We’ll be done for this rate – Gota

 

Tuesday, 02 December 2014 

“The president does not heed any advice. Brother Chamal and I went to his house and described everything one by one a few days ago. When he is told so, he agrees. But, he does a totally different thing later. At this rate, we will not be able to walk on the streets. We cannot go to a foreign country. In the end, we will have to jump into the sea,” an emotional defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa tearfully told a friend at his home at no: 07, Flower Road, Colombo.

This house belongs to his friend Kavan Ratnayake, elder brother of former Matara district MP Sagala Ratnayake.

“Brother Basil and Namal have complicated everything. Yoshitha and Rohitha are in charge of the campaign. There is no coordination in their work. They suspect me too, because I am Maithri’s friend. Now, ministers are carrying tales against me that I opened the floating restaurant with Maithri after waiting for the president to leave the country. Maithri is my friend. We lost him due to our own faults. It is pointless to blame him now. If we do not rectify it, we will be done for,” he said in a dejected manner.

Kavan has said many things to pacify Gotabhaya, who remained silent for some time and left. According to our sources, this could be the beginning of a major turnaround.

Wimal’s MSD security withdrawn!

 

Tuesday, 02 December 2014 

The MSD security given to engineering services minister Wimal Weerawansa has been withdrawn and STF men have been deployed in instead, say government sources.

The reason is that the government has come to know that Weerawansa was having talks with the UNP through Nandana Gunatilake of Palamu Peramuna.

Soon after getting to know about that, the president had got hold of several files detailing the irregularities committed by Weerawansa. The State Intelligence Service has handed over these files – P/F 6622 Sub P.I.C. 38923013 against Weerawansa, P/F 6960 Sub P.I.C. 4665568 against Piyasiri Wijenayake, P/F 7433 Sub P.I.C. 3800315 against Muzammil and P/F 7208 Sub P.I.C. 4665725 against Housing Development Authority chairman Jayantha Samaraweera.

In addition, the SIS has told its officials to keep a close watch on the vehicles bearing numbers Gk 6257, NA 3971 and KD 3774.

Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders to ‘surrender’: Founders to turn themselves in to police and urge protesters to retreat as group’s poster-boy goes on hunger strike

Leaders announce move in commitment to ‘principle of peace and love’

 

Comes after dozens injured in worst night of riots since protests began

Teenage poster-boy and three other student leaders go on hunger strike

Move is desperate last bid to force government to make election reforms  

The three original founders of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Occupy movement tearfully announced today they would ‘surrender’ by turning themselves in to police and urged protesters still on the streets to retreat.

The announcement came after hundreds of pro-democracy protesters clashed with police late Sunday, leaving dozens injured in one of the worst nights of violence since rallies began over two months ago.

'As we prepare to surrender, we three urge the students to retreat - to put down deep roots in the community and transform the movement,' said Occupy Central leader Benny Tai.

His plea came as teenage poster-child of the movement, Joshua Wong, and two other student leaders went on hunger strike late Monday in a last-ditch attempt to force the government’s hand. 

 

Standing shoulder to shoulder: The three founders of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Occupy protest, (l-r) Chan Kin-man, Benny Tai and Chu Yiu-ming, announce they would ‘surrender’ by turning themselves in to police tomorrow in a commitment to the rule of law and ‘the principle of peace and love’

Joshua Wong is arrested during protests in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong last month

Tai said the trio would surrender to police on Wednesday in a commitment to the rule of law and ‘the principle of peace and love’.

 

'Surrendering is not an act of cowardice, it is the courage to act on a promise. To surrender is not to fail, it is a silent denunciation of a heartless government,' Tai said.

 

He praised the bravery of frontline occupiers and criticised the police as ‘out of control’, saying it was time for protesters to leave ‘this dangerous place’.

 

Academics Tai and Chan Kin-man, and Baptist minister Chu Yiu-ming founded the Occupy Central civil disobedience group in early 2013 to push for political reforms, but have increasingly taken a backseat as more radical student groups came to the fore. 

