Democracy Declined And Militarization Increased: Vasu

September 18, 2014

Minister of National Languages and Social Intergation, Vasudeva Nanayakkara has expressed concern over the dwindling democracy and increasing militarization Sri Lanka is presently undergoing.

Vasu

The Minister had made these remarks in his speech at the National Convention on Inter Religious Integration organised by the National Peace Council.

“The only way to ensure unity and national reconciliation is to strengthen democracy. Only through democracy can we get equality for all citizens and build ethnic coexistence,” he had stated.

Among those who participated in the convention had been religious leaders, representatives of community based organisations and diplomats.

US Ambassador Michele J. Sison speaking at the event had pointed out that all members of the gathering at the convention including religious leaders, government leaders, community based organisations and the media have extremely important roles to play in strengthening values of coexistence.

“All your good work is badly needed to continue building strong and fruitful relations among various communities,” she had added.

Meanwhile, Norwegian Ambassador Grete Lochen had emphasized on the fact that Norway had no interest in creating communal tensions in Sri Lanka.

“The Norwegian government shares the values of dignity, respect, diversity and dialogue. My government is deeply concerned about an increasingly polarised world where the narrative is more about exclusion than inclusion,” she had stated.

Unregistered Vehicles Roam Free In Uva And The Police Are Too Afraid To Catch Them

September 18, 2014

Election monitoring bodies have been continuously expressing concern over the use of unregistered vehicles by the UPFA candidates in Uva for their provincial poll campaigning activities and and to transport thugs who have been spreading a climate of fear particularly in the Moneragala district.

Despite the repeated complaints, the Police however has been turning a blind eye to these vehicles and they have been used by the UPFA candidates since the commencement of the election campaigning until now. In many occasions, these vehicles have driven past the Police check points that were set up in the Uva province as a remedy to the rampant election law violations and yet not a single vehicle was apprehended or even stopped.

Below is the image of such unregistered vehicle used for election campaigning purposes of UPFA candidate Wadiwel Suresh. This image was taken yesterday evening at about 3.25 pm in the Badulla town.

It was a few minutes afterwards that UPFA MInister S. Thondaman’s vehicle resulted in the death of one man and injured 15 persons during an election rally in Bandarawela last evening. Thondaman had deployed six unregistered vehicles for election campaining but the Police failed to apprehend any one of those vehicles or its drivers.

Where’s evidence milk powder containing DCD, melamine was destroyed?

Thursday, 18 September 2014 

Health ministry officials have so far failed to provide evidence to prove that the several tons of milk powder containing DCD and melamine that had been handed over by milk powder companies were destroyed.

At a media briefing last week, science and technology minister Patali Champika Ranawaka raised this matter. However, an invisible hand is at work to conceal reports of that particular media briefing from the mainstream media. Only Daily Lankadeepa carried an article pertaining to that media briefing.

On a court order, the milk powder containing DCD and melamine were handed, over and director (environmental and occupational health) of the health ministry Dr. Ananda Jayalal showed around 200 milk powder packets to the media and promised to destroy them. But, according to reports reaching us, that had not been done.

Unconfirmed sources say these milk powder stocks had been repacked and issued to the market. If that is not the case, the helath ministry should release to the media the photographic evidence that they had been destroyed. Despite being questioned, Dr. Jayalal has adopted a silent approach ove this matter.

Dr. Jayalal was appointed to this director position during the time Dr. Athula Kahandaliyanage was secretary to the health ministry. Since his resignation from the health ministry, Dr. Kahandaliyanage serves, as a consultant, Fonterra company that had been accused of importing milk powder containing DCD and melamine.

He receives a monthly salary of Rs. 750,000 and out of that, he gives Dr. Jayalal a sum of Rs. 500,000, according to very reliable sources. From that, Dr. Jayalal pays three senior journalists – two men and one woman – Rs. 100,000 each, according to the sources. Although we do know the identities of these journalists, we will not reveal them for the time being.

We also have details of how Fonterra’s former human resources chief Roshan Kulasuriya had balanced the Sri Lankan media during the DCD and melamine controversy. On behalf of the Sri Lankan consumers, we kindly request that the fate of those milk powder stocks containing DCD and melamine be revealed without delay.

China begins trial of Ilham

Tohti

Uighur scholar, respected internationally for constructive views on country’s ethnic tensions, is accused of fomenting separatism

Ilham Tohti, a scholar of China’s Turkic Uighur ethnic minority, pictured in 2013.Photograph: Andy Wong/AP

Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing-Wednesday 17 September 2014

Chinese authorities began trying the Uighur academic Ilham Tohti on charges of “separatism” on Wednesday morning, in what human rights groups have called a “travesty of justice” that underscores the government’s unwillingness to field even moderate criticisms of its ethnic policies.

