The Tamil diaspora across the world held a series of rallies earlier this month, in solidarity with families of the disappeared in the North-East who have been protesting for over 500 days.
Hundreds attended protests in their respective cities and supported the call for international pressure onto the Sri Lankan government to meet the families’ demands.
Tamil News
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A documentary filmed and produced by British Tamil students highlighting the struggle of Tamil families of the disappeared protesting across the North-East has been released online today.
The documentary, entitled ‘Sri Lanka’s Disappeared’, was made freely available online after a series of screenings worldwide over the last year.
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The Sri Lankan navy announced that it had arrested a four year old child and a 28 year old man, claiming that the two had attempted to illegally enter the island from India.
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Grammy and Oscar-nominated musician M.I.A. released a trailer for an upcoming documentary on her childhood earlier this week, reflecting on key events that have shaped her life including the genocide of Tamils.
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A 'China-Sri Lanka friendship hospital' was launched in Polonnaruwa on Saturday at a ceremony attended by the Chinese Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan and the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena.
The hospital, which will become a nephrology centre, "is being constructed following a request by President Sirisena to the Chinese government", China's state news agency, Xinhua reported.
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Japan and Sri Lanka this week held discussions on increasing military ties and maritime safety during the third Sri Lanka –Japan Dialogue on Maritime Security, Safety and Oceanic Issues, which took place in Colombo on July 19.
“Sri Lanka expressed appreciation for the extensive support extended by Japan to improve the maritime safety capabilities of the Sri Lanka Coast Guard including through the provision of two patrol vessels and numerous training opportunities,” Sri Lanka's...
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A Sri Lankan parliamentarian claimed that the former regime in Colombo bribed at least five more British MPs today, after the UK Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards suspended British parliamentarian Ian Paisley Jr for not declaring trips worth up to £100,000.
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A Buddhist monk has been arrested in Chilaw on suspicion of counterfeiting money.
Sri Lankan police arrested the monk who was in possession of counterfeit 1000 rupee notes after receiving information from businesses in the area, where the monk has attempted to make purchases using the counterfeit money.
Counterfeiting equipment including two printers, a scanner and 200 sheets of special printing paper used for counterfeits were found by police when searching the monk’s resident...
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“Our people should be in constant touch with each other. So that we know each other better and become even closer friends,” India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a gathering in Jaffna on Saturday.
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Sri Lanka’s president pledged that he would press ahead with implementing capital punishment on the island, despite facing a barrage of criticism for the decision.
"I will go ahead with executing drug convicts," said Maithripala Sirisena at an event in Polonnaruwa on Saturday.
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At least 50 bodies have been excavated from a mass grave in Mannar, including those of women and children, reports Journalists for Democracy.
"After examining the dental structure of the skeletal remains we can clearly identify three children with milk teeth," lead investigator Dr Saminda Rajapaksha told JDS.
That number is set to rise as excavations continue...
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The Indian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sri Lanka this week to build 3400 toilets in Batticaloa as part of a sanitation project.
The project is to involve a 300 million SL rupees grant from the Indian government.
The MoU was signed by High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, Taranjit Singh Sandhu and the secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development and Rural Economy, Renuka Ekanayake.
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The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is to launch its own online channel named 'TGTE TV'.
In a statement announcing the launch event, TGTE said the free channel would be for news and entertainment.
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After 13 years imprisoned under Sri Lanka's notorious anti-terror legislation, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), a Tamil political prisoner was allowed just one hour with this family at his father's funeral.
Thangavel Sivakumar, originally from Kilinochchi, was brought to the funeral on Friday...
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The former presidential secretary and Eastern Province Governor, Austin Fernando is to become Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India.
Mr Fernando resigned as Sirisena's Secretary at the beginning of this month.
He also served as Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary from 2001-2002.
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The Sri Lankan Army engaged in preparations for a large-scale event in Jaffna Town to mark the handover of ambulances funded by India.
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Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) summoned the Associate Editor of Rivira Sunday newspaper to discuss an article published last month which spoke of possible LTTE activity in the North-East.
Associate Editor Tissa Ravindra Perera delivered a statement to the TID earlier this morning. The article published last month was on the reported recovery of claymore mines in Oddusuddan in Mullaitivu.
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British DUP parliamentarian Ian Paisley Jr is under pressure to resign from his post, after being found guilty of accepting all expenses paid trips funded by the Sri Lankan government, before he lobbied against an United Nations Human Rights Council resolution.
Mr Paisley Jr has been suspended from the British parliament for 30 days after a damning report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards said his actions amounted to “paid advocacy”.
