Around 8,377 individuals in the Galle and Kalutara Districts have been affected with the flood situation due to torrential rains received early hours today, Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said.
DMC Deputy Director Pradeep Kodippili said 7,742 people in Galle District and 635 people in Kalutara District were affected with the flood situation.
He said the flood situation is gradually decreasing at the moment.
Meanwhile, Meteorology Department said showers or thundershowers will occur over most provinces in the island, particularly after 2.00 pm tomorrow.
It said showers will occur in the Western and Southern provinces and in the Puttalam District during the morning too.
(Lanka-e-News- 13.May.2018, 11.30PM) The case that is being heard in Jaffna district court claiming a compensation of Rs. 100 million for the Sridhar cinema that is being run by the party headquarters of the EPDP organization since 1996 , was postponed until 6 th of June by judge S. Ramanathan when the case was called up on the 9 th.
In the case filed in the Jaffna district court by lawyer P.Kesavan , the leader of the EPDP , Douglas Devananda , its secretary Ratna Sabapathy and four others have been named as respondents.
It is alleged via this legal action that the the cinema hall that belongs to the employees , has been used by the EPDP organization since 1996 without paying any monthly rent (Jaffna was released from the LTTE in 1996 , and the war was fully concluded in 2009).
Since the party office of EPDP without obtaining any permission from the owners was running the hall since 1996 , the employees incurred losses , and therefore a sum of Rs. 100 million has been claimed as reasonable compensation calculated at Rs. 75000.00 per month for the entire period .
This case which was called up for the first hearing on the 9 th was postponed until June 6 th.
By Dinasena Rathugamage Translated by jeff.
--------------------------- by (2018-05-13 20:59:56)
2018-05-15 “Being a lawyer is not a privilege to disobey the prevailing law. If there is a forum or a bench I will appear before it and give evidence. There are nearly 15 000 lawyers and only a very few are corrupt. I’m raising my voice to restore the nobility attached to the legal profession. If I am penalized I will be happy. We have filed cases against six Supreme Court judges. How can speaking the truth be considered as contempt? If we fail to maintain the rule of law, the society will collapse,” are the utterances by outspoken Attorney-at-Law Sugandhika Fernando.
Tuesday, 15 May 2018
Agribusiness can help drive prosperity in Sri Lanka – and we know just the entrepreneurs to do it. Over the last few months, we have seen over 1000 proposals come pouring in for consideration under the matching grants scheme (MGS) for agribusiness. Today, the Government will sign the grant documents with the first entrepreneurs to make the cut.
The winning proposals lay out a clear plan for commercial and export-oriented agriculture initiatives that facilitate private sector investment, provide technical assistance, strengthen farmer producer organisations and promote smallholder–agribusiness partnerships.
The goal is to increase their competiveness, business orientation and market position in order to make them more attractive business partners in the value chain. It’s an ambitious task, but Sri Lanka’s agri-entrepreneurs have risen to the challenge.
Matching grants scheme supports agribusiness
The matching grants scheme, implemented by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Primary Industries, comes under the Agriculture Sector Modernisation Project. Supported by the World Bank, with additional funding from the European Union, the project is implemented through the Ministry of Primary Industries, the Ministry of Agriculture, and five participating provinces including the Northern, Eastern, Central, North-Central and Uva Provinces.
A rigorous and transparent selection process was used to create a shortlist. Successful applicants would be offered up to 50% of the investment required through the scheme, matched by their own funds or raised from commercial loans.
These small enterprises need the boost. Today, beside a few major agriculture companies, most operators in Sri Lanka are small-scale cultivators who face problems related to low productivity and lack of diversification, absence of market linkages, non-availability of inputs and limited access to credit facilities. Farmers are not organised and tend to focus on low value crops that limit income generation.
Linking cultivators with entrepreneurs, and helping these fledgling businesses plug into national and global value chains, will bring innovation and new technologies into the sector. Globally, the agribusiness sector is emerging as an important frontier for creating better rural jobs in processing, value addition, high-value food supply chains. Agricultural modernisation and agribusiness go hand-in-hand. In fact, the vast majority of jobs (almost 4 out of every 5, on average) in modern and advanced food systems are off-farm – along the agricultural value chains.
