Overriding Elections Commissioner’s interventions to prevent voter bribery by the UPFA that is being heavily carried out in Uva Province, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa has used the judiciary into achieving their goal of proceeding with the plan to distribute Rs. 2500 per family in the Moneragala district.
Colombo Telegraph learns that few UPFA supporters, under instructions of Basil had filed a case before the Supreme Court under under No: 258/14 as individuals claiming to be farmers from Wellawaya seeking Secretary to the Economic Development Ministry Dr Nihal Jayathilaka and Moneragala District Secretary A Pathinathan to provide ‘drought relief’ to petitioners and other residents of the district.
Although the Elections Commissioner had given clear directives to abstain from carrying out the plan to distribute Rs. 2500 per family in Moneragala, he nor his directive had been mentioned in the case. Moreover, it has been pointed out that although the case was filed on September 11, the legal documents relating to the case states it as one that was filed on September 10.
It has been noted that this particularly case that was heard before the Supreme Court today has been filed in violation of standard Court practice – that no interim relief can be granted without the Court first directing the Petitioner to serve adequate notice, about a week, before submitting the application.
The case had been presided over today by the De facto Chief Justice Mohan Pieris along with Justice Aluwihare and Priyantha Jayawardena who was earlier working for Basil Rajapaksa in his Ministry. Jayawardena’s sister is the Registrar of the Supreme Courts. It is also worth noting that the De facto CJ had not wanted the case to be taken up in ordinary course, but had set it aside to be the last case for the day until most of the lawyers and journalists had dispersed. But some of the lawyers representing political parties had remained to observe the proceedings, having heard of the application.
Colombo Telegraph also learns that the de facto CJ without even hearing the submissions, had granted relief directing the Respondents to grant relief, in a clear reflection of the political agenda behind the application and its hearing. Although junior Counsel Avanthi Perea informed the Court that a directive issued by the Elections Commissioner was already in place, the de facto CJ had ignored it. Having seen the opposition party lawyers observing the case, the Colombo Telegraph learns that the de facto CJ had said ‘no politics, Dr. Jayathilaka’.
Several lawyers who had observed the proceedings said that it is one of the many dubious cases that have been heard in this bizarre manner under the current de facto CJ whose integrity and independance has been called into question time and again. It has also been pointed out that the EC has been made invalid due to the SC turning part of the UPFA political machinery.
“Today the President has made opening school buildings one of his election projects. As such, the president uses the powers given to him illicitly. As the first citizen of the country he is bound to be an example regarding the supremacy of the law. He is the one who should take the lead in holding a free and fair election. But what happens is that the President blatantly violates election laws. If the President acts in that manner what can we say about Sasheendra Rajapaksa or Minister Vijayamuni Zoysa’s son? The biggest obstacle to hold a free and fair election has become the President,” said the Leader of the JVP Anura Dissanayaka speaking at a media conference held at the JVP head office at Pelawatta today (12th).
அடுத்தமுறை வரும் போதாவது நீதிமன்ற நடைமுறைகளை உங்கள் சார்பில் வாதிடும் சட்டத்தரணியிடம் கேட்டுத் தெரிந்துகொண்டு வருமாறு டக்ளஸ் க்கு புத்திமதி கூறினார் நீதிபதி.
யாழில் இருந்து வெளிவரும் தமிழ் பத்திரிகைக்கு எதிராக இழப்பீடு கேட்டு அமைச்சர் டக்ளஸ் தேவானந்தா தாக்கல் செய்த மான நஷ்ட வழக்கு தொடர்பான விசாரணை (11.09.2014) வியாழக்கிழமை யாழ்ப்பாணம் மேல் நீதிமன்றத்தில் எடுத்துக்கொள்ளப்பட்டது. குறுக்கு விசாரணையின் போது சட்டத்தரணி எம்.எ. சுமந்திரன் கேட்ட கேள்விகளுக்கு நேரடியாக பதிலளிப்பதைத் தவிர்க்க விரும்பிய அமைச்சர் ஆம் அல்லது இல்லை என்ற பதிலுக்கு அப்பால் ஒவ்வொரு கேள்விக்கும் விளக்கங்கள் கொடுத்தார்.
இதனால் ‘ முதலில் கேள்விக்கான பதிலை ஆம் அல்லது இல்லை என்று கூறிவிட்டு உங்கள் விளக்கத்தை வழங்குங்கள் ‘ என்று நீதிமன்றால் அறிவுறுத்தப்பட்டது. இருப்பினும் கேள்விக்கான விளக்கங்களையே பலதடவை கூற முயன்றார். இதனால் பொறுமை இழந்த நீதிபதி டக்ளஸிடம் அடுத்தமுறை விசாரணைக்கு வரும் போது நீதிமன்ற நடைமுறை.
