Friday, October 30, 2015

Sri Lanka Police Asks Lawyers Not to Appear for Known Criminals

29/10/2015

In a strange turn of events Sri Lanka police, which is entrusted to protect rule of law in the country has asked lawyers not to appear for known criminals, reports Colombo Gazette.

This police statement has been made in the wake of Dunesh Priyashantha, who was arrested and tortured by the police, making a complaint to the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission for unlawful arrest and torture while in the police custody.

Dunesh Priyashantha had filed his petition through his lawyers at the Human Rights Commission.

Torture makes on Dunesh’s body

The police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera has denied claims of widespread torture in the police service and also questioned the motives behind the campaign by lawyers appearing for Dunesh Priyashantha, alias Kondaya, who was acquitted in the murder of a five year old child recently.

Police spokesman has questioned as to why some lawyers were appearing for Dunesh Priyashantha when he is still charged with several criminal offences, including the alleged attempt to abduct a teenage girl.

A leading lawyer told SLB that the Police seems to be ignorant of every citizen’s right to be represented by lawyers at police stations as well as any judiciary process.

( With inputs form Colombo Gazette )

Mahinda’s BIL missing from home

THURSDAY, 29 OCTOBER 2015

The wife of former SriLankan Airlines chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe, brother in law of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has said that her husband had not come home for the last three years and she was not aware about his whereabouts.

Nishantha Wickremesinghe was summoned to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to Investigate and Inquire into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power regarding irregularities that had taken place at Srilankan catering service during Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. He is expected to appear before PRECIFAC at 9.00 a.m. tomorrow (30th).

However, when officers of PRECIFAC visited Mr. Wickramasinhe’s residence in Mount Lavinia his wife had told them he had not come home for three years and that she was unaware of his whereabouts.

Meanwhile, former Civil Aviation Minister Priyankara Jayaratne’s statement was recorded yesterday.

‘Envelope Money’ plays truant in Filipino

journalism

2015-10-30

Corruption triggered the 2009 Amapatuan massacre in the Philippines

A ‘Lankan Envelope’ is doing the rounds among our scribes too

In three weeks from now, November 23rd to be precise, the Philippines will commemorate the infamous Ampatuan massacre that took place in the conflict-affected region of Muslim dominated Mindanao. There were 32 journalists and media workers among the 58 people who were brutally killed by a powerful clan called the Ampatuan in the picturesque Maguindanao Province of this troubled region on November 23, 2009.

‘Envelope Money’ Plays Truant in Filipino Journalism by Thavam Ratna

Gaza aid pledges fail to materialize

Ahmad al-Hamayda stands at the site of his destroyed home in Khan Younis.

Rabie Abu Noqaira-Isra Saleh el-Namey29 October 2015

The Electronic Intifada

For more than a year, Ahmad al-Hamayda, his six siblings and their elderly parents have been forced to live in a cramped apartment. Their two-story house in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, was totally destroyed by Israel during 2014.

Gaza Aid Pledges Fail to Materialize by Thavam Ratna

Diplomats look to overcome rifts in talks to ease Syrian strife

Foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France and Germany arrived in Vienna for talks aimed at finding a political solution to Syria's four-year-old civil war. (Reuters)

By Carol Morello-October 30

VIENNA — As fighting in Syria raged, diplomats opened talks Friday seeking a pathway to end the country’s grueling conflict that have included Russian military intervention and international rifts over the fate of Syria’s embattled president.

The diplomats from 17 nations and two organizations, the European Union and the United Nations, were expected to discuss a potential cease-fire and at least start trying to formulate a political transition for a future without President Bashar al-Assad.

The talks started in a five-star hotel, where Secretary of State John F. Kerry sat at the head of a u-shaped conference table. The position reflected Kerry’s central role in bringing together nations that have a vested interest in the war’s outcome and clashing views over Assad — now backed by Russian military forces, but opposed by rebels factions that include units with links to Washington and its allies.

