Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The global human rights community on Friday welcomed the U.S. call for action to bring to book those responsible for crimes against humanity committed in the final months of the war in Sri Lanka.

Concluding a three-day trip to the island nation, U.S. Under Secretary of State Maria Otero confirmed at a press conference in Colombo that the U.S. will “support a resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council in March that provides an opportunity for the government of Sri Lanka to describe what it intends to do to implement the (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission) LLRC’s recommendations, and advanced reconciliation as well as addressed accountability, human rights and democracy concerns.”

Otero said, “An agreement between the government and the Tamil National Alliance, the TNA, on a lasting political settlement is also critical, and we urge both sides to approach negotiations in a spirit of trust, empathy and good faith to reach a political solution that is in the best interests of all Sri Lankan citizens.”

Noting that the LLRC findings had “shortcomings on accountability,” Otero highlighted “substantive recommendations on reconciliation, devolution of authority, demilitarization, rule of law, media freedom, disappearances and human rights violations and abuses.”

The U.S. diplomat cautioned Colombo, “It is our sincere hope that the government and people of Sri Lanka will seize this opportunity to build a democratic, tolerant society that will lead to lasting peace and prosperity that leads to a future of hope and dignity for all.”

Some 14 top human rights organization welcomed the U.S. call to action. In a joint statement, they said “We are pleased to hear that the United States has decided to press for action at the March session of the Human Rights Council on accountability for wartime abuses in Sri Lanka.”

“Now is the time for the HRC to demonstrate its commitment to justice for victims and their families by taking effective action toward establishing an independent international accountability mechanism,” urged the statement.

Citing the issue as a “high priority” for the signatory organizations, the statement noted “the massive scale of abuses committed in the final months of the war and the Sri Lankan government’s resistance to any serious domestic inquiry.”

“The UN Panel and international organizations have rejected a domestic mechanism, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), as inadequate and lacking the independence necessary to conduct an impartial and effective investigation of these abuses,” emphasized the statement.

The statement also highlighted the fact that “In September, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon referred to the President of the HRC and the High Commissioner the report of his Panel of Experts, which finds considerable evidence of war crimes and other abuses committed by both sides during the Sri Lankan civil war.”

The report noted “up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the final five months of the war, mainly due to indiscriminate shelling of civilian-populated areas, including hospitals and food distribution centers.”

With Washington declaring its intentions to press ahead with its tough stand at the upcoming United Nations human rights council meeting in Geneva, there are hardly many options left for Colombo but to account for the situation that arose due to the intense battle between government military and separatist Tamil Tigers leading to the total defeat of the separatist movement in May 2009.

The statement from human rights organizations is endorsed by the following:

• Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA
• Karin D. Ryan, Director, Human Rights Program, The Carter Center
• Don Kraus, Chief Executive Officer, Citizens for Global Solutions
• Allison Garland, Project Coordinator, Democracy Coalition Project
• John C. Bradshaw, Executive Director, Enough Project
• Norma R. Gattsek, Government Relations Director, Feminist Majority Foundation
• Paula Schriefer, Vice President for Global Programs, Freedom House
• Tom Malinowski, Washington Director, Human Rights Watch
• E. Robert Goodkind, Chair, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
• Kathryn Cameron Porter, Founder and President, Leadership Council for Human Rights
• Jerry Fowler, Senior Policy Analyst, Open Society Foundations
• Hans Hogrefe, Washington Director, Physicians for Human Rights
• Bama Athreya, Executive Director, United to End Genocide
• Aung Din, Executive Director, U.S. Campaign for Burma

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The top three Republican presidential candidates all tried to convince fellow conservatives Friday that they share their values during a meeting in Washington, D.C.

The meeting was called by the Conservative Political Action Conference, a group of the nation’s leading conservatives from politics and industry.

Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum also exchanged criticisms of each other.

About the only thing they agreed upon was that they wanted to make certain President Barack Obama was replaced in the next election by a Republican.

Romney suggested the Republican strategy focus more on explaining how they would lead government rather than spending the campaign trying to criticize Obama and other Democrats.

He also tried to portray himself as someone who would bring fresh insight to the politics-as-usual of Washington.

“I am the only candidate in this race, Republican or Democrat, who has never worked a day in Washington,” he said. “I don’t have old scores to settle or decades of cloakroom deals to defend.”

Among his Republican opponents, Rick Santorum is a former senator and Newt Gingrich is the former Speaker of the House.

Romney is the former governor of Massachusetts.

“I was a severely conservative Republican governor,” Romney told the crowd of conservatives at a Washington hotel.

He mentioned his opposition to gay marriage and his focus on educating young people about abstinence from sex until they are married.

Since last Tuesday, when Santorum won primaries in three states, Romney has shifted more of his criticisms from Gingrich to Santorum.

