As the people of South Sudan declared their independence on Saturday after decades of struggle, congratulations and pledges of support swiftly came in from leaders across the world.

At least twenty countries have already recognized South Sudan, including all five members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – as well as India, South Africa, and Nigeria.

Other countries include Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, South Korea and Switzerland.

Ironically, Sudan was the first to recognise South Sudan, given Khartoum’s decades of violent efforts to deny the South’s demand independence that have resulted in over two million deaths and four million people being displaced.

It has taken sixteen years, but Bosnian Muslims finally have a chance to seek final justice with the capture of one of ‘the most wanted man’ in Europe.

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb commander charged with responsibility for the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre was caught in a small town in northern Serbia on May 26.

Sixteen years after he was first listed as a wanted man for acts committed during the violent break-up of Yugoslavia, the Serbian national now faces The Hague on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His arrest, so long after the crimes he commanded, underlines the powerful impact on international affairs of post Cold War norms of accountability – norms that presently also underpin international operations against Mummar Gaddafi in Libya.

"His arrest is a clear message to accused like Omar al-Bashir and potential accused like Moammar Gadhafi that justice never forgets," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program, in an email to the AP.

Last Friday the 69-year-old was declared fit to face trial and now faces extradition to Netherlands to face the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Since the 2008 arrest of Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, Mladic has been the most prominent Bosnian war criminal on the run.

The Serb ultranationalist has been pivotal to the region’s politics for over two decades.

First he commanded the brutal three year siege of Sarajevo (the longest of a capital city in modern warfare) and the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica.

Then, after going on the run in Serbia, he became a litmus test of the country’s commitment to international codes of conduct. After the Kosovo crisis and the removal of Slobodan Milosovic Serbia’s rehabilitation into international society and its ascension to the European Union became de facto conditional on handing Mladic over to the ICTY.

The United States has launched a high-level initiative to make its military more ready and able to respond to potential mass killings in future, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A senior Department of Defense official told the WSJ that the project, which is at an early stage, would help develop "a complete set of options that the leadership can consider in the preventive area before it comes to sending in the military, or not sending in the military."

With Tamil Nadu due to go to the polls within weeks, the issue of Indian fishermen being attacked in the waters between India and Sri Lanka has once again made the news.

The oceanic border between India and Sri Lanka has no visible demarcations and fishermen often find themselves on the wrong side.

While Sinhala fishermen (often seeking tuna) have been arrested in Indian waters and later released, there has also long been a history of the Sri Lankan navy attacking and killing Indian fishermen.

"[Sri Lanka’s] export earnings, as a percentage of GDP, have been falling for years. So the first thing for Sri Lanka is to boost its exports to where it was 10 years ago.”

- IMF Asia Pacific Director Anoop Singh. (See The Island’s report here.)

Interestingly, ten years ago Sri Lanka was gripped by high-intensity armed conflict.

And, as the IMF’s chart (click more below) shows, Sri Lanka’s export/GDP ratio today is the same as in 1987 - when the JVP’s second insurgency erupted, and the IPKF intervention began.

While Sri Lanka’s Central Bank says export earnings would grow strongly in 2011, the National Chamber of Exporters recently said it would not be able to deliver half of the Central Bank’s expectations.

The exporters blame growing energy costs (for their production) and the strengthening rupee (making their products expensive in the global market).

See ‘Why Sri Lanka’s exporters are gloomy’

Meanwhile, what exactly does the IMF want Sri Lanka to do? Diversify export destinations (to Asia from US and EU), and export products (from garments and tea to more sophisticated ones).