The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, was seated far apart from the Saudi foreign minister, Adel Al Jubeir, in a physical manifestation of the animosity between the two nations and their differing perspectives on how to end the fighting.

[Washington looks for diplomatic path as Moscow steps up military aid]

The diplomats have tried to downplay expectations for the talks. Kerry, for example, explicitly characterized his outlook as hopeful rather than rosy.

“I don’t call it optimism,” Kerry said before meeting with Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shourky. “I am hopeful that we can find a way forward. It is very difficult.”

In Washington, meanwhile, the U.S. military strategy in Syria took a new turn with plans to send a small group of Special Operations forces to advise Syrian Kurdish militias fighting the Islamic State, officials said, marking the first ground deployment for American troops in Syria.

More than four years of warfare in Syria has claimed more than 200,000 lives and sent more than 3 million refugees into neighboring countries or en route to Europe as part of a massive flow of migrants.

The chaos also has opened room for gains by the Islamic State, which continues to hold ground despite more than a year of U.S.-led airstrikes.

A senior State Department official, talking about the closed-door talks on condition of anonymity, said the talks are infused with a sense of urgency driven by the refugee exodus.

“The secretary feels this can’t go on through another winter, and continue to percolate,” the official said. “It’s got to move to a political transition that is not tied to Assad.”

Even as the envoys gathered at the Imperial Hotel, about 40 Syrians died when the government forces fired rockets and mortars into a market in suburban Damascus, activists said. The Douma district, a stronghold for some rebel factions, is a frequent target of government air attacks.

The meeting, arranged in less than a week, represents the broadest group yet to tackle the conflict in Syria. It includes countries from Europe and the Middle East that are hosting a flood of Syrian refugees, and countries that are engaged militarily in the war.

Though no representative from the Syrian government is attending, its interests are represented by Iran and Russia, both of which have provided financial and military support to Assad.

State Department officials have said they hope the Vienna meeting will establish a framework for future talks on Syria, which could resume as early as next week. They said it is unrealistic to expect the diplomats to emerge after just one day of talks with a clear solution.

It is not clear whether, at this early stage, how deeply they will dive into thecontentious issue of Assad’s role.

The United States, Europe and the Gulf Arab states all are adamant that Assad ultimately must go, though some acknowledge he may stay on during a transition period. Iran and Russia consider him essential to keep the country from splintering, at least in the short term, and are reluctant to negotiate his departure.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said it is premature for the diplomats to agree on a fundamental issue in which the parties are so far apart.

“You have to organize the political transition,” he told reporters Friday “and obviously Bashar al-Assad is responsible for a large part of the drama and cannot be considered in the future of Syria. Therefore, at one moment or another in this political transition, he should no longer be in power.”

Carol Morello is the diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post, covering the State Department.

Syrian missile attack on market kills at least 40 people

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says government troops fired 12 missiles in Douma, near Damascus

Smoke rises after a Syrian army helicopter strike on Darayya district in Damascus this week. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Agencies in Beirut-Friday 30 October 2015

At least 40 people have been killed and about 100 wounded after Syrian government forces fired missiles into a market near Damascus, according to a conflict monitor and a local rescue group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces fired 12 missiles in Douma, 10 miles north-east of the capital.

The Syrian Civil Defence group, which posted a picture on its Facebook page showing about a dozen bloodied bodies, said more than 45 people had died in the attack.

Fires can be seen burning as people in Douma try to salvage items from the marketplace

Douma has suffered intense bombardment in recent months in a wave of strikes. It is home to the Jaysh al-Islam rebel group, also known as Islam Army, which has claimed responsibility in the past for firing rockets on Damascus, the seat of Bashar al-Assad’s presidency.

In August, airstrikes on Douma were said to have killed around 100 people, provoking sharp rebuke from the UN and other officials. It has been held by anti-Assad rebels since the early days of Syria’s conflict.

