Australian National Kumar Gunarathnam to Contest Presidential Election

10/10/2014 

The JVP breakaway group, the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) says that its leader-in-Exile  Kumar Gunarathnam will  contest  in the upcoming Presidential Election. Mr. Gunarathnam is now a Australian national.

He was allegedly abducted in 2011. The Australian embassy in Colombo intervened to get him released and re-join his family in Australia. He has now changed his name has entered the country for  first time since his alleged  abduction. His opponent charged him for stage managing the abduction and on the pay role of the government. FSP has rejected the allegation.

Related  news item published by the FSP web site:

”The Frontline Socialist party disclosed that they are preparing to put forward a common  leftist candidate on forthcoming presidential election. Upon on request ,  Mr Pubudu Jayagoda the secretary to the party propaganda said that,    ” already we had discussions with few leftist parties and have to discuss with several other parties in near future on this matter.” He further explained that there is a recent proposal being discussed within the party central committee suggesting Mr Gunarathnam should be the presidential candidate  for the election.

Speaking on this issue  another party politburo member  Duminda Nagamuwa said that due to the governments’  suppressed tactics Kumar Gunarathnam had to live in exile since his abduction on 2011.  He also adds that  ” elections of this country means a war of  two companies.  The company spends more, and who cheats the people  most  always win. This is what normally happens. But we think, we should use this event,  in order to convey the leftist ideology to the society.  We try  to fill this gap by representing a presidential candidate on this occasion. ”

Gunaratnam aka Mudalige -cannot stand for president

by Shamindra Ferdinando-October 9, 2014

Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) leader Kumar Gunaratnam couldn’t even contest a Pradeshiya Sabha election let alone stand for president because he was an Australian citizen, authoritative sources said in response to speculation that he would come here to contest the next presidential election.

As Gunaratnam had obtained an Australian passport (N 1016123) bearing the name, Noel Mudalige, he had lost the right to exercise franchise at an election here, sources said.

The FSP recently claimed that some left-oriented political groups had requested the party to field Gunaratnam/Mudalige at the forthcoming presidential poll.

The breakaway JVP faction said that it intended to clear the way for its Australia-based leader to return to the country soon.

Gunaratnam/Mudalige’s elder brother, Ranjitham was killed during counter-insurgency operations against the JVP during the then President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s administration.

Former Australian High Commissioner in Colombo Robyn Mudie happened to reveal FSP leader’s new identity in a letter sent in early April 2012 to the External Affairs Ministry following the Australian national’s alleged disappearance after secretly returning on September 4, 2011.

Ms Mudie made the revelation in the wake of Gunaratnam being appointed as the top man in the 18-member Central Committee of the newly formed party, which is yet to secure recognition from the Election Secretariat.

The other of the FSP Central Committee are, Senadeera Gunatilleke, Dimuthu Attygalle, G. Kularatne, Champika Sudasinghe, Shantha Wijesinghe, Pubudu Jagoda, Chameera Koswatte, Duminda Nagamuwa, Ravindra Mudalige, S. K. Subasinghe, Sunil Jayaratne, Sujith Kuruwita, Jude Silvapulle, Indrananda de Siilva, Samansiri Fernando, Indika Weerakoon and Jaminda Siriwardene.

Political sources alleged that the FSP was making a desperate bid to gain some political mileage. Kumar Gunaratnam had ceased to exits the day Australia had issued a new passport bearing a Sinhalese identity, therefore the ongoing bid to promote him as a candidate at the next presidential was surprising, sources said. Responding to a query, sources asserted that the FSP could use the next presidential poll to expand its influence at the expense of the JVP, which was also contemplating on fielding a candidate, though its first priority was to prevent incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa seeking a third term on legal grounds.

Scathing attacks by Sajin, Kshenuka on Nonis!

 

Friday, 10 October 2014  

Category: Exclusive

The Sajin-Kshenuka couple is going after Dr. Chris Nonis, who lost his position as the Sri Lanka high commissioner in the UK, with scathing attacks, internal sources as external affairs ministry told Lanka News Web. We previously reported that a fax message by the ministry had been received by the high commission in London on the afternoon of October 03, telling Dr. Nonis that the government had accepted his resignation and that he should relinquish his duties.

