Indran flees country to save life!

 Saturday, 30 August 2014 

DIG in charge of Kalutara area V. Indran has fled the country to save his life.

That is because he is under threat by top officials of the police department and various religiously extremist groups.

He came under heavy criticism by top government politicians and various extremist religious groups for not having released 13 men arrested in connection with the communal clashes in Darga Town in Aluthgama on June 15. Later, he was relieved of duties for Aluthgama and Beruwala and given to another DIG.

Due to the continuoing pressure he is receiving, Indran has left for England, say the sources. He is due to return to his duties before the end of this month, add the sources.

வீட்­டிற்குள் நுழைந்த இரா­ணுவ வீரர் பொது­மக்­க­ளிடம் வச­மாக மாட்­டினார்

Fri, 08/29/2014

குரு­ந­க­ரி­லுள்ள வீடு ஒன்­றுக்குள் நள்­ளி­ரவு வேளையில் அத்­து­மீறி நுழைந்த இரா­ணுவ வீரரை அப்­ப­குதி மக்கள் மடக்கிப் பிடித்து நையப்­பு­டைத்­துள்­ள­துடன் மரத்தில் கட்டி வைத்­தி­ருந்து பொலி­ஸா­ரிடம் ஒப்­ப­டைத்­துள்­ளனர்.

இச் சம்­பவம் யாழ்.குரு­நகர் தொடர் மாடியில் நேற்­று­முன்­தினம் நள்­ளி­ரவு இடம்­பெற்­றுள்­ளது.இவ்­வி­டயம் தொடர்­பாக மேலும் தெரி­ய­வ­ரு­வ­தா­வது,

நேற்­று­முன்­தினம் புதன்­கி­ழமை இரவு குரு­நகர் புனித ஆரோக்­கி­ய­நாதர் ஆல­யத்தில் திருநாள் தேர்ப்­ப­வனி இடம்­பெற்­றுள்­ளது. இந்த தேர்ப்­ப­வ­னியில் கலந்­து­கொள்­வ­தற்­காக அப்­ப­குதி மக்கள் ஆல­யத்தில் ஒன்று கூடி­யுள்­ளனர்.

இதன்­போது நள்­ளி­ரவு 11.45 மணி­ய­ளவில் குரு­ந­கரில் அமைக்­கப்­பட்­டுள்ள தொடர்­மாடிக் கட்­டடத்தில் உள்ள வீடு ஒன்­றிற்குள் இரா­ணுவ வீரர் ஒருவர் அத்­து­மீறி உள்­நு­ழைந்­துள்ளார். அப்­பொ­ழுது அவ்­வீட்டில் பெண்­ணொ­ருவர் தனி­யாக இருந்­துள்ளார். இரா­ணுவ வீரரைக் கண்ட பெண் கூக்­கு­ர­லிட்­ட­தை­ய­டுத்து அவ்­வி­டத்தில் ஒன்­று­கூ­டிய பொது­மக்கள் குறித்த இரா­ணுவ வீரரை மடக்கிப் பிடித்து நையப்­பு­டைத்­துள்­ளனர்.

இதே­வேளை குறித்த இரா­ணுவ வீரரை மரம் ஒன்றில் கட்­டி­வைத்து மறுநாள் காலை பொலி­ஸா­ரிடம் ஒப்­ப­டைத்­துள்­ளனர். குறித்த இரா­ணுவ வீரரை பொலிஸார் இரா­ணுவப் பொலி­ஸா­ரிடம் ஒப்­ப­டைத்­துள்­ள­தா­கவும் தக­வல்கள் வெளி­யா­கி­யுள்­ளமை குறிப்­பி­டத்­தக்­கது.

அண்­மையில் வட­ம­ராட்சி கிழக்கு வெற்­றி­லைக்­கேணிப் பகு­தி­யிலும் இது­ போன்ற சம்­பவம் ஒன்றில் கடற்­படை வீரர் ஒருவரை நள்ளிரவு வேளை மடக்கிப் பிடித்த பொதுமக்கள் கட்டிவைத்திருந்து பொலிஸாரிடம் ஒப்படைத்து சட்ட நடவடிக்கைகளுக்கு உட்படுத்தியிருந்த மையும் குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.

