Bribes to Judges from Mahinda

SATURDAY, 08 OCTOBER 2016

It is reported that the government has information that 15 well known judges of the High Court have obtained 15 acres each from the forest reserve around Katharagama temple during Mahinda Rajapaksa administration.

According to internal sources of the government information has also been revealed that the lands have been made available to the well known judges with the knowledge of Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Deputy Minister of Social Empowerment & Welfare Ranjan Ramanayake said he would question in Parliament and ask for information so that the public would come to know who the judges who got lands are.

It is also said that information has been revealed that 74 High Court Judges were sent hampers for Sinhala and Hindu New Year and Christmas. The hampers were distributed to the judges by the driver of Gamini Senarath who acted as the private secretary of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

ESTATE WORKERS REJECT RS. 100 WAGE HIKE; STRIKE CONTINUES

Estate workers wages remain lowest in the country; (c)s.deshapriya)

By Meera Srinivasan.-08/10/2016

Talks held under government mediation failed to end the strike that started 10 days ago

Thousands of workers employed in Sri Lanka’s tea estates continued protesting on Friday, apparently rejecting the marginal wage hike that the government negotiated with employers and trade unions.

About 10 days ago, tension erupted across Sri Lanka’s Central and Uva Provinces, where most of the country’s tea estates are located, as workers, mostly Tamils of recent Indian origin, took to the streets and demanded a higher daily wage of LKR 1,000 (around Rs. 450).

Marginal pay hike

A week after widespread demonstrations, representatives from trade unions and the employers’ federation met in Colombo for talks under government mediation. Following this, Sri Lanka’s Labour Minister John Senaviratne announced that the wages would be raised to LKR 730 (Rs. 331) per day.

Workers said the marginal hike not only came late, but was also inadequate. “In effect, their basic wages went up only by LKR 50.

“Moreover, the question is how many days of assured work they might have, especially in the government-owned estates,” said Menaha Kandasamy, General Secretary of the Ceylon Workers Red Flag Union, which was also involved in the negotiations.

The protests, according to her, were only a vehicle to vent their anger, as the community had been exploited for decades. “This is a spontaneous protest,” she told The Hindu, dismissing allegations that they were instigated by political actors.

‘Unrealistic demand’

However, P. Muthulingam, who heads the Kandy-based Institute for Social Development, an NGO working with the plantation community, said the demand for Rs.1,000 was “suddenly taken up” last year by certain political leaders.

Estate workers’ wages were due for revision in March 2015, when a prior collective agreement determining wage rates expired. Over a year after the agreement expired, labourers await revision and a wage they deem fair.

Mr. Muthulingam said it was “unrealistic” to expect a daily wage of Rs. 1000 in the current circumstances, amid falling global tea prices. “Most companies are making losses,” he said

(Original caption: Discord between Sri Lanka’s estate workers, employers continues)

The Hindu

Sri Lanka to pay $115 million for cancelling planes: source

 

October 8, 2016, 6:51 pm 

Chairman of Sri Lankan Airlines Ajith Dias addresses journalists during a press conference.

COLOMBO (AFP) -Sri Lanka’s cash-strapped national carrier said Wednesday it will pay a penalty for cancelling leases on four Airbus A350s, with official sources putting the figure at about $115 million.

SriLankan Airlines chairman Ajith Dias said it cancelled four of the long-route planes from leasing giant AerCap that had been contracted by the former government.

Dias, who did not give a figure for the penalty, told reporters the planes were not required as the airline was focusing on more profitable short-haul flights.

The move comes as the current government is in the process of finalising a partner to revive the loss-making carrier.

Dias said the fate of another four A350s ordered for delivery after 2020 will have to be decided by the new investment partner, although the current government has said it wants the entire deal scrapped.

SriLankan pulled out of three leases on Tuesday after agreeing to pay $98 million, a government source involved in the transaction said.

The airline also paid $17.7 million earlier this year to stop delivery of the fourth that had been due next year, the source said.

"The penalty translates roughly to the lease rentals for 24 months for three aircraft that should have been delivered from this year," the source told AFP asking not to be named.

