CB probing Panama Papers: Mahendran

2016-04-12

The Central Bank was investigating into the materials linked to the Panama Papers and the individuals, who are possessing offshore accounts, Governor Arjuna Mahendran said today.

 

However, he said the authenticity of the so-called leaks was doubtful and therefore, couldn’t reveal any names of individuals, due to privacy laws. “But I don’t want to jump into any conclusions in terms of names and facts that have been mentioned in the media etc. because we have to act responsibly as there are international conventions which cover these types of data, and we don’t want to flout any of those and even our own laws which guarantee privacy to individuals. Unless people are being prosecuted in terms of confirmed territories in our courts of law, it would be wrong of us to give out any preliminary information,” he said.

“We have got some of those papers and we are requesting information from our counterparts around the world in terms of Central Banks and other investigative arms of various governments,” he said at a press conference at the Central Bank.

“At this point all I can say is that we are investigating the material and we are waiting for more material to come. There are millions of pages of documentation in this whole leak of documents.

That itself is an issue because of provenance of the materials, who leaked and all that could lay some doubts on whether that those documents are authentic,” the Governor said.

“So, we have to prove that the documents themselves are authentic and they are factually correct before we can proceed to any conclusions. All that will take time. It’s not something that we can process in a week or a month. There are various names in the documentation but like I say we have to check whether the documentations are authentic. People could have planted names and that’s always the possibility. And this information came from third parties. It didn’t come from the original source. We have to be responsible and authentic before any firm conclusions can be brought," he added. 

Red Cross noticed regarding ‘Siriliya’ Defender

TUESDAY, 12 APRIL 2016

Colombo Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya has ordered to notice the Director of Sri Lanka branch of Red Cross Society should to be present in Court to accept the Defender vehicle given to ‘Siriliya’ welfare society of former first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa and was found hidden in Homagama area during investigations into the murder of popular rugby player Wasim Thajudeen.

The Defender vehicle had been received from Red Cross Society by former Minister of Social Services Felix Perera and handed over to ‘Siriliya’ Society. When it was found by the CID it was revealed that the colour of the vehicle had been changed without the approval of the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles and it had been done on a request by a Rajapaksa son.

The CID has found that the Defender vehicle had been used for VIP security and also had been used by a Director of CSN channel. As investigations carried out by government analyst had been concluded the Chief Magistrate ordered the vehicle to be handed over to the Red Cross Society for which the vehicle is registered to.

The case will be heard again on 11th May.

Vidya Amarapala resigns amid allegations



April 12, 2016
Vidya Amarapala, an Adviser to the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development has decided step down from his post as his name is being implicated in the Panama leaked papers. 

  Minister Patali Ranawaka, in a statement said that Amarapala has decided to resign from his post to facilitate any possible inquiry.  

 ICIJ and an international coalition of media outlets investigated the trove of papers, which allegedly reveal a clandestine network involving associates of Russia, and business ties between a member of FIFAs ethics committee and men whom the United States has indicted for corruption, according to media reports. 

Medamulana Rajapakses who committed robbery on wreaths are now committing sacrilege on the dead !

(Lanka-e-News- 11.April.2016, 6.45PM)   The Medamulana Rajapakse brigand which is now in utter desperation and frustration not knowing in what direction to turn to achieve its  vicious and foulest designs , in a last ditch effort  has made an attempt to save its skin even by ‘ selling the dead.’  

Based on the investigations of the FCID under way , the peak period of the Rajapakses when they flourished  through committing extortions and  bribes,  was between November 2014 and January 2015. Though the collections via those crimes were in countless billions of rupees , it has been possible to recover only about a  billion  so far. All these collections have been made in   cool cash, and all these monies were kept hidden in 6 large safes ( each of which is the size of a large almirah)  in the office now used by Sagala Ratnayake at Temple Trees. On the 8th of January when the Medamulana robbers fled , the cash in the safes had been spirited away by them , and until now even the keys of those safes had not been found.