- See more at: http://www.canadamirror.com/canada/31151.html#sthash.WTydluK8.dpuf
According to Sri Lanka Buddhist Vihara Devala Foundation (Incorporation) Act all devalas should pay taxes but Ruhunu Katharagama Devalaya (temple) has not paid any taxes since 2009 say reports.
In 2009 Ruhunu Katharagama Devalaya was taken out from the Vihara Devala Foundation (Incorporation) Act while Mr. Sasheendra Rajapaksa was the caretaker of the Ruhunu Kataragama Devalaya as the Basnayaka Nilame. Mr. Sasheendra Rajapaksa was also elected to Uva Provincial Council and became the Chief Minister. According to the Vihara Devala Foundation (Incorporation) Act nobody could hold both posts of Basnayaka Nilame of Ruhunu Katharagama Devalaya and the post of chief minister simultaneously. President Mahinda Rajapaksa removed this obstacle from the Vihara Devala Foundation (Incorporation) Act by amending the Act to suit his nephew so that Sasheendra could hold both posts.
Despite all temples have to send details about income to the Department of Public trustee and pay taxes, no taxes have been paid by Ruhunu Katharagama Devalaya after it was removed from the Vihara Devala Foundation (Incorporation) Act.
Political Murders, the Commissions and the Unfinished Task – 14
We mentioned earlier that links between the Premadasa faction of the UNP and the JVP had very much been the subject of speculation. That such links existed and featured in the choice of UNP targets by the JVP was strongly believed by the Jayewardene faction of the UNP as journalists have testified. The belief was also shared by police officers who have testified before commissions and also privately to us. But it has never been proved. A particular suspicion has been that a link existed through former Minister Sirisena Cooray and his brother-in-law and senior JVP leader Somawanse Amerasinghe, a brother of the former’s wife.
Based on the following, a former JVP leader thought that the relationship between the two was cold. After the JVP leaders were released from prison in 1977, they launched a house-to- house collection and collected Rs. 100,000/-. This was left by Amerasinghe at Cooray’s house. Later, according to this leader, Amerasinghe collected the money and informed the group that it was about Rs 10,000/ – short. They discussed it and Amerasinghe said he would get it back if necessary by stealing from Cooray’s house. The JVP decided to forget the matter, as they did not want to antagonise the UNP at that stage.
The JVP had been crushed by early 1990 and nearly all the leading members including Wijeweera, Gamanayake and Saman Ferando had been killed. Amerasinghe was the only figure who had evaded the security forces. A case of considerable interest came up before the High Court subsequently and was heard by F.N.D. Jayasuriya. A woman naval officer or wren (in British naval parlance) had forwarded an identity card application for a man who was purported to be her husband. Military Intelligence, which scrutinised such applications, became suspicious and checked back with the village headman in Madampe who had signed the application. They then went to the wren, who confessed that the man concerned was not her husband.
Military Intelligence found that the wren was working with one Captain Nissanka of the Navy to obtain an identity card for Somawanse Amerasinghe – an identity card is needed to apply for a passport. Nissanka has been absconding from that time. The two were indicted in court and Nissanka was sentenced in absentia. Following the change of government in 1994, the surviving JVPers including Amerasinghe were pardoned, and consequently the case against the wren was dropped. According to lawyers familiar with the details of the case, the two naval personnel had worked on getting an identity card for Amerasinghe to oblige persons very high up in the government of the day who solicited a favour. Finally, Amerasinghe is believed to have escaped to India by boat.
MR tells India: Chinese presence under control I Promise September 12, 2014 President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in an exclusive interview with India's Hindu Newspaper, assured that India had nothing to worry about Chinese presence in Sri Lanka, as long as he held office. He rejected concerns in India about growing Chinese investments in Sri Lanka, even as he prepares for the visit of President Xi Jinping on 16 September, when both countries are expected to sign a Free Trade Agreement.
"India has nothing to worry about China, in Sri Lanka," Rajapaksa said in response to a question about a contract on air force maintenance that was recently awarded to the Chinese company CATIC. "Until I am here, I can promise that." Rajapaksa also said that he was open for a dialogue with the TNA on the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, which devolves more powers to Provinces. The President denied reports that he was upset about the meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with six leaders of the Tamil-majority Northern and Eastern Provinces. "It was their right in a democracy to meet anyone," he said.