China Begins Trial of Ilham Tohti by Thavam

Abracadabra In China

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“What they wish to be, they believe is true.”

Carl Sagan (The Demon–Haunted World)

( September 18, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka is to get her first Formula One track. The Chinese will build it, in the soon-to-be-constructed artificial landmass, Colombo Port City.

Motor racing is a particular passion of Namal, Yoshitha and Rohitha Rajapaksa. In a few years, the presidential offspring will be able to glory in their very own Formula One track, thanks to Chinese generosity.

Abracadabra in China by Thavam

Indian media: Modi's 'personal touch' to improve China ties

Mr Xi (left) wore a traditional Indian jacket gifted to him by Mr Modi (right) on Wednesday

18 September 2014

Media are praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "personal touch" to India's diplomacy with China.

Mr Modi welcomed visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping in his home state of Gujarat on Wednesday.

Mr Xi is visiting Delhi on Thursday for more serious talks on trade and border disputes amid hectic diplomatic activities.

But the "bonhomie" that the two leaders shared in Gujarat is making headlines both in Indian newspapers and on TV channels.

Mr Modi gave the Chinese president a personal tour of freedom leader Mahatma Gandhi's house in Ahmedabad city.

"Mr Xi took a trip down the annals of history with Mr Modi playing guide. Mr Modi stopped frequently and explained to Mr Xi the various facets of Gandhian thought and historical significance. The duo seemed more like friends on a leisurely walk around the campus," says The Times of India.

The two leaders also took a brief walk along the banks of Sabarmati river.

"The Chinese leader taken around by Mr Modi who played the perfect host, packed a lot - business, history and culture - in his six-hour whistle-stop tour of Gujarat's commercial capital, where giant billboards in Chinese, Gujarati and English greeted him," says the Hindustan Times.

And the papers see this "personal bonding" between the two leaders as a good omen for solving border disputes to improve bilateral ties.

"The ease and bonhomie in interaction between the two leaders are expected to help the two grapple with the more serious issues bedevilling relations between India and China, during talks in New Delhi on Thursday," says the financial website Mint.

The two countries disagree over the demarcation of several Himalayan border areas and fought a brief war in 1962. Tensions over the issue still flare up from time to time.

Even Mr Xi's visit comes amid reports in the Indian media of a new face-off on the border.

The reports said Indian troops had spotted their Chinese counterparts trying to construct a temporary road into Indian territory across the Line of Actual Control (the de facto boundary) in the Ladakh region.

Asian Games

Meanwhile, Tibetan exiles on Wednesday protested in Ahmedabad and Delhi against the visit.

Police said 82 protesters, including a "well-known" face of the Tibetan protest Tenzin Tsundue, have been detained, The Times of Indiareported.

Tibetan leader Lobsang Sangay has urged the Indian government to discuss the Tibet issue with China, the Hindustan Times reports.

And finally, papers feel that India have a real chance of winning medals in shooting, badminton, wrestling and archery at the 17th Asian Games scheduled to start on Friday in Incheon, South Korea.

"India are hoping to match or better the 65 medals, including 14 gold, they won in the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010," says the Hindustan Times.

BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. For more reports from BBC Monitoring, click here. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.

A closing of ranks of the powerful rather than ‘a coalition against terror’

September 17, 2014

UNITED STATES, Washington : US President Barack Obama meets with Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State organization(IS) General John Allen at the White House in Washington, DC, September 16, 2014. AFP

Accordingly, we are not having a ‘Clash of Civilizations’ of any kind because we are not seeing whole populations violently confronting each other on the military or ideological planes. The vast majority of the adherents of the world’s faiths seek to coexist peacefully with other religious communities, barring a few who abuse their faiths. The latter are accountable for the manic violence which is being unleashed in the name of religion.

A Closing of Ranks of the Powerful Rather Than ‘a Coalition Against Terror by Thavam

Is this the world’s most radical president?

Uruguay’s José Mujica lives in a tiny house rather than the presidential palace, and gives away 90% of his salary. He’s legalised marijuana and gay marriage. But his greatest legacy is governing without giving up his revolutionary ideals

Giles Tremlett-Thursday 18 September 2014 

Emo Mannise was just 16 when he met Uruguay’s current president, José Mujica. On a spring day in 1969, Mannise was at home alone with his sister, Beatriz, when the future president burst out of the lift outside their penthouse in Montevideo with a pistol in his hand. “Turn around, shut your mouth and keep your hands above your head!” he barked. Mannise immediately recognised the pinched eyes and thick, wavy brown hair of one of the most notorious members of the daring, violent Tupamaro guerrillas. After his initial sense of panic subsided, he recalled, he felt strangely calm.
Is This the World’s Most Radical President by Thavam

The Chocolate King Comes to Chocolate City

The Ukrainian leader addresses Congress and Obama, asking hat in hand for help for his beleaguered nation.

