"The momentous victory gives us very much courage," said Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. "I pray that God will give us help and shelter from adversity and that Malaysia will continue to flourish and prosper in peace. To hell with Sukarno." It was quite a post-election statement, but justified in the sense that the big issue at the polls had indeed been Sukarno and his vicious guerrilla and propaganda offensives against the new Federation of Malaysia. In a lively ...

The expulsion of a U.N. official from Sri Lanka is final and he has to leave the country by September 21, the government has told the agency. Officials with the United Nations Children's Fund met with Sri Lankan officials on Monday in hopes of keeping James Elder inside the country. But Sri Lanka stood firm in its decision, and has issued UNICEF an expulsion notice for Elder, said Sarah Crowe, the agency's spokeswoman for ...

A spate of roadside bombings in Iraq killed four U.S. troops and a civilian Tuesday, authorities said. Officials with the United Nations Children's Fund met with Sri Lankan officials on Monday in hopes of keeping James Elder inside the country. But Sri Lanka stood firm in its decision, and has issued UNICEF an expulsion notice for Elder, said Sarah Crowe, the agency's spokeswoman for South Asia. The Sri Lankan government has accused Elder of ...

The Sri Lankan government has ordered a UNICEF official to leave the country, accusing him of spreading propaganda supporting Tamil rebels, the agency -- the United Nations Children's Fund -- told CNN Sunday. UNICEF denies the allegations against its spokesman in Sri Lanka, James Elder, an Australian citizen, and officials with the agency are scheduled to meet with government officials on Monday in hopes of keeping Elder inside the country, said Sarah Crowe, UNICEF spokeswoman for South Asia. There were ...

A Sri Lankan court sentenced a journalist Monday to serve 20 years in prison for articles that criticized the military, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission. "The AHRC is not surprised by this judgment because at the very inception of this case, the AHRC pointed out that this is purely a political case," the commission said in a statement. J.S. Tissainayagam, the editor of a monthly magazine, was arrested in March 2008 for printing articles critical of the Sri ...

Naked, bound and blindfolded, a crudely shot video shows a man being pushed to the ground by men wearing what appear to be military, camouflage fatigues. One of the men kicks the blindfolded man in the back. Another man raises a gun, points it at the back of the man's head and pulls the trigger. A loud crack is heard; the man slumps to the ground. Off-camera, someone can be heard saying in Sinhala, the majority language of ...

Flash floods have inundated refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka, endangering more than 16,000 Tamil refugees who only months ago survived cross-fire in the country's two-decade civil war, the United Nations says. Three days of heavy rains have damaged or destroyed nearly 2,000 shelters housing the refugees in the Vavuniya District and in Menik Farm, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. An internal U.N. memo obtained by CNN painted a dismal picture for the refugees, ...

Sri Lankan security forces have arrested a leader of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebel group and are questioning him, a defense official said Friday.

The Sri Lankan national flag is everywhere in Colombo these days. In the last months of the Sri Lankan government's 26-year war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , the national flag — a sword-bearing lion on a deep red field — was flown at rallies each time the Sri Lankan army gained ground against the LTTE. With the army now victorious and the LTTE's leadership — including the notorious Velupillai Prabhakaran — wiped out, every vehicle on ...

Tamil Tiger rebels acknowledged the death of their leader Sunday, nearly a week after the Sri Lankan government said it had recovered the body of Velupillai Prabhakaran and declared victory in the country's 25-year civil war with the rebels. Prabhakaran "attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression of the Sri Lankan state" on May 17, according to Tamilnet.com, a rebel Web site, citing the group's international affairs spokesman. On Tuesday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared victory against the Tamil Tigers. "We are ...