Farmers using organic fertilizer to get Rs. 18000 subsidy for hectare

Thu, Aug 2, 2018, 12:56 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Aug 02, Colombo: The Ministry of Agriculture has decided to provide a fertilizer subsidy of Rs. 18,000 per hectare for the farmers using organic fertilizer for their cultivations.

Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera has taken this decision in order to encourage the farmers using organic fertilizer and accordingly, has given necessary instructions to the officials to proceed with the measure.

Instead of the fertilizer subsidy offered to farmers using chemical fertilizers, the organic farmers will receive the money.

The progress review meeting of the first Agriculture Entrepreneurship Model Village in Kahattewela, Haputale was held yesterday at the Ministry of Agriculture.

At the meeting the attention was focused on directing the farmers to use organic fertilizer for fruit and vegetable cultivations in the model village as a measure to popularize the organic farming.

About 5000 farmers are engaged in organic farming and the Minister has received the cabinet approval to provide the necessary funds for the purchase of organic fertilizer from Maha Season in 2018.

The Ministry will also hold discussions with organic fertilizer producers and implement a program to encourage the production of organic fertilizer.

The government has allocated Rs. 33 billion for the farmers' fertilizer subsidy this year.

Organic farming, a lesson from Sikkim

2018-08-02

Agriculture has been a part if not the heart of Sri Lanka’s civilization for thousands of years. But in recent decades, the excessive use of imported chemical fertilisers, pesticides and weedicide has created a crisis where most people most of the time take a little poison with their meals. Experts say this is largely because the soil has been polluted by the excessive use of imported chemicals and even the ground water is known to have been poisoned. The experts also say this may be one of the causes for the kidney disease epidemic in the North Central Province and other areas. 

In recent years the government and organic farming movements have been trying to persuade farmers to use organic substances like cowdung fertiliser. The government intensified its effort to promote organic farming specially after virtually all countries signed the 2015 Paris climate change agreement but hundreds of farmers appear to be reluctant to switch to organic farming apparently because the imported chemicals often provide higher yields of rice and other grains, vegetables and fruits, though they come with a little poison. We hope that in the major development projects launched recently—including Gamperaliya, Grama Shakthi and the Enterprise Sri Lanka—the government while introducing new technology will also push for organic farming instead of giving into vested interest linked to multinational chemical fertiliser companies. 

If we need an example, the Indian state of Sikkim provides it. Sikkim became India’s first fully organic state in 2016. It took the state 13 years to fully implement organic farming since the idea was mooted in 2003, the Press Trust of India (PTI) says. 

2016 turned out to be a great year for Sikkim as it became India’s first fully organic state besides being adjudged the cleanest state, overall best in education and tourist destination while the famed Kanchenjunga National Park was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List, PTI adds. Around 75,000 hectares of agricultural land was gradually converted to certified organic land by implementing practices and principles in terms of guidelines laid down in the National Programme for Organic Production. 

Sikkim was adjudged as the cleanest state in India by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in September 2016. The result was announced by Union Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar based on a survey for 2015, according to PTI.

However Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported last year that Sikkim’s organic revolution was at risk as local consumers were failing to buy the products.  With 66,000 farmers’ livelihoods at stake, concern was growing over the Indian state’s organic farming experiment, with locals reluctant to pay higher prices. 

The Guardian in its report cites the dilemma of one farmer, “It is mid-morning, and Amrit Pradhan is repositioning the tomatoes on his market stall in Gangtok of the Himalayan state of Sikkim. He says people often want the biggest, reddest fruit. He tries to tell them, the flavour was in the smaller ones, but they don’t want to know.   The Guardian says, Pradhan is one of Sikkim’s 66,000 farmers who are part of a far-reaching experiment. Since 2016, the state’s farmers had become 100% organic – their produce was free of chemical pesticides or genetic modification. It also means their fruit and vegetables are smaller, less colourful, and more expensive than the imported, non-organic produce from the city of Siliguri in the neighbouring state of West Bengal. 

According to the Guardian, in 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded Sikkim for its organic farming, a programme that had gradually been rolled out across the state since 2003 by its chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling. Winning a fifth term in 2014 allowed him to oversee the organic project from start to finish. 

In 2016, Sikkim’s state government made the use of chemical pesticides a criminal offence, carrying a heavy penalty of 100,000 Indian rupees and up to three months in jail. According to Dr. S Anbalangan, executive director of the government-led Sikkim Organic Mission, it is part of Mr. Chamling’s wider vision for sustainable commerce in Sikkim. 

In Sri Lanka the consumer also needs to play a major role for the success of organic farming. People would like to buy a big red tomato without a spot or wrinkle unaware that so many chemicals have been sprayed on it to the extent that even an insect fears to touch it. Consumers need to be responsible eco-friendly citizens and ensure that the rice or grains, vegetables or fruits we buy have not been sprayed with imported chemicals, some of which are toxic. 