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The Tamil diaspora across the world held a series of rallies earlier this month, in solidarity with families of the disappeared in the North-East who have been protesting for over 500 days.
Hundreds attended protests in their respective cities and supported the call for international pressure onto the Sri Lankan government to meet the families’ demands...
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A gang of men on motorbikes smashed up a home in a Jaffna Town suburb on Thursday night.
The men were armed with swords and also used iron rods and axes to break things in the house.
They threatened the home's residents and broke the house's doors and windows and also threw a petrol...
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A Tamil refugee, deported from Australia this week and detained by Sri Lankan police on arrival in Colombo, has been charged by the Sri Lankan authorities for illegally leaving the country.
The offence is understood to carry a maximum sentence of a fine of 200,000 rupees and prison term of five...
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Father Sakthivel, the head of the National Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners, urged the government to release all political prisoners.
Speaking at a meeting with the organisation and the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R Sampanthan, Father Sakthivel said around 107 political prisoners were currently imprisoned.
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There is "absolutely no threat to the security in the Northern region" the state minister for defence, Ruwan Wijewardene was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying.
"Certain groups of people are making groundless statements to incite fear in public," he reportedly added whilst speaking at an event in Diyagama.
In recent days Sri Lankan government officials have sought to reassure the Sinhala electorate that there was no threat to national security in the North-East and that...
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Sri Lankan Navy personnel have returned a food hall of the Varatharaja Perumal Kovil in Ponnalai after having occupied it for 23 years.
After the Army captured the area from the LTTE in 1995, the coast from Ponnalai to Keerimalai became inaccessible to civilians with only the Sri Lankan...
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Facebook is to implement a new policy starting in Sri Lanka and later in Myanmar where it will start removing ‘misinformation’ that could incite violence.
Under the new rules, Facebook said it would create partnerships with local civil society groups to identify misinformation for removal, the New York Times reports.
Facebook has been...
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The Sri Lankan government is growing frustrated over China’s delays in concluding a Free Trade Agreement, the Nikkei Asian Review reports.
Colombo sent Beijing a formal request to resume talks over three months ago and has not received a response, with some observers saying China has turned a cold shoulder due to the current government’s hesitation to...
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The JVP leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake warned parliament against transferring Mattala airport to India, arguing it would be a threat to national security.
"Issues with national interest should be considered than losses or economic benefits of the airport. An airport is important in military affairs in a country. It can pose more threat to national security and sovereignty of the country," Mr Dissanayake was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying.
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Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal has fixed a date for the appeal case of a Sri Lankan politician and 3 others who were convicted of murdering a British aid worker and raping his Russian girlfriend at a holiday resort in 2011, Adaderana reported.
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Explosives were recovered in Suthanthirapuram, Mullaitivu this week from private land, when a resident cleared a well inside his land.
Ammunition was found inside the well, Sri Lankan police said.
The police and navy began recovering the ammunititions yesterday with a court...
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As part of their continuing involvement in civilian life in the North-East, the Sri Lankan military was seen planting coconut trees in Myliddy this week.
Over 200 trees were planted as part of the project initiated by the Jaffna army commander, Major General...
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The decision by the Sri Lankan government to resume implementation of the death penalty on the island could lead to the loss of GSP-Plus preferential trade concession, reports AFP this week.
The report comes after heads of delegations of several Western states, including the European Union, wrote to Sri Lanka’s president expressing their opposition to the reported resumption of capital punishment.
"If Sri Lanka resumes capital punishment, Colombo will immediately lose the GSP-...
World News
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Former fighters from the guerrilla movement FARC took their seats in Colombia’s Congress in a swearing-in ceremony on Friday.
Under the terms of the 2016 peace deal between the FARC and the Colombian government, the group formed a political party, kept its famous acronym as the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force, and was awarded five seats each in the 108-member Senate and the 172-member lower house through 2026.
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The European arrest warrant for the former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was dropped by Spain's Supreme Court on Thursday after the extradition request was refused by Germany.
Mr Puigdemont accused of rebellion and sedition after declaring Catalonia independent following a referendum last year.
The arrest warrants for five other Catalan leaders was also dropped, including that of the former Catalan Education Minister Clara Ponsati who is currently living in Scotland.
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A Rwandan academic has been sentenced to nine years imprisonment after being cleared of all but one charge, being found guilty of genocide revisionism.
Dr Leopold Munyakazi who was extradited to Rwanda by the US government in 2016 was cleared of the charges of genocide, complicity to commit genocide and incitement to commit genocide and murder by the specialised chamber for international crimes which is affiliated to Rwanda’s High Court.
