“ Basil came and destroyed all my plans” – Mahinda

Thursday, 23 April 2015

“I told Basil not to come but he never listened to me and trusted Johnny. Johnny only told him to come without fear. Rajitha too had told him that he will look after. Can you see what has happened now after trusting them? Now Rajitha is telling that he would make me to wear jumper. I have made up my mind. I am used to the life in remand. I came to my mother’s funeral from the remand” said the former
president Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday night following the news of his brother’s remand.

The former president further said with a humour that “Basil completely destroyed all the plans what we made with Wimal and Bandula. Basil does such type idiocy. I am paying for his sins. That’s why my boys don’t like him at all. If I was not there two years back my son Yoshitha would have shot him. Now my time is not good, now I understand”

Sri Lanka graft busters question Rajapakse brothers

By AFP- 23 April 2015

Two brothers of former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse faced questioning by anti-corruption investigators on Thursday as the new government stepped up its crackdown against the old regime.

Hours after the former leader's youngest brother Basil was arrested on his return from a trip abroad, another sibling, Gotabhaya, was hauled before the country's main anti-corruption body over claims of kickbacks he allegedly received while he served as defence secretary.

Gotabhaya, widely regarded as the real power behind 69-year-old Rajapakse during his decade-long rule, angrily denounced the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) as he arrived at their headquarters on Thursday.

Sri Lankan supporters of former president Mahinda Rajapakse take part in a protest outside the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption department Colombo on April 23, 2015 ©Ishara S.Kodikara (AFP)

"They are taking action against policy decisions we took," the 65-year-old told reporters in downtown Colombo.

"At this rate, they can arrest the entire (former) cabinet for taking decisions. This is ridiculous.

"I have not done anything wrong. I was an honest government officer."

Hundreds of Gotabhaya supporters carrying photos of him defied a court ban on protests as they massed outside CIABOC.

Many also carried doctored versions of the Sri Lankan national flag, without the green and saffron stripes that represent the minority Muslim and Tamil communities respectively.

Gotabhaya was questioned behind closed doors, although sources said that it was a brief session and he would return for a more lengthy interrogation early next week.

Basil, who was economic development minister under his brother, faced his own interrogation behind bars at a Colombo prison hospital over allegations that he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars in a controversial government housing scheme.

The 64-year-old, who has dual Sri Lankan and American citizenship, fled to the United States soon after his brother lost the January 8 election to Maithripala Sirisena, a former ally of Rajapakse before he jumped ship to challenge his old mentor.

The US embassy in Colombo said it could not comment on whether it was providing consular assistance to Basil, who faces two weeks in remand, "due to privacy considerations".

Police said they will question him over the next two weeks, after which formal charges are expected to be framed. Basil maintains he is innocent.

In an interview with AFP on Wednesday, Rajapakse slammed the string of corruption probes against his relatives as part of a "witch-hunt" instigated by his successor.

- Questioning delayed-

The former president had also been summoned to CIABOC on Friday, but following a demand by lawmakers loyal to him, anti-graft investigators agreed to visit him at home and have not said when that will occur.

"I have received a letter from them (CIABOC) saying they will visit me to record a statement. They have not said when," the former president told AFP.

An ethnic Sinhalese, Rajapakse remains popular among big sections of the island's largest community for overseeing the defeat of the Tamil Tiger separatist rebels in 2009 after a 37-year conflict.

Parliament remains packed with Rajapakse loyalists, complicating the new leader's plans to overturn a raft of constitutional changes brought in by his predecessor, who awarded himself a host of new powers.

Sirisena had originally pledged to dissolve the 225-member legislature this week, but instead addressed the nation on Thursday night and vowed to fight corruption that he said had flourished under his predecessor.

He did not refer to his pre-election pledge to dismiss parliament, but urged lawmakers to support his reform plans.

"I appeal to all MPs to vote for the reforms. It is necessary for good governance and rule of law," Sirisena said in a 30-minute televised address. "I will go all out to fight waste and corruption. I have shown the way by reducing the presidential staff by more than 1,000 employees."

