It is reported that plans are afoot to appoint a group of United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) candidates who lost in the recent Southern and Western Provincial Council elections to posts of chairpersons, directors and advisors in ministries, government corporations and other establishments.
A member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) speaking to Ceylon Today said that a group of defeated candidates had requested the President to consider the possibility of making these appointments. The source who did not wish to reveal his name went on to say that these candidates have pointed out to the President that they have worked for the SLFP with great political commitment and at times had even sacrificed their personal wealth and assets for the sake of the Party.
Approval has been granted by the President for the appointment of a number of candidates to major government institutions as chairpersons and advisors. These appointments are set to come into effect in the next few days, the source revealed.
Senior SLFPer, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has confirmed that the recent setback suffered by the governing party at the provincial council elections was a red light to the government.
He has said that despite the establishment of ports, airports, buildings and highways, citizens of Colombo suburbs had not voted for the government as its' conduct lacked the charm needed to attract the public.
He has made this comment at an event to distribute 2,000 land deeds to farmers in the Mahaweli H zone.
“It became apparent at the March 29 elections that even eradicating slums in Colombo and building flats for people who lived in them was futile. We should have let them be in those rubbish holes. If we did, maybe we could have got some more votes,” de Silva has said.
Though expressways were made, village farmers have no use for it. All a farmer needs is the road to his home fixed, access to drinking water and water for his fields, he has been quoted as saying in the media.
Maligakanda Magistrate and Additional District Judge, Jayaki de Alwis, ordered the remanding of an Army Captain till 22 April, over charges of looting a lorry transporting whisky.
The suspect Sajith Roshantha surrendered before the Maligakanda Courts through a motion.
The suspect is accused of looting a lorry transporting whisky and other foreign liquor on 21 February at Maradana. While Maradana Police were looking for the suspect he had surrendered to the Maligakanda Courts through a lawyer. Maligakanda Courts had earlier released six suspects in connection with the same incident, including three who were attached to the Police Anti-Terrorist Unit.
( April 9, 2014, Bir Zeit, West Bank , Sri Lanka Guardian) Long gone the days when the U.S.-led so-called “Friends of Syria” could plausibly claim that two thirds of Syria was controlled by rebel forces, that Syrian capital Damascus was under siege and its fall was just a matter of time and that the days of President Bashar al-Assad were numbered and accordingly he “should step down.”
Armed police officers stand guard as election officials carry ballot boxes to be distributed to polling stations at a local government office in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Tuesday. Pic: AP
On Tuesday last week, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a car decked out with political banners in Indonesia’s northernmost province, Aceh. Three people were killed, including a child of 18 months.
This is about an obscure but vital piece of internet architecture call SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer. Despite the fact that it underpins much of the internet security you take for granted, for example, internet banking, you may not have heard of it. Perhaps news of a serious flaw in this system will encourage more people to get a grip on the technology that’s playing an increasingly pivotal role in our lives.
Here’s how it works, in layman’s terms: when you visit the website of your bank, email provider, or any service which requires a bit of secrecy, your computer opens up a private tunnel through which to send traffic back and forth, so that no-one can snoop on the information.
This tunnel is the Secure Socket Layer (SSL). You can tell when it’s active because, in most internet browsers, a padlock symbol will appear next to the website address. The keys to that tunnel are held by a third party, which means they can be accessed by both your computer and the website you’re accessing, be it your bank, email provider, or whoever.
OpenSSL is one of the main providers of those keys. Some earlier versions of their system have been found to be vulnerable to attack, nicknamed Heartbleed, meaning a hacker can get the keys to a user’s private tunnel, and hoover up the sensitive information passing through it, such as login names and passwords.
It’s bad news, and yes, changing passwords is a good idea. But there a few reasons to be level-headed. Firstly, it only affects earlier versions of OpenSSL, so companies who regularly update their software are safe.
Secondly, now that the vulnerability is known, companies are rapidly patching their systems to secure against it.
But here’s the odd thing about this story: generally when a hacker discovers a flaw like this, they sell it to one of the main cybercrime gangs, who abuse it as much as they can. At some point, news of its existence leaks out, at which point the wider criminal community start exploiting the vulnerability.
