There were warning signs ahead of Sri Lanka mudslide: Survivors

Survivors recounted how drinking water streams turned muddy, cracks appeared in the ground and cattle and goats started running down the mountain slope just before tragedy struck.CAPTION 

POSTED: 31 Oct 2014

KOSLANDA: Sniffer dogs were deployed on Friday (Oct 31) to search for mudslide victims in Sri Lanka as survivors said they had seen warning signs of the disaster, such as cracks in the ground and livestock fleeing.

An estimated 100 people are still listed as missing, according to the national Disaster Management Centre (DMC), two days after dozens of tin-roofed homes were buried under tonnes of mud at the Meeriyabedda tea estate, 200km (125 miles) east of the capital.

Military officers supervising the massive rescue operation said only a handful of bodies had been found and there was scant hope of finding anyone alive. Survivors have recounted how drinking water streams turned muddy, cracks appeared in the ground and cattle and goats started running down the mountain slope just before tragedy struck.

"I shouted to our parents to hurry ... I saw my mother close the front door and at that moment, a huge mound of earth crashed onto our house, Gajani Ravichandra, 14, told AFP. "It all happened right in front of our eyes. All I could do was scream and scream," she said at a temporary shelter. Her parents perished but her grandparents and brother survived.

Gajani's brother Suresh Kumar, 12, said he saw an unusual sight of cattle and goats running down a slope just before the landslide. A six-year-old girl was lost in the mudslide as she walked to school with her older brother who narrowly escaped, officials said, adding around 85 students were among 227 people who escaped the mudslide.

Some people lost entire families. One driver recounted how his wife, two sons, daughter-in-law and a six-month-old baby girl had been swallowed by the mud.

Shanthi Selvadurai, 23, said she was trying to flee the mudslide when she suddenly found herself buried to the neck. "My mother managed to get to safety. She came back with two men who dug me out," Selvadurai said, nursing a leg injury.

Textile store worker Vijaya Kantha, 23, said he saw danger signs of unstable ground and rushed back to collect his identity card from home. But just before he reached his dwelling, he heard a loud noise and saw his house swallowed by mud.

The region's top military officer, Major General Mano Perera, who is supervising the recovery efforts, said sniffer dogs had indicated several sites where people might be buried. "In some places, we will have to dig 20-to-30 feet (six-to-nine meters) to remove the new layer of soil," Perera told AFP. "Rains and soggy conditions are impeding our progress, but we will keep this recovery effort going," he said.

Several countries, including India and the United States, have offered help. More than 1,200 people living in neighbouring tea plantations, have sheltered in two schools fearing more mudslides in the picturesque, but geographically unstable tea-growing mountain region, officials said.

Sri Lanka, a tropical island at the foot of India, is prone to weather-related disasters - especially during the monsoon season when the rains are often welcomed by farmers. If the death toll does reach three figures, the disaster would be the country's worst since the December 2004 tsunami when 31,000 people died. 

Budget 2015: Financial Profligacy And A Gamble With The Economy

By R.M.B Senanayake -November 1, 2014 

R.M.B. Senanayake

The present budget for 2015 is a populist exercise which ignores the cannons of macro-economic prudence. It plans to disburse billions of Rupees by way of salary increases to public servants and pensioners and giveaways to various sectors and groups of the public by reductions of indirect taxes and charges for services such as the charges for water and electricity despite the providers not covering their costs including replacement provisions. The VAT rate is reduced to 11% from 12%.The charge for water is reduced by 10% for the first 25 units and there is a reduction of 15% in electricity tariff to industries. Duty on the import of vehicles has also been reduced

