[AFP]

A British minister visiting Sri Lanka has repeated demands that the government must investigate war crimes alleged to have been committed during the island’s separatist conflict with Tamil rebels.

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[BBC]

A group of men allegedly beat up the 17-year-olds after they came out of an internet cafe in the mostly Muslim town of Kattankudi, near Batticaloa. The father of one of the girls says they were accused of watching pornography - a charge the girls deny. The case has fuelled concern about a rise in radical Islam in that area.

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[Committee to Protect Journalists]

Sri Lanka’s journalists are under intensive assault. Authorities have failed to carry out effective and credible investigations into the killing of journalists who question the government’s conduct of a war against Tamil separatists or criticize the military establishment. Three attacks in January targeting the mainstream media drew the world’s attention to the problem, but top journalists have been killed, attacked, threatened, and harassed since the government began to pursue an all-out military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in late 2006. Many local and foreign journalists and members of the diplomatic community believe the government is complicit in the attacks.

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