"It was easier to cancel the fourth one because its delivery date was in late 2017."

There was no immediate comment from AerCap.

Former president Mahinda Rajapakse ordered all of the planes as part of a $2.3-billion re-fleeting programme for the airline that is now being investigated for corruption.

The airline is weighed down by losses of nearly a billion dollars. It has called for bids from investors to inject capital and take over the management and return the company to profit.

SriLankan was profitable before Rajapakse cancelled a management agreement with Emirates in 2008 following a personal dispute.

The carrier had refused to bump fare-paying passengers and give their seats to Rajapakse’s family members.

An angry Rajapakse removed the Emirates-appointed CEO of SriLankan from the post and replaced him with his own brother-in-law, who had no airline experience, and is now under investigation for corruption.

Sirisena Brat Led Mob Smashes Night Club And Assaults Staff

October 8, 2016

Just a day after President Maithripala Sirisena justified the actions of teachers hitting school children, his sonDaham Sirisena led mob attacked the security personnel of a prominent Colombo night club named Club Clique in the early hours of today, resulting in one guard being hospitalized.

According to information received by Colombo Telegraph, Daham Sirisena and a relative named Dias, a notorious character from Ganemulla, along with a group of Presidential Security Division Personnel were denied entry to the night club around 2 am today. They had then left and returned with poles and had initially hit one security guard on the head with a flower pot. Thereafter the mob went berserk smashing the glass panes at the entrance to the building. Some of the other night club revelers waiting to enter the night club had also been assaulted by the group.

The Daham Sirisena led mob then forcibly entered the night club and went on to assault a steward.

A close friend of Daham Sirisena’s when contacted by Colombo Telegraph said that the President’s son had denied any involvement regarding the incident. He had said that he would call back with more details but nearly six hours later, prior to publishing, Dahama Sirisena had still not returned the call.

According to a source close to Prime Minister Ranil Wicremesinghe, the Prime Minister’s office had a received a classified report early this morning on the incident which indicated the involvement of a high profile person. “Otherwise we do not receive classified reports regarding regular night club brawls” the source said.

The Police confirmed that there was a brawl but refused to provide any further details as the incident is currently under investigation.

Sources close to the club owners confirmed to Colombo Telegraph that police had collected the Close Circuit Television footage of the incident.

The CCTV footage of other cameras in the vicinity had also been collected. However it is still unclear if it was the Sri Lanka Police that had collected those or if it was personnel of the Presidential Security Division that had done so.

Meanwhile the injured security guard’s ward is currently surrounded and closely guarded by PSD officials and no one is permitted to speak to him except the doctors, Colombo General Hospital sources said.

The Derana Television crew was denied permission to enter the premises when they had gone to report the incident. Even the employees of the night club were instructed not to speak to the media by the owners of the club, Colombo Telegraph has reliably learnt.

Daham Sirisena’s history of violence dates back to 2013 when he along with a group of 13 other personnelassaulted DIG Ravi Waidyalankara’s son on the East Coast beach of Pasikuda. Then in March of 2014 the young Sirisena brat had brandished a gun and had threatened UNP Municipal Council member Kris Balthazaar at another Colombo night club named ‘Floor by O’ following the annual Royal Thomian cricket encounter.

Speaking earlier at the ‘Guru Prathibha Pranama Ulela’ teacher commemoration event on Wednesday at the Nelum Pokuna prior to departing for Thailand President Maithripala Sirisena complained that it was even a difficult task for him to have brought up and disciplined his children. ( Janka Ranaweera)

DIG Ravi Waidyalankara’s son on attack in 2013:

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Man held with 300 tablets of Tramadol

October 8, 2016 

A suspect has been arrested with 300 tablets of the prescription painkiller Tramadol near the Handala Filling Station.

On receipt of intelligence tip-off, naval personnel attached to SLNS Gemunu located in Welisara, in coordination with Mahabage Police apprehended the suspect with the tablets which were made ready to be transferred yesterday (7). 

The apprehended person and stock of drugs were handed over to Mahabage Police for further investigations.