Budget Summary

Total Expenditure is to increase from this year’s Rs 1,922 billion to Rs 2,210 billion – an increase of 15%. Total Recurrent Expenditure is to increase from this year’s Rs 1,386 billion to Rs1, 525 billion- an increase of 12%. Total Revenue & Grants will increase from Rs 1,422 billion to Rs 1,689 billion. A Revenue or Current Account surplus of Rs 129 billion is shown although we have never had a Revenue Surplus for the last several years- a violation of the Golden Rule of budgeting which allows  a deficit only for Investment expenditure. The Primary Account which shows whether debt repayments are from tax Revenue or from more borrowings shows a deficit of Rs 96 billion. But this conceals the fact that borrowing for debt repayments are outside the budget- a wrong practice introduced by former Finance Minister Ronnie De Mel. Previously the practice was to transfer funds in the annual budget to a Sinking Fund which accumulated would provide the funds for debt repayment. This provision was removed to play down the budget deficit. But as pointed out by MP Vijitha Herath it understates the budget deficit as a factor in the macro-economic balance. He has stated that the budget deficit proper is Rs 1300 billion. For Economic analysis the budget must include all government expenditure and income and debt repayment is an expenditure properly charged to the budget. (Expenditure items which are permitted by special laws may not require parliamentary approval but that is for legal purposes and not for economic analysis). The budget deficit must equal the total government borrowing to fund the budget. The total borrowing requirement is Rs 521 billion after deducting the Debt Repayment of Rs 202 billion. To ascertain the impact on the macro-economic balance in the economy it should be added instead and the deficit becomes Rs 521 billion plus Rs 202 billion or Rs 722 billion. The local capital market cannot provide the necessary borrowings and Rs 261 billion has been budgeted from foreign sources including foreign commercial borrowings of Rs 195 billion.                                                            Read More

Photographs testify to MaRa’s meeting with Tigers ; Most wanted Eesan (Tiger) and MaRa meet secretly in Rome

(Lanka-e-News- 31.Oct.2014, 11.30PM) Medamulana Percy Mahendra Rajapakse who is notorious for his favorite gung ho policy has now begun throwing stones having forgotten the old adage that people in glass houses should not throw stones at others .MaRa after taking into his fold Kumaran Pathmanathan who claims that he is the new leader of the LTTE after Prabhakaran , and providing him with all the luxuries is screaming that the opposition is having secretive talks with the Tigers , and if the opposition wins , the Eelam struggle will be resumed , in order to frighten the people of the country and secure their votes in his favor.

Even though 5 days have elapsed since the opposition leader threw a challenge at Medamulana MaRa to reveal who is the LTTE Diaspora leader he met secretly when he went to America recently , MaRa had still not responded.

This failure to answer is a confirmation that the allegation is true. Medamulana Percy Mahendra met with a Tamil Diaspora bigwig too when he went to Rome. This individual lives in Zurich ,Switzerland , but he came down to Rome specially to meet with MaRa. He is the name of Dharmalingam Logeswaran alias Eesan.

He is a most notorious international money launderer .He is the LTTE theoretician who taught the LTTE how to transfer funds clandestinely from country to country without getting trapped. While KP was in Malaysia , Eeswaran did his money laundering operations from Singapore.

Dharmalingam was under the surveillance of the Sri Lanka (SL) intelligence divisions during the war. Strangely he is now a bosom pal of MaRa. It is a common saying ,where there is muck there is money , but with Percy Mahendra , where there is money there is MaRa to lick it. In the photograph is Eesan draping MaRa with a traditional Tamil shawl . This photograph alone is ample testimony bearing out the relationship Percy Mahendra Rajapakse has with the LTTE international money launderers.

Please await more LeN reports exposing some more of the close unscrupulous and traitorous ties Percy Mahendra has with the LTTE Diaspora

Sex For Slots

| by Prabath Saha-Bandu

( November 1, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Opposition has demanded, in Parliament, a thorough probe into a sex scandal that has rocked Sri Lanka Cricket and stringent action against the culprits. UNP MP Ajith P. Perera said some of the women cricketers had been compelled to have sex with certain officials to secure places in the national team. The government claimed action had already been taken and President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage had ordered two separate investigations into the allegations.

What’s this world coming to when sportswomen cannot play for the country without gratifying the carnal desires of some sickos in the garb of officials? Some principals demand and obtain sexual favours from mothers desperate for admitting their children to public schools. Unless these sexual predators are brought to justice as a national priority no woman will be safe in this country.

Time was when mothers asked their sons to stop playing cricket and concentrate on their studies to achieve success in life. But, today, it is the other way around; mothers pressure their sons to stop studying and play cricket at a tender age so as to be able to make all the money in the world in a few years and live happily ever after. Former World Cup winning Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunge has famously said that the rot in our cricket set in the day cricketers started playing for money. No truer word has ever been spoken of the game! It needs to be added that the situation took a turn for the worse the day politicians started meddling with the cricket administration and crooks got catapulted to top positions thereof.