Later, on October 06, when Dr. Nonis had gone to the high commission, Sajin-Kshenuka couple had sent a diplomat by the name Chamari Rodrigo, to meet him. By that time, on the advice of Sajin Vaas, ministry secretary Kshenuka Seneviratne had appointed, by letter, Rodrigo as the acting high commissioner.

In the morning of that day, Kshenuka had called her and ordered her to obtain custody of the official vehicle and the driver, of Dr. Nonis as soon as he arrives and also to obtain the key to his room in the course of the day itself. Rodrigo had been severely inconvenienced by this order because she has had a good rapport with Dr. Nonis when he was the high commissioner.

Anyhow, as soon as Dr. Nonis arrived, Rodrigo had gone to him and asked that the keys to the official vehicle and the room be returned by the day. Surprised by that demand, Dr. Nonis had politely asked that he be allowed to take his leave with dignity. Without heeding the request, she had implemented to the letter the orders she had received from Colombo.

Kshenuka had telephoned Rodrigo every hour and was informed of what had taken place. Kshenuka has also told her to get high commission staff to sign a petition to claim that Dr. Nonis had treated them in an inhuman manner. Presently, Rodrigo is in the process of collecting signatures to that petition. Several employees of the high commission told LNW that they had signed it because they feared they would lose their jobs if they did not sign. They also said this would be a good lesson to other diplomats as well as to persons like Chris Nonis who had unashamedly campaigned for the murderous regime.

The petition being prepared against Dr. Nonis is expected to be submitted at the inquiry against him ordered by the presient, say the sources at the external affairs ministry.

The Sajin-Kshenuka unholy couple has incited the president to accept the resignation of Dr. Nonis, by telling him that he had tried to get the Pope’s visit to Sri Lanka cancelled and to prevent the president’s trip to Rome. They have also accused him of having told websites operating from London soon after arriving there about the incident of the attack.

An activist of the SLFP branch in the UK told LNW that Dr. Nonis had attended a Bandaranaike commemoration function at London Buddhist Vihara two days after the attack, and had not hinted that such an incident had taken place. The SLFP activist said he did not believe it when the media reported the incident, as Dr. Nonis had not at least given a hint at the ceremony that he had been attacked.

Even after being attacked, he had behaved like a real gentleman, and this again proves the gospel truth that the Rajapaksa regime has a place only for vagabonds like Sajin Vaas, and not gentlemen like Dr. Nonis.

At the annual convention of the ruling Conservative Party, British minister of state at the foreign and commonwealth office Hugo Swire has told Dr. Nonis in front of a group of Sri Lankans. “Chris, do you understand now why we are exerting such pressure internationally against the government of your country?” The Sri Lankans present eagerly awaited the reply by Dr. Nonis, but were disappointed to see him leave the British minister with downcast eyes without replying him.

A modern consciousness?

 October 10, 2014

‘The Urban Wetland Park is hereby vested in the citizens of Sri Lanka by His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, and would remain a lasting testament to the glorious vision contained in the ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’ of ushering in modernity to the State, sound health to the nation and picturesqueness to the environment, while bringing more lustre and grandeur to the renowned city of Nugedoda – Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Secretary, Ministry of Defence and Urban Development on this 12th day of January 2013.

A Modern Consciousness by Thavam

Rajani Kanth, Tamil Nadu And BJP

By S. Sivathasan -October 10, 2014

S. Sivathasan

Sea Change

Power is going a begging in Tamil Nadu with none to seize or to hold. Even as the political persona of the nation is being changed from Delhi, states have to move apace for their benefit and the good of India. A happening more dramatic for the nation is the welcome cataclysm in the economic front. Disinvestment at $10 billion, Japan’s pledge of aid at $ 30 billion, China’s at $ 20 billion and committed investments of $ 42 billion from US, indicate features of initial trends. To make way for developments in the offing, decks are being cleared of medieval lumber; legal and administrative. These are being done with great foresight, dynamism and persistence. Are states fully aware of the sea change that has started sweeping across a large nation? Are they gearing themselves for the challenges that are unprecedented? Is Tamil Nadu measuring up to a situation not of its own making but of Modi’s and of the new BJP government? Is Tamil Nadu political leadership sensitive about losing out if not properly oriented well in time?                                 Read More               

