Corrupt Welgama is threatening now ‘look after you outside ‘ because Rainbow revolution didn’t ‘look after’ him then

(Lanka-e-News- 05.Dec.2015, 8.00PM)  When the former minister of transport Kumara Welgama  was questioned in Parliament over a massive bribe of Rs. 3000 million taken by him in a bus import deal , the culprit made a dire threat   ‘  shall look after you  outside’ , the UNP national list M.P Ashubodha Marasinghe revealed at a media briefing held at the UNP headquarters , Sri Kotha last day (3)

 The grave exposure made regarding the massive bribery and corruption is as follows :

During the tenure of office of Welgama as minister of transport , while the Cabinet approval was for 1500 buses , he imported 2200 buses. That alone  was a fraud. And the buses were imported from Ashok Leyland Co. India.The total value of a bus including CIF price and other internal expenses was US $ 40,000.00. The transport ministry has however paid at the rate of US # 50,000.00 per bus. That is 10,000.00 # more per bus which in SL rupees is Rs. 1.4 million ! Hence on 2200 buses he has plundered nad gobbled up a whopping Rs. 3000 million approximately of Public funds !!

When Ashu Marasinghe was exposing this in parliament with concrete evidence , Welgama the culprit had threatened , ‘shall  look after you  outside parliament .’ That constitutes verbal corruption ,and a breach of parliamentary privilege ,Marasinghe pointed out.

The leaders of the rainbow revolution on the 8th of January wanted the people to be calm because they wanted to  act wisely , consequently  corrupt crooks like Welgama were not duly ‘looked after’ by the people on January 9 th. Today these corrupt crooks taking advantage of the soft attitude of the rainbow revolution leaders and people  are talking big   using threatening words , ‘ look after you outside,’  because they were spared and were not ‘looked after’ duly on the 9th of January . These scoundrels who are  now  left with nothing and are of no use to the country including  themselves have  only these empty boastful words to utter , Marasinghe observed.

---------------------------
by     (2015-12-05 14:51:54)

How is Chairman Jehan Amaratunga continuing in Office?

- Dec 06, 2015

The well known wheeler dealer Jehan Amaratunga who was a regular visitor at Temple Trees during the Rajapakse Administration and the front and collector for former President’s Chief of Staff Gamini Sarath is still Chairman of People’s Bank Insurance Company and a Director of People’s Bank.

Is this Yahapalanaya government lost its balance to be so idiotic?

Jehan Amaratunga was one of the biggest benefactors of the previous government. FCID should investigate how he bought MTD Walkers when 15 years ago Mr. Amaratunga was reported in the CRIB for defaulting HNB. Mr. Amaratunga lavishly funded the Rajapakse Administration during the elections.

He was part of the Rajapakse campaign. While many UNP stalwarts have not been given any post, Mr. Amaratunga continues in office in two institutions thanks to his God Father Malik Samarawickrama. 
The former President has told friends that he will expose the people who played both sides during the election. Malik Samarawickrama and Jehan Amaratunga will be top of the list, both are business partners, everyone knows this other than the Prime Minister?

We reliably understand that Mahinda pro group is investigating many of Mr. Amaratunga’s deals. Mr. Amaratunga now has chosen to be born again, but for the sake of good governance we will continue to investigate and report on some their dealings.

Mr. Amaratunga is now a public servant; he is accountable to the public. The current BOI Chairman should watch because, Malik Samarawickrama may be looking for a replacement.

Good Governance group.