When politics and not merit becomes the sole criterion for selecting top officials of any sports control body dregs go places and ruin those institutions. Sri Lanka Cricket has been no exception. There are, of course, some decent men there, but they are voiceless and wary of standing up to the rogues for fear of reprisal. The media, former players and many others have fought quite a battle all these years to reverse this trend but in vain so much so that cricket has ceased to be the gentleman’s game it used to be.

Susanthika Jayasinghe also complained of harassment at the hands of a powerful politician in the Kumaratunga government (1994-2000). Others may have given in but being made of sterner stuff Susie courageously fought back and the politico had to beat a retreat. She went on to put Sri Lanka on the map by winning an Olympic Silver. Susie’s greatest achievement, in our book, was not her much coveted medal but her great escape from that randy politico blinded by lust!

Politicians responsible for appointing sexual predators to the top notches of sports bodies cannot absolve themselves of the blame for this sorry state of affairs. The onus is on them to keep their pet beasts on a tight leash.

The so-called Cricket Board is Sri Lanka’s Augean Stables. It stinks to high heaven and cleaning it is a Herculean task. The government is apparently determined to keep it that way. The place is perennially in dire financial straits because crooks help themselves to its funds with impunity. Worse, they ride rough shod over good players who refuse to toe their line. These elements are ruling the roost and lining their pockets as they are servile and malleable enough to pander to the whims and fancies of their political masters at the expense of the interests of the game.

One should not be so naïve as to expect anything to come of the ongoing investigations into the Sri Lanka Cricket sex scandal. The sickos who have used their political connections to secure high posts are likely to be let off the hook because the victims may not want to come forward to give evidence against them for obvious reasons.

(The writer, editor of the “The Island”, where this piece was original appeared)

Sajith fulfils contract to the letter!

 Saturday, 01 November 2014 

Plotting to see that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is defeated at the presidential election in order to grab the party leadership, deputy leader Sajith Premadasa is planning another conspiracy, together with minister Basil Rajapaksa, to prevent government MPs from crossing over to the opposition, say internal sources of the UNP.

When general secretary Tissa Attanayake declared that 40-odd government ministers and MPs are due to join the UNP, Sajith compared them to ‘rats.’ At a meeting at Hyde Park, Colombo on October 29 for UNP polling booth agents, he said rats are going to jump out of the sinking UPFA government ship and join the UNP.

Also, at a previous meeting in Hambantota, he said a large number of fraudsters connected to corruption and malpractices in the government are now going to leave the government and join the UNP in order to cover up the allegations against them.

Many government ministers and MPs have expressed strong displeasure over these remarks, to Malik Samarawickrema, the closest friend of the the UNP leader who is coordinating their talks with the main opposition party. If the talks are to continue productively, the UNP leader should tender a public apology over his deputy’s remarks, they have informed him.

UK High Commissioner Vacancy: Mahinda Wants Shiranee But Gota Pushes For Colomboge

November 1, 2014

The talk of the capital is that the President Mahinda Rajapaksa wants to appoint retired Supreme Court Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane as the new Hight Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane

Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane has given false evidence before Parliamentary Select Committee on impeaching the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. As Colombo Telegraph reported earlier, there was a finding by the infamous Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) that the case commonly known as the “Trillium Case” was wrongly taken before a bench presided by CJ Bandaranayake by CJ Banadaranayake herself. To arrive at this finding the PSC mainly relied on the evidence of Justice Shiranee Thilakawardene and PSC stated in its report that they believe and accept Justice Thilakawardene’s evidence in toto without hesitance.

Meanwhile the President’s brother, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa is pushing for Ex-Navy Chief Jayanath Colombage instead of Shiranee, Colombo Telegraph reliably learns.

Related posts;

High Commissioner Nonis Quits After Assault By Sajin Vass

Mahaveli System L: The Weli Oya Project And The Declaration Of War Against Tamil Civilians

By Rajan Hoole -November 1, 2014

Dr. Rajan Hoole

Border Aggression and Civilian Massacres – Part 7

After Ravi Jayewardene’s return from Is- rael, the Saturday Review, then edited by Gamini Navaratne, carried on 8.9.84 a Special Correspondent’s piece titled, ‘The Is-raeli Connection’. It said, “The Government is steadily and feverishly working at a crash plan policy of land settlement under Mahaveli as well as Dry- Zone areas of the North and East. They have sought technical know how”. The report quoted the Veerakesari of 23 Aug.84, which stated that after a high-level conference in Colombo it has been decided to redemarcate parts of Vavuniya with Madawachchiya (see also Chapters 13-15).

