A mother and father lay on the floor, their two young children cradled between them. Floral pillows and other bedding were strewn about: They were apparently sleeping when an artillery shell hit their makeshift shelter in northern Sri Lanka, instantly killing them all

The United Nations’ Security Council, though initially formed to keep the peace between the post WW2 Great Powers, is today the hub of global peace and security in wider terms. The UNSC’s permanent members are the world’s most powerful states – those capable of decisive leadership and robust action on international peace and security issues. India, along with other rising great powers, has declared its ambitions for a permanent seat in a reformed UNSC. However, the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka is revealing the limits of Delhi’s ability to both be decisive and to act on matters at the core of the UNSC’s agenda.

Concerned by New Delhi's inaction and driven by the need to bring about change in the prevailing tragic scenario in Vanni, five leaders of prominent Tamil Nadu parties, jointly launched the Eelam Tamils Protection Movement (ETPM) following a consultative meeting in Chennai Wednesday.

Following the capture of Kilinochchi and Elephant Pass Sri Lankan defence establishment started psychological operations targeting the Tamil Diaspora spread across the globe, according to informed sources.

Children can be more traumatized by the war than adults, but there are things we can do about it

The Sri Lankan government which is adamant that the local currency, Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR), will not be devalued continued spending large sums of its already dwindling foreign reserves trying to prop up the Rupee at its current levels against the US Dollar.

Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen to little more than enough for six weeks of imports. And Japan, traditionally the island’s biggest donor, is cutting aid globally.

SLA commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka on Sunday January 18 said that as there were only a thousand Tamil Tigers left and they were “boxed” into a small jungle area in Mullaitivu, the war would soon be won.

Indiscriminate fire by the Sri Lanka Army from all corners of a shrinking territory already overcrowded with civilians has worsened the humanitarian disaster unfolding in the Vanni.

The Sri Lankan military continued its military offensive towards Mullaitheevu in Vanni with the support of heavy aerial and artillery fire despite suffering casualties.

"There are no words to describe the plight of the civilians who say that they prefer to face death on the spot rather than succumbing to serious injuries or ending up in the hands of the invading Sri Lankan forces, which many of them regard as genocidal military and fear that their young men and women would be 'filtered' away, tortured or killed by it," reported a TamilNet correspondent from an outskirt of Puthukkudiyiruppu last Sunday evening amid artillery fire.

In a statement on January 9, the United Nationals High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed its concern over the situation in the East of Sri Lanka

In a sharp criticism of the UPA regime, one of its coalition partners, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), has accused the government of deliberately ignoring the sentiments of Tamil Nadu by refusing to heed the state's repeated pleas to take steps to end the war in Sri Lanka.

Ethnic enmity is now the very fabric of ‘Sri Lanka’.