Boycott the Zionists: Israeli General’s son tells developing nations

From Uzi to Olive Branch: Peace activist Miko Peled, the son of Israel’s famous General Matti Peled, delivering the lecture on Friday at the Sports Ministry auditorium at Race Course to mark the United Nations Day for the Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Pix by Amila Gamage

By Ameen Izzadeen-Sunday, December 06, 2015

An Israeli General’s son, now in Sri Lanka, has called on developing countries to break off trade and diplomatic ties with the Zionist State and push for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions until justice is done to the Palestinian people. Miko Peled, author and peace activist, on Friday delivered the keynote lecture to mark the United Nations Day for International Solidarity with the Palestinian People at an event organised by the Sri Lanka-Palestine Solidarity Committee. Excerpts from the interview with the Sunday Times:

Boycott the Zionists Israeli General’s Son Tells Developing Nations by Thavam Ratna

France's far-right achieves historic electoral 

gains since attack 

For the first time since its inception, the National Front topped the list in at least six of 13 regions 
FN leader Marine Le Pen and her 25-year-old niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen broke the 40-percent mark in their respective regions (AFP) 

Sunday 6 December 2015

France's far-right National Front saw record-high results in regional polls on Sunday, held under a state of emergency just three weeks after Islamtic State (IS) attackers killed 130 people in Paris.

The National Front (FN) came first with between 27.2 and 30.8 percent of the vote nationwide, and found itself topping the list in at least six of 13 regions, according to early estimates. 

FN leader Marine Le Pen and her 25-year-old niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen broke the 40-percent mark in their respective regions, shattering previous records for the party. 

The polls were held under tight security following the country's worst-ever terror attacks, which have thrust the FN's anti-immigration and often Islamophobic message to the fore.

Around half the 45 million registered voters took part in the polls, which will see the top two parties in each region go to a run-off next Sunday.

According to the French newspaper Le Monde, the National Front is projected to get close to 7 million votes - twice as much as "the shock of 21 April 2002", when Jean-Marie Le Pen (Marine's estranged father) surprised French pollsters by getting to the second round of Presidential elections, beating the socialist candidate Lionel Jospin. Le Pen received 4.8 million votes but was defeated in a run-off against Jaques Chirac.

The early estimates showed Marine Le Pen taking a whopping 40 percent of the vote in the economically depressed northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, once a bastion of the left.

Marion Marechal-Le Pen did even better in the vast southeastern Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur on 41 percent.

"I expect to gain enough momentum in this first round to be optimistic about the second round" next Sunday, Marine Le Pen said as she cast her vote earlier in the day.

However, these regional elections only mark the first round. The next round elections take place next week on 13 December.

A grouping of right-wing parties took between 27 and 27.4 percent, the estimates showed, while the ruling Socialist party and its allies took 22.7-23.5 percent.

FN vice-president Florian Philippot told AFP the results showed they were "very much the first party of France".

According to the analyst Dominique Albertini, a writer for the French newspaper Liberation, these National Front electoral victories could easily propel Marine Le Pen into becoming a presidential candidate.

"Five years ago, Le Pen's party was totally absent from 10 of the 22 former regional councils and only had 118 elected representatives at this level. This figure will have been comfortably overtaken by the end of the second round, which will give the National Front an unrivalled presence at the regional level and will make the task of collecting 500 signatures for Marine Le Pen's candidacy at the presidential elections in 2017 a mere formality."

France's regions have recently been consolidated and given more power over areas such as schools, transport and support for local businesses.

President Francois Hollande, who cast his vote in Tulle in central France, has seen his personal ratings surge as a result of his hardline approach since the November 13 attacks in Paris.

But his Socialist Party has languished behind the FN and the centre-right Republicans led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

The FN was also seen as in with a chance in the eastern Alsace-Champagne-Ardennes-Lorraine region that borders Belgium and Germany, according to polls by Ipsos and Odoxa.

If traditional parties refuse to join forces against them, analysts predict the FN could take all three regions in the second round on December 13. 

Victory would not only put the party at the head of a regional government for the first time, but would also give Marine Le Pen a springboard for her presidential bid in 2017.

In her campaign, she has focused repeatedly on the migrant camp in Calais known as "The Jungle" where thousands of people are camped trying to reach Britain and northern Europe.

With the FN also locked in a close race for Burgundy and Franche-Comte in the east, politicians across the spectrum appealed to their supporters to head off a historic victory by the party.

French politicians from the centre-left and right have expressed concerns about the National Front’s results.