In filling out the story of how this singular project was implemented, we have, apart from published sources and interviews, also relied on a detailed document covering this period prepared by the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). This was done at the request of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India, and was kindly made available to us. References to it will be acknowledged by [TULF].

Apart from its moral depravity, the event is singular for its reckless folly. Sri Lanka was a small, highly dependent country whose relations with India, its giant neighbour, had been badly mismanaged. The country was being placed on a course where it was flagrantly in breach of international humanitarian law as defined by the Geneva Conventions. At this point, the conflict was no more than a local low-intensity conflict. Nevertheless, as we have pointed out (see Sect.14.5), by the very methods being used, the Government was upgrading the internal conflict to look like an International Armed Conflict. There are still many in Colombo who advocate even more of this kind.                                       Read More

Modi may take up fishermen issue with Rajapaksa

SUHASINI HAIDAR-November 1, 2014

With India stepping up efforts to prove the innocence of the five Indian fishermen sentenced to death for drug trafficking by the Colombo High Court, sources toldThe Hindu that New Delhi was hopeful of finding a resolution to the situation that has led to protests in Tamil Nadu.

While Sri Lanka retains the death penalty, no execution has been carried out in the country since June 1976, as successive Presidents have declined signing the final orders. Sources told The Hindu that Indian officials had already contacted President Rajapkasa’s office to express India’s appeal in the matter of the five Indian fishermen. Officials also confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will “certainly take up the issue with President Rajapkasa when they meet next,” which is likely to be on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Kathmandu between November 25 and 27.

The Sri Lankan government, which is heading for elections in January, however, remained non-committal on Friday with regard to India’s statements. “India is clearly aware of another country’s legal systems, treaties signed and convicts exchange agreements,” Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said in Colombo.

To begin with, India and Sri Lanka have signed an agreement on the transfer of sentenced prisoners in 2010, when President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited New Delhi, that allows the prisoners to serve out their punishment in India. If an appeals court were to commute the sentences of the convicted fishermen, there would be some hope of the agreement being applied.

In 2013, Sri Lanka transferred 29 prisoners, who had been sentenced for various offences, to Indian prisons in Tamil Nadu and Kerala under the agreement. Under the same agreement, India also transferred to Colombo a Sri Lankan national held more than a decade ago for drug trafficking and whose sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was repatriated in 2013.

An outrageous penalty

TODAY'S PAPER » OPINION-November 1, 2014

The death sentence imposed on five Indian fishermen by a Sri Lankan court for drug trafficking has added an unfortunate dimension to relations between the two countries. The issue has roiled Tamil Nadu, where it is being seen as one more atrocity by Sri Lanka against the State’s fishing community. The Government of India has said the fishermen are innocent and plans to help them appeal the sentence. The five were arrested mid-sea in the Palk Bay region in November 2011 and tried for being in possession of heroin. Three Sri Lankans have also been sentenced to death in the same case. Irrespective of the merits of the case, the sentence seems unduly harsh, especially considering that the men had no previous record of being involved in the narcotics trade. Moreover, there is no instance of Sri Lanka handing down this punishment in any other case of drug trafficking over the last many years. In any case, capital punishment for a drug offence goes against all humane norms. While the two countries have a treaty on transfer of prisoners under which an Indian serving time in a Sri Lankan prison can be repatriated and complete his sentence in an Indian jail — and vice versa — it does not cover those sentenced to death, unless the sentence is commuted. But there are still strong reasons to hope that Sri Lanka will not carry out the sentence. For one, in keeping with its Buddhist traditions, the country has not carried out a judicial execution since 1976. For nearly three decades, though Sri Lankan courts awarded the death penalty in many cases, in every instance the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. In 2004, the country decided to implement death sentences once again, but to date no execution has taken place. A process of appeals is also available to the fishermen, first in the Court of Appeals, then the Supreme Court, and finally to the President, who has the power of pardon.

