Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Nurses’ strike disrupts health service across the country

December 30, 2014

The members of the Government Nursing Officers’ Association (GNOA) have staged an island-wide 24-hour token strike, since this morning. The token strike has caused disruptions to duly services at the government hospitals across the country, Ada Derana learns.

GNOA president Saman Rathnapriya said that the strike has been launched since the authorities failed to provide adequate solutions for some issues after several rounds of desiccations. Rathnapriya added that the GNOA urges Rs. 10,000 provision of transport and risk allowances.

“We will have a final discussion with the Secretary of Health Ministry. The GNOA will continue an island-wide strike, if authority fails to reach a mutual agreement, from 2 January 2015” Rathnapriya said.

The strike will not affect the Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital, the de Zoysa Hospital, the Castle Street Women’s Hospital and the National Cancer Institute in Maharagama. The strike will cover 650 hospitals across the island and 28,000 nurses will take part in the trade union action, said Rathnapriya.

Confirmed case of Ebola in Britain as a second is tested

A woman who was working for Save the Children in Sierra Leone has arrived in London for specialist treatment after being diagnosed with Ebola. A second suspected case is being tested in Glasgow.

MONDAY 29 DECEMBER 2014

The female patient, whose case has been confirmed, was initially put in isolation in Glasgow's Gartnavel Hospital after returning to the UK via Heathrow airport. She was reported to be in a stable condition. She was then moved to London's Royal Free Hospital for further treatment.
Confirmed Case of Ebola in Britain as a Second is Tested by Thavam Ratna

Mumbai suspect rearrested in Pakistan

FILE - In this Saturday, June 28, 2008 file photo, Pakistani Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi speaks during a rally at Muzaffarabad, in Pakistani controlled Kashmir, Pakistan. A Pakistani prosecutor says, Monday, Dec. 29, 2014, a court has suspended a detention order keeping the Lakhvi, alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks in jail, possibly paving the way for his release. (Roshan Mughal, File/Associated Press)

By Associated Press December 30 ISLAMABAD — Pakistani police have rearrested the main suspect in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, officials said Tuesday, quashing expectations that he might soon be freed.

Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi is one of seven suspects being tried by Pakistan in connection with the attacks, which killed 166 people and seriously damaged relations between longtime rivals Pakistan and India.

After a judge on Dec. 18 granted him bail there had been concerns that he would be freed, possibly as early as Tuesday. But on Tuesday morning, police arrested him on another case, his lawyer Rizwan Abbasi said.

Lakhvi appeared in court in Islamabad amid tight security. He told an Associated Press reporter that he accepted whatever God intended for him.

Police inspector Mohammed Arshad told the court that someone had filed a complaint at a police station on the Islamabad outskirts saying that Lakhvi had abducted his brother-in-law to wage “jihad” six and a half years ago. The judge granted a police request for time to investigate the accusation, extending Lakhvi’s detention for two days.

A lawyer for Lakhvi questioned why the complaint had only become known when it appeared that Lakhvi would be let go on bail. Rizwan Abbasi called it a tactic to “....deprive my client of the fundamental right of liberty.”

The legal maneuverings Tuesday stem from the decision on Dec. 18 by the judge in an anti-terrorism court to grant him bail, citing a lack of evidence.

That announcement was extremely embarrassing to the government, which had vowed to crack down on militancy following the Peshawar school attack days earlier. It provoked a harsh condemnation from India, which has repeatedly said Pakistan is not doing enough in the case.

In the wake of the bail announcement Pakistani legal authorities tried various mechanisms to keep Lakhvi behind bars, but in a hearing on Monday, a judge said that there were no grounds to prolong the detention and that the only thing standing between him and freedom was posting bail.

Pakistani television reported that senior officials met late Monday at the Interior Ministry to discuss the case. Lakhvi was rearrested the following morning.

