Sri Lanka

A pro-government militia of former Tamil Tiger rebels won a local election in the turbulent eastern Sri Lankan city of Batticaloa despite allegations that it used child soldiers, extorted money from businessmen and carried out killings, state TV reported today. The militia, known as the Karuna group, took 53% of the final vote, giving it 11 of the 19 seats on the municipal council, Rupavahini Television announced, citing the country's elections commissioner. Hoping to prevent violence -- especially a rebel attack -- during the voting, the government flooded the area with police.

Marie Colvin and I covered our first combat together in 1986, after the U.S. bombed Libya. She was 30, pretty, ambitious and talented. She soon had Col. Moammar Kadafi and his aides in her thrall and parlayed her many scoops for United Press International into a job as a foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times of London. I last saw her a year ago, in Cairo during the revolution. Three decades of bearing witness to war showed in her face: I recognized her only from her black eye patch, which she had worn since a hand grenade destroyed her left eye in Sri Lanka in 2001.

The Sri Lankan government has decided to formally end a cease-fire with Tamil Tiger rebels that had largely collapsed since a resurgence in fighting two years ago. The Cabinet unanimously approved Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake's proposal to pull out from the 2002 truce, Media Minister Anura Yapa said.

Two recent and seemingly unrelated events, the release of 250,000 unredacted State Department cables written between 1966 and 2011 via WikiLeaks and the pro-Palestinian protests at the Israel Philharmonic concert in London, got us thinking: How closely entwined are politics and classical music in diplomatic circles? A few weeks ago WikiLeaks published cables sent by American diplomats who were reporting back to the government on events and people of interest to the United States.

The Sri Lankan government has beheaded the Tamil Tiger separatist insurgency, claiming victory in a quarter-century war that claimed upward of 70,000 lives -- more than 7,000 since January alone. This was a brutal rebel force that deployed suicide bombers, assassinated scores of politicians -- including former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi -- and forcibly recruited child soldiers.

Sri Lanka's victory this week after a 25-year battle against the Tamil Tiger rebels represents a rare success story for governments fighting insurgencies. Even as leaders in Colombo, the capital, declared a national holiday and citizens danced in the streets, military planners and analysts around the world began scrutinizing the war for lessons on how to fight Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups.

In response to " 'Affirmative Action' Gone Awry," by William McGowan, Commentary, May 13: I am much obliged for your article and emphasizing the real reasons behind the current problems in Sri Lanka. Thank you highlighting the quota system that was instituted in Sri Lanka to admit Sinhalese students over more qualified Tamils, which was indeed one of the major turning points. As McGowan mentioned, Sri Lanka's nightmare should be a warning to any multiethnic society, including our own. NANDA SENATHI Los Angeles

As the Sri Lankan military tightens the noose around Tamil Tiger guerrillas, squeezing them into an increasingly tight pocket on the island's northeast coast, the government appears closer to winning the war than at almost any time since fighting began a quarter-century ago. Yet after the battle ends, it may prove nearly as difficult to win the peace, according to some analysts.

Reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Colombo, Sri Lanka -- President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling coalition is expected to secure an easy victory in Thursday's parliamentary elections, the first since the government quashed the Tamil Tiger insurgency and ended an often brutal quarter-century-long war. But the vote may only mask continuing problems securing national reconciliation between the Tamil minority and the majority Sinhalese population, as...

AFRICA Presentation Adventure photographer TJ Korst will present a video, "Don't Forget the Sunsets," about West Africa, including visits to a Benin village and Timbuktu and a boat trip on the Niger. When, where: 7:30 p.m. Monday at Distant Lands, 56 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena Admission, info: Free. RSVP to (626) 449-3220 or distantlands@earthlink.net SRI LANKA Slide show Mort Loveman will present "Sri Lanka: The Resplendent Island."

A U.N. panel has called for an independent investigation of "credible" allegations that tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war two years ago. The fatality estimate used by the three-member expert panel is significantly higher than the 7,000 civilian deaths cited by the United Nations near the end of the last four months of the bloody conflict, although it's unlikely that an exact figure will ever...