Deputy foreign minister Ajith Perera said the president was likely to call fresh elections after the legislature votes on a statute amendment that would establish independent commissions to run the police, the public service and the judiciary, among others.

"We can expect a dissolution soon after the 19th amendment (the reform bill) is put to a vote in parliament next week," the minister told reporters in Colombo.

Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse listens to an AFP journalist during an interview in Colombo, on April 22, 2015 ©Ishara S.Kodikara (AFP)

Sri Lankan police transport Basil Rajapakse, the youngest brother of former president Mahinda Rajapakse, to appear before a magistrate in Colombo on April 22, 2015 ©Ishara S.Kodikara (AFP/File)

Sri Lanka's former defence ministry chief Gotabhaya Rajapakse (R) waves to supporters of former president Mahinda Rajapakse in Colombo on April 23, 2015 ©Ishara S.Kodikara (AFP)

Brother who spent public money for the victory of his brother – Reason to arrest Basil

Thursday, 23 April 2015

Three people have been remanded so far for the misappropriation of public funds. The former minister of economic development Basil Rajapaksa, secretary to the former economic development ministry Nihal Jayathilake and the Divineguma Director General A.K. Ranawaka. These people were arrested as a result when the police financial fraud unit conducted its investigations.

The Divineguma Authority was created in January 2014 by the former regime by coupling many state institutions. Institutions and resources belonged to the Samurdi authority was taken up by the Divineguma Authority covering 1.5 million beneficiaries around the country.

During the last presidential election the Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa spent the Divineguma fund for the campaign of the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Ministry secretary and the Divineguma Director General too have given their fullest support for this. Further they have spent this money to print 5 million of calendars and to give housing loans targeting the election. He has spent these deposits belonging to the poor people of this country to their whims and fancies and spent two million for each person to go for voluntary retirement.

The amount deceived by the former economic development minister is not in thousands and few million but Rs. 6000 million. The money spent in such a way is not belonged to the lavish people like Mahinda or Basil but the poor people of this country who suffered severe hardship during the Rajapaksa tenure

The Dalai Lama:

the laughing Buddha of modern times

By Rohana R. Wasala-April 21, 2015,

Tenzin Gyatso, better known as His Holiness Dalai Lama XIV, is arguably the most popular spiritual leader of the world today. Though he doesn’t radiate ‘spirituality’, he demonstrates it by his practice and his precept; he is the most relaxed looking ‘holy man’ that people of all faiths are inspired to look on and listen to; his smiling face looks hardly saintly; by his own account, he is ‘a simple monk’; he is the Buddhist ‘missionary’ who advises potential converts from other than Buddhist backgrounds to stick to their original religions if they feel comfortable in them, saying that he believes ‘that all the major world religions have the potential to serve humanity and develop good human beings’; by ‘good’ human beings, he says he means those who ‘have a good and more compassionate heart’. What better healing advice can a spiritual and ethical teacher give to humanity that is living today in a world riven by brands of hate driven religious fanaticism? The extremely politicized Nobel Peace Prize may have accidentally recovered some of its lost prestige by being awarded to the Dalai Lama in 1989. But all the adulation that he inspires leaves him unaffected. He is an example, if not an epitome, of egolessness; his relative freedom from ‘the illusion of the self’ is the essence of his magnetic personality. This does not, however, stop him from being identified as a controversial political figure in robes. In fact, that is the other side of his public image, for he is also a man of the world, a consummate politician, as he ought to be, as both the spiritual and temporal leader of his unique tradition governed community , the Tibetans. Tenzin Gyatso may be called a willing philosopher-king who is not being allowed to rule his kingdom. Historically speaking though, he is the deposed or self-exiled 14th ruler in a line of God-Kings that ruled the country from the mid-17th to the mid-20th century.

