Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Did govt. willfully allow LTTE proscription in EU to be lifted?

TUESDAY, 21 OCTOBER 2014

The support of the government has been received by ealamists to get the LTTE proscription in Europe say political sources. Ealamists filed a case requesting European Union to withdraw the LTTE proscription that had been imposed since 2006. Despite the prosecution presenting reasons for the withdrawal of the proscription, the government of Sri Lanka had not taken any measures to counter this on the day the case was heard. As a result the European Union, considering the submissions by one party, has withdrawn the prosecution.

The government did not use its diplomatic service efficiently to defeat the LTTE supporters’ attempt and according to political analysts at the moment the Sri Lankan diplomatic service has been taken over by court jesters.

Meanwhile, certain political analysts say the government intentionally did not defend itself. They point out statements by certain ministers indicate that the government willfully did not take measures to defend itself expecting to use ‘ealam terror’ to deceive the masses to get advantage at the forthcoming national elections.

After the JVP councilor Wasantha Samarasinghe revealed that the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kshenuka Seneviratna had LTTE connections several reports regarding the government – LTTE connections were published.

IUSF protest tear gassed

October 21, 2014

The Police Anti-riot Squad fired tear gas and water cannons on university students who staged a protest and attempted to proceed towards Parliament, a short while ago.

The Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) this afternoon commenced the protest from Nelum Pokuna to Parliament in protest against suppression of student activism and several other demands. Over 3000 students representing universities island-wide participated in the protest, shouting slogans and urging the State protect free education.

One track of the road from Parliament to Rajagiriya was closed off, creating traffic heavy jams around Rajagiriya, Baththaramulla and Borella areas.

As the protesting students reached the Parliament road, the police had used barricades to prevent them from proceeding any further, and later fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Sri Lanka: Protesting Fishers Too Attacked by Pro Govt Group

21/10/2014[Sri Lanka Fishers protest; File photo]

A tense situation arose, when 300 fishermen gathered to protest opposite of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Ministry at Maligawatte, Colombo, were pelted with stones and three injured fishermen were hospitalized, reports Ceylon Today.

The fishermen were also protesting against Chinese vessels fishing in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, All Island General Fisheries Federation President, Ratna Gamage had said the newspaper that “The Chinese are fishing in our waters and are taking all our fish resources to China.

Fishermen from Negombo had gathered in protest against EU decision to ban imports of Sri Lanka fish. The fishermen demanded that the ministry take instant action to remedy the situation.
said that stones were pelted at the protesting fishers, from the ministry side, Ceylon Today further reports.

UNP MPs attacked in Slave Island

October 21, 2014

A tense situation occurred at the Port Authority Training College in Slave Island, when a group of UNP MPs who engaged in a ‘fact finding mission’ were attacked and obstructed by a crowd, this morning.

The UNP MPs were greeted by boos and hooting when they attempted to enter the premises. Ravi Karunanayake MP said that two journalists and a vehicle were also attacked.

MPs including Ajith P. Perera, R. Yogarajan, and Nalin Bandara engaged for the fact-finding mission, said Karunanayake. “We wanted to inspect the place as we received details that this place and vehicles belonged it are being used for election propaganda activities,” he added.

The UNP MPs had faced a similar situation upon visiting the Maradana Railway Station, Mattala Airport, Hambantota Port and Sapugaskanda refinery on fact finding missions, in previous occasions, while they were cordially welcomed at the Norochcholai power plant.

Bonanza of well-regulated micro finance

October 21, 2014

A bonanza according to Oxford Dictionary is ‘a situation in which people can make a lot of money or be very successful’. Recent developments in India show the benefits an economy can obtain by having in place a well-regulated regime for the micro finance industry.

Bonanza of Well-regulated Micro Finance by Thavam

Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives launches its new website

www.torturemag.org -

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives a path breaking initiative in the discourse of torture prevention wishes to inform our readers of the launching of its new website. The website www.torturemag.org is not only for the print version of the magazine but it is a part of the expanding discourse that we have with our contributors and readers. This is partly due to the limitation we faced with the print version.