Jayalalithaa – Vass – Nonis; Invisible Hands In The Judiciary

By Vishwamithra1984 -October 10, 2014

Robust And Independent Judiciary – Invisible Hand In Jayalalithaa’s Conviction

“The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing”. ~Caroline Kennedy

Extremists of both corners of the political spectrum, in India as well as in Sri Lanka, must still be celebrating the conviction of Jayalalithaa, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu State in southern India. Jayalalithaa, while in power managed to rouse the base instincts of both Tamils in India and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. But moderates in the two neighboring nations must be equally enamored by the sheer audacity of a robust, vigorous and independent Judiciary without which no country, especially a democratic republic, could advance the cause of freedom, freedom of choice and liberty for all people.

Jayalalithaa

The politics of Jayalalithaa in particular and Tamil Nadu in general, has never been acceptable to the great majority in Sri Lanka. This is true whether one is Sinhalese, Tamil or Muslim. Utterly partisan and polarizing both in substance and execution of politicking, Tamil Nadu, the southernmost State in India has been a thorn in Sri Lanka’s politics since the early years of Ceylon’s nationhood in centuries after the Christian Era began and the battles and wars fought between Lanka and the Cholas and Pandyans of South India. History apart, the animosities, rivalries and plain emotions of enmity and hatred between a subject people, the Sinhalese and invading armies of a foreign country, South India, have contributed to a sense of suspicion between the two peoples, reaching a crescendo in 2009 in the total annihilation of a militant arm of the Tamils in the North led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) whose main foreign backer was the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in the State of Tamil Nadu in India. The mutual dependence that developed between the local Tamils and the State of Tamil Nadu ultimately worked for their mutual disadvantage, both politically and socially.Read More

On Nobel Eve, Ban Ki-moon Chances Weighed After Sri Lanka, Haiti Cholera

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 9 -- Ban Ki-moon is said to be lobbying to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as UN Secretary General. Book-makers have put odds on his chances, lower than the Pope or Malala or perhaps most deserving, MSF / Doctors Without Borders. 

  But digging deeper, sources close to Ban tell Inner City Press it is another of its advisers, Terje Roed-Larsen, who has “promised Ban a Nobel” or consideration for it, if not this year then before his tenure ends.

If Ban receives it, it will not be based on having made peace, but rather for work on climate change, or perhaps what are called the “post-2015 development goals.”

On the positive side, Ban has linked himself and the UN with combating climate change. During the recently concluded UN General Debate, while most leaders focused on the threats to peace and security posed by Islamic State, or the situation in Eastern Ukraine or the failed or reversed Arab Spring, Ban convened a Climate Change Summit.

Ban also marched, the Sunday before “his” Summit, in thePeople's Climate March in Manhattan, along with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, former US Vice President Al Gore, and movie actor Leonardo DiCaprio. All of them called him a leader.

  In terms of mediating disputes and being an impartial voice in favor of peace, however, Ban has been less successful. His inaction or worse during the slaughter of tens of thousands of Tamils in Sri Lanka in 2009 should, many feel, disqualify him. So too his evasion of responsibility for the UN bringing cholera to Haiti, most recently through his Associate Spokesperson on October 9,video here.

Ban is so closely aligned with US foreign policy that few see him as a mediator. In Ukraine, for example, his statements neatly tracked those of Washington and Brussels, and therefore Russia never accepted him as a mediator.

In Syria, too, Ban stopped talking to Bashar Assad, which might be a position of principle but is not really want the Nobel Peace Prize is about, which is talking with the Devil if necessary in the search for peace. 

  This week Ban has called for military action by anyone able -- that would be the US or Turkey -- to defending the Kurdish town of Kobane in Syria. But for example in 2009 in Sri Lanka, he did little to nothing to stop the government from killing thousands of civilians while it sought to “finish” the Tamil Tiger group. Under Ban, protection of civilians is selective -- as are answers.

