President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) U.R. de Silva PC, yesterday, said that the Attorney General’s Department should intervene to ensure the presence of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister in the Colombo High Court hearing the case against former UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake.
Attanayake has been accused of forging the signatures of President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe in the run-up to January 8, 2015 presidential election.
The Island sought the BASL’s view on the matter yesterday afternoon after the Colombo High Court had reissued notice for the fifth time on the UNP and the SLFP leaders, re-fixing the trial for January 22 and 23.
The President’s Counsel acknowledged that the failure on the part of those responsible to ensure their presence couldn’t be condoned under any circumstances. Noting that both President and the Premier were currently overseas on official visits, the BASL chief pointed out that they could again leave the country ahead of the next date of trial.
The Colombo High Court on Dec. 5, 2016 issued summons on 15 witnesses including the President and Prime Minister to give evidence as the prosecution witnesses in the case.
The accused had been charged under Section 3(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act No. 56 of 2007. This is the first time in Sri Lanka that an accused had been indicted in the High Court by the Attorney General for an offence that comes under the ICCPR Act.
Besides Attanayake has been indicted under the Penal Code and the Presidential Election Act
U.R. de Silva said that the AG’s Department could take up this matter with relevant lawyers to reach agreement on dates the President and the PM could appear in court. Responding to another query, the BASL chief said that as such arrangements had been made in respect of other cases there was no justification in allowing Attanayake’s case to drag on unnecessarily.
The BASL admitted that the manner in which that particular case was being handled could send the wrong signal to the public.
Justice Minister Thalatha Atukorale is currently on a visit to Japan.
Attanayake was arrested on Feb 2, 2015 for allegedly issuing a document pertaining to what he called a secret agreement between President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe to secure the support of the Tamil electorate by giving concessions to the Tamil National Alliance in the run up to the previous presidential election.
UNP General Secretary Attanayake switched his allegiance to the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Dec 8, 2014.
(Lanka e News - 08.Oct.2018, 6.00AM) ‘IGP Poojtha Jayasundara is a joker and because of his conduct he had to face grave embarrassment ,’ said president Pallewatte Gamarala after his return to SrI Lanka .The president who returned after his New York junket had told at the cabinet meeting that he should take a stern decision against the IGP, according to media reports.
It is worthy of note , on the contrary it is not the IGP but rather it is the president who had become a confirmed joker before the entire country following his empty braggadocios and profusion of lies he uttered in New York pertaining to the final two weeks of the ethnic war . It reflects most poorly on the country when the president who is the highest in the hierarchy of the country becomes a clown locally and internationally , the IGP’s clowning notwithstanding.
It is the general consensus that the IGP had not acted as a clown except during the Kandy Perahera when he acted clownishly. Hence it is a doubt whether the president is angry with Poojitha not so much over his clowning but because the latter thereby has become clown Gamarala’s closest and threatening rival in the arena of clowning .
Be that as it may , the more pertinent question is , how come the president suddenly developed a hate for the IGP ? The other question is , is it possible for the president to take a strong decision against the IGP , as president says ?
Leaving aside the din created by the media , it is important to dissect the politics behind the clownish conduct (koloma) of the president and his sudden change of attitude towards the clownish behavior of the IGP.
The present IGP post is different when compared with that of the past since it is governed by distinct laws now …
Earlier , the IGP was appointed by the Executive president, and Gamarala was expected to abolish the executive presidency within 100 days of his becoming the president in accordance with his loud promises. But since he did not fulfill the promise the 19 th amendment had to be passed after prodding and pushing president Gamarala like how a dog is taken to give a bath.
Under the prevailing laws , the IGP is not appointed by the executive president. Currently , it is the Constitutional Council which selects the IGP from the names forwarded by the president, and a representative of the president who is a parliamentarian is a member of that Constitutional Council .Thereafter the appointment letter is handed over by the president in the same way as did the Independent Police Commission . Based on the 19 th amendment , all decisions pertaining to disciplinary matters of the subordinate notified police officers below the rank of IGP are decided by the Police Commission. The Police commission however cannot take decisions in regard to disciplinary matters concerning the IGP .
According to the 19 th amendment not only the president even the Constitutional Council which selects the IGP cannot take decisions pertaining to the disciplinary issues of the IGP nor can they remove the IGP from the post. If the IGP is to be ousted an impeachment motion shall be tabled in parliament and that has to be passed with a simple majority. It is only then he can be dismissed. The IGP has a right however in the meanwhile to seek redress from Supreme Court questioning the propriety of the impeachment motion. In other words the grounds cited in the impeachment motion should be proved in court. All these are a clear index , in the present context , the IGP cannot be dismissed just because some offspring of a two legged dog or bitch desired it. The good governance introduced this system in order to enable the IGP to take independent decisions , without which the Police cannot de- politicized.
There had been fruitful results from that …
The IGP should be saluted and lauded for refusing to dance to the tune of president Gamarala in latter’s efforts to save the officers of the forces who are facing heinous murder charges. Moreover, neither DIG Ravi Seneviratne in charge of the CID nor DIG Ravi Waidyalankara the chief of the FCID can say that the IGP gave orders to them to halt the investigations into the crimes committed during the nefarious corrupt decade even when the IGP was under intense pressure. .
A most uncorrupt IGP …
The present situation is , both the DIGs are hostile to the IGP. Those who analyze the actual scenario and understand the true background in this climate will therefore realize how uncorrupt the present IGP is.
In fact it was Lanka e News which first nicknamed the IGP Poojitha Jayasundara as ‘IGP koloma’ ( IGP clown) before others. That is because of his innate personal mannerisms. Yet , no one can say that during Poojitha’s era , he descended to the level of former IGP Anandaraja who openly attended the birthday celebrations of heroin dealers. Neither can anyone accuse him of having built mansions like ex IGP Mahinda Balasuriya who built a ‘palace ‘ out of Kudu Duminda’s monies. None can even say , he operated a police mafia like ex IGP Chandra Fernando who took a suspect in custody out to show the hidden weapons and killed him brutally. All the ex IGPs have been involved in shooting down their enemies, breaking their heads and murdering them . But Poojitha had never committed such brutalities. The only accusations against him are : threatening a lift operator holding him by the collar of his shirt; dancing during the Dalada perahera; and delivering lectures which are painfully long.
The president of the dual consensual government gives one instruction, the Prime Minister issues another , the wilted Police Commission takes a different stance, while the people are also intently watching the Police actions . Yet Poojitha is the first IGP who conducted himself independently and discharged his duties duly in spite of such contradictory instructions without kowtowing to the political pressures mounted on him despite his ‘koloma’ nickname. That itself is a world record.
Why is president Gamarala hell bent on getting rid of such an IGP?
The true reasons are different from what meet the eyes and ears .
Though it is true Poojitha danced during the Kandy Dalada Perahera , he however refused to dance to the obnoxious tunes of president Gamarala. Hereunder are some examples …
One : Poojitha did not abide by the illegal instructions given by the president to halt the investigations into the murderers in the Navy and the Navy high ups who aided and abetted in those crimes.
Two: Pallewatte Gamarala cashing in on the rivalries which are natural among the DIGs , sought to create a fake assassination conspiracy drama . Yet the IGP’s assistance could not be enlisted by the president in that diabolic attempt .
Though these aforementioned straight forward attitude and actions of the IGP were also contributory to Gamarala’s efforts to get the IGP removed, there was a much more important reason which prodded and prompted Gamarala to take the step to oust the IGP. That is , Gamarala’s eagerness which in fact outruns his sureness to replace Poojitha with his henchman cum procurer - the notorious DIG S.M. Wickremesinghe ahead of the next presidential elections and other elections, if any.
Wickremesinghe is the son of Polonnaruwa Govi Raja during the late Premadasa era. Because he was bright in his studies , ever since he attended the University Polonnaruwa Sirisena was helping him and meeting his needs and requirements . Hence Sirisena was his second father or uncle to Wickremesinghe.
It was Sirisena who helped him to join the police force through Mrs. Sirimavo. Wickremesinghe who was groomed and propelled by the SLFP then became the security officer of the PSD of Mahinda Rajapakse .
Now the need for the second father is to make his son Wickremesinghe the IGP and thereafter rig the future elections . This is very evident based on the support that was provided to Sirisena by Wickremesinghe the DIG in charge of that district during the recent communal riots in Kandy to fan the flames of violence. But for the DIG of the STF who went from Colombo , both Wickremesinghe and Sirisena would have got together and caused a communal blood bath. The masses will now understand why Pallewatte Gamarala is determined to push out Poojitha Jayasundara from the IGP post .
IGP is not the first citizen of the country ,therefore when the almighty first citizen, a confirmed biggest villainous demon who behaves much worse than the IGP calls the IGP a ‘joker’, there is no bigger joke than that. It is obvious , an IGP clown cannot do greater damage to the country than an IGP demon . Hence the IGP phobia of demonic president Gamarala is another of his epileptic fits.
Chandrapradeep
--------------------------- by (2018-10-08 01:07:44)
:13 AM OCT 08
UPDATE: Colombo Chief Magistrate released Former State Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran on a surety bail of Rs. 500,000 after she was produced before Courts today.
Former State Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran was arrested by the Organized Crime Prevention Division (OCPD) early this morning (08), Police said.
