Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse ordered police to step up security ahead of presidential elections after a second political activist was shot dead this month, an official said yesterday.
The ruling party supporter was killed on Saturday in the northwestern Puttalam district where several others were injured when they clashed with opposition activists, police said.
Rajapakse expressed his sadness over the second campaign-related death and urged police to ensure a peaceful run-up to the Jan. 26 vote, his spokesman Chandrapala Liyanage said.
PHOTO: EPA
“The president is deeply concerned about the violence and has already ordered police to make sure that there is tighter security,” Liyanage said. “He is also appealing to all parties to ensure there is no violence.”
Opposition activist Kusuma Kuruppuarachchi, 60, was the first to be killed in the poll campaign when he was shot in the southern town of Hungama last week.
Police also fired tear gas to disperse thousands of party workers in the eastern town of Polonnaruwa after mobs destroyed vehicles and buildings.
Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has accused Rajapakse’s People’s Alliance of inciting violence and using intimidation to swing voters.
The US embassy in Colombo has said it was “deeply concerned” over the unrest.
Rajapakse is facing a tough challenge from his former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who quit the army and entered politics in November.
Fonseka has said that Rajapakse accused him of trying to seize power after crushing the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels last year and ending decades of ethnic war on the island.
In previous election campaigns, the Tigers often used violence to stop voting and also carried out suicide bomb attacks and assassinations.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un renewed his call for a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program to counter US-led threats in comments reported yesterday that were his first direct criticism toward Washington since US president-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory on Oct. 6. At a conference with army officials on Friday, Kim condemned the US for updating its nuclear deterrence strategies with South Korea and solidifying three-way military cooperation involving Japan, which he portrayed as an “Asian NATO” that was escalating tensions and instability in the region. Kim also criticized the US over its support of Ukraine against a prolonged Russian invasion.
RSS