The bi-monthly started in 2012, published by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Danish Institute Against Torture (DIGNITY), and at first it was limited to the print and downloadable PDF version of each issue. However, in the new website the readers can download, not only the PDF version of the entire issue, but also to read the individual content of each issue such as articles, Op-Ed, essays, papers, etc.

The decision to create a separated website arose after concerns from the writers and readers and it was decided to expand the space for those who, are not only engaged in the discourse but, also those who victims of this inhuman practice on a daily basis.

The website, will be updated weekly and it will not limited to the content print bi-monthly but also news, opinion and etc. related to the subjects we cover.

As stated in the editorial of the first issue, two years ago:

“The concept of publishing a bi-monthly magazine on torture was borne of these circumstances, limitations and hopes. The publication will give prominent coverage to the atrocities committed by authorities and affiliated agencies against individuals legally under their protection. We seek to create a platform for the discussion and exposure of torture practices in Asia and around the globe.”

“Our stance is firmly against any form of torture, a practice legally and morally reprehensible, and unjustifiable under all circumstances. We call for governments to investigate thoroughly and prosecute perpetrators of such brutality. We also invite our readers to participate in this campaign against torture. The global citizenry continue to hope (and should demand) that their governments, guided by the fundamental principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international conventions, take legislative, administrative and judicial action so that not only will justice be served, but a lasting peace will be brought to humanity.”

Eradicating torture is a gradual but necessary process that we all bear responsibility for. Please support us by subscribing to the print magazine so we may broaden our readership in Asia and around the world, galvanise governments and aid advocacy groups.

Your help is critical for the circulation of a thing we, and the multitudes around the world, cherish and which cannot easily be vanquished: hope. Let us remain steadfast in that hope we profess, of a world without violence, and a future free from fear.

Visit our new website at www.torturemag.org , and share with your networks. Join us, and ask your friends to join eradicate this viciousness practice of mankind.

American Reporter in Turkey Killed in Suspicious Car Accident

Salem-News.com-Oct-19-2014

The veteran reporter was in fear of the Turkish Intelligence Agency after breaking stories about Turkey and ISIL.

American journalist Serena Shim was killed in a suspicious car accident on Sunday.
Photo: Serena Shim's facebook page

(TEHRAN Press TV) - Serena Shim was killed in a suspicious car accident on Sunday as she was on a working mission in Turkey to cover the ongoing war in the strategic Syrian town of Kobani.

Shim, an American citizen of Lebanese origin, covered reports for Press TV in Lebanon, Iraq, and Ukraine. Shim was near the Turkey-Syria border.

She was going back to her hotel from a report scene in the city of Suruç, a rural district of Şanlıurfa Province of Turkey when their car collided with a heavy vehicle. The identity and whereabouts of the truck driver remain unknown.

Press TV news director Hamid Reza Emadi says the “suspicious death,” of the news channel’s correspondent in Turkey is a tragedy for “anyone who wants to get the truth.”

Emadi made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Sunday following Serena Shim’s death across the border from Syria’s Kurdish city of Kobani, where the ISIL terrorists and Kurdish fighters are engaged in heavy battles.

“Serena told the stories,” Emadi said, referring to Turkey’s role in the crisis, including “how Ankara collaborated with those terrorists,” and “blocked Kurdish fighters from entering Kobani” to help tackle the ISIL.

Kobani and its surroundings have been under attack since mid-September, with the ISIL militants capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages.

Turkey has been accused of backing ISIL militants in Syria.

On Friday, Serena Shim told Press TV that the Turkish intelligence agency had accused her of spying probably due to some of the stories she has covered about Turkey’s stance on the ISIL terrorists in Kobani and its surroundings, adding that she feared being arrested.

Shim said she was among the few journalists obtaining stories of militants infiltrating into Syria through the Turkish border, adding that she had received images from militants crossing the Turkish border into Syria in World Food Organization and other NGOs’ trucks.

Shim flatly rejected accusations against her, saying she was “surprised” at this accusation “because I have nothing to hide and I have never done anything aside my job.”

Two days later, she is dead.

Emadi called the “car accident” version of Shim’s death an “infantile argument” by Turkey. “We are not going to buy that,” he noted.

“We believe that the Turkish government has to be held accountable before the international community. It has to find out exactly what happened.”

