President of the All Ceylon Medical Officers’ Association (ACMOA) Dr Nishantha Dassanayake, said in a statement published in the media on Saturday, that the members of the association were opposing the presence of Indian doctors for several valid reasons.

Firstly, the government had not gone through the proper procedure for allowing foreign doctors to work in Sri Lanka.

Secondly, it was not clear what procedures the Indian doctors would follow in treating the patients, and what remedies there would be, in case treatments went wrong. More...Discuss this story Published: Sat Mar 14 22:44:13 EDT 2009

Liam Fox, a legislator from Britain's main opposition Conservative Party told reporters that a special fund with the help of international partners must be set up to help the Sri Lankan government in handling the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the war ravaged areas in the Northern and Eastern provinces.

He advocates a political solution with the participation of all Tamil minority political parties.

In 1997 as a minister of the then British government, Mr. Fox brokered a bi-partisan agreement with Sri Lanka's main political parties as means to end the Tamil minority conflict in the island. More...Discuss this story Published: Sat Mar 14 08:19:30 EDT 2009

A report Friday from U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said government forces and Tamil rebels may have committed war crimes and warned that civilian casualties could reach "catastrophic" proportions if the two sides do not suspend fighting.

Pillay said the situation was becoming desperate and called for a cease-fire.

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe questioned charges in the report that 2,800 civilians had died in recent weeks as the military has pushed into the last remaining area held by the Tamil Tigers.

"It is very, very unprofessional to rely on such unsubstantiated figures. What is dismaying to us is the figures correspond to the figures put forward by (the pro-rebel Web site) Tamilnet and LTTE front groups," Samarsinghe told a news conference, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Samarsinghe denied the military was firing into safe "no-fire" zones for civilians.

"The world today is ever sensitive about such acts that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity," Pillay said. More...Discuss this story Published: Sat Mar 14 04:52:03 EDT 2009