Month: September 2009

Colombo, September 28: Sri Lanka’s prime minister vowed anew in United Nations that Colombo would quickly resettle civilians still in state-run camps after being displaced by the government rout of Tamil separatists.

Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka told the UN General Assembly on Saturday that a key priority for his government was to meet the immediate humanitarian needs of the roughly 290,000 Tamil civilians who “were liberated from the decades-long hold” of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Vancouver, September 2: The Dalai Lama joined Bishop Desmond Tutu, eBay founder Pierre Omidyan, “Power of Now” author Eckhart Tolle, Nobel laureates and other spiritual leaders here to call for change in the world through compassion.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, who is here to lead the Vancouver Peace Summit, and Bishop Tutu were jointly given the Fetzer Prize for Love and Forgiveness. The award has been instituted by Michigan’s Fetzer Institute to honour those who are working for peace in the world.

Berlin, September 28: German Chancellor Angela Merkel secured victory Sunday at the head of a new centre-right coalition she said was needed “to move our country forwards.”

“We’ve achieved our goal of forming a new government,” she said after her Christian Democrats (CDU) and their preferred allies won a safe parliamentary majority in federal elections, television projections of partial vote counts showed.

Washington, September 28: The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan planned to offer options for policymakers to try to stem Taliban gains, including sending up to 30,000 to 40,000 additional combat troops and trainers, according to defense and congressional officials.

General Stanley McChrystal hand-delivered his long-awaited request for more troops to U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Admiral James Stavridis, on Friday.

Manila, September 28: Philippine authorities on Monday were struggling to help hundreds of thousands of people displaced by massive floods in the capital and outlying areas brought about by storm Ketsana.

Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said the government has shifted from search and rescue operations to relief work as the death toll in the deluge has been steadily rising.

“Right now, we will concentrate really on providing food and other necessities,” he said.

Berlin, September 28: German Chancellor Angela Merkel secured victory Sunday at the head of a new centre-right coalition she said was needed “to move our country forwards.”

“We’ve achieved our goal of forming a new government,” she said after her Christian Democrats (CDU) and their preferred allies won a safe parliamentary majority in federal elections, television projections of partial vote counts showed.

New York, September 28: External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Sunday met his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi in New York with the progress in the investigations in Pakistan into the Mumbai being the “focal point” of their talks.

Krishna met Qureshi at the New York Palace hotel on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in the first highest-level contact between the countries since their Prime Ministers met at the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh in July.

Seoul, September 28: China’s prime minister will visit North Korea early next week for a trip that could help revive talks stalled for nearly a year on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

Analysts said China, the closest thing that destitute North Korea has for a major ally, would not be sending such a high profile visitor unless it has won some assurance from Pyongyang that could ease tension over the nuclear standoff.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao “will pay an official goodwill visit” to North Korea from October 4 to 6, the KCNA news agency said in a one sentence dispatch on Monday.

Shanghai, September 28: Foreign ministers from China, Japan and South Korea were to meet in Shanghai Monday to discuss the North Korea nuclear issue and a Japanese proposal for a European Union-style East Asian community.

The ministers were also due to prepare for an October 10 summit in Beijing, likely to bring together Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, officials said.

Los Angeles, September 28: A surprise arrest at the Zurich airport, detention at the hands of Swiss authorities, and a high-profile extradition process that could take weeks or months. The irony is that for Roman Polanski, the acclaimed director accused of child rape three decades ago, this latest ordeal could lead to the one thing he’s lacked since: his freedom.

Berlin, September 28: German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a second term on Sunday, along with the center-right majority that eluded her four years ago — nudging Europe’s biggest economic power to the right as it claws its way out of a deep recession.

Voters sent the nation’s main left-wing party, the Social Democrats of Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, into opposition after 11 years in government. It was the party’s worst parliamentary election result since World War II.