While the final outcome may well be positive, the entire episode is a setback in other ways. First, it will complicate efforts to find an early resolution to the issue of how fishermen on both sides can live and pursue their livelihoods without hurting each other’s access to scarce marine resources. Secondly, with political and public passions in Tamil Nadu running high, attitudes against Sri Lanka are certain to harden in the State. In the past, hardline Sinhala ideologues and politicians across the Palk Strait have fed off Tamil Nadu’s anti-Sri Lanka sentiments. With Sri Lanka now in its presidential election season, there is reason to be concerned about the vitiated atmosphere. In the best interests of both countries, the issue must not be turned into fodder for political mileage.

Malaka Silva remanded over assault on foreign couple

November 1, 2014 

Controversial Minister Mervyn Silva’s son Malaka Silva, who was arrested over an alleged assault on a foreign couple, has been remanded till November 04 after being produced at court. 

Malaka Silva was arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) following a complaint lodged by the foreign nationals, police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said. 

The incident had taken place at around 3.00am today at a nightclub in Duplication Road, Colombo when Silva had reportedly harassed the foreign woman, thereby provoking her partner who had assaulted him.

However, in response Malaka Silva’s security personnel had assaulted tourist while both parties had files complaints over the incident.

Silva, who had allegedly sustained minor injuries from the brawl, had been admitted to a hospital. 

According to sources, the CCD is conducting investigations and is using CCTV footage of the incindet from inside the nightclub. 

Malaka, the son of Public Relations and Public Affairs Minister Mervyn Silva, has been involved in several similar assault incidents in the past while in July last year he was hospitalised following an attack at the car park of a popular clothing store in Town Hall, Colombo. 

Six Ukraine soldiers die in eastern clashes with rebels - military

KIEV/DONETSK Sat Nov 1, 2014

(Reuters) - Six Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours, a military spokesman said on Saturday, as a fragile ceasefire in the east was tested by heavy mortar fire in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk ahead of a rebel election.

More than 4,000 killed in Ukraine conflict: UN

Soldiers carry the coffin of a fellow serviceman who was killed in the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Reuters

Saturday, 1 November 2014More than 4,000 people have been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine between the army and pro-Russian separatists, the UN has said as the Ukrainian president took steps to "unite" the country after elections.

Six Ukraine Soldiers Die in Eastern Clashes With Rebels - Military by Thavam

Boko Haram denies it has agreed ceasefire

Islamist group’s leader rules out future talks with Nigerian government and says abducted schoolgirls will not be returned

Abubakar Shekau said of the abducted schoolgirls: 'We have married them off. They are in their marital homes.' Photograph: AP

Chris Johnston and agencies-Saturday 1 November 2014

The Islamist group Boko Haram has denied claims by Nigeria’s government that it has agreed to a ceasefire and will release more than 200 abducted schoolgirls.

The announcement came in a video sent to Agence France-Presse on Saturday in which the militant group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, ruled out future talks with the government and said the girls had converted to Islam and been married off since being kidnapped more than six months ago.

Some 276 schoolgirls were seized from the remote north-eastern town of Chibok in Borno state in April. Many escaped in the first couple of days but 219 remain missing.

More than 500 women and girls aged from infancy to 65 have been kidnapped by Boko Haram and held in militant camps since 2009,Human Rights Watch said this week, including 60 reportedly kidnapped from two towns in north-eastern Nigeria last week. Many have been targeted because they are Christians or attending school.

Boko Haram kidnap victims describe their ordeal

Girls and women abducted by the Islamist group and later released havespoken of life in captivity that included forced marriage and labour, rape, torture, psychological abuse and coerced religious conversion.

Shekau said in the latest video that all of the Chibok schoolgirls had become Muslims. “They have now memorised two chapters of the Qur’an,” he said.

Speaking in Hausa, he said: “We have married them off. They are in their marital homes.”

Families of the Chibok schoolgirls said they were shocked but not surprised at the marriage claims.

Pogo Bitrus, the head of the Chibok Elders Forum, said: “We were sceptical about the talks to release our girls and we never took the ceasefire seriously because since the announcement, they have never stopped attacking communities. Therefore the information that our girls have been married off is not surprising to us.”