Bordeaux Mayor Alain Juppé, a former foreign minister and a political heavy weight of centre right said:" We have to act lucidly, faced with the advance of the National Front. I save my comments for tomorrow's meeting of the political leadership of the Republicans. We have to take up the fight again, because the National Front offers no feasible solution to the problems of national security and unemployment."

In the middle of the campaign, Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the FN “antisemitic and racist” and suggested that all the leftist parties form an alliance with the centre-right to block Le Pen.

Ahead of the vote, Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged party activists to "appeal to patriotism" to ensure a massive turnout, with Le Pen accusing him of waging "total war" against her.

The FN - whose leaders have repeatedly linked immigration with terrorism - has been climbing in the polls since the gun and suicide bombing attacks in Paris.

When it emerged that at least two of the attackers had entered Europe posing as migrants, the FN went to town with a message of "we told you so."

But any election triumph will depend on whether the other parties are able to forge alliances against it.

Socialist leaders will begin talks after the first results on Sunday to decide whether to withdraw from some second-round battles, while the Republicans' strategy meeting is set for Monday.

One Socialist expected to win is Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, a popular choice in the northwestern Brittany region.

Fate of Arab ( Cartoon)

Cartoon by Awantha Artigala

( December 5, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) 

Isis claims responsibility for assassinating governor of Aden

Jaafar Mohamed Saad and bodyguards killed in most serious security breach in Yemen’s southern capital and hometown of president

Jaafar Mohamed Saad was travelling to his office in a convoy when the attack took place in the Rimbaud area of the southern port city. Photograph: Saleh Al-Obeidi/AFP/Getty Images

Kareem Shaheen in Beirut

Sunday 6 December 2015

Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for the assassination of the governor of the southern port city of Aden in Yemen, one of the highest profile attacks by the terror group’s affiliate in the war-torn country.

The killing of the governor in a car bomb attack in the city, which is under the control of a coalition led by Saudi Arabia to restore the rule of the elected president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, is a stark reminder of a brutal conflict that has raged for nine months and left in its wake a security vacuum that is being filled by both al-Qaida and Isis.

“Islamic State fighters were able on Sunday morning to assassinate the governor of Aden, Maj Gen Jaafar Mohamed Saad,” a news service associated with Isis said in a statement. “[Isis] fighters had parked a car filled with explosives in the Tawahi district and detonated it as the governor’s convoy passed which led to his death along with ten of his companions.”

The attack was the most serious security breach in Aden, the country’s southern capital and Hadi’s hometown, which has been under coalition control for monthsand is a redoubt for pro-government forces battling to restore the president’s rule.

“It is clear that the government is internally busy fighting and the only ones working or taking over in Yemen now are Isis and al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP),” said Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemeni scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and including an array of Sunni Arab states launched the Yemen war in March, after Iranian-backed rebels known as the Houthis overthrew Hadi’s government. The president fled house arrest to Aden and then went into exile in Saudi Arabia. The Houthi coup was seen as further evidence of Tehran’s encroachment and growing influence in the region.

The coalition established a beachhead in Aden in late July and early August, and pro-government troops backed by ground forces from the Gulf states have pressed ahead in an attempt to retake Taiz, Yemen’s third city, on the road to the capital, Sana’a.

Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have so far borne little fruit, instead turning the conflict into a humanitarian catastrophe that has abetted the rise of extremist groups.

UN officials estimate that 80% of the Yemeni population, 20 million people, are in need of humanitarian assistance in a conflict that has battered the Arab world’s poorest country and has killed over 5,000 people.

The war has also allowed Isis, which until earlier this year had no known presence in Yemen, and AQAP, one of the most powerful branches of al-Qaida’s terror network, to gain prominence. Isis has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in Yemen before and after the start of the conflict, particularly against Houthi targets, whereas AQAP last week took control of two Yemeni cities including Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province.

“The assassination of Jaafar Saad underlines the failure of the Yemeni government and the Saudi-led coalition’s forces to resolve the deep power vacuum in Aden,” said Adam Baron, a journalist formerly based in Yemen and co-founder of the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, a recently established Yemen-focused thinktank. “In the absence of strong, coherent efforts to bolster the city’s security, incidents like this will inevitably continue.”

