Incredible but true.! Basil the criminal in robust health becomes ‘critical’ as he takes first step into prison !!

-Doctor mafia that neglects poor patients helps the powerful to circumvent laws

(Lanka-e-News -20.July.2016, 6.48PM) Basil Rajapakse the criminal who walked into the remand prison on the 18th as fit as a fiddle and as strong as a rock, and  in much the same way as he was when he was committing all the treacheries and frauds on people’s monies while  he was outside , has  unbelievably within just 24 hours after entering prison, that is yesterday evening (19) become ‘fatally ill’, and been admitted to the General hospital ,unheeding  the laws and legal procedures most disdainfully , and thereby  making justice in the country a mockery .

Right now he is receiving medical treatment in ward 15 of the National hospital . (Its paying ward) .

Might we recall ,Lanka e news foretold this spurious drama in its news report yesterday .We revealed ,  ‘Basil Rajapakse who was to march from Kandy to Colombo , as soon as he is remanded will admit himself to hospital- people are watching.’ As we presaged so it happened !

When Lanka e news probed into this dramatic turn of events , it was discovered that it is none other than the corrupt  mafia of infernal ‘Padeniya sons’  that was responsible to fasten the ‘stray dog’ label on the justice and judicial processes too of Sri Lanka (SL) via their dubious and devious manipulations, after having fastened the ‘Doctor mafia criminals’ label  on themselves shamelessly.

It is to be noted that the prison hospital and its doctors are under the administration of the Colombo National hospital and not the Prisons Commissioner, and the health condition of those remanded is reported by Dr. Nihal Senadheera, and it is he who had given the order that Basil who was as a strong as a rock when he was remanded is sick and be admitted to the prison hospital.

Subsequently , it is Dr. Ms.  Sujeewa Jayawardena of the prison hospital who had diagnosed that  Basil is in a ‘critical’ condition, and he should be admitted to the National hospital since  he cannot be treated at the prison hospital. Both these doctors are serving under Dr.Lakshman Jayamanne , a specialist the chief medical officer in charge of the prison hospital. It is Dr. Jayamanne who makes a final decision.

It is worthy of note that like the National hospital , the prison hospital too is equally well equipped . It has all the facilities  to treat patients undergoing surgery  in 23 wards ,and of them three wards are meant for women. . In the circumstances unless he /she is a terminal patient he/she need not be dispatched to the National hospital. Above all it is a criminal and not a terminal patient who was remanded , and therefore  he/she  cannot be allowed to be stationed  outside the walls of a prison , for if that facility is to be granted to the criminal , the whole purpose of remand custody is defeated, not to mention  the whole legal procedure and process.

It is most unfortunate , the chief medical officer Dr.  Lakshman Jayamanne is  a most notorious corrupt bribe taker affiliated to the Blue Brigand. He had been serving in this place for donkey’s years , and having got the sweet taste of monumental corruption ,  even when he is transferred he somehow creeps back to his favorite haunt to carry on his favorite habit ( bribe taking and corruption regardless of laws , medical ethics and professional dignity) unhindered and gleefully . In other words despite being an infamous medical scourge , he is very   powerful – naturally being a member of the Blue Brigand.

During these days when the prisons are getting filled with rogues and rascals specially with those  belonging to  the Blue Brigand , Dr Jayamanne’s pockets too are spilling over with filthy lucre. His loot is shared among the other doctors . He collects a bribe even to make a prison cell into a bedroom.

All these rackets of the rascals  in the medical profession are rendered possible because of the Padeniya mafia  association comprising the ‘infernal sons and scondrels’ . The health ministry has no control over the transfer of doctors even if these corrupt and crooked doctors are brazenly indulging in bribery , crooked and corrupt activities to the detriment of the country, the  people and patients. The Padeniya mafia has to give the consent to effect the transfers.. Since these rogues and rascals of the medical  profession  and the association are of the same ilk  , like the birds of a feather flocking  together , all these scoundrels  together are duping  the entire population ruthlessly and shamelessly sacrificing medical ethics , professional dignity , and even the sacred oath they have taken when  launching on the medical career, at the altar of overriding selfishness , self gains and lure of filthy lucre , while caring least for the genuine patients and the nation which in fact should be  the primary and paramount duties of these medical practitioners.

Padeniya a lickspittle and lackey of the Rajapkses who has the rare ability not only to lick the boots but even the stinking  hindquarters of the Rajapakses , no sooner he heard Basil the crook who is now a prison ‘frequenter’  had been ‘welcomed’ into remand prison by his newly befriended inmates , than he had through  his mafia cronies arranged for Basil to be admitted to the National hospital by making him  a ‘ critical patient.’ The mafia cronies at the hospital had then ensured Basil is admitted to the paying ward. Basil the criminal thereby gets the opportunity to turn   the ward into his office to conduct  his political activities inside the ward most happily like any other political ‘animal’ of the Blue brigand outside .

Come to  show the way to hellfire for these infernal beings…

It is these scoundrels alias doctors who after completing their medical studies out of honest ,hard earned monies  of the struggling people of the country, have made a scramble to rescue the corrupt rascal of an ex minister  who robbed over Rs. 65 million of the funds of the very people who helped  the doctors alias scoundrels to complete their medical studies . These doctors therefore should be ashamed to act this way unlawfully  compromising the professional integrity and their national duty. . Even an ordinary  dog in the streets has a better sense of gratitude . 

