Half of the affected agriculture-dependent families in Batticaloa district are from Paduvaankarai region, where the major cultivable land of the district, is situated.

Forced to flee their paddy fields, standing ripe and ready for harvest, the families who returned under the Government of Sri Lanka's (GoSL) resettlement, could only witness the remains of the properties and livestock that had been looted by the Sri Lankan forces.

Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Monday Tokyo would continue to offer economic assistance to Sri Lanka despite the suspension of some U.S. and British aid this year over human rights abuses in the continuing civil war.

Japan is the single largest donor to Sri Lanka, and provides nearly two thirds of all international aid to the island. It has contributed 63 percent of total bilateral
aid received by the country since 2003.

Thousands of wildly cheering pro-independence demonstrators marched through Kosovo's capital as a sense of euphoria swept the breakaway province preparing to gain statehood early next year.

Kosovars, assured of staunch US support and a promise of recognition from all but one EU country, reveled in hopes that a decades-old dream may finally be within reach despite fierce opposition by Serbia and Russia.

He lives on a suburban street in Ajax in a two-storey brick house with a double garage and fruit trees in the garden.

The quiet neighbourhood east of Toronto is worlds away from the civil war Raja Kasturiarachchi left behind when he moved to Canada after retiring from the Sri Lankan National Police.

But if he came to Canada to escape the past, he hasn't.

The international community mistakenly hopes war will bring peace to Sri Lanka.

Tamil residents told to use new Sinhala name for village

‘The record here is one of the worst in the world.'

Sri Lanka is not a failed state. It is actually a powerful and stable, if racist, state.