1 October 2013 Last updated at 07:15 GMT
GL Peiris says government has no case to answer over the reported deaths of thousands of civilians at the end of the war
US begins shutdown amid budget row
The US government has begun a partial shutdown after the two houses of Congress failed to agree a budget.
The Republican-led House of Representatives insisted on delaying Mr Obama's healthcare reform - dubbed Obamacare - as a condition for passing a bill.
More than 800,000 federal employees face unpaid leave with no guarantee of back pay once the deadlock is over.
It is the first partial shutdown in 17 years.
The economic impact will depend on how long the deadlock lasts, but Goldman Sachs estimates a three-week shutdown could shave as much as 0.9% from US GDP this quarter.
With less than one hour to go before midnight, the Republican-led House called for a conference - a bipartisan committee with the Senate - to try to thrash out a deal, but Democrats said it was too late to avoid a shutdown.Sri Lanka foreign minister denies Tamil abuses
GL Peiris says government has no case to answer over the reported deaths of thousands of civilians at the end of the war
Sri Lanka's foreign minister says his government has no case to answer over the reported deaths of thousands of civilians at the end of the country's civil war, even as pressure grows for an international inquiry to account for the dead.
The UN's top human rights official said last week Sri Lanka needed to show progress by next March or the international community should establish its own inquiry. The allegations centre on civilian casualties and summary executions in the final months of the quarter-century conflict that ended in 2009, when government forces crushed Tamil rebels.
Speaking on the sidelines of the UN general assembly on Monday, the foreign minister, GL Peiris, defended the government's efforts in investigating reported abuses by security forces, and said a commission of inquiry appointed by Sri Lanka's president in August to investigate disappearances would report back after six months.
Politicians from Greece’s Golden Dawn party due in court
Politicians among 22 people arrested in crackdown on Nazi-inspired party
Four politicians from the extremist right-wing Golden Dawn party are due in court for a preliminary hearing into charges of participating in a criminal organisation.
Ilias Kassidiaris, who is also the party’s spokesman, Ilias Panagiotaros, Yiannis Lagosand Nikos Mihos are to appear this afternoon for a deposition.
Another three party members are scheduled to appear earlier in the day. The party’s top figures, including its leader, are among 22 people arrested in a crackdown on the Nazi-inspired party sparked by the fatal stabbing on September 17th of a Greek rap singer.
Arrest warrants have been issued for another 10 people. Golden Dawn rose from a fringe group to become Greece’s third most popular party in recent years, riding on a wave of anger over the country’s deep financial crisis.MIDDLE EAST
Muzzle for Egypt's media
Prize-winning Egyptian journalist, Ahmed Abu Deraa, is being tried in a military court for criticizing his country's armed forces. The case highlights the threat to the media and press freedom in Egypt.
Curious, well-connected and always the first to the scene in Cairo: That is how colleagues describe the Egyptian journalist, Ahmed Abu Deraa. For his reports on human trafficking on the Sinai Peninsula, the 38-year-old was honored with the prestigious Samir Kassir Prize for Journalism last year.
"Ahmed Abu Deraa always wants every bit of news confirmed at the source. He had many ways of getting at information, especially because he comes from a Bedouin family," said Mohammed Abu Adham, a long-time colleague of Deraa.
For the Egyptian army, however, Abu Deraa is a criminal. He allegedly filmed military installations and intentionally spread erroneous news, the army claims.
Security tightened after students slaughtered
Nigerian authorities are taking measures to improve security around schools after Islamists killed 40 students at the weekend.
Government sources said yesterday the move was aimed at restoring confidence in Western-style schools that have been scenes of bloody massacres by Boko Haram, which has been fighting for the establishment of an Islamic state.
A presidency source said President Goodluck Jonathan met senior security aides late on Sunday to discuss how to respond to the latest deadly shift in tactics by the insurgents.
"In the meeting they decided to provide special security cover for schools in the northeast and some other places prone to possible attacks," he said.
No horsing around: Bogotá wants horse-drawn carts off the streets
Late model Audis are getting caught behind horse-drawn carts – and Bogotá officials think trucks could help boost income for those who rely on older modes of transportation.
Dawn had barely arrived and already Jaime Castro had put in a long day. Mr. Castro and his horse, Lucifer, had set out from his home in a poor neighborhood of Colombia’s capital around 2 a.m. for what was to be their last ride together after years of trolling the city collecting scraps of wood, metal, and plastic for informal recycling.
Castro has worked as a recycler since he was a child. "I grew up on this thing," he says, referring to the rickety wooden cart that served as his family's main form of transportation and means of earning a living for the past few decades.
But on a recent chilly morning Castro and two dozen other cart drivers turned over their horses and carts as part of a city government plan to eliminate animal-pulled vehicles from Bogotá's traffic-choked streets.
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