Hamas bars Gaza children bereaved in war from visiting Israel

Interior ministry confirms 37 Palestinian children who lost parents in 50-day war blocked from crossing border into Israel

Palestinian children wait on a bus — The children were to have toured Arab towns in Israel and areas that had been under threat of Gaza rockets. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images

Sunday 28 December 2014

Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip prevented a group of Palestinian children who lost parents in the July-August war against Israel from making a rare goodwill visit to the Jewish state on Sunday, organisers of the trip said.

Gaza’s Hamas-controlled interior ministry, citing the children’s “suspicious” itinerary, confirmed they were barred from crossing the border.

Israeli peace activists said they had secured permission from the military to admit the 37 children and five accompanying adults for a week-long tour of Israel and the occupied West Bank, seat of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s government.

Yoel Marshak, an activist named on the permit, said the group included children of Hamas fighters killed in the 50-day war, which according to the Gaza Health Ministry claimed more than 2,100 Palestinian lives, most of them non-combatants. Israel put the number of its dead at 67 troops and six civilians.

During their visit, Marshak said, the children were to have toured Arab towns in Israel and southern areas that had been under threat of Gaza rockets. They were also scheduled to attend a performance by a Jewish-Arab band and visit a mixed school, the Tel Aviv beach and a nearby safari.

The schedule also included a meeting with Abbas in Ramallah.

Goodwill visits to Israel from Gaza are rare given ongoing hostility with Islamist Hamas, though Palestinian patients from the impoverished enclave are regularly admitted for pressing medical treatment.

Eyad Al-Bozom, spokesman for the interior ministry in Gaza, said the children had been stopped from crossing into Israel “to preserve the culture and tradition of our people” and because they were slated to visit “suspicious” sites. He did not elaborate. Malek Freij, director of the charity Candle for Peace which was also named on the children’s Israeli military-issued entry permit, said he and fellow organisers had sent 40 truckloads of aid into Gaza during the war and had previously hosted a small number of Palestinian orphans.

He said that this time, advance Israeli media reports of the children’s planned visit apparently led Hamas to cancel it.

“They (Gaza authorities) thought that Israel wants to exploit these children, and that’s a mistake,” Freij said next to the empty bus awaiting the group on the Israeli side of the Gaza border.

Amit Shah acquitted of triple murder charges

Amit Shah during a news conference in New Delhi July 9, 2014.

BY ANDREW MACASKILL-Tue Dec 30, 2014

(Reuters) - The head of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Amit Shah, was acquitted of three murder charges on Tuesday in a trial that had undermined the government's promise to usher in a new era of clean politics.

Shah, the closest aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was cleared of ordering police to carry out the extrajudicial killings of a gangster - Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife and his friend - when he served as home minister under Modi in the state of Gujarat almost a decade ago, Shah's lawyer, Mitesh Amin, said.

Amin said Shah was acquitted due to lack of evidence and the judge would give a more detailed explanation after a recess.

Shah was promoted to president of the Bharatiya Janata Party in July as he awaited his trial, two months after helping Modi deliver India's biggest election victory since 1984.

Party workers praise Shah as an efficient administrator, whose sharp political mind has helped him win nearly every election he has overseen in the last three decades.

Rubabuddin Sheikh, the brother of one of the victims, said his family would challenge the ruling.

"Amit Shah has wrongly been protected and we will challenge the court's order in the high court," Sheikh said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had accused Shah of running an extortion racket with police officers and Sheikh while holding the top law-and-order position in Gujarat.

Shah and Sheikh fell out and police snatched Sheikh from a bus with his wife in 2005, the CBI said in a charge sheet.

Sheikh was killed in a staged gun battle and his wife's cremated body was later found in the village of one of the policemen, the CBI report said.

Phone records show Shah had multiple calls with the accused officers during the operation and was "pivotal" to the conspiracy, the police said in the report.

A year later, a friend of the couple who witnessed the abduction was killed in a shootout with police.

The Gujarat government later admitted all three murders were staged, according to court documents. Police officers remain on trial for the killings.