Tramadol is used as a pain killer for moderate and severe pain, including surgical pain while it can become habit forming if used for a long time.

The Elephant "Bhanu" at Kataragama Maha Devalaya arrested

- Oct 08, 2016

The 12 year old Elephant named "Bhanu" who was in the Kataragama Maha Devalaya on the orders of the  Chief Magistrate of the Colombo magistrates courts Gihan Pilapitiya has been cordoned and arrested by the related authorities of the wild life department  and  the officers of the criminal investigating department on the 07th instant. This arrest had been made made at the premises of the Kataragama Maha Devalaya premises.

Initially the baby elephant"Bhanu" had been registered under permit No 200 of the wild life conservation department.The baby elephant had been in the possession of a renowned politician in Uva province which had been popularly spoken of in the media in the recent past. But investigations had revealed that the elephant had been registered in the name of Dilshan Wickremaratne Gunasekera a resident of Malimbada area of Matara Palatuwa.

A spokesman for the wild life conservation department had quipped that the elephant "Bhanu" thus arrested on the 07th instant at the Maha Devalaya premises of Kataragama Devalaya would be taken to the Pinnawela elephant orphanage.

The arrest of the elephant "Bhanu" had been made for flouting the wild life flora and fauna ordinance and in the irregular manner of registration and retaining a elephant.In this aspect a large number of complaints have been received revealing  that in the past 10 years and above it had been a practice to kill the mother elephants and to retain the baby elephants by politicians, religious leaders, judges. businessmen, administrative officers and others.

Under the fauna and flora protection amended Bill No 22 of 2009 the further amendment 22 A  sub caption (9) " it is compulsory for  the  registered owner  or the caretaker to be present at the spot when an Elephant gives birth to a baby Elephant and a report of it has to be forwarded to the Director General of the wild life conservation department"
     
In addition under the sub caption (10)  within seven days of the birth it has to be made known to the persons authorized by the Director General.  

Accordingly after year 2009 details of delivery details off all elephants need to be conveyed to the Director General for registration.

It is reported since such details have not been made in order to  be exonerated of charges ,the owners of elephants have declared that they have in possession of baby Elephants who were born prior to year 2008 and registered them as they have been under domestic care..The environmentalists had quipped that these registrations have been made in respect of baby Elephants who had been captured from jungles by killing the mother Elephants.

In consideration of these facts a former Minister of wild life Wasantha Senanayake had on 16th February 2015  complained to the criminal investigation department that the authorities of the wild life department had made fictitious schedules of  tamed Elephants.Accordingly  to the findings instructions for the cordoning of the Kataragama Maha Devalaya had been made by the Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya of the Chief Magistrate courts when the case No B/ 23073/01/15 filed by the criminal investigating department was taken up for hearing..

When investigations were carried out schedules pertaining to 55 suspected baby Elephants  had been perused and out of which 40 were identified at first sight included in the suspected schedules.It had also revealed that 06 suspected baby Elephants were sans details of mother Elephants.These details had been furnished for registration  only lately after the mother Elephants had been traced..

In this regard in terms of the findings of the case at the Colombo Chief Magistrate courts it had been noticed that all such baby Elephants  with fictitious information are to be arrested.However in regard to a baby Elephant named "Ganga" that has been kept in small area in a renowned Buddhist temple premises in Colombo in a cruel manner under permit No 198 was to be arrested before the 13th of this month,But a motion had been submitted to the Magistrate courts through an attorney at law on the 06th instant conveying that before the next date of hearing of the case all required documents and permits would be furnished.

However it has been said by the environmental personnel that the the baby Elephant "Ganga" has not been arrested by the  officials of the criminal investigation department or the raiding unit of the wild life departmentauthorities may have been due to the influence of a Minister attached to the Judiciary field.

The baby Elephant "Ganga" has been registerd under permit No 198 in the name of one ADD Amaradeva of Rajjuru Bandara  Devalaya in Akuressa,Urubokka.In this regard more than ten thousand petitions have been sent by the Internationaland  and National quarters to arrest this baby Elephant.which have been focussed by the environmental organizations.

