Colombo – Amnesty International called Saturday for an independent probe into the number of civilians killed in the final weeks of Sri Lanka’s civil war and also urged the UN to reveal its own estimates.
The call by the rights group followed a report in the Times of London newspaper on Friday citing confidential UN reports that more than 20,000 civilians were killed by Sri Lankan army shelling.
The report followed weeks of allegations that large numbers of civilians had been killed as the army closed in on Tamil Tiger rebels to …

Tibetan groups are calling for urgent intervention in Tibet by U.N. human rights bodies. They appealed to the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.
Representatives of several Tibetan groups in exile say tensions remain high in Tibet. The groups say China has responded to the 50th anniversary of the occupation of the country with a military crackdown that has increased the climate of fear and intimidation faced by the Tibetan people.

A general strike brought Greece to a halt today as more than 10,000 people march on parliament as protests continue over the fatal police shooting of a schoolboy.
The demonstration in Athens was part of a previously scheduled nationwide strike but has developed into a protest against the government’s handling of the crisis that has seen four days of rioting.
Flights were grounded, banks and schools closed and hospital services restricted.
“Participation in the strike is total. The country has come to a standstill,” said Stathis Anestis, spokesman for the GSEE private sector …

GENEVA (AP) — Mediators succeeded Wednesday in getting direct talks going between Russia and Georgia, pressing the two neighbors to resolve security and refugee issues from their August war in the troubled Caucasus.
In all, eight parties met behind closed doors at the U.N.’s European headquarters in Geneva for the one-day talks and agreed to meet again next month, EU representative Pierre Morel said.

An independent report on the war between Russia and Georgia in August, is calling for an investigation into the conduct of all parties during the hostilities. The London-based human rights organization, Amnesty International, says it is concerned serious rights violations took place at the time.
Amnesty says all sides in the August conflict may have committed abuses. In its new report, Amnesty says Georgian and Russian forces and militia fighters in the breakaway South Ossetia region should be investigated for war crimes during the conflict.

Russia has sold 12 MiG-29 fighter jets to Sudan, the Sudanese defense minister, Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein, said during a visit to Moscow on Friday, according to Russian news agencies.

Laurent Nkunda is a former General in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo