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War, war, all the way for Brits

War, war, all the way for Brits

The generals are beside themselves, Whitehall’s in a panic. After generations of continuous warfare, the British public has had enough. They’re war-weary, the mandarins fret, and believe the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have been bloody failures. Worse, multicultural Britain is increasingly hostile to troops marching into countries from which British citizens or their families [...]

New life for Lanka-Aussie ties

New life for Lanka-Aussie ties

The NSW State Government intends to set up a Sri Lankan Ministerial Committee to smoothen dialogue between the two countries, a government minister announced at the Independence Day celebrations in Sydney that brought together eminent expatriates, Australian dignitaries and foreign diplomats in what Consul-General Bandula Jayasekera hopes will be a most useful convergence of interests [...]

“Time To Act”: SLANA hosts public forum on drug abuse

“Time To Act”: SLANA hosts public forum on drug abuse

The Sri Lanka Anti Narcotics Association (SLANA) held a public forum “Time To Act” to educate the public and enlighten them about the treacherous cycle of drug abuse, The forum which took place last month brought together representatives of diverse associations, both independent and state bodies to talk on different aspects of the drug problem [...]

Palestine Ambassador leaves Lanka after nine years

Palestine Ambassador leaves Lanka after nine years

Palestine Ambassador Anwer al-Agha will be leaving Sri Lanka to take up post as his country’s ambassador in Malaysia next month. Addressing a farewell reception hosted by the Sri Lanka-Palestine Solidarity Committee at the office of senior Minister Athauda Seneviratne in Colombo on Thursday, Dr. Agha, who is also the dean of the diplomatic corps, [...]

HarperCollins to launch debut author in Sri Lanka

HarperCollins to launch debut author in Sri Lanka

HarperCollins Publishers will be in Sri Lanka to mark the worldwide release of ‘Reyna’s Prophecy’ by debut author, Radhika Philip on February 28 at The Barefoot Gallery. “HarperCollins have always maintained a presence in Sri Lanka and distribute through many of the leading book stores. This is the first time we’ve launched a book from [...]

Strangers in Slave Island

Strangers in Slave Island

There are strangers in Slave Island tonight and they are, well, acting strange. As we walk toward Rio Cinema, we see a woman running the opposite way. She appears to be talking furiously to herself until you see a camera, perched on a contraption supported by a band around her waist. She is past us [...]

Pope’s date with Lankans

Pope’s date with Lankans

Pope Francis last Saturday met a group of Sri Lankans living in Italy and accepted an invitation to visit their country without however specifying a date for the visit. Calling for reconciliation in Sri Lanka, the pontiff said: “It is not easy, I know, to heal the wounds and cooperate with yesterday’s enemy to build [...]

Buildings that marginalise millions of us

Buildings that marginalise millions of us

I am among over two million of rapidly ageing ‘sons of Mother Lanka’. It seems our Architects, Constructors, Politicians and Businessmen are yet to realise that ‘Nothing is certain, static or permanent’. This includes the ability we once enjoyed to walk even over piles of bricks and on wet slippery floors. Our access to the [...]

China’s Jade Rabbit moon rover awake, still malfunctioning

China’s Jade Rabbit moon rover awake, still malfunctioning

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Jade Rabbit moon rover has endured a long lunar night but is still malfunctioning, state media said on Thursday, after technical problems last month cast uncertainty over the country’s first moon landing. Jade Rabbit, named after a lunar goddess in traditional Chinese mythology, landed to domestic fanfare in mid-December, on a [...]

Mel: My colleague and friend

Mel: My  colleague and friend

Mel Gunasekera became AFP’s first full-time woman correspondent in Colombo when she joined in January 2007. She had covered Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatist war and its bloody finale in 2009 and was widely respected across the country. On February 2, she was murdered at her Colombo home after confronting a burglar. Her former colleague, AFP’s [...]

Nepal to reduce fees to climb Mount Everest

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepal will cut climbing fees for Mount Everest to lure more mountaineers to the world’s highest peak, already overcrowded during the peak climbing season. Hundreds of foreign climbers, each paying thousands of dollars, flock to the 8,850-metre (29,035 feet) Everest summit during the main climbing season stretching from March to May. Under [...]