He hoped to meet Modi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, if their schedules permitted, later this month. According to officials, Rajapaksa and Modi's schedules would overlap for a day and efforts were on to find time for a meeting. Implementation of the 13th Amendment was one of India's key demands, and Modi had told a TNA delegation that "he was dismayed by reports that the Sri Lankan Government proposed to dilute the 13th Amendment," officials said. In the interview, Rajapaksa said he was grateful for India's stand on the U.N. Human Rights Council vote, where New Delhi refused to endorse the demand for an inquiry by an international agency into allegations of 'war crimes' by the Sri Lankan Army against the LTTE in 2009. "Our government is conducting local investigations, but we won't allow them to internationalize it," Rajapaksa said. "The next time it (the UNHRC) will say that there must be an international inquiry into Kashmir. What would be our position? Whether it is against India or Sri Lanka, we will not allow an external inquiry."
He conceded that the inquiry into nearly 20,000 'disappearances' during the war was pending, and they still had not concluded who was responsible for the death of Balachandran Prabhakaran, son of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. In photographs published in The Hindu dating back to May 2009, the boy was seen being guarded by men in uniform, suggesting it was a custodial killing. "We are investigating it still ... I don't believe that (it was carried out by the military). But if it is true, I must know. That is why we are inquiring. In a war, when both sides are fighting, how can you say who shot at whom?" he said. Significantly, the Sri Lankan President said he would not rule out early presidential elections, as reports suggest, in January 2015.
September 12, 2014
Keshani Bandara Wijeykoon, the four-year-old girl who went missing from her home in Gonagama in Wellawa erlier this week has been found abandoned near a shop at Neriyawa, police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said.
He stated that police officers are currently taking the girl to her parents in order to ascertain that the girl found by police is Keshani.
Police launched an investigation into the disappearance after the girl’s mother lodged a complaint claiming that her daughter was abducted from her house on Monday (8) night.
The girl was asleep with her parents and brother when she was reportedly abducted by individuals who cut away part of the plastic curtains near their bed.
In a joint operation, police officers attached to nine police stations including the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) launched a search to find the girl.
On Thursday (11) police offered a reward of Rs. one million for correct information regarding the missing girl.
BEIRUTWed Sep 10, 2014 (Reuters) - An explosion killed the leader of one of Syria's most powerful Islamist insurgent groups Ahrar al-Sham on Tuesday, the group said, and an organisation that monitors violence in the civil war said at least 28 of its commanders had died.
Ahrar al-Sham is a hardline Islamist group and part of the Islamic Front alliance that has been in armed conflict with the Islamic State group which has seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.
A statement posted on Ahrar al-Sham's official Twitter feed said the blast had hit a meeting in Idlib province in northwest Syria and confirmed Hassan Aboud, the group's leader, among at least 12 dead.
"We don't know the cause of the explosion yet," Abu Mustafa al-Absi, a member of Ahrar al-Sham's politburo told Al-Jazeera TV in an interview. "We do not rule out the infiltration of elements who were able to plant a bomb," he added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the monitoring group, said some 50 of the group's leaders had been gathered at a house when the blast went off. Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory, said the blast had occurred inside the meeting.
Ahrar al-Sham, which is widely believed to have received funding from Gulf states, aims to implement Islamic sharia law in Syria. It was at one point considered the strongest insurgent group in the Syrian civil war.
Syrian state TV flashed an urgent news headline reporting Aboud's death.
Syria descended into civil war after an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule in 2011. The United Nations recently put the death toll above 191,000 people.
In January another senior Ahrar al-Sham leader, Abu Khaled al-Soury, was killed in a suicide attack. Soury had fought alongside al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and was close to its current chief Ayman al-Zawahri.
(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
Tiny Jordan's spies have helped the United States hunt down some of its most dangerous enemies. Now Obama is hoping those spooks can beat the Islamic State.
Barack Obama's administration says that more than three dozen countries have pledged to join its new fight against the Islamic State, from Saudi Arabia, one of the region's richest countries, to Egypt, one of its largest and best-armed. The most important help, though, could come from Jordan, one of the Middle East's tiniest nations. But it's not boots on the ground that Jordan will provide: It's intelligence, gleaned from a network of spies and informants who have helped the Americans nab some of their worst enemies and, Washington hopes, will be able to do so again. The Mouse That Roars by Thavam
In this April 15, 2014 photo, an Anti-Balaka Christian fighter stands on the front of a looted Muslim store in Guen, some 250 kilometers north of Bangui, Central African Republic. As U.N. peacekeepers prepare to go into the Central African Republic to take over a regional mission, the death toll since fighting between Muslims and Christians started in December underscores how the aid is coming too late for thousands of victims. (Jerome Delay/Associated Press)
By Associated Press September 12 at 12:11 PM
GUEN, Central African Republic — There are no headstones to mark these graves, no loving words, nothing to tell the world who lies in these two giant pits full of bodies, or why. Yet a handful of village elders are determined that nobody will be forgotten. AP More Than 5,000 Dead in C. African Republic by Thavam
BY ARSHAD MOHAMMED AND BILL TROTT-WASHINGTONFri Sep 12, 2014
Women walk past an office of Sberbank in Moscow September 12, 2014.