Israel halts fuel shipments to Gaza

#Occupation

Israel's defence minister says decision aims to stop Palestinians from setting balloons on fire


Palestinians say balloons set on fire are legitimate means of resistance (Reuters)

Wednesday 1 August 2018

Israel's Defence Ministry announced it was banning gas and fuel from entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing, the main point of entry of international aid into the besieged strip.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday that the decision aims to stop Palestinians from using kites and balloons set on fire and flown over the fence to cause damage in Israel.

"The decision has been taken in view of the continued terror of incendiary balloons and friction along the fence," a statement by Lieberman's office said.

Palestinians say the balloons are a modest and legitimate means of resistance against Israel's deadly violence and blockade of Gaza.

Israel has stepped up its crippling sanctions on Gaza as Palestinians continue to regularly demonstrate along the fence separating Gaza from Israel as part of the Great March of Return.

The protest campaign calls for an end to the 11-year Israeli blockade on Gaza and for Palestinian refugees' right of return to the lands that their families fled during the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.

Since the demonstrations began on 30 March, the Israeli army has killed at least 155 Palestinian protesters, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Israel had closed the Kerem Shalom crossing and reopened it partially last week after warnings from UN officials that emergency fuel supplies are running low in the Gaza Strip. Fuel shortages and power cuts have created a dire situation for hospitals and water sanitation systems.

When a sniper shot a surfer

Raed Jadallah was waving a Palestinian flag when an Israeli sniper shot him in his leg.
 Mohamed Hajjar

Amjad Ayman Yaghi- 19 July 2018

Raed Jadallah was regarded as one of Palestine’s best surfers. From his home in the Beach refugee camp of Gaza City, he dreamed of traveling abroad to hone the skills he had developed through constant practice.

Israel prevented him from realizing his ambitions.

In 2017, Raed was invited to a training course for surfers in Italy. He was unable to go. The Israeli authorities refused to allow him to leave Gaza.

Much worse was to come. On 6 April this year, Raed was badly injured as he participated in the Great March of Return in an area to the east of Gaza City.

Raed stood about 100 meters from the boundary between Gaza and Israel, waving a Palestinian flag. He was demonstrating in support of the right to return for refugees expelled from their homes by Zionist forces during the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

As he demanded that basic right, he was attacked by an Israeli sniper.

“I was shot with an explosive bullet in my left leg,” the 26-year-old said. “Doctors have told me that I will not be able to go back to surfing because my muscles will not be as strong as they were. Surfing requires strong muscles and being able to balance on the surfboard. At the moment, I cannot move my leg.”

Passion for the sea

The injury has multiple consequences.

Because of it, Raed has lost his job as a construction worker.

The job had provided an important source of income for his family, some of whom have disabilities. They include his brother Rafiq, who was injured during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in 2006.

Another brother, Medhat, who was 17, was killed by Israeli forces in 2000. He was taking part in a protest east of Gaza City at the time.

Raed was passionate about the sea. He had worked as a fisher but gave that up because it was too dangerous. Israel frequently attacks fishers, sometimes fatally.

Surfing provided him with opportunities to escape – if temporarily – from the hardships of everyday life. Now his opportunities to savor a little freedom have been shattered.

Israel killed more than 150 Palestinians in Gaza between 30 March – the date of the first protest in the Great March of Return – and 12 July.

Approximately 8,000 people have been taken to hospital with injuries in that period. Nearly half of them were wounded with live ammunition.

“Volleyball made life beautiful”

The wounded have included more than 50 athletes.
Abd al-Hameed Fayad is among them.

A 26-year-old volleyball player, Fayad was injured on 14 May, the day Israel committed its worst massacre of 2018 so far. He was shot with three explosive bullets – two in his left leg, the other in his right.

The medical team treating him at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City initially thought that his left leg would have to be amputated. Fortunately, they determined that the leg could be saved. He has subsequently undergone a number of operations.

“I have platinum in my legs now,” he said. “I hate how they look because they restrict my movement. The doctors have told me that I will have difficulty walking for the time being because my foot was damaged and I lost 15 centimeters of bone.”

“My story is the same as that of many athletes in Gaza,” says Abd al-Hameed Fayad.
 Mohamed Hajjar

Fayad also lives in Beach refugee camp and played volleyball for a local club. His injuries mean that he has to give up his beloved sport.

“I used to run on the beach every day,” he said. “Volleyball made life beautiful. Through it, I could forget my worries. My story is the same as that of many athletes in Gaza.”

He has performed a number of jobs over recent years – working in construction, in a barbershop and, just before he was wounded, in a shoe shop. His earnings were vital for his family, helping to sustain his six brothers. As he cannot work at the moment, the family has to try and survive on less money.
Muhammad Abu Ghaza from Rafah, a city near Gaza’s border with Egypt, had been the breadwinner for his family since his father, a blacksmith, became unemployed two years ago.

Abu Ghaza worked as an accountant in a household appliance store. Each evening, he practiced playing handball with a club from his area.

Israel has not allowed Muhammad Abu Ghaza to trave lto Jordan for specialized medical treatment.Mohamed Hajjar

On 6 April, he joined the Great March of Return. He was more than 300 meters from the boundary separating Gaza and Israel, when he was shot in his right knee. An Israeli sniper had struck him with an exploding bullet.