UN tells Lanka: Don’t leave anyone behind in development process

UN tells Lanka: Don’t leave anyone behind in development process

The United Nations Development Programme has warned Sri Lanka that inequality between the rich and the poor is widening and the country should give priority to inclusive growth and try to include vulnerable groups, such as women-headed households, people with disabilities and people in the poverty groups. “Help them, don’t forget them in the development [...]

Scientists achieve ‘turning point’ in fusion energy quest

Scientists achieve ‘turning point’ in fusion energy quest

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. scientists announced on Wednesday an important milestone in the costly, decades-old quest to develop fusion energy, which, if harnessed successfully, promises a nearly inexhaustible energy source for future generations. For the first time, experiments have produced more energy from fusion reactions than the amount of energy put into the fusion fuel, [...]

Mobile phones don’t cause cancer

Mobile phones don’t cause cancer

There is no link between mobile phones and any health problems, a decade-long report has concluded. The study also found no evidence that exposure to base station emissions during pregnancy increases the risk of childhood leukaemia. The Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research programme was the UK’s largest research programme to look at the possible health [...]

Syria peace talks break off, no new date set: Brahimi

Syria peace talks break off, no new date set: Brahimi

GENEVA, Feb 15 (AFP) -A second round of peace talks between Syria’s warring sides broke off today without making any progress and without a date being set for a third round, the UN mediator said. “I think it is better that every side goes back and reflects on their responsibility, (and on whether) they want [...]

Fears for Hong Kong press freedom as China flexes muscle

Fears for Hong Kong press freedom as China flexes muscle

HONG KONG (AFP) -Hong Kong’s status as a bastion of press freedom is being eroded by creeping self-censorship under pressure from Beijing and media bosses loath to lose business in China, insiders are warning. Compared to the tightly-controlled state press on China’s mainland, Hong Kong’s newsstands and networks offer a noisy jungle of competing outlets [...]

Thai opposition protesters vow no surrender

BANGKOK, Feb 15 (AFP) -Thai opposition protesters today refused to end their rallies in Bangkok despite a vow by police to clear more demonstration sites, following an operation to reclaim the besieged government headquarters. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government is attempting to seize back key state buildings after more than three months of mass protests [...]

Lebanon announces new govt after 10-month stalemate

BEIRUT, Feb 15 (AFP) – Lebanon today announced the formation of a compromise government after a 10-month political vacuum during which the war in neighbouring Syria exacerbated longstanding divisions. The 24-member government unites the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah and its allies with the Sunni-led bloc of former prime minister Saad Hariri for the first time [...]

Saudi Arabia: The last of the Sudeiri Seven

Saudi Arabia: The last of the Sudeiri Seven

LONDON – Ever since the Al Saud clan established in 1932, the Kingdom to which they gave their name, the exercise of power in Saudi Arabia has been shaped by the intrigues and intricacies of royal politics. But never before has this internal struggle had such far-reaching ramifications for the region and beyond as it [...]

Little girl who lit up the darkest days

Little girl who lit up the darkest days

Have you ever wondered who was the greatest box-office star in Hollywood history? If you have, let me tell you this .?.?. It wasn’t Clark Gable. It wasn’t Marilyn Monroe. It wasn’t Elizabeth Taylor. And it wasn’t even Harry Potter and his amazing phantasmagorical exploits. They all made millions in their time, but in terms [...]

India free speech is under threat – Penguin Books

India free speech is under threat – Penguin Books

Freedom of expression is under threat in India, publisher Penguin Books India said on Friday, adding that it had little choice but to withdraw from sale a controversial book on Hinduism by a US academic. Penguin agreed in a Delhi court this week to recall all copies of the book and pulp them. The move [...]

Foreign Service fiasco: A crime against the country

Foreign Service fiasco: A crime against the country

Some centuries ago, had a head of State defeated an enemy such as the LTTE and saved a country from being separated, he would have been hailed as the king of the country, for the historic achievement. Our President was re-elected for a second term as a just reward, and Parliament allowed him to change [...]

Obama ambassador nominees prompt an uproar with bungled answers, lack of ties

A century-old debate over whether presidents should reward political donors and allies by making them ambassadors has flared again following a string of embarrassing gaffes by President Obama’s picks. The nominee for ambassador to Norway, for example, prompted outrage in Oslo by characterizing one of the nation’s ruling parties as extremist. A soap-opera producer slated [...]

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