The past few weeks have been marked by an escalation of attacks against humanitarian workers in Yemen. A hospital and clinic belonging to the international charity Médecins sans Frontières were bombed by the coalition in the past two months. In September, two staff members with the International Committee of the Red Cross were shot dead.

The Slow Death of Chavismo

Venezuela’s President Maduro inherited a vast empire of propaganda from his charismatic predecessor. Here’s how he lost it.

BY DANIEL LANSBERG-RODRÍGUEZ-DECEMBER 6, 2015

Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, seems to be stumbling towardselectoral defeat in the country’s legislative elections today, potentially triggering a long goodbye for the country’s seventeen-year-old socialist revolution. Polls show that, while Venezuelans may differ somewhat when assigning blame for their country’s ongoing economic collapse, discontent is nearly universal and only about 20 to 25 percentapprove of the president himself. As the hand-picked successor of Hugo Chávez, the country’s longstanding former leader, Maduro inherited one of the most innovative and successful propaganda models in the world, developed by Chávez between 1998 and 2002. Why hasn’t Maduro been able to use it?

The Slow Death of Chavismo by Thavam Ratna

Commuter train hits passenger bus in Indonesia; 18 dead

By ASSOCIATED PRESS- 6 December 2015

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A commuter train slammed into a passenger minibus Sunday at a railroad crossing in Indonesia's capital, killing at least 18 people and seriously injuring six others.

The bus driver allegedly ignored the warning signals when he crossed the rail tracks and was rammed by the train in western Jakarta, said Wirdhanto, the police chief in the neighborhood of Tambora. Like many Indonesians, Wirdhanto uses only one name.

All of those who were killed were traveling in the minibus. No one aboard the train was injured.

Rescuers remove the wreckage of a passenger minibus after it was hit by a commuter train in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015. Police say the train slammed into the bus at a railroad crossing killing and injuring number of people. (AP Photo)

The shattered bus was seen lying on the tracks after it was dragged by the train up to a nearby platform, about 300 meters (yards) from the collision site.

Thirteen minibus passengers died instantly, while another died on the way to a hospital, Wirdhanto said.

The minibus driver and his assistant were among four people who died at three Jakarta hospitals, while six others were hospitalized with serious injuries, said Musyafak, who heads Jakarta police's medical and health division.

He said that no one traveling in the train's eight cars were hurt, and that all rail signals were working at the time of the crash. The train was headed to Jakarta's neighboring town of Bogor with about 400 passengers.

Road, train, boat and air accidents are common in Indonesia, due largely to poor safety standards.

Rescuers remove the wreckage of a passenger minibus after it was hit by a commuter train in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015. The train slammed into the bus at a railroad crossing killing and injuring number of people. (AP Photo)

Canada’s next big move? It may be legalizing pot.

An employee makes cuttings from a mother plant to grow new medical marijuana plants at the Tweed Inc. facility in Smith Falls, Ontario, Canada, on Nov. 11. (James MacDonald/Bloomberg) (James MacDonald/Bloomberg)

By William Marsden-December 6

MONTREAL – For police forces across Canada, the month of August is harvest time.

Canada’s Next Big Move It May Be Legalizing Pot. by Thavam Ratna

Modi mocked and Jayalalithaa heckled after floods

 BY SANJEEV MIGLANI-Sun Dec 6, 2015

One of India's most powerful politicians, a former movie star called "Amma" or "Mother" by her followers, is being heckled and abused for going missing in action after floods swept the capital of Tamil Nadu, which she rules.

It's a salutary lesson for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who at first drew nods of approval when he rushed to Chennai last week, promising to stand by its people in their hour of need.

Yet, within hours, Modi became the object of mockery on social media after his press office released a doctored photo of him inspecting flood damage. For both him and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the image of strong leadership created by their publicity machines was undermined.

Until the floods that ravaged the city of 6 million, the lofty remoteness of Jayalalithaa added to the aura around a leader with an almost hysterical following. Devotees of the 1960s screen idol have immolated themselves in her defence in the past.