(Reuters) - The United States hit Russia's largest bank, a major arms maker and arctic, deepwater and shale exploration by its biggest oil companies with new sanctions on Friday to punish Moscow for intervening in Ukraine.
The sanctions target companies including Sberbank, the country's largest bank by assets, and Rostec, a conglomerate that makes everything from Kalashnikovs to cars, by limiting their ability to access the U.S. debt markets.
They will also bar U.S. companies from providing goods or services to help five Russian energy companies conduct deepwater, Arctic offshore and shale projects. The Russian companies affected are Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil, Surgutneftegas and Rosneft.
The sanctions seek to ban cooperation with Russian oil firms on energy technology and services by companies including Exxon Mobil Corp and BP Plc.
Russia is one of the world's top oil producers and is the main energy supplier to Europe. Exxon signed a $3.2 billion agreement in 2011 with Russian company Rosneft Oil Co to develop the Arctic.
The sanctions are the latest imposed by the United States and the EU following Russia's annexation of Crimea in March and what the West sees as an effort since to further destabilize Ukraine by backing pro-Russian separatists with troops and arms.
U.S. officials said Washington took the steps because Russia has intensified its involvement in Ukraine by sending troops and arms to support pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country and by shelling it across the border.
But a defiant Russian President Vladimir Putin called the new economic penalties "strange," given his backing of peace efforts in eastern Ukraine, and said he was considering fresh retaliatory measures. [L5N0RD3NM]
The U.S. officials stressed that the sanctions could be removed if Russia, which denies sending troops into eastern Ukraine and arming the separatists, took a series of steps including the withdrawal of all of its forces from its neighbor.
"What we’re looking for with regard to Russian action is the complete removal of all military personnel, military equipment, support for military and mercenaries on the terrority of Ukraine, release of all hostages," a senior U.S. official told reporters in a conference call explaining the sanctions.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States wanted to see the creation of a buffer zone on both sides of the border, which the official said was particularly important to stop shelling of Ukraine by Russia.
The new U.S. sanctions, which for the first time targeted Russia's Sberbank, were timed to coincide with new European Union economic penalties that included restrictions on financing for some Russian state-owned companies and asset freezes on leading Russian politicians.
The U.S. Treasury Department said the sanctions include a ban on U.S. individuals or companies dealing with Rostec, a major Russian technology and defense conglomerate, in debt transactions of more than 30 days maturity.
Assets also were blocked for five state-owned defense technology firms, OAO Dolgoprudny Research Production Enterprise, Mytishchinski Mashinostroitelny Zavod OAO, Kalinin Machine Plant JSC, Almaz-Antey GSKB, and JSC NIIP.
The new sanctions also tighten the financial noose on six Russian banks, including Sberbank, by barring U.S. individuals and companies from dealing in any debt they issue of longer than 30 days maturity.
The five banks previously covered had only faced a restriction on debt maturities of more than 90 days. Like those five, Sberbank now also faces a ban on U.S. equity financing.
The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions prohibiting U.S. individuals and companies from dealing in new debt of greater than 90 days maturity issued by Russian energy companies Gazprom Neft and Transneft.
"These steps underscore the continued resolve of the international community against Russia’s aggression," U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in a statement. "Russia’s economic and diplomatic isolation will continue to grow as long as its actions do not live up to its words."
(Additonal reporting by Roberta Rampton, Lesley Wroughton and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Tom Brown)
Guardian/ICM poll finds support for no campaign on 51% and yes on 49% with less than a week to go, but 17% of voters say they have yet to make up their mind
Yes supporters disrupt a no campaign event. Eighty-seven percent of respondents describe themselves as ‘absolutely certain to vote’.Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
The union between Scotland and England hangs by a political thread as a fresh Guardian/ICM poll published on Friday puts the yes vote just two percentage points behind those supporting no.
Despite a week of intense political campaigning by pro-union politicians and repeated warnings from business about the dangers of independence, the poll finds support for no on 51% and yes on 49% once don’t knows were excluded.
The Guardian/ICM poll is based on telephone interviews conducted between Tuesday and Thursday, the first such survey ICM has conducted during the campaign. Previous polls suggesting that the race for Scotland could go to a photo-finish have been based on internet-based surveys.
