Columns

Political Column

The judiciary and the executive appear to be heading for a standoff over further lowering of fuel prices as shortages countrywide created chaos this week.

5th Column

Shhh! Their hour of humiliation! Better not trifle with the law!

“Thaaththa,” Bindu Udagedera asked, “who is running this country?”

Situation Report

Mortar monsoon, fiercest battles knee-deep in mud

Last Tuesday, some 7000 troops fought the Tiger guerrillas in what was their fiercest battle ever in the ongoing Eelam War IV. Their major thrust, with enormous firepower, was directed at regaining control of Kilinochchi, until months ago the political power centre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Thoughts from London

RSF: Reporters without scruples

A Paris-based media watchdog has chastised the SLBC for not carrying LTTE leader Prabhakaran’s Heroes’ Day speech as broadcast by BBC.

The Economic Analysis

GSP Plus extension to 2011- respite for exports

In an otherwise gloomy economic situation, the news of the extension of GSP Plus status by the European Union is indeed good news. Whatever the reason for this extension till 2011, its benefits cannot be underestimated. Without this extension many of the country’s industrial exports, especially garment exports, would have suffered enormously. It is indeed a matter of good fortune that this extension was given. However this does not mean that the travails of the industrial export sector are over.

Lobby

Not Issued on this week

Focus on Rights

Executive stubborness and Judicial 'Activism'

Comparison of the apparent clash (though, hopefully not of arms) between the Chief Justice and the Government in Sri Lanka with the 2007 confrontation between Pakistan's Chief Justice Ifthekar Choudary and the dictatorship of former President Pervez Musharraf are as singularly inappropriate as they are odious.

Inside the glass house

Year of multiple crises ends, another begins

As he completes his second year in office, come December 31, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon must surely be one of the world's most passionate globe trotters. In the last 12 months alone, he participated in more than 700 bilateral meetings, including 350 meetings with presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers.