.
The deafening roar of drums and horns rose as thousands of people took to the streets in Sri Lanka Friday for a victory parade marking the end of the decades-long civil war.
Sri Lanka has rejected criticism that it is not doing enough to provide for the estimated 250,000 refugees following the end of its war with the Tamil Tigers.
The United Nations is demanding full access to refugee camps that are home to an estimated quarter of a million people fleeing war in Sri Lanka, the United Nations Children's Fund said Tuesday.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, flashing a broad smile, declared victory Tuesday in the country's 25-year civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Sri Lanka's government said Monday its forces had killed Tamil rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran as he attempted to flee, according to the country's state-run news agency.
CNN's Anna Coren speaks with Suresh Bartlett of World Vision about the situation in Sri Lanka.
Angered by what he perceived as the systemic discrimination of the minority Tamils by successive Sri Lankan governments, 18-year-old Velupillai Prabhakaran, armed with just a revolver, set out in 1972 to right the perceived wrongs by forming a militant group.
The Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka said Sunday they have "decided to silence our guns" as government forces closed in on their last stronghold.
Sri Lanka's prime minister warned Saturday that his country "stands on the brink," as its soldiers cornered Tamil Tiger fighters in an assault that is trapping more than 50,000 civilians on a small plot of coastal land.
A Red Cross worker was killed Wednesday during shelling in the conflict zone in Sri Lanka, the third aid worker killed in six weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.
Shelling in the conflict zone of Sri Lanka has killed a Red Cross worker. ITN's Nick Paton Walsh reports.
Sri Lanka's quarter-century-long civil war is in its final phase, the government suggested Friday, as its troops pounded Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's north.
The U.N. Security Council and U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for both sides in Sri Lanka's civil war to protect civilians and allow humanitarian aid into the conflict zone, where tens of thousands are trapped.
Sri Lanka summoned a U.N. official to protest remarks by an agency spokesman about a civilian "bloodbath" in the government's war against Tamil militants, Foreign Ministry sources told CNN Tuesday.
Sri Lankan authorities detained three ITN journalists after they report on allegations of abuse by the military.
A British news team that had been detained by Sri Lankan authorities -- after producing a report about the alleged abuse of Tamils -- has left the country.
Nearly 400 people were killed overnight Saturday by government shelling in what is supposed to be a "no-fire" zone of Sri Lanka, a humanitarian worker in the area told CNN on Sunday.
Sri Lankan authorities on Saturday detained a British news team that produced a report about allegations of abuse and ill-treatment of Tamil refugees.
Tamil Tiger rebels have been pinned down by Sri Lankan government troops in a small section of the country's north, the Ministry of Defense claimed Tuesday.
Thousands of civilians remain trapped and at risk in a small area of the conflict zone along the northeastern Sri Lankan coast, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday.
The Sri Lankan army overran two Tamil Tiger rebel positions in the country's north on Tuesday, the military reported on its Web site.
Sri Lanka ordered an end to combat operations against Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's north, the president's office said Monday. But the rebels accused the military of continuing to bomb civilians.
Sri Lankan officials rejected a proposed cease-fire from the Tamil Tiger rebels Sunday, warning instead that government troops intended to continue a new offensive until the group surrenders, a senior government official said.
Deadline for Tamil rebels passes with no surrender. CNN's Atika Shubert reports.
Tens of thousands of Sri Lankan civilians fill a tiny strip of coastal land controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels, according to satellite imagery released Tuesday by the U.S. State Department.
Norway has condemned the ransacking of the Sri Lankan embassy in Oslo by Tamil demonstrators.
The Sri Lankan army launched an operation against Tamil rebels in the country's north early Monday, the military said, claiming to have rescued thousands of civilians trapped in a government safe zone.
Sri Lanka has given Tamil Tiger rebels 24 hours to surrender after thousands of civilians flee a rebel trap. From ITN.
The State Department Thursday called for a cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers to allow civilians to escape the fighting after a two- day humanitarian pause ended with renewed violence.
The United Nations humanitarian chief Wednesday criticized a two-day pause in the fighting between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels as "inadequate."
Several hundred Sri Lankan Tamil protesters shouted slogans at the British Parliament for a second day Tuesday, urging it to act to end the "genocide" against their people in Sri Lanka.
After three days of gun battles, the Sri Lankan military said it has captured the last stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels and killed five rebel leaders.
India has called for a "pause" in the fighting between Sri Lankan forces and Tamil rebels to allow the evacuation of thousands of civilians trapped in the nation's northern war zone.
India made a renewed plea Tuesday for the safe evacuation of civilians caught in Sri Lanka's war zone in fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels.
Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka are ready to accept international calls for a cease-fire, but won't lay down their weapons without a political solution in the quarter-century-long civil war, according to a letter released by the group.
Rebel aircraft attack Sri Lanka's capital. CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney speaks with an iReporter who was there.
Military officials in Sri Lanka said they shot down a Tamil Tiger aircraft near the Colombo International Airport on Friday, in an air engagement with rebels that killed two people and left about 50 wounded.
India on Wednesday urged Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels to "release" civilians, who it said numbered about 70,000 in Sri Lanka's war zone.
Sri Lanka's military accused Tamil Tiger rebels Tuesday of killing 17 civilians and wounding 69 others who were fleeing rebel-held territory.
The Sri Lankan government said Sunday that more than 10,000 civilians have fled fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels in northern Sri Lanka over the past week, a "sudden increase" in people displaced by the violence.
Aid agencies say civilians are living a nightmare in war-torn areas of Sri Lanka. CNN's Sara Sidner reports.
The Sri Lankan military claimed it has struck a decisive blow against Tamil rebels in the taking of a rebel naval base at Chalai.
Sri Lanka's president declared Wednesday that the country's Tamil insurgents are on the verge of total defeat, saying their demise has helped unite the island nation on the 61st anniversary of its independence.
Journalists in Sri Lanka have come under a growing number of attacks and intimidation, with some fleeing the country or losing their lives, media analysts and rights groups say.
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