(Editing by Malini Menon)

Storm kills 31 in Philippines, leaves 7 missing

Dec 30, 2014

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Flash floods and landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Jangmi left at least 31 people dead and seven missing in the Philippines, including in areas still recovering from last year's Typhoon Haiyan, officials said Tuesday.

Jangmi, packing winds of 65 kilometers (40 miles) per hour and gusts of 80 kph (50 mph), dumped heavy rains Monday on southern Mindanao Island, where floods destroyed bridges and highways, sending thousands of residents to evacuation centers. The storm then pushed its way through eastern and central islands, where most of the deaths occurred Tuesday.

The government weather bureau said that as of late Tuesday afternoon, the eye of the storm was 140 kilometers (87 miles) southwest of central Iloilo City, moving west at 19 kph (12 mph) toward western Palawan Island.

Mayor Stephanie Uy-Tan said 12 people died when a landslide buried two vans and six houses near a mountainside highway in eastern Catbalogan City. She said voices could still be heard from one of the vans and that rescue efforts were ongoing.

Olive Luces, a regional civil defense official, said 11 members of a family died after a creek-side house where they had gathered was washed away by flash floods in central Cebu province. Six other people were missing in the same town.

In eastern Leyte province's Tanauan town, which was devastated last year by Typhoon Haiyan, army rescuers retrieved five bodies from a house buried by landslide.

A 65-year-old man died due to drowning in southern Compostela Valley province, while another resident remains missing after crossing a swollen river.

In central Bohol province, an 80-year old man drowned to death, while a 10-year-old girl died in a landslide that hit her home in southern Butuan City, officials said.

Ferry fire: Two Albanian seamen die on tugboat during Norman Atlantic recovery operation

Both men died after a cable connecting their tugboat to the ferry snapped this morning after it became entangled in a propeller, according to Albanian officials.

The Italian government has said that it does not know how many passengers are missing after the deadly ferry blaze in which at least ten people died.

At the end of the rescue operation last night the country’s transport minister Maurizio Lupi said there were serious discrepancies in the ship’s manifest and that there could still be people unaccounted for.

"We cannot say how many people may be missing," he said.

video

A total of 427 people were rescued, while the ship’s manifest contained 475 people, meaning the death toll could be as high as 48.

But Italian officials said the names on the Norman Atlantic’s manifest may have represented just reservations, rather than passengers who had actually boarded the vessel.

One man died in the water trying to escape the Anek Lines ship, and a further nine bodies were found by rescuers during the operation, meaning the best estimate of the death toll is currently between ten and 48.

A minor international dispute also appears to have broken out between Italy and Albania over which country’s criminal and civil jurisdiction the incident falls under.

The ship was passing Albania, which lies between Greece and Italy, at the time of the fire; officials in both Italy and Albania have said they have plans to confiscate the vessel.

The ongoing evacuation of passengers from the burning ferry "Norman Atlantic" adrift off Albania

The Italian military conducted a daring rescue operation using helicopters amid 46mph gale-force winds and thick black smoke bellowing from the ship.

Rescued passengers described being drenched from above by cold winter rain and fire hoses while the decks below them burned.

"I witnessed an image of hell as described by Dante, on a ship where the decks were melting and we were trying to find some place that was not burning to stand on," said Chrysostomos Apostolou, a Greek civil engineer who had been on holiday with his wife and young sons.

The rescue operations of the ferry Norman Atlantic on fire in the Adriatic SeaThe ships captain, Argilio Giacomazzi, has been praised for having stayed on board the ship while it burned to oversee the rescue operation.

Passengers told the media that the ship’s crew were unhelpful during the evacuation, however, and offered no help.

The Press Association news agency reports passengers as saying that there was no alarm and that they had awoken to the disaster on their own accord.