These monies are made up of collections via extortions , bribes  and black monies relating to deals transacted with the Chinese. It is Priyath Bandu Wickrema the ex Ports chairman who had acted as the co ordinator in these activities. The FCID is interrogating Wickrema and others to whom monies were handed over, but all of them are telling  the same lie and giving the same stock answer.

The lie is : these  monies in the Temple Trees were   handed over  to one   ‘ Hema Madiwela’ . This so called  Hema Madiwela had been working at the Temple Trees as a co ordinating officer . He was  a Government administrative officer. After  the Rajapakses were defeated and they fled  to Medamulana , some days later he died of natural causes.

When you get close to  a Machiavellian , mendacious  and perfidious King, it is still possible for one individual to be safe from the contagion . Madiwela was one such  individual sans corruption when corruption and crooked activities were raging.

Madiwela was one who discharged his duties , and travelled to his home at Kelaniya daily in the common transport  provided to the staff  by Temple trees .He lived  in an unpretentious quarter and did not even have a vehicle. Neither did he have secret bank accounts .After his death his  wife travelled by three wheeler . 

The Machiavellian Rajapakses  well accomplished in perfidies and treacheries are now trying to pin everything on Madiwela after his death , in order to find an escape route. When the FCID was interrogating the accused who provided the black monies , it is the legal firm N.R associates belonging to Namal Rajapakse that proffered legal advice  to the accused.

By now NR associates Co. has changed its name , and Kuwera De Soysa and group that were associated with it are operating under another name and style  after suppressing Namal’s name  for obvious reasons. They have coached  these individuals  to say that the monies were given to  Hema Madiwela  who is now dead.

Though Rajapakses may have  entrusted other   responsibilities to some others whom they trust , even a child in Sri Lanka knows the black monies were collected by Rajapakses  themselves  , yet the Medamulana brigand  is comprised of  such  a set of shameless , unconscionable and fearless rogues, they would not hesitate to desecrate and profane even the dead if that would serve their selfish agendas and aims. 

From this incident it is clear they have just done that . They have  no qualms about ‘selling’ even the dead if they can make a selfish gain out of that . The  sad part of this  ‘selling the soul’ and ‘selling the dead’ is , the   Medamulana brigand is not allowing  even those who died in peace to rest in peace.

To the  crooked Rajapakses  who robbed wreaths , ‘selling’ and betraying  the dead is no big deal  . 

---------------------------
by     (2016-04-11 13:27:33)

Pilot Ranil Wickramasinghe Diverts Mihin Lanka’s Seychelles Flight To Madagascar

April 12, 2016

Pilot Ranil Wickramasinghe diverted Mihin Lanka‘s Seychelles flight MJ 707 to Nosy Be in Madagascar due to unsafe weather experienced on his approach to the indian ocean island yesterday.

The Airbus A 319 aircraft operated by Mihin Lanka was initially instructed by the Air Traffic Controllers to circle for an hour with the hope of the weather clearing in order to permit the aircraft to land.

Mihin Lanka’s Capt. Ranil Wickramasinghe sensing that he was running out of fuel then decided to proceed to the alternate airport situated in the north of Madagascar, which was a further two hours away.

The aircraft eventually made its way back to Seychelles an hour after being on ground in Nosy Be.

However with the pilots and crew exceeding their flight time duty limitations the aircraft and crew had to be parked on ground in Seychelles for 12 hours in order to provide the pilots and crew adequate rest.

Mihin Lanka’s flight operated to Seychelles has been widely broadcast in the news recently for operating a series of illegal flights during the course of last year.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has currently requested the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka to investigate a petition sent in directly to them regarding this serious alleged violation.

The complainant Capt. Charles Sirimanne Mihin Lanka’s former Manager Flight / Ground Safety highlighted these violations to the airline and also the the CAA of Sri Lanka.

Despite doing the correct thing Capt. Sirimanne was shockingly terminated by Capt. Pujitha Jayakody the now also removed former Head of Flight Operations Mihin Lanka.