Bitrus has four nieces among the hostages. “We are only hoping the government will step up whatever efforts it is making to quell the insurgency,” he said.

Enoch Mark, a Christian pastor in Chibok whose daughter and niece are among the hostages, said the girls’ families were “lost for words”.

“Since they were kidnapped we have no certainty about the situation they are in. We keep getting conflicting information,” he said. “We only keep hoping that they will be returned to us.”

Daniel Bekele of Human Rights Watch said the Chibok kidnappings and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign had focused global attention on the vulnerability of girls in north-eastern Nigeria.

“Now the Nigerian government and its allies need to step up their efforts to put an end to these brutal abductions and provide for the medical, psychological and social needs of the women and girls who have managed to escape,” he said.

Iraqi Kurds reinforce Kobani; U.S. planes pound IS targets

 A U.S. Navy F/A-18 launches from the USS Carl Vinson in this undated handout picture released November 1, 2014. 

 Kurdish civilians march by the Turkish-Syrian border village of Caycara to protest against Islamic State, during a rally in solidarity with the people of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, November

BY MARIAM KAROUNY AND MICHAEL GEORGY

(Reuters) - Syrian Kurds welcomed the arrival in Kobani of Iraqi Kurdish fighters with their heavy weapons, hoping they might tip the balance in the battle to defend the town against Islamic State, as U.S.-led air strikes continued to bomb the ultra-hardline group in Iraq and Syria.

Air strikes have helped to foil several attempts by the al Qaeda offshoot, notorious for its beheading of hostages, to take over Kobani. But they have done little to stop its advances, in particular in Sunni areas of western Iraq, where it has executed hundreds of tribesmen.

Islamic State fighters have mocked the U.S. air strikes as a campaign against Islam that they say has angered Muslims and helped the group win followers across the globe.

The arrival of the 150 Iraqi fighters, who have yet to participate in the battle, marks the first time Turkey has allowed ground troops from outside Syria to reinforce Syrian Kurds, who have been defending Kobani for more than 40 days.

The fighters - known as peshmerga, or "those who defy death" - were preparing themselves for the battle and are expected to take part in action in Kobani later on Saturday, Kurdish officials said.

"What was lacking is the weapons and ammunition, so the arrival of more of it plus the fighters will help tip the balance of the battle," Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister of Kobani district, told Reuters by telephone from Kobani.

"The whole issue is the weapons and ammunition. Of course more fighters will help."

The U.S. military said it had carried out 10 air strikes against IS militants, five near Kobani and five in Iraq, since Friday.

The Kobani strikes "suppressed or destroyed" nine Islamic State fighting positions and a building. In Iraq, air strikes destroyed an Islamic State vehicle southwest of Mosul Dam and hit four vehicles and four buildings used by militants near Al Qaim, the U.S. military said in a statement.

DAUNTLESS AND EXPANDING

Undeterred by the air strikes, the Islamic State fighters continued a mass killing campaign in Iraq to wipe out resistance against the group. They executed 85 more members of the Albu Nimr tribe, according to a tribal leader and security official.

Tribal chief Sheikh Naeem al-Ga'oud told Reuters that Islamic State had killed 50 members of Albu Nimr who were fleeing the group in Anbar province on Friday. In a separate incident, a security official said 35 bodies had been found in a mass grave.

The group has executed a total of more than 300 tribe members in the past few days, Ga'oud and the official said.

Albu Nimr had held out for weeks under siege by Islamic State, but finally ran low on ammunition, fuel and food.

The militants have lost hundreds if not thousands of fighters since the Islamic State was declared in June, in battles against other Sunni rebels, Islamist groups, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and in U.S.-led air strikes.

But fighters inside the group say that it was receiving hundreds of volunteers every month, which was helping it carry our more attacks. It was also receiving pledge of allegiances from Islamist groups in the world including Pakistan, Africa and some Arab states.

In another sign of the group's relentless efforts to expand despite the U.S.-led attacks, dozens of residents of the Libyan town of Derna have pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the group and self-proclaimed Caliph of all Muslims, according to a video posted online and residents.

Derna, a port halfway between the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and the Egyptian border, has since 2011 turned into a gathering point for militant Islamists and al Qaeda sympathisers.