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The President of Nigeria urged all states that have not yet done so to accede to the Rome Statute so that it can become a universal treaty.
Speaking at the International Criminal Court’s 20 Anniversary commemorations, Preisdent Buhari said "I urge all States that have not yet done so to, as a matter of deliberate State policy, accede to the Rome Statute of the ICC so that it can become a universal treaty."
President of the Court, Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, said at the event:
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Israel’s Knesset has passed a controversial new law which declares the country is an exclusively Jewish nation state, as Arab lawmakers were thrown out of the parliament in protest.
The bill states that “Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it” and that a "united Jerusalem" is the capital of Israel and that Hebrew is the country's official language.
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The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is deeply disappointed by India’s reaction to the publication of the first ever UN human rights report on Kashmir last month.
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Turkey has ended its 2 year state of emergency, which was first imposed after a failed coup on July 20, 2016.
The measure normally lasts three months but was extended seven times by the President Erdogan.
The state of emergency saw the detention of around 80,000 people and double the number sacked from public jobs.
Although alleged supporters of the coup were targeted, the Turkish government used emergency laws to crackdown particularly on Kurdish activists.
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Spain’s Constitutional Court said it had blocked a motion passed in Catalonia’s parliament to resume steps to declare independence, following an appeal against the move filed by Spain’s central government.
The Catalan parliament can appeal against the decision within the next 20 days.
Both the court and the Spanish government have said that Catalonia cannot hold a referendum on independence under Spain’s constitution.
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A senior US commander has confirmed that the United States is prepared to have direct talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan, in an effort to reach a peace deal in the country.
General John Nicholson, who leads the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, said that,
"Our secretary of state, Mr [Mike] Pompeo, has said that we, the United States, are ready to talk to the Taliban and discuss the role of international forces".
"We hope that they realise this and that...
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In Southern Iraq protests have spread over issues of corruption and a failure to provide basic services for people, including electricity and water shortages.
The protests initially erupted in Basra on July 8th, to which security forces cracked down on protestors and killed one person. Following this protests have continued to spread to the eastern province of Diyala and southern city of Nasiriyah. During the protests, demonstrators marched outside the headquarters of political...
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The government of Iraq has approved a proposal by Yezidi activists to convert a village school in to a museum commemorating the genocide of Yezidis by ISIS.
In 2014 ISIS launched an attack on Shingal, Kurdistan and its surrounding areas, kidnapping more than 6500 Yezidis.
1202 residents of Kocho, a village near Shingal, were gathered in the village school. 395 were shot and buried in 22 mass graves. 600 residents of the village remain missing. Many of the women are believed to...
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The new Spanish government is to set up a truth commission to investigate crimes against humanity committed under the former dictator, Francisco Franco.
The government has pledged to search for those disappeared during his rule, including carrying out public exhumations every year and recording the number of people found.
The commission is part of a new historical memory law, which also seeks to prohibit support for Franco and annul the convictions of those accused of...
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The US State of Connecticut will officially mark ‘Sikh Genocide Day’ on November 30 to commemorate the anti-Sikh pogrom in 1984 which saw around 3000 Sikhs in Delhi killed by Hindu mobs, aided by Indian law enforcement and government officials.
The bill declaring Sikh genocide day was signed in to law by the Governor of Connecticut.
Last year the government of the Canadian province of Ontario also recognised the pogrom as genocide.
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As many as 32 people have been arrested in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, after the murder a Muslim man on Friday – reportedly sparked by rumors circulating on WhatsApp.
Mohammad Azam, a 27 year old Google employee, was lynched by villagers, who accused him of abducting children. This follows a worrying trend in India in which more than 20 people, mostly non-local, have been killed due to accusations of child abduction in the last two months.
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Iceland has been elected to replace the USA on the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The UN General Assembly elected Iceland as the replacement effective immediately until the end of next year.
The US announced its decision to withdraw from the UNHRC last month, citing anti-Israel bias and hypocrisy.
The US was a key partner in passing the Resolution 30/1 on accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, which Sri Lanka co-sponsored.
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In Belfast, the homes of two prominent Sinn Féin members, former leader Gerry Adams, and Bobby Storey, were attacked with explosive devices last night.
Both men reported that no-one was hurt in the attacks, although Northern Ireland police said they discovered the remnants of large industrial firework-type devices, capable of causing serious injury, at both scenes.
Mr Adams was the leader of Sinn Féin from 1983 until earlier this year, and was a key figure in the resistance...
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On Friday the UN Security Council approved an arms embargo on South Sudan which will last until May 2019.