Then are these doctors worse than the stray and rabid dogs roaming the streets in search of discarded food?  by rescuing this criminal ex minister when  the whole country has discarded him  who had been remanded more than once  for frauds and robberies, ( many more cases  are following) , as well as  his elder brother the ex president who pilfered public funds as though the public treasury is his dowry property
This doctor mafia therefore under Padeniya the infernal son of condemned hell by  doing their utmost  to save these  worst criminals while neglecting the genuinely  sick patients who are part of the public  that funded their medical studies are knowingly and deliberately  doing the greatest disservice to the country and the nation .

After a specialist doctor confirms that a patient is suffering from an illness , not even the courts can say ‘ no , that is not true’.This is based on the premise that no reputed specialist in the whole wide world  would stoop to tell a lie regarding his patient no matter how crooked and mendacious the patient is. This  is because the medical practitioner  is expected to care for his professional dignity and honor more than anything else. 

It is a pity , when this rule was introduced  , and  it  is being followed , the founders of the rule forgot that Sri Lanka should be treated as an exception . It is only in Sri Lanka there are specialists and doctors  who not only aid and abet criminal and feigning patients , but also  act worse than the ordinary crooks and corrupt in the streets by not caring for the genuine  patients. These are the medical practitioners who are lured by filthy lucre and are corrupted by evil power.

It is by now well and widely known that Dr. Laksman Jayamanne whose medical College course expenses were met out of   the funds of the law abiding public is now biting the same hands that fed him .

If the public want to show him the way out from the prison hospital where he is a doctor to  incarceration within the four walls of the prison the place he richly deserves for the rackets and crimes he is committing , he can be contacted at 0777 77 57 58  - his telephone Number.

No matter what, we wish to   issue  a stern and dire warning to the despicable mafia of the doctors who are denigrating  the rule of law and disgracing their own noble profession who are indulging in subterfuges and camouflages  to convey the wrong impression to the people and rescue the corrupt rascals and scoundrels  who are incarcerated for crimes by terming them   ‘critical’ patients , in order to take the people of the country  for a ride 

Please for god’s sake  do not dare to think or act in  a manner that would  deceive the majority of people who emerged victorious in the fierce battle against the cooks , corrupt and the criminals . Hence , please put a full stop right now to your sordid and corrupt activities aimed at safeguarding and shielding the criminals , the corrupt and crooks for  your own good . For the moment we have only revealed the names and phone Nos.  of only three of them and the leader.  Our next step will  be exposing the lurid details of their families , addresses and their murky activities , which will render it very easy for  the law abiding people to identify and chase out these infernal beings back into  the fire of hell . 
 

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by     (2016-07-20 13:25:27)

Rajapaksa’s who were predominantly aerial now permanently grounded— P. Harrison

Jul 20, 2016

The Minister of Livestock and rural community development P Harrison has added that all politicians who had earned money in an irregular manner should be brought to book and punished severely.

Reiterating further the Minister had added that former minister Basil Rajapkasa and others in the Rajapaksa family were living predominantly aerially but had to collectively able to keep foot on earth permanently was after losing the presidential and the general elctions.Minister P Harrison joining in the performance review annual meeting on the health department and animal production at the main office in Gatambe in front of the media.

Minister Harrison has quipped that once Chamal Rajapaksa the then speaker had confessed that for the next 75 years the Rajapaksa stranglehold, power and ruling could never be beaten.The Rajapaksa family had planned to live a luxurious king’s lives during that period.

Emphasising further Minister Harrison had added that it could be Basil Rajapaksa ,Namal Rajapaksa or any other Rajapakse or politician would be brought to book by the court authorities if found guilty of allegations against financial frauds, misappropriation of government funds and money laundering etc. Adding further the Minister added that investigations are been carried out discreetly.

Adding further he has added the court authorities would decide on the punishments for those guilty. This is what exactly the general public also expect to happen.

The Minister had said that unlike in the Rajapaksa era there is no political mileage offered to any supporter of family member of any politician. There would be no political interference. The related officials of the intuitions who conduct investigations are performing their tasks impartially. The arrestof Basil Rajapaksa was not the work of the government.The police financial crimes investigating division had handed over the findings of the complaints to the related authorities of the courts.

The Minister had suggested the authorities to confiscate all assets of those found guilty of acquiring wealth and other assets via bribery corruption and money laundering acts. He added further saying that unlike in the tenure of the previous era there is absolutely no interference to protect the law breakers who could get out scot-free when instructions are received from the top.

No justice for Gaza youth killed in viral video

Salem Shamaly (photo courtesy of the Shamaly family)

Salem Shamaly, in green shirt, leading a group of volunteers in Shujaiya shortly before he was shot repeatedly by Israeli snipers on 20 July 2014.Joe Catron

Refaat Alareer- 20 July 2016

Two years ago, during Israel’s 2014 onslaught against Gaza, a young, unarmed man was killed by Israeli snipers. The killing was recorded and uploaded to YouTube and the video went viral.

The young man was Salem Shamaly. Salem, 23, was helping medics and volunteers search for injured people, including what he thought might be his own family members, trapped in the rubble of their houses after an early morning bombardment by the Israeli military of the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.

Even amid the death and destruction of the 2014 onslaught, Salem’s story stood out, 

garnering international headlines and raising questions about war crimes. But two years later, justice has not been done for Salem — or indeed any of the 2,251 Palestinians, including 551 children, Israel killed in Gaza, according to the UN’s independent commission of inquiry.

To his family, Salem was a person with great potential who was plucked in his prime by a brutal occupier that refuses to let Palestinians be. The death of the family’s oldest son has also precipitated decline. 

Salem’s father, Khalil, 61, has seen his small business — selling baby sanitary products — falter, and his asthma and heart conditions worsen. The family home was partially damaged during the assault and Khalil lost all his inventory, at an estimated value of some $30,000, almost all his life savings.

A loved boy

Salem — his name meaning safe and sound in Arabic — was born in the densely populated Shujaiya neighborhood in 1992, during the waning years of the first Palestinian intifada. He was a calm baby born on a turbulent day, his parents remember, and only cried a little. And as the first boy after six daughters and 13 years of marriage, his was a special celebration. He would always be the oldest son, even when he eventually was just one of 12 siblings, and his father would finally be Abu Salem and have a son to take over his shop and carry on the family name.

“I always used his pet name, Salouma, until he was 22. He was the apple of my eye; he was obedient. God bless his soul; he was caring and respectful,” his mother Amina, 45, said.

And like many mothers, Amina would dote on her son.

She talked of his love of football and food, his favorite dish, maqlouba, and his demeanor, painting a picture of a caring and considerate child who would always ask his mother if she wanted anything before he would leave the house.

“He is loved by everyone. I was even afraid too much love would spoil him,” said Umm Salem, still referring to her son in the present tense.

His father too, gave Salem special treatment. Not long after the boy could do basic maths and talk to customers, Khalil would have him help out in the shop during holidays and after school.

When Salem finished high school, he joined a local college to study accounting so that he could help with his father’s business.

But when Salem’s younger brother finished high school a year later and wanted to go to college, Salem decided to put his studies on hold and give his brother a chance to study at college and help him with the fees.

At the age of 22, Salem had finished one year of a two-year college program and started his own business, selling children’s clothing.

In one year, the young man managed to double his savings from $2,000 to $4,000. In an economy like Gaza’s, that has to constitute success. He was determined, said his mother, to start his own family and had even identified the woman he wanted to marry.

The name he only confided to his mother. And to this day, Umm Salem has not told anyone who she was.

She would never see her son married.

“Israel deprived us of Salem. And they deprived us of the children Salem would have had. And it breaks my heart,” Amina said.

A fateful day

Most of Salem’s extended family lives in Shujaiya. During Israel’s assault on Gaza, the neighborhood, on the eastern part of Gaza City, was targeted with a ferocity that alarmed even US officials. John Kerry, the secretary of state, in an unguarded moment sarcastically called it a “hell of a pinpoint operation.” What became known as the Shujaiya massacre, on 20 July 2014, left more than 100 dead, more hundreds injured and damaged or destroyed more than 1,800 homes and buildings.

Along with the nearly 100,000 Palestinians in the area — one of the most densely populated parts of Gaza Strip, itself of one of the most densely populated areas in the world — the Shamaly family was warned to evacuate their homes ahead of an impending assault. But some residents were stuck in their houses or went missing when the Israeli military began a ground invasion on the night of 19 July.

Initial Palestinian resistance to that invasion resulted in the killing of 12 Israeli soldiers. That, in turn, elicited a wild response. For more than six hours, from the early hours of 20 July and into the late morning, the Israeli military threw everything at the neighborhood, pummeling Shujaiya with artillery, mortars and rockets fired from the air.

Most casualties came during that shelling. But the killings didn’t end there.

At around 1:30 in the afternoon, the Israeli army announced a two-hour “humanitarian ceasefire.” Salem joined a group of medics and activists heading towards Shujaiya to look for his missing relatives and other injured people.

In the video of the incident, Salem can be seen helping carrying out wounded people and calling for members of his family. Then suddenly, as the volunteer who is filming is himself running over rubble, a shot rings out.

After a brief moment of confusion, during which Salem can be heard trying to make sense of the situation, another shot. In the next frame, a still alive Salem is lying down, clearly wounded. Then another shot. Then another.

According to Joe Catron, an American activist and journalist who witnessed Salem’s slaying, “it should have been fairly obvious [to the snipers] that Salem was carrying nothing at all.”

“The first shot missed everyone, but split our group into two. Then as Salem tried to lead his group back across the alley, three more shots struck and killed him,” Catron told The Electronic Intifada.

“It was a ceasefire. And Salem was helping medics recover injured relatives,” Sameer Abu Aser, Salem’s brother-in-law, told The Electronic Intifada.

Israel prevented the Red Cross from recovering the injured or the bodies of the dead, Abu Aser recounted. And for two days, Salem was missing. At that point, no one in the family knew it was Salem in the video that had by then been posted and gone viral.

His family checked with their relatives. They checked Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital.

“We had to look into the faces of hundreds of people Israel had killed and injured looking for Salem. He was nowhere to be seen,” Abu Aser said.

Justice over revenge

Abu Aser was the first to recognize Salem in the video. The toughest thing, he said, was telling his parents. They tried to venture back to Shujaiya to bring Salem back. But their relatives did not allow them. Going back was certain death.

Only after six days of waiting and hoping that Salem had managed somehow to stay alive, did they manage to retrieve his partly decomposed body.

Salem was not very political, his family say. He was always absorbed in family issues or running errands for relatives. Salem’s only problem, his mother said, was that he wanted to help people.

A burning sense of injustice has taken a hold of Salem’s father, Khalil. No war crimes investigation has been held into his son’s death, even though the UN called his slaying an act of “willful killing.”

