this india-based firm has 400 employees in sri lanka. many of them are certified accountants. >> the main plant is based in the uk. currently working on the accounting side so we're mainly the operational aspects of it. >> reporter: the boom is encouraging many younger sur erer sri lanka lankans to look at careers in accounting. they offer courses to nurture their skills. sarah enrolled two years ago. in this class groups of students discuss management strategies for opening a business school in asia. watching at the back are human resources officers from foreign companies. they are hoping to find competent, new employees. >> people we can use right now or tag people to use in the future. >> reporter: sarah was more active in the discussions. she won high marks from the observers. >> this is one of the best places to be. it's a beautiful place. there's a lot of opportunities. i would like to get the experience at some place like big companies where they handle like international traders as well. >> reporter: sri lanka is producing a new

this india based firm has 400 employees in sri lanka. many of them are certified accountants. >> mainly our main plant is based in the uk. current currently insurance accounting so we are mainly operations aspects of it. >> reporter: the boom is encouraging many sri lankans to get careers in accounting. this location school offers courses to nurture their skills. sarah enrolled two years ago. in this class, groups of students discuss management strategies for opening a business school in asia. watching at the back are human resources officers from foreign companies. they are hoping to find competent new employees. >> people we can use right now or tag people we can use in the future. >> reporter: she won high marks from the observers. >> it is a beautiful place and there is a lot of opportunities. i would like to get experience at some place, in big companies that handle international tra r traders. >> reporter: sri lanka is producing a new generation of skillful accountants. they carry the hopes of the nation on their shoulders as sri l

we have a report from colombo. >> three years on, this state in sri lanka's still celebrates its warvictory with a huge pageantry of military muscle and firepower. gori is heaped upon the president, who reigns supreme. three of his brothers in top posts. one man has missed these parades for the past three years. he was then a general, army chief for the final phase of the war. after the war, if all unraveled. he accused the powerful president of not giving him to credit for the victory. he stood against him in the election, lost, and was locked up for two years. only now, with a presidential pardon, has he been freed. the former general was greeted with supporters, who see him as a true world -- war hero, but with britain and other countries saying there may have been war crimes in sri lanka, it is possible that he will be under just as much scrutiny as the civilian leaders to send him to jail. >> these people are guilty. they say they are ready to answer for allegations. >> the government of sri lanka's still uses its war victory to court popularity. it says the country is now liber

sri lanka must cooperate with an international investigation into alleged war crimes. that is what the former army chief sarath fonseka has told the bbc a day after his release from jail. the former general, led the army to victory over the tamil tigers in 2009, denied thousands of civilians had been killed. he spoke to the bbc's charles haviland. >> people ask me the same question, if i could do behind bars what i could do without, what do you feel about it? >> what about the terms of your released? are you forbid infrom re- entering politics? >> i have completed my prison sentence. i can do politics. [unintelligible] exactly b ow [unintelligible] >> would you like to challenge mahinda rajapaksa for the presidency again? >> it's not like i want to become the president of the country or something. my agenda is not to do that. i have an agenda to change the corrupt political culture in this country. >> the u.s.-sponsored resolution in march at the u.n. human rights council critical on sri lanka human-rights, saying it should do more on reconciliation and accountability

. >>> and in sri lanka, three years have passed since the end of the bloody civil war but the legacy of conflict remains. areas of the country are still littered with land mines and now some of the many women who lost loved ones during that war are joining the effort to make their country safe again. nhk world reports. >> reporter: northern sri lanka, where the scene of fierce fighting during the 20-year civil war. early one morning, a group of women gathered here in protective suits. they are members of a local ngo called assistance for social harmony, the organization worked to remove land mines. more than 1 million land mines are believed to remain in sri lanka. >> translator: these are the land mines that we found in the past month. >> reporter: of the 200 mine clearers, 40 are women. most of them lost husbands or fathers during the war. the ngo started hiring women two years ago. it's a way to help them gain financial independence. >> translator: i look for other jobs, but couldn't find any, so i came here. >> translator: i'm glad i can contribute to rebuilding the country. >> r