Going beyond rice
In the end, the ultimate beneficiaries of agriculture modernisation will be the island’s smallholder farmers. An estimated 1.65 million of them operate on average less than 2 hectares and contribute 80% of the total annual food production.
For decades, the holy grail of Sri Lankan agriculture - pursued by successive governments since independence - was self-sufficiency in rice production. However, this meant that the agriculture production structure has remained concentrated in the low value food crops.
Farmers say that part of the challenge lies in the policy environment, which while promoting paddy cultivation, provides little incentives for farmers to diversify into higher value crops. In general, the current institutional framework for agriculture is highly fragmented and complex.
Fertiliser subsidies have tended to dominate public sector expenditure, leading to the neglect of other critical functions such as water management or Research and Development (R&D) and extension services, which are critical to generate new technology and productivity improvements. Even then, only 3% of total agriculture expenditure has been diverted to the latter, with the limited budget dedicated predominantly to rice research.
Now, Sri Lanka stands at a crossroads. While the share of population employed in agriculture has remained at about 30% over the past 10 years, the country has not performed as well as peers like Thailand and Vietnam. Instead, the share of the sector in the national economy has faltered, accounting for only 7.7% of GDP in 2017.
In response, the Ministry of Agriculture is currently probing constraints farmers face and has plans to revise the National Agricultural Policy (NAP). By undertaking a rigorous policy analysis, the government of Sri Lanka wants to identify what key policy changes could bolster growth and create sustainable livelihoods in the sector.
Local challenges
require local solutions
The challenges vary based on where you look – Sri Lanka’s amazing agro-ecological diversity means there are enormous regional variations in the availability of water, soil types and even access to infrastructure and markets. From aquaculture initiatives in the north-west coastal zone to horticulture in the southern wet zone, the needs of farmers differ considerably.
Extreme weather events have impacted the country’s productivity. Two thirds of the agricultural area are located in the dry zone, which covers the northern and eastern and south-eastern parts of the country, where the bulk of the country’s irrigation infrastructure is located.This is why the project rejects a one-size-fits-all approach for one that is anchored in the local context, and listens to local business communities and voices on the ground.
The project hopes to create lasting networks between farmers, helping them to organise themselves and work collaboratively. The project’s commitment to productivity enhancement and diversification is continued under initiatives designed to support smallholder farmers to produce competitive and marketable commodities, improve their ability to respond to market requirements, and move towards increased commercialisation.
Designed to be inclusive, it will help farmers - including women and youth who today experience some of the highest rates of unemployment in Sri Lanka - benefit from investments into value addition, new skills and technology improvements, sustainable crop management, and new financing and marketing arrangements.
Multiple studies have noted how growth in agriculture can reduce poverty both directly, by raising farm incomes, and indirectly, through generating employment and reducing food prices. Through a focus on higher value added products, Sri Lanka can boost rural employment, creating more jobs in processing and logistics.
In the end, investing in creating better paid jobs, more opportunities and sustainable livelihoods can bring prosperity to rural families, drive equitable development and underpin Sri Lanka’s aspirations of becoming an upper middle-income country.
Andrew Goodland is the Program Leader for Sustainable Development covering Sri Lanka and Maldives. In this role he coordinates and oversees the World Bank’s investment and analytical portfolio across the following sectors: agriculture; environment and natural resource management; energy and extractives; transport and ICT; urban development, social development and disaster risk management; and water. Andrew is British and joined the World Bank in 2002 as a Young Professional. Before joining the Colombo-based team in July 2017, he was based in Ethiopia as the Sustainable Development Program Leader for Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan. Previously he was Senior Agricultural Economist in the World Bank office in Beijing, China. Andrew holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Cambridge, UK and a Masters in Agricultural Economics from the University of London, Wye College, UK. Prior to joining the WBG, he worked as a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Institute UK, as an ODI fellow with the Ministry of Agriculture, Guyana and with the Save the Children Fund in Pakistan.
On May 14, Israeli soldiers killed more than 50 Palestinians demonstrating along the Gaza border fence as the U.S. embassy opened in Jerusalem.(Joyce Lee/The Washington Post)
ZEITOUN, Gaza Strip —Israeli forces killed 55 Palestinians on the boundary fence with Gaza on Monday, local health officials said, a level of bloodshed not seen since the most violent days of Israel’s 2014 war in the territory.