Until Santorum won Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, Romney was the clear Republican frontrunner.

Santorum reserved most of his criticisms during the conference for Obama. However, he took a swipe at Romney by referring to his health care proposals as similar to Obama’s, which he called “Romneycare.”

Santorum also discussed the Obama administration’s proposal that would require religious institutions to provide their female employees with birth control through their medical insurance.

“It is not about contraception,” he said. “It is about economic liberty. It is about freedom of speech. It is about freedom of religion. It is about government control of your lives and it has got to stop.”

Gingrich accused Obama of trying to “wage war on the Catholic Church.”

He also tried to convince the conservative audience that he was the true conservative candidate for president.

“This is the year to reset the country in a decisive, bold way,” Gingrich said.

His proposals include replacing the regulatory schemes of the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department with friendlier rules for industry and repealing Obama’s health care program that would expand coverage to more Americans.

He also took a jab at Obama’s failure to develop the comprehensive immigration reform he promised.

“UPS and Fedex track tens of millions of packages, but the federal government cannot track 11 million illegals, even if they sit still,” Gingrich said.

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Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) – Six years after the end of a decade-long armed conflict, Nepal’s ex-Maoist fighters who have been languishing in various satellite camps have begun leaving their cantonments.

The process started Friday in the three major camps–Sindhuli, Chitwan and Nawalparasi–and was scheduled to begin in the other four main camps from Saturday. The entire process is expected to be over in two weeks.

The lengthy conflict ended in 2006 after killing nearly 14, 000 people and replacing a century-long Hindu monarchy with a secular republic country.

This is an important part of Nepal’s ongoing peace process.

The Maoist combatants have been monitored since 2007 by the United Nation’s political mission that oversaw the storage of weapons and the soldiers’ registration, verification and housing. After the UN left Nepal in 2011, Nepal’s political party agreed to set up Special Secretariat to look after them.

After completion of this process, integration of the Maoist combatants in the national army and the social life of the nation will begin.

Out of the 19,000 UN-verified combatants, 7,365 combatants who chose voluntary retirement will head to their homes after the Maoist party hosts a formal farewell ceremony on Feb. 11. Another 9,000 opted for integration into security agencies.

Those who opted for retirement will receive around $ 6,300 to $10,200 from the government in installments.

The Maoist guerillas, under the aegis of the UCPN (Maoist) party, which is now largest political party in Nepal’s Constituent Assembly, fought to set up a hardcore communist regime in Nepal.

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Mannheim, Germany (AHN) – A court ruling favoring Motorola Mobility has forced Apple to pull several of its iPad and iPhone models from its German online store.

Motorola had filed suit against Apple to enforce its patent injunction against its rival. In December, the court in Manheim, Germany issued a ruling saying that Apple had failed to license one of Motorola’s wireless intellectual properties.

The affected products include Apple’s iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, along with all 3G models of its iPad. However, its Apple’s newer iPhone 4S and its wi-fi-only iPad are not affected.

Apple says it will appeal the ruling. It claims that Motorola had repeatedly refused to license the applicable patent to Apple with reasonable terms and conditions. However, Motorola disagrees and says it has offered Apple reasonable licensing of the patent since 2007.

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NYC, NY, United States (AHN) – Nancy Shevell, otherwise known as Mrs. Paul McCartney, resigned from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board Wednesday.

Ms. Shevell was appointed to the MTA board in 2001 by former Gov. George Pataki. She is the third-longest serving current member and has remained as a holdover member since her term expired in 2010.

Ms. Shevell is the vice president of New England Motor Freight and her family’s stable and prosperous businesses.

Ms. Shevell did not give any explanation for her resignation, but her presence, and the loss of her high profile name, is a loss for the board.

Ms. Shevell did not speak to reporters about her decision to step down. She did however say at the meeting Wednesday, “I am very emotional and sad right now.”

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DC, Washington, United States (AHN) – The U.S. Conference of Mayors wrapped up its winter meeting Friday in Washington, D.C., with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel stepping into controversies on same sex marriage and education.

Emanuel joined about 80 other mayors from across the nation in endorsing laws to give legal recognition to same sex marriage, along with the tax breaks and other benefits spouses can share.

The mayors signed on to a statement that said, “Our cities derive great strength from their diversity and gay and lesbian families are a crucial part. Studies have shown what we know through our hands-on experience that cities that celebrate and cultivate diversity are the places where creativity and ideas thrive.”

Emanuel supported the Illinois Legislature’s effort last year to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples.

He said New York did “a good thing” last June when state lawmakers legalized gay marriage.

In separate comments Friday, Emanuel discussed his plan to turn Chicago’s community colleges into training institutions for the city’s employers.