Police Media Spokesperson Superintendent of Police (SP) Ruwan Gunasekara noted that the former State Minister was arrested by the officers of the OCPD at the premises of OCPD Headquarters, where she appeared before to record a statement.
Maheswaran on 2 July, speaking at a public event in Jaffna, called for the reorganization of the outlawed terrorist group LTTE in order to curb the rising crime in the North Province. The controversial statement made headlines receiving major backlash in the following weeks, which eventually resulted in her resignation from her portfolio as the State Minister of Women and Children Affairs.
Subsequently, the Attorney General instructed the Inspector General of Police in September 2018 to take legal action under Section 120 of the Penal Code against Maheswaran on the statements she had
Last week the Daily FT-Colombo MBA Alumni Association staged the first-ever pre-Budget Forum dedicated to women entrepreneurs and professionals. If one were to conceptualise the presented proposals, they hinged on two points.
The first was the overall business sentiments that the private sector had towards the Government not being very positive and the other being structural reforms not coming to play even though three years back the industry was promised such changes. One of the key points highlighted at the forum was the low-hanging fruit identified, tourism.
Since 2015 the Government has been struggling to launch the global marketing campaign that the private sector had requested as a priority. Even after three years, this has not materialised with the key Government agency having four chairmen during the last three years which indicates the inconsistency of decision-making and the poor implementation environment that exists in the said ecosystem.
Whilst Sri Lanka Tourism struggles, our neighbours have launched many such campaigns attracting the top dollar tourists into the country while Sri Lanka’s two key city hotels are up for sale given that they made a loss in the last financial year.
Sri Lanka
from 51 to 85
If one goes to the nuts and bolts of the two key points highlighted at the forum, it goes back to the global competitiveness rankings on Sri Lanka (GCI).
From a performance of 4.3 with a rank of 52 in 2011, Sri Lanka has dropped to a 4.09 score and rank of 85 among 137 countries. This performance comes in the backdrop of a strong performance by South Asian nations, such as Bhutan (up 15 places), Nepal (up 10 places), Pakistan (up seven places) and Bangladesh (up seven places), improving in competitiveness. The World Economic Forum (WEF) communique states that Sri Lanka has dipped mainly due to a deteriorating institutional environment, lower goods markets efficiency and infrastructure that is assessed as being less well-developed.
Why the decline?
If one does a deep dive on the performance of Sri Lanka we see that the comments made by the 26 women entrepreneurs mirror the analysis made by WEF expert analysis. Apparently there are two variables that the GCI report is made on, the Objective score and Sentiment score. On the Objective score, which is more on hard facts, the score in Sri Lanka has increased from 1.62 to 1.73, which is positive. Where Sri Lanka’s performance has lagged is on the Sentiment score. This is mainly on the attitude one has towards Government policies which has steadily been declining due to the poor implementation of the reform agenda and the alleged corruption issues stemming from the Central Bank, etc.
This is very sad for Sri Lanka given the expectations that the people of the country had on the current administration and what the world wanted from Sri Lanka. ADB recently downgraded the expected GDP from 4.2% in 2018 to 3.8% whilst for 2019 from 4.5% to 4.8% which does not augur well for brand Sri Lanka when our neighbour India is growing at 7.7% as per the latest forecast.
National
strategy – Apple
What many forget is that a clear national strategy is important for the health of the private sector. Japan is a classic example where, with a clear national strategy, private sector brand Sony was able to become a household brand. Another example is South Korea. With a clear national strategy, a brand like Samsung cut through the clutter to become a world beater. Sadly Sri Lanka is yet struggling to emulate such practices.
If we are to take an example from the US, the reason why Apple could become the first brand to cross the one trillion dollar brand is because the country has an economy that is consistent on economic policy. This enabled Apple to launch cutting-edge brand strategies. Today, the market cap of Sony is 10 times the GDP of Sri Lanka which is around $ 90 billion dollars.
South Korea
shaped Samsung
If we do a deep dive on the Samsung Group, it was established in 1969 with an investment of 330 million won. Given the South Korean vision to conquer the world, a clear Government strategy was developed focusing on the private sector. This involved skill developed by the South Korean Government focused on Samsung requirements, speedy approvals for setting up of production factories provincially, and supporting the Samsung brand on global promotion; otherwise this brand would never have been able to beat the giant Sony brand from great Japan.
Samsung, starting life with such humble beginnings with just 36 employees assembling electric fans in a small workshop south of Seoul, due to the support of the South Korean national strategy, has today crushed giant Sony by a blistering sales performance of $ 176 billion whilst Sony trails at just $ 68.4 billion. From a brand value indicator, Samsung clocks in a value of $ 45.2 billion and Sony is struggling to garner a $ 7.7 billion value. In my view it is a clear and crushing blow to a company like Sony that has been commanding global centre-stage for such a long time.