His nerves have been damaged as a result and the surgery he requires is not available inside Gaza. An application was submitted in order for him to receive treatment in Jordan. Israel, however, has refused to allow him to travel.

The thought that he can no longer play sport distresses Abu Ghaza. Each night, he visits the seaside, trying as hard as he can not to think about his pain.

“Israel destroyed my dream to be a professional handball player,” he said. “It is normal for the Israeli occupation to hold back a young man with a dream. It is not strange at all. The occupation and the siege kill us every day.”

Amjad Ayman Yaghi is a journalist based in Gaza.

China cracks down on digital platforms selling counterfeit goods

By Tech Wire Asia | 1 August, 2018

CHINA has a reputation for making and selling counterfeit goods. It’s something that got the country’s economy going in the early days.

However, in the past decade or so, as China has climbed the economic ladder and become a global geopolitical superpower.

As a result, it has started to face criticism for failing to crack down on counterfeit goods which damage the brand and image of some of the world’s biggest fashion and technology companies.
So far, the country’s regulators didn’t take action against those creating the products. However, all that may change soon, especially as Chinese companies are going global.

Just last week, social commerce platform Pinduoduo listed in the US. The success of its IPO made its CEO Colin Huang Zheng a billionaire.

Unfortunately, it seems as though coming into the spotlight on the global stage wasn’t the best thing for the company or its CEO.

People who were curious about the platform quickly realized the fact that the company allows the sale of counterfeit goods – which drew the ire of several companies and forced China to pay attention to the problem.

When the IPO was announced, it caught the attention of Daddy’s Choice, who had been battling the counterfeit goods being sold by Chinese companies using its trade name on the platform for over a year.

As a result of the then-proposed IPO, Daddy’s Choice got a chance to file a trademark infringement lawsuit in a US federal court alleging that Pinduoduo allowed the sale of knockoff products bearing the Daddy’s Choice name.

According to the suit, the e-commerce platform removed some of the unauthorized goods when Daddy’s Choice, reported them last year. But the items quickly reappeared, and Pinduoduo took no action when notified of them again this year, their complaint said.

According to latest reports by local news outlets, Chinese regulators are now scrutinizing the platform’s sale of counterfeit goods.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has called for an investigation into the sale of counterfeit products and items that infringe copyright on Pinduoduo’s platform.

In a statement posted on its website, the regulator called for the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce (SHAIC), as well as other relevant market regulators, to investigate Pinduoduo, which is headquartered in the city.

In a recent interview, Pinduoduo’s CEO said that the company is committed to fighting fake goods, however, he pointed out that there was a difference between “counterfeit” and “imitation products” which didn’t go down well with media and the regulators.

However, the company has pledged to put into place a better mechanism to fight fakes within a month.

Pinduoduo certainly has the resources to survive the new push from regulators to fight fake and counterfeit goods. However, strong action from the government will signal to local businesses and the world that China is ready to change its image and make amends with international brands battling Chinese copycats.

Riding ‘The Death Train’ to America’s border

Guillermo Galdos-1 Aug 2018Latin America Correspondent

We have following two people who, with tens of thousands of others, are so desperate to flee the danger and destruction in their homelands, they risk everything in the attempt to make it to the United States on the ‘El tren de la muerte’ – the Death Train.

When President Trump introduced tough new policies to stop migrants crossing the US border, the result was immediate: thousands of children separated from their parents, hundreds of families with no idea when they would see each other again.

In a new book, Bob Woodward plans to reveal the ‘harrowing life’ inside Donald Trump’s White House

Bob Woodward speaks at the White House correspondents' dinner in April 2017. (Cliff Owen/AP)

By Manuel Roig-FranziaJuly 30Email the author

In the worldwide capital of leaks and anonymous dishing that is Washington, secrets can be almost impossible to keep.

But somehow over the past 19 months, the fact that America’s most famous investigative journalist was quietly chipping away at a book that delves into the dysfunctions of President Trump’s White House remained largely unknown. On Monday night, that veil of secrecy will be lifted when Simon & Schuster plans to announce that it will publish “Fear: Trump in the White House” by Bob Woodward on Sept. 11, according to a copy of the release obtained by The Washington Post.

In the book, Woodward’s 19th, the 75-year-old journalist and author “reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump’s White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies,” the publisher’s release states.

The expected tenor of the book is underscored by its unsettling cover, an extreme close-up of a squinty-eyed Trump depicted through a gauzy red filter. The hush-hush project derives its title from an offhand remark that then-candidate Trump made in an interview with Woodward and Post political reporter Robert Costa in April 2016. Costa asked Trump whether he agreed with a statement by then-President Barack Obama, who had said in an Atlantic magazine interview that “real power means you can get what you want without having to exert violence.”

At first Trump seemed to agree, saying: “Well, I think there’s a certain truth to that. . . . Real power is through respect.”

But then he added a personal twist: “Real power is, I don’t even want to use the word: ‘Fear.’ ”

Woodward, who declined to be quoted for this article, has privately described the remark as “an almost Shakespearean aside.”