The circumstances around his slaying, the UN’s commission of inquiry concluded, “indicate that a civilian was targeted in violation of the principle of distinction. The fact that [Salem] was shot twice while lying injured on the ground is indicative of an intent to kill a protected person (either owing to his civilian status or to the fact that he was hors de combat) and constitutes an act of willful killing.”

Not long after the family had retrieved Salem’s body, Khalil remembered, he was asked by a western journalist what he wanted: “Revenge, I said at the time.”

Khalil paused.

“But now I am seeking justice for the blood of my son. I am seeking justice for the pain and suffering we’ve been through.”

Khalil began counting off on his fingers.

“Israel committed many crimes, not one: they killed Salem during a ceasefire. He was unarmed and helping others. They shot him, and then shot him again when he was helpless on the ground. Soldiers did not allow medics to take him to hospital, he was left to bleed and his body was left out in the open for stray dogs and rodents to feast on.”

The angry and bereaved father stopped.

“I want international organizations to sue Israel and bring the murderers to court.”

Refaat Alareer is the editor of Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine.

France says 3 soldiers were killed during anti-terrorism mission in Libya

French soldiers patrol on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, the scene of last week’s truck attack, which killed at least 84 people. (Claude Paris/AP)

By James McAuley July 20 at 12:49 PM

PARIS — Three French soldiers were killed in Libya “while on a mission,” the French Defense Ministry announced Wednesday in the first official confirmation that French special forces have been active in Libya in apparent operations against the Islamic State.

The Defense Ministry declined to confirm the reported details of the soldiers’ deaths, but President François Hollande, addressing a military training center in southwestern France, specifically mentioned a “helicopter crash.”

The Associated Press, quoting Libyan officials, reported that the soldiers were killed Sunday in an attack on their helicopter. An Islamist militia known as the Defending Benghazi Brigade asserted responsibility for the downing.

There are an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 Islamic State fighters across Libya, which has been gripped by unrest and political upheavals since a Western-aided uprising in 2011 deposed longtime ruler Moammar Gaddafi, who was captured and killed by rebels.

In Paris, government spokesman Stéphane Le Foll said in a radio interview that French forces in Libya were there to “ensure that France is present everywhere in the fight against terrorism.”

[Pentagon outlines next phase of Islamic State fight]

The French newspaper Le Monde first reported the presence of the special forces, claiming in February that several thousand French troops were engaged in “clandestine operations” against the Islamic State. It also reported that a November airstrike that killed Abu Nabil al-Anbari, believed to be the top Islamic State figure in Libya, was “initiated by Paris.”

Anbari was thought to be the narrator in a February 2015 video that showed the beheadings of 21 Christian workers in Libya, nearly all Copts from Egypt.

At the time, Libyan officials denied the Le Monde report, and the French government said its interest was merely in reconnaissance.

Libyan-based militants have not been directly linked to any of the major Islamic State attacks in Europe, including the rampage across Paris last year that claimed 130 lives and last week’s Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, which left 84 dead. But some suspects had links to Tunisia and other nations in North Africa.

Since 2014, Libya has been split between rival governments backed by various militias and tribes. A unity government brokered by the United Nations in December has struggled to make headway.

According to the claim of responsibility by the Defending Benghazi Brigade militia, the helicopter used by the French forces belonged to Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who opposes the internationally recognized government, the Associated Press reported.

[Tunisia nervously eyes Islamic State havens next door in Libya]

The United States has conducted occasional airstrikes in Libya amid deepening worries among Western powers and allies about expanding footholds in the country of the Islamic State and other militant groups, including factions inspired by al-Qaeda.

In addition, about two dozen U.S. Special Operations troops have been stationed at two outposts in eastern and western Libya since late 2015, seeking to coordinate with Western-allied militia groups.

In February, U.S. F-15 fighter jets struck a suspected Islamic State camp on the outskirts of Sabratha in western Libya, killing at least 40 people in an early morning attack that targeted senior militant Noureddine Chouchane. The Pentagon said Chouchane was suspected of overseeing attacks on Western tourists in neighboring Tunisia in 2015.

The Sabratha raid marked the second U.S. attack against Islamic State militants in Libya.

On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said there was a “distinct possibility” that the Islamic State could be driven from its main Libyan stronghold in the coastal city of Sirte but could scatter to other parts of the region.

Ban cited a recent U.N. report that said there are about 2,000 to 7,000 Islamic State militants in the area from Egypt to Mali and Mauritania.

Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.

Detained Iranian-Canadian artist freed, returns to Vancouver

Iranian authorities seized Parvis Tanavoli's passport for 'disturbing public opinion' and 'spreading lies'

Parvis Tanavoli's art mixes cultural and religious folklore with modernist motifs (Wikipedia)

Jillian D'Amours-Wednesday 20 July 2016

TORONTO, Canada – Celebrated Iranian-Canadian artist Parvis Tanavoli says he is happy to be back in Canada after Iranian authorities barred him from leaving the country for two weeks.

“I have no idea what was the cause of it, but on 2 July, my passport was confiscated at Tehran airport while I was going to London for two lectures and my book launch,” Tanavoli said.

The artist, who splits his time between Tehran and Vancouver, landed back in the Canadian city on Monday.

He said he still does not know why Iranian police seized his passport. But he was later informed that local officials accused him of “disturbing public opinion” and “spreading lies” through his work, allegations that he told Middle East Eye were categorically false.