Currently, Chicago’s City Colleges have a graduation rate of about 7 percent and job prospects for graduates that are “not as high,” Emanuel said.

His plan calls for each of the city’s seven community colleges to operate with specialties, such as health care, transportation, hospitality and manufacturing.

In addition, employers would be brought in to develop curricula that would train the students to become their employees.

“I want it to have economic value” to attend college, Emanuel said at the downtown Washington hotel where about 250 mayors were meeting.

Turning colleges into job training institutions is controversial among some academics, who say a well-rounded education requires liberal arts courses that include literature, history and the arts.

Nevertheless, job creation and recovery from the economic disaster of the Great Recession were dominant themes throughout the meeting this week.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors released a report that said the nation’s metropolitan areas will struggle for five more years to regain jobs lost during the recession that started in September 2008.

“The recovery is very uneven across U.S. regions, with the southeastern and southwestern metro [areas that] were the most affected by the housing bubble looking ahead to years of recovery,” the report says.

U.S. nonfarm payrolls will grow about 1.3 percent this year, which is unlikely to reduce the unemployment rate below 8 percent, according to a report by IHS Global Insight.

The report predicts the nation will regain nearly half the jobs lost during the Great Recession by the end of 2012.

The mayors used the economic report to try to prod Congress to approve legislation that would create more jobs.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, president of the Conference of Mayors, said “Congress has jumped ship” in its obligation to stimulate the economy and employment.

However, Villaraigosa acknowledged cities will have a hard time squeezing money out of Congress at a time the federal government is trying to reduce its deficit by cutting spending.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The U.S. State Department is reportedly denying a permit for the construction of Keystone XL, a 1,700-mile oil pipeline between Canada and the U.S. The news sent shares of TransCanada Corp., which will undertake the project, falling on Wednesday.

According to sources, the State Department will not issue the permit following the White House’s admission that it won’t meet the Feb. 21 deadline set by Congress to approve the pipeline that will transport Canadian bitumen to U.S. refineries in the Gulf Coast.

Meanwhile, 350.org, a group opposing the project, welcomed the news. Author, environmentalist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben said the denial of the Keystone XL permit is a victory for its opponents and a brave act of President Barack Obama.

McKibben said lobbyists for the project will still push American lawmakers to approve the project. Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) plans to introduce a bill that will allow Congress to approve the $7 billion project.

Congress had given the State Department 60 days to decide on the project. The State Department, however, claimed that more time is needed to complete an environmental impact assessment on putting a pipeline in the sensitive Nebraska Aquifer, which is part of the proposed route of the pipeline.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Consumer borrowing in the United States rose in November by more than analysts had expected, fueled by purchases of cars and other items.

Spending rose by $20.4 billion to $2.48 trillion, which was the largest monthly increase since November 2001, according to the Federal Reserve.

That exceeded economists’ median estimate of $7 billion.

The data suggests that consumers are borrowing again, which could signal a recovery in the economy. Consumers had saved more and borrowed and spent less since 2007.

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Mountainview, CA, United States (AHN) – Former PayPal boss Scott Thompson has been named as the new chief executive of Internet search engine giant Yahoo.

Thompson will replace Carol Bartz, who had been sacked by the group four months ago for failing to turn the firm around.

A company statement said that Thompson, along with its board, would focus on company’s core business and try to identify the best approach for company as well as for its shareholders.

“Scott brings to Yahoo a proven record of building on a solid foundation of existing assets and resources to reignite innovation and drive growth, precisely the formula we need at Yahoo,” chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement.

“His deep understanding of online businesses combined with his team-building and operational capabilities will restore the energy, focus, and momentum necessary to grow the core business and deliver increased value for our shareholders,” he added.

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Dhaka, Bangladesh (AHN) – Bangladesh has been removed from a list of “high risk” piracy prone areas compiled by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), an anti-crime warning unit of International Chamber of Commerce. Bangladeshi authorities lobbied the IMB to remove itself, since the designation increased the cost of insurance to cargo ships destined for Chittagong in the Bay of Bengal.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Khurshed Alam confirmed to news on Sunday. Bangladesh wrote a protest letter on December 20.

In the protest letter, Bangladesh stated that incidents reported to the IMB were mostly “petty thefts” or “robbery” and under no circumstances constituted genuine “piracy” since they took place well within 200 nautical miles from the coast of Bangladesh. Most incidents were reported at Chittagong anchorages and approaches, says the IMB website.

The IMB portal has since changed the status from a “piracy warning” to “piracy and armed robbery warning.”

For two decades the IMB has labeled Bangladesh as a “high-risk” area for piracy. However, Bangladeshi officials say that according to the definitions of the crime provided for by international law, there has been not a single case of piracy in their territorial waters during that period.

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