Jaffna woman dies in tragic accident

SATURDAY, 18 JUNE 2016

A woman has died and her daughter critically injured in a tragic motor traffic accident in Jaffna.

The woman and her daughter have being traveling in a scooter when they collided with an Army Water Bowser.

Jaffna woman dies

How to beat dolour with single dollar

The government has declared that the Rajapaksas have stolen as much as USD 18 bn.--Poson and fish

June 19, 2016, 9:16 pm 

The practice of running on one’s sword is as old as the hills. Brutus resorts to it in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. It was the Japanese who introduced hara-kiri, defined as cutting open one’s stomach with a sword to avoid losing honour. But, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, currently in the land of Samurai, has said he is ready to take his own life in a different manner. He has, in an interview with a Japanese newspaper, said he would slit his throat if it could be proved that he has stolen a single dollar.

The newspaper report tells us Rajapaksa has not ruled out running for Prime Minister again. Some people never say die! This must be a worrisome proposition for his political enemies who remain maniacally preoccupied with finding ways and means of neutralising him. We don’t think they want him to harm himself, but, politically speaking, they can spike his gun if they can prove the allegation that has helped himself to public funds.

The government has declared that the Rajapaksas have stolen as much as USD 18 bn. Now, the former prez has made its task even easier. It has to trace only a single dollar he is alleged to have stolen and he will be gone!

We reported the other day that the British government had offered to send a group of experts here to help the Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) and the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC). The government can also enlist the support of the US government to trace the ‘stolen funds’. With all the world powers on its side, the government should be able to prove the allegations of financial crimes against former President Rajapaksa without further delay in keeping with one of its main election pledges. If they can find that dollar their dolour will be a thing of the past.

Meanwhile, Rajapaksa has said in the aforesaid interview that politicians never retire. One cannot but agree with him on this score. They don’t retire; they are retired by the people!

Poson and fish

It was a supreme irony that the government happened to celebrate the lifting of a ban on Sri Lanka’s fish exports to Europe while it was conducting religious ceremonies to mark the Poson Poya Day, when Arahat Mahinda prevented King Devanampiyatissa from killing a deer before converting the latter to Buddhism, millennia ago. More fish will be killed hereafter to be sent to Europe!

Here is an instance where the hypocrisy of both Sri Lanka and Europe has come to light.

The main reason for the EU ban at issue was that Sri Lanka was not harvesting its fish in a proper manner. Can any method of killing fish be considered proper? Whether fishers use the so-called proper methods or not the poor fish gets killed. Does the EU think the means—the use of proper methods—justifies the end, which is the mass destruction of fish? If anyone has an iota of concern for the poor fish he or she must stop causing them to be killed and/or consuming them.

Sri Lanka, according to its Constitution, gives the foremost place to Buddhism, which was introduced by Arahat Mahinda, who, on Poson Poya day, convinced King Devanampiyatissa that it was against the tenets of Buddhism to harm sentient beings. The Thera told the king: ‘You are but the temporary custodian of the land and its creatures, not the owner!’ But, the modern-day rulers who pontificate on the virtues of compassion and wax eloquent on the need to practise the teaching of the Enlightened One are flaunting an opportunity they get to promote killing; they have no qualms about killing fish so that they can have Euros and pounds jingling in their pockets.

Anura Senanayake is ready to confess

Jun 19, 2016

Former DIG Anura Senanayake, presently in remand custody in connection with the case into the murder of ruggerite Wasim Thajudeen, says he is prepared to make a confession to the magistrate in his official chamber, as per provisions in clause 127 of the criminal procedure code, police sources say.

Senanayake had been expecting that those whom he had served in the past would come to his rescue, but with that help not forthcoming, he has now decided to reveal everything he knows, say his friends.

 

He has been allowed to get admitted to Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital after he agreed to make a confession, reports say.

 

Previously, former crimes OIC of Narahenpita police Sumith Champika Perera made a confession in connection with Thajudeen’s killing, under clause 127 of the criminal procedure code.

Why has Israel jailed ailing Gaza mother?

