Five Sri Lankan doctors who witnessed the bloody climax of the country’s civil war in May and made claims of mass civilian deaths as a result of government shelling of Tamil Tiger positions recanted much of their testimony.

Even as concerns are being raised by aid workers about the conditions in the internment camps the Sri Lankan government is running in the NorthEast, President Mahinda Rejapaksa spoke of how good life was in the camps.

Around 65,000 soldiers deserted their ranks during Sri Lanka’s brutal war against the Tamils and are at large, according a Sri Lankan Ministry of Justice and Law Reforms official.

Even as Sri Lanka’s new Chief of Defence Staff announced that 800 cadre belonging to the paramilitary group, TMVP, have been inducted into the Army, UN Children’s agency UNICEF has announced that the outfit has more than 100 child soldiers.

"When it comes to regional issues, Clinton should make the case that the expanding US-Indian relationship gives Indian leaders more strategic flexibility. They can stop trying to match their Chinese counterparts in backing regimes, such as those in Burma and Sri Lanka, that have committed gross human-rights abuses against their own people. If a shared respect for democratic values forms the foundation for the burgeoning US-India partnership, Indian leaders should be able to heed any such counsel from Clinton," the Saturday July 18, editorial in Boston Globe said.

After providing medical services to thousands displaced by war, Indian soldiers will now go to Sri Lanka to help de-mine areas once held by the Tamil Tigers, it was announced Monday.

Strong support from India at the IMF board and the need to match China’s growing clout in the island nation have resulted in the US giving up its opposition to the international funding agency’s extending a $2.5 billion standby facility to Sri Lanka.

More than 2,000 years ago, a Sinhalese king named Dutugemunu saddled up his elephant and headed north to fight and kill Elara, an invading Tamil king from India.

US and Canadian law makers have called for Sri Lanka’s request for an IMF loan to be linked to unimpeded access to refugee camps and adherence international human rights rules.

India has long aspired to a role in redefining the global order. Ask why they deserve it, and most Indians will point to their nation's size, its rich culture and tradition, and its special legitimacy—the product of the nonviolent freedom struggle against British rule and India's triumph as a secular democracy.

Hundreds of thousands of Tamils remain locked in camps almost entirely off-limits to journalists, human-rights investigators and political leaders. The Sri Lankan government says the civilians are a security risk because Tamil Tiger fighters are hiding among them.

Doctors treating displaced Tamils in the government-run camps in Sri Lanka's north have written a letter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse complaining about the inadequate facilities and shortage of medical staff.

Meningitis and encephalitis have erupted in Sri Lanka's northern Vavuniya district where over 300,000 Tamil civilians forcibly held in temporary shelters behind barbed wires, a local newspaper has reported.

Sri Lanka has asked aid agencies to scale down operations on the island. The government claims that now it has claimed victory over the LTTE, there is no longer a need for agencies like the Red Cross.