Read More

India plans to build bridge to connect Sri Lanka

Apr 12, 2016

India has said that it is considering inking a pact with Sri Lanka to build a bridge connecting the two neighboring countries.

"The project is under consideration, it is under discussion. But nothing has been finalized," Indian Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari told the media in the national capital Monday.

The minister said that preliminary talks on the project have been held with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. "The Sri Lankan side is interested in the project," he added.

Under the proposed project, the bridge could be built between Rameshwaram in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, and the issue has also been discussed in the Sri Lankan Parliament.

- Xinhua -

Toronto's Prasanthan Aruchunan, 17, first in Ontario to win NHL scholarship

'If I can do it, you guys can do it,' winner tells other youth in his community

By Taylor Simmons, Marivel Taruc, CBC News Posted: Apr 11, 2016 7:31 PM E

Toronto's Prasanthan Aruchunan is making history.

The 17-year-old from Westview Centennial Secondary School is the first student in Ontario to receive the National Hockey League scholarship from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

It's an academic scholarship awarded to a student in the NHL's official youth development program, Hockey is for Everyone (HIFE), who has achieved at least a 3.0 GPA. 

A criterion easily met by Aruchunan, who maintains a 94 per cent average.

If that's not impressive enough, he plans to use the scholarship to study mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo.

"I just have a passion for building stuff...and hopefully I'll be the first guy to invent a hybrid airplane one day," Aruchunan said.

He also has a passion for hockey, a feeling that grew after he first played the game in Grade 3.

Aruchunan's family moved to Canada from Sri Lanka when he was a young child, settling in Toronto's Jane-Finch neighbourhood.

He eventually joined the Hockey Education Reaching Out Society (HEROS), an after-school program that gives kids from low-income and at-risk families a chance to play the game.

"The first day on the ice ... I was like falling all over the place," he said. "But the mentors just kept pushing me, they kept telling me that if I never give up then I'll be better one day, and look where I'm at now."

Tony Wray is the program's coordinator and has known Aruchunan since he started at HEROS.

"We just support in the background to make sure that they overcome some of the barriers, whether it's accessing some additional hockey time, whether it's accessing tutoring, whatever they need," Wray said.

'It was unbelievable'

Not only did Aruchunan find a love for the game, but he also said hockey gave him a sense of belonging.

Now, on top of that, hockey is helping him achieve his dreams. Wray had the opportunity to deliver the good news.

"He's like, 'You just won the scholarship,'" Aruchunan said. "I was just freaking out at home. I was jumping up and down, I gave my mom a hug and it was unbelievable."

While speaking with CBC News Monday, Aruchunan's mother was able to watch him skate for the first time.

She speaks little English, but smiled as she watched her son glide over the ice. 

The mother of the 2016 National Hockey League scholarship winner Prasanthan Aruchunan came to the ice Monday to watch her son skate for the first time. (CBC)

"She's very proud of me," Aruchunan said. "At first she was kind of scared that I would break a leg or two cause it's ice, right, and back in Sri Lanka we don't play with ice or anything."

From no ice at all, to the NHL scholarship winner, Aruchunan's come a long way.

Even though he's excited to start his post-secondary career, he still plans to give back.

He already mentors kids in the HEROS program, giving them the same sense of belonging he found on the ice.

"If I can do it, you guys can do it as well," he said, offering tips for other young students. "Keep working hard, keep pushing forward and one day you'll be successful."

Tens of thousands still displaced in Gaza

A home under construction in the Shijaiyah neighborhood east of Gaza City in February 2016.Mohammed AsadAPA images

Maureen Clare Murphy-11 April 2016

Some 75,000 Palestinians in Gaza, half of them children, remain displaced after their homes were destroyed during Israel’s assault in July and August 2014, according to a new United Nations study.

Nearly 500,000 people – more than one in four of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents – were displaced during the onslaught that killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, including more than 550 children.

Approximately 100,000 remained without shelter by the time a ceasefire was declared on 26 August 2014.