The Dalai Lama that we know has come to us through the media, which is as good as if he came to us in person. However, behind the affably smiling, lovable, somewhat clownish, yellow clad Yeatsian figure of ‘a comfortable kind of old scarecrow’ is the sage who exemplifies in his conduct and speech the two cardinal virtues of wisdom and compassion taught in Buddhism. He easily reminds us of the Laughing Buddha, who is basically a part of Chinese Buddhist and Japanese Shinto culture. Though the Shinto religion predated Buddhism in Japan, the Laughing Buddha was later admitted into its pantheon as one of the seven gods of good luck. Actually, the Laughing Buddha is believed to have originated in a mix of Buddhist and Shinto religions during the latter part of the Liang dynasty in China. Pu Tai or Bu Dai (so called because of the trademark cloth sack he carried) was a Ch’an (Zen) Buddhist monk who lived in that period (907-923 CE). Though a beggar (a Buddhist bhikkhu is by definition a beggar), he was contented and happy in the way a Buddhist monk had to be. His never failing smile (which expressed his loving-kindness, friendliness, metta/maithri) made people happy wherever he went, and this earned him another nickname, the ‘Loving/Friendly One’. He came to be honoured as a bodhisattva (a buddha-to-be). The Laughing Buddha is venerated as the Maithriya Buddha-to-be, the future Buddha according to the belief of Buddhists belonging to different sects. The Dalai Lama is regarded as an ‘emanation’ of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, an iconic figure that embodies boundless compassion. Just as the Laughing Buddha tradition is claimed to have brought Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and later, even Western cultures closer together, so can the Dalai Lama phenomenon be regarded as a force for easing East-West tension and for dowsing sectarian passions engulfing the world at present.

There is no monolithic version of Buddhism that is followed across the world. Seeds of the Buddhist teaching which were planted by ancient missionary monks in different parts of the world have given rise to a bewildering mass of sects, movements, and divisions of Buddhism coloured by local cultures. However, the basic teaching of the Buddha, the Four Noble Truths, is common to all these versions. Scholars of Buddhism recognize three main schools: Theravada (the Teaching of the Elders), the traditional Mahayana (the Great Vehicle), and its split Vajrayana (the Diamond Vehicle). Tibetan Buddhism, of which the Dalai Lama is the best known exponent, consists of elements from all three branches. Of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism Nyingma, Sakya, Kegyu, and Gelug, the Dalai Lama represents the last.

Recently, it was reported that though he was invited to visit Sri Lanka by some Buddhist monks, he was denied a visa by the government. The government’s denial of a visa is not something difficult to understand. In this regard, the Sri Lankan government has been caught up in a Catch 22 situation in that Sri Lankans cannot extend their eager hospitality to His Holiness without antagonizing China, Sri Lanka’s indispensable friend-in-need. The reason for this dilemma is that the Dalai Lama is being used by the West as a bludgeon against the emerging superpower, for the Tibet problem provides the West with an ideal opportunity to rock on its liberal hobby horse. The refusal of a visa to His Holiness by the government, while confirming our friendly relations with China, will not lessen the Lama’s compassionate goodwill towards the Sri Lankans, nor will such refusal unnecessarily disappoint them in spite of it effectively denying them a chance to have him among them for a short time. But they are already able to see him well through his words and actions.

Dalai Lama XIV has been of interest to the West and to China in contrary ways from the very beginning. When the young Dalai Lama (then only 24) fled Tibet and reached the Indian border after a two week trek across the mountains disguised as a common soldier in 1959, it made world news, as Lynn M. Hamilton says in her short biography of the Tibetan leader ‘The Dalai Lama: A Life Inspired’ (Oct. 2014); according to her, the then US president Dwight Eisenhower put a trail of pins in a map tracing the Lama’s escape route! Hamilton says that CIA operative John Greaney cabled to India asking on behalf of the US that the Dalai Lama be given asylum there. She is unable to say whether or not this US directive influenced the Indian response to the problem. But the Indian premier of the time, Jawaharlal Nehru, of his own accord, gave the Lama political sanctuary, and eventually settled him and his fellow Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala where he is based to this day.