Many of Douma’s residents have fled the four-year conflict, moving to nearby rural areas. Medics say they have struggled to cope with large numbers of wounded people in the intensified strikes.

The attack was a stark reminder of the enormous civilian suffering, on a marathon day of peace talks in Vienna, with Iran joining rivals Saudi Arabia and the US to try to orchestrate an end to the Syrian conflict.

What began in March 2011 as mostly peaceful protests escalated into a full-scale civil war after a massive government crackdown. The war has claimed more than 250,000 lives and displaced up to a third of Syria’s pre-war population.

US to send special ops forces to Syria, as diplomats descend on Vienna for talks

Barack Obama authorises first sustained deployment of special forces to help 'local ground forces' in fight against Islamic State

US special forces soldiers take part in a training exercise in southern Germany August 26, 2015 (AFP) -

Friday 30 October 2015

The United States on Friday announced its first sustained deployment of ground troops to Syria, saying a small special forces team would assist the fight against the Islamic State group, as major powers met in Vienna seeking a political solution to the war.

The deployment marks an escalation in Washington's efforts to defeat IS, which has tightened its grip on swathes of Syria despite more than a year of US-led air strikes.

Officials said President Barack Obama had authorised an initial deployment of "fewer than 50" special forces to northern Syria - parts of which are controlled by Syrian Kurdish forces fighting IS - easing his long-standing refusal to put boots on the ground.

"They will help coordinate local ground forces and coalition efforts to counter ISIL," said a senior administration official, using an alternative acronym for IS.

Washington will also deploy A-10 ground-attack planes and F-15 tactical fighter jets to the Incirlik base in southern Turkey, as part of the ramped up effort.

The announcement came as key backers of Syria's rival sides sought to overcome deep divisions over the conflict, with government allies Russia and Iran resisting Western and Saudi pressure to force President Bashar al-Assad from power.

Top diplomats from 17 countries, as well as the United Nations and the European Union, gathered in Vienna for talks bringing together all the main outside players in the four-year-old Syrian crisis for the first time.

The West and Gulf monarchies led by Saudi Arabia want Assad to step down, but Moscow and Tehran insist he has a right to play a role in an eventual transition towards a mooted unity government and later elections.

More talks in two weeks

France announced late on Friday afternoon that the talks had ended, with major powers to meet again on the crisis in two weeks' time.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had said earlier that the talks were not about whether Assad should go.

"It is not the fate of Bashar al-Assad that is being discussed," he told reporters in Russia.

"Any political settlement is hard to achieve before the forces of terrorism and extremism sustain a significant blow."

Iran's deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also strongly denied reports that Tehran was ready to accept a scenario under which Assad would step down within six months, Iranian state television reported.

But Iran nevertheless joined the talks for the first time, in a sign of its growing diplomatic clout months after striking a landmark nuclear deal with world powers.

There were some signs of progress in Vienna, with Russia and Saudi Arabia exchanging a list of Syrian opposition groups with which they have contact, Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said, quoted by RIA Novosti state news agency.

And even getting Iran and Saudi Arabia - the Middle East's foremost powers which back opposing sides in conflicts across the Arab world - to sit at the same table was seen as progress.

'Very difficult’

US Secretary of State John Kerry sat at the head of the table for the meeting, which also included senior envoys from Russia, China, Turkey, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Qatar, the UAE and Oman.

The Syrian government and the opposition were not represented at the discussions aimed at ending a war that has claimed a quarter of a million lives.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir - whose kingdom supports the overthrow of Assad - was sat almost as far from his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif as was possible at the tight U-shaped table in a conference room of Vienna's Imperial Hotel.

Just ahead of the talks, 40 people were killed on Friday when rockets fired by Syrian government forces crashed into a market in a rebel-held area outside Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Kerry, while warning against expectations of an immediate solution, had said he was hopeful about the talks.