Full Story»>

NATO slams Russia over Ukraine

By Carol Morello December 2 at 10:36 AM

BRUSSELS — NATO accused Russia on Tuesday of destabilizing Ukraine, amid rising concern of a broader confrontation after Moscow announced it would hold more military exercises next year.
NATO Slams Russia Over Ukraine by Thavam Ratna

Oil Rally Fizzles; Kurds Reach Deal on Exports With Iraq

FPBy Mark Shenk and Moming Zhou - Dec 2, 2014

West Texas Intermediate and Brent crudes fell after the Iraqi government and Kurdish authorities reached an agreement that paves the way for increased oil exports.

WTI dropped for the fifth time in six days. The deal allows the shipment of 300,000 barrels a day of Iraqi Kirkuk blend to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan along a pipeline operated by the Kurds, Safeen Dizayee, a spokesman for the Kurdish Regional Government, said today by phone. Iraq is OPEC’s second-biggest oil producer. OPEC may hold an emergency meeting in the first quarter of 2015,Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez said in an interview with Panorama newspaper.
Oil Rally Fizzles; Kurds Reach Deal on Exports With Iraq by Thavam Ratna

Afghans fear history will be repeated as western involvement ends 
Tuesday 02 Dec 2014

As the historian AJP Taylor remarked: “The central lesson of history is that we do not learn the central lessons of history.”

Alex Thomson's View

Remember the central lesson of Afghan history, that the country collapsed into violent disorder after the Soviet withdrawal?

Except it did not. That is the central myth of recent Afghan history.

The truth – and thus the bitter lesson for now – is that Afghanistan enjoyed three years of relative stability and prosperity after the Russian military convoys cranked up over the Salang Pass on their way home for good.
Afghans Fear History Will Be Repeated as Western Involvement Ends by Thavam Ratna

In Open Letter To Muslim World, French Muslim Philosopher Says Islam Has Given Birth To Monsters, Needs Reform

November 5, 2014
In an essay published October 3, 2014 in the French newspaper Marianne, French Muslim philosopher Abdennour Bidar, author of  Self Islam: A Personal History of Islam(Seuil, 2006); Islam without Submission: Muslim Existentialism (Albin Michel, 2008), and A History of Humanism in the West (Armand Colin, 2014), wrote that Muslims cannot make do with denouncing and repudiating terrorist barbarism, but must acknowledge that its roots lie within Muslim society, and especially within the Islam that is prevalent in the Arab world today. He points out that Islam, like all religions, has throughout its history been a source of much good, wisdom and enlightenment, but that today’s mainstream Islam rejects the freedom and flexibility that are advocated by the Koran and instead promotes rigidity and regression that ultimately give rise to terrorism. The Muslim world, he concludes, must therefore reform itself, and especially its education systems, based on principles of freedom of religion and thought, equality, and respect for the other.
The following are translated excerpts from his essay:

Abdennour Bidar (image: aujourdhui.ma)
"I See That You Are Losing Yourself And Your Dignity, And Wasting Your Time, In Your Refusal To Recognize That This Monster Is Born Of You"

In Open Letter to Muslim World, French Muslim Philosopher Says Islam Has Given Birth to Monsters, Needs Ref... by Thavam Ratna

Lebanon detains wife of Islamic State leader

A man purported to be the reclusive leader of the militant Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has made what would be his first public appearance at a mosque in the centre of Iraq's second city, Mosul, according to a video recording posted on the Internet on July 5, 2014, in this still image taken from video.

BY LAILA BASSAM AND SYLVIA WESTALL-BEIRUT Tue Dec 2, 2014 

(Reuters) - The Lebanese army detained a wife and daughter of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as they crossed from Syria nine days ago, security officials said on Tuesday, in a move seen as likely to put pressure on the Islamist chief.

