Unending dreams

Editorial-November 20, 2015, 8:25 pm 

President Maithripala Sirisena may contest the next parliamentary polls to secure premiership after abolishing the executive presidency, one of his top aides has said. Those who made Sirisena President, expecting him to rise above partisan politics and make tough decisions in the national interest without eyeing another term as the head of state, must be disappointed. It may be recalled that, initially, the self-appointed champions of good governance who engineered the Jan. 08 regime change wanted the late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha to come forward as the common opposition candidate, win the presidency and abolish it. Sirisena became their choice as the venerable Thera turned down their request on the grounds that a Buddhist monk should not hold political office.

Politicians are an ambitious lot, flaunting various causes to pull the wool over the eyes of gullible voters. They don’t let go of power that easily. It is not just to lick one’s fingers that one takes the trouble of harvesting honey as a local saying goes!

The possibility of President Sirisena contesting the next general election to become the prime minister must be a worrisome proposition for the Rajapaksas. The SLFP is divided and it is doubtful whether the President will be able to win over its rebel faction supportive of his bête noire, Mahinda. The Rajapaksas are down but not out whether one likes it or not; they have come to represent an alternative power centre in the SLFP and the UPFA. The possibility of former President Rajapaksa throwing his hat into the ring at the next parliamentary election cannot be ruled out. So, there is no way the Maithripala faction of the SLFP can consolidate its power in the party without neutralising the Rajapaksas. It will have to step up its efforts to get rid of the former ruling family politically. A ‘night of the long knives’ is to be expected in the SLFP! The next local government polls will be the moment of truth for President Sirisena, who will have to lead the SLFP-led coalition’s election campaign.

The Rajapaksas are a political threat to the UNP as well. The UNP’s popularity was at its zenith last August, but it could not bag enough seats to form a government on its own. Hadn’t President Sirisena gone all out to queer the pitch for Rajapaksa and ruin the SLFP-led UPFA’s chances of making a comeback in the process it would have got a fewer number of seats. A debilitating power struggle within the SLFP will, however, be to the UNP’s advantage at a future election if President Sirisena enters the parliamentary election fray. The ongoing Maithri-Mahinda clash for supremacy stood the UNP-led coalition in good stead at the last parliamentary polls. Therefore, it will not make any political sense for the UNP to go all out to destroy the Rajapaksas politically and remove them from the political equation and play President Sirisena’s game.

If President Sirisena is planning to enter the prime ministerial race he will have to vie with the incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who will be a contender. And, both of them will have to commence their election campaigns sooner than later while being at the helm of the same government! Will we witness an unprecedented situation with both the President and the Prime Minister readying for the next prime ministerial race? What kind of impact will it have on the present administration’s unity? Ministers loyal to President Sirisena are already calling for the formation of an SLFP-led government!

Former President Rajapaksa has said it is not likely that the executive presidency will be scrapped. What if his prediction comes true and that institution remains intact by the time of the next parliamentary election? Will President Sirisena let someone else contest the presidential election? Upon being sworn in as President he gave a solemn pledge that he would never seek another term.

What if President Sirisena contests the next general election after abolishing the executive presidency but fails to become Prime Minister? Won’t he have to sit in Parliament as an ordinary MP just like his former boss, Rajapaksa?

Tilak Karunaratne paid off by businessman Ashok Pathirage

Financial irregularities swept under the carpet

Nov 19, 2015

Tilak Karunaratne who claims to be an honest businessman as reported in the Sunday Times, has been found to engage in high-level fraudulent activities usurping his position as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka.

WE WILL EXPOSE HIM & HIS DISHONEST ACTIVITIES, ONE BY ONE IN THIS SERIES OF EXPOSES.

DEAL NO.1
ODEL PLC raised Rs.2100 Million in their IPO with a disclosed objective of expanding their business to other countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Burma and India in collaboration with the international retailer Parksons.

However, the Corporate Affairs Division of the SEC on conducting an audit review on how some of the public listed companies have disbursed monies raised via share issues, and also if these modalities were in line with the objectives presented to the market, found out that ODEL PLC had grossly violated the objectives set out by them. Although about 10 company names had come to light as contravening the objectives set out in their prospectus, the biggest violators have been identified as ODEL PLC.