Now, she faces a backlash from residents fed up with the sight of her image on billboards, aid packets and her own Jaya Plus TV channel. She has been since in public only twice during the crisis - once with Modi.

Angry youths heckled a state minister and officials in Jayalalithaa's north Chennai constituency, where people were sitting on the roadside amid sludge and mountains of garbage, their shanties swept away by the worst rains in a century.

"Forget about Amma coming here, there was no sign of the party cadres," said one of them, called Dorairaj.

About 280 people have died across Tamil Nadu since torrential rains on December 1 submerged tracts of Chennai under up to eight feet (2.5 metres) of water, trapping people on rooftops with no communication.

There was further revulsion after a party legislator put up a poster of Jayalalithaa lifting a baby above the floodwaters, in a scene from a blockbuster movie. "Adding salt to the wounds," said one Twitter post.

Avadi Kumar, a spokesman of her ruling AIADMK party, said there was anger among the people but the administration was doing all it could to bring relief: "It is impossible to reach all areas immediately or be present everywhere at all times."

GOOD DAYS

Modi's own promise to voters of good days to come for India is also starting to face disenchantment, 18 months into his five-year term, with key reforms stalled by bureaucratic inertia and political gridlock.

Ambitious initiatives, such as a "Clean India" campaign, have made little headway - even as Modi has built up huge followings on social media and addressed enthusiastic diaspora Indians at packed stadiums on his many trips overseas.

"If today he appears to have lost control over his own narrative, it is his own fault," commentator Tavleen Singh wrote in Sunday's Indian Express, urging Modi to hire a professional media team. Modi does not have an official spokesperson.

Jayalalithaa, 67, in the past considered as a possible prime ministerial candidate backed by regional groups, faces an election in Tamil Nadu next year.

Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has little presence in Tamil Nadu, a state of 70 million. It would rather the iron-fisted Jayalalithaa stays in power, believing she is more inclined to back his reform agenda in parliament than her rivals.

But there are concerns around her health and that she may have to curtail her campaign.

Earlier this year a higher court acquitted her in a graft case for which was briefly jailed which had caused an outpouring of anger from her supporters. Some lay down on roads and tried to persuade bus drivers to go over them.

"She is supposed to be a fantastic administrator. But this time there was no presence of government at all. Ordinary people did all the work that government and police were supposed to do," said S. Raja, one flood-hit resident of Chennai.

(Additional reporting by Sandhya Ravishankar; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Bill Gates’ Skepticism About Renewable Energy And Modi’s Target Of 175 GW By 2022

by N.S.Venkataraman

( December 6, 2015, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Even the pledged admirers of Bill Gates, widely acclaimed as the greatest innovator and philanthropist of present time, would be surprised to know about the cynicism of Bill Gates on the potential benefits of renewable energy for saving countries like India from an impending energy crisis and to provide the ecological gains to mankind by ensuring reduction in use of fossil fuel (coal, oil, natural gas), that cause global warming.

On a careful reading of the speech of Bill Gates, his admirers may give him the benefit of the doubt, and state that he was just thinking aloud and even before crystallising his thoughts, he blurted out his views in a premature manner. There is no doubt that the negative views of Bill Gates on renewable energy are ill advised and certainly is not in tune with the reputation that he commands.

At the same time, it is gratifying to note that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fixed renewable energy target of 175 GW for the year 2022, during his recent speech in the Paris Climate Conference.

Given the past experience in India of fixing the target and not achieving them even half way on several occasions, many people may suspect that the Prime Minister may be unreasonably ambitious. Perhaps, those who admire Narendra Modi for his capability to think big and his habit of announcing tall targets in dramatic manner, may say that the Prime Minister has fixed target of 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022, with the objective of enthusing the countrymen to work towards such big target and work hard to achieve it. Probably, he has thrown the target as the challenge for the Indian administrators, scientists and technologists.

However, a careful analysis of renewable energy potential in India would make it evident that such target of 175 GW is reasonable, much needed and well within the achievable capability of India.