"I don't call it optimism. I am hopeful that we can find a way forward. It is very difficult," he said ahead of the main meeting.

Russia, which has waged a month of intense air strikes against Assad's armed opponents, has urged preparations for parliamentary and presidential elections in Syria.

But the idea has been rejected by rebels who say a vote would be impossible in the current circumstances, with millions of Syrians displaced, cities standing in ruins and two-thirds of the country in the hands of IS and various armed groups.

Underscoring the perils facing those fleeing the war, 26 migrants, including at least 17 children, drowned during the night making the perilous journey from Turkey to Greece as they made a desperate bid to reach Europe.

The West has accused Russia of concentrating its air campaign in Syria on moderate opposition groups opposed to Assad's rule, although Moscow says it is focusing on defeating IS and other "terrorist" organisations.

Russia said Friday its airforce had hit 1,623 "terrorist targets" in Syria over the past month, including 51 training camps.

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-send-fewer-50-special-ops-forces-syria-official-931626846#sthash.RDFe1HsH.dpuf

Benghazi Smokescreen: Hiding Western War Crimes in Libya

by THOMAS MOUNTAIN-OCTOBER 30, 2015

The recent Benghazi smokescreen produced by the US Congress may have tried to hide the war crimes committed by the USA and its western vassals in Libya but reality on the ground has blown all the smoke away bringing to light who the west really empowered once again, the Islamic State a.k.a. Da’esh.

Through out the Benghazi hearings no mention was made of the tens of thousands of Libyans that were massacred by the over 10,000 bombing raids flow by western pilots, part of a no fly zone enacted even though there was not a single aerial raid by Gaddafi prior to the imposition of such. No mention of this at the hearings of course, the fact that there was absolutely no need for a no fly zone because there never had been any bombings by Gaddafi of anyone in Libya during the entire rebellion.

The fraudulent no fly zone was part of a trio of fabricated charges used to incite international support for a particularly criminal war that destroyed a country whose people enjoyed a life that was the envy of their neighbors.

During the golden age of Libyan peace and prosperity under Muammar Gaddafi and his peoples movement Libya was generally an island of religious moderation surrounded by neighbors fighting powerful extremist movements that were the forefathers of today’s Islamic State takfiri/wahabists.

Today’s Islamic State leader in what used to be Libya is one Bel Haj, infamous for his role in recruiting suicide bombers to slaughter untold thousands of Iraqi Shi’ite during his reign over Al Queda in Iraq after the US invasion.

During the Libyan rebellion he was recast as an anti Gaddafi patriot fighting a despotic regime in Libya. Tens of thousands of US made bombs later and the death of Gaddafi, the man who released him from prison, Bel Haj is now Caliph of a large chunk of north Africa, once part of Gaddafi’s Jammahariya.

Where do you think Boko Haram in Nigeria is getting its weapons from?

The other two lies used to whip up international opinion against the Gaddafi government where so intertwined in an historic racism rooted deep in the Arab psyche that all it took were broadcasts alleging Black, African mercenaries were raping Arab women to send hundreds of thousands of Libyan families fleeing their homes. Yet not one case of rape has ever been proven never mind Hillary Clinton’s viagra fueled mass rape charges. Of course, this question will never be raised in the likes of the Benghazi hearings, though an Amnesty International senior investigator was in Benghazi a week after the rebellion broke out in 2011 and reported that there had been no rapes,, no African mercenaries and only 110 dead total, including both sides, before the No Fly Zone was launched under fraudulent pretexts.

No black mercenaries, no rapes, and no aerial bombardments, the war against Libya was based entirely on lies. No wonder Pax Americana had to try so hard to divert attention from anything resembling scrutiny of what they created, the lawlessness and terrorism in what was once the state of Libya.

With a homeland under the Islamic State and its Caliph, Bel Haj, fanatics from the entire region have a haven to rest and recuperate, and rearm, before returning to the front lines to commit more murder against apostates and infidels where ever they may be. Boko Haram has certainly benefited from Libyan arms and Bel Haj’s support.