When members of the Corporate Affairs Division of the SEC sought an explanation from ODEL PLC, the information provided by the Board of ODEL PLC now run by business tycoon Ashok Pathirage, has been less than acceptable. According to Pathirage, he has written to the SEC informing them that Softlogic affiliated companies like Nike, Mango and Levi branded shops have been bought by ODEL PLC at a disproportionately enhanced value, in order to take the public quoted ODEL’s funds out of ODEL PLC. This is observed by the Corporate Affairs Division of the SEC as being the biggest ever fraud committed by any public company.

Based on the above, the Corporate Affairs Division of the SEC prepared a report on this violation and presented the same to the Chairman Tilak Karunaratne and Director General Vajira Wijewardena, as the due process prior to presenting to the Commission. It is reliably noted that Tilak Karunaratne then proceeded to take matters to his own hands and invited his friend from the Ananada College OBA Ashok Pathirage, to meet him in person where the observations of the Corporate Affairs Division was divulged, breaking all rules of governance and fair-play. It is also reliably understood that Tilak Karunaratne had assured Ashok Pathirage that this matter will not reach the commission members and that he will personally sort the matter out. In turn, Tilak Karunaratne had then severely reprimanded the Head of Corporate Affairs and ordered him to refrain from bringing up this matter at a Commission meeting. Shocked and upset by this turn of events, the Head of Corporate Affairs who is a thorough professional, decided on his own integrity and took upon himself to verbally inform the Commission members of the situation. As mentioned by 2 of the Commission members who were present that day, at this mention, Tilak Karunaratne had become visibly angry and resorted to misleading the Commission members by presenting a completely inaccurate version of the disbursement of ODEL’s public funds.

In addition to this, SEC also found that a number of serious irregularities with regards to the financial information divulged to the public. SEC wished to question the company once again, but Tilak Karunaratne intervened and stopped the action and again the paper which was supposed to be presented to the Commission, was halted.

Now it has become common knowledge at the SEC that Tilak Karunaratne personally benefitted by way of receiving cash from the likes of generous businessmen like Ashok Pathirage, who had by now become a frequent visitor to Tilak Karunaratne’s residence as Sakvithi Lane in Colombo 5.

Tilak Karunaratne who is a private businessman of an ailing concern, boasts that he doesn’t take a salary from the SEC. However, the SEC staff discuss in corners as to why he should need this peanut salary when he has millions coming from investors like Ashok Pathirage.

Previous articles 

Tilak gets exposed, Dhammika sent home

Cultural Harmony & Middle Path

By Kapila Abhayawansa –November 21, 2015

Prof Kapila Abhayawansa

The article  “Cultural invasion – in the wake of the Abaya” that appeared in the Colombo Telegraph attempts to justify make out that the phenomenon of  the Black Abaya accords with the Middle Path in Buddhism. The Buddhist Middle Path  constitutes  a rejection of  two mutual opposite extremist positions. Buddhism praises the middle way when it is practiced in human behaviour; it does not exclude even the acts of dressing and eating. ‘Black Abaya’ mentioned by the writer, Mass L. Usuf , if it wants to be to comply with Middle Path, should be a moderate dressing acceptable to all. However, people in Sri Lanka would perceive such a dress – form as extremist by itself since it goes overboard in covering  the modesty and simplicity of a woman. The Sri Lankan social context is different.

The writer correctly says that man in Buddhism is analyzed into five groups of aggregates known as Pañcupadanakkhandha one of which is the aggregate of perception (saññaā). Perception arises from form (rāpa). This explanation right. However, the intention of the writer by presenting this Buddhist principle appears to be to justify the Black Abaya by suggesting that it prevents the occurrence of inappropriate perceptions  (sanna) relating to the woman’s form (rupa). In this regard I have a doubt the that the writer has correctly understand the Buddhist analysis of Rūpa.

In Buddhism Rūpa does not mean only the outer form or shape, of a person, but it includes all the five sensory objects namely, rūpa (Form), sadda (sound), gandha (smell), rasa (taste) and poṭṭhabba (tangibles). Perception arises on all the five kinds of sensory object. If the writer accepts that the black Abaya can stop the perception arising from form, then how can one stop the other kind of perception arising from woman’s sound, smell, taste and tangibles. That is something like keeping close one avenue while opening out four other avenues.