Lebanon Detains Wife of Islamic State Leader by Thavam Ratna

North Korea refuses to deny role in Sony cyber-attack

Experts say there is little hard evidence to point to Pyongyang, but secretive state appears happy to stay on list of suspects

Randall Park as Kim Jong-un in The Interview. Photograph: Columbia Pictures/Allstar

Justin McCurry in Tokyo-Tuesday 2 December 2014

North Korea has refused to deny it was behind a cyber-attack a week ago that resulted in online leaks of several new Sony Pictures films, possibly in retaliation for a forthcoming Sony film depicting a fictional plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un.

The attack leaked at least five high-profile titles – the recently released Fury, as well as unreleased movies such as Still Alice, Annie and To Write Love On Her Arms – to file-sharing sites and crippled the firm’s corporate email and other parts of its internal network.

The Interview, a comedy due for release next month about two journalists who are hired by the CIA to assassinate Kim, was not leaked. There has been speculation that the North, perhaps using hackers based in China, was trying to get its retaliation in early.

Despite reports that North Korea has assembled a sophisticated cyber-attack unit, and similarities between the Sony hack and a cyber-attack on South Korean banks and TV networks last year, experts say little hard evidence exists to point to the secretive state.

But North Korean officials appeared happy to let their country stay on the list of suspects. Asked whether Pyongyang was involved in the attack, a spokesman for North Korea’s mission to the UN accused “hostile forces” – usually a reference to the US, South Korea and Japan – of blaming everything on the North. But he added: “I kindly advise you to just wait and see.”

The FBI said it was investigating the hack and did not name any suspects.

Pyongyang reacted angrily when the film’s plot became public this summer, and promised a “resolute and merciless” response unless the US banned it. North Korea’s ambassador to the UN, Ja Song-nam, called the movie “the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as an act of war”, in a letter to the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.

Re/code, a technology news website, was the first to float the North Korea theory last Friday. Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, it said: “Sony Pictures Entertainment is exploring the possibility that hackers working on behalf of North Korea, possibly operating out of China, may be behind a devastating attack that brought the studio’s network to a screeching halt earlier this week … The sources stress that a link to North Korea hasn’t been confirmed, but has not been ruled out, either.”

Last week employees at Sony Pictures were greeted with an image of a red skull on their computer screens and the message “Hacked by #GOP” – thought to stand for Guardians of Peace. The screens then went dark.

Sony Pictures said it was trying to establish who was behind the attack. “The company has restored a number of important services to ensure ongoing business continuity and is working closely with law enforcement officials to investigate the matter,” it said.

It is not the first time North Korea has been accused of mounting cyber-attacks. While most ordinary North Koreans have no access to computers or the internet, the regime is thought to have committed vast resources to the development of a cyber-warfare unit.

Last year North Korean hackers were blamed for paralysing computer networks at three South Korean banks and the country’s two biggest TV networks. Some observers have noted that the methods used in that attack were similar to those used against Sony.

But Martyn Williams, of North Korea Tech, said that was where the similarities ended. In a blogpost on Tuesday, Williams lists several inconsistencies between the Sony incident and previous cyber-attacks linked to North Korea. They included the targeting of the Sony chief executive, Michael Lynton, on Sony Twitter accounts and the claim that the hack was carried out by the Guardians of Peace.

“Attacks linked to North Korea have never included these credits,” Williams said. “Of course none of these mean that the country is definitely not involved, but it seems possible that the story is too good to be true.”

In The Interview, which is due for release in the US on Christmas Day, Seth Rogen and James Franco play celebrity TV journalists who secure an exclusive interview with Kim and are then recruited by the CIA to kill him. A trailer of the film reveals a less than flattering portrayal of Kim, played by Randall Park, as an overweight cigar smoker.

Having once said he hoped Kim would like the movie, Rogen’s tone had hardened by last weekend. “I personally don’t care if [the film is] disrespectful to Kim because he’s evil. But that’s not the intent,” he tweeted on Sunday. “North Korea has produced tons of propaganda films that portray America’s destruction.” 

Vietnam detains blogger for ‘bad content’ posts

Pic: AP.

By AP News Dec 02, 2014 

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnamese police have detained a blogger for posting comments critical of the communist government in the latest crackdown on dissent.

Hong Le Tho, 65, was taken into police custody in southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement posted on its web site. The statement says his house was searched.