China acts as if the Dalai Lama is a threat to it. He may or may not be, for different reasons. But one thing is clear: It is that he has become a pawn in the chessboard of geopolitics where the two major players America and China try to move him as their interests dictate. Unfortunate though that is, it doesn’t concern those of us who are only interested in the moral or spiritual message he has to communicate to the world. We remember that there were anti-Chinese protests in Tibet in the lead up to the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, sometimes involving violence, which the Chinese blamed the Dalai Lama for. They said he was a political stooge in the pay of American intelligence. Chinese supporters maintained that there was no ‘ national liberation struggle’ as such in Tibet, but that ‘secessionists’ backed by America were causing disruption. Zhang Qingli, the secretary of the Communist Party in Tibet was widely reported to have made the following comments: (in translation) "The Dalai Lama is a wolf wrapped in a habit, a monster with human face and an animal’s heart". This characterization is not accepted by many including both pro-China and anti-China commentators. In 2008, Randeep Ramesh, a journalist attached to The Guardian, London (UK), ridiculed the Chinese concern as a case of "a Chinese dragon (being) scared by a mouse that prayed".

As far as that conflict (that involving the Lama being wooed by the West and rejected by China) goes, it is hardly likely that Tibet will eventually be able to assert itself as an entity independent of the latter, despite or because of the fact that it is wedged between three nuclear powers, while being located in a watershed that plays an important part in the world’s water supply. On the other hand, Tibet’s cultural deracination as a cross product of these forces is inevitable, but that will not be the end of the 14th Dalai Lama’s influence on the peace loving rational people of the world. The institution of the Dalai Lama as the political and spiritual leader of Tibet may have already lapsed into obsolescence. Probably, no one knows this better than the present Dalai Lama himself. According to Donald Lopez, professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, ‘the Dalai Lama has been one of the harshest critics of "old Tibet"…’. He adds that the Lama would have introduced political reforms without the Chinese intervention. Professor Robert Barnett, Director of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University believes that ‘as a political leader, he asks for very little – he seems quite happy to accept a merely symbolic gesture like a cup of tea and a photo’. That may to put too low a value on his actual political significance. In any case, he has tried to come to an agreement with the Chinese authorities by opting for a degree of autonomy for Tibet while remaining a territory of China, provided it is allowed to enjoy a status that is similar to the status of Hong Kong: a large measure of self-government with its own political and legal systems. He has even indicated his readiness to let Tibet have a communist government, with "meaningful" autonomy, but China will not agree to such a settlement. It may be that with the death of the Dalai Lama (80 this year) the world may forget Tibet as it was with him living; it will be the end of history for Tibet under its god-king. The Dalai Lama’s lasting legacy for the world will be what he stands for today as a spiritual leader.

To be continued tomorrow

Illinois law would force state to boycott companies accused of boycotting Israe

Illinois law would discourage even initiatives to boycott goods from Israeli settlements built on occupied territories in violation of international law.

 (Shadi Hatem / APA images)

by Ali Abunimah on Thu, 04/23/2015-Electronic Intifada

Illinois lawmakers are expected to vote Friday on two bills that civil rights defenders say will severely curtail the constitutionally protected right to engage in boycotts.

According to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Illinois House Bill 4011 and Senate Bill 1761 contain a provision that requires state pensions funds to “create blacklists of companies that boycott Israel because of its human rights violations, and mandates that they withdraw their investments from these companies.”

The measure passed on the House floor and in the Senate judiciary committee on Tuesday.

CCR says that these bills “must be opposed in order to protect the right to engage in boycotts that reflect collective action to address a human rights issue, which the US Supreme Court has declared is protected speech and associational activity.”

The draft law defines a “boycott” of “Israel” as “engaging in actions that are politically motivated and are intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or otherwise limit commercial relations with the State of Israel or companies based in the State of Israel or in territories controlled by the State of Israel.”

This means that the law would even discourage initiatives to boycott goods from Israeli settlements in occupied territories including the West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights that are considered illegal under international law even by longstanding US policy.

In an action alert aimed at Illinois residents, CCR says that “it was through strong collective action to address human rights issues, through boycotts and otherwise, that the civil rights and anti-apartheid struggles were successful in effecting change.”

“Don’t make it state policy to condemn this form of protected speech and association,” CCR urges.