பாதாளக் குழுக்களை கைது செய்வதாயின் அலரி மாளிகைக்குச் சென்றால் பிடிக்க முடியும்; ஐ.தே.க. எம்.பி. அஜித்குமார

பா.கிருபாகரன், ந.ஜெயகாந்தன்-2014-08-21

பாதாளக் குழுக்கள், குற்றவாளிகளை கைது செய்யவேண்டுமெனில் அலரி மாளிகைக்குச் சென்றால் ஒட்டுமொத்தமாகப் பிடிக்க முடியுமென ஜனநாயக தேசியக் கூட்டணியில் சுயாதீனமாக இயங்கிவரும் எம்.பி.யான அஜித்குமார தெரிவித்தார்.

பாராளுமன்றத்தில் வியாழக்கிழமை இலத்திரனியல் அடையாள அட்டை திட்டத்தை கைவிட வலியுறுத்தி சபை ஒத்திவைப்புவேளை பிரேரணையை முன்வைத்து உரையாற்றுகையிலேயே இவ்வாறு தெரிவித்தார் அஜித்குமார.

Discrepancies In Proceedings: The Harsha Abhayawardena Case

By Rajan Hoole -August 30, 2014

Rajan Hoole

Political Murders, the Commissions and the Unfinished Task – 12

During the weeks following the assassination of VK, 5 suspects were arrested by the CDB in the Kirullapone area, who confessed to one or both of aiding and abetting the crime. Shortly after Premadasa was nominated the UNP presidential candidate A.S. Seneviratne, DIG (Metropolitan), asked I.T. Canagaretnam, SSP, CDB, for lists of suspects held by them. A list of 24 persons was sent with details of offences. For the 5 involved in the VK case, Canagaretnam recommended that 3 should be held and indicted for murder after inquiries are complete and the other 2 could be released on bail. An order then came signed by the IGP, Ernest Perera, on 4th Oct.1988, to release several detainees including the three in the VK case for whom detention was recommended. When Canagaretnam checked back, Seneviratne ordered them re-arrested. By then, most of them had been released. Consequently, only 2 were in custody (the others could not be found). However, they too were released along with about 1800 suspects on 14th Jan.89 when Premadasa lifted the emergency.

When the Commission questioned Ernest Perera about the release order, he said that it was a typing error! The Commission did not accept this, and questioned the seriousness of the Police in investigating VK’s murder. There are other reasons why we cannot accept the complacent answer that in those days killing JVP suspects was normal. By late August 1988 the Police believed that the same weapon was used by different groups to kill VK, Harsha Abhayawardene (HA) and Terrence Perera. The three were being investigated parallely with the CID and CDB in regular contact. Arrests in any one case were bound to provide leads to the others.

For example Asoka and Jayantha who passed on to Lionel and Tarzan the orders to kill VK, may have known individuals connected with the other cases as well. Thus identifying individuals who fell into the police net and establishing cross-connections should have been in the minds of investigators, as a means to building up a strong case. Thus whatever the relative importance of the victims themselves, investigations and arrests in all three cases should have been treated as complementary. This appears to have been the case until late September 1988.

                                                                                Read More

Iran's last great female poet

 

Friday, 29 August 2014 

EVEN as a child, she knew how poetry should sound. The rhythm of the rhyme her teacher gave her to recite—“I am a yellow rose, the Sultan of all the flowers, the Sultan of all the flowers”—was wrong. She envied the verse bestowed upon a friend, which scanned so much more sweetly, as much as she coveted the red ruffles of her dress, so much finer than her own yellow organdy.

So, at the age of 12, Simin Behbahani began writing her own rhymes. She wrote in the style of the old Persian poets: Hafez, Rumi and Sa’adi. Her contemporaries had abandoned traditional forms such as the ghazal, a sonnet of sorts, with its stiff, restrictive structure. With heads full of modernism they used rhymeless, formless verses to criticise their country and its rulers. But she embraced the old ways. After all, that was the sort of poetry that Iranians knew, the sort they could recite from memory, the cadences of their history.