It says that Tho posted “online articles with bad content and false information that discredit and create distrust among people about state agencies, social agencies and citizens, under Article 258 of the Penal Code.”

His blog “Nguoi Lot Gach” or “A Brick Layer” could not be accessed after he was detained.

The U.S. government has urged Vietnam to improve its human rights record.

Letter to Pope Francis: Your Holiness, Delay Your Visit to Sri Lanka

[Political posters using Pope]-30/11/2014 

Writing to Pope Francis on his  proposed visit to Sri Lanka in January 2015 a group of Catholics has elaborated in detail the suppression of human rights in Sri Lanka and urge his Holiness to postpone his visit.
Letter to Pope Francis Your Holiness, Delay Your Visit to Sri Lanka by Thavam Ratna

An appeal from a Sri Lankan Catholic to Pope Francis: Please don’t come

by Ruki 

- on 12/01/2014 

On 20th Nov. 2014, the President of Sri Lanka officially proclaimed his intention to hold presidential elections and seek a third term. This was when there was two more years to hold presidential elections. It was widely believed that the reasons for premature elections was the fading popularity of the President and his strong belief in astrological predictions that his best chance of winning elections is in early January 2015. The premature elections was not at all based on public interest or to further democratic culture in Sri Lanka.
An Appeal From a Sri Lankan Catholic to Pope Francis Please Don’t Come by Thavam Ratna

Was Loku Athula murdered within Temple Trees ? – why no investigation into this murder mystery?

(Lanka-e-News -01.Dec.2014, 11.00PM) Grave suspicions are being harbored by the relatives of most popular Wijayamuni Dewage Athula Nimalasiri Jayasinghe alias ‘Loku Athula’, a former deputy Minister and current Gampaha district SLFP organizer that he was murdered within the Temple Trees.

Loku Athula had died while he was within the Temple Trees on 29 th night , and no postmortem examination had been conducted on his body, whereby the suspicions of the whole country had been aroused. These suspicions have been further heightened because of the tremendous efforts that are being taken to suppress this death within the ‘Temple Trees’ of the President of the country. After Loku Athula had revealed to his close party associates that he is going to extend his support to Maithripala Sirisena at the upcoming Presidential elections , he was summoned to the Temple Trees on the 29 th night at about 7.30 to hold discussions with a view to influence him to change his mind.

In compliance with the request he had visited the Temple Trees at the scheduled time , and as reported by Lanka e news yesterday (30) , discussions had been held with him with the participation of the decision making high profile team of the present regime comprising Mahinda Rajapakse , Basil Rajapakse, Dallas Alahaperuma, Susil Premajayantha and Anura Priyadharshana Yapa . Loku Athula was out until 9.00 p.m. At the end of the discussion , Mahinda Rajapkse had called Loku Athula into the room. What happened thereafter is known only to the two of them. Later , amidst screams , the ambulance of the Temple Trees was brought and Loku Athula was taken to hospital.

It is worthy of note that even when Loku Athula was being taken into the ambulance , he was dead. Hence , it was the corpse of Athula that was admitted to the hospital and not Athula . In the circumstances , this death is most suspicious , and a postmortem should be conducted compulsorily to ascertain the cause of the death, and an open magisterial verdict be delivered after the inquest. Yet , this procedure had not been followed. What is worse ? all moves are being made to suppress this incident which has every trace of evidence of homicide committed within Temple Trees.

How did Athula who was ailing from no disease , hale and hearty die suddenly within Temple Trees? Was he murdered ? Did he die due to a fatal fall when he was being assaulted by somebody ? All these questions are preying on the minds of Loku Athula’s relatives and friends .

Might we recall Loku Athula was the second in command only to Rohana Wijeweera during the 1971 insurgency. After the end of the unsuccessful insurgency , Athula and another 300 rebellions fled into the Wilpattu jungle from Kurunegala. When they went into hiding into the jungle , only a small group of about 45 members remained. In the jungle following an exchange of fire with the forces , Loku Athula was arrested after he was wounded due to gunshot injuries. Later in the much publicized court trial Loku Athula was made the first accused.