According to Buddhism perceptions based on sensory objects cannot be avoided. as long as sensory objects come into the path of  sensory organs, namely eye ear, nose tongue, body and mind. Perception is a recognition, without recognitions people cannot maintain communication with each other. Perception itself is  not regarded as a “sin” in Buddhism. If the perception is leads to further proliferative activities, then only will that become harmful to the spiritual purity  recognized by middle path.         

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Cheers to the power of boozy, smoky pleasure

November 20, 2015, 6:23 pm 

If you’re having your first drink of the day or just lighting up your first cigarette, here’s cause for joy. Despite all the warnings about the dangers of drink and smoke, and those horribly senseless pictures displayed on cigarette packs today, just know that you are part of a political power in the country today.

We have it from the President himself, who knows the billions the State earns as tax from from cigarettes and alcohol. The President has said he would much rather place a total prohibition on all alcohol and tobacco in the country, but for the parties that would oppose such action and topple this government.

Now, isn’t that a lot to be pleased about?

It is unlikely that any political party would come out in support of drinkers and smokers. They would all be glad to sing the old songs about how bad these are for human health. No one questions the medical evidence about this. But, the reality is how much these two vices, as they are known, contribute to the national budget, helping keep the budget deficit under some control.

I know of doctors who tell their patients to stop or at least cut down on their alcohol intake. It has happened to me. In fact, there was a brief period when some doctors … in the never implemented "Mathata Thitha" time … threatened not to treat those admitted to hospital with injuries suffered after accidents when they were after alcohol. Some ministers at the time supported the idea.

My question to such good medical people was whether they would have got through school and medical college if their fathers had not contributed enough towards education through drinking or smoking or both. That leads most to dead silence.

The same goes for teachers. Those who have a great and no doubt genuine commitment, to teach all they can against drinking and smoking. They just forget the fact that most of them teach in government schools, which largely depend on the taxes from liquor and tobacco to pay the teachers. Would they dare give up, their salaries because most of it comes from booze and/ or smoke? Not likely.

Those in the creative world cannot be easily moved away from a good drink, because they believe, and most probably are correct in the thought that a drink helps in imaginative thinking. As Samuel Butler, the celebrated English author of the Victorian-era said: "The human intellect owes its superiority over that of the lower animals in great measure to the stimulus which alcohol has given imagination."

We’ve had this attack on drinking alcohol go on from the time of the prohibition days, when it began as part of the movement against imperialism and colonial rule. Once independence was achieved the call for prohibition began to fade away, and politics certainly began to benefit from the business of alcohol and tobacco.

The campaign for the January 8 Presidential poll saw a great fuss being made about ethanol importers who were making huge illegal profits, and were involved in large scale smuggling. The Silent Revolution came and was followed by the General Election on August 17. And what do we see today? Many of those who were linked with the ethanol and other drug rackets well ensconced in power, and within the Cabinet of Yahapalanaya or Good Governance, too.

Whatever politicians may say at times of elections, it is the money that matters, and in many different ways. When one is in government it is seen in taxes – or revenue for governance whether good of bad. If one is not in government, it means huge contributions for the politics of the Opposition. The people drink and smoke and the politicians thrive from the money that pours in through liquor and tobacco.

The ban on advertising of liquor and tobacco products, and any sponsorship of sporting and other important events by these businesses, has had little effect in bringing down the public draw towards liquor and smoke. They have other means of achieving the same ends.

We now see that the regular increase in taxes on liquor and cigarettes has in fact been done, not to bring down their use, but to raise revenue, for the many governments, whether green or blue, that have seen this as a very convenient pre-budget trick to raise more taxes. If the medical and other valued opinions about the dangers of these products to the health of the people are to be seriously acted upon, it seems time to take it away from political campaigning and look at other directions of public awareness and education.

Maybe it is time to have a good drink and think about real solutions to what are considered dangerous to human health. It is possible that a drink or two may be useful in such thinking, because as Francois Rabelias, the French Resistance writer, Renaissance humanist, monk, and Greek scholar has said: "When I drink, I think; and when I think, I drink."