The news media director went on to say that Shim was an American national who died “under very suspicious circumstances” inside Turkey. “We are waiting to see whether the US government is reacting or asking Ankara for clarification.”

Serena Shim leaves behind two children. Shim will not return to her children in Lebanon just because she “criticized a certain country that is creating chaos in the region by supporting terrorists both inside Syria and Iraq,” Emadi said.

In 2012, Press TV lost another correspondent, Maya Nasser, who was shot in the neck and the chest by a foreign-backed sniper in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Emadi slammed the “so-called” human rights organizations for refusing to condemn killing of journalists like Nasser.

“Just because they reported the truth. They didn’t report what the US media wants them to report.”

Emadi decried news blackout on Press TV correspondents’ death “by those who control mass media” saying, “That’s how they’re sending a signal to independent journalists like Serena Shim.”

North Korea releases American Jeffrey Fowle, US confirms

State Department says Fowle was home Tuesday after negotiators left Pyongyang, and that the US was working to free two others held by North Korea

Jeffrey Fowle, North Korea Photograph: Wong Maye-E/AP

Tuesday 21 October 2014

The US State Department says Jeffrey Fowle, one of three Americans being held in North Korea, has been released.

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Fowle was home Tuesday after negotiators left Pyongyang. She said the US is still trying to free two other Americans, Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae.

Associated Press journalists in Pyongyang spotted the US government plane at the capital’s international airport on Tuesday. The White House confirmed Fowle was released home to see his family.

Miller, Fowle and Bae were allowed to speak briefly with the Associated Press last month in Pyongyang. All said they believe the only solution to their situation is for a US representative to come to North Korea to make a direct appeal.

That has often been North Korea’s bargaining chip in the past, when senior statesmen including former President Clinton made trips to Pyongyang to secure the release of detainees.

Dark Clouds Loom: In the Shadow of the First World War, Noam Chomsky Discusses ISIS, Ukraine, and Gaza

By Noam Chomsky and the Plymouth Institute for Peace Research-16 October, 2014.

In October 2014, the Plymouth Institute for Peace Research (www.pipr.co.uk) asked Noam Chomsky to comment on some important world developments, including the threat of nuclear war, the recent escalation of violence in Gaza, and the growth of ISIS in Iraq. These sad and dangerous developments are particularly poignant given that they coincide(d) with the centenary of the First World War. This gives us no small clue about how much governments and publics have learnt from a century of war.

Dark Clouds Loom in the Shadow of the First World War, Noam Chomsky Discusses ISIS, Ukraine, And Gaza by Thavam

Ukraine: Widespread Use of Cluster Munitions

Government Responsible for Cluster Attacks on Donetsk

Remnants of a misfired Uragan cluster munition rocket lying in a field in territory controlled by the Ukrainian government near Novomykhailivka, Ukraine on October 14, 2014.

OCTOBER 20, 2014It is shocking to see a weapon that most countries have banned used so extensively in eastern Ukraine.

(Berlin) – Ukrainian government forces used cluster munitions in populated areas in Donetsk city in early October 2014, Human Rights Watch said today. The use of cluster munitions in populated areas violates the laws of war due to the indiscriminate nature of the weapon and may amount to war crimes.

Ukraine Widespread Use of Cluster Munitions by Thavam

Syria air force strikes 200 times in 36 hours - monitor

A woman accompanies schoolchildren after what activists said were air strikes by forces of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Duma neighbourhood of Damascus October 20, 2014.

BEIRUT Tue Oct 21, 2014

(Reuters) - The Syrian air force carried out more than 200 air strikes around the country in the past 36 hours, a group monitoring the war said on Tuesday, a rapid increase in government raids as U.S.-led forces bomb Islamist insurgents elsewhere.

The intensified strikes by President Bashar al-Assad's forces will add to the fear among his opponents that the government is taking advantage of the U.S. raids on Islamic State to attack other foes, including opposition groups that Washington backs.

Analysts say the increase could be because the Syrian military wants to weaken rebel groups before they get training and equipment promised by the United States.

Since midnight on Sunday, the Syrian military carried out at least 210 raids, including barrel bombings, on provinces in the east, north and west of the country, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It said there were many casualties but did not give an exact figure.