“To me, it’s not right. It’s not true,” the 79-year-old said.

“I am happy that all the allegations are removed and I’m back. [In] the last 35 [years] that I’m going back and forth [between Iran and Canada], I haven’t had any experience like this. This is the first time.”

Artwork ‘not political’

Known as “the father of modern Iranian sculpture,” Tanavoli is a sculptor, painter and author. He is well known for his ability to mix cultural and religious folklore with modernist motifs, and his work inspired a movement of Iranian artists in the 1960s.

“The most influential avant-garde movement in 1960s Iran, the Saqqakhaneh School developed a visual language drawing on popular culture and its symbols, re-appropriating traditions with a modernist stance,” wrote Elsa Coustou, curator for a recent exhibition at the Tate Modern contemporary art museum in London that featured Tanavoli’s work.

Tanavoli hosted his first solo exhibition in the United States last year and his piece entitled The Wall (Oh Persepolis) – a bronze sculpture covered in hieroglyphs that stands over two metres tall – sold for $2.84 million at auction at Christie’s Dubai in 2008.

But the artist’s best known works are perhaps his depictions of the word heech, Persian for “nothing,” which he has represented in countless forms and across various artistic styles.

“I have been creating in the last 50 years in many shapes and many ways,” Tanavoli told MEE.

When his passport was confiscated, Tanavoli was on his way to London to participate in talks at The British Museum and Asia House for the launch of his new book, European Women in Persian Houses.

“Whether this was to them creating anxiety among people or not, I know people love my art. How they defined it, I don’t know,” he said, referring to how the Iranian authorities interpreted his work.

“I went through a lot of anxiety of course, a lot of hard days and pain, because you don’t know why you are detained … That [makes it] even worse,” he added.

Another dual national detained

But Tanavoli is not the only Canadian national to have problems in Iran recently.

Iranian-Canadian Homa Hoodfar also had her passport confiscated in March as she attempted to fly back to Canada. The 65-year-old retired professor has since been detained and held incommunicado at Evin prison in Tehran and accused of “dabbling in feminism and security matters”.

Hoodfar has reportedly been charged with a crime, but her family says it does not know what specific charges have been laid against her.

The Canadian government, meanwhile, says it is “actively engaged” in Hoodfar’s case.

“We are working closely with our like-minded allies in order to best assist Dr. Hoodfar,” Rachna Mishra, spokesperson for Canada’s department of foreign affairs, told MEE in an email.

James Devine, a professor at Mount Allison University and an expert on Iran, said “the big problem is what’s happening inside of Iran right now. That’s what’s driving all of this.”

Devine explained that a power struggle is playing out between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is gradually opening Iran up to Western countries, and more conservative leaders inside the country who want a say in Iran’s international affairs.

“They’re using this to try and undermine Rouhani’s position and to undermine his foreign policy,” Devine said.

Canada, meanwhile, has very little influence on what goes on inside Iran, Devine said.

The previous Conservative government of Canada cut diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2013. Although Ottawa says it has restarted talks to re-establish formal ties with the Iranian government, it does not yet have a diplomatic presence in Iran.

“We’re still kind of dealing with the remnants of what’s been happening with Iran and Canada,” Devine said.

Going back to work

Meanwhile in Vancouver, Tanavoli said he plans to return to Iran in a few months to continue his work and train Iranian art students. He said he has trained about 1,000 students throughout his career.

“I cannot leave everything behind. I have a studio with many students and artworks, unfinished artworks,” Tanavoli told MEE, adding that the support his students showed him during this ordeal helped him tremendously.

“My students were the greatest in this matter. They were so beautifully behind me. They remained behind me until the end … They are very loyal to me. How can I give them up?” he said.

He also said he is looking forward to exhibiting his sculptures at the Aga Khan Museum of Islamic art in September, which will mark his first exhibition in Toronto. He also said he has plans to launch “a big show” at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art shortly.

“I’m going to be pretty busy while I’m here,” he said. “I will continue with all my work.”

Monster on the Edge : UK New Premier Expresses Vicious Desire of Using Nuclear

Theresa May says she would kill ‘100,000 men, women and children’ with a nuclear bomb

Previous prime ministers have avoided answering the hypothetical question of whether they would ever press the nuclear button

( July 20, 2016, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Theresa May has declared without hesitation that she would order a nuclear strike to kill hundreds of thousands of people if she thought it was necessary.

The Prime Minister gave the blunt reply during a parliamentary debate on the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons programme, which many suspect was staged by the government for the sole purpose of drawing attention to the rift between Jeremy Corbyn and a majority of Labour MPs.

Ms May was challenged by the SNP’s George Kerevan, who asked: “Are you prepared to authorise a nuclear strike that could kill hundreds of thousands of men, women and children?”

Ms May replied with one word: “Yes.”

She also told MPs that it would be “an act of gross irresponsibility” for the UK to scrap its nuclear weapons and accused opponents of the UK’s Trident missile system of being “the first to defend the country’s enemies”.

Previous prime ministers have avoided answering the hypothetical question of whether they would ever press the nuclear button. Sir Geoffrey Howe, who was Foreign Secretary in the closing years of the cold war, said it was a question no prime minister should ever answer directly.

But Ms May knew that the Labour leader was prepared to state his position, which is the opposite of hers. 

Without being asked, Jeremy Corbyn volunteered the statement that “I’m not making the decision that kills millions of innocent people.”

He added: “I do not believe the threat of mass murder is a legitimate way to go about international relations.”