Many are the efforts to tell us that alcohol is the worst enemy of the people. During the time of the prohibition campaign, there was a prominence of religious preachers on the platforms that called for the closure of taverns, which did have some success in the South. But, religion has certainly not been able to curb the demand for booze and smoke, and its increasing contribution to the national budget. I recall here the words of Frank Sinatra that: "Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but the Bible says love your enemy".

So I raise my glass for my next drink, with the pleasure of knowing that we drinkers, and smokers too across the bar, are people who can change governments in this country. What a power for booze and smoke. Cheers again!

 

Putin says seeks global anti-terrorism fight after 19 killed in Mali attack

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he wanted global cooperation to combat terrorism in the wake of an Islamist militant attack on a luxury hotel in Mali that killed 19 people including six Russians.

BAMAKO | BY TIEMOKO DIALLO AND ADAMA DIARRA-
Sat Nov 21, 2015
Friday's assault came a week after militants killed 130 people in gun and bomb attacks in Paris claimed by Islamic State, and three weeks after a Russian airliner was downed over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula by what Moscow and Western governments say was a bomb, killing 224 all people aboard.

The bloodshed at the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali, a former French colony, evoked the problems French troops and U.N. peacekeepers face in restoring security and order in a West African state that has battled rebels and militants in its weakly governed desert north for years.

Jihadist groups Al Mourabitoun and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the attack, which ended when Malian commandos stormed the building and rescued 170 people, many of them foreigners.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said two militants were killed in the commando operation.

His government increased security at strategic points around Bamako at the start of a declared 10-day state of emergency.

"Mali will not shut down because of this attack. Paris and New York were not shut down and Mali won't be. Terrorism will not win," Keita said during a visit to the hotel on Saturday.

Six employees of Russian regional airline Volga-Dnepr were killed, Russia's foreign ministry said, while six others were rescued.

Putin sent a telegram of condolences to Keita and said "the widest international cooperation" was needed to confront global terrorism, according to a statement by the Kremlin.

On Tuesday, Putin pledged to hunt down militants responsible for blowing up the airliner, as well as intensified air strikes against militants in Syria, after the Kremlin concluded a bomb had destroyed the plane.

Putin and French President Francois Hollande also spoke by phone on Tuesday and agreed to boost coordination of their military actions in fighting jihadist militants in Syria.

RELATED COVERAGE

• › U.N. peacekeepers saw 27 bodies at Mali hotel - U.N. official
• › No more hostages being held at Mali Bamako hotel - Malian official

Chinese President Xi Jinping condemned the "cruel and savage" attack, whose dead included three Chinese executives of a state-run railway firm.

"China will strengthen cooperation with the international community, resolutely crack down on violent terrorist operations that devastate innocent lives and safeguard world peace and security," the Beijing Foreign Ministry quoted Xi as saying in a statement on its website.

One American and a deputy from a regional parliament in Belgium were also killed in the Bamako hotel attack, though French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said he was not aware of any French nationals killed.

FLEEING IN TERROR

The attack began at 7 a.m. on Friday when gunmen killed guards at the entrance of the hotel and barged inside.

Malian commandos subsequently stormed the hotel and rescued around 170 people, many of whom had been hiding under beds or in side-rooms and rushed terrified from the building to safety as shooting continued inside.

By around 4 p.m. the hotel was secured but Malians woke on Saturday to a sense of shock at the latest high-profile raid by Islamists this year.

"I feel bruised by this atrocious act, which cannot be justified. No nation, no human life deserves such criminal barbarity," said Oumar Fomba, a teacher. "I urge the Malian government to fight more fiercely against terrorism."

In a speech on the sidelines of a summit with Asian nations in Malaysia, U.S. President Barack Obama described the raid in Mali as "another awful reminder of the scourge of terrorism".

"Once again, this barbarity only stiffens our resolve to meet this challenge. We will stand with the people of Mali as they work to rid their country of terrorists and strengthen their democracy. With allies and partners, the United States will be relentless."

SETBACK FOR FRANCE

The attack was another jolting setback for France after the shock of the Paris carnage. France has stationed 3,500 troops in northern Mali to try to restore stability after a rebellion in 2012 by ethnic Tuaregs that was later hijacked by jihadists linked to al Qaeda.