An estimated 18,000 homes were rendered uninhabitable as a result of the 51-day onslaught and only 3,000 have been rebuilt.

Substandard temporary shelter

Most of those who are still displaced are living in rented accommodation, a UN survey found.

“Given the shortage of formal rental units available on the Gaza market,” the UN report states, people have made “alternative arrangements” ranging from “living in store rooms, unfinished units, substandard apartments in relatives’ or neighbors’ buildings.”

Almost half of those living in rented shelter expressed concern “that they may be forced to leave their current place of residence.”

Nearly one-quarter of those who remain displaced said they were living in their damaged homes.

A much smaller number live in prefabricated shelters donated as humanitarian aid; a baby froze to death in one such caravan last month.

The UN notes that an internally displaced person in Gaza has moved 2.4 times on average in the last year and a half.

The war and subsequent displacement has had a particularly severe impact on women and children.

Most households with female members said that the 2014 assault led to increased gender-based violence and more than 30 percent of displaced females “are living in shelter conditions that are lacking in safety, dignity and privacy including living in tents, makeshift shelters, destroyed houses, or the open air.”

“More than 1,500 children were orphaned, an estimated 27,000 children had their homes completely destroyed and 44,000 children were displaced at the time of the survey,” the UN report states.

More than half of surveyed displaced households reported an increase in psychosocial distress in their children, but only 6 percent said they receive psychosocial support.

Nearly all of those surveyed said that lack of money prevented the reconstruction of their homes. Three-quarters said that lack of building materials was a factor.

Reconstruction restricted

Two months after the August 2014 ceasefire, $5.4 billion was pledged by third-party states towards rebuilding Gaza.

At the time, the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank announced that nearly half of that would go to its own coffers for unspecified purposes, leaving $3.5 billion for Gaza.

As of the end of February 2016, only 39 percent of the $3.5 billion in pledges had been disbursed.

Reconstruction has been further restricted by Israel’s refusal to allow many building supplies into Gaza, on the pretext that some items could prove useful to Hamas or other armed groups.

Israel limits the amount of concrete, steel bars, electrical goods, pipes and wood thicker than one centimeter that may enter Gaza.

The UN agency for Palestine refugees, known as UNRWA, has complained that aid agencies have to deal with a “lengthy and cumbersome approval process” in order to access essential material for rebuilding.

The UN brokered the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, a complicated and secretive system agreed upon by Israel and the Palestinian Authority to govern the rebuilding of homes and other infrastructure in Gaza.

The mechanism stipulates that the UN monitor and gather private information about Palestinian households to be passed onto Israel, which has a veto over which families get aid to rebuild their homes.

A leading expert on United Nations law warned that the database of personal details of Palestinians in Gaza created under the terms of the mechanism could potentially be misused by Israel to identify targets in future assaults.

In its new report, the UN warns that “At the present rate, it will take years to address the massive reconstruction and repair needs, adding to the general frustration of the population following years of movement restrictions, rising unemployment and poverty.”

Unemployment in Gaza is the highest in the world, at a rate of 43 percent, the World Bank reported last year. The situation for youth is even worse, with more than 60 percent unemployed at the end of 2014.

The blockade imposed by Israel since 2007 “has shaved around 50 percent off Gaza’s GDP,” the World Bank added.

Power plant shut down

Gaza’s sole power plant, which was bombed by Israel in July 2014, was forced to shut down last week due to a shortage of funds to replenish its fuel reserves, triggering blackouts of 18-20 hours per day, the UN stated on Monday.

Palestinians in Gaza have long endured extended power cuts resulting from chronic fuel shortages.

The cost of fuel has significantly increased after the Palestinian Authority ended a full exemption on fuel taxes earlier this year.

Power cuts limit the functioning of Gaza’s wastewater treatment plants, causing up to 90 million liters of sewage to flow into the Mediterranean each day.

The UN estimates that some 40 percent of Gaza’s population receives water for 5-8 hours only once every three days.

