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Bin Laden’s end: Seymour Hersh’s bombshell story
“I’m not saying that they’re at the highest levels, but I believe that somewhere in this government are people who know where Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda is, where Mullah Omar and the leadership of the Afghan Taliban is, and we expect more cooperation to help us bring to justice, capture or kill those who [...]
Pakistani defector was key in Bin Laden operation: Officials
ISLAMABAD, (AFP) – Two former senior Pakistani military officials told AFP that a defector from Pakistani intelligence assisted the US in its hunt for Osama bin Laden but denied the two countries had officially worked together. The officials’ accounts come after the publication of a controversial new report by US journalist Seymour Hersh in which [...]
Sri Lankan President thanks Pakistan for support to end terrorism
President Maithripala Sirisena said that the government as well as the entire Sri Lankan nation is grateful to Pakistan for the enormous assistance provided to Sri Lanka to defeat terrorists. “Sri Lanka today stands as a peaceful unitary State because of your support,” he told the new High Commissioner of Pakistan to Sri Lanka, Maj [...]
Israeli Ambassador meets PM
The Ambassador of Israel to Sri Lanka, Daniel Carmon visited Sri Lanka to participate in Israel’s 67th National Day celebrations. During his visit, the Ambassador met with Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe. They discussed in detail the existing fields of cooperation between Israel and Sri Lanka as well as new ways for mutual cooperation [...]
CFW Day at University of Moratuwa
Colombo Fashion Week recently held its fourth successful CFW Day as part of its ongoing Designer Development Programme, which aims to nurture the next generation of fashion talent in Sri Lanka. This edition of CFW Day was held at the University of Moratuwa, where fashion design students engaged with the CFW team, senior designers and [...]
Channelling China’s aspirations
CAMBRIDGE – China has begun to stretch its economic and military muscles in recent years. In the South China Sea, it has built a series of quasi-military bases on the tiny Spratly Islands and deployed warships to defend them. Meanwhile, it is sponsoring the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) – an international institution that [...]
Learning through rural practice
Chinese architect Yang Zhao, the Founder of Zhaoyang Architects in China will deliver this year’s Geoffrey Bawa Memorial Lecture. The lecture is on “Learning through Rural Practice” where Archt. Zhao will speak about his experience from his first project “Niyang River Visitor Center” in Tibet, and “Home for all” in Kesennuma, Japan, to a series [...]
Annual Marian school walk
The streets of Matara were teeming with students, teachers, past pupils and well wishers of St Mary’s Convent when they took to the streets for their annual school walk on May 9. The annual event was organised to raise much needed funds for extracurricular activities and development projects at St. Mary’s Convent.
SLHRF meets European Union Ambassador
A delegation of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Foundation (SLHRF) headed by B.M. Murshideen held talks with the European Union Amabassador in Sri Lanka David Daly at the EU office in Colombo recently. Mr. Murshideen handed over a report of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Foundation to the Ambassador. SLHRF Joint Secretary Suraiya Rizwi and [...]
Anapana meditation programme at Dhamma Sobha Vipassana
The Dhamma Sobha Vipassana Meditation Centre at Pahala Kosgama is launching a programme for children and parents in Anapana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagi U Ba Khin at the F.R. Senanayake Daham Pasala at the Vidyodaya pirivena, Sri Sumangala Na Himi Mawatha, Maradana today, Sunday, May 17. S.N. Goenka [...]
EWC workshop
The English Writers’ Cooperative of Sri Lanka (EWC) has organised a half-day workshop on the ‘Art of Short Story Writing’ conducted by Gratiaen Prize winner Madhubhashini Ratnayake on Saturday, June 13 from 8.30 a.m. to 12 noon at the Sri Lanka University Women’s Federation auditorium at 96/24 Kitulwatte Road, Colombo 8. Madhubhashini Ratnayake is a [...]