>> i spent a lot of time in sri lanka in 2010 after getting expelled from burma. the situation in sri lanka's makes a fascinating contrast because as you are aware they have a similar variation of buddhism and they're quite devout countries but the burmese saying --sanga. large portion had a great sins and great rhythm to avoid being politicized. that might sound strange because you have the revolution with hundreds of thousands of monks marching through the streets of the city's. but a lot of buddhism called ingrid george abbott-this is a spiritual manifestation manifesting their disapproval of the refusal to apologize for beating months of. it did not have an overtly political dimension and is interesting to see in the recent election campaign that the sega has been nowhere to be seen. in sri lanka you have a desperate situation for where there is an extreme chauvinist buddhist party. burma is free of such an abomination. >> any other questions from the audience? you have a second question? >> curious for the common citizen if you live in rangoon, what are the l

the former army chief tells the country sri lanka is going to cooperate in a war crimes investigation. and the first commercial flight taking cargo to the international space station. welcome to "bbc world news." would you volunteer to be a human guinea anything? we talk to people who have agreed to take part in drugs trials. >> fresh warning that the crisis in the euro zone is the biggest threat to the recovery of the world economy. opportunities must now be taken to tackle the problem. it comes to us after youth unemployment, particularly in europe remains at crisisal levels with no sign of improvement for at least another four years. the split between europe's leaders on whether to cut or widen debt. >> alexis, the greek ultra left leader is riding a wave of popularity at home. but here in paris, he's been welcomed this time only by like minded politicians. the french president is now a socialist, the man next to him on stage is another socialist. and then there's the crowd. >> your presence gives us strength for the fight we fight, because we are fighting for everyone in europe. w

sri lanka's former chief of staff was released from jail on monday. it follows pressure from the united states which considered him a political prisoner. nhk world reports. >> reporter: he was released and was met with cheers from a crowd of supporters. >> translator: we are committed to establish a nation where people are happy, by removing the suffering they face, and saving them from economic difficulties and corruption. >> reporter: he led sri lanka's victory over the insurgents in 2009. that ended more than two decades of civil war. the following year, he ran for president in a direct challenge to his former boss, incumbent president packsa. after losing the election, he was charged with corruption. the sentence drew criticism from the united states, which called the trial politically motivated. the issue was raised again on friday when u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton held talks with the sri lankan counterpart in washington. as they recover from their long civil war, some see the attempt to attract foreign investment. nhk world. >>> next

it was much of the same in sri lanka and in france, russia, and indonesia. in taiwan, several anti- government protesters marched downtown taipei demanding better conditions for workers. taiwanese doctors and health care workers dressed up in uniforms to protest against their long hours and low pay. >> our patients cannot be protected very welcome many administrations for going on the attack. this was in thailand. occupy d.c. protesters will be joined later today. >> it will be a big crowd. we're coming together and marching downtown to the white house. it will be quite a crowd them this is one of the local organizers. the group will leave malcolm x park on 16th street at 6:00 and walking to the white house. the same will happen in new york and california. >> this is to oppose power and concentration of wealth and inequality. >> thanks so much. president obama's campaign is releasing new advertisements. >> it's just what you'd expect when mitt romney had a swiss bank account. >> it talks about shipping jobs to china and mexico. the advertisement will run in

she was a gift from sri lanka. i'd like to go check her out. >> must be very soothing. good for her. >> we like her. >> yes, stay with us. "news 4" continues right now at 5:00 a.m. >>> a live look outside at 5:00 a.m. 57 degrees outside our studios, and we're in for a pretty significant swing in temperatures, meaning if you driving from point a to point b you're going to find a big swing in temperatures. good morning. i'm aaron gilchrist. >> and i'm eun yang for this mur thursday, may 3rd, 2012. oh, this hurts. >> scores. it's gaborik. >> one of the longest games in caps' hiftd ended on a sour note after the rangers slipped one by brayden holtby. we have reaction from players and fans throughout the morning. >> right now we turn to meteorologist tom kierein for a quick update on our forecast. >> yeah, we do have a front as you mentioned. one side's going to be warm, another cool. wide variety in temperatures. got to almost 90 yesterday in fredericksburg while we were in the 70s. and on the northeastern side of that front we do have some showers and thunder and lightning