Israel meanwhile restricts items such as pumps, drilling equipment and disinfectant chemicals.

Gaza cinema a new experience for many with first screenings in 20 years

This is the first chance in decades that Gazans can watch a movie being publicly screened-So far, organisers have only shown films which are unlikely to draw the attention of censors

 

Leisure activities in Gaza are rare, with few official initiatives-Years of war and economic blockade have left Gaza with very poor infrastructure

8 April 2016

It was only when he was 24 that Homam al-Ghussein first went to the cinema. Now, he says, he cannot miss another film.

Why did it take him so long? He lives in Gaza, where cinemas disappeared 20 years ago because of violence.

And for those living there, tight restrictions on leaving the territory have meant that going to watch a movie somewhere else is, for many, off limits.

But things are changing. Public screenings have resumed, thanks to a recently launched private project. It is no surprise then that the initiative has been welcomed by him and many with open arms.

"It felt amazing," said Mr Ghussein, an architect. "I will always go to every film, whatever it is."

Life in Gaza can be disappointing, he says. The borders of the Palestinian territory, home to about 1.9 million people, are controlled by Israel and Egypt for security reasons but criticised by human rights groups, and only people with permits are allowed to travel out.

Hamas, the Islamist movement that reinforced its power in Gaza in 2007 after ousting its Fatah rivals, has enforced its conservative views through a network of radio and television channels. Most things seen as inappropriate, such as many aspects of Western culture, have been banned.

Also, three wars in a decade and a blockade have left the enclave with a very poor infrastructure, and leisure options are virtually non-existent.

As there are no movie theatres in Gaza, the screenings are held at a rented hall at the Red Crescent Society building.

Husam Salam, one of the project's organisers, says demand has been high, and each screening has had an audience of between 120 and 200 viewers, many of them groups of family and friends.

"We do not have cinemas, public libraries. There are no places to practice cultural things [and] 

government efforts are really shallow in this area," says Mr Salam, who works with Ain Media company, a sponsor of the project.

Careful selection

The scheme started with productions about Palestinian history, but has recently shown more well-known titles, such as Oscar-winning Disney Pixar animation Inside Out.

But do not expect more controversial movies or sensitive scenes, as all films have to be previously approved by the Hamas authorities.

"We select films [that] do not breach our culture or religion, and do not have images breaching our religion," Mr Salam said.

"For each film, we give [the authorities] a small summary and they give us the approval."

The project started in January, with Oversized Coat, from Amman-based Palestinian director Nawras Abu Saleh. It looks at Palestinian life between 1987 and 2011, including the two intifadas (uprisings) against Israeli occupation.

"These people who suffered these wars and siege are now in rows having popcorn and watching [a movie that] reflects the Palestinian situation," Mr Abu Saleh said.

"The project is very important… because it is considered as one of the ways to break through the siege that has been forced on Gaza for 10 years."

A different past

But things were not always like this. Cinemas could be found in Gaza before being destroyed during the first Palestinian uprising in 1987.

Residents say back then, Islamist groups became increasingly hostile to screenings and consequently many of the movie theatres were attacked.

Residents said they were later repaired, but violence took over the territory again years later, this time a result of internal fighting between forces of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and the theatres were again destroyed.

"My father used to tell me that he collected his pocket money to go to the cinema every weekend," says Rama Humeid, 30, a communications officer from the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Word has spread quickly through social media, and the project's Facebook pagenow has more than 7,000 likes.

Tickets cost 10 shekels ($2.5; £1.75), regarded by organisers as affordable in a place where much of the population is unemployed or dependent on food aid.

The screenings come as Hamas is seen to be slightly relaxing its grip on cultural activities in the territory, which has pleased Ms Humeid and her friends.

"There are not many options for culture or entertainment," she says. "However recently, I have seen some cultural events such as Gaza Cinema and musical events."

But a lot is yet to change, as she says: "Life in Gaza is not easy."