Fifteen members of Islamic State, led by an Egyptian and a Saudi national, traveled to Derna from Syria in September to try to rally support and establish an Islamic State branch in Libya, Egyptian security officials have said.

FSA IN KOBANI

On Saturday, intense gunfire could be heard in the town of Kobani and Iraqi peshmerga could be seen on the western side of the town, talking with YPG fighters - the main Syrian Kurdish armed group defending the town - and standing next to a cannon, footage from Reuters Television showed.

Also on the west of the city, fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) who went to defend the town were seen driving flatbed trucks mounted with heavy machine guns and flying the three-star green, white and black Syrian flag, Reuters TV footage showed.

But the move by FSA - a term used to refer to dozens of armed groups fighting against Assad and Islamic State - drew criticism from opposition activists, who urged the fighters to deploy on fronts where the Western-backed rebels were losing to Assad's forces and to Islamists.

Syria's al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front seized on Saturday the Jabal al-Zawiya region, the last remaining stronghold of Western-backed rebels in Syria's northwest province of Idlib, after days of fighting.

Backed by other hardline Islamist groups, the Nusra Front are waging a major military campaign against the Syria Revolutionaries' Front led by Jamal Maarouf, a key figure in the armed opposition to Assad, after accusing him of being corrupt and working for the West against them.

(Addional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Omer Berberoglu in Mursitpinar, Raheem Salman and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Doina Chiacu in Washington and Ulf Lessing in Cairo; Writing by Mariam Karouny; Editing by Larry King)

An Indian courthouse investigates reports of unusual suspects: Ghosts

Over the last year, employees at the Karkardooma Court in East New Delhi have become convinced the place is haunted. The local bar association installed closed-circuit television cameras to try find out what was going on. (Annie Gowen/The Washington Post)

By Annie Gowen October 31

An Indian Courthouse Investigates Reports of Unusual Suspects Ghosts by Thavam

U.N. draft resolution urges Myanmar to drop Rohingya identity plan

Rohingyas travel in a rickshaw north of Sittwe, in Myanmar's Rakhine state, on June 26. | AP

NOV 1, 2014

UNITED NATIONS – A new U.N. draft resolution takes aim at Myanmar’s aggressive campaign to have its Rohingya Muslims identify as a term they reject, urging “access to full citizenship on an equal basis.”

The European Union-drafted resolution, obtained Friday by AP, is one piece of international pressure on the Southeast Asian country to change its campaign, preferably before world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, arrive for a regional summit in less than two weeks.

Myanmar’s 1.3 million Rohingya have emerged as a sensitive issue as Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist state, tries to move away from decades of repressive military rule toward democracy.

The Rohingya have been denied citizenship and have almost no rights. Attacks by Buddhist mobs have left hundreds dead and 140,000 trapped in camps. Others are fleeing the country.

Authorities want to officially categorize the Rohingya as “Bengalis,” implying they are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh. The Rohingya counter that many of their families have been in Myanmar for generations. Effectively stateless, they are wanted by neither country and say the Myanmar government’s campaign feels like an effort to have them systematically erased.

The vast majority of Rohingya live in the state of Rakhine. President Thein Sein, a former general, is considering a “Rakhine Action Plan” that will make people who identify themselves as Rohingya not only ineligible for citizenship but candidates for detainment and possible deportation.

The resolution now before the General Assembly’s human rights committee is nonbinding, but a strong vote in its support will send a message that international opinion is not on Myanmar’s side.

A Myanmar diplomat assigned to that committee, reached by telephone Friday for comment, said, “It’s too early to say.”

The resolution expresses “serious concern” about the Rohingya’s status. It calls on the government to “allow freedom of movement and equal access to full citizenship for the Rohingya minority” and to “allow self-identification.”

Myanmar’s plan worries some in the Muslim world, and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation pushed for strong language in the resolution.

Last week, Tim Kyaw, Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the General Assembly’s human rights committee that his country is not “targeting a religion.” He warned that “insisting on the right to self-identification will only impose obstacles to finding a lasting solution” to ethnic tensions.

Vijay Nambiar, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s special adviser on Myanmar, said last week that Myanmar’s government is facing increasing pressure to allow the Rohingya to identify as something other than Rohingya or Bengali.

But, Nambiar said, “In the immediate future, the government says that’s not possible.”