• BY JAMILA TRINDLE-SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is coming to Washington Thursday, seeking support and financial backing in his ongoing battle with Russia over whether his country's political and economic future lies with Moscow or the rest of Europe.

The Chocolate King Comes to Chocolate City by Thavam

Pakistani embraced by Islamic State seeks to drop U.S. legal appeal

An Aafia Siddiqui supporter carries silk roses next to a poster during a celebration to mark Siddiqui's 41st birthday in Karachi March 2, 2014.

BY DAVID INGRAM-Thu Sep 18, 2014

(Reuters) - A Pakistan-born neuroscientist has become a rallying cry for militant groups demanding her release from a U.S. prison. But in a little-noticed move she is trying to abandon her legal fight for freedom, saying the U.S. court system is unjust.

Pakistani Embraced by Islamic State Seeks to Drop U.S. Legal Appeal by Thavam

Scottish independence: voters turn out for Scotland's historic referendum - live

Rolling coverage throughout the day as Scotland votes to decide whether to stay part of the United Kingdom

• Read the latest summary
• Final poll puts yes on 47% and no on 53%
• Andy Murray: ‘Let’s do this!’
• Are the Scots independent yet?
• Share your photos and stories via GuardianWitness

Claire Phipps and Paul Owen in Edinburgh, and Richard Adams in London-Thursday 18 September 2014 

Voters walk past campaign posters outside a polling station in Edinburgh. Photograph: Leon Neal /AFP/Getty Images

David Cameron and Alex Salmond. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images

And as we covered a little earlier, the pound has also rallied in the currency markets.

It hit a two-year high against the euro of €1.273 this afternoon, and a two-week high against the US dollar, after a volatile couple of weeks:

This chart shows the pound vs US dollar this month Photograph: Thomson Reuters

Economist Sean Richards remarks:

Full Story>>>

South China Sea spat deflects attention from Vietnam’s real issues

Vietnamese protest outside the Chinese Embassy in May. Pic: AP.

By Joe Buckley-By Asian Correspondent Sep 18, 2014

Ask anyone, anywhere in the world, what the most important Vietnam-related issue has been over the past few months, and I bet that lots of them will say the South China Sea dispute. In May, China put an oil rig in disputed waters. Vietnam didn’t like that, so it all kicked off. Things seem to have calmed down a bit now, although recent reports suggest that tensions may well flare up again.

For a few months everyone went wild about it. In general, international observers either decried Chinese imperialism, appealed for calm, said it would have a negative impact on business, or laughed at the silly Commies. In Vietnam, the issue became a prominent part of many social and cultural spaces. Various government departments and spokespeople made constant reference to the tensions; state-owned publishers started rapidly churning out new books to ‘prove’ that the South China Sea islands belong to Vietnam; ubiquitous posters and billboards announced the same; and Facebook profile pictures, and a popular T-shirt design, declared Hướng Về Biển Đông (Aim towards the South China Sea). Even Bill Hayton, formerly the BBC’s Vietnam correspondent, until he was kicked out and banned from the country in 2007 for upsetting the government, was published in the state-owned press withan article supporting Vietnam.

(MORE: China rig finds gas after Vietnam sea standoff)

Perhaps now it’s time to move on. A constant, manic focus on it is really unhelpful. Of course, it’s a bit interesting and a bit worrying, but there’s been tension and cooperation between Vietnam and China for decades, so recent events aren’t amazingly unusual or scary when seen within that context. China is one of Vietnam’s main trading partners and allies. The main nationalist epic poem of Vietnam, Truyện Kiều (The Tale of Kieu) was originally written in Chinese characters, and some of the most common words in Vietnamese are unproblematically derived from Chinese.

Given this complexity, it seems that presenting China-Vietnam tensions as a simple patriotic narrative works as a useful distraction tool for the Vietnamese government. Perhaps it’s not a conscious, cynical manipulation on their part, but it certainly plays into their hands, as it’s been the perfect excuse to foster nationalism, and, more importantly, to distract attention away from the government’s own behaviour domestically.

And there’s a lot that’s been going on recently. For example, in June, the Law of Marriage and the Family was expected to be redrafted to include rights for same-sex couples. In a shock move, all the proposed revisions were removed at the last minute and replaced by a line declaring that Vietnam doesn’t recognise the rights of gay couples. Over the past few months, the local Saigon council has been passing more and more legislation to destroy the livelihoods of street sellers, which led to a big protest in the city’s major tourist area in July.