the failure to intervene in sri lanka has left the u.s. security council looking redundant as a guardian of world peace. >> these are among the latest pictures from syria. amateur video apparently showing the shelling of buildings. the team of u.n. observers are from damascus. the violence and bloodshed continues despite their presence. the un has issued new warnings about the risk of all-out civil war. amnesty international claims the continuing crisis in syria is the most telling example why the u.n. security council is looking tired, out of step, and on for a purpose. redundant as the guardian of global peace. >> thousands of people died in syria. we have made a case out of many of these. what has happened there constituted crimes against humanity. there was no action from the council. what we're asking for now is when there is grave human rights abuses as we have seen in syria, [unintelligible] cannot be allowed without a clear explanation as to why it is happening. >> they are accusing the government of failing to show leadership to m

we're developing a technology here that we can export to other countries -- bhutan, sri lanka and afghanistan in many of their mountainous regions they have no electricity but plenty of water. >> bal krishna und milan shrestha will sleep in the village tonight, and dhan bahadur will remain in his mill. he wants to spend the night there to make sure the power stays on. true commitment there, and here at global 3000 we are firmly committed to food, especially the no-fuss snacks people enjoy around the globe. forget global burger chains, we like to jump off into the deep end with our taste buds. and today we head to chile for some empanadas. >> coquimbo is a port city on the pacific coast. it has one of the most popular fish markets in chile. people come here not only to shop, but more than anything to enjoy the fresh and delicious fast food. fish and seafood are turned into tasty snacks right on the premises. there are small restaurants and snack bars in every corner of the market, like this one run by alejandro fernÁndez. his speciality is a chilean classic -- "empanadas de marisco." >> aqui v

. >> sri lanka's controversial defense minister has told bbc it is no longer corporate s -- no longer appropriate to see the north of the country as a tamil area and has replaced those officials from the majority ethnic group. the un says tens of thousands of tamil civilians were killed towards the end of the war. . there's been strong criticism of remarks made by the head of international monetary fund christine lagarde in which she called on all greeks to pay their taxes. many of posted angry messages on her facebook page. a socialist party leader in athens said that christine lagarde had consulted the greek people. the captain of one of the leading football clubs in italy has been arrested by police investigating match fixing. seen here arriving for questioning, stefano mauri is one of many players that the administrators -- one of many players and administrators from top-level clubs that have been detained. foreign investors are lining up to do business in burma as the country opens its doors to the outside world after its recent elections. the indian prime minister has become the

. >> the former sri lanka arm leader has been been released.ur correspondent has more. >> waiting -- they're about to go beserk. sometimes in a very dangerous manner as he is released from the hospital interior. he was then whisked away. back to the central jail, where he's been lang wishing for a couple of years. he'll have to wait there while certain -- again his conviction on a number of counts. one aide said he may actually not walk free from the prison until sometime early on tuesday. we just don't know. of course the big question is whether he will then try to plunge back into politics. many see him as the most plausible challenger to the president in this murky political theme. and of course there are human rights issues, issues of alleged war crimes that have been leveled against the government. there's no reason why those should not be leveled against him. he was of course the man that led the army when it won against the tiger rebels exactly three years ago. thousands of civilians are alleged to have died. the government denies commit