Eventually it gets into the hands of low-level operators, who post the hacked information on forums, tipping off law enforcement agencies and security firms who then start advising companies on how to plug the holes in their security.
What’s odd is that this OpenSSL problem has reportedly existed for two years, and has only just become public. That makes me think of two potential explanations: one, that the vulnerability was never discovered by the criminal community, in which case we’ve dodged a bullet. That the optimistic explanation.
Here’s the pessimistic one: the vulnerability was kept a carefully guarded secret by one cybercrime gang or group of gangs who’ve been systematically milking it for two years to hoover up gigabytes of sensitive traffic and perpetrate fraud and identity theft on an epic scale.
Regardless of whether you see the glass as half full or half empty, changing passwords is worth doing, and to be honest, it’s something you should probably do every six months or so anyway. It’s a pain, I know, but to quote Thomas Jefferson and others, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”.
A strong password includes upper and lower case letters and numbers, and should be unique to the account. Non-dictionary words are best: for example, take the first letter from each word in a line from your favourite song or book.
So for example, “Romeo Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo” would become ‘rrwatr’. Add a number that’s significant for you, perhaps the first ascent of Everest in 1953. That gives you ‘rrwatr1953′.
You also need to make a unique password for each site, which sounds like a hassle, but you can simply amend the same password, for example ‘BOOKrrwatr1953′ for Facebook, ‘TWEETrrwatr1953′ for Twitter, etc.
Nato has released satellite images of the Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s eastern border: a powerful concentration of fighter planes, helicopters, artillery, infantry and special forces which officials say could be ready to move with just 12 hours notice.
The images appear to undermine official suggestions from Moscow that there is nothing unusual about the troop movements, nor any reason to be alarmed.
The pictures show rows of hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles apparently waiting for orders in fields and other temporary locations around 30 miles (50km) from the frontier. The images, taken in the past two weeks, show some of what Nato said was around 100 staging areas that were almost entirely unoccupied in February.
One of the images showed the previously empty Buturlinovka airbase 90 miles from the border now hosting dozens of fast jets, even though there are no hangars or other infrastructure normally associated with such activity. Another, of Belgorod, 25 miles from the border, showed about 21 helicopters on a greenfield site – again with no hangers or infrastructure – which officials said could be part of a forward operating base.
Russian SU-27/30, SU-24 and MiG-31 fighter jets on the tarmac at Buturlinovka airbase. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
“This is a capable force, ready to go,” said Brigadier Gary Deakin, who runs Nato’s crisis operations and management centre at the alliance’s military headquarters near Mons, Belgium. “It has the resources to move quickly into Ukraine if it was ordered to do so. It is poised at the moment, and it could move very fast.”
Deakin said between 35,000 and 40,000 Russian troops were “at a state of advanced readiness”, and could deploy “within 12 hours from a decision taken at the highest level”. With many of the troops and tanks currently based within about 30 miles from the border, that could mean crossing into Ukrainian territory within an hour of moving.
According to Nato the images reveal telltale signs of an invading force, and not merely troops on “exercise” as Moscow has claimed. The images apparently show that in Kuzminka, where tanks and infantry fighting vehicles have gathered, there are no proper barracks, significant buildings or even parking. “We just don’t see much infrastructure. There is more here than it was built for,” said Deakin.
Primorko-Akhtarsk airbase in southern Russia. Photograph: AP
Deakin warned that a potential strike force could go further than Ukraine’s eastern regions where pro-Russian elements are currently demanding secession. “Undoubtedly it could strike into eastern Ukraine, but it could also do a land bridge to Crimea, and potentially even down the Black Sea coast to Odessa. The capability is there, but we don’t know the intent,” Deakin said. “That is grounds for concern.” With a total armed personnel of just 130,000, Ukraine would be unlikely to provide much resistance to the invading Russians, officials added.
The images were released as separatist protests in mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine entered their fifth day, with pro-Moscow supporters still out in a standoff in two cities. Kiev has said protesters who seized public buildings in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv are copying events in Crimea, annexed by Russia last month.
