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SRI LANKA NEWS IN BRIEF – SEPTEMBER 2018 – Compiled by Victor Melder                                                     Wildlife officials will be armed with Russian-made Kalashnikov AK 47 assault rifles under a Rs. 42 million project to protect elephants from poachers and to save human lives in the human-elephant conflict, the Cabinet has decided. These weapons, more sophisticated than the standard issue of Chinese-made T-56 assault rifles, are to be bought on a recommendation by Sustainable Development, Wildlife and Regional Development Minister, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. The total number of AK 47s to be imported is 2,568. Field Marshal Fonseka’s Deputy Minister, Palitha Thevarapperuma, told the Sunday Times that the purchase of assault rifles would be connected with the human-elephant conflict, caused mainly as a result of people encroaching ...