so if you want to make an impression on tech ron or sri lanka, you could do so often much more effectively through the u.n. or through any bilateral channel. >> i know you wanted to comment more on that. >> i think the trend you identify in the human rights ngos is the same for all ngos, that everybody -- you know, just like the international financial institutions have to have more representative governments, so, too, the international ngos feel the need to be more representative. in my previous life i ran the international development in the uk and used to often joke with the international ngos who we worked closely with. they looked like multinational corporations, ironic give wherein the community often started. but they had corporate sentences. they had global networks. they had representative offices and subsidiaries around the world. and they were no longer local organizations. they were really operating -- and they saw that as part of their legitimacy si. that was one point. the changing landscape, it's not surprising with europe in crisis and europe delivers 60% of global aid, bud

i wrote a book about political buddhism in sri lanka and i am going back after -- >> really? >> i'm curious when i go back well i find the group more politicized than they were 20 years ago or more less so? >> i spent quite a lot of time in sri lanka in 2010 after getting expelled from burma and i think the situation makes it fascinating contrast to very similar variations of buddhism and and the they're both quite different countries with certain exceptions. the great wisdom to avoid. that might sound strange because of course we have the revolution the hundreds of thousands of monks marching through the streets and the cities. but as buddhism here in the state's who's written a fascinating book about meditation in burma and as she pointed out this isn't a political demonstration. this is purely a spirit manifestation manifesting that disapproval of the refusal to apologize for beating them up and it did not have an overtly political dimension and it's interesting to see in the recent election campaign there is no way to be seen with. you have a desperate situation there is

only is mississippi the worst in the country, if mississippi were a country, it would rank below sri lanka and below botswana. it would be 83rd in the world in terms of infant mortality. and if you look internally at what's going on in mississippi, what explains that problem, you end up very quickly realizing that the issue is in racial disparity. these are mississippi's own numbers. these are infant mortality for white mothers in mississippi. that's if infant mortality rate in mississippi over time. and this is the infant mortality rate, that red line there, for african-american mothers in mississippi. so white mothers in mississippi, they have roughly the same rate as the rest of the country. but the reason mississippi is the worst in the country, the reason mississippi has worst than botswana's infant mortality rate, is because african-american women have more than doubled the infant mortality rate of white women there. and it makes the state the worst in the country. this is a real problem. this is a life-and-death problem and it has been bad in mississippi for a long time. now, to mis

the 36-year-old elephant was a gift from sri lanka. "nobody knows the troubles i've seen" playing the blues in there sometimes. >> doug has one of those hooked up in the storm center. >> yeah. i had to take it down recently. i got a few complaints. it wasn't working out. >> i think more than a few. >> more than a few for sure. >>> out there right now not complaining about the rain that we need across the area but a lot of people actually seeing a lot of thunder from these storms in through western portions of maryland down toward the panhandle of west virginia and portions of northern virginia. let's zoom on in. these are the two strongest storms. right now around cable town, west virginia right on down through blue mont and then down to the south just to the north and west of middleburg this storm has been riding along route 7 here and we'll zoom in even more. you can see around hourdsville and rock hill over toward unison and willsville we'll continue to watch as this moves toward the east. a lot of lightning associated with this get

i wrote a book about political buddhism in sri lanka and i am going back after -- >> really? >> i'm curious when i go back well i find the group more politicized than they were 20 years ago or more less so? >> i spent quite a lot of time in sri lanka in 2010 after getting expelled from burma and i think the situation makes it fascinating contrast to very similar variations of buddhism and and the they're both quite different countries with certain exceptions. the great wisdom to avoid. that might sound strange because of course we have the revolution the hundreds of thousands of monks marching through the streets and the cities. but as buddhism here in the state's who's written a fascinating book about meditation in burma and as she pointed out this isn't a political demonstration. this is purely a spirit manifestation manifesting that disapproval of the refusal to apologize for beating them up and it did not have an overtly political dimension and it's interesting to see in the recent election campaign there is no way to be seen with. you have a desperate situation there is