An international aid effort swelled Monday to help Japan deal with the trio of catastrophes that have mired the country in sorrow and fear. More than 90 nations have offered assistance in searching for survivors and extracting the dead from Friday's magnitude 8.9 earthquake, the devastating tsunami it spawned and the threat of radiation contamination emanating from three damaged reactors in the hard-hit northeast. The aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan arrived in Japan to augment a fleet of U.S. naval vessels deployed to help with air rescue operations and to ferry relief supplies to the hundreds of thousands displaced by the disasters.

South Korean special forces rescued 21 seamen held hostage aboard a freighter seized last week in the Arabian Sea, killing eight Somali pirates in the top secret mission, officials said Friday. The captain of the South Korean chemical carrier Samho Jewelry was shot in the stomach by a pirate during the pre-dawn military raid Friday, but his injuries were not life-threatening, officials said. Five suspected pirates were captured. "Our special forces stormed the hijacked Samho Jewelry earlier today and freed all hostages," said Col. Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

More than 40,000 visitors are expected to attend the Sri Lanka Day Expo 2010. The annual event features a wide array of cultural entertainment from the little island country off southern India, whose most famous export may be the rapper M.I.A. Entertainment highlights include authentic Sri Lankan food stalls, live music and dance acts and a festive parade. Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sat. Free. http://www.slday.com.

Countries in the MSCI Frontier Markets stock index: Europe and ex-Soviet Union Bulgaria Croatia Estonia Kazakhstan Lithuania Romania Serbia Slovenia Ukraine Middle East Bahrain Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Oman Qatar United Arab Emirates Africa Kenya Mauritius Nigeria Tunisia Asia Bangladesh Pakistan Sri Lanka...

Sri Lanka's ruling coalition sailed to victory by winning more than half the Parliament's seats in this week's elections, poll officials said Friday, boosting its power and setting off a massive celebration. A key question amid all the backslapping and victory cheers, however, is what the government will do with the impressive mandate. Although the showing by President Mahinda Rajapaksa's United People's Freedom Alliance fell short of the two-thirds majority it sought after winning a quarter-century civil war last year, the coalition came close by securing 60% of the vote and 117 of the 225 seats in the Parliament.

The number of civilian deaths in Sri Lanka has risen sharply in the last month, Human Rights Watch said Friday, calling on both sides in the protracted civil war to stop firing at civilians or shelling areas where they are concentrated. The government has been battling the Tamil Tiger rebel group, which wants a homeland for the Tamil minority, for the last 25 years. In recent weeks the army has stepped up its offensive, boxing in the rebels in a smaller area in the north.

A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew herself up in northern Sri Lanka on Monday at a processing center for displaced residents fleeing the war zone, killing 28 people and wounding dozens, the military said. The attack in Vishwamadu comes as the rebel group -- which experts say pioneered the use of suicide vests as part of its three-decade fight for a Tamil homeland -- finds itself encircled and increasingly desperate.

Reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Colombo, Sri Lanka -- President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling coalition is expected to secure an easy victory in Thursday's parliamentary elections, the first since the government quashed the Tamil Tiger insurgency and ended an often brutal quarter-century-long war. But the vote may only mask continuing problems securing national reconciliation between the Tamil minority and the majority Sinhalese population, as...

Crowther wins lit award Belgian illustrator and author Kitty Crowther won the 2010 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children's literature Wednesday for her ability to express deep humanism in all her work. Crowther, 39, has written more than 30 titles, most of which were first published in Belgium and France. The annual $620,000 award is named after late Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, creator of the Pippi Longstocking book series. It was established by the Swedish government in 2002 and will be handed out by Princess Madeleine in a ceremony June 1. -- associated press Stolen Klee art is recovered A painting by Swiss artist Paul Klee that was stolen from a New York gallery in 1989 has been recovered after a Montreal gallery owner became suspicious and turned it over to U.S. authorities.