The decision to stage Monday’s vote was made by David Cameron, who sat three rows back saying nothing while his successor addressed the Commons.

Officially, Parliament was being asked to agree to spend up to around £30 billion renewing the four Trident submarines that are equipped with nuclear missiles and warheads. Every hour of the day or night, there is always one submarine patrolling the sea.

Trident was originally bought from the USA by Margaret Thatcher as a last ditch defence in case the armies of the former Warsaw Pact, which was disbanded in 1989, overran Europe.

Since 1989, it has been the official policy of the Labour Party to support the retention of Trident, to which Jeremy Corbyn, as a back bench MP, was consistently opposed.

He announced that he would vote against Trident again, but as he spoke, he was constantly interrupted by Labour MPs who demanded that he should defend the party’s policy instead of giving his own opinion. His response was that there is a review of Labour defence policy being carried out by the newly appointed Shadow Defence Secretary, Clive Lewis.

~ Agencies

UK gives up European Council presidency

Prime Minister Theresa May says the UK will not take on the European Council presidency next year after voting to leave the EU.

WEDNESDAY 20 JULY 2016

As she prepares to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the first time as Prime Minister, Mrs May said the UK would waive its right to assume the rotating presidenct in the second half of 2017.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said that Mrs May told European Council President Donald Tusk that giving up the presidency was "the right thing to do given we will be very busy with negotiations to leave the EU".

Mrs May has said she will not rush the process for exiting the EU, a decision taken by British voters in a referendum on 23 June.

After her first Prime Minister's Questions, Mrs May will make her first overseas trip as PM, meeting Mrs Merkel in Berlin and French President Francois Hollande in Paris.

She said she would deliver a clear message to them that Britain wanted to maintain, and and even strengthen, its close relations with their countries after it leaves the EU.

She said she would make clear that she does not intend to start the two-year process of negotiating the terms of Britain's withdrawal under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty until the Government has had time to consult the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and business.

'Strong working relationship'

"These visits will be an opportunity to forge a strong working relationship that we can build upon and which I hope to develop with more leaders across the European Union in the weeks and months ahead," she said.

"I do not under-estimate the challenge of negotiating our exit from the European Union and I firmly believe that being able to talk frankly and openly about the issues we face will be an important part of a successful negotiation."

Mrs May will hold talks with Mrs Merkel over dinner tonight in Berlin, and will also have a working dinner with Mr Hollande at the Elysee Palace on Thursday.

Brussels has said that no formal or informal talks on Britain's future relations with the EU should begin until the UK has formally stated its intention to leave by invoking Article 50 - which is not likely to happen until 2017.

France and Germany have made it clear that Britain's access to the European single market is conditional on it accepting freedom of movement.

On Tuesday, Mrs May met US Secretary of State John Kerry, who said during a visit to London that he expected her to pursue a "calm, thoughtful, reasonable" path on Brexit.

Obama Urges Restraint as Erdogan Widens Purge

BY DAN DE LUCE-JULY 19, 2016
President Barack Obama on Tuesday appealed to Turkey to uphold the “rule of law” as it investigates suspected plotters behind a failed military coup. But the plea for restraint likely will fall on deaf ears, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presses ahead with a sweeping purge of Turkey’s government, military, security services, and universities in the aftermath of last week’s putsch.

In a phone call to Erdogan, Obama reiterated his condemnation of a bid last week by a faction in the military to overthrow Ankara’s elected government and praised the Turkish people’s “commitment to democracy,” the White House said in a statement.

But the U.S. president, echoing concerns voiced by other Western governments, urged that “the investigations and prosecution of the coup’s perpetrators be conducted in ways that reinforce public confidence in democratic institutions and the rule of law.”

Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday had warned Turkey that the far-reaching arrests and suspensions would come under close scrutiny and that a failure to uphold democratic norms could put Ankara’s membership in NATO at risk.

Kerry said that NATO, which Turkey has been a member of since 1952, “has a requirement with respect to democracy, and NATO will indeed measure very carefully what is happening.”

Officials said Obama and Erdogan also discussed the legal status of Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who lives in Pennsylvania, and who Turkey accuses of masterminding the failed military attempt to topple Erdogan.
Ankara on Tuesday piled pressure on the White House over Gulen, saying it had delivered four dossiers to the Americans to support its request for Gulen’s transfer to face charges in Turkey. U.S. officials said they were reviewing the documents.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim issued a blunt warning to Washington, saying: “Do not protect that traitor anymore, for this has no benefit for you, humanity, nor Islam.”

But the White House and the State Department made clear that Gulen could only be transferred under the terms of an extradition treaty between the two countries.

Gulen, 77, a former ally turned political adversary of Erdogan, has denied allegations that he orchestrated the coup attempt and has condemned the putsch.

In a sign the Turkish government would press ahead with its draconian measures, Yildirim said authorities would remove the Gulenist movement “by its roots” so it can never pose a threat to the country again.
On Tuesday, Erdogan extended his purge from the military and police to universities, schools, intelligence agencies, and religious figures.

Officials shut down media outlets purportedly supportive of Gulen and said 15,000 people had been suspended from the education ministry. Authorities ordered 1,577 deans at state and private universities to resign, and removed 492 people at the Religious Affairs Directorate, 300 at the energy ministry and 257 at the prime minister’s office. Roughly 100 intelligence officials were also suspended.

Over the weekend, the government had announced the detention of more than 6,000 soldiers and the suspension of thousands of police officers and judges.