Hire top talent
– Govt. supports
Apple and Samsung are classic examples of companies that are not only ruthlessly moving faster than the competition but are also passing the leader of yesterday strongly. The best example is the latest refrigerator model by Samsung that has a built-in tablet computer that not only controls the temperature but also allows users to surf the internet, watch TV and send e-mail messages.
The key to this success is that the Government of South Korea is investing 4% of GDP on Research and Development whilst educating the youth for the private sector to absorb.
Samsung built
South Korea brand
If one does a deep dive, a point to note is that Samsung as a brand has given the identity to South Korea to be the ‘tiger nation’ of South-East Asia. Now the country has built the second power brand, which is Kia in the automobile industry. One can say that Apple and Coca Cola did the same for the US.
Implications for
Sri Lanka
A key implication for Sri Lanka is the need to have a clear national strategy so that brands can develop cutting-edge strategies. I guess Dilmah has the potential to do this for Sri Lanka. Let us see how the Budget 2019 carves this out for the country. The private sector needs all the support possible given the tough market conditions in which it operates today.
(The author is an award-winning marketer and business leader. The thoughts are strictly his personal thoughts and do not reflect the positions he holds in society.)
A dog is used by Israeli soldiers to attack a Palestinian protesting the expropriation of land in the village of Kafr Qaddum in the occupied West Bank, 16 March 2012. Dutch firm Four Winds K9 has supplied Israel with dogs for more than 20 years.
A Dutch company has agreed to compensate a Palestinian who was seriously injured by the attack dogs it supplied to the Israeli military.
The settlement is the outcome of a civil lawsuit filed by Hamzeh Abu Hashem against Four Winds K9 and its directors in late 2017.
The company agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to Abu Hashem towards his recovery although it continues to deny legal liability because the Israeli army trained the dogs.
Four Winds K9 “regrets the incident” and the damage done and considers the payment a “gesture of good will,” according to Dutch newspaper NRC.
This is “the first time a Dutch firm has paid for violence in the occupied Palestinian territories,” Abu Hashem’s lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld told the newspaper.
Vicious attack
On 23 December 2014, Abu Hashem suffered serious injuries when he was attacked by two Israeli army dogs.
There had been confrontations between Israeli occupation forces and residents of Abu Hashem’s village of Beit Ommar in an area where Palestinian youths frequently protested the seizure of the village’s land for the nearby settlement of Karmei Tzur.
According to the brief from Abu Hashem’s lawyers, Israeli soldiers arrived with two canines and unleashed them on the youths.
The dogs chased Abu Hashem and grabbed him in a yard between two houses.
The dogs bit Abu Hashem multiple times in his legs, arms and shoulder.
Such dogs “are intentionally used by Israeli occupying forces to terrorize and bite Palestinian civilians, especially during protests and night house raids,” Shawan Jabarin, director of the human rights group Al-Haq, wrote to Dutch ministers in 2015.
The dog attacks breach Israel’s obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect civilians in occupied territory, Abu Hashem’s lawyers Liesbeth Zegveld and Lisa Komp of human rights law firm Prakken d’Oliveira argued in the lawsuit.
The company knew or should have known that the Israeli army regularly unleashed its dogs against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
Four Winds K9 has an “independent duty of care” to ensure that it does not contribute to injuring Palestinian civilians including Abu Hashem, the lawsuit argued.
That is why they demanded damages for Abu Hashem.
They also demanded that the Dutch firm be prohibited from supplying dogs to the Israeli army. But the settlement between Abu Hashem and Four Winds K9 means that no court will rule on that demand.
In June 2016, Four Winds K9 announced that it was no longer providing Israel with “biting dogs,” but only tracking hounds.
But according to a statement from the company sent to The Electronic Intifada this week, Four Winds K9 continues to sell untrained puppies to the Israeli military.
“These puppies are sold to the IDF and trained by them,” the company states.
There is therefore no guarantee that dogs provided by Four Winds K9 will not be used in future to terrorize Palestinians.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon talks to Jon Snow about what Brexit could mean for Scottish independence. She also discusses Alex Salmond, Scotland’s drug problems – and the odds of a coalition with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.
UK’s outlook for 2019 stays at 1.5% but previous forecast for 1.3% this year cut to 1.1% The US has doubled import duties on some Chinese goods. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
Donald Trump’s trade war with China and Europe is forecast to hit global growth this year and reverberate through 2019, the International Monetary Fund has warned in its latest health check on the global economy.