More recently, Do Thi Minh Hanh, an independent labour activist released from prison in June, was detained again, and had her passport taken away. Just a couple of weeks ago, the independent journalist Truong Minh Duc was brutally beaten up by state agents. A few days ago, hundreds of drug addicts escaped from a rehabilitation centre in northern Vietnam. Many newspapers decried the escapees as crazed, violent druggies, but by all accounts conditions in these centres are terrible, tantamount to forced labour camps. And eye witnesses, all over Facebook, reported that the escapees weren’t violent at all.

(MORE: Police brutality pervasive in Vietnam, says HRW)

But it’s not all negative news in Vietnam – Parliament has started to investigate police torturefor the first time ever, the minimum wage will be increased, and a dissident writer, Nguyen Xuan Nghia, has just been released from prison, vowing to continue his work.

And yet, because of people’s continued obsession with what’s going on in the sea, these events have passed largely unnoticed. Despite how Western states, or indeed the Vietnamese government, try to present it, Vietnam is not a simple little one dimensional place. We have to stop having such a narrow focus. Domestically, it helps to foster nationalism and patriotism, distracting attention away from the government’s behaviour. Internationally, when people’s entire focus is on China and Vietnam relations, observers stop looking inside Vietnam’s borders at the very complicated and urgent issues that are occurring here. In order to find out what is really going on in Vietnam at the moment, we all need to shut up about the South China Sea, and quickly.

How your brain actually makes decisions while you sleep

By Thomas Andrillon September 17 at 12:31 PM

Thomas Andrillon is a PhD Student at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris.

An illustration of awake and asleep. (Courtesy of Michael Halassa, M.D., PhD

The idea that during sleep our minds shut down from the outside world is ancient and one that is still deeply anchored in our view of sleep today, despite some everyday life experiences and recent scientific discoveries that would tend to prove that our brains don’t completely switch off from our environment.
How Your Brain Actually Makes Decisions While You Sleep by Thavam

UK volunteers step forward in the desperate battle against Ebola 

Tom Clarke on Science

Wednesday 17 Sep 2014

It’s an inch-high, rubber-topped vial just like any other used to store vaccines. But printed in tiny letters on the side of this one are words never associated with a vaccine before: “Ebola cAd3 [Zaire]”

I just witnessed a doctor withdraw a minute dose and inject the first human volunteer in the UK with a dose of this as-yet untested Ebola vaccine.

Just 60 individuals will get the jab in the initial safety trial in Oxford but, unusually for the painstakingly slow process of vaccine development, 10,000 doses are already being made.

The Ebola emergency in West Africa is now so desperate researchers are gambling that their trial will show the vaccine is safe and effective and that, if it is, they will have suitable vaccine standing by to deploy in the field.

With the spread of Ebola now out of control in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the vaccine is probably the only hope for eventually stopping the outbreak.

“We’ve done over 100 vaccine trials in this unit over the years and typically if we get started in 6 months we’re doing very well” said Professor Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford. “This time that’s all happened in four weeks.”

Thirty minutes later I catch up with the volunteer Ruth Atkins who, on a normal day works as a communications manager for the NHS. “I feel fine,”  she said.

“My 15-year-old son thought it was Ebola I was being given and asked if I was going to die and where is my will and how much is he going to get,” said Atkins. “But since then I’ve been very much reassured it’s not Ebola I am getting.”

The vaccine is one of two that had been developed experimentally against Ebola in recent years – but never tested in humans.

It contains a small fragment of DNA copied synthetically from the “Zaire” strain of Ebola that has now infected nearly 5000 people and killed at least 2,453 across west Africa.

The Ebola DNA has been combined with a weakened version of the common cold virus which will smuggle the DNA into the recipients’ cells hopefully triggering an immune response to the Ebola virus with no risk of actually contracting the disease.

It experiments in monkeys it gave 100 per cent immunity against Ebola virus disease. “But we need to prove that it works as well in humans,” said Hill.

A parallel trial in the US is also testing the same vaccine and another candidate designed to target both the Zaire and Sudan Ebola strains.

If the first few volunteers in the Oxford trial respond well to the vaccine, further trials in 40 or so volunteers will begin Gambia and Mali within a few weeks.

These are needed to insure the vaccine behaves the same way in the slightly different genetic background of west Africans.

Even so, the parallel trials need to prove the vaccine isn’t just safe, but effective at proving immunity against Ebola in people who live in west Africa. That will take months.

So the vaccine will come too late for the many hundreds of people being newly infected with Ebola each week in west Africa.

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