Opposition Leader of Sri Lanka says that all races must be safeguarded to save the Sinhala Buddhists
Sun, Jul 20, 2014, 11:19 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

July 20, Colombo: Opposition Leader of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremasinghe said that to save the Sinhala Buddhists in the island, all the other races must also be safeguarded.
He pointed out that if this is not guaranteed, the other races might go to international community to ask for their rights.
Speaking of the freedom struggle and the history of the United National Party (UNP) at a function held in Gampola in Kandy district, Wickremasinghe said that all Sinhalese were united irrespective of religion first. He recalled that the Tamil and Muslim people also rallied in the freedom struggle.
He further stated that a small number of extremist Sinhala Buddhists supported by Rajapaksa regime acted in such a way the Sinhala Buddhists were insulted.

He said the government had taken no action to show that it was work of an extremist minority and to save the name of the Sinhala Buddhists. Wickremasinghe noted that the Sinhala Buddhist extremists had done what Tamil Tiger leader Prabhakaran failed to do through dividing the society.

A politically-cautious growth-oriented budget

A harbinger of state-led capitalism with Indian characteristics

Kumar David-July 19, 2014, 4:32 pm

Try as they might to hide it, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s first Modi-BJP budget is a disappointment for local businesses panting for privatisation, and global neo-liberal think-tanks salivating for "reform", "restructuring" and rebirth of the Washington Consensus buried a decade ago by a global populist backlash. However, the budget comes as no surprise to this correspondent who foresaw this Modi-BJP economic policy turn in the Sunday Island of 7 June 2014; "How much can Modi change policy?" This is what I said and the budget has borne it out.

A Politically-cautious Growth-Oriented Budget by Maria Anderson

Thus Spake Gurulugomi About The Circles Of Power

By Shyamon Jayasinghe -July 20, 2014 |

Shyamon Jayasinghe

Gurulugomi, the renowned prophet of the island of Bakamoona, lies in the home of his adopted land, Australia, having returned from a visit to his island of birth and upbringing. He had visited Bakamoona after twenty two years of voluntary exile in Melbourne. He had left the island because he had earned the wrath of its then rulers for his candid opinions, which he had the habit of expressing regardless.

Fellow countrymen who met in the Community Centre at Glen Waverley gathered around him. They said: “Speak to us and give us your views of our dear motherland. Are our people happy and free”?

Gurulugomi: “Things are far worse, my countrymen-my brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers. When I earlier left the shores of my country I thought things cannot be any worse. But see how even worse can be worser. I was invited to a public meeting at the Town Hall and they asked me to speak. I gave my views of the horrible conditions prevailing in the island-of the bribery, corruption, drug dealings, and of Parliamentary and Pradeshiya Sabha bullies and of the total unconcern of rulers to the peoples’ needs. The following day a white van kept following me as if waiting for a suitable moment to take me. I knew the game is up and packed my belongings after a brief stay of just three weeks and here I am with you people enjoying free air and a voice to say anything-even against Abbott.”

“They say we have a High King there. Tell us about that,” urged the gathering.

Gurulugomi: “ Twenty years ago rulers were changed  by Bakamoona citizens like changing pillows in the bed. That happened in regularity. But now we have King Senerath, the supreme ruler, in whom the sovereignty of the people rests firmly and unshakably.”                  Read More

Bathiyutheen sells ‘war crimes’ to extract funds

SUNDAY, 20 JULY 2014

Sources say a serious diplomatic muddle has occurred due to the move by Minister of Industry & Commerce Rishad Bathiyutheen to get more than Rs.180 million in foreign aid, claiming that houses have to be built for Muslim refugees in Northern and Eastern areas who have been displaced for 22 years.

Sri Lanka has been diplomatically embarrassed when a cabinet minister claims that there are refugees in Sri Lanka despite the government emphasizing that resettlement process has been completed and there aren’t any refugee camps in the country at present.

It is said that a documentary film prepared to confirm that there are refugees in Sri Lanka and sent with the letter forwarded to claim foreign aid would have an unfavourable influence on the investigations that are to be carried out regarding alleged war crimes and human rights violations against Sri Lanka. Western diplomatic circles are paying a close attention regarding this say reports.