The death toll doubled the number of Palestinians killed during six weeks of demonstrations, dubbed the “March of Return,” and came on the same day that a new U.S. Embassy opened in Jerusalem.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians had gathered on the edges of the fenced off blockaded territory from mid-morning. Many came to peacefully demonstrate, bringing their children, carrying flags. Food stalls sold snacks and music blared.
But the protests appeared to have a more violent edge than in previous weeks. Some young men brought knives and fence cutters. At a gathering point east of Gaza City, organizers urged protestors over loudspeakers to burst through the fence, telling them Israeli soldiers were fleeing their positions, even as they were reinforcing them.
Israeli snipers were determined not to allow a breach, and ambulances soon began screaming back and forth from the fence, as gunshots rang out over the crowd. No Israeli soldiers were injured, though, and Israel drew widespread condemnation for an excessive use of force.
More than 2,400 people were injured, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, including 1,200 from live ammunition.
Israeli soldiers killed at least 28 Palestinians demonstrating along the border fence and wounded more than 1,600 in the bloodiest day in Gaza since the 2014 war with Israel.
An elderly Palestinian man falls on the ground after being shot by Israeli troops during a deadly protest at the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel, east of Khan Younis.Khalil Hamra
The United Nations said that “those responsible for outrageous human rights violations must be held to account,” and Human Rights Watch described the killings as a “bloodbath.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned a continuing “massacre” of the Palestinian people. Both Turkey and South Africa announced they were recalling their ambassadors from Israel.
It was jarring contrast with the star-studded opening ceremony for the embassy in Jerusalem, which drew first daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.
Hamas has given its backing to the demonstrations, which have galvanized people around a call to protest the loss of Palestinian homes and villages when Israel was formed in 1948.
Palestinians mark that day – known as the “nakba” or “catastrophe” — on Tuesday, when more demonstrations are planned. More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population is descended from refugees who were displaced at the time of Israel’s creation.
At Gaza City’s main al-Shifaa hospital, medics said they were overwhelmed.
“I don't know how we will manage,” said Ayman al-Sahbani, the head of the emergency department, as families jostled to get in to see injured relatives. “How long can this go on? How long?"
The hospital had set up a new additional 30-bed triage area outside, and earlier in the day said it had the capacity to treat 200 or 300 serious gunshot wounds. It had received around 400 injured by around 6.pm., and most of those had been shot, he said.
“We’ve reached the critical point now,” he said. “A lot of people need operations soon, but the operation room is full.”
Palestinian women suffering from teargas inhalation sit in a medical aid tent during a protest near Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip. (Dusan Vranic/AP)
Increasing economic hardship has fuelled frustrations in Gaza, along with wider despair across Palestinian territories amid moves by a U.S. administration seen as wholeheartedly on Israel’s side of the decades-old conflict.
At the demonstrations east of Gaza, some said the force used by Israel would only bring further unrest.
Standing a few hundred meters from the fence, Nirma Attalah, 29, said her 22-year-old brother had been killed two weeks ago. "My brother was shot in the head in this place," she said. She had come on Monday with her whole extended family. “We are here for Jerusalem, for Palestinian land,” she said.
A truck rolled past carrying young men chanting: “To Jerusalem we go with millions of martyrs” and “Death rather than humiliation.”
“People have come out of the rubble to say we will not forget our rights,” said Yousef Abu Saleh, 25. “The American administration is adopting the Israeli story and stealing our right of return.”
While some said they would abide by official calls to keep the demonstrations peaceful, others talked about their enthusiasm to break into Israel and wreak havoc.
“We are excited to storm and get inside,” said 23-year-old Mohammed Mansoura
When asked what he would do inside Israel, he said, “Whatever is possible, to kill, throw stones.”
Two other young men carried large knives and said they wanted to kill Jews on the other side of the fence.
The Israeli military brought in two extra brigades to the Gaza border in preparation for the demonstrations and added additional “defense lines” in an effort to prevent any mass invasion into Israeli communities near the border.
The military said at least 35,000 people protested in 12 different places along the fence - more than twice as many locations as in past weeks of protest.