Present scenario and the huge target:

The present scenario is that India has around 38, O96 MW of renewable power, consisting of wind power of 24,677 MW, solar power of 4579 MW, the small hydropower of 4161MW, biopower of 455O MW and waste to the power of 127 MW.

Given the target of 175 GW by 2022 and the present capacity of around 38 GW, India needs to build renewable energy capacity of around 19 GW every year between 2016 and 2022. Is it possible? It is possible if Modi government would be able to pursue the task with great determination, focused attention, innovative approach and creation of appropriate public opinion in favour of such target.

By fixing the target of 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022, Narendra Modi has placed himself and his governance capability on trial.

India has the onshore wind power potential of around 103 GW.With around 7600 km of coastal line, India has the potential of around 350GW of offshore wind power.

India has the advantage in terms of higher solar radiation compared to countries such as Germany, USA, Japan, Australia, Italy, which have made significant progress in solar power segment in the recent years. Potential of solar power in India is as high as 5000 million kilowatt-hours per year. Small hydropower potential in India is around 20 GW.

Obviously, Modi government has to largely rely on the capacity build up of wind power and solar power to achieve the target of 175 GW by 2022. It has fixed target of 100 GW of solar power by 2022.

Challenges ahead:

There are challenges ahead and obviously Narendra Modi must be aware of this daunting task when he fixed the target of 175 GW by 2022.

One MW of solar power capacity needs the land area of around 5 to 7.5 acres. Similar extent of land area would be required for onshore wind power also.This means that more than one lakh acre of land has to be made available for building up around 19000 MW(19 GW) of renewable power capacity every year. Such land has to be acquired without disturbing agriculture farm holdings.

Of course, there are lakhs of acres of unused and wasted land available in the country and such land has to be identified and put to use for building up the renewable power projects. The suitability of the land for the purpose also need to be ascertained.

Another big challenge is the building up of grid capacity in tune with the capacity build up for renewable power so that the generated power can be handled.

Building up of the capacity of 19 GW per year and creating the required additional grid capacity will call for an investment of around Rs.1,50,000 crores per year. As the year 2016 will commence in the next few days, we see a scenario where no provision has been made to have the necessary investment to build the envisaged renewable energy capacity every year.

There are other issues such as an absence of any production capacity in the country for polycrystalline silicon, which is one of the essential input material for solar cell. One MW of solar power capacity would need 20 tonne of polycrystalline silicon.

Though some initial steps have been taken to build offshore wind power project in the coastal region of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, it is still in very preliminary stage.

Let the nation strive to achieve the target:

While one can say that Narendra Modi’s target is technically achievable and the doomsayers would very much doubt that the target can be achieved, the nation would be well advised to believe that target would be possible and it should strive towards achieving the target to the best of its ability, notwithstanding whatever may be the views of Bill Gates .

Man's weight 'affects sperm cells'

3 December 2015

A man's weight affects the information passed on through his sperm and could leave his children predisposed to obesity, research in Denmark suggests.

The sperm cells of lean and obese men possess different epigenetic marks, maybe changing the behaviour of genes.

Dr Romain Barres, the author of the study, said: "When a woman is pregnant she should take care of herself.

"But if the implication of our study holds true, then recommendations should be directed towards men too."

Part of the research - which was carried out by the University of Copenhagen and published in the journal Cell Metabolism - tested the sperm of six obese men who were undergoing weight-loss surgery.

Appetite control

It looked at the men's sperm before treatment, a week after the surgery and then for a third time a year later.

Dr Barres said changes to the sperm were noticeable in the men a week after the surgery, and also one year on.

Until we know more, would-be parents should just aim to be as healthy as possible at the time of conception...

Prof Allan Pacey, The University of Sheffield

He said although the genetic make-up of the sperm cells was likely to remain the same, he noticed "epigenetic changes", which could change the way a gene expresses itself in the body.

Dr Barres admits a definitive scientific conclusion for how these epigenetic changes affect the gene is not yet scientifically known.