Ukraine’s Meat Grinder Is Back in Business

BY PAUL QUINN-JUDGE-APRIL 12, 2016

The one bright spot in the otherwise largely unimplemented February 2015 Minsk peace agreement was a ceasefire that ended full-scale fighting between Ukrainian forces and Moscow-backed, pro-Russian rebels who seized parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the Ukrainian-Russian border almost two years ago.
The ceasefire took over six months to gain traction, but eventually sharply reduced the casualty rate of a war that has so far killed about 10,000 people, both soldiers and civilians. Exchanges of fire, usually small arms, have never completely ceased, of course.

But heavy fighting has broken out, and continues today, in one small but important segment of the 500 km line of separation between the two sides. There is no clear indication of how the fighting started — whether one of the sides is trying to send a warning to the other, or test their response. It is just as likely as that local sniping gradually and imperceptibly turned into a local battle.

Neither side publishes comprehensive casualty figures. But supporters of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) say 90 of their troops have been killed and over 200 wounded in fighting that has been building in intensity over the past month. The toll is unlikely to be complete, as several separatist units are engaged in combat, and the figure is already rising. Both sides appear increasingly to be using heavy artillery and sometimes tanks — weaponry that should have been withdrawn from the front line months ago. No casualty figures have emerged from the Ukrainian side.

The most intense combat is taking place in three loosely linked areas: on the edge of the Ukrainian-controlled industrial town of Avdiivka, home to one of Europe’s large coke and chemical plants, owned by the Donbas oligarch Rinat Akhmetov; the major railway junction of Yasinovata; and Horlivka (Gorlovka in Russian), both controlled by the DNR.

The bloodshed may not portend a major offensive by either side, and top leaders show no inclination to resume full hostilities. Instead, it seems to be a sharp escalation in a steady war of attrition. Both sides are chipping away at the opposing forward positions, maneuvering for slightly better lines of fire or infiltration paths through the so-called grey zone, the thin sliver of land that divides the warring parties.

Last year one separatist commander coined a term for such bloody, little-reported engagements that are even more inconclusive and futile than ever.

He called them “the meat grinder.”

Before the ceasefire, there were several decisive battles in which the separatists were backed by large units of the Russian regular army. Russian officers now command the separatist militias directly, but have so far strictly forbidden any offensive movement. Many Ukrainian officers are chafing at similar restrictions from their commanders. Officials in Kiev often predict privately that the war will ultimately have to be solved by a military offensive, but most feel that this is several years away.

Grim determination to fight to the death over a small piece of territory is not new or unique to either of the warring parties. Commentators on both sides draw parallels between the current fighting and the murderous, ultimately useless battle for the ruins of the Donetsk international airport in 2014-15.

Hundreds were killed, and to this day those who were there have difficulty explain why they were fighting.

“Political ego,” said one Ukrainian officer who fought there: a matter of state dignity. “To straighten the defense line around Donetsk city,” said a separatist officer. The separatists’ Russian backers probably wanted to gain valuable combat experience: the Ukrainian officer quoted above believes that he was facing, among others, an elite Russian counter-terror team, Vympel. The airport ruins are still on the front line.

Ultimately, however, if the fighting has any significance, it should act as a wake-up call for the many diplomats and government leaders in Europe, the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia who calmly predict — or more likely hope — that the military confrontation in the east will gradually settle into a frozen conflict.

The men with the guns — of whom there are far too many facing each other along the line of separation — may have different ideas.

In the photo, Ukrainian soldiers unload bodies of soldiers killed in Debaltsevo on February 24, 2015 at a checkpoint near Horlivka.

Photo credit: ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP/Getty Images

Henry A. Giroux | Radical Politics in the Age of American Authoritarianism: Connecting the Dots

If the left is to fight back against authoritarianism, we must bring together diverse movements working for social change. (Photos: Bob Simpson, Ella, Workers Solidarity Movement, Mark Klotz, Mark Klotz / Flickr; Edited: JR / TO)

By Henry A. Giroux-Sunday, 10 April 2016

The United States stands at the endpoint of a long series of attacks on democracy, and the choices faced by many in the US today point to the divide between those who are and those who are not willing to commit to democracy. Debates over whether Donald Trump is a fascist are a tactical diversion because the real issue is what it will take to prevent the United States from sliding further into a distinctive form of authoritarianism.

