Violence in Congo taking a big toll, not on human lives, infrastructure and crops, but also eco-system and wildlife like in this lake.

The UK's foreign secretary openly called China an "indispensable superpower" and says China will definitely join the U.S. as one of the two biggest powers in the world, in an interview with The Guardian. It's a bit remarkable for someone of his status to be so frank about China and illustrates the regard and power that China possesses now. The article includes some very interesting comments by David Miliband, especially that Europe may become a third power, thus implying that Europe cannot surpass China on the world stage, and that Europe has not been strategic enough in dealing with China.

So it ends, presumably, for the civil war between the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers rebels. Searches are on for the rebel leader while mop-up operations are continuing. Unfortunately the end of the war doesn't mean an end to the tensions in that country, or even worldwide. The rebels may decide to continue as a purely guerilla outfit, the government may forego reconciliation efforts and instead disregard human rights and the law in dealing with the Tamil minority, and diaspora worldwide may continue quarrels and even violence, as has possibly happened in Toronto.

The Sri Lanka civil war is probably near to seeing an end, though not without significant human/ civilian tragedies. As the government army closes in on the remaining rebel territory, the rebels and many civilians are becoming squeezed into an ever-shrinking space, which puts more civilians in the line of fire from government bombardment. Things are getting so dire that foreign countries, like the UK and France, and bodies have been sending ministers and envoys to demand a ceasefire.
It's hard to put all the blame on any one side as the rebels don't want to surrender and the government refuses to a ceasefire. The tragedy is not getting too much coverage as it should, though we've definitely selected and run articles on it.

An interesting look at Rwanda's ambitious attempts to modernise, build its economy and try to be the Singapore of Africa. The government sure has a lot of high-powered U.S. corporate friends, as well as Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life. Nevertheless it still is a very poor country, which only makes its disciplined, (relatively) tidy and rather corruption-free society even more admirable. One only hopes that this isn't accomplished with too much authoritarian measures in place.