Ban has allowed “his” chief of UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, to openly refuse to answer the questions of particular media, and even to block the Press' camera, on topics ranging from rapes by the UN's partners in the DR Congo to why peacekeepers were ordered to surrender to the Al Nusra Front in the Golan Heights, and covered up attacks on civilians in Darfur. 

  On Ladsous and much else, some say it's not so much Ban as some of his advisers and partners, like the UN's Censorship Alliance. They give a false sense of reality.

  If Ban had succeeded in bringing North and South Korea closer during his tenure, that might merit a Nobel Prize. But as a former South Korea foreign minister, he is viewed as too one sided, and as possibly interested in returning to South Korea to run for office, whether or not that happens. Who might be promising him that? And what do the Nobel advisers advice on how to deal with Haiti cholera, if not Sri Lanka, at this point? Watch this site.

Blood ivory on Sri Lanka’s hands

Elephants protected in a Sri Lankan national park. Source: Supplied

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Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.Source: AP

ROBIN PAGNAMENTA-OCTOBER 11, 2014

The Australian

SRI Lanka has been urged to ­destroy a huge stockpile of blood ivory seized more than two years ago, amid fears the President intends to place it under his control.

Conservationists have written to Mahinda Rajapaksa demanding that the 359 elephant tusks, worth about $2.6 million and originally poached in Tanzania, be publicly burnt to demonstrate Sri Lanka’s opposition to the global ivory trade.

The haul had been in transit from Kenya to Dubai.

Seven months after the seizure, Mr Rajapaksa’s office tried to have the ivory transferred to his personal control.

In a letter to the director general of Sri Lanka’s Customs department, his chief of staff wrote: “I shall be thankful if you could kindly get the tusks ­released to the Presidential Secretariat as early as possible.”

The letter said the tusks would be donated to a Buddhist temple, Sri Dalada Maligawa.

After an outcry, the transfer, which experts say would have been a clear violation of UN laws on wildlife trade, did not happen.

In their letter, the team of Sri Lankan conservationists, allied to the Bill Clinton-led Clinton Global Initiative, said: “We call upon you to demonstrate your sincere commitment by publicly burning the stock of blood ivory, as has been done by many other countries with a similar commitment to stop the brutal practice of killing elephants.”

The letter was co-signed by the Federation of Environmental Organisations of Sri Lanka and the CGI. Blood ivory is the term used to describe ivory taken from animals killed for their tusks.

Leslie Gamini, a spokesman for Sri Lanka’s Customs, confirmed that the tusks, which DNA analysis showed were poached in Tanzania, remained in its custody. “We have not ­decided what to do with them and nobody has given the order to ­destroy them,” he said.

Shruti Suresh, a campaigner at the Environmental Investi­gation Agency in London, said the only legal use for the tusks under UN law would be in scientific research or education.

Donating them to a temple for religious purposes would be a breach of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to which Sri Lanka is a signatory, she said.

The WWF says the Sri Lankan elephant population has fallen almost 65 per cent since the turn of the 19th century but the country’s elephant is now protected under law and killing one carries the death penalty.

Jayalalithaa moves Supreme Court for bail

AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa on Thursday petitioned the Supreme Court seeking bail in the disproportionate wealth case. File photo: M. Prabhu

SRUTHISAGAR YAMUNAN

KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL

 October 10, 2014

Thirteen days after entering the Parappana Agrahara prison in Bangalore, three-time former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the October 7 Karnataka High Court order refusing to suspend the execution of her sentence and grant bail in a disproportionate assets case.

Ms. Jayalalithaa, who was Tamil Nadu Chief Minister at the time of her conviction, was sentenced to four years’ simple imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of Rs. 100 crore for offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Her co-accused — Sasikala Natarajan, V. Sudhakaran and J. Elavarasi — were sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 10 crore each.

The special leave petition was filed by her legal team in the Supreme Court Registry during the evening after hectic preparations which went on through the day.

Lawyers of Ms. Jayalalithaa said the petition sought relief from incarceration on the grounds that she is a woman, 66-years old and suffering from ailments.

AIADMK sources said the petition contended that the Karnataka High Court would take the next four years to finally decide her pending appeal, during which she would have to suffer in prison. Once an appeal was admitted, granting of bail and suspension of sentence followed naturally.

