Despite assurances given by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India that election to the Northern Provincial Council would be held in September, the President is once again trying to look at ways to avoid the holding the election, sources from the Presidential Secretariat said.

Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives – Volume 2 Number 01, just issued

Torture is endemic! Every moment of every day torture takes place somewhere in the world which shows us the gravity of the social destruction and disorder. Having a dream for a torture free society is not an illusion but something that is attached to the complicity and the reality of what we all have to seriously consider.

More than 20 journalists have been murdered in reprisal for their work in Pakistan over the past decade. Not one case has been solved, not a single conviction won. This perfect record of impunity has fostered an ever-more violent climate for journalists.

Hundreds of thousands of current and former IDPs in Sri Lanka remained in need of protection and assistance as of the end of 2012, more than three and a half years after government forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009. More than 93,000 people were still living in camps, with host communities or in transit situations. Of more than 480,000 people who had returned to Northern and Eastern provinces, many are still to achieve durable solutions.

The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice has today released a map of the 7000+ acres of land the Sri Lankan army is attempting to seize amidst allegations that the land could be worth up to $2bn.

China: President Xi Jinping and other senior Chinese leaders should demonstrate their commitment to the rule of law by acknowledging the government’s responsibility for the massacre of unarmed civilians 24 years ago, and by allowing commemorations of the anniversary, Human Rights Watch said today.

MP Patrick Mercer has been secretly filmed appearing to offer a Commons security pass to a fake firm that paid £4,000 to ask parliamentary questions.

Virulent anti-Muslim violence has once again enveloped a Burmese town—this time Lashio in the northeastern Shan State. What was once perceived as an isolated outbreak of murderous rioting in the western Rakhine state against Rohingya Muslims last year has now become a common occurrence in locales across the country, where not only Rohingya but all Muslims have become viable targets.

The government has confirmed that elections to the Provincial Council for the Northern Province will take place in September. The National Peace Council welcomes this announcement that puts to rest the speculation on this issue.

The JHU that presented a private member’s motion to parliament seeking the abolition of the provincial council system through a Constitutional amendment has decided to support the amendment bill on the Registration of Voters Act.

The Environment and Renewable Energy Ministry has taken close to Rs. 21 million from three state institutions under its purview to cover the costs of celebrations of the World Environment Day that falls on June 5th.

The US government has not found any progress in Sri Lanka where the implementation of the resolution adopted at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in March.

Although the war ended in 2009, the petitioners have been prevented from returning to their land due to the military presence in the area.

The District Court Judge of Homagama, Sunil Abeysinghe and his guard Constable were arrested yesterday (May 30, 2013) allegedly while receiving a bribe of Rs. 300,000/= in order to return a favourable judgement to the bribe giver.

Men offer Friday prayers in a temporary mosque after returning to a Rohingya IDP camp from a shelter from cyclone Mahasen, outside of Sittwe, on 17 May 2013. (Reuters)

While Thai Prime Minister Visits Sri Lanka, 90,000 Tamil War Widows Face Sexual Abuse by Sri Lankan Forces said by TGTE

The Cinema for Peace Foundation, which is documenting the memories of Bosnian war victims, presented the video interviews to the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Centre on Monday.

Thailand is facing fresh allegations of using slave labour in its fishing industry with the launch of a new investigation into the sale, abuse and exploitation of migrant workers on Thai fishing ships.

Buddhist mobs armed with sticks and machetes burned Muslim homes on Wednesday for a second day in the northern Myanmar city of Lashio, contradicting claims in state media that soldiers and police had restored calm.

After nine years of legal wrangling, former U.N. investigator Caroline Hunt-Matthes has won a judgment that she was unfairly punished for documenting a woman’s rape case in Sri Lanka a decade ago.

Facebook has said it will review how it deals with "controversial, harmful and hateful" content after admitting current measures are not effective.

KNEELING before a statue of Jesus in a remote Queensland church on Sunday, Jesurajah Vasanthan prayed to be freed from the detention centre where he was held.

Annual Feast of Our Lady of Lanka was held on May 26th 2013 at Blue Army Shrine, Washington New Jersey, USA, which was organized by the Sri Lankan Catholic Community in New York and New Jersey.

His excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa the President of Sri Lanka: take action to stop incidents of harassment against minorities.

The UNP branch in the UK has announced the demise of UNP Gampaha District parliamentarian Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena a short while ago.

Knowledgeable people would probably assume, with some confidence, that the majority of asylum seekers coming from Sri Lanka to Australia would be Tamils. The Tamil people comprise only 11% of the population while the Sinhalese vastly outnumber them, making up a whopping 75% of the total people in Sri Lanka.

The suicide by a Buddhist monk who set himself on fire in Sri Lanka to protest the slaughter of cattle has been hailed as an act of great self-sacrifice and compared to acts of self-immolation by Tibetan Buddhist monks protesting China’s repression in Tibet. Nothing could be more ill-informed.

United National party has prepared ''Main features of the Constitution proposed to be adopted by the United National Party Government".

During 2009, thousands of civilians died in the final months of the war in Sri Lanka. Both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers committed war crimes and other gross human rights abuses.