She borrowed the styles of the masters, but not their substance. They wrote of goblets of wine, and nightingales, and laments for their beloved. She wrote of love, too, but also of politics and of life’s darker realities. “O moaning starving masses, what will you do? O poor anguished nation, what will you do?” asked the first line of her first published poem. Later she wrote about prostitutes hustling in the streets of Tehran, and about the pain of a mother unable to afford pistachios for her son.

She was 26 when the Americans and the British deposed Mohammad Mossadegh, Iran’s democratically elected prime minister. The autocratic rule of the Shah, whom the West found more palatable, sharpened her desire for justice. As the years passed, like many others, she began to dream of revolution—not because she yearned for an Islamic state, but because she wanted an end to repression and the fear of the secret police.

In 1979 the revolution came, in the form of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei and his Islamic Republic. But as the new state began a crackdown of its own, the dream soon soured. Ms Behbahani recalled being unable to bear the sight of lorries full of the bodies of executed prisoners, dripping with blood as they rumbled down the road. But she could still write:

Then came the long war with Iraq, grinding and vicious. She remembered the sky over her head, blackened with the smoke of missiles, the ground ruined by exploding bombs, and again the lorries full of bodies, this time of dead soldiers being hauled to the cemeteries.

This turbulent poet
The old poets were men, their ghazals addressed to women and young boys. She dismissed all the attention paid to the fact that she was a woman. She wanted to be simply a poet. Still, outspoken and independent, an advocate for women’s rights, she represented everything Iran’s clerical rulers could not bear. One story tells of her marching for International Women’s Day. Her hijab was defiantly light, her lips were slicked with carmine and her eyes ringed with kohl. The police threatened her. “What are you doing?” a woman demanded. “This is Simin Behbahani.” The police were unimpressed. A man ran towards her. “Did you not hear?” he cried. “This is Simin Behbahani!” He would set himself on fire if they touched her, he vowed. They beat her anyway.

The danger, she knew, was in doing the censors’ work for them, by heeding the voice in her mind that had begun to warn her: “don’t write this, they won’t allow it to be published.” In her later life she was forced to put poems online that could not be published on paper.

Still, she was freer than many. She couched her criticism in metaphor and allusion, but it was still pointed, and Iran’s rulers could never quite silence her. Ordinary Iranians had committed her verses to memory. They reached for them in the same way as they reached for the old rhymes. Others reached for them too; Barack Obama quoted her in a New Year message to Iran.

Despite the interrogations and the intimidation, despite the murder of her fellow writers, she never lost her patriotism, which was so fierce that it bordered on chauvinism. For her, Iran and the Islamic Republic were not the same thing. Her cause was Iran, and that meant dealing with all that came with it.

Some of her contemporaries fled. But she loved her country too much to leave. When she did travel, to read her poetry in freer places, she counted the nights and days until her return. She never doubted that Iran’s future would one day be bright. Western nations had suffered their dictatorships too. One day, Iranians would establish their country anew. And when they did, she hoped to be part of it:

Courtesy - http://www.economist.com/

Scream heard before woman's body found 

lying in a creek at Westmead

A police helicopter flies over a crime scene set up at the Monarco Estate complex in Westmead after a woman'??s body was found nearby. Photo: Emma Partridge

Emma Partridge-August 27, 2014

A woman appeared agitated and concerned as she left the foyer of a Sydney unit block just 12 hours before her body was found in a Sydney creek on Wednesday morning. 

Homicide detectives and local police are trying to establish whether Amesha Rajapakse's death is suspicious after the 31-year-old's body was found in water behind a set of Westmead unit blocks.

Police said her death was puzzling because of where her body was found but said there were no marks or obvious signs of injury on her body. 

Police at the Monarco Estate complex in Westmead after a woman'??s body was found. Photo: Emma Partridge

"The location she was found at was puzzling; it was hard to get to," a homicide detective said.

"But we really don't know one way or the other." 

Building manager Tom Hailey said security footage captured the woman pacing back and forth in the foyer of a building inside Monarco Estate about 7.30pm on Tuesday.