AirAsia crash victims found: At least 40 bodies from doomed jet are recovered from the Java Sea

Indonesian search teams believe this lump of metal is a door from missing AirAsia flight 8501

Tragic: The flight went missing from radar at 6.18am local time - six minutes after last communication with air traffic control - while travelling from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board. Search and rescue workers spotted a number of bodies and debris floating in the water this morning

Dozens of bodies spotted floating in the sea off coast of Borneo Island
At least 40 bodies recovered from the water by Indonesian naval vessel
Officials have now confirmed wreckage is from AirAsia flight 8501
Local television showed at least one bloated corpse floating in water
Footage caused relatives watching live news stream to collapse in grief
AirAsia Airbus A320-200 vanished on Sunday with 162 people aboard

By JOHN HALL and BELINDA ROBINSON FOR MAILONLINE and SARAH DEAN-29 December 2014

Rescue workers searching for the doomed AirAsia flight 8501 have recovered at least 40 bodies from the Java Sea, the Indonesian Navy has confirmed.

Scores of bodies were discovered alongside luggage, a plane door and an emergency slide in the water 100 miles off the coast of Borneo Island earlier today, following three days of searching.

Officials have confirmed that the bodies and debris found in the Java Sea off Indonesia are from flight 8501, and a naval spokesman said the rescuers remain 'very busy' retrieving the victims.

Before darkness fell in the area, search teams identified a shadow that they believe to be the plane's fuselage beneath the water, which is relatively shallow at just 160 feet at its deepest point. Many of the remaining 122 victims are thought likely to still be on board the aircraft.

The recovery of 40 bodies came as devastated relatives of AirAsia crash victims collapsed in grief and were taken to hospital after an Indonesian television station showed disturbing uncensored footage of the swollen corpses floating in the sea.

Images shown on a news channel showed at least one body floating in the water, causing the victims' relatives - who were watching live reports at crisis-centre at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya - to burst into tears, with some fainting and requiring hospital treatment.

The Airbus A320-200 was 42 minutes into its flight from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore on Sunday when it vanished with 162 people on board.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Keep The Armed Forces In Barracks To Conduct Free & Fair Elections

Siritunga Jayasuriya-29/12/2014
I returned from my Jaffna and Vanni campaign tour this morning and am obliged to convey the general sentiments of the Tamil people in those districts. In fact the same sentiments were expressed by those in the East a week ago, when I was in the East where I had a nasty experience of facing a goon attack by regime thugs.

Tamil society will go to polls this time unlike in 2005 November and they need a free and peaceful environment to engage in politics to participate in elections. Yet the feeling of insecurity and possible intimidations prevail very strongly in the Northern Tamil psyche with armed security and para military groups moving freely in those areas. Their past traumatic and frightening experiences with the military occupying North and East do not allow them to feel secure and safe.

It is known and was discussed openly how the Rajapaksa regime used both the security forces and para military groups to intimidate, threaten and stop people voting during the Northern PC elections. Northern Province Governor, an ex army officer escorted by armed security, openly identified himself with the Rajapaksa campaign. Even candidates like Ananthi Sasitharan was attacked during that election campaign and she told media she fears death.

This 2015 January presidential election is without a main opposition candidate to directly represent the Tamil people. Common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena is also on a Sinhala Buddhist platform, promising to stand by “war heroes”. Therefore the possibility of the Rajapaksa regime using armed security forces in election related work during the last few days before polls on January 08, is heavily suspected with their enormous and conspicuous presence in North and East. That possibility cannot be ruled out too, with the electoral decline President Rajapaksa as a candidate is facing in all other districts.

In addition to the near impossible task that the election commission is conducting, I urge the Election Commissioner (EC) to immediately intervene immediately to prevent any such high handed threatening intervention by the military and their covert support for para military groups, used by the Rajapaksa campaign.