School children in Mutur now cycle to school
Berendina Development Services (BDS) donated bicycles to needy schoolchildren in the Muttur area of Trincomalee district. The ceremony was held at Al Mina Maha Vidyalayam, Periyapalam, Muttur recently with the Divisional Secretary of Muttur, A. Yoosuf, Additional Divisional Secretary, A. Thahir, Zonal Director of Education, Ms. Akila Kanagasooriyam, Asst. Director-Dept.of Social Services, Eastern Province K. [...]
Kidney transplant urgently needed
Mr. E.P. Krishantha, 42, is in end stage kidney failure and urgently needs a kidney transplant for his survival. His blood group is A positive and he needs a kidney of a person whose blood group is “A” or “O” positive. Anyone who wishes to donate a kidney is kindly requested to contact the family [...]
9th Ramanathians get-together
The Ramanathians of Ramanathan Hall of Peradeniya University will have a get-together on Sunday, May 24 at 11 a.m. at Police Family Welfare Association Hall on Joseph Frazer Road, Bambalapitiya. This lunch get-together is open for all Ramanathians. The organisers request Ramanathians to contact Amaradasa Gunawardena on 0112863129 or 0716810978 for details. Invitations have been [...]
COSLAM presents case for Malay representation in Parliament
Responding to President Maithripala Sirisena’s call to make any further proposals to the draft 20th Amendment to the Constitution by noon on May 13, the president of the Conference of Sri Lanka Malays (COSLAM) has in a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena, has renewed the call to restore Malay representation in parliament. In a media [...]
International Humanitarian Law in 21st Century: Is it more humane today?
The term International Humanitarian Law came to be used from 1950 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and is now generally used for that body of law earlier called the Laws and customs of War or the law of Armed Conflict. Does this change in nomenclature indicate the changing direction of the [...]
Constitutionalising patriotism: The simile of the cave?
This article attempts to evoke some discussion on the emerging discourse on patriotism which has increasingly become a driving force in shaping affairs of State management. The modern State, being a constitutional State by all means, should be considered as a distinct entity from a brutal political power. It is through constitutionalism that the State [...]
Presidential security: A blunder most blatant
The arrest of a commando reportedly with a side arm at a political gathering in Angunakolapelessa on April 25 was a sensational news item hogging the media. The fact that the armed commando was within killing distance of the President at this function organised by the Speaker raised serious concerns over the President’s security. Law [...]
Elderly people who exercise ‘live five years longer’
Regular exercise in old age has as powerful an effect on life expectancy as giving up smoking, researchers say. The analysis of 5,700 elderly men in Norway showed those doing three hours of exercise a week lived around five years longer than the sedentary. The authors, writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, called [...]
A deepwater fish joins warm-blooded club
WASHINGTON (Reuters)- Move over, mammals and birds, and make room for a fish called the opah in the warm-blooded club. Researchers said in the journal Science on Thursday that this deepwater denizen is the first fish known to be fully warm-blooded, circulating heated blood throughout its body, enabling it to be a vigorous predator in [...]
The green-eyed con artist
La Bamba is where they all converge, the visitors. They come from within and without. From Point Pedro, Dondra Head, Uswetikeiyawa, Malé, Mahé, Chennai, Rawalpindi, Karachi; also Manila, Shanghai, Beijing, Ulan Bator; Dhaka, Thimpu, Kathmandu; Amman, Damman; Abuja, Bujumbura, and Ouagadougou They all get off at the popular shopping-theatre complex that dominates Bambalapitiya and walk [...]
These microscopic mites live on your face
You almost certainly have animals living on your face. You can’t see them, but they’re there. They are microscopic mites, eight-legged creatures rather like spiders. Almost every human being has them. They spend their entire lives on our faces, where they eat, mate and finally die. Before you start buying extra-strong facewash, you should know [...]
The ‘King Of Blues’
Blues legend B.B. King has died in Las Vegas aged 89, his lawyer confirmed on Thursday. Attorney Brent Bryson said King died peacefully in his sleep at 9:40 p.m. PDT at his Clark County, Nevad home in Las Vegas. King, widely regarded as the ‘King Of Blues’, sold millions of records worldwide, won 15 Grammy [...]