The willingness of contemporary politicians and pundits to use totalitarian themes echoes alarmingly fascist and totalitarian elements of the past. This willingness also prefigures the emergence of a distinctive mode of authoritarianism that threatens to further foreclose venues for social justice and civil rights. The need for resistance has become urgent. The struggle is not over specific institutions such as higher education or so-called democratic procedures such as elections but over what it means to get to the root of the problems facing the United States and to draw more people into subversive actions modeled after both historical struggles from the days of the underground railroad and contemporary movements for economic, social and environmental justice.

Yet, such struggles will only succeed if more progressives embrace an expansive understanding of politics, not fixating singularly on elections or any other issue but rather emphasizing the connections among diverse social movements. An expansive understanding such as this necessarily links the calls for a living wage and environment justice to calls for access to quality health care and the elimination of the conditions fostering assaults by the state against Black people, immigrants, workers and women. The movement against mass incarceration and capital punishment cannot be separated from a movement for racial justice; full employment; free, quality health care and housing. Such analyses also suggest the merging of labor unions and social movements, and the development of progressive cultural apparatuses such as alternative media, think tanks and social services for those marginalized by race, class and ethnicity. These alternative apparatuses must also embrace those who are angry with existing political parties and casino capitalism but who lack a critical frame of reference for understanding the conditions for their anger.

Read more...

US citizen sues Cambodian government for ‘wrongful’ imprisonment

Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) information head Meach Sovannara, foreground, is escorted to a police van after an adjourn from the Appeal Court n Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Pic: AP.

12th April 2016

A U.S. citizen and member of Cambodia’s opposition party, who was sentenced to 20 years jail last year, is now suing the Cambodian government over his imprisonment.

Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) information head Meach Sovannara, who is currently serving the sentence, was convicted along with 10 other party members in July for insurrection after a violent protest in 2014.

Following several failed bids to post bail, Sovannara, who lived in Long Beach, California, had his legal representatives file a lawsuit on Friday in a Los Angeles federal court.

The lawsuit accuses the Cambodian government of illegally detaining CNRP leaders, as well as administering torture and cruel and inhuman treatment of the detainees.

Among the defendants named is Prime Minister Hun Sen’s son, Hun Manet, who is in charge of the military and security police.

SEE ALSO: Anger mounts over jailing of 11 opposition activists in Cambodia

According to the Huffington Post, while foreign governments are usually protected from being brought to court in the U.S. due to sovereignty laws, The Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act does have exceptions, which include violent actions committed against U.S. citizens while abroad.

Sovannara’s lawsuit is the first time the exception is being used in the U.S. to hold members of a foreign government responsible for human rights violations.

Besides that, the Anti-Terrorism Act has also been included in the lawsuit, with Sovannara alleging that his imprisonment and treatment while in detention is equivalent to international terrorism, giving him grounds to sue for criminal and civil damages.

Human rights groups – both local and international – condemned the sentence when it was first announced last year, calling it a “draconian” measure meant to quash political dissent. This would not be the first time such accusations were lobbed at Hun Sen and the Cambodian People’s Party.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

Brazil's Rousseff denounces plot to unseat her, attacks VP Temer

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff (R) and Vice President Michel Temer are pictured before an annual lunch with general officers in Brasilia, Brazil, December 16, 2015.

REUTERS/UESLEI MARCELINO

BY ANTHONY BOADLE-Tue Apr 12, 2016

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, facing impeachment by Congress, on Tuesday denounced a conspiracy to overthrow her, suggesting that Vice President Michel Temer is one of the leaders of the plot.