A poster of Nisreen Hassan hangs in the Gaza City home where she lives with her husband and their seven children.-Abed Zagout

Nisreen Hassan’s oldest daughter, Amira, must now assume her mother’s role in caring for the family’s smaller children.-Abed Zagout---Nisreen Hassan was arrested after she was summoned by Israel to appear at the Erez checkpoint — one of only two entrances in and out of Gaza.Abed Zagout

Hamza Abu Eltarabesh-14 June 2016

The family of Nisreen Hassan is being denied contact with her.

In October last, Hassan was arrested at Erez, the military checkpoint between Gaza and present-day Israel. She has been imprisoned by Israel since then.

Hassan, a 41-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel, has been diagnosed with lymphoma, according to her family. She had been undergoing chemotherapy in Gaza before her arrest and had responded well to treatment.

Although her family have been assured by Hassan’s lawyer that she is receiving adequate medical care, they are not able to speak with her. The last time Hassan was allowed to phone Hazem Abu Kmail, her husband, was in February.

“She told me that she was fine and sent her love to the kids,” Abu Kmail said.

Hassan has been accused of photographing Israeli military sites in order to benefit Palestinian armed groups.

She has rejected the accusation.

When her case went before an Israeli court in March, she refused to stand before the judge as she insisted that the charge against her is baseless. According to her husband, she has not been involved in politics and had never been previously arrested.

Trying to move

On the day of her arrest, Hassan had been told to visit the Erez crossing by the Israeli authorities. Her understanding was that she was going there because she had applied for Israeli-issued identity and travel documents for her family.

“After one hour, I received a call telling me that my wife had been arrested,” Abu Kmail said.

Erez is one of only two crossings leading in and out of Gaza. The other, in southern Rafah, is the main gateway of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents to the outside world. But it has been closed by Egypt since late October 2014, with only rare exceptions.

Travel via Erez in Gaza’s north is restricted to those with Israeli permits. Most of those allowed are traders and exceptional humanitarian cases, including patients needing medical treatment unavailable in Gaza. The Israeli human rights group Gisha recorded a monthly average of approximately 14,000 exits from Erez last year.

Israel frequently arrests Palestinians attempting to cross Erez.

Israel arrested 44 Palestinians at Erez, including four patients, at Erez last year, according to the Gaza-based human rights group Al-Mezan.

In the first three months of this year, seven Palestinians, including two patients, have been arrested at the checkpoint.

“Israel continues using the policy of extorting and arresting patients and hindering their arrival to hospitals at the appointed time, claiming arresting them for security reasons, which we completely deny,” said Samir al-Zaqout, a researcher with Al-Mezan, who has himself been denied passage at Erez.

Late last year, Israel imposed additional restrictions, limiting the types of illnesses for which Palestinians may seek treatment outside Gaza, and lengthening the security screening for those accompanying patients to their appointments.

Dr. Bassam al-Badri, an official with the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that delays caused by the additional restrictions “lead hospitals not to accept these patients as they don’t meet their appointments.”

The Israeli human rights group Gisha documented “an increase in the number of permit holders being called in for ‘security interviews’ or interrogations by Israeli officials at Erez” last year.

It was one such summons — which, if declined, can lead to the revocation of a permit — that led to Hassan’s arrest.

Hassan grew up in Haifa, a city in present-day Israel. She had been trying to move her family there from Gaza.

Their hope was that Hazem Abu Kmail would have greater possibilities to find work in Haifa. The family, who live in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, have been struggling to make ends meet.

Abu Kmail’s only source of income in Gaza is from his work as a hawker. His daily pay is frequently less than $2.

Hassan is one of 70 Palestinian women now in jail, according to the latest data from Addameer, a rights group. She was detained in Hasharon prison but then moved to Damon, both of which are inside Israel.

“Both of those prisons are overcrowded,” Riyad al-Ashqar, director of the Prisoner Studies Center in Gaza, said.

Strain

Hassan’s imprisonment has put a great deal of strain on her family.

Her eldest daughter, 12-year-old Amira, is playing a mother’s role in her absence.

Amira has to clean the family’s home both before and after she goes to school, as well as take care of her 18-month-old brother Ahmad.

In total, Hassan has seven children. Her husband works long hours, so the responsibility for many household chores falls on them, particularly Amira.

“I don’t know how to prepare food like mom used to make,” said Amira. “We mostly depend on canned food now. We miss mom’s delicious food.”

As well as taking care of her siblings, Amira regularly attends protests in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners. The protests take place at the Gaza City headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Amira has been urging the Red Cross to campaign for her mother’s release.