The escalation of the US president’s protectionist policies, which has resulted in the world’s largest economy doubling import duties on some Chinese goods, has dragged down the forecast for growth this year and next, with the world’s largest trading countries, including the US, France, Germany and China, among the hardest hit.
Britain is also expected to suffer slower growth against a backdrop of trade conflicts, though Brexit uncertainty continues to inflict the most harm to the UK’s outlook for expansion this year and next, IMF officials said.
The IMF said that even without a further deterioration in US and Chinarelations, the global economy would grow this year at 3.7% and at the same rate in 2019 compared with the 3.9% it predicted for both years in an interim report in April.
The Washington-based lender’s economists are usually reluctant to name and shame individual countries, but it is clear that attacks by the Trump administration on the postwar consensus of open trade and cooperation over issues such as climate change has prompted more direct references to the US than previously seen.
In its world economic outlook, which is published twice a year, with the latest issued before the fund’s annual meeting in Bali this week, officials warned that the lingering threat of higher trade barriers meant there was a greater likelihood it would downgrade its growth forecasts during its next review.
Officials at the fund said much of the decline in global growth was also the result of many developing countries being hit hard by a depreciation in their currencies, which had increased the cost of imports and especially oil.
Last month, the US president slapped extra duties on $200bn (£153bn) of Chinese goods and China retaliated with extra duties on $60bn of US goods. This followed an earlier increase in US duties on the import of steel, aluminium and cars.
Trump’s $1.1tn of tax cuts was expected to maintain US GDP growth at 2.9% this year, but the deterioration in trade and the waning impact next year of one-off government subsidies is likely to see growth fall to 2.5%, the IMF said.
Germany was expected to grow this year and next at an annual rate above 2% but IMF officials judged that the impact of trade tariffs would mean Berlin should expect to reach no more than 1.9% in each of the next two years. France was the other major eurozone country predicted to suffer falls in growth in 2018-19.
The UK’s outlook for next year remains at 1.5% but the previous forecast for a 1.3% growth rate this year was cut to 1.1% after Brexit uncertainty weighed more heavily on trade and investment.
The IMF said: “Escalating trade tensions and the potential shift away from a multilateral, rules-based trading system are key threats to the global outlook. Since the April 2018 forecast, protectionist rhetoric has increasingly turned into action, with the United States imposing tariffs on a variety of imports, including on $200 billion of imports from China, and trading partners undertaking or promising retaliatory and other protective measures.
“An intensification of trade tensions, and the associated rise in policy uncertainty, could dent business and financial market sentiment, trigger financial market volatility, and slow investment and trade.”
In a further swipe at Trump, the IMF said countries needed to work together to tackle challenges that extended beyond their own borders. Not only were nationalist trade policies harming growth but “cooperative efforts are also essential for completing the financial regulatory reform agenda, strengthening international taxation, enhancing cybersecurity, tackling corruption, and mitigating and coping with climate change”, it said.
In a blog before the report’s publication, the IMF’s outgoing chief economist, Maurice Obstfeld, urged governments to reject calls to bolster growth with debt-fuelled spending. He cautioned that extra borrowing would make finance ministries more vulnerable to negative shocks, which had become more likely in the past year.
He said: “The likelihood of further negative shocks to our growth forecast has risen. In several key economies, moreover, growth is being supported by policies that seem unsustainable over the long term.”
The report echoed his view, adding: “Fiscal policy should aim to rebuild buffers for the next downturn. In countries at or close to full employment, with an excess current account deficit and an unsustainable fiscal position (notably the United States), public debt needs to be stabilised and eventually reduced.”
Obstfeld’s warning echoes the IMF’s review of the UK’s public finances last month, when it warned the chancellor, Philip Hammond, to pay for a £20bn increase in the health budget with extra taxes or spending cuts in other areas.
The head of the UN environmental programme (UNEP), former Norwegian environment minister Erik Solheim, pays too little attention to the environment, the regulations and budget of his office. FOTO: UN Environment / Ishan TankhaErik Solheim is absent from the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi almost 80 per cent of the time. Here he is on a visit to India earlier this year. Kristoffer Rønneberg-Utenriksjournalist-
Now the UN internal auditors have requested that he pays back part of the money he has spent on his trips.
During his first 22 months in office, Erik Solheim spent 4,1 million Norwegian kroner (NOK), approximately 490 000 US dollars, travelling for 529 days around the globe.
Many of these trips were allegedly made without sufficient documentation from Mr. Solheim that they were actually business trips. On two occations the 63 year old switched to a more expensive airline, causing extra costs of almost 60 000 NOK, according to the auditors.
This emerges from the draft for a devastating report by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) on the business travels of Erik Solheim and other senior UNEP staff.
