COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The United States and Sri Lanka have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, formalizing the defense partnership between the Montana National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard District 13 and the Sri Lanka Armed Forces under the Department of War National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program, or SPP.

Many of the gravesites that pockmark the north and east of the country are believed to contain the victims of atrocities committed during the civil war. Caught between warring rebel fighters and the Sri Lankan army, the Tamil community in these regions bore the brunt of the violence.

Today's ceremony held special significance as it commemorated Major Parameswaran, a Param Vir Chakra awardee, who sacrificed his life on this day in 1987 during Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka.

Vipul was an international swimmer and an equally accomplished water polo player. A proud product of Royal College, Colombo 7, he joined the Sri Lanka Army in 1969 and was enrolled in the 2nd Intake of Officer Cadets at the Sri Lanka Military Academy,

Now, having won the war, Sri Lanka is trying to make patriotic citizens out of child soldiers like Vinojan and others who just months ago were fighting against the nation. Vinojan, who nurses a dark scar on his wrist from a shrapnel wound, is just trying to reclaim what is left of a childhood cut short. "We wanted to be students.

COLOMBO, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan police have detained 11 people, most of them soldiers or former soldiers, in a widening probe into the disappearance of a cartoonist that has become a test case of the new government's resolve to address human rights ...