[In a revealing interview, Trump predicts a “massive recession,” but intends to eliminate the national debt in eight years]

Woodward, an associate editor at The Post, is deeply embedded in the cultural fabric of American journalism. He is famed for his Pulitzer-winning reporting at The Post with Carl Bernstein on the deceptions and misdeeds of President Richard Nixon in the 1970s that eventually led to the resignation of the 37th president of the United States. Their work was immortalized in the film “All the President’s Men,” in which Robert Redford played Woodward and Dustin Hoffman portrayed Bernstein.

The Washington Post's Bob Woodward reflects on the Watergate scandal and the tapes President Nixon recorded, which turned out to be key evidence. (Peter Stevenson, Thomas LeGro/The Washington Post)

A casual observer of American political news might be excused for thinking the 1970s never ended. Not only is Woodward publishing a Trump book, but Bernstein is also appearing regularly on American television screens after recently co-writing a scoopy piece for CNN that asserted Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen is willing to testify that Trump was aware in advance of a now-infamous meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Russians offering dirt of Hillary Clinton.

The cover of Woodward’s upcoming book. (Courtesy of Bob Woodard)

Woodward is one of the best-selling American nonfiction authors of the modern era, and the publication of his books generally become news events in their own right. As usual, Woodward was represented by Robert B. Barnett, the powerhouse Washington attorney who also has negotiated literary contracts for former presidents Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, as well as Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Woodward’s most recent work, “The Last of the President’s Men,”chronicled the story of Alexander Butterfield, the Nixon aide who revealed the existence of an Oval Office taping system. But with his new book, “Fear,” Woodward will be returning to the sort of endeavor for which he has been best known during his long career: real-time reporting on American power and the presidency.

His previous works on American presidents, including books about George W. Bush and Obama, have tended to focus primarily on single, all-important decisions, such as whether to engage in foreign wars. “Fear” is expected to be a broader examination of the presidency.

“Fear” will add to the avalanche of books that focus on the Trump presidency or issues related to his time in office. Among those who have generated headlines are former FBI director James B. Comey’s, “A Higher Loyalty,” Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,”and the just-released book by Trump’s former press secretary, Sean Spicer: “The Briefing: Politics, the Press and the President.”

Woodward’s new book draws on the hallmarks of his approach to investigative reporting, pulling details from “hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, contemporaneous meeting notes, files, documents and personal diaries,” according to his publisher. “FEAR brings to light the explosive debates that drive decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One and the White House residence.”

Jonathan Karp, president and publisher of Simon & Schuster, touted the work as “the most acute and penetrating portrait of a sitting president ever published during the first years of an administration.”

While working on the book, Woodward has kept a lower profile than usual, limiting cable news appearances and attempting to stay out of the public eye. Instead, the author has told friends, he’s gone back to some of the signature moves of his youthful reporting days.

Late at night, he’s been prone to show up at important people’s houses unannounced to ask for interviews. He’s told friends that it feels like a “rebirth.”

America’s unending hostage crisis with Iran

For nearly four decades, Iran has imprisoned American citizens. And for nearly four decades, Washington has strived to free prisoners through diplomacy, force or persuasion. The dynamic has bedeviled presidents Democratic and Republican

By YEGANEH TORBATI and JOEL SCHECTMAN-Filed Aug. 1, 2018, 11:15 a.m. GMT

WASHINGTON – A year before leaving office, Barack Obama stunned the world with a prisoner trade with Iran. After more than a year of secret negotiations, the U.S. president announced that five Americans were freed from captivity, closing a deal he dubbed a “one-time gesture.”

America’s unending hostage crisis with Iran.docx by Thavam on Scribd

America first means America withdrawn first

We cannot and shall not forget all the gangs of ruffians of American establishment, an uncultured, aggressive, rude, noisy troublemaker.

by Anwar A. Khan-Jul 30, 2018

( July 30, 2018, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) America is the Beelzebub’s Country. In 1913, with the establishment of the usurious, unconstitutional, and criminal Federal Reserve Bank, Old Nick’s minions secretly stole the soul of America and turned the American people into mindless destructive creatures. Hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions of human beings throughout the world have been killed and wounded in Lucifer’s false wars, from Korea to Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria to many more countries.

We want to be brought in as possible. America is not the Kingdom of morning star, but it is occupied by the forces who work for the Kingdom of chief spirit of evil. The principle of power in human and political affairs is the principle of Satan. Washington is the Kingdom of Prince of Darkness because the Old Nick has been ruling for more than seven decades; Berlin was the Kingdom of the Tempter when Hitler ruled; and in Genghis Khan’s dark heart laid the Kingdom of daemon. And so on.

America has been the Kingdom of archfiend since long. The American people are told that those who expose the Dark Heart of Washington D.C. are derisive and crackpot conspiracy theorists who deserve to be brushed off and guyed. But these conspiracy theorists are rebels of thought who will never go away and shut up. We will never be silenced.