“Especially violent riots” took place near the southern Gazan city of Rafah,where three people were killed after trying to plant an explosive, the military added. The military also said it would “act forcefully against any terrorist activity,” and it carried out an airstrike on Hamas military posts in northern Gaza after Israeli troops came under fire.
At demonstrations near the Bureij Camp in central Gaza, Ahmed Loulou, 22, released a cluster of balloons carrying a Palestinian flag. In marker he’d written: “We are returning. This is our land.” The load was briefly caught in a power line before bobbing unsteadily towards the border.
He said it was his first time at the demonstrations and had been persuaded to come.
Meanwhile, young men launched stones from slingshots as they sheltered behind earthen berms. Shortly afterwards, the sound of live ammunition zinged through the air.
A Palestinian man throws leaflets dropped Monday by the Israeli military during a protest against the U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem and ahead of the 70th anniversary of Nakba, at the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza City. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
But Israelis weren’t the only ones shooting. Near a parking area, a man pulled out an AK-47 and took aim at an Israeli drone dropping leaflets. He let off a stream of bullets into the air and brought it down. Later, more gunfire ensued as different Palestinian factions argued who would keep the downed drown, onlookers said.
As the death toll neared 50, loudspeakers called for protesters to leave the border area. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya was called to Cairo on Sunday night in an apparent attempt to persuade the militant group to quell the demonstrations. No agreement was made, said Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nounou, as he attended the protests. “They understood our points. Our people are showing their solidarity with Jerusalem today, and showing their anger with the U.S. administration.”
The demonstrations have proved to be a welcome distraction for Hamas, refocusing anger against Israel as frustration built against the group in Gaza.
In a press conference as evening fell, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayaa, said the protests would continue.
“This blood will keep boiling until the occupation leaves forever,” he said.
Youngest among those confirmed killed in Gaza is 14-year-old Ezz Eldin on deadliest day since Israeli assault on enclave in 2014
Ahmed Altetr (L-R), Motassem Abu Louley, Alaa Alkhatib, Ezz el-din Alsamaak, Ahmed Alrantisi, Fadi Abu Salmi (Twitter)
Monday 14 May 2018
Fifty-five people were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on Monday as thousands of Palestinians demonstrated across the occupied territory to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nakba.
As of Monday afternoon, the Gaza Ministry of Health released the names of 43 Palestinians killed:
1. Ezz el-din Musa Mohamed Alsamaak, 14 years old
2. Wisaal Fadl Ezzat Alsheikh Khalil, 15 years old
3. Ahmed Adel Musa Alshaer, 16 years old
4. Saeed Mohamed Abu Alkheir, 16 years old
5. Ibrahim Ahmed Alzarqa, 18 years old
6. Eman Ali Sadiq Alsheikh, 19 years old
7. Zayid Mohamed Hasan Omar, 19 years old
8. Motassem Fawzy Abu Louley, 20 years old
9. Anas Hamdan Salim Qadeeh, 21 years old
10. Mohamed Abd Alsalam Harz, 21 years old
11. Yehia Ismail Rajab Aldaqoor, 22 years old
12. Mustafa Mohamed Samir Mahmoud Almasry, 22 years old
13. Ezz Eldeen Nahid Aloyutey, 23 years old
14. Mahmoud Mustafa Ahmed Assaf, 23 years old
15. Ahmed Fayez Harb Shahadah, 23 years old
16. Ahmed Awad Allah, 24 years old
17. Khalil Ismail Khalil Mansor, 25 years old
18. Mohamed Ashraf Abu Sitta, 26 years old
19. Bilal Ahmed Abu Diqah, 26 years old
20. Ahmed Majed Qaasim Ata Allah, 27 years old
21. Mahmoud Rabah Abu Maamar, 28 years old
22.Musab Yousef Abu Leilah, 28 years old
23. Ahmed Fawzy Altetr, 28 years old
24. Mohamed Abdelrahman Meqdad, 28 years old
25. Obaidah Salim Farhan, 30 years old
26. Jihad Mufid Al-Farra, 30 years old
27. Fadi Hassan Abu Salmi, 30 years old
28. Motaz Bassam Kamil Al-Nunu, 31 years old
29. Mohammed Riyad Abdulrahman Alamudi, 31 years old
30. Jihad Mohammed Othman Mousa, 31 years old
31. Shahir Mahmoud Mohammed Almadhoon, 32 years old
32. Mousa Jabr Abdulsalam Abu Hasnayn, 35 years old
33. Mohammed Mahmoud Abdulmoti Abdal’al, 39 years old
34. Ahmed Mohammed Ibrahim Hamdan, 27 years old
35. Ismail Khalil Ramadhan Aldaahuk, 30 years old
36. Ahmed Mahmoud Mohammed Alrantisi, 27 years old
It’s the eve of what the Palestinians call Nakba, or the catastrophe – for them, the disaster of losing their land amid the founding of the State of Israel 70 years ago. For those Palestinians living in Gaza today, another catastrophic loss of life. Donald Trump chose the most sensitive day imaginable in the most sensitive part of Israel. The moving of the US embassy to disputed Jersualem triggered stone throwing and violence. The protesters were met with live rounds fired by Israeli troops. Over 50 people are dead, several of them children, and many hundreds are injured.