The bill is sponsored by State Senator Ira Silverstein, a Democrat from Chicago. Last year, Silverstein sponsored unsuccessful legislation condemning the academic boycott of Israel.

Silverstein has long been a hardline opponent of Palestinian rights and in 2011 publicly opposed President Barack Obama’s endorsement of a Palestinian state “based on the 1967 borders.”

Growing efforts to outlaw BDS

The Illinois bills are the latest among a slew of measures intended to legislate against the increasingly visible boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

This week, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation also issued an “urgent”action alert about an “anti-BDS amendment” introduced in the US Senate by Maryland Democrat Senator Ben Cardin.

According to the action alert, Cardin’s bill would make it a “principal trade negotiating objective of the United States” to “discourage politically motivated actions” that “limit commercial relations” with Israel and Israeli businesses, including those operating in occupied territories.

In a Baltimore Sun op-ed, US Campaign executive director Yousef Munayyer writes that the amendment “is aimed at silencing and mitigating actions taken by some European states alongside the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel.”

The Obama administration is currently negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the EU, which would create a major free trade area.

Munayyer also points out the hypocrisy of Cardin’s stance given that “it was only a few months ago that Senator Cardin himself praised boycotting as a tactic in nonviolent struggle” in the US civil rights struggle.

Last year, Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the US and now a member of Israel’s parliament, urged US legislatures to pass laws to suppress the boycott movement.

In January 2014, Israel’s then economy minister Yair Lapid warned that if the boycott movement was left unchecked it would hit every Israeli “in the pocket.”

Dashcam video shows Arizona officer intentionally running over suspect

Police chief: Hitting suspect with car was right decision 03:51
By Brian Todd, Miguel Marquez and Steve Almasy-Wed April 15, 2015

(CNN)Police in Arizona said Tuesday that an officer who intentionally used his car to run into a suspect with a rifle probably saved lives.

Video of the incident has stirred debate about what type of force police should have used to detain a man with a gun.

"Everything in the video seems to point towards an obvious excessive use of force. It is miraculous that my client isn't dead," said attorney Michelle Cohen-Metzger.

The incident was recorded February 19 on the dashcam of two Marana police cars that were following the suspect, 36-year-old Mario Valencia.

In one video, an officer who was tailing Valencia at slow speed reports over the radio that the suspect has fired one round in the air with a rifle he is accused of stealing that morning from a Walmart.

Another patrol car zooms past, runs into the man from behind then hits a short cinder block wall next to a driveway. Video from Officer Michael Rapiejko's camera shows the officer running the man over and the windshield smashing as the car hits the wall.

"Oh Jesus Christ. Man down," the officer in the first car says.

Police in Marana, which is about a half-hour from Tucson, have justified Rapiejko's actions.

"If we're going to choose between maybe we'll let him go a little bit farther and see what happens, or we're going to take him out now and eliminate any opportunity he has to hurt somebody, you're going to err on the side of, in favor of the innocent people," Police Chief Terry Rozema said. "Without a doubt."

The situation warranted deadly force because the suspect was headed to an area where several hundred people were working, Rozema told CNN's Brooke Baldwin.

"This officer made a split-second decision, and in retrospect, when all the dust clears, I think we look at this and say, yeah, there's things we can learn from this," he said, "but the entire community is safe, all the officers are safe, and even the suspect in this case is safe."

Cohen-Metzger said officers didn't make any effort to de-escalate the situation of a man "clearly suicidal, clearly in crisis."

CNN affiliate KOLD reported Valencia was in serious condition when he was taken to the hospital and was released into police custody two days later.

​When Migrants Flee Progress, Not War

Nearly one-fifth of people crossing the Mediterranean are leaving a country touted for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Turns out, a better life requires more than a U.N. checklist.

BY MICHELA WRONG

Each migrant trying to cross the Mediterranean in a rickety boat has his or her own reason for risking the journey. But for people who study Africa, one overall lesson quietly emerges from this mass movement: Man cannot live by MDGs alone.

