Mr. Rajapaksa didn't need convincing. The decorated officer – today Sri Lanka's defense secretary – had long ago concluded that his own country's fight against extremism, which broke into civil war in 1983, required a military solution by a united front.

"The lesson that I have learned is that peace talks will never go anywhere.... Tell me a place where this has worked," he says.

After a massive buildup of troops and equipment, Sri Lanka appears on the verge of victory against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. If successful, It will have succeeded where others in the region, such as India and Pakistan, have failed in putting down an armed rebellion by force. More...Discuss this story Published: Fri Mar 6 22:57:33 EST 2009

Thousands of Tamils living in the UK and beyond are expected to attend the funeral on Saturday in Northolt, Middlesex, of Murugathasan Varnakulasingham, 26, who travelled to Switzerland last month to kill himself in front of the United Nations building in Geneva.

Mr Varnakulasingham, a computing graduate who worked part-time in a supermarket, had attended demonstrations to protest against the Sri Lankan military's war against the Tamils, an ethnic minority who are fighting for their independence. More...Discuss this story Published: Fri Mar 6 22:52:06 EST 2009

In its report, the one-member Justice BN Srikrishna commission has said that it was the unruly behavior of the lawyers that led to the clashes, which the Supreme Court has forwarded to the Madras High Court for any future action in this regard. More...Discuss this story Published: Fri Mar 6 22:59:18 EST 2009