“We miss mom badly in every way,” she said. “I can’t handle things anymore. I want her back with us.”

Hamza Abu Eltarabesh is a journalist from Gaza.

Brussels central station evacuated amid heightened security fears

Belgian soldiers patrol outside the central train station where a suspect package was found, in Brussels, Belgium, June 19, 2016.REUTERS/FRANCOIS LENOIR

Belgian soldiers secure a road after a suspect package was found inside the central train station in Brussels, Belgium, June 19, 2016.-REUTERS/FRANCOIS LENOIR

BY JULIA FIORETTI-Sun Jun 19, 2016

Brussels central train station was evacuated for about an hour on Sunday because of a suspicious suitcase amid heightened security fears in the Belgian capital after a huge anti-terror operation led to three men being charged with terrorism offences.

The suitcase later turned out to be a false alarm but shows Belgium's high state of alert as the Euro 2016 soccer tournament is under way in neighbouring France, three months after Islamist bombers killed 32 people in Brussels. Investigators say the attackers had links to militants who carried out attacks in Paris in November.

Belgian police searched 40 houses and 152 garage lockups between Friday night and Saturday, arresting 12 people following reports of possible attacks targeting soccer fans watching the matches in Brussels. They later released nine after questioning.

The three Belgian men charged with "having attempted to commit a terrorist murder and for participation in the activities of a terrorist group" were identified by prosecutors only as 27-year-old Samir C., 40-year-old Moustapha B., and 29-year-old Jawad B.

Belgian media reported they had links to the men prosecutors believe carried out the Brussels twin bombings in March, brothers Ibrahim ('Brahim') and Khalid El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui.

Without citing sources, RTBF said police listened to phone conversations between the three men in which they said they planned attacks in Brussels over the weekend.

Neither prosecutors nor Prime Minister Charles Michel confirmed reports of the arrested suspects planning to attack soccer fans.

The Belgian federal prosecutor's office said only that the investigation required immediate action.

Michel appealed to the country to stay calm after chairing a meeting of the government's security council on Saturday.

Investigators have found links between the Brussels attackers and Islamist militants who killed 130 people in a spate of shootings and suicide bombings in Paris in November.

On Friday police arrested and detained a 30-year-old man named as Youssef E.A, a Belgian national, on suspicion of taking part in terrorist activities in connection with the Brussels attacks.

The man worked at Brussels airport and had access to planes on the tarmac, said broadcaster RTBF and newspaper Le Soir, citing judiciary sources.

(Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Ros Russell)

Deconstructing Russophobia

Catherine Brown-June 6, 2014

Imagine that Vladimir Putin were not a murderous autocrat and kleptocrat who has spent his fourteen years in power living up to his KGB past and dragging Russia ever back towards Communist autocracy, illiberalism, and expansionism. Imagine that instead he were the one of the greatest leaders that Russia has had, whose policies have helped produce a massive rise in living standards and life expectancy, recuperation of national pride, and enforcement of the rule of law, who has tackled kleptocrats and gangsters wisely and well, whose foreign policy has on balance been realistic, diplomatic, and conducive to peace, who has presided over a country of which the human rights record is considerably better than that of the United States and in which civil rights are improving, and who richly deserves the steady support of 65% – currently at a Ukraine-related high of 83% – of the population that he possesses. It is my understanding that the reality is closer to the second scenario than the first – and I may note that I say this as someone with no ethnic, financial, professional or political ties to Russia whatsoever. It follows that I am not a Russian expert – but nor am I, on the other hand, parti pris. I am a friendly, distanced observer of the country.

Let me start by explaining the history of my connection to the country. When I was a teenager my somewhat timid and unimaginative school uncharacteristically decided to organise a trip to a wacky place such as Russia, where, as it seemed, considerable political change happened to be taking place. So it was that I visited the Soviet Union during the last month of its existence, whilst myself having almost as little conception of what the Soviet Union was, as of what might be about to replace it. Some years later, in my year, so-called ‘out’, before university, I found myself living on the Danube’s South bank in Ruse, Bulgaria, learning some Bulgarian but telling myself that if ever I properly learned a Slavic language it would be one that would allow me to converse with hundreds of millions not just seven million users. After a degree in English I made a diagonal move into an MSc in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at the London School of Economics, where it was abundantly clear that Britain’s finest kremlinogists had had very little idea that or when the Soviet Union was going to end – and who, tsarist nostalgists and Soviet nostalgists alike – were dismayed at what was happening in the country at the time. The worst time was already over when, in 2002, I moved to Moscow to improve my book-learned Russian, and to teach English. I became amongst other things an Anglo-Russian literary comparatist, and have visited the country at least annually since then.