I’m talking about the Millennium Development Goals, the eight targets the United Nations drew up as benchmarks of successful development back in 2000. The U.N. set precise goals for poverty alleviation, education, and health care that poor countries, supported by Western donors, could tick off a list — the supposed building blocks of a better life. Ironically, the deadline set for achieving the MDGs was 2015, the very year in which Europe has been confronted by a mass exodus of refugees voting with their feet.

Some migrants are fleeing violence in Syria and Somalia; some are West Africans who worked in Libya and now find it too dangerous to stay. But a significant share comes from African countries neither wracked by civil unrest nor embroiled in war. Counterintuitively, many of these nations perform extremely well on the MDG front.

Take the Red Sea nation of Eritrea, which accounts for the greatest number of migrants to Europe after Syria, an extraordinary figure given its population of just around 6 million. According to the U.N. refugee agency, 34,561 Eritreans crossed the Mediterranean in 2014.

Bizarre as it may seem, I often encourage Western friends to take holidays in Eritrea, this country so many are now fleeing and which I myself can’t access, for want of a journalist visa. It’s safe, clean, and cheap, and it boasts some of Africa’s best roads and most dramatic scenery, and the continent’s most beautiful capital city. Back in 2013, President Isaias Afewerki’s government patted itself on the back for achieving three health MDGs ahead of schedule: reducing infant mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV, malaria, and other diseases. It expects to check three more off the list by the end of this year. 

Of course any statistic published by a notoriously secretive administration that allows no real parliamentary oversight or media scrutiny should be taken with a pinch of salt. But the U.N. Development Programme’s representative in the country, Christine Umutoni, has hailed the government as a model for Africa, and aBBC documentary crew that recently managed to obtain an entry visa — as rare as hen’s teeth for foreign media — confirmed the impression of a well-run health service.

The point is: All that just isn’t enough. Eritrea, run by a former communist rebel movement that seized power in 1991, may well offer its citizens excellent medical care. Claims that it knows how to protect its people from East Africa’s frequent droughts and resulting famines may even be true. But the government has failed dramatically to deliver on a range of less quantifiable needs that hold the key to human fulfillment.

There’s no independent media or political opposition in the country. Religious freedom is narrowly curtailed. A multiparty constitution has never been ratified, no presidential elections staged. Both men and women must do military service, which is often open-ended. If you’re lucky enough to get demobilized, there’s no private-sector economy to soak up your labor and provide you with skills. Asmara is an elegant cage — a suffocating place to live.

Africa is struggling to digest a massive youth bulge, and youngsters are instinctively aspirational. They want the chance of a better existence in their own lifetimes, not promises of some distant utopia. While governments such as the one in Eritrea may score impressively when it comes to keeping youth fed, vaccinated, and literate (the MDG emphasis is on primary education, of course, not the tertiary education likely to produce rebellious students), they routinely frustrate deeper needs.

Indeed, the paradox is not unique to Eritrea. Since the end of the Cold War, a new generation of African leaders has emerged that wins the consistent and enthusiastic backing of the U.S. Agency for International Development and Britain’s Department for International Development for delivering on the MDGs, even while these leaders show open contempt for civil society, human rights groups, and the free press. “Democracy is a luxury we can’t afford,” is the implicit message to Western partners.

Over the past two decades, the former rebel leaders once hailed as spearheading an “African Renaissance” have steadily morphed into a generation of New Securocrats.The iron-fisted policies unveiled by leaderships in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Uganda win the tacit support of Western allies whose worries about Soviet expansionism have been neatly replaced by fear of the spread of Islamic fundamentalism.

“Africa Rising,” the recent buzz phrase adopted by investors excited by the economic potential of the continent’s growing middle class and the spread of modern technology, has distracted attention from a series of reactionary trends. In east, west, and central Africa we are seeing elections rigged not once, but repeatedly; the establishment of de facto royal dynasties; and draconian legislation aimed at closing down the non-governmental sector, muffling the press, and stamping out homosexuality. Annual reports by human rights organizations make for grim reading.