Extra crews arrived at 1pm to assist with a line search of the area. Photo: Emma Partridge

"It looked like she was concerned about something; she appeared agitated. She kept going from back to the front of the foyer," Mr Hailey said.

Mr Hailey said residents told him they heard a "blood-curdling scream" about 6.30am on Wednesday just before police arrived at the Bridge Road unit block. 

A man at the scene cried, "Please, please let me see her face", a short time after Ms Rajapakse was found.

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Wearing muddied shoes, he fell to his knees as he hugged relatives in heavy rain.

Officers were seen searching the man's pockets before he got into a police car and was driven from the estate along with another distressed man. 

Mr Hailey said relatives of the Sri Lankan-born woman had spent the previous night searching for her after she failed to return home to her seventh-floor unit. 

Up to 40 police, including divers and public order and riot squad officers, spent much of the day scouring the muddied creek and searching the grounds of the unit complex. 

Police said they would not be able to determine what caused Ms Rajapakse's death until they received initial autopsy results on Thursday. 

They are appealing for anyone with further information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Stand Up Against Extremism

by Lukman Harees 

- on 08/29/2014 “What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.”- —Robert F. Kennedy

Africa these days has been battling with EBOLA, a severe, infectious, often fatal disease in humans and primates with no apparent cure in sight. Many have been dying while the desperate medical researchers are frantically searching for a cure, to stem this tide. In the UK, I have heard of another battle; botanists trying to stop the spread of an invasive killer which has been ‘eating’ the gardens and ruining lives. It is the deadly Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) , which in winter dies back beneath ground but by early summer the bamboo-like stems shoot to over 2.1m (7ft), suppressing all other growth. Eradication requires steely determination as it is very hard to remove by hand or with chemicals.
Stand Up Against Extremism by Thavam

International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances Saturday 30 August 2014. Remove all obstacles to aid search for the disappeared, UN experts urge governments

 

GENEVA (30 August 2014) –Two United Nations expert groups on enforced disappearances call on States “to remove all obstacles” to aid investigations into the fate of disappeared persons.

On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances urge Governments to support relatives of the disappeared by removing all obstacles hindering their search for loved ones, including through the opening of all archives, especially military files.

“More than 43,000 cases, the majority dating back decades, remain outstanding with the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. These cases stay open for several reasons, often because relatives have no support in finding out what happened. 

The search for disappeared family members and, in many cases, the identification of discovered remains, is always the most pressing request of relatives who endure tremendous suffering in their long wait to know the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones.

Many relatives face unjustified hurdles in their search, due to the lack of political will, or insufficient and inadequate investigations. 

The recent reunion of Estela de Carlotto, president of the Argentine human rights organisation Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, with her grandson after a 36-year search shows that with good will, cooperation and commitment, a positive outcome is possible, even many years after a disappearance occurs. 

Transparency and information-sharing is a good demonstration of political will,  so we call on States to immediately open all archives, including military files, as these sometimes contain information relating to the whereabouts of disappeared persons. 

States should ensure that relatives, their representatives and all persons with a legitimate interest in finding out what happened have full and prompt access to national, regional and international mechanisms aimed at establishing the truth on the disappearances. This does not just mean removing obstacles to accessing these mechanisms, but actively promoting and facilitating their use.  

It is also essential to expand the use of forensic expertise and DNA testing and make adequate use of all the available technological and scientific techniques. 

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearance is clear: families and friends of a disappeared person are themselves victims and they have the right to know the truth regarding the circumstances of the enforced disappearance, the progress and results of the investigation, and ultimately the fate of the disappeared person.

For this reason, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances encourages Governments, whenever appropriate, to set up ad hoc bodies and specialized units to investigate cases of enforced disappearance and to create national DNA banks to hold genetic samples of all cases reported.

The time for promises has passed. Now it is the time to act. States must urgently address the anguish of the relatives of the disappeared and reinvigorate their investigations into cases of disappearances.

We owe it to the disappeared and to their families and friends who wake up every day, hoping to know the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.”