Mega corruption: Govt. wants three months to put things in order -Alleged phone tapping : Do " Katey pittu" guys have something to hide? Paranavithana

by Zacki Jabbar-October 8, 2016, 7:30 pm 

Amidst mounting public pressure on the government to prove its allegations that the Rajapaksas had stolen billions of rupees from State coffers, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne warned that those responsible for stifling investigations would not be  able to sweep things under the carpet for too long.

"Give us three months to put things in order", he told a news conference in Colombo on Friday adding that even President Maithripala Sirisena had expressed concern at the lethargy with which inquiries were being carried out, especially with regard to allegations of bribery and corruption running into billions of rupees.

Senaratne said that the issue of investigators giving priority to the small corruption cases, while taking their "own cool time" to probe those who had robbed billions was discussed by the Cabinet recently.

The current state of affairs would not be permitted to continue for too long, the Minister warned. "We will in the interest of the public and justice, ensure that the biggest rogues are dealt with first."

He said that delays, including at the Attorney Generals Department would have to be addressed.

Deputy Media Minister Karunaratne Paranavithana responding to allegations that a judge’s telephone had been tapped recently, asked as to why no police complaint had been made.

The proper authority with which to lodge a criminal complaint was with the police. But the "katey pittu" (pittu in the mouth) guys who were scared to open their mouths when the Rajapaksas were in power were going around making allegations while conveniently avoiding the police station.

"Is it because they have something to hide?" Paranavitana asked.

State Department’s alternate reality on Palestine

The US State Department says Israeli settlement construction is cementing a one-state reality in Palestine.

Oren ZivActiveStills
Maureen Clare Murphy-7 October 2016

The Obama administration just handed Israel the largest military aid deal in US history. Now it is feigning outrage that Israel keeps colonizing the occupied West Bank, as it has done for decades, in defiance of the White House’s wishes.

“We strongly condemn the Israeli government’s recent decision to advance a plan that would create a significant new settlement deep in the West Bank,” State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said on Wednesday.

Toner added that “this settlement’s location deep in the West Bank, far closer to Jordan than Israel, would link a string of outposts that effectively divide the West Bank and make the possibility of a viable Palestinian state more remote.”

Though this was worded more robustly than usual, similar condemnations have been issued by the State Department countless times before.

“Cementing a one-state reality”

But there was a new element in the US condemnation: “Proceeding with this new settlement is another step towards cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation that is fundamentally inconsistent with Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state.”

This generated cynical reactions from critics of US policy:

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It'd be easier to believe US is shocked at settlement expansion after MOU if Israel hadn't been building for 50 years while getting paid

1:35 PM - 5 Oct 2016

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Oh dear, it appears the country to which we just gave $38 billion is erecting a permanent apartheid state. Who knew?http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/10/262795.htm …

5:43 PM - 5 Oct 2016

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End the Occupation @US_Campaign

The @StateDept is really upset about Israel's new plans to build illegal settlements. If only there were something the US could do about it.

8:12 PM - 5 Oct 2016

That particular sentence also caught the interest of Associated Press reporter Matt Lee, who pressed State Department spokesperson John Kirby about it during Thursday’s press briefing.

The exchange that followed can be watched here:

During the exchange, Lee asks for elaboration on the previous steps – as implied in the statement – which the State Department views as undermining a two-state solution.

Kirby replies that the State Department was referring to earlier settlement building, adding that “what we need to see is leadership across the board moving towards a two-state solution.”

Lee then asks whether the Obama administration believes that Israel is “just flat-out either lying or doesn’t care about its stated commitment to a two-state solution and is, in fact, while saying publicly that that’s what they want, actually actively taking steps to cement a one-state solution?”

Emphasizing the State Department’s use of the word “cementing,” Lee says that the verb generally isn’t used to describe something “that happens by accident … It’s doing something intentionally.”

Kirby can only say that it is hard to see settlement building as consistent with Israel’s stated support for a two-state solution in historic Palestine (the land now partitioned into Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip).

Jewish and democratic?

Lee eventually pierces the core of the anguishing – for the US government – reality in Palestine.