The Minister who has requested aid from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kazakhstan has already got approval for US$1.4 million (Rs.180 million). Rs.150 million that has been made available by Bahrain has been already received say reports.

Normally, foreign aid for development work of the government is obtained through Department of External Resources under the Ministry of Finance. However, Minister Bathiyutheen obtaining such aid directly is a serious matter say political analysts.

Rajapaksas’ Cousin Jaliya Caught In The Act – Ordered To Pay Back

July 20, 2014 

Cousin of President Rajapaksa – Jaliya Wickramasuriya, Sri Lanka’s former Ambassador to USA has been gravely cautioned over the financial misconduct allegations against him and has been ordered to pay back over Rs. 45 million that he had swindled through financial misappropriations.

Jaliya Wickramasuriya

Making an excellent case on the detrimental impacts of the widespread nepotism prevalent in Sri Lanka’s Foreign Service, Wickramasuriya was exposed by the US government earlier this year to Canadian authorities, concerning the financial misappropriations when committed during the purchase of a building to house the Sri Lankan embassy at 3025, White Haven Street, Washington 20008.

He had been ordered to pay back this hefty sum after the Accountant involved in the transaction divulged the details to save his neck, as the suspicions over the issue initially circled around him.

A column in today’s issue of the weekly English newspaper Sunday Times referring to the same incident (though it has not mentioned Wickramasuriya), notes that he has made an appeal claiming the money was paid to him by the seller but that it was reject. However, it has been noted that the common practice in the US is for the seller to pay commissions if any.

It has been revealed that Wickramasuriya has also been involved in two other transactions where he had made mark ups and pocketed the money.

According to diplomatic sources that spoke to Colombo Telegraph, one of the transactions had been the hospital bill of Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne for the treatments he received at the John Hopkins University Hospital. Meanwhile, the other had been on a payment of legal fees to a law firm that dealt with a case relating to war crimes against President Rajapaksa in the US.

Colombo Telegraph has been unable to reach Wickamasuriya for comment.

The paper also reports that following the mounting allegations of corruption, the centers of power in Colombo including official residences of the leaders have been declared out of bounds for Wickramasuriya. It also states that an irate President had remarked that Wickramasuriya had ‘rubbed mud in his face’ (mooney deli gewa) indicating a slim chance for him to be offered another posting.

We fear that Gnanasara’s visit to Australia - PHRE

Sunday, 20 July 2014 

'We fear that Gnanasara’s visit to Australia is the first step in spreading his malicious teachings within the Sri Lankan community in Australia and raising funds for its pernicious activities in Sri Lanka. It has the potential to even further polarize an already fractured Sri Lankan community and undermine the values of tolerance and multiculturalism that we hold so dear' said by People for Human Rights and Equality in their press statement.

The full text of the press statement as follows

It is with great dismay that we have come to learn that Galagoda Atthe Gnanasara, the leader of the extremist Sri Lankan Buddhist organization Bodu Bala Sena (Army of Buddhist Power) or BBS intends to visit Australia. We strongly believe that his visit will have serious consequences for harmony within the Sri Lankan community in Australia already deeply scarred by the three decades old war in Sri Lanka.

BBS has a history of demonizing ethnic and religious minorities in Sri Lanka, particularly the Muslim and Christian communities, in the guise of protecting Buddhism. As a consequence of such hatemongering a wave of attacks against Muslim and Christian places of worship have taken place in the last few years in Sri Lanka. The most recent and most violent outburst of such violence occurred in June this year when following an inflammatory speech made by Galagoda Atthe Gnanasara, in which he openly incited a crowd to attack Muslim businesses in the area, a mob went on the rampage destroying property and attacking Muslims in the town of Aluthgama. Scores of properties were burnt down and four people were killed during the rioting. In recognition of the dangerous nature of Ganasara’s ideas the US government has already withdrawn a visa issued to him and the UK is said to be having serious reservations about extending a visa to him. The BBS has also been listed as a ‘cult terrorist group by the US based Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium (TRAC).