Moscow has denied it is preparing an invading force. The Russian foreign ministry insisted on Wednesday that troops near Ukraine’s border posed no threat and the movements were nothing more than the “everyday activity of Russian troops on its territory”. But the Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, dismissed these claims. “As I speak, some 40,000 Russian troops are massed along Ukraine’s borders,” Rasmussen said in Prague on Thursday. “Not training, but ready for combat. We have seen the satellite images, day after day.”
A satellite image purporting to show Russian special forces at Yeysk, southern Russia. Photograph: AP
Russian officials have also accused Washington and Nato of fuelling tension in the region, with the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, claiming in a Guardian article that it the US and EU that are destabilising Ukraine.
Senior Nato officials have warned that the buildup is already having a psychological, destabilising effect, helping stoke up the turmoil in eastern Ukraine. “These masked guys would not be taking over government buildings if there were not 40,000 soldiers just across the border,” said one official.
The revelations come before next week’s meeting of top diplomats from the EU, Russia, Ukraine and the United States to discuss the crisis. The meeting’s venue has still to be decided, but it will gather Lavrov, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, and Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsia.
At the same time, Nato is drawing up measures to bolster its defences in central and eastern Europe, and is likely to include a tripling of air patrols in the Baltics. Nato’s top military commander, the US air force general Philip Breedlove, will present proposals for air, land and sea reinforcements to Nato ambassadors next week. Britain is among the Nato members offering support, including four Typhoons, while Denmark has offered four F-16s and France has put forward another four, either Rafales or Mirages.
Although nominally independent, a number of the judges and top officials in the agencies handling cases against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government have had longstanding antagonistic relationships with Ms. Yingluck and her party.
“It no longer makes sense to attempt to explain the current political situation in Thailand by relying on legal principles,” Verapat Pariyawong, a lawyer and commentator, said in a Facebook posting. “The current situation is more or less a phenomenon of raw politics whereby the rule of law is conveniently stretched and stripped to fit a political goal.”
Wicha Mahakhun, the member of the commission who is charged with handling the case, has sparred with Ms. Yingluck’s party before. He was appointed by the military in 2007 to rewrite the Constitution after the overthrow of Ms. Yingluck’s brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as prime minister in a 2006 coup d’état.
The new Constitution was intended to blunt the governing party’s electoral power in part by making half of the Senate appointed by judges and the heads of agencies, instead of directly elected.
“We all know elections are evil,” Mr. Wicha said at the time, arguing that power must be transferred into the hands of judges rather than elected representatives, who he said had caused the country to “collapse.”
“People, especially academics who want to see the Constitution lead to genuine democracy, are naïve,” he said.
BP: Argh. Now, remember that as blogged about in 2007, but had forgotten who had said that.
The article continues:.
Likhit Dhiravegin, a prominent academic and frequent commentator on television, said last week that an “orchestrated” judicial coup was already underway.
“This is a coup conducted inside the system by using regulations,” he said. “Don’t deny it — everybody knows about it, inside and outside the country.”
Tensions escalated late last year, when the governing party passed a constitutional amendment restoring the Senate as a fully elected body.
The Constitutional Court struck down the change, ruling in November that making the Senate fully elected was an attempt to “overthrow” democracy, a decision that has been criticized by constitutional scholars.
The activism of the courts has renewed a debate about double standards in Thai society. Government supporters point out that the leader of the protest movement, Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy prime minister, is wanted on murder charges for his role in a crackdown that left dozens of “red shirts” — supporters of Mr. Thaksin — dead in 2010. He has ignored numerous requests to appear in court.
Government supporters also question the priorities of the National Anti-Corruption Commission. The rice subsidy case has swiftly been pursued when other cases that appear to be obvious examples of corruption have languished.
In the case of the rice subsidy allegations, Ms. Yingluck said over the weekend that the proceedings appeared rushed.
“We are wondering if we were treated as same as other persons holding political positions,” she said.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission sought to rebut that allegation Monday, saying that the investigation had been underway for nearly two years.