ENDS

- See more at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14970&LangID=E#sthash.YuVnfEug.dpuf

Three shot dead at Pakistan's Online International News Network

August 28, 2014

New York, August 28, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of two journalists and a network employee in Pakistan today, and calls on authorities to investigate the attack and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Two unidentified gunmen stormed the offices of the independent news agency Online International News Network in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, killing the bureau chief Irshad Mastoi and a reporter, Ghulam Rasool Khattak. A network employee, accountant Muhammad Younis, was also killed, according tonews reports.

All three were shot several times, according to police. Khattak and Younis were killed immediately, and Mastoi was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead, reports said. The assailants fled the scene, according to reports.

"This brazen attack underscores the dangers faced by journalists in Baluchistan where the press is constantly under pressure from all sides," said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. "The authorities must bring not only the gunmen but also those who commissioned them to justice. Anything less will send the signal that journalists can be killed with impunity."

Mastoi was secretary-general of the Baluchistan Union of Journalists, the largest journalist body in the southwestern province, according to Malik Siraj Akbar, editor and founder of The Baloch Hal news website. Mastoi was an assignment editor for the privately owned news channel ARY News and had written for publications including The Express Tribune. He had reported on issues including the political situation in the restive region, according to colleagues.

It is not clear what Khattak covered at the news agency.

Baluchistan--Pakistan's largest province by area and smallest by population--is mired in an insurgency and sectarian strife. Its residents are faced with criminal activity, daily disappearances and targeted killings, and international journalists are routinely denied access to the province.

CPJ research shows that local journalists in Baluchistan face pressure from a number of sources: pro-Taliban groups and Pakistani security forces and intelligence agencies, as well as separatists and state-sponsored anti-separatist militant groups. At least six other journalists have been murdered in Baluchistan in direct relation to their work in the past decade, according to CPJ data.

Syrian rebels surround Filipino UN peacekeepers in Golan Heights

Rebels have surrounded peacekeepers and demanded they give up their weapons, hours after taking 43 Fijian soldiers hostage

Armed men, reportedly Syrian rebels, standing near the Quneitra border crossing in the Golan Heights. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

Friday 29 August 2014

Syrian rebels surrounded dozens of defiant Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights on Friday and demanded they give up their weapons,hours after taking 43 Fijian soldiers hostage, authorities said.

Seventy-five Filipino members of a United Nations peacekeeping force were defending two posts on the Syrian side of Golan Heights, and were prepared to fight back rather than surrender, their commander in Manila said.

"We can use deadly force in defence of the UN facilities," Colonel Roberto Ancan told reporters.

"I [would] just like to emphasise our troops are well-armed, they are well-trained … they are well-disciplined warrior peacekeepers."

Syrian rebels, including fighters from the al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front, stormed a Golan Heights crossing at Quneitra on Wednesday, sparking an exchange of gunfire with Israeli troops.

Quneitra is the only crossing between the Syrian- and the Israeli-controlled side of the strategic plateau.

The rebels captured 43 Fijian members of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on Thursday, forcing them to surrender their weapons then taking them hostage.

Ancan said the rebels then used an English-speaking Fijian hostage to relay their demand to the Filipino peacekeepers to give up their weapons.

The Fijian prime minister, Voreqe Bainimarama, said on Friday that talks were under way to release the hostages, and they were believed to be safe.

"I want to assure the families of the soldiers we are doing everything possible to secure their safe return," he said.

"The latest information we have is that they are safe and I can say now that the negotiations for their release have already begun."

Bainimarama said Fiji was "united as a nation in praying for their safe return".

The UN security council strongly condemned the assaults against the peacekeepers, which it said were carried out by "terrorist groups and by members of non-state armed groups".

The council demanded the "unconditional and immediate release of all the detained United Nations peacekeepers" and urged countries with influence to help win their release.

The Philippine military said the soldiers were occupying two UNDOF posts about 2.5 miles apart.

The United Nations initially said 81 Filipinos were involved in the stand-off. However, Ancan said there were 75.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it was unclear which group had staged the attacks.

"Some groups are self-identified as affiliated to al-Nusra but we are not able to confirm," he said. However, the US state department said al-Nusra was definitely involved.

