News updates

US President Barack Obama was in China this week. He came, he saw, but his charm failed to conquer the Chinese leaders, as it did with the Arabs during his West Asia visit in June. Obama held lengthy talks with Chinese leaders to get their support for US policies and to urge them to be considerate towards US economic concerns, …

November 16, 2009 “Information Clearing House” — When General Suharto, the west’s man, seized power in Indonesia in the mid-1960s, he offered “a gleam of light in Asia”, rejoiced Time magazine. That he had killed up to a million “communists” was of no account in the acquisition of what Richard Nixon called “the richest hoard of natural resources, the greatest …

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 5 (IPS) – A 575-page blistering report by Justice Richard Goldstone detailing war crimes in Gaza last December is refusing to die despite an aggressive Israeli smear campaign to kill it. The report, which was favourably voted by the 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, received overwhelming support Thursday in the 192-member General Assembly. The …

How to foster lasting peace in this country after three turbulent decades is the topmost discussion point today wherever Sri Lankans meet. There is a strong feeling the silver lining of hope that glimmered on the 18th May 2009, when the source of terrorism received the last bullet, is fading away under the increasing turbulence caused by politicians in anticipation …

The Law and Society Trust (LST) together with the Community Trust Fund (CTF), the People’s Secretariat (PS) and the Rural Development Foundation (RDF) has set up a Citizens’ Commission to investigate the expulsion of Muslims from the Northern Province by the LTTE in October 1990. The LTTE expulsion of Muslims from five Northern districts in October 1990 has not been …