The Moscow I remember of 1991 was febrile, almost but not quite panicked, and throngingly poor. The Moscow I remember of 2002 can best be summarised with the word ‘rough’. Though safe in ways in which London isn’t – I often used private cars as taxis, alone, at night – there were also several obvious ways to die which London lacked. Open manhole covers, slipping drunk in the snow, crossfire. This was ‘diky capitalism’ – wild capitalism, with its gloves decidedly off. Legless – literally – Afghan vets pushing themselves through the snow, their torsoes balanced on makeshift skateboards. Families camped out singing for their supper. Concert-quality violinists busking. Professional gymnasts stripping in nightclubs. Makeup stores where Western brands were sold at what I at first thought were ruble prices but were in fact hugely inflated and illegal US dollar prices. My employer at a private English school wasn’t paying tax, on the grounds that he couldn’t both do that and be solvent. Police one crossed the street to avoid – both because one’s own affairs would inevitably involve some illegality, and because they were underpaid and relied on bribes.

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America Already Has More Than Enough Nuclear Missiles

But Republicans are pushing a $1 trillion nuclear modernization program, which would not only bankrupt the Pentagon but could spark a global nuclear arms race.


BY ADAM SMITH-JUNE 17, 2016

This summer, Congress has been tying itself up in knots, trying to decide how to adequately fund U.S. national defense priorities, given the limits imposed by sequestration. But the difficult reality is that, however we choose to address immediate challenges, any rational attempt to plan for America’s future security must begin with a clear-eyed reassessment of the costs, trade-offs, and dangers of the trillion-dollar plan Washington is undertaking to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. That reassessment should include an effort to eliminate the new nuclear cruise missile.

This week, I co-sponsored an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would cut funding for the development of this missile, the Long-Range Standoff Weapon, by $75.8 million. If adopted, that preliminary cut would have slowed its development by three years.

The United States needs a strong and credible nuclear arsenal. But our current nuclear forces are excessive. With over 5,000 deployed and stockpiled nuclear weapons — and thousands more awaiting dismantlement — we have a nuclear force stacked with redundancy. The “nuclear triad” that we would use to deliver these weapons consists of over 400 land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles on high alert and undetectable nuclear ballistic submarines, each armed with two types of warheads. We also deploy nuclear gravity bombs that could be delivered from bombers or fighter aircraft, and air-launched nuclear cruise missiles. In addition, the United States maintains non-deployed nuclear weapons that act as an additional hedge to our deployed nuclear weapons, along with thousands of nuclear components and, of course, the ability to build even more nuclear weapons.

The truth is that the United States can retain a credible nuclear deterrent with significantly fewer nuclear weapons and fewer delivery systems, at a fraction of the cost.

Instead, and with little debate, Congress has embarked on a plan to modernize all of these systems and increase these capabilities at an estimated total cost of $1 trillion over 30 years. This effort largely results from decisions made before the advent of the Budget Control Act and an ideological commitment to nuclear weapons by the Republican majority, which recently described them as our national security priority and “the foundation of all our defense efforts” in its security strategy. That plan means purchasing new nuclear weapons production facilities and labs, refurbishing warheads, land-based ballistic missiles, ballistic missile submarines, building new strategic bombers and nuclear-capable fighter aircraft, and, to top it all off, a new nuclear cruise missile.

These expenses will soon constitute a huge proportion of the U.S. defense budget: Yearly nuclear modernization costs will soon balloon and then more than double in the ensuing years, requiring at least $40 billion annually between 2024 and 2036, or nearly 10 percent of defense costs. This modernization “bow wave” — a term meant to describe the bulging costs resulting from new defense programs, like the waves that spread from the bow of a ship — will crowd out other defense priorities, consuming money for conventional weapons, cyber security, taking care of military families, and everything else. For comparison, consider that $40 billion would fund an additional 330,000 troops, and is almost twice the yearly cost of the Marine Corps.