At some point, the power elite and the disdainful CIA will learn that you can’t assassinate and demonise every political leader and whistleblower across the world. This isn’t the 60’s and 70’s. Times have changed. In the last several decades, there has been a great political arousing, especially since the events of colossal misdoings by America after Second World War. If the Kennedys and King were killed today by the United States government, there would be riots and mini-uprisings which would eventually grow into a revolution.

Millions of people know the American government has been hijacked by traitors, thieves, and state terrorists and those other Western governments are also guilty of covering up what really happened in the past decades perpetrated by American establishment. People know they are under attack. The modern police force is viewed in America, Canada, and Europe as an occupying army. Cops are Redcoats. They are brainwashed machines who have been trained to carry out the will of destruction and tyranny. The American founding fathers believed that there were cosmic forces at work during the creation of America. John Adams attributed America’s success to divine providence. He said: “But I must submit all my Hopes and Fears to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the Faith may be, I firmly believe.”

The more I think about America’s and the world’s current troubles the more I lean towards the belief that some great cosmic force is present on Earth and within each of us. With that said, I believe human beings are a creative force, either for good or for evil. We have free will. The future can be in our control. We all have to think and act creatively to bring about a world order where people all over the world can live in peace, not in war, destruction, killing of mankind promiscuously…

World history abounds with examples of one tyrant after another forcing their wills upon that of the people, to gain political power and personal wealth. It is so common of human nature that we now view it as almost a given—sooner or later someone else will add their name to the now infamous list of despots. But we also know that there is another interesting and sad fact of humanity: we seldom pay attention until it is too late. Philosopher Hagel rightly said, “The only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn anything from history.”

Adolf Hitler, during his rise to power, made sure that the youth of Germany were taught the principles necessary for them to be useful members of the “Third Reich.” And if we were to say that he was successful in propagandising them, we would be guilty of gross understatement! He was widely viewed by the people as being the saviour of Germany. America that gave Martin Luther to the world, but it violated every principle of Christianity in following Hitler’s demonic leadership to moral ruin and national destruction. Could it happen again? Certainly, and it is probably much closer than you would dare imagine!

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We, at cutting edge, are constantly accused of being paranoid because of the Western media’s deliberate prevarication on stance on world affairs.

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We, at cutting edge, are constantly accused of being paranoid because of the Western media’s deliberate prevarication on stance on world affairs. But as the old joke goes, “You would be paranoid too, if everyone were after you!” Yes, we do plead guilty to seeing demons under many bushes and, without apology, maintain that every religion warns us of such. It also seems reasonable to us that anyone with an ounce of horse sense should be able to discern that things just aren’t going as well today as many seem to believe. But the giddy majority is rolling merrily along, totally oblivious to the unmistakable signs of catastrophe looming just over the horizon. And upon the mirage of the financial picture alone we could have much to say, but that is another story.

My friends, take a hard look around you and observe how few people today really and truly have to earn their living through arduous physical work. To be sure, some still do, but they are so few in number compared to 50-75 years ago as to be practically nonexistent. The overwhelming majority of people in the industrialised nations today expend far less physical effort to earn their daily bread than did their predecessors. This is a good thing you say? Well, that depends upon how you look at it! Pleasure and recreation is the number one priority of the average guy today right behind his insatiable desire to have more of it by working himself to death through long hours and stress. Does this describe anyone you know? At least, those who did hard manual labour in the past, generally only worked during daylight hours and had to have sufficient rest in order to continue. So, if you were plotting a national and international take-over, would you want the masses of cattle to have enough time or mental capacity to take note of what was really taking place around them? As a sage is fond of saying, “Wake up and smell the coffee!”

After the Second World War, America’s abominable bullyragging into the internal affairs of independent and sovereign states across the world has been going on at full strength or intensity. This is quite unbearable and irremissible. The flunkies like Britain, France, Germany… have joined the world’s rogue village headman as its stooges. This so-called big brother and its client states have been bringing about unspeakable human disasters across the world. Sometimes I think that Newton’s Third Law, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” stands as grossly faulty, at least, in case of America.

Because of America’s colossal misdoings to independent and sovereign countries of the world for long, we should express our strong disapproval of such a rogue state like it and its establishment in the harshest language so that it ceases its operations of unspeakable sufferings for human beings throughout the terra firma of the Earth. Only then, people of other nations will be able to live in peace. And the world is for peaceful living for all nations, not to destroy them or murdering of people recklessly. Humanity must prevail everywhere and that should be our core compass point.

We cannot and shall not forget all the gangs of ruffians of American establishment, an uncultured, aggressive, rude, noisy troublemaker. A noted columnist John Lloyd has correctly said, “America First means America Withdrawn.” As a matter of fact, America has in possession of awful nuclear military weapons, tomahawks like stupefied destructive weapons of mankind…in abundance, but they are not willing to destroy those dreadful weapons nor do they say anything about them. Look at their audacity. If you read the Western Newspapers, you will also find that their styles of writings are full of lies only.