The period of the survey not only witnessed the three UK party leaders absenting themselves from prime minister’s questions to campaign in Scotland, but also a growing rumble of news stories about the economic risks of independence: Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, gave new warnings over the currency, some financial institutions such as RBS signalled readiness to move their headquarters out of Edinburgh, and there have been warnings about a mortgage drought.
Despite all of this, and the most recent suggestions that supermarket prices could have to rise, everything remains to play for in the final days of the campaign, because 17% of voters in the overall sample say they have yet to make up their mind. Including them in mix, the rounded figures leave yes on 40%, and no on 42%.
The unprecedented political engagement generated by the campaign shines through in the poll, which finds 87% of respondents describing themselves as “absolutely certain to vote”, far more than the 55% who said the same thing about the next Westminster election in the most recent UK-wide Guardian/ICM poll.
Most unusually, young people are almost as engaged as their elders, with 82% of 16- to 24-year-olds and 87% of 25-34s insisting that they are 10 out of 10 sure that they will cast a vote; many will have already done so through postal voting.
The 25-34s in particular are heavily inclined to back independence – leaning yes, by 57% to 43%. At the other end of the age range, respondents aged 65+ are staunch unionists, being inclined to vote no by 61% to 39%, a contrast that – Martin Boon, director of ICM explains – makes “the generational divide a crucial dividing line in Scottish politics right now: each campaign’s success in motivating the particular cohorts that favour them looks crucial to the outcome”.
Boon explains that the salience of age makes including the right generational mix in the sample especially important, and suggests that Friday’s poll looks as good as any on this count. “All polls, whether conducted online or by phone, struggle to interview a representative number of young people. However, unusually, ICM have managed to interview close to the right number, which avoids unhelpfully high levels of weighting, and helps us pin down the real link between age and indyref voting intentions.”
Sex is an important secondary faultline – excluding don’t knows, Scottish women remain loyal to the UK, by 55% to 45%, while Scottish men by contrast are, by 52% to 48%, in favour of independence.
Gordon Brown’s intervention on behalf of the unionists in recent days has aimed at luring Labour’s core supporters back towards the no camp, amid a sense that they had begun to drift away, particularly in the west of Scotland. The party will be relieved that Glasgow remains – just – inclined to vote no, by 51% to 49%, but broader west and central Scotland are leaning narrowly towards yes.
Only 29% of those who stuck loyally to Labour in Alex Salmond’s landslide year of 2011 say they will vote for separation, a somewhat lower proportion than that which has been found in some of the internet polls. But look instead at the much larger proportion of Scots who voted for Brown in 2010, a respectable year for the party north of the border, and crumbling of the broader Labour family becomes apparent. Forty-two percent of these voters are now signalling that they will vote for Scottish divorce from the UK. By contrast, the SNP vote is more solidly behind yes: 91% of those who voted for Salmond in 2011 intend to follow his lead again, and vote yes.
Friday’s poll also interrogates what is motivating supporters of the two camps – asking respondents to choose the two or three issues that incline them to vote as they intend. Among no supporters, feelings towards the UK are the single most important factor – named by 53%, followed by 37% who suggest that continuation of the union would be better for Scottish pensions and public services. Economic fears of separation, the principal focus of Better Together campaign over most of the course of the year, rank as less important, nominated by just 33% of nos.
On the yes side, the single most important factor are feelings about Westminster’s politics, which is named by 51%, while 40% express the hopes that independence would deliver a more prosperous future. Despite a recent emphasis on the risks of English-inspired NHS privatisation, among yes supporters feelings about public services and pensions are less important – identified as especially important in determining their decision by just 24%.
Asked “how risky” they think independence is, little more than a quarter of Scots (26%) say it represents “a huge risk”, considerably more than the 13% who believe that it is “no risk at all”, but less than the 56% who rank the dangers as somewhere in between the two. Sticking with the UK is, not surprisingly, seen as a safer option – only 19% regard that as “a huge risk”, as against 32% who rate it as “no risk at all”. The difference between the two propositions as measured by the average scores on the five point riskiness scale (where 5 represents a huge risk) is substantial, but not perhaps as large as might be expected. The mean score for sticking within the union is 2.7, compared with 3.2 for going it alone.
ICM Research interviewed a representative sample of 1,000 people by telephone on 9-11 September 2014. Interviews were conducted across Scotland and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rule
Almost two thirds of mental health trusts in England that responded to a Channel 4 News freedom of information request say their funding has been cut, with a shortage of beds threatening patient care.
September 12, 2014