We fear that Gnanasara’s visit to Australia is the first step in spreading his malicious teachings within the Sri Lankan community in Australia and raising funds for its pernicious activities in Sri Lanka. It has the potential to even further polarize an already fractured Sri Lankan community and undermine the values of tolerance and multiculturalism that we hold so dear.

Furthermore, in permitting the leader of a terrorist organization into Australia, the Australian government also runs the risk of allowing Australia to be used for raising funds for the said organization, with dire portents for the future.

It would be a tragedy if Australian government which hastened to issue a travel warning to Australian tourists to Sri Lanka soon after the Aluthgama riots has chosen to grant a visa to the man who instigated that very violence.

We earnestly entreat the government of Australia to reconsider its decision to permit Galagoda Atthe Gnansara to visit Australia and spare this country the ignominy of playing host to a hatemongering demagogue and the Sri Lankan community in Australia of his vicious, divisive propaganda.

Sexual predators run riot in schools

By Charundi Panagoda-Sunday, July 20, 2014

Parents reluctant to complain due to social stigma, intimidation

Last week, a Kegalle district primary school principal was arrested for sexually abusing eight schoolgirls. The father to two children, 52-year-old Swamivelu Sukumar is accused of showing pornography and then on several occasions sexually abusing the victims aged between 11 to 13 years.

The principal was apprehended after a child who had dropped out of school confided to government officials that the reason she was no longer attending school was because the principal was ‘hurting’ her.

Sexual Predators Run Riot in Schools by Maria Anderson

Slavic madness and Malaysian double tragedy

Rajan Philips-July 19, 2014, 6:30 pm 

That we are flying through the safest period in aviation history will not be solace to anyone after the disappearance and downing of two Malaysian passenger planes in a span of 131 days. The first, Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared mysteriously on 8 March 2014 and despite the biggest search operation launched on this planet, no one has any clue as to where the plane and its 227 passengers and 12 crew members are resting. 

Slavic Madness and Malaysian Double Tragedy by Maria Anderson

"தேசிய கிரிக்கெட் போட்டியில் பங்குபற்றச் சென்ற யாழ் அணி மீது மகிந்தவின் அம்பாந்தோட்டையில் தாக்குதல்"

உலக தமிழ்ச் செய்திகள்20 ஜூலை 2014

'தமிழ் நாய்களே வெளியே செல்லுங்கள் என்ற கோசங்கள் தொடர்ச்சியாக எழுப்பப்பட்டதன' - இணைப்பு 2

முதற் பதிவேற்றம் - 19-07-2014 - 13.00pm
தேசிய இளைஞர் விவகார அமைச்சின் ஏற்பாட்டில் தேசிய கிரிக்கெட விளையாட்டுப் போட்டியில் பங்குபற்றச் சென்ற யாழ்ப்பாணத்து அணி மீது தாக்குதல் நடத்தப்பட்டுள்ளது. முதலாவதாக இன்று காலை நடைபெற்றிருந்த காலிறுதிப் போட்டியில் யாழ்ப்பாணம் அணி அம்பாந்தோட்டை அணியினை வெற்றி கொண்டிருந்தது.

இதனை தொடர்ந்து கம்பஹா அணியுடன் அரையிறுதி போட்டி ஆரம்பமாகியிருந்த நிலையில் யாழ்ப்பாண அணி வெற்றிபெறுமென்ற அச்சத்தில் போட்டியை பார்வையிட்டுக் கொண்டிருந்த  கம்பஹா அணியின் ஆதரவாளர்கள் தாக்குதலை நடத்த தொடங்கியுள்ளனர். குறிப்பாக விளையாட்டு மைதானத்தில் நின்றிருந்த வீரர்கள் மீதே வெளியிலிருந்து கற்கள் மற்றும் கழிவு பொருட்கள் வீசப்பட்டதன. அத்துடன் முறையற்ற வகையில் விளையாட்டு இடைநிறுத்தப்பட்டு உள்ளது.

