Britain’s split on a cliff
GLASGOW, Sept 13, 2014 (AFP) – Five days ahead of Scotland’s independence referendum the race remained too close to call today, with the misgivings of business leaders over the prospect of quitting the United Kingdom becoming louder. Opinion polls on Friday gave campaigners for Scotland to stay in Britain a slight lead as the leaders [...]
Pope decries piecemeal WW III
REDIPUGLIA, Italy, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Pope Francis said today the spate of conflicts around the globe today were effectively a “piecemeal” Third World War, condemning the arms trade and “plotters of terrorism” sowing death and destruction. “Humanity needs to weep and this is the time to weep,” Francis said in the homily of a [...]
Yesterday’s vision and today’s reality
“Vision and Reality: the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka”, edited by Priyanee Wijesekera and Naufel Abdul-Rahman, was launched recently at a ceremony held at the Kadirgamar Institute. The book, a compilation of essays, commentary and material, marks 35 years since the promulgation of the Constitution of 1978 and is intended, as its title suggests, to [...]
“Hiru Wenuvata Sandhu” provides a refreshing change of scene
September 4 saw the launch of Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam’s book “Hiru Wenuvata Sandhu,” which had been his pet project, though only a few knew about it. The Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Health Services) of the Colombo Municipal Council, and former Chief Medical Officer of Health of the CMC, Dr. Kariyawasam is more in the news on [...]
LBV marks 150th birth anniversary of Anagarika Dharmapala
The London Buddhist Vihara (LBV) at Chiswick, the oldest Buddhist temple in Europe commenced a week-long celebration starting yesterday (Saturday, September 13) to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Anagarika Dharmapala, the founder of the Vihara and the Maha Bodhi movement. The celebrations in Britain form part of global events to commemorate the life and [...]
Capturing innovation and inspiration
The name Dharmapala signified ‘one who guards the Dharma’ (doctrine); Anagarika, ‘one who has no fixed abode’. These lines come from a ten-year-old’s exercise book. Among national heroes her imagination has been caught by the vitality and force of the man who valued the Triple Gem and three others: “My country, my people and my [...]
Developing nations set to hit back at New York City banks
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 8 2014 (IPS) – The Group of 77, the largest single coalition of developing countries, is hitting back at New York City banks that arbitrarily cancelled the accounts of more than 70 overseas diplomatic missions, leaving ambassadors, senior and junior diplomats and non-diplomatic staff without banking facilities. The 193-member General Assembly is [...]
Scientists ‘reset’ stem cells to study start of human development
LONDON (Reuters) – British and Japanese scientists have managed to “reset” human stem cells to their earliest state, opening up a new realm of research into the start of human development and potentially life-saving regenerative medicines. In work described by one independent expert as “a major step forward”, the scientists said theyhad successfully rebooted pluripotent [...]
Kachchativu, Law of the Sea and Lanka’s sovereignty
“Maritime Boundaries in the Indian Ocean: Sri Lanka and the Law of the Sea” by Dr. Nirmala Chandrahasan. Review by Dr. Rohan Perera Introduction The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) was path-breaking. It marked a fundamental shift, from the ‘old order’ governing the oceans, propounded by such classical [...]
Dubai’s latest luxury
DUBAI (Reuters) – Dubai built the world’s tallest building, put a ski slope inside a shopping mall and gave its cops a Lamborghini for a police car. Where else would you sell a $150 bottle of ‘halal’ non-alcoholic sparkling white wine with flecks of 24-carat edible gold leaf gleaming at the bottom? It makes sense [...]
Scapegoating police: It’s time to say no to politicians
With the battle for Uva hotting up day by day, the violence escalating from abuse, attack, damage to properties up to the level of shooting, one can expect a worse scenario within the next few days, up to the day of polls and after. It is regretted that the perpetrators of violence are not only [...]
Election violence and police inaction: A way out
‘A provincial poll that is more of a battle field,’ runs the headline of a comment article in the Sunday Times of August 31, 2014 (p 22). ‘A senior Minister of this government lambasted the police for failing to stop election violence at Badalkumbura…’ is the further note of Kishali Pinto Jayawardena (KPJ) in this [...]
China tells Dalai Lama again to respect reincarnation
BEIJING (Reuters) – China repeated a call on the Dalai Lama to respect what it said was the historic practice of reincarnation, after the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader implied in a newspaper interview he may be the last to hold the position. The Dalai Lama, in an interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, said [...]
New Thai PM uses holy water, feng shui to ward off occult
BANGKOK (Reuters) – As he prepares to move in to Bangkok’s Government House , Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is going to great lengths to sweep away any occult challenge. Prayuth, 60, has left nothing to chance since leading a military coup to topple a democratically elected government on May 22. After a meticulously planned [...]
Is the Tamil diaspora tiring of street protests?
This headline tells the story. Tamil activists, especially those who exhort members of their community to join in the many anti-Sri Lanka protests they organise, will I have no doubt, disagree furiously. There would be no surprise in that. But if one is to look at the recent landscape here in Britain with some objectivity, [...]
Asia’s democratic dark spots
NEW DELHI – Democracy in Asia lately has proved to be hardier than many might have expected, with free and fair elections enabling the large and divided societies of India and Indonesia to manage important political transitions. But some Asian democracies – notably, Thailand and Pakistan – seem to be losing their way. Indians have [...]
Kerry lands in Cairo for talks on anti-IS coalition
CAIRO, Sept 13 (AFP) -US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived today in Cairo on the latest leg of a regional tour to forge a coalition against Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria. Kerry is scheduled to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi. Relations between Washington and Cairo [...]
200,000 still stranded in killer Kashmir floods
SRINAGAR, India, Sept 13 (AFP) -More than 200,000 people remained stranded today in Indian Kashmir even as flood waters receded, revealing the full extent of the horrific devastation in the Himalayan region, including neighbouring Pakistan, officials said. The floods and landslides from days of heavy monsoon rains have now claimed more than 450 lives in [...]
Ukraine army says repelled rebel assault on Donetsk airport
KIEV, Sept 13 (AFP) -The Ukrainian military said today its forces had repelled an insurgent attack on the airport in the eastern separatist stronghold of Donetsk, despite an eight-day ceasefire. “Many rebels backed by six tanks launched an assault against the airport on Friday which was heroically repelled by the soldiers,” the press service for [...]
Pakistan’s Malala, global icon of girls’ education
ISLAMABAD (AFP) -Schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai’s courageous fightback from being shot by the Taliban has transformed her both into a symbol for human rights and a campaigner in global demand. Few teenagers can say they have been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize, or spent their 17th birthday lobbying Nigeria’s president to do more [...]
Profit motive big hurdle for Ebola drugs: experts
PARIS, Sept 13 (AFP) -For nearly four decades, mention of the Ebola virus has evoked death and terror, yet a simple factor — money — has stood in the way of erasing the curse, experts say. Despite its evil reputation, Ebola breaks out only rarely in brief if murderous spurts in impoverished African countries. That [...]