That is an enormous problem that we are unprepared to handle. The comptroller of the Department of Defense has called the cost of nuclear modernization “the biggest acquisition problem we don’t know how to solve yet.” Brian McKeon, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy,stated that the Pentagon is “wondering how the heck we’re going to pay for it,” and that current leadership is “thanking our stars we won’t be here to have to answer the question.” Meanwhile, Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee repeatedly voted down and blocked amendments that would require more comprehensive cost assessments for these plans.

What’s more, this nuclear investment would actually undermine U.S. security by driving an emerging global nuclear arms race, undercutting American credibility in the pursuit of nuclear nonproliferation. Indeed, over the past few years, Russia and China have been modernizing their nuclear deterrents. Much of their spending is meant to assure the relevance of their deterrents and offset conventional military deficiencies. That doesn’t mean that the Pentagon must counter these new Russian and Chinese investments; America already has a reliable, credible nuclear deterrent. We must be careful to avoid creating incentives for a self-fulfilling cycle that heightens the risk of using atomic weapons.

To avoid going down this road and to ensure that we maintain the capabilities we need, we should cancel redundant systems such as the planned development of the Long-Range Standoff Weapon, which I proposed reducing funding for this week in a defense appropriations amendment; adopt substantial cuts to our nuclear arsenal, which could save tens of billions of dollars; and increase accountability and transparency by requiring the Defense Department to submit a 25-year plan for nuclear deterrent modernization to explain how it plans to manage these costs. Now is the time for serious oversight and a realistic approach to these issues in order to stop an emerging arms race and avoid wasting billions of dollars we cannot afford.

Photo Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / Staff

‘Brexit’ could send shock waves across U.S. and global economy

On June 23, Britain faces a fateful decision: whether or not to leave the European Union. And the world will be watching. (Daron Taylor,Jason Aldag,Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post)

By Ylan Q. Mui June 18 at 8:20 PM

Britain's departure from the European Union could send shock waves across the global economy and threaten more than a trillion dollars in investment and trade with the United States.

International policymakers are ramping up their warnings of the dangers of a British exit - popularly known as "Brexit" — from the political and economic alliance that has united Europe for the past four decades. Voters in Britain will decide whether to leave or remain in the European Union in a referendum on Thursday, but financial market volatility has already spiked as polls show a growing desire to abandon the partnership.

The decision carries hefty consequences for American businesses, which employ more than a million people in Britain. The United States is the largest single investor in Britain, and many firms consider it the gateway to free trade with the 28 nations that make up the E.U. A Brexit would jeopardize their access to those markets, potentially reducing revenue and forcing some firms to consider relocating their European operations elsewhere. That has put corporate America onto the front lines of the campaign to keep the union together, with several of Wall Street's biggest names donating substantial sums to the effort.

A Brexit would be "bad for the U.K., it would be bad for Europe, it would be bad for the world, including the United States," Angel Gurría, secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said in an interview. "You already have enough uncertainty in the world today. We don't need more."

The International Monetary Fund on Friday issued one of the most dire forecasts to date, calling the impact of Britain's departure from the European Union "negative and substantial." The fund predicted that a Brexit could reduce economic growth by up to 5.6 percent over the next three years in its worst-case scenario. The gloomy outlook is driven by an expected sharp decline in the pound
and severe disruptions in trade as the nation is forced to renegotiate deals with countries across the continent, potentially on worse terms.

Those concerns were echoed by policymakers around the world last week. The Bank of England called the referendum the "largest immediate risk facing U.K. financial markets, and possibly also global financial markets." Finland's finance minister dubbed Brexit a "Lehman Brothers moment," referring to the collapse

of the U.S. investment bank during the depths of the financial crisis in 2008. And in Washington, Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet L. Yellen said the threat of a Brexit factored into its decision to remain cautious and keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged last week.

"They basically all say somewhat of the same thing," said Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "Namely, that there is little doubt that the economics will be bad."

Financial markets are already starting to feel the tremors. Britain's currency has fluctuated wildly, while London's major stock index plunged nearly 6 percent in less than two weeks and flirted with its lowest level in four months. Skittish investors piled into the safe haven of government debt, and high demand pushed yields on the 10-year German bond into negative territory last week for the first time in history. In the United States, yields on comparable Treasury notes dropped to near-record lows not seen since 2012.

