A fire had broken out at the Mattegoda army camp following an explosion in the armoury, Army Spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya told Ada Derana. He added that the explosion took place at approximately 7.30am today and the cause behind the explosion is yet to be ascertained.
No causalities are reported from the blast and the subsequent fire. The fire brigade has been dispatched to douse the fire.
The Media Spokesman of the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya speaking to www.news.lk has said that the the fire broke out at the Mattegoda army camp following an explosion in the armoury has been doused and completely under control. An explosion was reported in the armory around 7.30 am this morning and the fire that broke out as a result had been doused with the assistance of the army and the fire brigades at Kotte and Dehiwala Municipal Councils the Spokesman further added.
(Reuters) - The Palestinians have drafted a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an end to Israeli occupation by November 2016, which they have shared informally with Arab states and some council members, U.N. diplomats said on Wednesday.
The text has not been formally circulated to the full 15-nation Security Council, a move that can only be done by a council member, said the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity. As a result, it remains unclear when, and if, it will be put to a vote.
It calls for "the full withdrawal of Israel ... from all of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, as rapidly as possible and to be fully completed within a specified timeframe, not to exceed November 2016."
The draft, which was obtained by Reuters, is likely to be met with opposition from veto-wielding member the United States, a key ally of Israel.
"We are aware of President Abbas' plan and we continue to believe, to strongly believe, that the only way to a negotiated solution is through negotiations between the two parties," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told reporters on Tuesday.
Israel accepts the idea of a "two-state solution" of an independent and democratic Palestinian state living alongside Israel, but has not accepted the 1967 borders as the basis for final negotiations, citing security and other concerns.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday there was no value in peace talks with Israel unless the goal is ending its 47-year occupation within a "firm timetable."
In the same speech, Abbas also accused Israel of genocide during the 50-day conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, which ended in late August with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. Hamas controls Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted angrily during his U.N. address on Monday, describing the allegations as "shameless." He expressed his support for a "historic compromise" with the Palestinians, but offered no new details of what such a compromise would envisage.
IRAQ, - : A handout picture received from Britain’s Ministry of Defence on September 30, 2014 shows s screen shot of a strike on an Islamic State armed pick-up truck, using a Brimstone missile (circled in red by MoD before impact), in an undisclosed location in Iraq during an armed mission in support of Op Shader. British fighter jets bombed an artillery post and an armed truck used by the Islamic State group in Iraq in the Royal Air Force’s first strikes in the US-led air campaign.AFP
Pressure piles on Ankara as US-led onslaught drives extremists towards predominantly Kurdish town of KobaniA Syrian Kurdish refugee carries her belongings after crossing into Turkey from the Syrian border town of Kobani. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters
Thursday 2 October 2014
Islamic State (Isis) insurgents have tightened their grip on a Syrian border town, despite a flurry of coalition air strikes, sending thousands more Kurdish refugees into Turkey and dragging Ankara deeper into the conflict.
Kurdish militants warned that peace talks with the Turkish state would be halted if Islamist insurgents were allowed to carry out a massacre in the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani.
Isis fighters advanced to within a few miles of the town after taking control of hundreds of nearby villages in recent weeks. The extremists beheaded residents in an attempt to terrorise them into submission.
In neighbouring Iraq, the insurgents have carried out mass executions, abducted women and girls as sex slaves, and used children as fighters in violations that might amount to war crimes, the UN said.
By Thursday morning, the extremists had seized most of the western Iraqi town of Hit in Anbar province – where they control many surrounding towns – launching the assault with three suicide car bombs.
US-led forces, which have been bombing Isis targets in Syria and Iraq for the past week, hit a village near Kobani on Wednesday. Strikes were also reported further south overnight, according to Kurdish sources in the town. But the onslaught seemed to do little to stop the Islamists’ advance.
“We left because we realised it was only going to get worse,” said Leyla, 37, a Syrian arriving at the Yumurtalik border with her six children. For 10 days she had waited in a field for the clashes to subside. They did not. “We will go back tomorrow if Islamic State leaves,” she said. “I don’t want to be here; I had never even imagined Turkey in my dreams before this.”