"We (France) have proved to be as blind as the Malian elite. Nothing changes in Mali. The elite continues to act like it always has, as does the international community," said Laurent Bigot, former undersecretary in charge of West Africa at France's foreign ministry, alluding to U.N. peacekeepers.

"People have been ringing the alarm bell for a long time, but it doesn't do any good," Bigot, who now works as a consultant, told Reuters.

The attack also refocused attention on a veteran leader of Al Mourabitoun, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a few months after reports, never confirmed, that he was killed in an air strike.

Northern Mali was occupied by Islamist fighters, some with links to al Qaeda, for most of 2012. They were driven out by a French-led military operation, but violence has continued.

Al Mourabitoun has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks, including an assault on a hotel in the town of Sevare, 600 km (375 miles) northeast of Bamako, in August in which 17 people including five U.N. staff were killed.

Belmokhtar is blamed for a large-scale assault on an Algerian gas field in 2013 and a major figure in insurgencies across North Africa.

In the wake of the Paris attacks, an Islamic State militant in Syria told Reuters the organisation viewed France's military intervention in Mali as another reason to target France and French interests.

(Additional reporting by Joe Penney in Bamako, John Irish in Paris, Jason Bush in Moscow and Michael Martina in Beijing; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

France’s unresolved Algerian war sheds light on the Paris attack

The French-Algerian identity of one of the attackers demonstrates how France’s savage 1956-62 war in Algeria continues to infect today’s atrocities.

People weep as they gather to observe a minute-silence at the Place de la Republique in memory of the victims of the Paris terror attacksGetty

Robert Fisk-Monday 16 November 2015

 

It wasn’t just one of the attackers who vanished after the Paris massacre. Three nations whose history, action – and inaction – help to explain the slaughter by Isis have largely escaped attention in the near-hysterical response to the crimes against humanity in Paris: Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

 

The French-Algerian identity of one of the attackers demonstrates how France’s savage 1956-62 war in Algeria continues to infect today’s atrocities. The absolute refusal to contemplate Saudi Arabia’s role as a purveyor of the most extreme Wahabi-Sunni form of Islam, in which Isis believes, shows how our leaders still decline to recognise the links between the kingdom and the organisation which struck Paris. And our total unwillingness to accept that the only regular military force in constant combat with Isis is the Syrian army – which fights for the regime that France also wants to destroy – means we cannot liaise with the ruthless soldiers who are in action against Isis even more ferociously than the Kurds.

 

Whenever the West is attacked and our innocents are killed, we usually wipe the memory bank. Thus, when reporters told us that the 129 dead in Paris represented the worst atrocity in France since the Second World War, they failed to mention the 1961 Paris massacre of up to 200 Algerians participating in an illegal march against France’s savage colonial war in Algeria. Most were murdered by the French police, many were tortured in the Palais des Sports and their bodies thrown into the Seine. The French only admit 40 dead. The police officer in charge was Maurice Papon, who worked for Petain’s collaborationist Vichy police in the Second World War, deporting more than a thousand Jews to their deaths.

 

Omar Ismail Mostafai, one of the suicide killers in Paris, was of Algerian origin – and so, too, may be other named suspects. Said and Cherif Kouachi, the brothers who murdered the Charlie Hebdo journalists, were also of Algerian parentage. They came from the five million-plus Algerian community in France, for many of whom the Algerian war never ended, and who live today in the slums of Saint-Denis and other Algerian banlieues of Paris. Yet the origin of the 13 November killers – and the history of the nation from which their parents came – has been largely deleted from the narrative of Friday’s horrific events. A Syrian passport with a Greek stamp is more exciting, for obvious reasons.

 

A colonial war 50 years ago is no justification for mass murder, but it provides a context without which any explanation of why France is now a target makes little sense. So, too, the Saudi Sunni-Wahabi faith, which is a foundation of the “Islamic Caliphate” and its cult-like killers. Mohammed ibn Abdel al-Wahab was the purist cleric and philosopher whose ruthless desire to expunge the Shia and other infidels from the Middle East led to 18th-century massacres in which the original al-Saud dynasty was deeply involved. 