it's the world's second worst performing index two behind sri lanka's concerns.lk out of china there is no repeat of the 2008 fiscal stimulus, so commodities are weak across the board. basic resources down along with banks. fresh record lohse for bund yields. 1.3%. spain yields going high. 6 president 2%. the spread between the two widening out to nearly 530 basis points. a fresh recordwide between spain and german bunds. italy back over 6%ful we're going to get the results from it will i in the next 10, 15 minutes or so. 5 and 10-year key auctions looking to raise. how high the yields will be, we'll find out. we're fresh on 10-year gilts. as far as currency marks are considered, the dollar index is up fresh 20-year hero highs -- 20-month highs. aussie dollar get back toward six-month lows. expect retail sales down. euro dollar, fresh two-year lows right now. below 124. 124.34 below the 125 mark and we talked about no stimulus out of china. that's also hurting commodities, besides the dollar getting weaker as well. nymex below 90. brent brks e low 105, 105.46 and

sri lanka force peaceful human rights activity. started his legal studies in prison, became an attorney and devoted his entire practice to defending political prisoners which is what he does now with amnesty. we will then hear from a human rights advocates in purchasing agent from a furniture business from shandong province who recently fled to the u.s. to escape constant monitoring following her advocacy on behalf of chen guangcheng. along with others including, wang attempted to visit chen guangcheng on several occasions during his 19 month home confinement and participate in numerous advocacy activities. beatings, constant monitoring and detention. authorities detained her and her husband for two weeks in december 2011 as they were preparing to travel to participate in a free chen guangcheng activity. will then hear from yaxue cao who is an independent writer, translator and blogger about china. she grew up in china, at peking university and studied literature in the uzbek her writings and translations export aspects in china's

. >>> a child points at the preserved remains of a baby mammoth in sri lanka. back down the road. in moscow, a sculptor walks by his work, a model made out of the sand. hot shots, pictures coming in from around the world. >>> so how good or how bad are the new jobs numbers? president obama will tell you one thing, mitt romney will say something else. we're trying to cut through the spin on this key election-year issue. >>> to make the case to women, the obama campaign lays out an entire wolf's life on the website. why a leading doesn't want his daughter to grow up, quote, like julia. ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ woman: what do you mean, homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods? [ heart rate increases ] man: a few inches of water caused all this? [ heart rate increases

if you look at the world in recent years, the horrible war in sri lanka, the killings in rwanda, andet's have a sense of proportion here. this is a part of the world in which all of a sudden if we are not intelligent about it we can create a nexus between a difficult internal problem which has not assumed huge proportions yet and a regional problem and a global problem which involves our relationships with the other major powers, particularly russ russia, but also the negotiations with iran over the nuclear problem. unless we get some agreement between the major powers, and that includes not only russia but on the back scene also china and the europeans, this problem is not going to be solved. and it's not going to be solved by recalling ambassadors from moscow or telling the russians they are acting like thugs. the fact of the matter is unless there is international cooperation which results in some proposal that the assad government can live with, and which involves some sort of supervised effort to establish some domestic consensus, this conflict is going to go on. and let's not e

so if you want to make an impression on tehran or sri lanka, you can do more effectively through bilateral channels. >> i know you wanted to comment on that. >> i think the trend you emphasized in human rights ngos is the same for all ngos, just like the international financial institutions have to have more representative government. so the international ngos fill the need to be more representative. i used to work for the -- and i would often joke with the international ngo because we worked closely. they had corporate census and global networks and representative offices and subsidiaries around the world. they were no longer a local organization. they were really operating and they saw that as part of their logistics. the second thing is i think on jeff's point about changing landscape, it's not surprising that in europe the crisis delivers 50% of global it. aid budgets are generally under pressure and we will be seeing that tandem in the latest ocd numbers. if you look at turkey had the fastest growing aid budget and korea was a big player. those countries are growing their aid budget i