EC will therefore have to make certain very soon that the military remains in the barracks, at least from midnight 05 January till the election is over. Three days in barracks, this country will not have any national security issue though Secretary Ministry of Defense (MoD), Gotabhaya Rajapaksa could be expected to say the LTTE is still a threat. He in fact may not be the Secretary MoD by the time election results are announced and therefore need not bother himself of national security issues thereafter. That will be the responsibility of the new government. What is most important right now is to allow the Tamil people to go to polls with confidence and use their sovereign right to vote as they wish. That demands the military to be kept in barracks.

I as a Candidate in the Elections to the Post of the President therefore, demand the EC to immediately arrange for the army to be removed to barracks from midnight 05 January and detail the police to enforce rule of law in both North and East.

Media brief on North-East
Siritunga Jayasuriya 29/12/2014. Colombo
USP Presidential Candidate

Pope’s Lankan tour cancelled?

Monday, 29 December 2014

The Sri Lankan tour of Pope Francis that was due from 13 to 15 of January has to be cancelled in view of the prevailing situation in the country, the Vatican government has unofficially told the Sri Lankan government, say internal sources in the government.

The Vatican has intimated the decision through its Sri Lankan representative, Rt. Rev. Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, who has been asked by the government not to mention this to the Sri Lankan media until the last moment, say the sources.

The prevailing political situation as well as the inclement weather have been cited as reasons for the cancellation of the papal visit. The government has asked the cardinal to make an announcement as a cancellation would have an effect on the pro-government Catholic voters.

Soon after getting to know about this, the president immediately summoned all Catholic leaders in the government and appealed to them to make maximum efforts, at whatever strategy and whatever cost, to get the Vatican to change its decision before it is officially announced.

Mahinda And Maithiri; Heading On A Collision Course

By Thambu Kanagasabai -December 29, 2014

Thambu Kanagasabai

The presidential elections scheduled on Jan 08, 2015 have pitted. 17 candidates but the real battle is between Mahinda and Maithiripala Srisena. Mahinda is seeking a third term while Maithiri a rebel from SLFP is challenging him.

Maithiri’s daring cross over and challenge sent shock waves to Mahinda and his family clan who took things for granted until Maithiri decided enough is enough and cleverly pulled out from Mahinda’s grip, thanks to the manipulation and manouvering of Chandrika, who has been spoiling for revenge against Mahinda who treated her shabbily and even expelled her from the party which her father SWRD founded in 1952.

Thanks to Mahinda and his brothers’ dictatorial and arrogant attitude towards the ministers, members of his party and even to those who dare to criticize or challenge them directly or indirectly. With 75% of economy and finance in the hands of Mahinda including the security forces, no doubt there were murmurings and feelings of dissent, anger and frustration among the ministers and members who were simply treated as non-entities and lame ducks in the cabinet and parliament.

Mahinda took the inevitable risky decision to hold the elections two years before due date noting the downward turn of his popularity and growing opposition from the Sinhalese voters who are struggling with high cost of living with rampant corruption, bribery, favouritism and nepotism ruling the day.

Amassing of wealth through corruption and bribery by the Rajapaksa family is no more a secret. Mahinda won the second term elections on the waves of victory over LTTE, the euphoria of which has now dwindled and looks no more a catching slogan and a straw to hang on for victory by Mahinda. Considering the pulse of the people, he is raising the lame bogey of tigers or LTTE who according to him have been eliminated during the 2009 war. In addition, international conspiracy, plot by opposition to divide the country etc have been raised by Mahinda and company in desperation. It appears that Sinhalese voters are no more in a mood to believe these hollow stories. Like the rats who escape from a sinking ship, the exodus ministers, MP’S, regional party officials is continuing following the exit of Maithiri Srisena who sparked the light.Read More

The presidential polls – What about agriculture and health?

