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Skype deals blow to investigative journalism Skype, the internet communication service, is no longer a secure mechanism. The system operator will now record data up to a month and hand them over if requests are made by law enforcement agencies of any country. The move has come as a threat to investigative journalists. The [...]
Lanka walking tightrope between India and China
Ebullient and charming Ashok Kantha, India’s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, the accomplished diplomat that he is, found it difficult to hide his feelings. That he chose to say it at a formal official ceremony that marked the 65th anniversary of India’s independence was all the more important. The Indian community – diplomats and their [...]
Impotent words and impudent deeds
My Dear Mahinda Deshapriya, I thought I must write to you even though you may be busy with the upcoming provincial council elections which is the first major election that you will be supervising, although you did oversee a few local elections last year. That is because I noticed that you were not doing your [...]
Child soldiers – the tragedy and the transformation
Perhaps one of the most under- reported aspects of Sri Lanka’s 30 year war, is that of thousands of Tamil children who were robbed of their childhood to serve the military objectives of the LTTE. Except for a chance reference here or there, it is a story that by and large escaped the liberal media [...]
Opportunities, challenges and lessons of Chinese economic growth
The rise of China is one of the most momentous transformations in modern world history. According to Prof. Premachandra Autukorala, the Chinese economy is likely to overtake the US economy in terms of GDP within this decade, would be the world’s biggest economy in size and be a dominant trading and investment source in the [...]