Politics

Jan 31 (Reuters) - Unidentified people torched the Sri Lankan office of a British-based website that regularly criticises the Sri Lankan government, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa immediately ordered an investigation into the arson. The attack on the office of www.lankaenews.com, which has links to an opposition politician who fell out with Rajapaksa several years ago, is the latest in a series of assaults on media outlets or personnel. "It is well to note that under ... Rajapaksa regime, the free media had suffered most and sustained losses to persons and property on an unprecedented scale in the media history of Sri Lanka," the website said in its report on the attack. Since the start of the final phase of a 25-year civil war in 2006, at least 14 journalists have been killed and many more attacked or threatened in the Indian Ocean island nation. Sri Lanka has a long history of violence and intimidation against journalists, stretching back as far as 1971, when the fi...

Pakistani Law Minister Babar Awan has spoken out over the case of a US man who killed two men in Lahore last week. He said no foreign citizen was above the law. The US embassy has called for the immediate release of Raymond Davis, saying he has diplomatic status and is immune from prosecution. The authorities say he does not have diplomatic immunity and is not one of the foreign security personnel authorised to carry firearms. Dr Awan said that although foreign diplomats enjoyed diplomatic immunity, "Pakistan has its own judicial system and everyone must respect it". Magistrates have remanded Mr Davis in custody until next week while police investigate the shooting. He has been charged with the murder of the two men. The US embassy in Islamabad has claimed diplomatic immunity on his behalf. They argue that he is a consulate employee who acted in "self-defence when confronted by two armed men on motorcycles" on 27...

Burma's new parliament has convened for the first time, officially ending almost half a century of absolute military rule. But the two chambers in Naypyidaw are dominated by the military and its allies. Next Image | Previous Image | |

"Mohammed Abdulrahman, from Ahlia University, died last night in Omdurman hospital as a result of his ... wounds after he was beaten by police," an activist who took part in Sunday's protest told AFP. "This morning (Monday) both Ahlia University and the Islamic University of Omdurman have been closed by a government decision," added the activist, speaking on condition of anonymity. Sunday's demonstrations followed calls by the "30 January" Facebook group for Sudanese youth to take to the streets and stage peaceful anti-government rallies across Sudan. The Facebook group, which boasts around 17,000 members, confirmed Abdulrahman had died, referring to him as a "martyr" who followed in the footsteps of another student killed in the October 1964 popular uprising that toppled the military regime then in power. "Al-Gorashy was a martyr for us. And you are our martyr now, Mohammed Abdulrahman," it said in large red lettering. Proteste...

Ramallah, Jan 31 (DPA) Israeli soldiers arrested Hamas lawmaker Muhammad Natsheh early Monday at his home in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, Hamas officials said. They said the soldiers searched Natsheh's home before taking him away. Natsheh is the sixth Hamas lawmaker to be rearrested by Israel since December. Israel arrested several members of Hamas' senior leadership in the summer of 2006, in retaliation for the abduction of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who is still being held captive in Gaza. Israel gradually released most, but this winter detained several of them again. Natsheh was released from prison in September after serving almost nine years, six of them in solitary confinement, said Hamas sources.

The ticklish question has been hovering in the background since the "Jasmine Revolution" street uprising toppled the president of Tunisia two weeks ago. It has only gained in urgency as the demonstrations spread to Yemen, Jordan and then Egypt - threatening President Hosni Mubarak's near-30-year-grip on power. A Chinese blogger first posed the query to President Obama's chief Asia expert during a videoconference from the White House Situation Room with eight Mainland bloggers. "In my view, many Chinese netizens and intellectuals believe that China's future is Tunisia-ization," noted the Beijing-based blogger, 2Keqi, in the web chat with Jeffrey Bader, the National Security Council's senior director for Asian affairs. "Does the American government make this same assessment and does it have a policy plan" in the event that China takes such a turbulent path? Bader and another official, Ben Rhodes, deputy NSC adviser for strategic commun...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Southern Sudan's leader says he hopes Sudan's contested area of Abyei soon holds an independence referendum or is transferred to Sudan's south by presidential decree. Southern Sudan announced Sunday that 99 percent of voters in the south voted for independence during a referendum earlier in January. But Kiir said Monday that the contested region of Abyei needs to also hold a referendum or be given to the south. The status of region is being decided by north-south negotiations. Kiir spoke during an African Union summit in Ethiopia's capital. Southern Sudan is slated to become the world's newest country in July. The independence referendum was guaranteed in a 2005 peace accord that ended a more than two decade north-south civil war.