 

The present-day Saudi kingdom, which regularly beheads supposed criminals after unfair trials, is building a Riyadh museum dedicated to al-Wahab’s teachings, and the old prelate’s rage against idolaters and immorality has found expression in Isis’s accusation against Paris as a centre of “prostitution”. Much Isis funding has come from Saudis – although, once again, this fact has been wiped from the terrible story of the Friday massacre.

 

And then comes Syria, whose regime’s destruction has long been a French government demand. Yet Assad’s army, outmanned and still outgunned – though recapturing some territory with the help of Russian air strikes – is the only trained military force fighting Isis. For years, both the Americans, the British and the French have said that the Syrians do not fight Isis. But this is palpably false;

Syrian troops were driven out of Palmyra in May after trying to prevent Isis suicide convoys smashing their way into the city – convoys that could have been struck by US or French aircraft. Around 60,000 Syrian troops have now been killed in Syria, many by Isis and the Nusrah Islamists – but our desire to destroy the Assad regime takes precedence over our need to crush Isis. 

 

The French now boast that they have struck Isis’s Syrian “capital” of Raqqa 20 times – a revenge attack, if ever there was one. For if this was a serious military assault to liquidate the Isis machine in Syria, why didn’t the French do it two weeks ago? Or two months ago? Once more, alas, the West – and especially France – responds to Isis with emotion rather than reason, without any historical context, without recognising the grim role that our “moderate”, head-chopping Saudi “brothers” play in this horror story. And we think we are going to destroy Isis...

Brussels on high alert as Turkey arrests Belgian-Moroccan ‘Paris attack scout’ 

A UN Security Council resolution Friday called on members to take 'all necessary measures' to fight IS -

Soldiers patrol the Rue Neuve pedestrian shopping street in Brussels on 21 November, 2015 (AFP) - 

Saturday 21 November 2015

Brussels has raised its alert level to the highest degree possible, with people being told to avoid public places, like shopping malls, and anywhere where crowds might assemble.

The threat of an attack is now deemed “serious and imminent”, with the whole of the Brussels metro network closed for the duration of the weekend and music and sporting events cancelled.

Belgium saw its threat level raised to three following the 13 November Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed. Following the attacks, it emerged that two of the suicide bombers involved had been living in Belgium, and that at least part of the Paris massacre was planned in Brussels. Three people have now been detained in Brussels and are facing terrorism charges.

The brother of one of the suicide bombers, who was also living in Brussels, is still on the run. 

harry saw me @lwtharoId

I can't believe brussels is trending. My tiny country. I'm so scared

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harry saw me @lwtharoId

this is brussels right now. It looks like the war. #Bruxelles pic.twitter.com/iOzES4H3Jg

7:16 AM - 21 Nov 2015

 
•  3,6643,664 Retweets
 
•  1,3631,363 likes

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel on Saturday said the decision to raise the terror threat level "was due to a threat of an attack by individuals with explosives and weapons at several locations in the capital," although he failed to name any alleged targets or perpetrators. 

A Belgium-Moroccan national suspected of being a “scout” for the Paris attacks has been arrested in Turkey along with two other men, reportedly from Syria.

Turkish police said the arrests of the alleged members of the Islamic State group were carried out Friday evening in the southern province of Antalya, with police storming a luxury hotel where the alleged scout, identified as 26-year-old Ahmet D, was staying. The other two suspects, only known as Ahmet T, 29, and Muhammed V, 23, were arrested while driving.

The three are due to appear before a court in Manavgat, a resort town to the east of Antalya city.

The UN Security Council Friday adopted a unanimous resolution calling on all member states to join the fight against IS and take “all necessary measures” to fight IS.

“The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant constitutes a global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security,” the resolution said.

The council resolution “calls upon member states that have the capacity to do so to take all necessary measures ... on the territory under the control of Isil,” the resolution said using another acronym for IS.

It further called on all member states to work to stop terrorism financing and to stem the flow of suspected militants going to join groups like IS in the Middle East and Africa. 

View image on Twitter

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انيسة @2_Anissa

This is not what I want to see in our beautiful Brussels. Stop the fear mongering and give us our city back.