Thailand finds over 100 migrants on island, many more still adrift
KOH LIPE, Thailand/BANGKOK, May 16 (Reuters) -Thailand has found more than 100 migrants on a southern island but thousands remain adrift as boats are pushed back out into Southeast Asia’s seas by governments who have ignored a UN call for a coordinated rescue. The crisis has arisen because smugglers have abandoned boats crammed with migrants, [...]
Indian, Chinese firms sign deals worth $22 billion
SHANGHAI, May 16 (AFP) -Indian and Chinese firms signed 21 agreements officials said were worth a total of more than $22 billion in Shanghai today, witnessed by visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Let us work together in mutual interests,” Modi told executives from 200 Chinese and Indian companies at the signing ceremony. “Now India is [...]
Boston bomber Tsarnaev sentenced to death
BOSTON, May 16(AFP) -A US jury sentenced 21-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, one of the worst assaults on American soil since the September 11, 2001 attacks. It took the jury more than 14 hours to choose death rather than life imprisonment for the ex pot-smoking college [...]
Egypt sentences deposed president Morsi to death
CAIRO, May 16 (AFP) -An Egyptian court sentenced deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and more than 100 other defendants to death today over jail breaks during the 2011 uprising. Morsi was in the caged dock when the judge read out his verdict. Many of those sentenced were tried in absentia, including prominent Islamic cleric Yusuf [...]
IS seizes Iraqi govt compound, kills dozens in Syria
BEIRUT, May 16 (AFP) -Islamic State extremists made key gains Friday, seizing a government compound in the strategic Iraqi city of Ramadi hours after allegedly massacring dozens of civilians as they closed in on Syria’s ancient metropolis of Palmyra. Women and children were among 23 people executed in cold blood outside Palmyra, monitoring groups said, [...]
US hosts arms bazaar at White House Arab summit
UNITED NATIONS, May 16, 2015 (IPS) – When the United States sells billions of dollars in sophisticated arms to Arab nations, they are conditioned on two key factors: no weapons with a qualitative military edge over Israel will ever be sold to the Arabs, nor will they receive any weapons that are not an integral [...]
Brutally executed, banished or ‘disappeared’
Five of the seven men who stood alongside Kim Jong-Un at his father’s funeral less than four years ago have either disappeared, been brutally executed or banished. Jang Song-thaek, Kim Ki Nam, Choe Tae-bok, Ri Yong-Ho, Kim Yong-chun, Kim Jong-gak and U Dong-chuk, who made up North Korea’s political and military elite – were pallbearers [...]
‘Aggression could be our downfall’
Professor Stephen Hawking believes the future of the human race depends on our abilities to explore space. During a tour of London’s Science Museum, the 73-year-old said that landing on the moon gave us new perspectives of life on Earth, and this outlook must develop if we are to survive. He also said aggression should [...]
The future of cuddly robots
MIAMI (Reuters)-Disney’s Big Hero 6 star Baymax has captured the hearts of millions around the world. But while the health monitoring balloon-like machine is a work of science fiction, researchers are working towards making soft, human-friendly robots a reality. Chris Atkeson’s work in the field of soft robotics inspired the creation of Baymax. He, along [...]
Has our phone addiction gone too far?
The average person spends the equivalent of two working days a week on their mobiles, with a quarter of people checking their mobiles 50 times a day, according to new research. In fact, a fifth of people are now so obsessed with their smartphones that they even use them whilst they are on the loo. [...]
Cigars ‘are worse than cigarettes’
Cigars may be more harmful to smokers than cigarettes, researchers warned yesterday. The news comes as cigar use rises in the US, where the study was carried out, and cigarette smoking declines. Alarmingly, more young people appear to be taking up cigars thanks to new ranges of flavoured ones. Cigar consumption more than doubled from [...]