Whether or not Ms. Yingluck was guilty of “neglect of duty” in the rice subsidy program, the case goes to the heart of the conflict between protesters and supporters of the governing party.
BP: Although, because of the outcome of the Senate election, it seems the likely path for removal of Yingluck is regarding the transfer of then NSC Chief Thawil. There is no parliament in place to elect a new PM and the EC has decided (see here and here) that an election is not possible for now in the current climate so this won’t change soon. Somehow either the Court or the Senate will then attempt to appoint a new PM, but we still have a caretaker Cabinet in place. Then, we wait for the red shirt reaction…
Luwie Ganeshathasan, Researcher with the Legal and Constitutional Unit at CPA, discusses the UNHRC’s resolution on Sri Lanka, issues around compliance, the concept of sovereignty and the best way forward for Sri Lanka.
“This concept that sovereignty is absolute and no other international country or international forum has the right to intervene in the internal affairs of a particular country is a bit outdated because there is general recognition that grave violations of human rights or violations of human rights of people in one particular country affect the global community as a whole…”
It began as a bit of fun and became a personal challenge for one semi-naked man and approaching half a million bees. Crowds gathered in Chongqing, southwest China this week to watch - at a distance of 20 metres - as She Ping’s wife and five fellow beekeepers covered the 34-year-old in a “bee dress” made of 456,500 of the insects. It weighed 45kg or more.
"I first did this at 22, just for fun and out of curiosity. Later on, I would put on the bees just for the sake of making people believe I sell actual real honey," he told the Chongqing Evening Post. "The last time I did this, I put on a total of 15 beehives on my body, but today I’m breaking my own record [with 28].”
The beekeeper said he was “hot, suffocating and nervous” after his 40 minute ordeal and had been stung more than 20 times. His wife fears he will be badly hurt if he continues the stunts. But She added: “The only thought I had was to challenge and overcome myself.”
She Ping smokes a cigarette as he gets ready for an attempt to cover his body with bees. Photograph: China Daily/ReutersAssistants get the bees ready. Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesAssistants use burning incense and cigarettes to drive away from the face of She Ping.She Ping is almost completely covered with bees. Photograph: Imaginechina/RexShe Ping shakes off bees after an attempt to cover his body with bees. Photograph: China Daily/ReutersThe bees swarm over She Ping. Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesA bit more incense to keep the bees from his face. Photograph: Imaginechina/RexShe Ping covered with a swarm of bees. Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesShe Ping is totally covered with 45.65kg of bees. Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesShe Ping shows the bee stings on his body afterwards. Photograph: Imaginechina/REX
The Mahinda Rajapaksa government says that legal action will be taken against any person who testifies before a commission that would carry out an international probe on Sri Lanka according to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
“We will take legal action against anyone who testifies before this commission, if the evidence submitted by them is in violation of the country's Constitution,” Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Keheliya Rambukwella was quoted in local media as saying.
“If we permit an international investigation it will heavily infringe upon the sovereignty of the country,” he has observed.
Rambukwella has also reminded that a member of the parliament cannot testify before such an inquiry since they have sworn allegiance to the Constitution and taken an oath to protect the country’s sovereignty when they assume the membership of parliament.
Abandoned by the government, Muslim politicians and threatened by Sinhala extremists who are law unto themselves Buddhist monks leading the campaign to solve Muslim squatters’ housing problem at Wilpattu, Janatha Vimukthi Permanuna, JVP, fighting for the rights of the Muslims and the Muslims carrying the coffin of a Buddhist monk at a funeral procession provide glimmer of hope for the country torn apart by a few hundreds of Sinhala extremists.
The Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C V Wigneswaran has refused to meet Economic Affairs Minister Basil Rajapaksa to discuss cooperation between the Northern Provincial Council and the Government.
According to the Jaffna media, Rajapaks had expressed interest in having a direct meeting with Wigneswaran to discuss various issues.
However Wigneswaran has said that since there has not been any progress on an earlier meeting held with President Mahinda Rajapaksa there was no point in having another meeting with Minister Basil Rajapaksa.