'Bail is the norm'

Ms. Jayalalithaa’s lawyers said the special leave petition they had moved in the Supreme Court contended that she had been sentenced to a term of ‘simple’ and not ‘rigorous’ imprisonment, and in such cases grant of bail was the norm. It argued that bail was the rule and this relief could only be denied in exceptional circumstances, of which there was none in the present case.

The High Court had termed corruption as a violation of human rights quoting the 2012 Supreme Court judgment in the State of Maharashtra through CBI versus Balakrishna Dattatrya Kumbhar.

However, Ms. Jayalalithaa’s lawyers are likely to plead that this verdict quoted by the Karnataka High Court was delivered in a matter seeking stay on conviction. In the current plea, only suspension of execution of sentence was sought.

Ms. Jayalalithaa’s legal team would be pushing for an early hearing.

The Karnataka High Court had dismissed Ms. Jayalalithaa’s contentions that she should be granted bail on the ground that the accused had no past record of misusing her liberty to hamper proceedings in the case.

Rejecting arguments by Mr. Jethmalani that Ms. Jayalalithaa was “entitled” to bail, the court had observed that suspension of sentence and bail prescribed under Section 389 Cr.PC rested entirely on the discretion of the Appellate Court. It said the relief under the provision could not be equated to grant of bail during the pre-trial stage.

“The word ‘may’ used in Section 389 Cr.PC does not say that it is an absolute right of the accused to seek suspension of sentence,” the High Court order had read.

Hackers threaten to leak thousands of Snapchat photos

FRIDAY 10 OCTOBER 2014

At least 100,000 private Snapchat photos are believed to have been accessed by hackers - using a third-party service that saves images - who are threatening to release them onto the web.

Photo: blurred screenshot of images hackers say they have intercepted, from 4Chan (publisbed in IBTimes and Business Insider)

The hackers said they had been intercepting and storing private photos sent via a third-party Snapchat client for years, and were now preparing to release them online onto a searchable database.

The images include naked photos and are likely to include images of under-18s, given Snapchat's user base: half are aged between 13 and 17.

The mass hack, which is being called the Snappening, comes just weeks after hundreds of naked celebrity photos were leaked after an iCloud hack.

Posting on the website 4Chan, the hackers had reportedly been hinting about a leak for weeks, and announced it late on Thursday. A blurry screengrab of what is believed to have been the database, was released online as proof.

The hackers have claimed that the database will be searchable by Snapchat ID of the person who sent the photos. It was hosted on viralpop.com, Business Insider reported, and the site has now been suspended and taken down, but thousands have reportedly downloaded the images in the mean time.

Snapchat allows users to send photos that delete after a certain amount of time designated by the sender, on their phone or mobile device. But some apps or websites allow the person who receives the photos to save the image for a repeated viewing. It has been reported here that SnapSaved.com was hacked, while other news outlets have suggested it may have been the SnapSave app.

"We can confirm that Snapchat's servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks," Snapchat said in a statement reported on Gigaom.

"Snapchatters were victimised by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our Terms of Use precisely because they compromise our users' security. We vigilantly monitor the App Store and Google Play for illegal third-party apps and have succeeded in getting many of these removed."

Snapchat has more than 30m users who collectively send around 700m photos and videos a day.

Snapchat        ✔ @Snapchat

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We can confirm that Snapchat’s servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks.

10:15 AM - 10 Oct 2014

Snapchat        ✔ @Snapchat

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Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our ToU.

10:16 AM - 10 Oct 2014

How to Destroy the International Criminal Court From Within

Kenya's president is charged with inciting ethnic violence that killed thousands. He's about to talk his way out of it like it's a parking ticket.

• BY DAVID BOSCO-OCTOBER 10, 2014

Uhuru Kenyatta, the president of Kenya, arrived at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Oct. 9, smiling broadly. Making his way through a phalanx of media, he greeted chanting well-wishers. But the almost festive atmosphere belied the purpose of the visit: Kenyatta was there for a status hearing, where he discussed with judges charges that he helped incite Kenya's spasm of post-election violence in late 2007.
How to Destroy the International Criminal Court From Within by Thavam