december 26th, australia, united states and japan and india deployed together to help the people of sri lanka and southern india because we had trained together in the air and sea. we want that type of cooperation. you have been a stalwart ally in afghanistan but you had to do it on the run not having worked very much with the european allies. it is inculcating patterns of cooperation and military training and confers no obligation on the part of parter countries. in essence it is the best of both worlds for the asia-pacific allies from my perspective. >> also hearing the most frequent complaint from australian officials is you are more than happy to use soldiers and resources in battle but we are not involved in the planning stage. we have problems and issues in our part of the world. if those two things could be resolved, it would be a qualitative finger in the relationship. >> i would agree with fred. you had to deploy to afghanistan and yet you had no say in that nature of that operation. it should be on the take off as a partner country putting your troops in harm's way. two other countr

sri lanka. la he started his legal studies in prison and became an attorney and devoted his entire practice to defending political prisoners which is what he does now with amnesty. we will then hear from a human rights advocate to for a furniture business who recently fled to the u.s. to escape constant monitoring and harassment from chinese authorities following her ongoing advocacy on behalf of chen. xuezhen wang. wang attempted to visit him on several occasions and participated and advocacy activities to free chen. there were beatings and constant monitoring. authorities detained her and her husband for two weeks in december 2011 as they were preparing to travel to participate in an activity to free chen. we will then hear from a blogger about china. yaxue cao. she grew up in china. her writings explore aspects of china's past and present with heavy emphasis on human rights and the rule of law including multiple pieces on chen. her posts have been quoted in length. including "the new york tim

, australia, the united states, japan and india deployed together to help the people of ache and sri lanka and southern india because we had exercised and trained together in the air and sea. we want that type of cooperation. you've been a stall wart ally in afghanistan but you've had to do it on the run not having worked very much with the european allies. so it's these patterns of cooperation and military training, it confers no obligation on the part of these partner countries. i think the best for both worlds in the asian-pacific allies. >> the most frequent complaint we hear on background from australian officials is you are more than happy to use our soldiers and resources in battle but we're not involved in the planning stage. and we have problems and we have issues in our part of the world but we don't have no forum. i think it would be a call stay tif change in the relationship. >> i would say, fred, briefly, i would agree with fred. you had to deploy to afghanistan and yet you had no say in the nature of that operation. you should be in on the takeoff as a partner country if you

kumar was a political visitor for five years in sri lanka for his human rights activities.he was adopted as a prisoner of conscience. he started his legal studies in prison and became an attorney and devoted his entire practice to defending political prisoners which is what he does now. we will then hear from wang xuezhen who is a human-rights advocate and purchasing agent for a furniture business who recently fled to the u.s. to escape constant monitoring and harassment from chinese authorities following ongoing advocacy on behalf of chen guangcheng. along with other human rights advocates, wang tried to visit chen guangcheng during his 19 months home confinement and participate in numerous activities. the authorities' treatment of her was constant beatings and detention. she and her husband for two weeks in december of 2011 as they were preparing to travel to participate in a free chen luncheon activity. we will then hear from an independent writer, translator and logger about china. she grew up and studied literature in the u.s.. her writings explore aspects of china pas

they're both children of war, maya from sri lanka, where conflict has continued for over two decades.immie from liberia, where war raged for 14 years. kimmie's personal history inspired a lifelong dedication to helping war-affected children. m.i.a. monrovia! [♪] so we're going to the town centre now? [weeks]: we're going to the city centre. [guy]: peace only came to liberia in 2003. in a country of only 3 million, the war killed over 250,000 people, and displaced almost 800,000. [weeks]: liberia has just survived what's believed to be one of the most brutal civil wars in africa. thousands of people were killed, women were raped, houses were burned, the entire infrastructure destroyed. not yet. where? anywhere. what do you mean, anywhere? well, our hotel has a generator. okay. but the city has no power whatsoever. [guy]: but there are hopeful signs of recovery. africa's first female president, ellen johnson-sirleaf, was elected in 2005. you know, with the whole liberian rebuilding process, it's not about bringing in, you know, skyscrapers and superhighways. it's just very, very basic--