Noted journalist Maksud Ibna Rahaman has written, “The US reduced Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Syria to rubble. Yemen too is on the verge of ruin. It has now set its sight on Venezuela. It plotted with the oligarchs and the right wing opposition of Venezuela to overthrow the Chavez regime. Chavez died in 2013 but the plot still continues. The US is now trying to get rid of Nicolas Maduro, the successor of Chavez.”

He further has said, “US intentions were crystal clear: it wanted to destabilise the country through a military coup in a bid to overhaul the Venezuelan political and economic system. In 2002 the US with the local oligarchs attempted to overthrow Hugo Chavez but failed. People in support of Chavez and Bolivarian revolution took to the streets and thwarted the attempt. The US and the domestic capitalists desired a more pliant constitution that will favour their businesses and trades. The current constitution of the country enshrined the political ideology of socialism that went against them.”

America’s nuclear doctrine says it reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in any sovereign and independent country at its free-will. It is affording free passage or view that response to a nuclear attack or an attack with other weapons of mass destruction against any state or its allies, or a conventional attack against them.

Any attempt to undermine American so-called interests, politics, political institutions, and values cannot be tolerated. As such, America is the country of chafe, carousing, ogres and evil supernatural being. In point of fact, America first means America must withdraw first from its all misdoings all over the world and let people of all nations around the World live in peace with cooperation and interchange.

-The End-

Zimbabwe election unrest turns deadly as army opens fire on protesters

Three people killed after live ammunition, water cannon and teargas fired in capital

 Tensions rise after Zimbabwe election as police and protesters clash – video

Jason Burke in Harare-Wed 1 Aug 2018 

Three people have been killed in Harare as soldiers and police fought running battles with hundreds of protesters, firing live ammunition, teargas and water cannon amid rising tension following Zimbabwe’s presidential election.

The army was deployed in the capital on Wednesday after police proved unable to quell demonstrators who claim Monday’s historic election is being rigged.

A soldier fires shots towards demonstrators. Photograph: Zinyange Auntony/AFP/Getty Images
By mid-afternoon much of the city centre resembled a war zone, with military helicopters flying overhead, armoured personnel carriers moving through burning debris and patrols of soldiers chasing stone throwers down narrow streets. A pall of smoke filled the sky. On cracked pavements there was glass and – in some places – blood.

Terrified commuters took cover in shop doorways or behind walls still covered in posters bearing portraits of election candidates as volleys of shots rang out and stones flew through the air. Witnesses reported seeing soldiers beating people with makeshift batons.

 An armed soldier patrols a street in Harare during protests. Photograph: Mujahis Safodien/AP
Opposition supporters have expressed growing impatience over delays in releasing the results of the historic vote, the first since Robert Mugabe was ousted after four decades in charge.

The scenes of violence contrasted dramatically with the jubilation and joy on the same streets that greeted the end of Mugabe’s rule in November. Then soldiers were seen as patriotic heroes. On Wednesday afternoon, in the opposition stronghold of Harare at least, they were seen once more as thuggish defenders of the ruling Zanu-PF party.

Early clashes took place outside the headquarters of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which opposition supporters accuse of bias, and spread rapidly.

“We support [opposition leader Nelson] Chamisa and we want him to be our president. The electoral commission is not fair. Our election is being stolen,” said a 19-year-old student among the protesters.
Some chanted: “This is war,” while others shouted slogans calling for the country’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to step down.

MDC supporters burn an election banner bearing the face of Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare. Photograph: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

“This is all the government’s fault,” Abigail Nganlo, a 29-year-old nurse, told the Guardian as she sheltered from the clashes in a narrow alley. “We are on our knees with the economic situation.
People are so angry. The [election] figures they are producing are fake. Where there are 500 people at a polling station, they are saying 5,000.”

Alex Kamasa, 30, an unemployed graduate, said: “They are desperate. It is a big robbery. At least Mugabe rigged with brains. These guys rig like school children. They insult us.”

The country’s justice minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, said the army had been deployed to disperse a violent crowd and restore “peace and tranquility.”

“The presence of the army is not to intimidate people but to ensure that law and order is maintained. They are there to assist the police,” Ziyambi said in an interview broadcast on eNCA television. “They are there as a people’s army to ensure that peace and security prevails.”

The authorities are under increasing pressure to release the results of Monday’s poll, which pitted Chamisa, a 40-year-old lawyer, pastor and leader of the main opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change, against Mnangagwa, 75, a longtime Mugabe aide and head of the Zanu-PF.
Zimbabwe’s rulers know that the widespread perception overseas that they have rigged an election would block the country’s reintegration into the international community and deny it the huge bailout package needed to avoid economic meltdown.

So too could scenes such as those seen in Harare on Wednesday afternoon. Images of soldiers firing on civilian protesters recall the darkest days of Mugabe’s rule and are a serious setback to Zanu-PF’s effort to improve its image overseas.

The US embassy said it was “deeply concerned by events unfolding in Harare”, called on leaders of all parties to call for calm and urged the military “to use restraint in dispersing” protesters.
Less than an hour before the violence, election monitors called for votes to be counted in an open and timely way.