All the smoke used to dress the Benghazi melodrama and punditry has blown away for now, and no one in the USA is any wiser about what really happened in the destruction of a once proud nation, Libya. For this we can thank the Benghazi smokescreen and those behind the fog machines, the ever faithful media in the West.

Thomas C. Mountain attended Punahou School for six years some half a dozen years before “Barry O’Bombers” time there. He has been living and writing from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain at g_ mail_ dot _com

Shaker Aamer, the last Briton in Guantanamo Bay, is released

FRIDAY 30 OCTOBER 2015
The last British resident at Guantanamo Bay has been released today after 13 years at the US military prison in Cuba.

After 13 years being held at Guantanamo Bay, Shaker Aamer, the last British resident at the US military prison in Cuba, has been released, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed.

Mr Aamer, now 46, boarded a flight back to the UK today to end 13 years in detention without charge or standing trial.

Mr Hammond said: “The Americans announced some weeks ago that they were going to release Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo and I can confirm that he is on his way back to the UK now and he will arrive in Britain later today.”

ï»¿ï»¿

Reprieve @Reprieve

Looks like a plane has left Guantánamo Bay, bound for London.

1:14 AM - 30 Oct 2015

Andy Worthington, co-director of the We Stand With Shaker campaign, said: “We're delighted to hear that his long and unacceptable ordeal has come to an end.

“We hope he won't be detained by the British authorities on his return and gets the psychological and medical care that he needs to be able to resume his life with his family in London.”

Mr Aamer was described in US military files obtained by Wikileaks as a “close associate of Osama bin Laden” and it was claimed he fought in the battle of Tora Bora, which supporters of the Briton have dismissed.

The charges against Mr Aamer were dropped in 2007.

Despite a formal request by then-foreign secretary David Miliband, American authorities refused to allow him to go.

The Briton says he was seized by bounty hunters in Afghanistan in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks and was then handed over to US forces, being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in February 2002.

Mr Aamer’s lawyers claim he was subjected to torture, beatings and sleep deprivation, and held in solitary confinement for 360 days.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said:“After so many twists and turns in this appalling case, we won't really believe that Shaker Aamer is actually being returned to the UK until his plane touches down on British soil.

“We should remember what a terrible travesty of justice this case has been, and that having been held in intolerable circumstances for nearly 14 years Mr Aamer will need to time to readjust to his freedom.”

EU Parliament Calls For Snowden To Get Asylum

BY ELIAS GROLL-OCTOBER 29, 2015

The European Parliament voted narrowly on Thursday to urge its 28 member states to protect NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden from prosecution and extradition and to recognize him as a defender of human rights because of his revelations regarding U.S. and British spying.

Though Snowden’s disclosures caused a firestorm of public controversy in Europe, few nations have been willing to provoke a confrontation with Washington, which has demanded that he be returned to the United States to face espionage charges. And it’s far from certain that Thursday’s non-binding resolution, approved by a vote of 285 to 281, will cause any other European states to step up and protect Snowden from the long arm of the U.S. Justice Department. The former NSA contractor has been living in Russia since 2013.

Asylum protection for Snowden would surely provoke a diplomatic crisis with the United States, and on Thursday the White House reiterated its intention of putting Snowden on trial. “Our position has not changed,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. “Mr. Snowden is accused of leaking classified information and faces felony charges here in the United States. As such, he should be returned to the U.S. as soon as possible, where he will be accorded full due process.”

Though it is unlikely to pave an immediate path out of Russia for Snowden, the resolution represents yet another milestone in Snowden’s efforts to bolster the legitimacy of his actions and lay the legal groundwork for his eventual departure from Russia, where he has taken refuge for the last two years. Writing on Twitter, Snowden called the resolution a “game-changer” and said that it “is not a blow against the US Government, but an open hand extended by friends. It is a chance to move forward.”