The military has about 620,000 troops and the police has about 250,000 members.

The scope and scale of Erdogan’s post-coup purges carried the potential to significantly weaken the Turkish armed forces, said Eric Edelman, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

Edelman said that by some estimates 125 generals and admirals had been detained or arrested since the coup, a third of all of the country’s highest-ranking officers. Dozens of other generals have been ousted in recent years as Erdogan has repeatedly taken steps against officers he said were plotting to remove him from power.

“You’ve had a military that was being battered for the past seven years with mass arrests and show trials for alleged coup plotters,” Edelman told Foreign Policy. “Now you’re removing another 125 general officers. It’s very hard to imagine you’ll have a capable military after this.”

Edelman also noted that the Turkish police and intelligence services will likely emerge with their reputations strengthened, the police because of the way they stood up — and in some cases defeated — troops taking part in the coup, and the intelligence services because they apparently tipped Erdogan to the impending putsch in time for him to escape. Erdogan is likely to have both arms of the security services focus much of their attention on monitoring the military for any signs of unrest, which could further sap military morale and fighting capabilities.

“Their bandwidth for the counter-ISIL fight is going to be very, very limited,” he said, referring to the Islamic State group.

During the coup attempt, Erdogan’s government cut the power to the U.S. military base at Incirlik, as officials believed leaders of the coup were using the airfield for their failed assault. F-16 fighter jets backing the takeover were reportedly refueled using a tanker based at Incirlik.

But as of Tuesday, Erdogan’s government had yet to restore electricity to the base, which is a vital hub for U.S.-led air raids against the Islamic State in neighboring Syria and Iraq.

Administration officials said the base was continuing to rely on generators for power and that operations against the Islamic State group had not been disrupted.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter spoke to his Turkish counterpart on Tuesday about the air base and its role in the war against Islamic State militants, according to the Pentagon.

FP managing editor Yochi Dreazen contributed to this article.

Photo credit: OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images

Jill Harth, woman who sued Trump over alleged sexual assault, breaks silence

Harth stands by claims of incident described in 1997 lawsuit as ‘attempted rape’ and wants apology from Trump: ‘Don’t call me a liar’

Donald Trump in 1992 at his Mar-a-Lago estate, where Harth says ‘he pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress’. Photograph: Alamy

Harth said of her wish for an apology from Trump: ‘I don’t fully expect one.’ Photograph: Guardian

Woman who sued Trump over alleged sexual assault speaks out

Lucia Graves in New York-Wednesday 20 July 2016

A woman at the centre of sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump has spoken for the first time in detail about her personal experience with the billionaire tycoon who this week became the Republican nominee for president.

Jill Harth, a makeup artist, has stayed quiet for almost 20 years about the way Trump pursued her, and – according to a lawsuit she instigated – cornered her and groped her in his daughter’s bedroom.

After Trump mounted his campaign for the White House, details emerged of the 1997 complaint, in which Harth accused him of “attempted ‘rape’”.

She said she was quickly inundated with interview requests from major US television networks, but resolved not to speak about the events – until Trump publicly said in May that her claims were “meritless” and his daughter Ivanka gave an interview in which she said her father was “not a groper”.

Harth, who feels she has been publicly branded a liar and believes her business has suffered because of her association with the allegations, decided to speak out about her experience with Trump because she wants an apology.

In an hour-long interview at the Guardian’s New York office on Tuesday, Harth said she stands by her charges against Trump, which run from low-grade sexual harassment to an episode her lawyers described in the lawsuit as “attempted ‘rape’”.

She first met Trump in December 1992 at his offices in Trump Tower, where she and her then romantic partner, George Houraney, were making a business presentation. The couple wanted to recruit Trump to back their American Dream festival, in which Harth oversaw a pin-up competition known as American Dream Calendar Girls. Harth described that meeting as “the highlight of our career”.

But in other ways, it was something of a lowlight: Trump took an interest in Harth immediately and began subjecting her to a steady string of unwanted sexual advances, detailed by Harth in her complaint.

There was the initial leering in that first December meeting in Trump Tower, and the inappropriate questions after her relationship status. It continued the next night over dinner at the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room, where at a dinner with beauty pageant contestants she alleges he groped her under the table.

It culminated in January 1993, when Harth and Houraney were visiting his Florida mansion, Mar-a-Lago, to finalize and then celebrate the beauty pageant deal with a party.

After business concluded, Harth and Houraney were on tour of Mar-a-Lago along with a group of young pageant contestants – Trump wanted to “see the quality of the girls he was sponsoring”, Harth recalled – when he pulled her aside into one of the children’s bedrooms.

“He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again,” Harth recalled, “and I had to physically say: ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’ It was a shocking thing to have him do this because he knew I was with George, he knew they were in the next room. And how could he be doing this when I’m there for business?”

Speaking as Republicans gathered in Cleveland to formally declare Trump as the party’s candidate in the November general election, Harth said she had been very reluctant to talk after the sexual assault allegations resurfaced, “because honestly, it was painful for me to have to do it again. It was stressful, it gave me anxiety, it definitely wounded my marriage – it wasn’t the death knell, but it wounded it, it was stressful having to handle this.”

She recalled how Trump – who had just gone through a divorce from his first wife, Ivana, and was in a relationship with Marla Maples, who would become his second wife – pursued her and urged her to leave Houraney.