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, said Isis militants were clashing with Kurdish fighters hundreds of metres from Kobani, raising fears they would enter the town “at any moment”.
About 20 explosions were heard overnight near the Tishrin dam and the town of Manbij, about 30 miles south of Kobani. The blasts were thought to have been coalition missile strikes, the Observatory said.
Asya Abdullah, a senior official in Syria’s dominant Kurdish political party, the Democratic Union party, said there had been clashes to the east, west and south of Kobani and that Isis had advanced on all fronts.
“If they want to prevent a massacre, the coalition must act much more comprehensively,” she said, adding that air strikes elsewhere in Syria had pushed Isis fighters towards the border town. “We’ve been fighting Isis with all our strength for 18 days to save Kobani. We will continue the resistance … It’s civilians who will die if Kobani falls. But we will protect them.”
Turkey’s parliament will vote on a motion on Thursday which would allow the government to authorise cross-border military incursions against Isis fighters in Syria and Iraq, and allow coalition forces to use Turkish territory.
The Turkish army said it would defend the tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman empire, in a Turkish enclave in northern Syria.
The swelling ranks of Hong Kong protesters demanding more of a say in their city's future have inspired wide admiration among Western observers for their peacefulness, their cleanliness, and their democratic aspirations. But among mainland Chinese, they are largely seen as "alarmist," "coerced," "exploited by political forces," or just plain "spoiled." In China, Shrugs and Sneers for Hong Kong Protesters by Thavam
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks at Madison Square Garden in New York, during his visit to the United States, September 28, 2014.
BY FRANK JACK DANIEL-Thu Oct 2, 2014
(Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not decided whether to appoint U.S.-based economist Arvind Subramanian as the government's chief economic adviser, a senior government source told Reuters, in a delay that may impact policy and budget preparations.
Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, was informally recommended to the post by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley more than a month ago but Modi still wants to discuss the appointment, the source said.
Jaitley was admitted to a private hospital in New Delhi on Sept. 1 for gastric bypass surgery to treat a long-standing diabetic condition. He was re-admitted to hospital last week and has yet to be discharged.
"It was still under consultation between the finance minister and the prime minister. Then the finance minister got sick," the source said.
Nationalist leader Modi has unleashed a slew of measures aimed at making India a more attractive place to do business, but has disappointed some backers who had hoped he would take more decisive action to promote a recovery.
Other senior advisory positions remain unfilled, including in the prime minister's office, leading some of Modi's reform-minded followers to worry about a lack of economic heavyweights in the administration.
The post of chief economic adviser is a high-profile position that was last filled by another internationally renowned academic long based in the United States, former International Monetary Fund chief economist Raghuram Rajan, who is now India's central bank governor.
Traditionally, the chief adviser is responsible for producing the annual Economic Survey - a document on the state of economy that underpins the drafting of the budget - and a mid-year economic update that is presented to parliament.
Jaitley's first full-year budget is due in February.
The government is also discussing whether to change the remit of the economic adviser to include wider responsibilities, another source said.
Last month, Modi closed the Planning Commission, a lingering vestige of India's early attempt to mimic the Soviet command economy. Now the government is considering whether to make the role of economic adviser part of an institution to replace the Planning Commission, the second source said.
"There is a consensus that we need economic advisers in the finance ministry and the government. The appointment of chief economic adviser is also linked to the restructured planning commission itself that could be manned by a few advisers," the second source said. He said a decision was imminent.
Subramanian was educated in India and Britain and went on to serve at the IMF and at the forerunner to the World Trade Organization, before taking senior academic posts at Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities in the United States.
Recently, he criticised the Indian government's decision to derail a WTO deal struck last year to streamline trade procedures by tying it to a separate controversy over food subsidies.
He also criticised Jaitley's maiden budget in July for being too optimistic in its revenue forecasts, saying it had failed to come clean on its fiscal accounting, and that it lacked timelines for passing crucial tax and subsidy reforms.