POSTED ON DECEMBER 28TH, 2014

Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada

The common candidate was a former minister of health, and also a former minister of agriculture. His election manifesto is remarkable in the absence of any statements regarding the crisis in agriculture, health and environmental degradation, resulting in kidney disease, dengue fever and malnutrition spreading in many parts of the country. A similar lacuna is notable in the manifestos of the ruling party, and other candidates. The election manifestos are influenced by city-based political ideologues concerned only about executive power and regime change. The campaign focuses on constitutional change and claims of good governance, but ignores the more important need to re-think in terms of long term sustainable development.

The Presidential Polls – What About Agriculture and Health by Thavam Ratna

Human Rights Commission Of Sri Lanka Issued A Directive To All Public Officers Of Sri Lanka On The Presidential Election 2015

December 26, 2014

A directive has been issued to all public officers of Sri Lanka on the Presidential election 2015 by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. The main intention of this directive is to ensure that the upcoming presidential election of Sri Lanka 2015 will be free and fair and a reflection of the view of people of the country without any pressure being brought upon them.

Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has informed the Secretary to the President, All Secretaries of Ministries, All Chief Secretaries of Provincial Councils, Commanders of the Armed Forces/Inspector General of Police, Director of Department of Civil Security to take steps to inform the staff under their control and in the institutions under their control and to act bearing in mind the following facts.

To see that the law is implemented impartially and fairly.
Non implementation of the law amounts to a violation of fundamental rights.
Non implementation of official duties, failure to perform duties, misconducts, misuse of power, permitting the use of public property and resources for certain political parties and groups to the detriment of other groups amount to violation of fundamental rights that officers responsible for them become personally responsible.
The conduct of public officers who do not have the right to engage in political activities engaging in such activity, public officers having the right to engage in political activities engaging in them during their office hours or engaging in political activities misusing their official powers amount to offences under the election laws and administrative laws in force.

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Sinhala Tamil English

Letter-toAll-state-officers-English-Human Rights Commission Of Sri Lanka Issued A Directive To All Public O... by Thavam Ratna

Letter-toAll-state-officers-Tamil-Human Rights Commission Of Sri Lanka Issued A Directive To All Public Off... by Thavam Ratna

Even as Namal spends Rs. 500 million on Indian actor Salman Khan and group to attend President’s election rally , his Nil Balakaya attacks own local artistes

(Lanka-e-News- 29.Dec.2014, 6.00PM) A group of hoodlums who are members of Nil Balakaya of Namal Rajapakse , the son of the President of Sri Lanka has just a while ago launched a violent attack on the local artistes organization of the new generation (Aluth parapura artistes) which is against corruption and for promotion of Democracy , who are taking the steadfast stand that the ruling regime should be changed. ..

Kamal indika , a prominent member of the Nil Balakaya and Wayambe provincial council (PC) had assaulted popular artiste Lakshman Wijesekera .

With the participation of the artistes , Samanali Fonseka, Jagath Manuwarna , Lakshman Wijesekera , Ama Wijesekera , Vihanga Wijesekera , Mohan Raj Madawala , Indrachapa Liyanage , and Kaushalya Kumarasinghe, a fete was held at Kurunegala, Kumbukgete with a view to enlighten the people . Just as this event was concluding , a group of goons of Nil Balakaya broke into the venue , and had attacked those present with stones and missiles . Believe it or not , Kamal Indika the PC member and his group had arrived in government vehicles , according to unofficial sources.

Several artistes have sustained injuries and at the moment of publication of this news , the victims were on the way to lodge a complaint with the DIG of the province.

The cruelest irony is , Namal Rajapakse( the son of the President of the country !) who is using his Nil Balakaya goons and gangs to launch vicious attacks on our own country’s stage and film artistes has no qualms about getting down Indian film artistes like Salman Khan and a group spending over Rs. 500 million to mount the political stage of Mahinda Rajapakse’s election rallies.

In the circumstances , Namal Rajapakse is duty bound to ask for a public pardon from our own local artistes who fell victims to the attack launched by Namal’s Nil Balakaya and his hoodlums.

Click here -Listen the voice of victimised artist Jagath Manuwarna

and see the video footage of attack