வெளியே இருந்து "தமிழ் நாய்களே வெளியே செல்லுங்கள்" என்ற கோசங்கள் தொடர்ச்சியாக எழுப்பப்பட்டதை அடுத்து யாழ்ப்பாண வீரர்கள் மிகுந்த அச்சத்திற்கு உள்ளாகியுள்ளனர். அங்கிருந்து தம்மை பாதுகாப்பாக வெளியேற்றவும் கோரிக்கை விடுத்துள்ளனர்.

பிரதேச ரீதியாக இடம்பெற்ற பல சுற்றுப்போட்டிகளை தொடர்ந்து வல்வெட்டித்துறை கழுகுகள் விளையாட்டு கழகமே தெரிவாகி தேசிய மட்ட போட்டிக்கென அனுப்பி வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளமை குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.  

Disgusting! Suspect wants water – Police Sgt. urinates in his mouth 

BY RUWAN LAKNATH JAYAKODY AND SAMAN WADUGE- July 20, 2014

On 8 May 2014, Sanjeewa having received a call from his mother on 4 May left his home at 164, Heenagara, Medagama, Panirendawa, with the intention of visiting his father who had been brought home after a stint in hospital. He arrived in Ampara (two kilometres from Priyangala, to Rajiwelathenna) at 6.30 p.m.

Disgusting! Suspect Wants Water – Police Sgt. Urinates in His Mouth by Maria Anderson

Iran rejects selling oil to SL

 Sunday, 20 July 2014 

Mohsen Qamsari, an official with the National Iranian Oil Company, said on July 20 rejected the claims that Iran is selling crude oil to Greece, Sri Lanka, and South Africa.

"China with 400,000 barrels per day is the biggest costumer of Iranian crude oil," he said, adding that Beijing's imports account for 40 percent of Iran's total oil export, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported.

"India with 25 percent is the second biggest costumer of Iranian oil," Qamsari explained.

He went on to note that South Korea, Japan, and Turkey are the other main costumers of Iranian oil.

Qamsari earlier this week rejected the International Energy Agency's report about a 26-percent decrease in the country's oil exports (including crude oil and gas condensates) in June.

IEA announced in his latest report that Iran's oil exports dropped to 1.8 million barrels per day in June, after China and India decreased their oil purchase from the country, Iran's Donyaye Eqtesad news website reported on July 16.

China's oil import from Iran, with a 36-percent decrease, dropped to 510,000 barrels per day in June, while India's oil imports from Tehran, with a 29-percent decrease, reached 141,000 barrels per day.

Mohsen Qamsari said on July 16 that the country's oil exports have not been decreasing.

"Iran's average oil exports stand at one million barrels per day, but sometimes the figure rises or falls due to different factors," he noted.

"Based on the agreements, China is expected to import a certain amount of oil from Iran," he said, adding that the Chinese part will try to reach the agreed figure by year-end.

The latest report released by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) also suggest that Iran's oil output in June was decreased by 26,600 barrels in comparison to its preceding month.

Iran's current production stands at 2.731 million barrels per day.

The figure is one million barrels less than the country's production rate before the US-led sanctions.

According to OPEC, Iran's current oil output is only 45,000 barrels more than the country's average production in 2013.

The average price of Iran's heavy crude in June was increased by 2.05 cents compared to May. The OPEC oil prices were also increased by 2.42 cents in general.

The Wounded Girl in the Gaza Strip: The Need for a New Approach

by Ranga Kalugampitiya 

- on 07/20/2014

A news article published on Yahoo on July 18, 2014 had an image of a little girl of about one year old. She was naked and was lying on a diaper which seemed to have just come undone. She was being held by eight to ten caring hands clad in white gloves. She had visible wounds and blood stains on her body. Her little face was turned upward and was seemingly focused on the face of a person to whom two of those hands clad in white gloves belonged. She had an expression on her face which I, as a father of another little girl of her age, am still trying to decipher.

The Wounded Girl in the Gaza Strip the Need for a New Approach by Maria Anderson

HIV cure search – there’s now a feeling it WILL happen rather than it MIGHT happen 
Victoria Macdonald-Saturday 19 Jul 2014

There was a time when the word ‘cure’ was never used in relation to HIV. It was thought to be too elusive, too unachievable. But something changed in the past decade.