"The United States strongly condemns the detention of UN peacekeepers and ongoing violence targeting the UN Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights by non-state armed groups, including UN security council-designated terrorist group al-Nusra Front," US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

The United States demanded the "unconditional and immediate release" of the Fijian peacekeepers, the statement said.

The UNDOF has been stationed in the buffer zone of the Golan Heights since 1974 to monitor a ceasefire between Syria and Israel.

Israel initially seized 460 square miles of the Golan Heights during the 1967 six-day war, then annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

There are currently 1,200 peacekeepers from the Philippines, Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal and the Netherlands.

Since the Syrian war erupted in 2011, the plateau has been tense, with a growing number of mostly stray rockets and mortar rounds hitting the Israeli side, prompting occasional armed responses.

The Philippines, which has 331 troops serving in UNDOF, announced on Saturday that it would pull out of the peace force because of security concerns.

Filipino defence officials said no fresh troops would be sent once the current batch of soldiers had returned from duty in October.

Last year, the Philippines said it was considering pulling its Golan peacekeepers out after 25 of them were kidnapped but later freed by Syrian rebels in two separate incidents.

In assessing the latest crisis, UN officials noted the safe release of the Filipino peacekeepers last year.

The Philippine president, Benigno Aquino, described the situation in the Golan Heights as tense but also sought to calm fears about the fate of the Filipino troops.

"So far, we should not worry. The news is that the situation looks stable," he said

No NATO Action Against Russia or Islamic State

• BY DAVID FRANCIS-AUGUST 29, 2014

A day after President Barack Obama said that the United States has no plan for countering the Islamic State, that it would not confront the Islamist militant group in Syria alone, and that it doesn't intend anything stronger than fiscal sanctions to punish Russia for invading Ukraine, sources within NATO said that the alliance is also unlikely to act directly.
No NATO Action Against Russia or Islamic State by Thavam

Russian troops in Ukraine 'an act of aggression'

SATURDAY 30 AUGUST 2014

Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko calls on the EU for an "adequate reaction", saying Russia has thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks in Ukraine.

The EU is preparing the "next level of sanctions" against Russia as Ukraine rails against the presence of Russian troops on its soil.

But European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he did not want "a new cold war" that would be detrimental to all of Europe.

Direct military aggression against eastern Ukraine is continuingKiev's defence and security council

Russian Troops in Ukraine 'an Act of Aggression' by Thavam

Ethnic strife blurs Myanmar's first census in 30 years

Volunteers attend a census training course at a school in Yangon March 23, 2014.

BY PAUL MOONEY- Sat Aug 30, 2014

(Reuters) - Following an incomplete count due to ethnic conflicts in parts of the country, Myanmar said on Saturday that its first census in 30 years shows the population to be 51.4 million, some ten million less than expected.

The provisional findings of the census, taken between March-April with support from the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), was released by Minister of Immigration and Population U Khin Yi.

The census was mired in controversy from the outset, as the government and UNFPA were criticized for basing the counting on 135 officially recognised ethnic groups, a classification that critics say is outdated and inaccurate.

Ethnic groups said their political representation and claims to ethnicity would be compromised if they were undercounted.

The estimated population included some 1.2 million people who were not counted in three areas affected by ethnic conflicts - northern Rakhine, and Kachin and Kayin states.

The government said that the estimate of 1.09 million uncounted people in northern Rakhine state was based on pre-census mapping of households by immigration officers. 

Much of the controversy surrounded the counting of the Rohingya - Muslims who live in western Rakhine state and who are often described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

The government had promised international sponsors that ethnic groups could choose their classification. But a day before the census kicked off, presidential spokesman Ye Htut indicated that use of the term Rohingya would be prohibited, so those who wanted to identify themselves as Rohingya were excluded from the count.

The government describes the Rohingya as Bengalis, a term that implies they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. However, most have lived in Myanmar for centuries.

Preliminary findings from the census also found a gender gap, with 26.6 million females and 24.8 million males, and it also showed the population pressures building up in the country's cities.

“For the first time in decades, the country will have data it needs to put roads, schools, health facilities and other essential infrastructure where people need them most,” Janet Jackson, the UNFPA representative in Myanmar said in a news release. More detailed data will be released in May 2015.

(Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Health Benefits of Bitter Gourd

Posted by: Green Yatra

1. Heart Care: Reduces bad cholesterol levels, by burning unnecessary fats which clog the arterial walls and thereby reduce the chances of heart attacks.

2. Weight Loss: Rich in iron, beta-carotene, and potassium. It can relieve constipation and improve circulation, thereby producing slimming effects on the body.

3. Type II Diabetes Cure: Reverses insulin resistance and activates the protein kinase, activating the absorption of sugar in body cells. Significantly improves glucose tolerance without increasing blood insulin levels.

4. Lowers blood glucose levels: Contains phyto-nutrient, polypeptide-P, a plant insulin, known to lower blood sugar levels. The hypoglycemic agent, Charantin, increases glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis in the cells of liver, muscle and adipose tissue.

5. Hypertension Reliever: Actively inhibits hypertension, high plasma cholesterol, or high plasma lipids, which affect patients with Type II diabetes, decreasing the risk of stroke or heart attack.

6. Anti-parasitic: Antihelminthic or anthelmintic compounds are used in the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases and can kill parasitic intestinal worms. It also stimulates peristalsis of food, relieving indigestion and constipation problems.

7. Liver tonic: Helps to maintain healthy liver and bladder. It is also useful in removing kidney stones and relieving gout pain.

8. Blood Cell Booster: The compounds a-eleostearic acid and the 15, 16-dihydroxy-a-eleostearic acid, are a good remedy for leukemia and blood irregularities such as anemia. It helps in producing healthy red blood cells and balances the amount of white blood cells in your body.

9. Blood Cleanser: Its juice cleanses the liver and blood off toxins and is highly beneficial for treating blood disorders like blood boils and itching due to toxemia.

10. Folates Source: Has high amount of Folates that helps in treating defective neural tubes which usually occurs during early pregnancy.

11. Anti Ageing: Vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant, fights and eliminates free radicals, reducing wrinkles and slowing down the ageing process. It also protects the skin from damage by sun’s UV rays.

12. For Respiratory disorders: Fresh pods are an excellent remedy for curing respiratory problems like asthma, cold, cough, bronchitis and pharyngitis.

13. Nutrients/Vitamin SuperStore: Contains flavonoids such as ß-carotene, α-carotene, lutein, and zea-xanthin. Low in calories, rich in phytonutrients like dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins and anti-oxidants and a good source of niacin (vitamin B-3), pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5), pyridoxine (vitamin B-6) and minerals such as iron, zinc, potassium, manganese and magnesium.

14. Disease Buster: Not only effective in killing malaria bacteria, but it can also weaken some viruses such as Cholera, Chickenpox, Measles, Herpes and Jaundice.

15. Immunity Booster: This bitter juice can also help to strengthen your immune system and increase your body’s resistance against a variety of infections.

16. Psoriasis Cure: Regular consumption of this bitter juice has curative benefits in treatment of psoriasis, fungal infections like ring-worm and athletes feet, and skin infections like eczema.

17. Acne Cure: Helps prevent acne, thanks to its blood purifying properties. Keeps your skin glowing and free from blemishes and infections.

18. Eye Care: High beta-carotene and other properties, help alleviate eye problems and in improving eyesight.

19. For Hangover: Its anti-intoxication properties are beneficial in the treatment of hangover and eliminating liver problems, due to alcohol consumption.

20. Piles Cure: Three teaspoons of the juice, extracted from its leaves, added to a glassful of buttermilk and consumed on an empty stomach every morning, has shown promising curative results in the treatment of piles.

21. Hair Care: Super hair tonic which imparts shine, wards off dandruff, treats split ends, combats dryness and itchiness of scalp, reduces hair loss, treats rough and tangled hair, prevents premature graying and removes excess oiliness in hair.

22. Regulates blood flow and clotting: Aids in the healing process preventing further infections.

23. Energy Source: Regular consumption of this bitter juice has been proven to improve energy and stamina levels. Even sleeping patterns have been shown to be improved/stabilized.