Soldiers beat a protester outside the Movement for Democratic Change party headquarters in Harare. Photograph: Mike Hutchings/Reuters

Zanu-PF has already won a massive majority in parliament after sweeping rural constituencies by significant margins, official results show, but the parliamentary outcome does not necessarily indicate voters’ choice of head of state.

Under electoral law the result in the presidential vote has to be announced by 4 August.

Elmar Brok, the head of the first EU monitors to be allowed into Zimbabwe for 16 years, praised an “opening up of political space” before the poll but said the government had failed to ensure a level playing field and accused the ZEC of bias.

Brok called on the ZEC to make detailed results public to ensure the credibility of the election given earlier shortcomings. Other monitors also expressed concerns as the count went into a third day.

“Election day is only a snapshot of a long electoral process,” said the US congresswoman Karen Bass, one of the monitors deployed jointly by the US International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute.

“It is vital to see the electoral process to its conclusion, and it is still too early to make an assessment on the nature of these elections.”

If no candidate wins more than half of the votes in the presidential election, there will be a runoff in five weeks. Negotiations to form a coalition government are another possibility.

The two presidential candidates represent dramatically different ideologies and political styles, as well as generations. Pre-election opinion polls gave Mnangagwa, a dour former spy chief known as “the Crocodile” due to his reputation for ruthless cunning, a slim lead over Chamisa, a brilliant if sometimes wayward orator.

Fake Monitors Endorse Cambodia’s Sham Election

Dubious electoral endorsements are becoming normal for dictators worldwide.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen (C) casts his vote during the general elections as his wife Bun Rany (centre L) looks on in Phnom Penh on July 29, 2018. (MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images)

BY LEE MORGENBESSER-

 JULY 30, 2018, 8:32 AM

Cambodians went to the polls last weekend, but it was a sham of an election, dominated by Hun Sen, the country’s aging autocrat. With the opposition party banned and soldiers at polling booths to ensure the outcome went only one way, no credible organization signed off on the election’s validity—but quite a few fake organizations did.

Election observation in authoritarian regimes is a relatively new phenomenon. Beginning in the late 1980s, the number of elections monitored by intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and sovereign states increased substantially. This brought increased criticism of the behavior of authoritarian regimes, which signaled their compliance to the norm of external observation in exchange for certain benefits, such as legitimacy, foreign direct investment, and membership in international organizations. This gave democracy promotion actors, which coordinated a majority of election-monitoring missions, newfound leverage over the behavior of authoritarian regimes. In the last decade, however, dictators have fought back.

Writing in Foreign Policy in October 2013, Christopher Walker and Alexander Cooley identified the sudden emergence and increasing use of what they termed “zombie monitors” among a small group of savvy dictators. In the intervening years, there has been a wider effort to understand how exactly these groups erode domestic perceptions of electoral integrity and corrode the international norm of external election observation.

The inconvenient truth, however, is that our determination to identify and analyze these zombie monitors has not kept pace with the more cunning ways dictators have subsequently deployed them. The last few years has witnessed a few distinct changes in the use of fake election observation groups, which has coincided with the rise of more sophisticated forms of cooperation among authoritarian regimes.

The existence of zombie monitors generally does not become apparent until they release a deceptive statement after the election outcome, which makes glowing reference to the vagaries of integrity, peace, stability, and transparency. The opportunity to observe zombie monitors before they reveal themselves is thus rare. Unless, of course, you look to Cambodia’s general election last weekend.
With no credible groups willing to validate a sham election, Hun Sen turned to zombie monitors to do so. This included more well-known groups such as the Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International, International Conference of Asian Political Parties, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. All of them have a documented history of prejudicial election assessments.

At the center of the zombie horde in Cambodia last weekend was Anton Caragea, who has established ties to Hun Sen and who has previously bestowed strange awards upon dictators in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Zimbabwe. Caragea’s Twitter account is a stream of praise for Cambodia and Hun Sen.  Using his leadership of the European Council on International Relations (not to be confused with the European Council on Foreign Relations), Caragea has also previously provided flattering assessments of highly flawed elections in Kazakhstan.

Described as a professor of international relations from Spiru Haret University in Bucharest (declared to be a “diploma mill” by local journalists), Caragea is the recipient of dubious titles and awards bestowed by dictators around the world. He claims to be the author of 20 books and more than 300 articles across the fields of cultural history, development, heritage, history, humanitarian activities, international relations and diplomacy, political and economic doctrines, and theology. None of these books appear anywhere online, except on his website.

To lend credibility to Hun Sen’s sham election, Caragea has mobilized a horde of zombie monitors, listed on his own website, including the Diplomatic Center, Institute of International Relations and Economic Cooperation, European Council on Tourism and Trade, European Council on International Relations, European Diplomatic Academy, Parliamentary Assembly for Sustainable Development Goals, and World Elections Monitors Organization. Despite the plethora of names, Caragea appears to be either the director or president of every single group. A preliminary monitoring report released by a few of them declared that the election has all the hallmarks of being a “transparent, free, fair and democratic valid polls.” In a meeting with Hun Sen the morning after the vote,
Caregea congratulated the dictator for holding a “free, fair and transparent election.”
Cambodia isn’t the only country using such groups.