The military concentrated the strikes in the "western corridor" that stretches from the southwest up through Damascus towards the Mediterranean, according to the information from the the Observatory, which says it gathers details from all sides of the conflict.

The air raids struck areas in the Hama, Daraa, Idlib, Aleppo and Quneitra provinces as well as the Damascus countryside, it said. It also hit the eastern Deir al-Zor province where U.S.-led forces have also been bombing Islamic State, the Observatory added.

Before the surge in Syrian air force raids, the military had carried out 12-20 raids a day, according to the Observatory.

Damascus has not raised objections to the U.S. bombing of Islamic State, which is mainly based in the east and north of the country, far from the most populous areas near Damascus and the Mediterranean coast.

The United States says it does not want to help Assad's government despite bombing Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that has become one of the most powerful insurgent groups in the more than three-year conflict.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Alison Williams)

This Is Why You Can't Have Nice Guns

Syria's moderate rebels are brawling among themselves in the streets of Turkey. And these are the people the White House wants to arm?

BY DAVID KENNER-OCTOBER 20, 2014

URFA, Turkey — As the sun went down on the night of Sept. 25, a shouting match in the streets of this eastern Turkish city grew so heated that residents felt the need to call the police. The cause was a dispute between two Syrian opposition groups that were supposed to be on the same side: 12 Syrian rebel fighters from brigades affiliated with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) had confronted three employees from the Syrian opposition's interim government to accuse them of stealing money.
This is Why You Can't Have Nice Guns by Thavam

Hong Kong students put their case to govt, but no breakthrough

Scholarism convenor Joshua Wong (L-R), Hong Kong Federation of Students' Council member Nathan Law, Deputy Secretary-General Lester Shum, Secretary-General Alex Chow, Council member Yvonne Leung, More...

Pro-democracy protestors watch formal talks between student protest leaders and city officials on a video screen near the government headquarters in Hong Kong October 21, 2014.

BY JAMES POMFRET AND CLARE BALDWIN-Tue Oct 21, 2014

(Reuters) - Thousands of Hong Kong protesters listened raptly from the streets on Tuesday as student leaders debated their call for full democracy for the Chinese-run city with government leaders to try end a weeks-long occupation of major traffic arteries.
Hong Kong Students Put Their Case to Govt, But No Breakthrough by Thavam

Ebola apocalypse - and how US 'preppers' plan to survive

MONDAY 20 OCTOBER 2014
In Monrovia they get their Ebola information from makeshift chalkboards. In the US, survivalists are all over the internet, advising readers how to live through the forthcoming apocalypse.

First, let's be clear. Ebola is spread when someone comes into direct contact - through broken skin or mucous membranes - with infected blood or body fluids. It's also transmitted by contact with contaminated surfaces and objects, although the risk of transmission is low.

Ebola chalkboard in Monrovia, Liberia's capital (Reuters)

But Ebola is not an airborne infection - although droplets from an infected person's cough or sneeze could in theory pass on the virus.

The World Health Organisation says previous outbreaks revealed no instances of airborne infection.

Ebola Apocalypse - And How US 'Preppers' Plan to Survive by Thavam

Monday, October 20, 2014

We have given up Eelam – Sampanthan Tna vs. MR

By Lakshmi Jayakody
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Leader, R. Sampanthan yesterday threw down a challenge to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, demanding for the latter to abolish the executive presidential system, claiming the TNA had given up the demand for Eelam.
Speaking to our sister paper Mawbima, the TNA leader said his Party and all Tamil political leaders and the majority of the Tamil Diaspora had given up the concept of Eelam.

Sampanthan was responding to the demand made by the President in Kilinochchi last week, where the Head of State said, if the TNA and the Tamil Diaspora gave up the demand for Eelam he would abolish the executive presidential system.

The TNA leader further said he regretted the statement made by the President, who was aware that the TNA never spoke of Eelam. “We contested Local Government, Provincial and Parliamentary Elections and won, presenting our policies and manifestoes. “There is no reference to dividing this country in those documents. We called for devolution of powers under a united country and such stand had been made known even to Parliament,” he added.

Sampanthan said that misinformation of that nature was spread it would mislead the public. “We have given up Eelam. Now the President must abolish the executive system,” Sampanthan said.