The Wire

In Sri Lanka, the main opposition leader has been arrested after the government accused him of trying to organize a military coup. Sri Lanka held its general election last month – the first since the end of the country’s lengthy civil war, in which Tamil insurgents were fighting for an independent state. Former military leader General Sarath Fonseca ran an unsuccessful electoral campaign against his former commander in chief, President Mahendra Rajapakse The arrest comes just hours after General Fonseca told reporters he’d be willing to give evidence about alleged war crimes during the conflict.