However, the sperm cell changes he recorded are linked to the genes known for appetite control and brain development.

The five-year study also recorded similar sperm cell changes when it compared 13 lean men - who all had a BMI of below 30 - with 10 moderately obese men.

'Significant differences'

Dr Barres said his findings have also been corroborated on mice and rats.

He goes on to suggest that there are possible evolutionary reasons why information about a father's weight would be valuable to offspring.

Dr Barres has been working on the research for five years

His theory is that during in times of abundance, it is an instinctive way to encourage children to eat more and grow bigger.

"It's only recently that obesity is not an advantage," he said. "Only decades ago, the ability to store energy was an advantage to resist infections and famines."

Prof Allan Pacey from the University of Sheffield, described the study as "interesting" and said it provided further evidence to support the theory that some characteristics can be passed by sperm, without altering the basic structure of the genetic code.

"Whilst the study examines a relative small number of individuals, the fact that such significant differences can be found in the epigenetic markers of lean and obese men is intriguing and in my opinion worthy of more detailed investigation," he said.

"Until we know more, would-be parents should just aim to be as healthy as possible at the time of conception and not be drawn to faddy diets or other activities in order to try and influence the health of their children in ways we don't properly understand."

SLA Massacre of 32 Tamils in Othiyamalai remembered

04 December 2015 Villagers in Mullaitivu marked 31 years since the massacre of 32 young Tamils by the Sri Lankan Army in Othiyamalai. Photograph: Tamilwin.com On the 2nd December 1984, men in the village of Othiyamalai, Mullaitivu were rounded up by the Sri Lankan Army, dragged to the village community centre and stripped naked and tied up by their clothes.  27 of the men were shot and killed on the spot. A further 5 were arrested, and are believed by their relatives to have been murdered at a later date. The massacre victims were remembered on Wednesday with a service in the village temple, with prayers and a commemorative flame being lit. A monument built in memory of the victims of Othiyamalai is reported to have been destroyed in the final stages of the war.

Northern & Eastern Provinces Are Nowhere Close To Middle Income Category

By C.V. Wigneswaran –December 5, 2015

C.V Wigneswaran

From an economic standpoint today’s is an important rendezvous for our investors, entrepreneurs, provincial administrators and Governmental authorities. We are gathered here today to conduct the Northern Entrepreneurs Awards Ceremony 2014. It is the first awarding programme for the entrepreneurs of the Northern Province with the object of recognizing, motivating and rewarding the Northern Province based entrepreneurs who have contributed to the National wellbeing.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Yarlpanam has been involved in various activities to improve existing industries and has facilitated to establish new ventures such as a loan scheme called Youth Business Sri Lanka for young entrepreneurs in small and medium enterprises. It has taken steps to hold International Trade Fairs with the object of targeting appropriate technology transfer and product improvement to the Industries of Northern Province. We find over 150 private organisations from different sectors have their membership in your Chambers. They all contribute to the business improvement of the region.

I do not want to make a long speech. Let me refer to a few important policy decisions on our part as the Northern Provincial Administration and then refer to our concerns.

Firstly we are aware of the shortcomings our Central Government faces in fulfilling all its obligations towards a war torn society in the Northern Province. It must be flagged that even though Sri Lanka has been characterized internationally as a Middle Income Country the Northern and Eastern Provinces which have borne the brunt of the war recently are certainly nowhere close to such middle income category.

We are below par. We need to be helped to reach economic par in the first instance before we could speak of development at a National Level. Our infrastructures have been dismantled; our people are subject to psycho-social issues; our institutions need to be revamped. Education, Health sectors need to be improved; Local Government institutions need reorganisation and reform. As I said earlier the Central Government is hard pressed to help us. We are fortunate to have a Government whom we ourselves helped to install who are not averse to private investment and to the dynamic functioning of Non Governmental Organisations. We therefore welcome the role of the Private Sector and the Non Governmental Organisation Sectors in our economic regeneration. We also have the benefit of a sympathetic and resourceful diaspora who could be tapped.

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