The draft was recently presented to Solheim, who may now respond and put forward possible corrections. A new version will then be prepared at a later time. When the UNEP management responds again, the OIOS will publish the final report.
Solheim refused to comment
Erik Solheim, who at the moment is participating in the climate summit in San Francisco, did not wish to comment on the conclusions in the report, saying the document is just a draft.
«We have responded and refuted a number of mistakes in this draft document. Based on our response the auditors will present a new draft. After we have commented on this draft, they will conclude their final report», said Solheim.
The executive director did not wish to say what information he holds to be flawed.
The OIOS did not wish to comment on the matter.
«The auditing is still in progress, so we are not in a position to comment», according to an e-mail from the organisation’s spokesperson.
Solheim travelled for 529 days during his first 22 months as head of the UN environmental programme. Here he is in South Africa in september 2016.
UNEP
The UN’s internal oversight services rarely changes the factual information or important recommendations from the first draft, according to a Norwegian source who is well acquainted with the UN system.
In this first draft Mr. Solheim and two of his closest aides are being criticised for disorderly spending of official funds to such a degree, that they are being requested to pay back part of the money.
«The UNEP and UN’s Nairobi office should reclaim from these employees (1) all travel expenses and the related working hours which have not been accounted for; and (2) all additional costs incurred by the UNEP as a consequence of uneconomic and inefficient decisions by the management», the auditors wrote.
Sent to Nairobi – may work from Paris
The former Norwegian environment minister, representing the Socialist Left Party (SV), Erik Solheim, caused some consternation last summer, by stating that Norwegians do not need not have bad conscience for traveling by plane. According to the OIOS he allegedly spent 79 per cent of his time at other places than the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.
In total he allegedly spent 90 days in Oslo and Paris. 14 days were registered as time off or holidays, whereas the remaining 76 days were not accounted for, according to the draft report.
«Some of the trips to Oslo and Paris were called «bilateral meetings», even though they took place during weekends or the Christmas holidays, the internal auditors said. They particularly mentioned an intercontinental flight over the Atlantic.
«On one occasion he made an eight hour flight from Washington DC for a weekend in Paris, before he boarded another flight for New York», according to the report.
The two other senior staffers were allegedly given permission by Erik Solheim to work out of Paris, in spite of being formally assigned to Nairobi. One of them allegedly received more than 165 000 NOK (20 000 dollars) in a special security allowance for Nairobi, in spite of being relocated to Paris.
Permitting these leaders to work in Paris is a direct violation of UN’s regulations, according to the draft report.
«Such arrangements will set the presedent for other employees who wish to work out of a place of their own choice, and probably lead to speculations about unfair treatment or claims when such request are being rejected», according to the UN’s watchdog body.
Travelled for half a billion NOK in two years
The draft report indicates that the UNEP’s travel routines have been violated regularly in several cases. The trips were often badly planned and undertaken without approval from the relevant authority. Since 2014 the organisation’s travel budget has doubled. At the same time, UNEP achieved fewer of its goals than before.
Between January 2016 and March 2018 UNEP’s staff made 27.458 travels at a total cost of 486 million NOK (58 million dollars), according to the draft.
Solheim has developed a substantial network, and often meets world leaders through his job. Here he is with Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, in June this year.
UNEP/M.Booth
The UN’s environmental organisation does not pay enough attention to the environment, according to the auditors.
«The management have not introduced guidelines, routines or incentives for their staff when it comes to controlling their travels and consequently the carbon emissions. Employees have not been encouraged to find alternative ways of traveling», said the OIOS, stating that several other UN organisations have taken measures to reduce emission of greenhouse gases.
The internal auditing concerning Erik Solheim and the UNEP were allegedly started after employees at the head office in Nairobi sent a letter of warning this spring. Several staff members are said to be frustrated at Solheim’s style of leadership, and the fact that he is very rarely present at the office.
Aftenposten has learned that Solheim’s travels have been vehemently discussed at the headquarters as well as at a number of foreign embassies in the Kenyan capital.
The matter has apparently been a cause of concern even in the Norwegian Foreign ministry.
Considers the rules to be «bureaucratic» and «political»
The UN’s internal oversight system can be compared to Norway’s National Audit Office. It is considered a very important and serious UN institution, according to former UN top official Hilde Frafjord Johnson, who is presently Secretary General of the Christian Democrats, one of Norway’s political parties.
Hilde Frafjord Johnson was the UNs Special Representative to South Sudan, and completed her term in 2014. She says she has great faith in the UN’s internal oversight system, but did not wish to comment on the specifics of Solheim’s case.
Bibiana Dahle Piene / NTB scanpix
She did not wish to comment on this specific matter.