Palestinians evacuate a wounded protester near al-Bureij refugee camp, as Israeli forces massacred dozens of people taking part in Great March of Return rallies on 14 May.
The lord mayor of Dublin has called for Ireland to boycott next year’s Eurovision song contest in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
“The horrific ordeal of the Palestinian people needs to be highlighted,” Mícheál Mac Donncha stated. “There needs to be solidarity just as there was with the people of South Africa with the apartheid regime.”
Israel won the right to host the high-profile annual competition after Netta Barzilai won this year’s event on Saturday.
The Palestinian ordeal was on shocking display Monday as Israeli snipers once again opened fire on civilians massed along the boundaries of the besieged Gaza Strip for what has been billed as the climax of the Great March of Return.
#update: 18 Palestinians killed (including 14 & 16 year-old kids) & 918 injured during the protests in Gaza today - Gaza MoH. 448 Palestinians wounded by live Israeli ammo today - now over 2,500 shot with live ammo since the #GreatReturnMarch started pic.twitter.com/AUuoU50MoF
#update: 50 protesters are in serious condition in Gaza hospitals. There are 74 minors, 23 women and 8 journalists among the wounded - Gaza MoH pic.twitter.com/AJX5fjTbIy
By afternoon in Gaza, the health ministry reported that the rapidly rising death toll had exceeded 40 Palestinians. Hundreds had been injured with live ammunition and tear gas.
This makes Monday the bloodiest single day since the rallies began on 30 March calling for an end to Israel’s lethalsiege of Gaza and the right of refugees – two-thirds of Gaza’s two million residents – to return to homes from which they were expelled and barred from returning by Israel because they are not Jewish.
In previous weeks, Israel had killed a total of more than 50 Palestinians and injured thousands more as part of a deliberate shoot-to-kill-and-maim policy that the International Criminal Court prosecutor has warned could lead to war crimes trials for Israeli leaders.
Monday’s rallies were timed to mark the annual commemoration of the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
“The ongoing Nakba is why I participate in the Great Return March and support the BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] movement,” Abdulrahman Abunahel, an organizer with the Palestinian BDS National Committee in Gaza explained. “I simply want the right to live in the land where I am from, in freedom, in peace and with dignity. I was born a refugee, I do not want to die as one.”
The massacre in Gaza also coincided with the planned ceremony to open the US embassy in Jerusalem.
Dublin mayor Mac Donncha’s calls on Ireland to boycott Eurovision came a day after he opened the Palestinian Freedom Conference, organized by Palestine solidarity groups in Ireland.
At the conference, attended by hundreds, Mac Donncha reiterated his and Dublin City Council’s full support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.
Last month Israel announced that it had banned Mac Donncha from entering any territory it controls, but the mayor got into the occupied West Bank anyway as Israeli authorities had misspelled his name on the banning order.
Mac Donncha criticized the Irish government for failing to take any action to hold Israel accountable, contrasting this with the alacrity with which it expelled a Russian diplomat over British claims Russia had been involved in the poisoning of a former double agent.
Mac Donncha told the conference that he soon looked forward to visiting a free and liberated Palestine.
.jpg)
Israeli soldiers killed at least 28 Palestinians demonstrating along the border fence and wounded more than 1,600 in the bloodiest day in Gaza since the 2014 war with Israel.
