“The war on drugs has always been a pretext for political repression and social control.” Alexander Cockburn, Counterpunch editor Last Saturday, a US consulate employee and his pregnant wife were gunned down in their SUV in Ciudad Juarez while their seven month old baby watched from the backseat. Just minutes later, another consulate employee was killed at point-blank range in …

INTRODUCTION The standard of education among Muslims in Sri Lanka is very pathetic, shocking and alarming. The percentage of Muslims gaining admission to the Universities are falling year by year and is around 3% at present, even though Muslims amount to 7% of the total population of Sri Lanka. 65% of the entry to Universities is based on performance and …

Tension is building up in the occupied West Bank. Palestinians, especially the youth, are furious, because Israeli troops stopped them from visiting the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem — Islam’s third holiest place of worship. They fear that Israel is carrying out excavation and construction work at the al-Aqsa site with the ill-intention of causing permanent damage to the foundation of …

It is a case of the dog biting the hand that feeds it. After years of protection by Big Brother USA, covering up for its having nuclear warheads when Iran cannot even have a nuclear program, looking the other way when shocking war crimes and massacres of civilians are committed, when pregnant Palestinian mothers are left to die in the …

A fascinating scandal has erupted in Washington over the use of mercenaries (‘private contractors’ in US terminology) that is exposing the dark underbelly of America’s foreign wars. It has been that the Pentagon and other US intelligence agencies secretly fielded mercenaries in Afghanistan, Pakistan (aka “Af-Pak”), and Iraq to assassinate tribal militants. US law forbids murder or using mercenaries. But, …

PUTTALAM, 22 March 2010 (IRIN) – Resettlement efforts are under way for thousands of displaced Muslims from Sri Lanka’s north who have been languishing in refugee camps for nearly two decades, officials say. The internally displaced people (IDPs) were forcibly evicted in October 1990 from the northern districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaithivu and some parts of Vavuniya by the …