(Additional reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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British government ministers, diplomats, aid agencies and, reportedly, philanthropists, gather in London to pledge funds to the "race against time" to tackle the ongoing Ebola crisis in west Africa.
A demonstration was held outside the Fort Railway Station, Colombo, on the 29th of September to mark 200 days since Jeyakumary was unlawfully detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), and calling for her release and the release of all other political prisoners held without charges under the PTA:
Several senior members of opposition political parties and civil society were in attendance, including:
Gajen Ponnambalam – President, Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF)
Siritunga Jayasuriya – General Secretary, United Socialist Party (CWI in Sri Lanka)
M.A. Sumanthiran – MP, Tamil National Alliance (TNA)
Mano Ganesan – Leader, Democratic Peoples Front (Political Party)
Azath Salley – Leader, National Unity Front (NUF)
Members of Civil Society
Trade Unions leaders & members
Members of the Clergy
Civic conscious members of the general public
Members of the Media
There was also a small counter-demonstration by pro-Government supporters, who hurled abuse at the demonstrators, held up offensive cartoons targeting prominent members of Sri Lankan Civil Society, and distributed a leaflet framing Jeyakumary as supporting the revival of the LTTE
[Bringing ‘witnesses’ to Commission in Poonakri on 29 September 2014]
01/10/2014
‘Intelligence officers of the Sri Lankan military brought 7 people in their vehicle to witness in front of the Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP), which held its sessions in Poonakari on Monday the 29th. Two of these witnesses had already appeared in front of the PCICMP at Muzhangkaavil on the previous day. SL soldiers were deployed in civil uniform in large numbers at Poonakari Divisional Secretariat where the session was held. The few witnesses who were present at the site on their own were subjected to strict checking by the SL soldiers. Some of them were sent back by the Sri Lankan soldiers. Those who presented their cases said the Commission was a farce as its members were posing irrelevant questions and were not interested to listen to their complaints of the missing kith and kin.’ reports TamilNet,
The report further states :
Tamil journalists who were present at the site had spotted that the SL military had threatened people to witness against the LTTE. The SL soldiers were brining the people in military vehicle and were monitoring what they were telling the PCICMP. Two of the ‘witnesses’ told the journalists that they were under pressure from the Sri Lankan soldiers to witness against the LTTE.
Finally, when the journalists raised the issue of witnesses being prepared by the SLA, the Commissioners disqualified the witnesses.
The PCICMP commissioners were posing questions on whether the witnesses had received housing for their resettlement, whether they had enough cattle to sustain their livelihood.
The people who went to request the Commissioners to help them trace the whereabouts of their family members – most of them who were handed over by them to the SL military at Vadduvaakal and in Cheddi-ku’lam internment camp in Vavuniyaa – complained that they felt insulted by the questions posed by the PCICMP Commissioners at Poonakari. “I went there searching for my son. But, they were asking whether I was receiving dry rations,” a frustrated mother told TamilNet. “They were also asking whether the Tigers used us as human shields,” she said.
The Lawyers Collective has today condemned the killing of a suspect in police custody at Cinnamon Gardens while being taken handcuffed and the brutal attack on a girl at the Ratnapura Bus stand by a police officer in the view of the public.
IGP
Issuing a statement the Lawyers Collective said; “These two incidents are a continuation of the trend in recent times of unarmed persons being subject to attacks by the police in violation of all norms and in violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens.”
They said; “What is of grave concern is the impunity with which these blatant violations of the law is taking place without any intervention or at least a condemnation from the government or the authorities concerned in the enforcement of law and order and the protection of human rights.
“These incidents are not isolated incidents, but has come to pass as daily events in our country. We are faced with the serious question as to whether the Sri Lankan State is capable or not interested in the protection of the rights of the citizens of this country including the right to life. The BASL has intervened in numerous occasions in defence of the victims of these attacks by the police and/or other forces.
“We are fast moving towards the establishment of the police state and we call upon civil society organizations to join the BASL and other organizations that are committed to fight against this trend and committed to prevent the establishment of a police state.”
October 2, 2014
UNITED NATIONS