The challenges are coming at an already weak moment for Europe's economy — and the world's. Europe is still recovering from the series of financial crises that have been roiling countries such as Greece and Italy along with others across the continent. Waves of refugees from the Middle East are spurring political and cultural unrest. And there are worries about the strength of the economies of Europe's major trading partners, including China and the United States.

While financial markets would bear the brunt of the immediate impact of a Brexit, the referendum raises deeper questions for businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. If Britain votes to leave, it would spend at least two years working out the terms of its departure, with all signs pointing to an acrimonious negotiation. Britain would also need to procure trade agreements with countries around the world, including the United States, a process that could take years. Businesses say the protracted debate would leave them stuck in limbo.

"Nobody knows at this point how the world would look like with the U.K. out of the E.U.," said Emanuel Adam, head of policy and trade for BritishAmerican Business, which represents companies in New York and London. "This alone creates an uncertainty that businesses don't wish to see."

The United States exported $56 billion worth of goods to Britain last year, but that number is dwarfed by the $588 billion in U.S. investment there, in sectors ranging from banking to manufacturing to real estate. Likewise, Britain has plowed nearly

half a trillion dollars into the United States and employs more than a million workers here. Those deep ties mean that trouble on one side of the Atlantic easily can migrate to the other shore.

The heavy-equipment giant Caterpillar exemplifies the dilemma facing American businesses in Britain and the potential ripple effects of the referendum. The company manufactures heavy machinery and is headquartered in Peoria, Ill. More than 55 years ago, it opened its first facility in Britain, and now Caterpillar has 9,000 employees and 16 plants there making equipment, such as backhoe loaders and mini hydraulic excavators.

Much of that production is exported throughout Europe and other parts of the world, eased by the E.U.'s open market and standing trade agreements. A Brexit would undermine an economic alliance that the company has called "fundamental" to its business: Roughly a quarter of Caterpillar's sales and revenue comes from its European business and the more limited operations in Africa and
the Middle East.

"Britain ought to stay in," Doug Oberhelman, chief executive at Caterpillar and chairman of the board at the U.S. Business Roundtable, said last week. "Keeping that market together as a whole is better than not having it together."

Brexit backers, however, say the E.U. creates burdensome regulations that have hurt British innovation and competitiveness. Last month, a group of 250 business leaders signed a letter supporting an exit, and the head of one of Britain's largest business groups resigned his post after receiving fierce criticism for appearing to sympathize with the leave campaign.

Still, many Brexit supporters are not executives but employees. A recent YouGov survey showed that leaving the union was popular among older, conservative, blue-collar laborers — many of whom live in Peterborough, where Caterpillar runs a plant manufacturing diesel engines. In April, British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the factory to address skepticism over the benefits of the European alliance.

"I don't think we should risk jobs. I don't think we should risk our economy," Cameron told workers at the factory. "We shouldn't risk the investment that a company like this brings into Britain."

Other big U.S. businesses have thrown their weight behind the effort to stay in the union, as well. Ford's U.K. division sent a letter to its 14,000 employees emphasizing the importance of maintaining stability and preventing disruptions in trade. Wall Street's biggest banks, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley, reportedly have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Britain Stronger in Europe, the leading campaign to remain. A survey by BritishAmerican Business found that 70 percent of its members thought a Brexit would damage their operations or future investments.

It's not just mega-corporations that might be affected. Entrepreneur Angela Sprang founded June Medical two years ago to sell medical devices in Britain. She now employs a dozen people and books about 1 million pounds in revenue a year. Her biggest customer is the National Health Service — and her biggest supplier is the United States.

Because the products she buys are largely priced in U.S. dollars, Britain's weakened currency has shaved 20,000 to 30,000 pounds from her bottom line in a single month. Meanwhile, Sprang had hoped to distribute throughout Europe, taking advantage of a single E.U. regulatory process for the approval of medical devices marketed to its 500 million residents. But if a Brexit becomes a reality, she could lose easy access to those potential customers — and so would her U.S. suppliers.

Sprang said she might have to relocate her business, not only for economic reasons but also for personal ones: She is Swedish and said she is unsure what her immigration status would be if Britain left the union. Her 8-year-old daughter, who was born in Britain, has asked whether the family would have to leave if Britain votes out.