Back when the U.S. President George H.W. Bush promised “a new world order” premised on liberal values, such developments would have alarmed Western partners. Now they generate shrugged shoulders from diplomats and development officials who regard them as part of the realpolitik of the modern era.

The MDGs were designed, in part, to give Western donors and African governments apolitical, 

uncontroversial common ground upon which all could agree. Clean water, primary education, decent health care — who wouldn’t want those, after all? But the message coming from the migrants crossing the Mediterranean is: “Oh, sure, we want those. But we want far, far more.” And who can blame them?

FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images

Calbuco volcano erupts in Chile, and nearby town evacuated

The volcano erupted for the first time in more than 42 years, billowing a huge ash cloud over a sparsely populated, mountainous area in southern Chile.

By Eva Vergara | AP April 23 at 11:41 AM

SANTIAGO, Chile — The Calbuco volcano erupted Wednesday for the first time in more than 42 years, billowing a huge ash cloud over a sparsely populated, mountainous area in southern Chile.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of the 1,500 inhabitants of the nearby town of Ensenada, along with residents of two smaller communities.

The National Mining and Geology Service issued a high alert, barring access to the area around the volcano, which lies near the cities of Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt, a little more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of Chile’s capital, Santiago.

“For us it was a surprise,” said Alejandro Verges, regional emergency director of the Los Lagos region where the eruption took place. He said Calbuco wasn’t under any special form of observation.

Authorities said a large amount of ash was observed but no hot rocks or lava had been seen by late in the day. No injuries were reported.

The Calbuco volcano erupted Wednesday for the first time in more than 42 years, billowing a huge ash cloud over a sparsely populated, mountainous area in southern Chile. (AP)

The Calbuco volcano erupted Wednesday for the first time in more than 42 years, billowing a huge ash cloud over a sparsely populated, mountainous area in southern Chile. (AP)

The Education Ministry canceled school in communities near the volcano and at least three flights to Puerto Montt were canceled.

The 6,500 foot (2,000-meter) Calbuco last erupted in 1972 and is considered one of the top three most potentially dangerous among Chile’s 90 active volcanos.

Villarica, one of South America’s most active volcanos, erupted in southern Chile last month, spewing heavy smoke into the air as lava surged down its slopes and forcing authorities to evacuate thousands of people. The 9,000 foot (2,847-meter) volcano sits above the small city of Pucon. Tourists flock there for outdoor activities, including hiking around the volcano.

“This is clearly a much larger eruption than the one we saw with the Villarica some weeks ago and therefore we need to take bigger and faster measures,” Interior and Security Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said.

He said that the government was sending water in case resources get contaminated by ash and that police and military officers had been deployed to ensure safety and help with evacuations.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Govt rushes aid to Bihar after storm kills 48, displaces thousands

Thu Apr 23, 2015

PATNA, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Authorities were rushing food rations, clothes and cooking utensils to villagers in Bihar on Thursday after a storm killed at least 48 people and left thousands more homeless, government officials said.

With wind speeds of up to 70 km per hour (43 mph) and heavy rains, the storm struck the eastern state late on Tuesday, uprooting trees and electricity poles, ripping through farmland and destroying over 25,000 mud-and-thatch homes.

State officials said 12 of Bihar’s 38 districts had been affected, including Purnia, Madhepura and Saharsa.

“Now we are rushing relief, food items and utensils to the affected families,” Anirudh Kumar, a state disaster management official, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

As well as ripping apart homes and destroying possessions, the storm also flattened banana plantations and maize and wheat fields, causing many villagers to lose their livelihoods, he said.

Officials said they were still assessing the scale of the devastation, a process hindered by snapped telecommunication lines and villages cut off by uprooted trees blocking roads.

“The damage is huge although we cannot provide the exact figure because we are still assessing the extent of damage,” said Sudhir Kumar, a senior official in Purnia.

Bihar’s governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has asked the state government to provide 400,000 rupees ($6,300) in compensation to each of the victims’ families.

Weather officials said because the storm developed quickly, there was not enough time to issue an early warning and evacuate villagers to shelters.