It was not that there have been any major breakthroughs. On the contrary, there have been setbacks – such as the recent news that the Mississippi baby, believed to be free of the virus after being given treatment within hours of birth, is now showing signs of it and is once again receiving antiretroviral drugs.

Yet the scientists involved in HIV research now firmly believe that a cure is possible, that this an area that is moving at a faster pace than many had ever imagined.

At the 2014 Moving Towards an HIV Cure Symposium, being held alongside the 20th International Aids Conference in Melbourne, there was a feeling of optimism in the room.

The President of the International Aids Society (IAS), Professor Francoise Sinoussi-Barre, a co-discoverer of the virus, said ‘there is a great deal of scientific excitement’.

That there is a need for a cure is obvious. In 2012, there were 2.3 million new infections reported and 1.5 million deaths. And although more people than ever are receiving antiretroviral drugs (ARTs), they are not without their problems.

As Dr Steven Deeks, co-chair of the symposium said, they have to be taken daily, for life. And they have side-effects.

There needs to be, he said, a scalable cure. That is one that is affordable for all nations.

The briefing document for the symposium had been printed before the news of the Mississippi baby (in fact now a four-year-old) had come through, so it still says at least one infant infected with HIV who was treated immediately after birth has no signs of the virus.

We now know that not to be true. But it adds to the growing knowledge on how the virus might hide – and its latency.

So, the areas of research looking most interesting are directed at viral persistence and how to ‘flush’ the virus out, find that every last part of it, trigger the immune system to recognise it and then treat it, possibly with cancer drugs.

Equally important is the work on a vaccine, which will again help the immune system recognise the virus and fight it.

Nobody is willing to put a timescale on all of this, of course. There have been too many false starts but there is also a feeling that it WILL happen rather than it MIGHT happen.

Follow Victoria Macdonald on Twitter: @vsmacdonald

- See more at: http://blogs.channel4.com/victoria-macdonald-on-health-and-social-care/hiv-cure-search-feeling-happen-happen/2320#sthash.SyZNqj2u.dpuf

At least 50 dead in Israeli attack on Gaza district - hospital

BY NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI AND JEFFREY HELLER-GAZA/JERUSALEM Sun Jul 20, 2014 

(Reuters) - At least 50 Palestinians were killed on Sunday by Israeli shelling in a Gaza neighbourhood, where bodies were strewn in the street and thousands fled for shelter to a hospital packed with wounded, witnesses and health officials said.
At Least 50 Dead in Israeli Attack on Gaza District - Hospital by Maria Anderson

'Death and horror' in Gaza as thousands flee Israeli bombardment

Fiercest fighting yet as Israel widens ground offensive and faces accusations of war crimes over rising number of civilian deaths

Palestinians flee their homes in Gaza's eastern Shejaiya district on Sunday after heavy Israeli shelling. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

Peter Beaumont in Gaza City and Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem-

Sunday 20 July 2014

The fiercest fighting of the 13-day war in Gaza erupted on Sunday asIsrael dramatically widened its ground offensive, sending tanks and troops into urban areas and causing thousands of panicked civilians to flee.

'Death and Horror' in Gaza as Thousands Flee Israeli Bombardment by Maria Anderson

Britain, Netherlands say EU will need to reconsider approach to Russia due to plane disaster

LONDON, July 19 Sat Jul 19, 2014 

(Reuters) - Britain and the Netherlands agreed on Saturday that the European Union will have to re-evaluate its approach to Russia due to evidence that Ukrainian separatists downed a Malaysian aircraft.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, discussed the matter over the phone on Saturday afternoon, the office of the British Prime Minister said in a statement.

"The PM and PM Rutte agreed that the EU will need to reconsider its approach to Russia in light of evidence that pro-Russian separatists brought down the plane," it said.

Earlier, Britain's Foreign Secretary said Russia must use its influence over Ukrainian separatists to improve access to the site of the downed Malaysian aircraft, and that it had called in the country's ambassador over the disaster. (Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing bySonya Hepinstall)