8:00 AM - 21 Nov 2015

The Paris attacks have also further prompted reactions in Europe, where emergency measures were enacted Friday, which will see security checks "immediately" stepped up, tightening checks on points of entry to the 26-country Schengen area.

Cazeneuve said the European Commission would present plans to introduce "obligatory checks at all external borders for all travellers", including EU citizens, by the end of the year plunging the future of the Schengen zone into even further uncertainty. 

Previously, only non-EU nationals had their details checked against a database for terrorism and crime when they enter the Schengen area.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said late Friday he was increasingly irritated that the EU was moving so slowly to secure its borders, adding the Netherlands was ready "to run the whole show" with other countries if necessary.

The European Commission also called for the establishment of an EU-wide intelligence agency in the wake of the Paris massacre.

"We hope that Europe, which has wasted too much time on a number of urgent issues, today takes the decisions that we must take," French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said as he arrived for the talks.

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/brussels-high-alert-turkey-arrests-belgian-moroccan-paris-attack-scout-1230989058#sthash.Qt0TSJhJ.dpuf

New Zealand helicopter crash: two Australians and four Britons among seven killed

Police say none of seven people on board aircraft are believed to have survived, with rescue teams unable to immediately reach wreckage in crevasse

Recovering crashed New Zealand helicopter will be difficult, say police – video

Tracy McVeigh-Saturday 21 November 2015

Seven people, including four British and two Australian holidaymakers, died in a helicopter crash at a popular tourist attraction on New Zealand’s South Island on Saturday.

 Map of the crash site

Bad weather conditions meant that rescuers struggled to recover the bodies of the pilot and his six passengers from the wreckage of the aircraft, which went down in challenging and dangerous terrain high on the island’s Fox glacier. Other tourists were in the area at the time, many of them also being ferried in helicopters.

A paramedic had been winched down to the site of the crash and reported that there were no survivors, but a recovery effort and scene examination was “likely to take some days”, police said.

 Remains of the helicopter that crashed on the Fox Glacier, a popular tourist site on the West Coast of the south Island Photograph: New Zealand Police/AFP/Getty Images

Inspector John Canning said the helicopter was in a crevasse 750 metres (2,500ft) up the valley. Debris was scattered across hundreds of metres around the crash site, which was in a “heavily crevassed” area. “I’m not going to risk any more lives. We’ve lost seven,” Canning said.

He added that his officers were liaising with the embassies of the countries concerned to inform the victims’ families. The UK Foreign Office confirmed that it had traced and contacted relatives.

The accident is not the first in New Zealand’s ice fields, an area of natural beauty that attracts many tourists and where dozens of local guides and tour operators work. Three people were hurt in a helicopter crash in June, while a man died and five others were injured last year.

Rob Jewell, chairman of the Glacier Country Tourism Group, which represents operators providing visitor services at Fox glacier and nearby Franz Josef glacier, said everyone was deeply shocked by the accident: “We’re a small-knit community here. It’s a small village and everyone knows everybody, so it’s a matter of looking after each other.

“We’re hurting. It’s a real tragedy today. We’ll just do what we can to make this as easy as we can for everybody, and obviously our thoughts are with those who lost their lives today and their families and friends. We are still piecing together all the details – once confirmed, we will put out a statement.”

Another member of the group, Chris Alexander, said that the emergency services had tried “their damnedest” to reach the scene.

An American tourist who was on a different tour on the glacier said no one had been aware of the crash until after they had returned to the tour office base. Alexander Baranda, a sports photographer, said flights had been cancelled earlier in the week due to poor weather, but had gone ahead Saturday morning. He had been on the mountain with 22 others in several helicopters, taking the 10-minute flight up the glacier before a three-hour guided tour along the ice.

A spokesman for Alpine Adventures, which operated the single-engine Squirrel helicopter, confirmed it had been on a scenic flight with six passengers on board.

New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission said it would investigate the cause of the crash and had sent four officials to Fox glacier. The crash comes weeks after the commission admitted there had been flaws in its 2012 report into an aircraft crash on Fox in September 2010, when nine people, including four tourists, died.

Overseas relatives of some of the victims have been highly critical of its handling of the investigation.