India is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, and many of its 1.2 billion people live in areas vulnerable to natural hazards such as floods, cyclones, droughts and earthquakes.

In 2008, major flooding in Bihar triggered by heavy monsoons left more than 500 people dead and disrupted the lives of two million others.

(Writing by Nita Bhalla; Editing by Katie Nguyen)

Scientists genetically modify human embryos in controversial world first

New procedure used to modify disease-causing gene, but raises questions over whether restrictions should be placed on new wave of genetic techniques

 Many scientists believe that modifying human embryos in this way crosses an ethical line. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images

Ian Sample, science editor-Thursday 23 April 2015

Scientists in China have genetically modified human embryos in a world first that has re-ignited the debate over the ethics and safety of genetic therapies that have the potential to prevent inherited diseases.

The work raises fresh questions over whether restrictions should be placed on a new wave of genetic techniques that are rapidly gaining ground in labs across the world.

The Chinese group used a genome editing procedure called Crispr to modify an aberrant gene that causes beta-thalassaemia, a life-threatening blood disorder, in faulty IVF embryos obtained from local fertility clinics.

The embryos used for their experiments were abnormal and incapable of developing into healthy babies and would have been destroyed by the clinics. They were not implanted into women once the modifications were made.

The team, led by Junjiu Huang at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, is the first to publish such work, confirming rumours that have been circulating for months that human embryos had been modifed in China. The work is described in the journal Protein and Cell.

Two prominent journals, Nature and Science, rejected the paper citing ethical objections, Huang said.

Many scientists believe that genetically modifying human embryos crosses an ethical line and should remain taboo. But the capability is becoming ever more likely. Scientists have recently developed a host of genome editing procedures. And while they are incredibly powerful and simple to use, how safe they are, and how they should be used, is not yet clear.

Last month, researchers writing in Nature called for a global moratorium on the genetic modification of human embryos, citing “grave concerns” over the ethics and safety. They added that any therapeutic benefits were tenuous.

Genetic modification of the DNA in human embryos would not only affect the individual but their children and their children’s children and so on down the generations. Advocates argue that could halt the inheritance of genetic diseases that run in families, but it could also pass on unforeseen medical problems that the procedures may cause.

The Chinese team attempted to correct the faulty gene that causes beta-thalassaemia in 86 human embryos. The procedure worked properly in only a tiny portion of those tested. “If you want to do it in normal embryos, you need to be close to 100%,” Huang told the journal Nature. “That’s why we stopped. We still think it’s too immature.”

One of the main safety concerns with genome editing is the risk of changes being made to healthy genes by accident. These so-called “off-target” edits happened far more than expected in Huang’s study, suggesting that the procedure they used is far from safe.

“What the paper really emphasises is that we are far away from using genomic editing because it’s not safe. The idea of using this for designer babies is very far-fetched. The technology is too far off,” said Dusko Ilic, a stem cell researcher at King’s College, London.

But Ilic said that research on genome editing, and its potential uses in humans, would continue unabated. “You cannot stop science. No matter what moratorium is proposed, you cannot stop this work continuing around the world,” he said.

He added that the Chinese work was not unethical. “These embryos had been fertilised by two sperm. They would have been discarded by any IVF clinic in any country in the world. There is no ethical objection you can bring.”

Doctors at IVF clinics can already test embryos for genetic diseases and pick the healthiest ones to implant into women. If genome editing was safe and effective, it could potentially be used to correct genetic faults in embryos instead of picking those that happen to be healthy. Currently, under UK law, genetically modified embryos cannot be transferred to women.

One UK geneticist who did not wish to be named because the work was so contentious, told the Guardian that the Chinese study had long been expected : “It was clear to everyone that these techniques were going to work in humans and that it would be done at some point,” they said. “It’s a bit sensationalist.”

“You can argue that it could be hugely beneficial to correct genetic diseases, but on the other hand we don’t know it’s safe and it’s a slippery slope. How long will it be before people try to alter eye and hair colour, and height and intelligence?”

Huang now hopes to improve the safety and efficiency of the procedure in experiments that use human tissues and animals.