Lanka News Web

David Burrowes leads a Parliamentary debate calling on the Government to press the Burmese Government to improve their human rights record and give full rights and citizenship to religious and ethnic minorities, most notably to the Rohingya Muslims in Arakan state.

Anti-corruption activist and political cartoonist Aseem Trivedi has lent his support to Sri Lankan Tamils, who are living in hostile conditions under a Sinhalese racist government that massacred an estimated 1 lakh Tamils during the last stages of the 3-decade long civil war with the Tamil rebels that ended in May 2009.

Aidan Wright has claimed victory in two out of three races in the first round of the Formula Masters China Series in Zhuhai over the weekend. It was a wet weekend and after dominating the practice sessions, Wright looked set to impress in qualifying. However, the rain played havoc with his plans and caused him to spin off the track ending in a disappointing start position of 3rd and 6th respectively.

The Matale mass grave issue was back in the limelight last week with families of several persons who had gone missing in the Matale area during the 1988-1989 period requesting courts to carry out investigations to determine whether remains of their loved ones are among the skeletal remains unearthed from the mass grave.

MAE LA REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand (AP) - Since the day she was born, 20-year-old Naw Lawnadoo has known almost nothing of the world beyond the fence and guard posts that hem her in with 45,000 others - ethnic minorities from Myanmar and those like her who were born and raised in the Mae La refugee camp in neighboring Thailand.

Prevention of torture, and holding people to account for complicity in torture, is one crucial concern in the present human rights situation in Sri Lanka. Clinicians and their professional bodies should play a key role in this, although they may be or feel threatened if they do.

Worldwide levels of the chief greenhouse gas that causes global warming have hit a milestone, reaching an amount never before encountered by humans, federal scientists said Friday.

Before the war began, Kazal was in love with her neighbour in Homs. "He was 20 years old and I dreamed of marrying him one day," she says. "I never thought I would marry someone I didn't love, but my family and I have been through some hard times since coming to Amman."

With a view to freeing up Russia from supplier liability, charges of theft and abject project failure, the Indian nuclear establishment has begun to claim that the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) is not a Russian turnkey project.

Mother's day

I am very thankful that there has been a day designated as Mothers day to help remind us to appreciate our mothers. Many times they are overlooked and we don’t give them the praise that they deserve for all their hard work they do day in and day out.

FOUR years ago this week, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam announced that their struggle for an independent homeland in northern Sri Lanka had “reached its bitter end.” The group had been fighting on behalf of the Tamil people for more than a quarter-century, and its defeat was absolute.

As Delhi debated and discussed the issue of women’s rights and safety during the past three months, barely four kilometres from Parliament, the seat of Indian democracy, a 19-year-old girl was kept confined within a small cavity in the walls of a brothel at G.B. Road. During this period she was continuously raped – usually by over a dozen men from morning to night.

Former Army Commander and Leader of the Democratic Party, Sarath Fonseka says that the suicide attack on him was carried out with the knowledge of the President and Gotabhaya.

The broad trade union front that declared May 21st as day of protest with the trade unions deciding to go on a Token Strike against electricity price increases, have run into unexpected opposition from Dr. Vikramabahu and his United Federation of Labour deciding they will not support strike action, if the JVP is there in the front.