Eurasia was the birthplace of zombie monitors. In their original analysis, Walker and Cooley identified the deployment of these groups in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The scourge of fake election observation groups is now a global problem. In May, for example, then-Prime Minister Najib Razak attempted to use the Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre to lend credibility to the general election. (This represents an exceptional case of a dictator who used a zombie election monitor and still lost an election.) Similar zombie monitors have been reported in Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Sudan, Tajikistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe, to name but a few countries. The appeal of fake election observation groups is evidently spreading.

Beyond the fact that zombie monitors are now operating on four continents, the target of their subterfuge has also expanded. The initial purview of these groups was national elections held periodically for executive and legislative office. Despite that still being the primary focus, dictators have begun employing zombie monitors for subnational elections and referendums. In Venezuela, for example, President Nicolás Maduro had the Council of Electoral Experts of Latin America give a clean bill of health to the 2017 gubernatorial elections, which were judged to be clean and transparent by its 1,300-member delegation. In Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin used the Eurasian Observatory for Democracy and Elections to recruit scores of politicians from far-right parties to validate the 2014 Crimea referendum, which was regarded as illegitimate by the European Union and the United States.

Another distinct change in the way authoritarian regimes employ fake election observation groups is denoted by the decline of regional zombies. The most systematic account of this phenomenon identifies intergovernmental organizations or international nongovernmental organizations run by authoritarian states as the main antagonists, such as the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. But in recent years dictators have increasingly turned to an endless array of smaller organizations, some of them and some themselves with ties to authoritarian states.  In such cases, prominent individuals representing these organizations have been recruited as agents of manipulation and misconduct.

The few distinct changes dictators have made to the deployment of fake election observation groups has compounded the difficulty of identifying and analyzing their activities. The zombie show taking place in Cambodia this weekend represents the most egregious example yet of an authoritarian regime using fake election observation groups.

Despite the growing audacity of dictators, a coordinated response from the democratic states that have long promoted the international norm of external election observation has yet to emerge. The evolution of zombie monitors requires demands more resources be devoted to identifying, analyzing and, ultimately, discrediting them. The worst-case scenario is that these fake election observation groups become indistinguishable in the public eye from professional observation groups. This eventuality would do quick and lasting damage to the cause of democracy around the world.

Vagina rejuvenating therapies 'pose serious risk'

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

31 July 2018

Women are being warned against risky cosmetic "rejuvenating" procedures to reshape and tighten the vagina.

Experts say the "therapies", offered by some private clinics in the UK and the US, pose a serious risk of burns, scarring and recurring pain.

Typically during these procedures, a probe is inserted into the vagina to heat or laser the vaginal tissue.

Although it is non-surgical and can be done in a lunch hour, it is not necessarily safe, say officials.
Laser and energy-based devices have been approved for use in destroying pre-cancerous cells in cervical or vaginal tissue, as well as genital warts, but they have not undergone testing for rejuvenation therapies.

Serious harm

US regulator the FDA says it will take action if deceptive marketing of the "dangerous procedure with no proven benefit" continues.

It says a growing number of manufacturers have been claiming the procedure can treat conditions and symptoms related to menopause, urinary incontinence or sexual function.

"These products have serious risks and don't have adequate evidence to support their use for these purposes. We are deeply concerned women are being harmed," says the FDA warning.

Paul Banwell, consultant plastic surgeon and member of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, shared the FDA's concerns: "There has been an exponential rise in the interest in women's health and sexual well-being and whilst this should be encouraged, it is vital that any educational and treatment initiatives are provided in a sensitive manner free of any misleading or marketing hyperbole."

Dr Vanessa Mackay, from the UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), said: "There is no evidence to suggest that non-surgical 'vaginal rejuvenation' devices are effective in improving vaginal muscle tone or reshaping vaginal tissue. If women are concerned about the appearance or feel of their vagina, they should speak to a healthcare professional. It is important to remember, however, that every woman's vagina is different. Labia are as individual as women themselves and vary in appearance and colour.

"To strengthen the muscles around the vagina, women are encouraged to try pelvic floor exercises which can help to improve muscle tone and sensitivity during sex."
How to do pelvic floor exercises:

• Sit or stand comfortably with knees slightly apart and then draw up the pelvic floor muscles as if trying to avoid passing urine
• It is important not to tighten the stomach, buttock or thigh muscles during the exercises
• Do 10 slow contractions, holding them for about 10 seconds each
• The length of time can be increased gradually and the slow contractions can then be followed by a set of quick contractions
• The whole process should be carried out three or four times a day

Tips for a strong pelvic floor
Vaginal dryness is a common but treatable problem that many women experience at some point in their lives.

It can be caused by a number of things including the menopause, breastfeeding, childbirth, not being aroused before sex and some types of contraception.

Women are encouraged to try self-help options before seeing a healthcare professional, including vaginal moisturisers and lubricants. If these aren't effective, a doctor may prescribe vaginal oestrogen, says the RCOG.