Lee asks: “The Obama administration believes that the current government of Israel wants a perpetual occupation and a one-state reality that is not Jewish, or not Jewish and at the same time democratic?”

Kirby responds: “All I can go by is what they’ve said they want, and they say they want a two-state solution. What we’re saying is that this kind of activity is actually moving them in the other direction. It flies in the face of those comments.”

After a few more go-arounds concerning Israel’s actions versus its words, Said Arikat of the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds asks Kirby: “Would the United States support equal rights for the Palestinians in a one-state situation?”

“I’m not going to get into a hypothetical situation,” Kirby responds. “What we continue to support is a two-state solution.”

And yet, as Lee pointed out, the State Department said a one-state solution is being actively cemented – one in which Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and inside Israel live under a single regime of occupation, colonization and legal discrimination that affords them vastly inferior rights to Jews.

The White House will soon have to concede that it is not a hypothetical situation, but an extremely unequal reality that can only be maintained with brutal violence – and a blank check from the United States.

That reality is not lost on a growing number of Americans who are tired of funding it.

Attack on mourners in Yemen kills 82 - acting health minister

People stand at the site of an airstrike which witnesses said was by Saudi-led coalition aircraft on mourners at a hall where a wake for the father of Jalal al-Roweishan, the interior minister in the Houthi-dominated Yemeni government, was being held, in Sanaa, Yemen October 8, 2016. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

People carry the body of man killed in what witnesses said was an airstrike by Saudi-led coalition aircraft on mourners at a hall where a wake for the father of Jalal al-Roweishan, the interior minister in the Houthi-dominated Yemeni government, was being held, in Sanaa, Yemen October 8, 2016. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Sun Oct 9, 2016

Saudi-led warplanes killed at least 82 people when they struck mourners at a hall in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Saturday, the acting health minister in the Houthi-run administration said, but the coalition denied any role in the incident.

Ghazi Ismail also said that 534 other people were wounded in the air strike in the southern part of the city, where a wake was taking place for the father of the administration's interior minister, Jalal al-Roweishan, who had died of natural causes on Friday.

The death toll was one of the largest in any single incident since the Saudi-led alliance began military operations to try to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power following his ousting by the Iran-aligned Houthis in March 2015.

"The Saudi aggression committed a major crime today, by attacking a mourning hall for the al-Roweishan family, targeting residents in the hall. As a result, 534 were wounded and 82 were martyred," Ismail told a news conference in Sanaa.

Sources in the Saudi-led coalition said there was no Arab coalition air role in the strike.

"Absolutely no such operation took place at that target," one of the sources said, citing what he described as confirmation from the coalition air force command.

"The coalition is aware of such reports and is certain that it is possible that other causes of bombing are to be considered. The coalition has in the past avoided such gatherings and (they have) never been a subject of targets."

Residents said aircraft fired two missiles at the hall, where hundreds of mourners had gathered to offer condolences.

One missile tore through the building, setting it on fire and sending a large plume of smoke above the area. The other landed nearby.

SCENE OF CARNAGE

Witnesses described a scene of carnage, with charred or mutilated bodies strewn around. Ambulances raced to carry the wounded to hospitals, which sent out urgent appeals for blood.

A spokesman for Yemen's Houthi group condemned the strike as an act of savagery.

"The aggression continues to shed blood in an uncommon savagery and with international collusion that reaches the level of direct participation," the Houthi-run Saba news agency quoted the group's spokesman, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, as saying in a statement.

At least two local officials were among the dead. It was not immediately clear if Roweishan was in the hall when the strike happened.

Roweishan had sided with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement when President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fled Yemen after the Houthis advanced on his headquarters in the southern port city of Aden in March 2015.

The Saudi-led coalition has been providing air support for Hadi's forces in a civil war that has killed more than 10,000 people since March 2015 and displaced more than three million.

Fighting has intensified since August when U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait ended without an agreement.

The Saudi-led coalition had been blamed for several attacks on medical centres, including some run by international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), schools, factories and homes in the past 18 months that has killed scores of civilians.

In August, MSF said it was evacuating its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen after a coalition air strike hit a health facility operated by the group killing 19 people.