The resolution calls on EU states “to drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistleblower and international human rights defender.”

Snowden has repeatedly said that he would like to leave Russia. Several Latin American nations have offered him legal protection, but the whistleblower is reportedly skeptical that he would be able to reach Venezuela, Nicaragua, or Bolivia without being arrested by U.S. authorities.

Several European states have made non-committal statements as to whether they would grant Snowden asylum, saying that he would have to physically make it to their countries in order to lodge an asylum request. Others, including Poland, have been outright hostile to the notion of granting Snowden legal protection.

The resolution gives Snowden’s defenders a potent argument to fight back against such resistance, but not much more. He probably won’t be leaving Russia any time soon.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Greece says twenty-two migrants drown off Aegean islands, 144 rescued

ATTENTION EDITORS - VISUAL COVERAGE OF SCENES OF INJURY OR DEATH The covered body of a migrant, who was said to have been onboard a wooden boat carrying refugees and migrants that sunk at open sea near Lesbos on October 28, is seen at a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos, ...

Fri Oct 30, 2015

Greece rescued 144 refugees and recovered the bodies of 22, including four infants and nine children, after their boats sank in two separate incidents in the Aegean sea, the coastguard said on Friday.

The death toll from drownings at sea has mounted recently as weather in the Aegean has taken a turn for the worse, turning wind-whipped sea corridors into deadly passages for thousands of refugees crossing from Turkey to Greece.

The coast guard said 138 migrants were rescued and 19 drowned after their wooden boat capsized off the island of Kalymnos late on Thursday.

In a second incident off the island of Rhodes, three people, including a child and an infant, drowned and four were missing. Six people were rescued at sea, the coastguard said.

Some 16 people, including two infants and eight children, were confirmed dead and 274 people were rescued when a wooden boat they were on literally fell apart in rough seas off the Greek island of Lesbos late on Wednesday.

Greece has been a transit point for more than 570,000 refugees and migrants fleeing conflict in the Middle East and beyond this year, triggering bickering among European nations at odds on how to deal with one of the biggest humanitarian crises in decades.

Refugees have reported smugglers offering 'discounts' of up to 50 percent on tickets costing between 1,100 to 1,400 euros to make the journey on inflatable rafts in bad weather, UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Thursday.

Perceptibly sturdier wooden boats cost more, at between 1,800 and 2,500 euros per passenger.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Credibility of Burma’s elections comes into question over exclusion of Muslim minority

Thousands or Rohingya migrants were abandoned at sea earlier this year. Pic: AP.>>>

Supporters of Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party attend a rally in Mandalay earlier this week. Pic: AP.

by Asian Correspondent Staff -30th October 2015

EVEN before the November 8 election comes around in Burma, also known as Myanmar, lawmakers have begun to question just how free and fair it will be with odds stacked in the government’s favour and large numbers of people unable to vote.

Credibility of Burma’s Elections Comes Into Question Over Exclusion of Muslim Minority by Thavam Ratna

Kill Fat Cells Instantly Just by Freezing Them!

( You’ll Never Believe How it Works )

Coolsculpting-Before-After-2-e1439426898249

Womans Vibe

October 26 at 5:44pm

For most people, fat bulges are something they don’t want. It makes our thighs jiggle, our clothes fit tight and look bad, and typically lingers despite our torturous attempts to eliminate it. Too much of it increases our risk for certain illnesses like heart disease and type 2 diabetes, so for decades researchers have looked for ways to reduce it. Humans have two types of fat: white fat & brown fat, and understanding the differences between the two, can help people lose weight. “White fat” is the thin layer of blubber we see on the human belly. backs of arms and on the thighs. This particular fat acts as a thermal insulator, that keeps body temperatures stable.

Kill Fat Cells Instantly Just by Freezing Them! ( You’Ll Never Believe How It Works ) by Thavam Ratna