A congressional committee on Monday recommended to the lower house that Rousseff be impeached for breaking budget laws to support her re-election in 2014, a charge Rousseff says was trumped up to remove her from office.

"They now are conspiring openly, in the light of day, to destabilise a legitimately elected president," Rousseff said in a speech Tuesday, referring to an audio message sent by Temer to his supporters a day earlier in which he spoke as if the president had already been impeached.

The congressional committee's 38-27 decision was backed by Temer's PMDB party, formerly her main coalition ally. The party's defection last month greatly increased the likelihood that the lower house, in a vote expected this weekend, will send her impeachment to the Senate.

Temer would take over if the Senate agrees to suspend Rousseff and proceed with a trial against her.

Temer has denied plotting against Rousseff, though his aides say he has been preparing in case he has to step into her shoes, so that he can restore confidence in the country.

The rift between Rousseff and Temer reached breaking point on Monday after the audio message was released, which Temer said was unintentional. In the message, Temer called for a government of national unity to overcome Brazil's political crisis.

"The conspirators have been unmasked," Rousseff said Tuesday. She did not mention Temer by name but cited the message as evidence of an effort she has increasingly called a "coup."

Rousseff is struggling to avoid impeachment and her government is largely paralysed as Brazil, the world's seventh largest economy, faces a deep recession and a historic corruption scandal while it prepares to host the Olympic Games in August.

The leftist leader said her opponents were undermining Brazil's young democracy by seeking to cut her second term short with no legal justification. "They intend to overthrow a president elected by more than 54 million voters," said Rousseff, whose popularity has crumbled during Brazil's recession and the corruption scandal surrounding state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro (PETR4.SA), or Petrobras.

Reverting to language that seeks to cast those in favour of her ouster as enemies of the working class, she said the impeachment is aimed at rolling back social and economic advances for many Brazilians during the 13-years of government for her ruling Workers' Party.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle)

How China’s fishermen are fighting a covert war in the South China Sea

Captained Chen Yu Guo, 50, watches his fisherman refit his boat from the bridge in front of a poster of Mao Zedong before heading back out to fishing grounds near the Spratly Islands, at the harbour in Tanmen, Hainan Island, China on April 7, 2016. (Adam Dean/For The Washington Post)

By Simon Denyer-April 12 

TANMEN, China — In the disputed waters of the South China Sea, fishermen are the wild card.

China is using its vast fishing fleet as the advance guard to press its expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, experts say. That is not only putting Beijing on a collision course with its Asian neighbors, but also introducing a degree of unpredictability that raises the risks of periodic crises.

In the past few weeks, tensions have flared with Indonesia, Malaysia and

Vietnam as Chinese fishermen, often backed up by coast guard vessels, have ventured far from their homeland and close to other nations’ coasts. They are just the latest conflicts in China’s long-running battle to expand its fishing grounds and simultaneously exert its maritime dominance.

“The Chinese authorities consider fishermen and fishing vessels important tools in expanding China’s presence and the country’s claims in the disputed waters,” said Zhang Hongzhou, an expert at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

“Fishermen are increasingly at the front line of the South China Sea disputes,” Zhang said, “and fishing incidents could trigger even bigger diplomatic and security tensions between China and regional countries.”

A fisherman does maintenance tasks during a refit of his boat, captained by Chen Yu Guo, 50, before heading back out to fishing grounds near the Spratly Islands, at the harbour in Tanmen, Hainan Island, China on April, 7, 2016. (Adam Dean/For The Washington Post)

Here, in the fishing port of Tanmen in the southern island of Hainan, 50-year-old captain Chen Yuguo was in the wheelhouse of his trawler last week, carrying out minor repairs after a six-week fishing trip to the disputed Spratly Islands.

A portrait of “Comrade” Mao Zedong hung in a place of honor behind him, alongside an expensive satellite navigation system supplied by the Chinese government. Chen said catches are much better in the Spratlys than in China’s depleted inshore waters, but the captain said he is also fulfilling his patriotic duty.

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