"Personally, it's devastating. It's just heartbreaking to see that the U.K. would be taking such steps when we need to be stronger together," Sprang said. "Surely there must be more hope for us to stay together and collaborate."

Jim Tankersley contributed to this report.

Turkish border guards kill eight Syrian refugees – reports

 People on the Syrian side of a border crossing with Turkey in February. Photograph: Bunyamin Aygun/AP

Patrick Kingsley Migration correspondent-Sunday 19 June 2016 

Eight Syrian refugees have been shot dead by Turkish border guards as they tried to escape war-torn northern Syria, a human rights watchdog has claimed.

Three children, four women and one man were killed on Saturday night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said a total of 60 Syrian refugees had been shot at the border since the start of the year.

Six of this weekend’s casualties were from the same family, said the observatory’s founder, Rami Abdelrahman. “I sent our activists to hospital there, we have video [of the corpses], but we haven’t published it because there are children [involved],” he said.

The Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists inside Syria, supported the claim, reporting that one of the children was as young as six.

Syrian refugees have been making illegal crossings of the Turkish border as Jordan, Turkeyand Lebanon have made it virtually impossible for them to leave Syria legally.

There have been reports of shootings on the border since at least 2013, and rights groups fear that the number of incidents has increased since European countries, including Britain, began pressing Turkey to curb migration flows towards Europe late last year.

Around 1 million refugees, roughly half of them Syrians, reached Europe from Turkey in the past two years. Turkey has promised to take back all those who reached Greece after 18 March. In recent months it has stopped Syrians refugees in Jordan and Lebanon from flying to Turkey without a visa. Some attribute the crackdown on Turkey’s Syrian border and the implementation of the new visa regime to the EU’s crackdown on arrivals from Turkey.

“EU officials should recognise that their red light for refugees to enter the EU gives Turkey a green light to close its border, exacting a heavy price on war-ravaged asylum seekers with nowhere else to go,” Human Rights Watch said after a previous round of border shootings in March.

A senior Turkish official said Turkey was investigating the latest allegations of shootings but was “unable to independently verify the claims”.

The official added: “Turkey provides humanitarian assistance to displaced persons in northern Syria and follows an open-door policy, which means we admit refugees whose lives are under threat.”

Turkey is building a wall along its southern perimeter, making it harder for Syrians to reach safety. Turkish diplomats say this is due to fears over infiltration by Isis rather than any animosity towards refugees.

Turkey hosts more Syrian refugees – 2.7 million – than the rest of the world combined, and more refugees – around 3 million – than any other country.

Critics say Turkey does not make it easy for refugees on its territory. In legal terms, it treats them as temporary guests rather than as refugees with rights under the terms of the 1951 UN refugee convention.

Despite recent legislative changes, the vast majority of Syrians do not in practice have the right to work in Turkey. Syrian children can nominally go to Turkish schools, but in practice Unicef estimates that 325,000 school-age Syrians are not in education, and many of them are forced to participate in child labour.

Amnesty and Human Rights Watch allege that Turkey has deported some Syrians back to northern Syria, where Isis, Syrian rebels, the Syrian government, an al-Qaida franchise and Kurdish forces are all fighting for territory. Turkey denies the claims.

30,000 displaced from Iraq's Fallujah in 3 days: NGO

Dozens of families including pregnant women, the sick, and the elderly are believed to be trapped inside Iraq's city of Fallujah

Displaced Iraqis from the embattled city of Fallujah stand outside tents where they are taking shelter some 18 kilometres from Ramadi (AFP)

Sunday 19 June 2016

Fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah has displaced at least 30,000 people in three days, the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Sunday, warning that a humanitarian disaster was unfolding.

Iraqi forces achieved a breakthrough on Thursday, taking over the centre of Fallujah while the Islamic State group retreated to areas in the north of the city.

That allowed thousands of civilians who had been used as human shields to flee the city, a key IS stronghold west of Baghdad that had been besieged for months.

"The estimated total number of displaced from Fallujah in just the last three days is now at a staggering 30,000 people," the NRC said in a statement.

The aid group, which runs displacement camps around Fallujah, said another 32,000 people had already been displaced since the start of the government offensive against the IS bastion nearly a month ago.

