This piece is written on the assumption that Sarath Fonseka (SF) will stand for the presidency and be supported by a Joint Opposition (JO) of the UNF, the JVP and possibly minority parties. However, Rajapakse keeps dithering about an election because he will have to quit promptly in the unlikely event that he loses; hanging on for the remainder of the first term, whatever the constitutional position, will see the streets ablaze. Will he take the chance? Also by putting back the election Rajappakse makes the JO and SF stew and squabble for a year or two. So read on with these several caveats in mind.

ON 17^th May 2009, while most of the people in Norway were preoccupied with having sausage and ice-cream [Editor's note: 17th May is the national day of Norway], one of the longest running and certainly the most bloodiest civil war in Asia, the civil war in Sri Lanka, came to a sudden and brutal end.

When the Second World War was ending in the Western Theatre in May 1945, the British public made one of its wisest decisions in history in sending Winston Churchill to political retirement and electing Clement Atlee who was able to evoke new hopes about freedom of peoples all over the world by announcing independence to colonies.

The "tough talk" over the case of Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Australia's abrogation of its responsibility to these people in deals with Indonesia (which have turned sour) has left me puzzled and disappointed.

This country enjoyed a warm glow early in the life of the previous Government when it relieved Australia of some of the so-called Tampa refugees.

The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has just been celebrated. For many, that momentous event marked the so-called end of history and the final victory of the West.