The coalition, which says it does not target civilians, has expressed deep regret over the decision and said it was trying to set up "urgent meetings" with the medical aid group.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; writing by Sami Aboudi, Editing by William Maclean and Andrew Roche)

Russia vetoes UN demand to stop bombing of Aleppo

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault speaks on Saturday after UNSC voted on French-Spanish resolution on Syria at the UN headquarters in New York City (AFP)

Saturday 8 October 2016 23:12 UTC

Russia vetoed a French-drafted UN Security Council resolution on Saturday that would have demanded an end to air strikes and military flights over Syria's city of Aleppo, while a rival Russian draft text failed to get a minimum nine votes in favour.

Moscow's text was effectively the French draft with Russian amendments. It removed the demand for an end to air strikes on Aleppo and put the focus back on a failed 9 September U.S./Russia ceasefire deal, which was annexed to the draft.

British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said ahead of the vote it would be a "bad day for Russia, but an even worse day for the people of Aleppo, because for as long as there is no council unity, there will be no end to this war."

LIVE VIEW from @UN as #Syria regime rep is given the floor by @RussiaUN. We walk out in solidarity with the people of #Aleppo. pic.twitter.com/sAZCwiyoPl

— UKUN_NewYork (@UKUN_NewYork) October 8, 2016

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LIVE VIEW from @UN as #Syria regime rep is given the floor by@RussiaUN. We walk out in solidarity with the people of#Aleppo.

4:28 PM - 8 Oct 2016 · Manhattan, NY, United States

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A crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 sparked a civil war and Islamic State (IS) militants have used the chaos to seize territory in Syria and Iraq. Half of Syria's 22 million people have been uprooted and more than 400,000 killed.

Assad's forces, backed by Russian warplanes and Iranian support, have been battling to capture eastern Aleppo, the rebel-held half of Syria's largest city, where more than 250,000 civilians are trapped.

The Syrian and Russian bombing campaign has escalated since the Russian-backed Syrian army launched an offensive to retake the city on 22 September.

Damascus has made significant advances in its renewed two-week-old offensive, seizing territory to the north and pushing back the front line in the city center which had remained largely static since the rebels captured eastern districts in 2012.

But it has come at a heavy human cost.

Since the regime offensive began a few days after the ceasefire collapsed, at least 290 people - mostly civilians - have been killed in rebel-held areas, 57 them children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Syrian pro-government soldiers patrol area of Awijah as they advance in Aleppo's rebel-held neighbourhoods on Saturday (AFP)

And 50 civilians, including nine children, have been killed in rebel shelling on regime-held areas of the city, according to the Britain-based monitoring group, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.

"Russia has become one of the chief purveyors of terror in Aleppo, using tactics more commonly associated with thugs than governments," US Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations David Pressman told the council

He said Russia was "intent on allowing the killing to continue and, indeed, participating in carrying it out", and that what was needed from Moscow was "less talk and more action from them to stop the slaughter."

A UN resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes to be adopted. The veto powers are the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China. The Russian text only received four votes in favour, so a veto was not needed to block it.

The French draft received 11 votes in favour, while China and Angola abstained. Venezuela joined Russia in voting against it.

It was the fifth time Russia has used its veto on a UN resolution on Syria during the more than five-year conflict.

The previous four times China backed Moscow in protecting the Syrian government from council action, including vetoing a bid to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, president of the council for October, described the dual votes on Saturday as one of the "strangest spectacles in the history of the Security Council."

"Given that the crisis in Syria is at a critical stage, when it is particularly important that there be a coordination of the political efforts of the international community, this waste of time is inadmissible," 

Churkin told the council.

Russia only gained the support of China, Venezuela and Egypt for its draft resolution. Angola and Uruguay abstained, while the remaining nine council members voted against.

Both the French and Russian UN draft resolutions called for a truce and humanitarian aid access throughout Syria.

"If we don't so something this town (Aleppo) will soon just be in ruins and will remain in history as a town in which the inhabitants were abandoned to their executioners," French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said. "If the international community does not wake up it will share the responsibility."