It said it believed dozens of families were still inside Fallujah, including the most vulnerable civilians such as pregnant women, the sick and the elderly.

The aid community has been overwhelmed by the influx of people and many were sleeping in the open, in the scorching summer sun and waiting for a tent at one of the displacement camps.

"We implore the Iraqi government to take charge of this humanitarian disaster unfolding on our watch," NRC's Iraq director Nasr Muflahi said in the statement.

NRC said it could no longer provide the required assistance, with water rations drying up fast.

It cited the case of a newly-opened camp in Amriyat al-Fallujah that houses 1,800 people but has only one latrine for women.

"We need the Iraqi government to take a leading role in providing for the needs of the most vulnerable civilians who have endured months of trauma and terror," Muflahi said.

Fallujah was the first city to fall out of government control in January 2014, as IS began to establish a foothold on parts of the country.

Around 3.4 million people have since been forced from their homes by conflict across the country. More than 40 percent of them are from Anbar, the province in which Fallujah is located.

Yoga becomes spearhead of India’s soft power push in southwest China

Photo: Atul Aneja.

Chinese gather in Dujiangyan in southwest China to pick finer aspects of yoga from master trainer Zubin Zarthoshtimanesh.

• DUJIANGYAN (SOUTHWEST CHINA), June 19, 2016
• 
  

In a school hall in Dujiangyan — the home of Taoism — hundreds of young people, from all parts of the country, elbowed for mat space, to soak in from an authentic Indian master, the finer points of Yoga, which has become the new spearhead of India’s soft-power push in China.

From a stage, an energised and profusely sweating Yoga master Zubin Zarthoshtimanesh, hollers into his microphone: “This is not Kung Fu, but yoga,” upbraiding a visiting enthusiast for striking an angled pose that the ancient Indian art of holistic wellness did not permit.

Master Zubin’s words and tone, in matching decibels and pitch, were translated in real time into Chinese by Tian Yan, a qualified yoga instructor in her own right. This was Ms. Tian’s second outing with Indian masters in Dujiangyan. Last year too, in celebration of the first international yoga day, she had bridged the communication divide between the English speaking yoga gurus and fitness conscious students, more attuned to their native mandarin than a foreign tongue.

The crammed hall where master Zuben mesmerised his audience signalled Yoga’s surging mass appeal in China. In turn, it is also mushrooming as a lucrative industry, which could be set for an exponential rise.

“We have no dearth of students, but finding good teachers is a big problem,” says Wu Haixia. Ms. Wu is the general manager of the Sacred Yoga and Dance Company, in Chengdu, a major city in southwest China.

Her fitness enterprise already has 700 branches. Each class has 40-50 students, who, with little complaint are spending around 3000 Chinese Yuan (approximately Rs.30000) every month on their training.

Ms. Wu says that during the two day yoga festival, which concluded on Sunday, she hopes to forge business partnerships with some of the visiting Indian yoga teachers. “The presence and guidance of masters from India, the sources of yoga, would elevate our business to an altogether new level,” she gushes excitedly.

Back in the school hall, preparing for his class, Uday Bhosale of the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute acknowledges that Chinese students are being deprived of the real essence of Yoga. “Our job here is to explain the bio-mechanics of yoga; of the physiological and mental processes that are involved in asanas, so that greater awareness of the uniqueness of yoga is created among the students.”

He agrees that yoga in China is gender driven — with far fewer men than women practicing the art. “It is perhaps the way we market yoga, with women always, and in my opinion, wrongly, on the forefront,” he observes. Others such as Jin Xue Yang, a young student from a neighbouring province, already five years into Yoga, says that it is unfashionable to link yoga with masculinity in her region, so far.

“Many men think it is not a manly thing to do,” she observes, pointing to the skewed male attitude towards yoga that is dominant in the area.

Officials in Dujiangyan say that the insitutionalisation of a soft-power “package,” including powerful Indian and Chinese elements is required, to root stronger cultural ties between the two countries.

Zhao Wenqiao, a senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in Dujiangyan, advocates the early establishment of a “cultural park” in India and China, which covers films, yoga, Tai chi and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) within its ambit. “Hopefully, in next year’s event, yoga would be supplemented by a film and food festival as well,” he hopes optimistically.