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| S.Lanka holds suspect in media attack; U.S. worries on freedom Posted: 01 Feb 2011 07:46 AM PST COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan police arrested on Tuesday a suspect in the torching of the offices of a web site critical of the government, an attack which drew condemnation from the U.S. government.
Monday's arson at the office of U.K.-based web site www.lankaenews.com, which regularly criticises the government and has links to a politician who fell out with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is the latest in a series of assaults on media. Rajapaksa ordered a swift investigation, and police on Tuesday said they had arrested a man on suspicion of involvement and were continuing their investigation. "Regardless of who is responsible for this incident, such violence directed against a media institution silences voices, further threatens freedom of expression, and undermines democracy throughout the country," the U.S. embassy said in a statement. Hundreds of media workers and opposition politicians staged a peaceful protest against the attack in Colombo on Tuesday. At least 14 journalists have been killed and many more attacked or threatened in the Indian Ocean island nation since the start of the final phase of a 25-year civil war in 2006. Sri Lanka has a long history of violence and intimidation against journalists, stretching back as far as 1971, when the first of three separate violent insurgencies broke out and ushered in an era of impunity. Press freedom groups regularly criticise the government of involvement in, or tolerance of attacks against journalists and a failure to find the perpetrators. However, the government has pointed to many cases where journalists have blamed the government or orchestrated attacks as ploys to get political asylum in Western nations or donor funding. (Editing by Bryson Hull and Robert Birsel) Copyright © 2011 Reuters | ||
| France seizes Ben Ali plane near Paris Posted: 01 Feb 2011 07:12 AM PST PARIS (Reuters) - French authorities have seized a small aircraft belonging to ousted Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's family at an airport near Paris, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Tuesday. The European Union agreed on Monday to freeze assets belonging to Ben Ali and his wife after he was driven from power last month in a popular revolt. France had already opened a preliminary investigation into his assets on its soil. The plane was seized as part of the investigation, opened after non-governmental organisations filed a lawsuit seeking to get Ben Ali's assets in France returned to Tunisian authorities if proven that they were obtained illegally. A police source said the aircraft was a small Bombardier jet. It was seized at Le Bourget airport, where it had been parked for several days, the prosecutor's office said. The three NGOs, Transparency International, Sherpa and the Arab Commission for Human Rights, say the deposed Tunisian leader and his family own valuable property in prime Parisian locations as well as big bank assets. Ben Ali and his family built up interests in many Tunisian companies and industries during his two decades in power, including in hotels, banks, tuna exports, construction, newspapers and pharmaceuticals. (Reporting by Gerard Bon and Thierry Leveque; Writing by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Copyright © 2011 Reuters |
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