Erik Solheim and other UNEP leaders are allegedly frustrated at what they perceive to be a cumbersome bureaucracy, according to the OIOS-draft and several other sources Aftenposten contacted.
«The management were willing to bypass a set of rules which they considered to be «bureaucratic» and «political», according to the draft.
Among other things these rules require every employee to report business trips at least 21 days before departure.
«It is pretty obvious that Solheim and other senior UN staffers cannot follow such rigid rules,» a Norwegian UN official told Aftenposten.
Greenpeace-leader: «This is embarrassing»
Many of the sources contacted by Aftenposten concerning this matter, find the accusations against Erik Solheim very serious.
Most of them talked on the basis of anonymity, but not the leader of Greenpeace Norway, Truls Gulowsen, who commented on the UNEP-leader’s extensive travels and lack of routines for emission of greenhouse gases.
Greenpeace-leader Truls Gulowsen says that the draft of the internal UN report puts Solheim and UNEP in an extremely bad light.
Cornelius Poppe / NTB scanpix
«This is simply embarrassing», he said and added:
«Erik Solheim has made the UNEP much more visible, which is a good thing. Part of the reason of course being his travels and discussions with so many persons. But this report puts him as well as the organisation in an extremely bad light. It weakens the credibility of UN’s entire environmental organisation.»
Washington should explore retaliatory measures that impose real costs on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Posters advocating for Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi hang on a police barricade in front of Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 8. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
BYWILL INBODEN-
OCTOBER 8, 2018, 12:17 PM
Saudi Arabia is one of the United States’ most important allies in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is also a tyrannical monarchy that punishes dissent, oppresses its own people, and has supported the spread of an intolerant form of Islam worldwide. These two realities exist in uneasy tension with each other and summarize the strategic challenge that has beset U.S. policy toward the kingdom for the past several decades. The U.S.-Saudi relationship has weathered many disagreements and crises before, the most acute being the OPEC oil embargo of the 1970s and the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, when it came out that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens. Yet, more often than not, U.S. and Saudi leaders have been able to walk this relationship tightrope together without either slipping or falling off.
But now the veteran Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is missing, and the tightrope is beginning to shake again. As has been widely reported, Khashoggi hails from a prominent Saudi family and has maintained an uneasy existence as an alternating confidant and a critic of the ruling regime, including most recently as a Washington Postcommentatorliving in exile in the United States. Until his disappearance last Tuesday during what should have been a routine visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The most worrisome—and gruesome—reports from anonymous Turkish sources say that Saudi assassins murdered Khashoggi. As of writing, nothing has been confirmed, yet any remaining hopes for his possible reappearance are being eclipsed by the growing likelihood that his killing was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
If Khashoggi is dead, his murder is both an abomination and an affront to U.S. support for the House of Saud. Not only was Khashoggi a peaceful and responsible voice of reform, but as a U.S. resident, he was living under the de facto protection of United States. His abduction from Turkey—a NATO ally (albeit a problematic one)—only furthers the brazenness of the Saudi plot against him. FP’s Elephants in the Room contributor John Hannah warned prophetically last month that Mohammed bin Salman’s ego and missteps were overshadowing his admirable reform agenda. This latest outrage just confirms that the crown prince is now more despot than reformer.
Whether the Trump White House admits it or not, the disappearance of Khashoggi is at once an atrocity, a tragedy, and a humiliating slap in the face to the United States.
The challenge for the United States is how to respond with appropriate outrage and inflict effective retaliatory measures on Riyadh without derailing the entire U.S.-Saudi relationship and hurting the United States’ many other regional interests. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has already squandered much of the country’s leverage and moral capital through unconditional support for the Saudi war in Yemen, refusal to address Saudi Arabia’s many other human rights oppressions, and failure to stand with Canadian allies against Mohammed bin Salman’s hysterical overreaction to Ottawa’s mild rebuke after his arrests of reform-seeking female bloggers. “[T]here is a better way for the kingdom to avoid Western criticism,” Khashoggi wrote in the Washington Post at the time. “Simply free human rights activists, and stop the unnecessary arrests that have diminished the Saudi image.” U.S. silence in the face of such behavior may have partly induced Mohammed bin Salman into thinking that he could act against Khashoggi with impunity.
While some stale conventional wisdom holds that the United States cannot simultaneously stand for principles of human dignity while also maintaining stable relations with autocratic allies who share its other interests, there is ample precedent otherwise. The Reagan administration preserved U.S. alliances and partnerships with countries such as South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Chile while also encouraging them—sometimes quietly and sometimes loudly—along the path to democratic transitions.
