The crisis in Sudan

Diplomacy is in wanting when it comes to the crisis in Sudan. Reports of clashes between the two flanks of Sudan are quite unfortunate.

Editorial - The agony of Z- scores

By the looks of it, the initial blunder made by the Examinations Department officials has invited many more blunders in its lousy run to rectify the errors. The newly revised Z-scores show a drastic drop of district and island ranks of the students who sat the examination in 2011 under the old syllabus.

Mannar mayhem: The need to solve underlying problems

On 3 May 2012, long before the Mannar mayhem, the Sri Lanka Police acknowledged a growing trend – that of people taking the law into their own hands. In a media communiqué, Police Headquarters stated that certain groups

DANGEROUS DOGMA: TAMIL SELF-DETERMINATION

If the notion of Tamil self-determination should be entertained anywhere it is by the Indian state and Constitution because of the existence of Tamil Nadu with 70-80 million Tamils who constitute a collective and a far older presence there than

Victory for Pranab

THE victory of veteran Congressman and former Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, with a comfortable margin, in presidential polls – the results for which were announced on Sunday

Editorial - Save children: save our pride

There is inescapable public outcry against violence against women and children that demands an immediate discontinuation of the disturbing trend. There are women’s rights activists demanding justice for the helpless victims

Where from here, After three PC polls?

Now that the mood and methods have set in for three Provincial Council polls, the results would determine if the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa would want to go ahead with the process in five others before holding the first-ever elections

Eliminating city dogs violates scientific, humane methods

It is apparent that the Colombo City development plan has targeted the animals and birds of the city for elimination in what appears to be an attempt to enhance its cosmetic effect. We have learnt there are fears that after restructuring and renovation,

Growing Hostility In Sri Lanka,: India’s New Challenge

Leave our country and mind your own business, India. We`d rather support Pakistan than you tongue twisted enemies in friendly disguise...

Sino-African trade ambience

Beijing is at its best when it comes to making inroads into developing countries. That is why more than 50 per cent of its human input, technical services, funding and foreign missions are based in the Dark Continent.

Editorial - The blinking flame of election violence

Whenever an election is included in the country’s agenda, the next thing one gets to read in papers is election violence or misuse of public properties.

Seriously out of touch

Veteran Tamil Nadu p o l i t i c i an M. Karunanidhi has announced the revival of the Tamil Eelam Supporters’ Organisation, a forum he had floated in the mid- 1980s to drum up support for the creation of a separate Tamil nation in Sri Lanka. In 1986, it was a broad-based political platform that attracted leaders from different parts of India and there was widespread support for the cause. A quarter century on, the most striking feature of t

The crisis in Damascus

The regime in Damascus has been dealt a major blow. The suicide blast on Wednesday that targeted the core of the Syrian regime and killed the top security brass, including several policy-makers, has certainly weakened President Bashar Al Assad.

Mayhem in Mannar - Editorial

Mannar is on fire. The eastern town was no better than a battlefield on Wednesday, when the unruly protesters pelted stones at the Mannar police and the courts complex, compelling the Police to disperse the crowds with tear gas.

Threats and intimidation have already started: Sumanthiran

Tamil National Alliance National list Member of Parliament M.A Sumanthiran spoke to the Daily Mirror on the TNA preparations for the Eastern Provincial Council Elections...

Growing Hostility In Sri Lanka: India’s New Challenge

There is ample evidence that New Delhi’s ambitions of becoming a global power has met with fresh challenges in its neighbourhood. In recent times, Sri...

Libya’s ballot outcome

LIBYANS HAVE voted on policy circumference rather than tilting on ideologues. This is a moment of celebration in the North African country where people...

Editorial - We need honest law makers not law- breakers

With the rule of law breaking down and the crime wave increasing with an alarming number of rape cases involving children, the Government needs to go to the roots of this crisis and take effective and urgent action.

An exclusive Muslim list of candidates

The run up to the Eastern Provincial  Council Elections has once again exposed the lack of a clear political vision or strategy among Muslim political actors. In the weeks leading up to nominations there were a number of statements

Is it Wonder of Asia or mania?

The Rajapaksa Government echoes that Sri Lanka is stepping towards the Wonder of Asia. The definition of the term Wonder of Asia does not seem to have circulated within the government itself. In the absence of a clear-cut definition

The first victim of Obama’s new war

Mounting tensions in the Persian Gulf have come home to India in a most tragic way: An Indian has been killed and three more injured when a United States Navy vessel fired on their fishing boat off Dubai.

Editorial - Subject: Tamil Eelam, banned word: Sri Lanka

Finally, DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi has woken up from his slumber and surrendered to New Delhi’s word to drop his Tamil Eelam anthem. At least that is the role he has been called upon to play by the central government despite

Editorial: Blatant abuse of public funds continues unchecked

The issues of integrity, accountability, transparency and good governance among political leaders and top officials have reached crisis proportions with the country losing billions of rupees in dwindling foreign exchange.

Penal reform

People indulge in crimes due to errors of judgment in the mind. The cure perhaps should be in a medical facility. Correctional facilities should play such a role. Currently our system is 400% above capacity, is drug and disease infested and a school for crime.

Sexual Violence and Child Abuse

Sexual violence and child abuse are abhorrent crimes that evoke the righteous indignation of the people. The media should be commended for giving due publicity to the more serious instances which would galvanise public opinion against the alarming rise of these crimes.

Women in Olympics

THERE IS one more thing to look forward to at this year’s Olympics: the unprecedented participation of women from every nation. Sixteen years ago, at the Olympics in Atlanta, only 26 nations had female athletes. But if one looked further back to the year 1908,

Facing an Indian Doosra

India is a friend of Sri Lanka? Often said but listened in disbelief. If it is in India’s interest, the answer is, yes. Who stays mum to help a friend in distress and seek multiple benefits in return?

Engaging the diaspora for reconciliation

When history repeated itself on 6 June 2012, it became clearer that something is amiss in our post-war nation building efforts. One and a half years on, the itinerary of a Presidential visit to the United Kingdom

US uniforms, China’s pride

THE OUTCRY of American lawmakers about the decision of the US Olympic Committee to source the uniforms of the country’s Olympic athletes from China has given a new spin to US-China relations.

Editorial - Norwegian temptation

It seems that Norway has an incurable itch to interfere with the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. Two national newspapers yesterday reported on the Norwegian embassy’s failed attempt to persuade an alliance between the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress