Investigate SL Minister Bathiyutheen along with Basil Rajapaksa, Muslims demand UNP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2015, 16:34 GMT]
The people of Mannaar, Puththa'lam and Vavuniyaa have started to raise their voices questioning the credibility of the ‘new’ SL regime in Colombo, which has failed to arrest and investigate SL Minister of Industry and Commerce Mr Rishad Bathiyutheen over allegations of misappropriation of funds. Basil Rajapaksa, who was the former SL Minister of ‘Economic Development’ and Mr Bathiyutheen, who was the SL Minister for Resettlement, have appropriated large sums of the funds obtained for resettling the war-affected people, sections of Muslims in Puththa'lam and Mannaar accuse. At a meeting held in Temple Trees on Friday for UNP members from Northern and North-Western Provinces, Muslim members raised their voices against entertaining Bathiyutheen with a minister portfolio instead of investigating him together with Mr Basil Rajapaksa, who is now detained for investigations. 

Pakistan's Ambassador [Right] hands over a cheque to Basil Rajapaksa and Rishad Bathiyutheen

What happened to the funds obtained during the tenure of Pakistan's Ambassador Qasim Qureshi for establishing 220 houses for uprooted Muslims in Mannaar, question the Tamil-speaking Muslims in Mannaar. The funds were obtained in October 2014. Likewise, millions of rupees have been misappropriated in other projects under the previous regime, they accuse demanding thorough investigations on all the projects that have been implemented in Mannaar. 

Muslims in Puththa'lam have complained that the SL minister had misappropriated up to 700,000 rupees per house in the 500 houses scheme implemented at Thillaiyadi. The initial money allocated for each of the houses was one million rupees, they say. The settlement is located on Puththa'lam - Colombo Road. The recipients of the lands have not received land deeds at several places, the Muslim beneficiaries complain. Many of the lands are still in the names of SL minister's men. Mr Bathiyutheen was deploying the funds for his supporters with the aim of strengthening his vote bank, they accuse. 

In order to confront the widespread international criticism on the incarceration of Eezham Tamils at Menik Farm in Vavuniyaa, the previous regime of Rajapaksa announced a 180-day programme of resettlement and housing in August 2009. Basil Rajapaksa and Rishad Bathiyutheen were sharing the ‘benefits’ of the programme. The scheme was also exploited to the electoral benefit of All Ceylon Makka'l Congress led by Mr Bathiyutheen, the Muslims in Mannaar complain. 

In the meantime, Tamil civil sources in Mannaar say that the SL Minister was also controlling the channelling of Indian Housing Scheme. Mr Bathiyutheen was punishing the Tamil officials with transfers and demotions while he was the minister of resettlement. He was controlling the housing schemes also as a co-chair of the development committee in Vanni. 

Bathiyutheen defected from Rajapaksa's UPFA in December 2014. He was appreciating Basil Rajapaksa for his friendship while he announced the decision. 

Apart from the exploitation of public resources, Mr Bathiyutheen was running a squad, which was creating communal tensions between the various religious sections of the Tamil speaking people in Mannaar. The SL Minister was severely censured for his comparison of the Bishop of Mannaar with extremist Buddhist monks in the South. The minister has also been alleged of letting lose his squad on the court complex of Mannaar.

Achieving Good Governance with “Muddaragama Kukul Charlie”

Monday, 27 April 2015
A pro Rajapaksa and a rapist Muddaragama Kukul Charlie (J.D.C. Jayasinghe alias Javigodage Don Charles Jayasinghe) became the state language commissioner with the help of the former minister Vasudewa Nanayakkara. The officers of the State Language Department lamented

their displeasure of appointing an alcoholic womanizer who has been charged with child abuse to a respectable and a qualified position which was held before by Professor Nandadewa Wijesekara. However due to the influence of Vaasidewa Nanayakkara, Muddaragama Kukul Charlie is able to sustain in the position without hindrance.

The officers working in the State Language Commission allege the State Language Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Democratic Socialist Republic carry out his duties with a liquor smell.  Once before the same State Language Commissioner when fallen in the streets of Mirigama due to heavy boozing was carried and given to his house by few three wheel drivers. The people of the Mangedara Muddaragama village called this state officer who is an alcoholic by the name Kukul Charlie.

In 1999 this J.D. Jayasinghe raped a lady named Maldeniyage Priyadharshini in Minuwangoda Opatha area promising her that he would fix her in a labour job in the Minuwangoda Hospital.  Following this sexual abuse when Ms. Priyadharshani lodged an entry in the Mirigama Police with the help of the Muddaragama Grama Niladari S. A Jayatissa this womanizer influenced the police and dismissed the complaint. Following this incident on November 2nd 1999 Maldeniyage Priyadharshini took poison and suicide herself. Following this death this womanizer was permanently able to cover this dastardly crime.

When this womanizer once came to the Rathnawalie Ladies College to pick up his children’s he was severely warned by the school principal A.H.A Jayawardana for caressing a breast of an adult student. When the student’s parents complained this to the Gampaha Police he was able to escape without any charges with the help of the former powerful politician Reggie Ranathunga.

The officers in the Kurunegala sub post office say the latter got assaulted by a female workers husband when he tried to sexually intimidate her when he was working as the deputy postmaster in the Kurunegala Post office.

Death toll rises to 3,800 in Nepal earthquake

The densely populated capital, Kathmandu, is shaken; more than 2,200 are reported dead. 

By Rama Lakshmi and Annie Gowen-April 27

KATHMANDU, Nepal — With international aid beginning to flow but desperation still rising, rescue crews in Nepal expanded helicopter searches Monday into remote villages believed to be the worst hit from a massive earthquake that has already claimed more than 3,800 lives.

The flights deep into the Himalayan valleys highlighted worries that the death toll could still rise from Saturday’s 7.8 magnitude quake that flattened densely populated areas near Kathmandu, toppled centuries-old monuments and buried Everest base camp with a deadly avalanche of snow and jagged ice.

Local Nepalese television showed aerial images of damage to Kathmandu and its surroundings two days after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit. Roads leading out of the mountain valley city were jammed. (Reuters)

Death Toll Rises to 3,800 in Nepal Earthquake by Thavam Ratna

U.S., China, India Race to Send Aid to Earthquake-Battered Nepal

As the death toll tops 3,700, countries around the world ramp up their ‘disaster diplomacy’ to save lives and bolster relations.

BY KEITH JOHNSON-APRIL 26, 2015

The United States, China, and India are sending disaster response teams to earthquake-ravaged Nepal, highlighting the role that disaster diplomacy can play in foreign affairs as countries project soft-power influence and aim to win goodwill among their neighbors.

Chinese search-and-rescue teams arrived in Nepal on Sunday, one day after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake devastated the capital city of Kathmandu and killed more than 3,700 people across the Himalayan nation. The U.S. Disaster Response Team is slated to arrive midday on Monday, while a pair of U.S. military special forces teams are providing immediate medical assistance.

The teams from the two countries — as well as India’s contribution of a 300-person disaster response team and a mobile hospital — are racing to keep the death toll from topping the more than 8,000 that died in Nepal’s last mega-quake in 1934. The Nepalese government has been overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster, especially in hard-to-access rural areas.

The international response is an attempt to save lives, but all three countries know it can also pay political dividends down the road. Disaster response is especially important in Asia, where dense populations are coupled with oft-weak government capacities and vulnerability to quakes, typhoons, and other natural disasters. China, in particular, has spent the last decade trying to bolster its own disaster-response capabilities in order to burnish its image across Asia and the Pacific.

“A friend in need is a friend indeed,” said Mahesh Kumar Maskey, Nepal’s ambassador to China, according to Xinhua. “Nepali people will always remember the support and help from China.”

Washington has also moved fast, releasing $1 million in assistance on Saturday, and the European Union on Sunday announced 3 million euros in aid for Nepal. Individual EU countries are also mobilizing disaster-response teams. The United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and Singapore also sent search-and-rescue teams. The International Monetary Fund said it would coordinate international financing efforts to help the government of Nepal.

The initial quake was centered on an area northwest of Kathmandu, and aid workers fear that part of the country could be devastated. The death toll continued to rise on Sunday in part due to a pair of large-scale aftershocks to the east of the capital. The tremors destroyed historic buildings in Kathmandu, forced residents to spend the weekend in the open for fear of being trapped inside crumbling buildings, and prompted avalanches that killed 18 climbers on nearby Mt. Everest. The shocks reached into neighboring India and Tibet, killing at least 60 more people.

The earthquake was, in a way, overdue. The region is one of the most seismically unstable in the world, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and massive quakes have hit the region on average every 75 years, the New York Times noted. Nepal sits atop the fault line where the Himalayan tectonic plate pushes under the Eurasian plate, creating the risk of earthquakes in an arc across all of South Asia.

The prompt dispatch of disaster teams is on the one hand a purely humanitarian gesture. Both the U.S. and Chinese squads, which have years of experience, include trained canine teams that can scour rubble for survivors. Beyond the hospital and specialized personnel, India is also mobilizing helicopters to help the rescue effort. Pakistan dispatched military aircraft with a field hospital and rescue teams, as well as supplies.

But disaster response and humanitarian assistance also plays a key role in soft-power projection. The United States, for example, won hearts and minds across southeast Asia due to the scale and speed of its response to the 2004 tsunami. Washington also played a key role in responding to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and a devastating 2013 typhoon that hammered the Philippines. Faced with the prospect of ever-greater natural disasters, the U.S. Defense Department is focusing more on its ability to carry out humanitarian assistance and disaster response missions, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

Such efforts prompted China to beef up its own capacity to respond to disasters, including its 62-member disaster response team and the construction of a huge floating hospital ship, the Peace Ark. Beijing evenclaims that its construction activities on disputed reefs and shoals in the South China Sea are meant, in part, to make it easier to respond to natural disasters in the area.

China’s efforts to turn disaster response into diplomatic dividends have proven a bumpy road, however. Beijing’s slow footed and stingy initial response to the 2013 Philippines’ typhoon contrasted with U.S. aid, and helped further sour tensions with Manila. China’s hopes for long-term dividends from aid sent to Japan likewise soured.

At the same time, China’s efforts to win friends and influence neighbors through disaster assistance are colliding with Beijing’s redoubled efforts to stake territorial claims in the South China Sea. That has further riled the very Southeast Asian nations it hopes to win over with offers of assistance.

Note: This article was updated early Monday, April 27.

Photo credit: OMAR HAVANA/Getty

Heavy fighting as Taliban attack northern Afghan city

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani participates in ''The New Beginning in Afghanistan: A Conversation with H.E. Dr. Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan'' at Columbia University in New York March 26, 2015.

KABUL | BY MIRWAIS HAROONI AND KAY JOHNSON-Mon Apr 27, 2015

(Reuters) - Heavy fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents that killed more than 30 combatants threatened a major northern city on Monday, officials said.

The battle on the outskirts of Kunduz, part of an intensifying wave of attacks after the departure of most foreign troops, led President Ashraf Ghani to delay his departure on a state visit to India by several hours.

Officials said hundreds of Taliban militants had attacked police and army checkposts in the province of Kunduz, the insurgents' last stronghold before U.S.-led forces drove them from power in 2001.

Now they threaten to overrun parts of the provincial capital, after fighting that killed eight Afghan security personnel and at least two dozen Taliban, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.

"The threat level is very high, but with new reinforcements, our security forces have gained morale," said Abdul Waseh Basel, the spokesman.

The insurgents overran seven army and police checkpoints in central Kunduz and two districts, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an emailed statement.

Presidential spokesman Ajmal Obidy said Ghani left for India late on Monday afternoon. He had delayed his departure for New Delhi to meet NATO's Gen. John Campbell.

Battles were raging about 6 km (4 miles) south of Kunduz city, officials said. Islamist insurgents also broke into the city itself, in the southern district of Gul Tepa, Basel said.

Afghan security forces used artillery in defence.

"The sound of heavy weapons fired by Afghan forces can be heard in the city," said Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini.

Fighting continued into the evening, but Afghan forces pushed the Taliban back with help from reinforcements from Kabul and other areas, said local army commander Qadam Shah Shaheen.

"We will win the fight soon," he said.

Militants this month launched major attacks in another northern province, Badakhshan, and on Monday fired on a government delegation meeting soldiers there.

Their rockets and gunfire narrowly missed the group, led by Ahmad Zia Massoud, head of Ghani's governance commission, a close aide said. The delegation withdrew by helicopter.

Afghanistan's long war has also been complicated by some disgruntled Taliban commanders declaring allegiance to Islamic State, the Middle Eastern jihadist movement that controls swathes of Iraq and Syria.

NATO's Campbell said that such reports had been increasing and "there's a little bit of money passing back and forth", but the coalition and Afghan government were working to prevent IS from sending weapons or fighters to Afghanistan.

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Mike Collett-White)

North Korea accused of upping 'material support' for terrorism

 Joshua Stanton has recommended that the US re-list Kim Jong-un’s government as a state sponsor of terror Photograph: KCNA/Reuters

Agence France-Presse-Monday 27 April 2015

A new report urges Washington to consider placing Pyongyang back on list of state sponsors of terror after arms deals and cyber attacks

North Korea has increased its “material support” for terrorist organisations and should be placed back on the United States list of nations that are state sponsors of terrorism, a report released on Monday said.

The Pyongyang regime, at the time under the command of Kim Jong-il, was taken off the list in 2008 under President George W Bush, who hoped to engage the reclusive nation in dialogue.

But according to a new report, written by North Korea expert Joshua Stanton for the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), US standards for defining a state sponsor of terror are “vague and inconsistent”.

Titled “Arsenal of Terror”, the report recommends that the US Congress and State Department clarify the legal standards that define state sponsorship of terrorism and consider re-listing North Korea as a sponsor.

“Since 2008, North Korea has increased its use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy, and also appears to have increased its material support for designated terrorist organisations,” HRNK Executive Director Greg Scarlatoiu said.

“North Korea’s recent conduct poses a particular threat to human rights activists and dissidents in exile. It has also repeatedly threatened the civilian population of South Korea and other nations, including the United States,” he added.

The US currently lists Iran, Syria, Sudan and Cuba as state sponsors of terrorism, though it is expected to remove Cuba as part of a historic rapprochement with the communist island.

The report details several instances of North Korea’s alleged support of terrorism.

In 2009, just one year after it was removed from the blacklist, there were several interceptions of North Korean shipments “to Iran and its terrorist clients [that] evidenced the importance of North Korea’s role as a supplier of arms to terrorists backed by Iran,” the report states.

“News reports have alleged that these arms were destined for Iran’s terrorist clients, including Hezbollah and Hamas,” Stanton writes in the report.

Stanton also details several cyber attacks that have been blamed on North Korea, including last year’s hack of Sony Pictures.

Washington accuses Pyongyang of being behind the breach that led to the release of embarrassing company emails and caused Sony executives to halt the debut of the film satirising the DPRK, The Interview.

The report describes several other suspected North Korea cyber attacks, including 35 that took place in 2009 against US and South Korean government and commercial websites.

Iran after the lifting of sanctions

It is a strangely complicated world 

Nuclear sites in Iran

(Some "under construction" sites have now been completed)

by Kumar David-April 25, 2015, 5:03 pm

Sanctions may soon be lifted; whether staggered country by country or in unison, and the timing of the process are difficult to foresee. The finalisation of negotiations is set for 30 June; Israel and US neo-right attempts to prolong sanctions forever will not succeed. Clearly their objective is NOT a tighter nuclear weapons agreement, but by whatever means possible to prevent the lifting of sanctions. To put it another way the objective is to prevent Iran from recovering economically, emerging as a strong regional entity, and re-arming even as a conventional (non-nuclear) military power. From the point of view of Israel and the American neo-right this makes sense; they behold the prospect of a strong Iran with horror and there is reason for their panic. The shock for Israel and the American neo-right is that Iran has already resurged, despite prolonged sanctions, as a major regional player. Though it is likely, but not certain that a final deal will be reached by 30 June, Israel and the American neo-right on one side, and the powerful hardliner camp in Iran on the other, will use every trick in the book to spoil the party.

Iran After the Lifting of Sanctions by Thavam Ratna

South Korea's Prime Minister Lee Wan Koo Steps Down Over Bribery Scandal

Posted: 04/27/2015

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's president accepted the resignation of her prime minister on Monday over a bribery scandal, officials said.

Prime Minster Lee Wan Koo offered to resign last week, just two months after taking the country's No. 2 post. He has been at the heart of a corruption scandal involving a dead businessman and other high-profile figures, mostly close associates of President Park Geun-hye.

The scandal is a blow to Park's government, which is still reeling from lingering public criticism of its handling of a ferry disaster last year that killed more than 300 people. Violence occurred during a Seoul rally earlier this month by relatives of the ferry victims and their supporters, leaving dozens of people injured.

Businessman Sung Wan-jong said before committing suicide this month that he gave 30 million won ($27,390) to Lee in 2013.

South Korean media have reported evidence of ties between Sung and Lee, but Lee has denied the bribery allegation.

President Park's office said she accepted Lee's resignation, but didn't announce his replacement.

Lee's office confirmed his departure, saying he left his office after making a farewell speech.

Executive power in South Korea is concentered in the president, but the prime minister leads the government if the president becomes incapacitated.

'Beach body ready' ad campaigners are 'terrorists' says boss

MONDAY 27 APRIL 2015

The boss of a company which has attracted controversy over its "are you beach body ready?" ads says people complaining about them are "terrorists".

"Are you beach body ready?" ask the adverts for meal replacement and protein products.

'Beach Body Ready' Ad Campaigners Are 'Terrorists' Says Boss by Thavam Ratna

FDA Finally Admits Chicken Meat Contains Cancer-Causing Arsenic

LIVING TRADITIONALLY

TRADITIONAL LIVING IN MODERN SOCIETY

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Anya V

According to the Associated Press, the FDA finally confirmed that chickens given the drug do indeed test positive for inorganic arsenic.

After years of sweeping the issue under the rug, the FDA has now finally admitted that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic, a cancer-causing toxic chemical that’s fatal in high doses. But the real story is where this arsenic comes from: It’s added to the chicken feed on purpose! As far back as 2006, the IATP’s report Playing Chicken: Avoiding Arsenic in your meat estimated that more than 70 percent of all U.S. chickens raised for meat are fed arsenic.  It is added to induce faster weight gain on less feed, and creating the perceived appearance of a healthy color in meat from chickens, turkeys and hogs.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found that nearly half of all chickens tested have absorbed inorganic arsenic, the most toxic form, in their liver. Based on that finding, the agency asked Pfizer to stop manufacturing Roxarsone, the arsenic-containing drug that’s added to feed to fatten chickens and give meat a bright pink hue.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

“The agency said it recently conducted a study of 100 broiler chickens that detected inorganic arsenic at higher levels in the livers of chickens treated with 3-Nitro compared with untreated chickens … Pfizer said sale of 3-Nitro would be stopped by early July in order to allow animal producers to transition to other treatments.”

But even as its arsenic-containing product is pulled off the shelves, the FDA continues its campaign of denial, claiming arsenic in chickens is at such a low level that it’s still safe to eat. This is even as the FDA says arsenic is a carcinogen, meaning it increases the risk of cancer.

But what the industry is hiding from you is the fact that arsenic  is extremely toxic to human health. The University of South Carolina Department of Environmental Health Sciences warns that arsenic, along with lead and mercury, are known to produce horrible neurological effects on developing fetuses and young children. Arsenic in general is said to be about four times as poisonous as Mercury. The trivalent Arsenic As+3 is considered 60 times more toxic than the pentavalent As +5.

A  study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that individuals who consumed large quantities of arsenic-tinged rice, in the absence of other known arsenic exposure, showed significant cellular changes linked to cancer development.

Numerous reports have since confirmed that ingested arsenic can cause Bowen disease (squamous cell carcinoma in situ); invasive squamous cell carcinoma; basal cell carcinoma of the skin; and (less frequently) internal cancers of the lung, the kidney, the bladder, and the liver.[

What’s astonishing about all this is that the FDA tells consumers it’s safe to eat cancer-causing arsenic but it’s dangerous to drink elderberry juice!

How To Starve Cancer To Death By Removing This One Thing From Your Diet

Posted by HealthyFood on January 10, 2015 How To Starve Cancer To Death By Removing This One Thing From Your Diet2015-01-10T23:00:02+01:00

There are many factors that cause the cancer rates to rise, and their range is huge from emotions to the environment around us. But the main factor is the food we consume, because what we insert in our body is what radiates out and if we cut only this one thing from out daily diet, we can make our bodies happy and starve cancer to death.

Sugar – Cancer’s Fuel 

Since the 1920s few health experts along with Dr. Otto Wartburg have been talking about the connection between cancer and sugar, and how cancer loves sugar. Despite knowing all of this information doctors nowadays are not telling their patients to stop consuming processed foods in order to fight the disease effectively.

Since then, the German physiologist, Nobel laureate, medical doctor,leading biochemist, knew that you could starve cancer to death. He said that it is not going to be always easy, but he was sure that it could change the game.

He had a theory in which he believed that tumor growth and malignant cells were caused by cells that generated energy through a nonoxidative breakdown of glucose (sugar) via adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The circulation of adhA back into the body and the recycling of the metabolite from this process called glycolysis caused anaerobic respiration. This is the opposite thing of what happens with the healthy cells. Thenon-cancerous, healthy cells generate energy for the body to use through the oxidative breakdown of pyruvate, the end product of glycolysis, which later transforms into oxidized mitochondria. He therefore concluded that cancer was really a mitochondrial dysfunction. By removing the sugar from your diet, the body cannot develop cancer, because the normal process of respiration of oxygen in the body is changed to the fermentation of sugar.

The link between cancerand sugar development is certainly not new.

Most of the people can easily stop consuming the obvious culprits that are packed with refined sugar – cookies, chocolate, cakes, candies, etc. The problem is not that, the problem is that many of the products that are sold throughout the USA and throughout the world are full of refined sugars, but are not written on the packaging labels. Products like cereals, whole wheat or whole grain breads, ‘low-calorie’ items, and even the ‘healthy’ yogurt can be full of sugar.

The best and most effective way to get rid of the unwanted refined sugars is if you stop buying pre-packaged or ‘convenience’ foods, and if you try to at least lower the number of times you eat in restaurants, because most of the restaurantsget their food resources from the big companies that pack their food with tons of refined sugar and salt to extent their expiration date after being frozen and shipped across the world in trucks. Surprisingly even the salad dressings can be packed with refined sugar. I order to terminate the cravings for sugary foods, increase your healthy animal based proteins (no red meat) and plant-based nutrition-packed foods.

Presidential powers and the craving to be slaves

Sunday, April 26, 2015

It appears that the President of Sri Lanka likes vivid imagery. Not so long ago, he compared the members of his party to crabs dancing in a boiling pot of water. This prediction came uncannily true this week when some of these members discarded even the stipulated parliamentary dress and slept in running shorts on the floor of the House.

Presidential Powers and the Craving to Be Slaves by Thavam Ratna

S.J.V. Chelvanayakam commemoration: The Absence Of War Is Not Peace

Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga delivering S.J.V. Chelvanayakam memorial lecture organised by the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi’s Colombo

26/04/2015

It is difficult to envisage delivering a lecture to commemorate Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam without reflecting upon the one issue that concerned him most – the minorities question in Sri Lanka. Mr. Chevanayakam and his Party, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi’s (the Federal Party), engaged in a long and difficult struggle to win the Tamil peoples’ rights.

S.J.v. Chelvanayakam Commemoration the Absence of War is Not Peace by Thavam Ratna