The decision was narrowly passed retaining the minimum nine ‘yes’ votes but having six ‘abstentions’ from China, Russia, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan and Bolivia. The resolution also supports a travel ban and asset freeze of Malek Reuben Riak and Paul Malong Awan, South Sudanese military officials, who have been accused of threatening peace within the region.
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India's defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman dismissed the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report on Kashmir as "baseless", ANI reported.
"The report was prepared while sitting somewhere else. The assessment made by UNHRC has no basis. They are not aware of the ground realities in Kashmir," Ms Sitharaman said.
"The army is able to eliminate terrorists on the borders itself," she added.
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The United Kingdom will remain party to the European Convention on Human Rights after leaving the European Union, according to the Brexit white paper most recently published by the government.
Despite British Prime Minister, Theresa May, having previously backed leaving the ECHR, the white paper said, “the UK is committed to membership of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)” and that “the UK will remain a party to the ECHR after it has left the EU.”
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Bosnian Muslims marked 23 years since the Srebrenica genocide in a commemoration that saw the remains of 35 victims buried at the genocide’s memorial centre.
According to The Hague Tribunal and Bosnian state court, over 7000 Bosnian Muslims, mostly men and boys, were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.
The forces then carried out operations to conceal the crimes by using secondary and tertiary mass graves.
A total of 6575 genocide victims have been reburied at...
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Scotland's first minister and SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon met with the Catalan president, Quim Torra on Wednesday during the newly elected leader's visit to Edinburgh this week.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting the two leaders said "the way forward...
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Cameroon’s government stated that it will open an investigation into a video that allegedly shows soldiers executing two women and their children, accusing them of being members of Boko Haram.
The mobile phone footage shows men in uniform similar to that of the Cameroonian military leading two women and their young children up a small hill, before they are blindfolded and murdered. The soldiers are heard telling them “You are going to die you BH,” referring to the Boko Haram Islamist...
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Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a declaration on Monday ending the war that existed between the two countries since the border conflict in 1998-2000.
Despite a previous peace deal in 2000 the two countries remained in a state of no war no peace as the deal failed to be implemented.
The declaration was signed at a meeting between Ethiopia's prime minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrea's president Isaias Afewerki in Eritrea's capital, Asmara, when the two countries' leaders met for the...
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Life sentences handed to two former Rwandan mayors for their part in the Rwandan genocide were upheld by a French court on Friday.
Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahira had appealed after they were found guilty of crimes of against humanity, genocide and summary executions in 2016.
"This decision is just and sends a message: no to impunity for all those who took part in the genocide and who thought they could find refuge in France," said Alain Gauthier, head of a group which has...
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The UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein this week called on member states of the Human Rights Council to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court rejecting the country's assertion that it was a "body committed to the defence of human rights."
““In the four years that I have been High Commissioner I have heard many preposterous claims,” he said. “This claim, that I have just stated now, almost creates a new category of absurdity. Have some shame sir....
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On Wednesday the Egyptian higher court, overturned a criminal court order that put 1,538 defendants on the country’s terror list, including the former president Mohamed Morsi.
The criminal court order which that placed these subjects on the list was passed in 2015 under an anti-terrorism law after General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi overthrew Morsi in the coup of July 2013. Joining Mr Morsi on this list was retired footballer Mohamed Abou Trika, now a sports TV analyst in Qatar, who fled...
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An investigation by a team of UN human rights experts has concluded that mass rape, dismembering of civilians and cannablism took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo during conflict that began in 2016 in the Kasai region.
Stating that both government troops and rebel fighters were suspected of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, the team presented its findings to the UN Human Rights Council last week.
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Modi calls for ‘strong and stable relations’ between India and China 'for global peace and progress'
Photograph: Twitter @PMOIndia
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on the importance of “strong and stable” relations between India and China, stating it was “an important factor for global peace and progress”.
Speaking before senior military and defence officials from...
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The United States announced that it has changed the name of its largest military command last week, in what officials say is a symbolic move that recognises the importance of India in the region.
"In recognition of the increasing connectivity of the Indian and Pacific Oceans today we rename the US Pacific Command to the US Indo-Pacific Command," said US Defense Secretary Mattis at a ceremony last week.
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Almost seven months of direct rule from Madrid ended this weekend after a new Catalan cabinet was sworn in.
Catalan's new leader and close ally of the previous leader, Quim Torra on Saturday sought to rebuild ties with Madrid whilst reaffirming his commitment to Catalonia's independence.Catalan's autonomy was suspended by Madrid after the region declared independence following a referendum last year.
Mr Torra said he wanted to restart talks with Madrid...