During the trial , Wijeweera betrayed the movement by claiming that the insurgency was a Loku Athula conspiracy and not the decision of the JVP . Loku Athula who pleaded guilty was punished with a life sentence. However in 1978 , with the pardon granted to the insurgents , Athula , was freed. Since that day , Athula was associated with the SLFP when pursuing his political career until the time of his recent mysterious death within the Temple Trees.

---------------------------
by     (2014-12-01 17:56:45)

Report: Abduction of a Husband and Threats to Silence the Wife

[Mauri Inoka]-30/11/2014 

Rankothge Mauri Inoka Kumari Jayasena (816311900V) is the wife of Madushka Haris De Silva who was abducted in September 2013 in the district of Anuradhapura. She was born on 10th May 1981. She has three children, son named Tharu born on 20th December 1999 from her first marriage and two twins – Daughter Ranulya Hansali and Son Ranula Hansitha – born on 27th Nov. 2013 from her second marriage with Madushka.
Report Abduction of a Husband and Threats to Silence the Wife by Thavam Ratna

EC Should Demand Asset Disclosure From All Candidates And Their Families

By Kusal Perera -December 1, 2014

Kusal Perara

01st December, 2014

Commissioner of Elections

election@slt.lk

Election Secretariat, Sarana Mawatha, Rajagiriya. 

Right to access assets & liability declarations of Candidates – Citizens’ right

I believe, you are much more conversant with the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Act No. 01 of 1975 amended in 1988 as Act No. 74 than me, which requires candidates for the upcoming presidential election to hand over declarations of their assets and liabilities along with those of their families when they submit nominations on 08 December 2014.

Yet with the Act as to date not making it mandatory to hand over such declarations at the time of submitting nominations, we are aware this legal requirement is not carried out effectively.

The sole objective of this Act was to wean out corruption and fraud completely or at least minimise them in the State administration and among politicians. It is to further consolidate this objective that the Act provides for elected politicians to annually declare their assets and liabilities along with those of their family and for citizens to have official access to those declarations.

Although the Act does not provide all necessary provisions adequately to you for this purpose, the post “Elections Commissioner” you hold as an independent position binds you to a social responsibility, over and above your official duties. Election is an independent, free and democratic process that ensures the “sovereignty of the people”. This process holds valid only if the people are assured and if they can have trust, in electing a government that would respect their sovereignty. Therefore your position as Election Commissioner carries with it a social responsibility, in ensuring the election of a government that will not be corrupt, from the time of accepting nomination, through elections till its conclusion. It is therefore my firm belief, you are not holding a position that can push legal provisions ahead of social responsibility. While trusting you would not shirk such social responsibility at this election, I wish to request you to honour the following in assuring the public you would hold yourself binding to social responsibility.

1. Request all political parties in writing and in advance to ensure their candidates submit declarations on assets and liabilities along with those of their families as required by Act No. 74 of 1988, at the time of handing in nominations. This notice to be released immediately to all media as well.
2. If there is any who fail to hand over declaration of assets and liabilities with nominations, to insist on a sworn affidavit they would comply with the Act that requires the declaration at the time of swearing in if elected, or within 30 days of the election, if otherwise.
3. All declarations received and sworn affidavits if any to be published in your official website whin 03 days of nominations.
4. If any candidate had been elected from a previous national election or still holds such elected office, their previous declarations to be published in your official website within 03 days of nominations.
5. The audited accounts for year 2013 that were handed over to you by political parties or parties in alliance that nominate a presidential candidate, to be immediately published in your official website.

My firm belief is, all the above are requests that can be efffected. I believe, you will not say there are no legal provisions for you to effect them. The reason is, while there is no law that says you can not act with such social respoìibility, those who claim they contest to save the country and for the good of the people cannot afford to object to their implementation. Therefore there is no law, nor any other social factor to hold you back.

Shall await your early response for this.

Thank you. Yours sincerely,

Sgd / Kusal Perera A Voter