“Trump did everything in his power to get me to leave him. He constantly called me and said: ‘I love you, baby, I’m going to be the best lover you ever had. What are you doing with that loser, you need to be with me, you need to step it up to the big leagues.’

“He was constantly working on me during that time and that took a toll on me. But I moved on. I’m a forgiving type person, OK? I’m a Christian, I moved on.”

‘They tried to get me to say it never happened’

Trump’s decision to run for president brought the question to the fore for her once more. And initially, she said she was inclined to let bygones be bygones.

She concedes she even found herself getting excited at the thought that someone she knew so well was running for president.

A recent Trump rally she attended seemed to confirm her decision to lie low. “‘Don’t worry about it,’ I said, ‘I’m not going to say anything bad, we’ve moved on, we’re friendly,’” Harth recalled in her interview with the Guardian.

When Trump thanked her and gave her a hug, she thought he wouldn’t say anything either.

The interaction, Harth said, reaffirmed her decision to stay quiet. That is, until she saw Trump dismiss media reports referencing her case as “meritless”, or worse.

After the New York Times ran a story in May this year about Trump’s history with women, including an account of Harth’s story, Trump’s campaign even reached out to her to pressure her to take back her account, she told the Guardian on Tuesday.

“His office – and I have it on my voicemails that he called, that they called – they asked me to recant everything when the New York Times article came out. They were trying to get me to say it never happened and I made it up. And I said I’m not doing that,” she recalled. Trump’s office denied this.

She was further upset by an interview Trump’s daughter Ivanka gave in the wake of the New York Times article saying her dad is “not a groper”.

“I understand that the girl wanted to defend her dad, being it’s her dad,” she said, “but what did she know? She was 10 years old! She was 10 years old at the time. She didn’t know what her father was about, what he was doing, how he was acting.”

Such statements felt defamatory to Harth, adding insult to injury. That’s when she hired attorney Lisa Bloom to demand that Trump retract his statements that are, as Bloom put it, “effectively calling her a liar”.

“Jill is very clear that she is not a liar,” Bloom said. “And her reputation is important to her. And her living a life free of this kind of stress is important to her. So we’re calling on not only Mr Trump, Ivanka Trump, too.”

The renewed controversy comes as Trump prepares to give his keynote speech in Cleveland on Thursday. It also comes as Roger Ailes, the chairman and CEO of Trump-friendly Fox News, is in the process of being ousted following a sexual harassment suit filed by a former anchor.

When Trump’s office was asked to respond to Harth’s allegations, they highlighted her inconsistency about her views on Trump, forwarding emails from 2015 and as recently as January 2016 in which she expressed friendly feelings about Trump and even asked about a job helping to do his campaign trail makeup.

As Harth wrote in an August 2015 email forwarded by Trump’s campaign: “I also would like to show my support for Donald and his campaign. I am offering my services to do his grooming and getting him perfectly camera ready for photos and Hi-Definition TV. He knows better than anybody how important image is.”

In another email from October 2015, she praised Trump for “doing a tremendous job of shaking things up in the United States” and added: “I am definitely Team Trump!”

Harth said those emails were written months before Trump called her integrity into question. She also defended her action, as a businesswoman who has never been too proud to look for help where she needs it, even if it smacks of opportunism.

Meanwhile the fact that Trump has an army of staffers and family defending him is part of what inspired her to speak out, she said.

“Nobody was defending me, that’s why I’m talking,” Harth said. “You can believe it or not, but I went through hell and I still have to relive this again. And I just, I’m horrified that I have to think about this again.”

Michael Cohen, executive vice-president and special counsel to Donald Trump, responded by email to a Guardian request for comment, saying: “It is disheartening that one has to dignify a response to the below absurd query. Mr Trump denies each and every statement made by Ms Harth as these 24-year-old allegations lack any merit or veracity.

“Hope [Mr Trump’s spokeswoman Hope Hicks] will forward to you under separate e-mail, a series of e-mails documenting Ms Harth’s support of Mr Trump, the race for the White House as well as seeking a job opportunity with the campaign.”

In an earlier phone call, Cohen said Harth had “massive credibility issues”.

Speaking in Cleveland at the Republican national convention on Wednesday, Roger Stone, a veteran strategist and longtime Trump adviser, dismissed the allegations, saying: “I have an excellent bullshit detector.”

Stone added: “A verbal agreement is entirely unprovable … So it’s more he said, she said. Sure sounds like bullshit to me.”

Such responses from the Trump camp aren’t new and neither is the lawsuit, which Harth brought forward in 1997. She dropped it weeks later after Trump settled an outstanding business lawsuit from her partner Houraney claiming he broke contract by backing out of the American Dream festival. (Houraney sued for $5m but settled with Trump for a smaller, undisclosed amount.)

Houraney met Harth when she was still in high school and though he didn’t witness any of the alleged incidents with Trump, aside from that first meeting in Trump Tower, Houraney has never doubted her. “I know they’re all true,” he said of the allegations. “I knew her way too long to think she could make up stuff like that, It wasn’t in her. She wasn’t capable of making up the things she said in that thing.”

Harth told the Guardian she expected very little from Trump. “I’m not going to get an apology from him. That would be nice, but he – I don’t fully expect one. But he really should have been taught, if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything, OK? Don’t call me a liar.

“He didn’t have to say anything. For once, he should have closed his mouth. He didn’t have to comment. 

We were on great – not great, I’ll take that back – we were on good terms, friendly terms. He didn’t – he started this. What is happening now is of his own making, OK? I was quiet.”