US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented the Women of Courage award to Sri Lanka’s Jansila Majeed at a ceremony held at the US State Department in Washington, Wednesday. Majeed was among 10 recipients of the 2010 award. US First lady Michelle Obama also attended the event and delivered a speech.

Ms. Majeed is the Managing Trustee of Community Trust Fund in Puttalam province. The Trust oversees a number of programmes on minority and women’s issues, including women’s rights, peace building, relief work, working with young people, and mine-risk education in the North and East. Ms. Majeed’s own particular focus is on uniting the Muslim and Tamil communities in her province.

Having lived as an internally displaced person (IDP) for almost 20 years, Ms. Majeed has become an energetic activist for services for displaced Muslim and Tamil civilians, focusing particularly on grassroots programmes on life skills, health, and women's empowerment. Her activism began in 1992 with a working group of five people. She overcame both the general neglect of the problem of IDPs in the Muslim minority as well as her own community’s strictures against women activists to build a broad-based organization that works on minority and women’s issues in a highly sensitive and politicized environment.

Sri Lanka’s Attorney General Mohan Peiris has said he was prepared to offer protection to any of the nation’s journalists who return to the country from exile, the US based media rights group, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said

‘Speaking for myself, and I’m fairly sure the government will back me up on this, there is no question that the government needs our journalists,’ Peiris has told a CPJ delegation. ‘They must come back and work with us and help set up the structures so that we can work together and we can respect each other. We must work with these institutions because we need them. We know if they stay outside and attack the government that is not useful,’ he added.

When asked if the government would ensure their safety, Peries said, ‘of course, if they come back, there must be assurance on our part that they won’t come to any harm.’

Pereis made the statements to CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney and Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz. The meeting came near the end of a series of discussions the CPJ had with Sri Lankan journalists in Colombo and Jaffna to assess the situation for reporters following presidential elections in January and before April’s parliamentary voting.

‘The attorney general’s appeal to journalists to return from exile is just a first step,’ said Mahoney adding, ‘the government must go further by taking concrete action to address the climate of impunity and intimidation that prompted them to flee in the first place.’

Sri Lanka ranks fourth, behind Iraq, Somalia, and Sierra Leone, on CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, a ranking of countries where journalists are murdered regularly and the killers go free. The country ranks 13th on CPJ’s database of journalists killed. A 2009 CPJ report, ‘Failure to Investigate’, reported on the history of attacks on journalists and the government’s failure to bring any prosecutions or convictions in any of the cases.

A clash has erupted between supporters of CWC Leader Arumugam Thondaman and Former Deputy Health Minister Wadiwel Suresh in Passara Thursday morning. Minister Thondaman alleged that the Deputy Minister tried to shoot him while the Deputy Minister alleged that his office was attacked by Thondaman’s supporters.

The police have been called in to bring the situation under control and disperse the clashing groups.

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that his government will take the country towards prosperity and self-sufficiency strengthening the local economy at the village level.

Addressing the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Central Organisation in the Tissamaharama electorate Tuesday, the President said the time has come for all to line up to fulfill the target of achieving a strong local economy.

A main objective of his government is to achieve self-sufficiency. Towards that goal, the government has added new vigour to the process to construct an irrigation system based on tanks and lakes and to develop the power system, with the aim of building the local economy, he said, adding that it is the responsibility of everyone to contribute to this massive development programme.

Speaking at a meeting at Walasmulla this morning with the SLFP members from the Beliatta electorate, the President pledged his commitment to develop the village and called on the public to join hands with the political leadership who cares for their villages.

President Rajapaksa also pointed out to the public that they can use the upcoming general election to send a strong response to current international allegations against the country.

The President pledged to carry forward the country towards development with a strong team after setting up a strong parliament based on the results of the general election.

Many political representatives in the area including Minister Chamal Rajapaksa attended the occasion.

The President also took time to visit the Navodya School in Kanumuldeniya North of Walasmulla during his visit to the Hambantota District on Tuesday (09) and meet the Students and the principal.