At the meeting with the President, the Chief Minister of the Northern Province had requested that the Chief Secretary of the Northern Provincial Council and the Northern Governor be removed as they were appointed by the Central Government before the Northern elections held last year.
The Uthayan newspaper reported that the President had given a positive response to the request but since he had so far failed to implement the request Wigneswaran had refused to meet Minister Basil Rajapaksa.
Both the Northern Provincial Council and the Government have been at loggerheads from the time the Council was appointed last year and Minister Basil Rajapaksa had reportedly wanted to resolve the issues between both sides. (Colombo Gazette)
The possibility of defeating President Rajapakse at the next election (or forcing him to abolish the Executive Presidency) is moving towards a 50:50 chance in the context of his setback in provincial elections and an increasingly hostile international environment. However, those who wish to see this happen suffer from congenital inductiveness of how to set about it. The Catholic Cardinal and the kept press have persuaded themselves that the way forward is to bum the Rajapakse Brotherhood, convinced that cartloads of democratic goodies are on the way if only the Clan is allowed to deliver its bounty. Opposition political actors too are in a strategic quandary, indecisive; the UNP and the all-important JVP are not clear headed (the TNA’s equation is more cut and dry). The writing is on the wall for the SLMC but it hangs on for its Ministers to maximise their loot before being unceremoniously dumped. The Dead Left is buried and irrelevant; RIP.
Something I often repeat is again significant now; that is the crucial importance of the correct next step – The Next-Step Thesis as I like to call it. Any donkey, you see, can tell you about ultimate solutions; depending on your choice it could be the Kingdom of Heaven, Socialism, National Liberation or some other utopia. That’s the easy part, rote learning. The true challenge that needs sagacity and judgement is to decide the next step. This was Lenin’s genius; when to unite or to divide, what slogan to choose, how, when and whether to compromise; these are the choices in which he had an unmatched sureness of touch.
It is tactical and strategic sagacity of this nature that Lanka’s opposition needs. Without presuming to tell others what to do let me address some what-next, what-now issues which the JVP and the UNP cannot procrastinate about any longer. My intention is to name the issues and comment on them, not make ‘you must do such and such’ assertions. Two vital decisions that cannot bear further delay are (a) how do you propose to abolish the Executive Presidency (EP) and (b) what electoral alliances do each of you have in mind?
What is the chronological order in which each of you (JVP and UNP) propose to take up these issues? It is defeatist to attempt first to win a parliamentary and/or presidential election on a general programmatic manifesto spreading over the whole policy domain while carrying abolition of EP as an element within that manifesto. This implies, for example the UNP and the JVP, will campaign separately and in opposition to each other (because their socio-economic ideologies are conflicting) with the intention of winning power, and then, if either wins, abolish EP. Is this not putting the cart before the horse? Is it not splintering the forces that are unanimous about abolishing EP (including TNA, smaller parties and civil society movements)? After this job done is done can’t the UNP and JVP canvass their separate programmes? Hence I ask, is the opposition agreed that the correct next step is to first deal with the EP matter? I am not asking about anything specific (how, when, what, who) but only about the next step as a strategic issue.
The second and last question I raise is about broader alliances; broader meaning apart from the EP issue; I mean programmatic alliances. This question is aimed at the JVP only, not the UNP since the latter has always since independence formed alliance governments, and in recent decades formed alliances even before elections – the UNF for example. After the disappointment of the coalition experience with Chandrika and the failure of the Sarath Fonseka presidential campaign which task the JVP shouldered more than anyone else, the party has gone into a shell. “Unprincipled alliances” was one of the disputes underlying the Peratugamisplit. So what is the JVP’s attitude to a left alliance? That is apart from the EP issue which is predicated on the widest possible alliance. I have no intention to make suggestions and proposals in this short note. It is however a next-step decision that the JVP cannot keep postponing. There is no point talking about the ultimate marvels of socialism; it is what it proposes to do in the concrete current conjuncture that counts.
The Mahinda Rajapaksa government says that legal action will be taken against any person who testifies before a commission that would carry out an international probe on Sri Lanka according to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