Or take Saudi Arabia itself. When I worked for the U.S. State Department during the George W. Bush administration, in 2004 the United States designated Saudi Arabia a “country of particular concern” for its endemic religious intolerance and persecution. This followed a lengthy internal dispute within the department, with the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs parroting the predictable line that sanctioning a close ally would be counterproductive and hurt other U.S. interests while not leading to any improvements in religious freedom. Instead, following Bush’s decision to impose the designation, the Saudis did take some quiet but meaningful steps to allow more latitude for worship by non-Muslim communities while toning down the anti-Semitism and anti-Christian slanders in their textbooks. Meanwhile, important U.S.-Saudi cooperation continued in areas such as counterterrorism, energy, and regional security, relatively untrammeled by the designation. (During one of my trips to Riyadh in 2003 for these negotiations with the Saudis, I met with Khashoggi, then as now a reform-minded journalist.)
Khashoggi’s disappearance, as appalling as it is, may also bring an opportunity for repairing the U.S.-Turkey relationship. Washington’s ties with Ankara, on a steady deterioration in recent years, have in the past few months accelerated into a free fall over issues ranging from Turkey’s illicit detention of the U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson and other prisoners of conscience to its growing ties with Russia. It would take some deft diplomacy, but perhaps the Trump administration could forge a quiet deal with Ankara that includes Brunson’s release and the cancellation of Turkey’s purchase of S-400 missiles from Russia in exchange for robust collaboration with the United States against Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi case.
Regardless, the United States should explore some retaliatory measures that impose real costs on Riyadh. Options to consider include expelling the Saudi ambassador for a time, imposing visa bans on other senior Saudi officials complicit in targeting Khashoggi, and even the suspension or reduction of U.S. weapons sales and other security cooperation with the Saudis. Khashoggi, after all, is more than just one man—he represents the best hopes for further reform in Saudi Arabia and for responsible checks on the power and hubris of the kingdom’s reckless crown prince.
OCTOBER 8, 2018
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Thirty-four Indian schoolgirls aged between 12 and 16 were taken to hospital after being beaten with sticks by a group of boys, along with the boys’ mothers and neighbors, who had harassed them earlier in the day, authorities said.
The assault happened on Saturday outside a government-run boarding school in the eastern state of Bihar, police told Reuters, following a series of sexual assaults across the country that has sparked outrage.
India is the world’s most dangerous country for women due to the high risk of sexual violence and being forced into slave labor, according to a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey of about 550 experts on women’s issues released in June.
Earlier this year in Bihar, more than 30 girls were sexually assaulted and tortured at a shelter in Bihar.
Saturday’s attack only came to light on Monday because of the delay in filing the case. Ten people, including four women, were arrested, Mrityunjay Kumar Choudhary, Supaul’s police chief, told Reuters.
The girls suffered minor injuries and were released from hospital over the weekend.
The boys, aged between 12 and 16, entered a field near the school in the village of Darpakha, about 300 km (180 miles) from the state capital, Patna, where the girls were playing on Saturday and shouted obscene comments, Choudhary said.
The boys left after the girls protested, only to return later with a group of around 20 people armed with sticks.
“The boys brought their mothers and others from the neighborhood,” Baidyanath Yadav, Supaul’s district chief, told Reuters. The older women also attacked the girls, he said.
The girls returned to school, where authorities have beefed up security, on Monday, Yadav said.
Opposition leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav took to Twitter to target Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of maintaining a “cunning silence” on the violence.
Reporting by Blassy Boben; additional reporting by Jatindra Dash in BHUBANESHWAR; Editing by Mayank Bhardwaj and Nick Macfie
Around 34 School girls In Bihar Beaten Up By Goons For Resisting Sexual Advances | ABP News
My inspiration to write this article arose when I came across a YouTube interview that asked the question “Is the world ready for a black superman?” from its followers. There were a lot of opinions but the most surprising one for me was when a guy furious at the mere suggestion, claimed that Superman is a symbol of America and cannot ever be black. Another man calmly replied. The legend of Superman is a story of an immigrant: he came to this country as an outsider/alien had weird customs like wearing an underwear on top of his pants and went on to become a national symbol of truth, justice and the American Way (While personally I am skeptical about whether America as a whole is actually about truth and justice specially after Trump was chosen as a leader it was a very appealing thought that these fantasy superheroes embodied our perfect selves or what we strive to be).
Introduction to X-men
I’m not quite sure if this is appropriate for a Sri Lankan audience since most us don’t really have time to enjoy these fantasy universes with our busy schedules and engagements with fantasy universes of our own but if you dare to read further have no fear, I will try to make it understandable for non-comic fans as well. (I will use minimal references of comics/names)
So if you are not familiar with the X-men universe, it is an alternate reality (For physics geeks – this is not the same as alternate reality in physics). This reality is similar to our current world but has its own history, present and future, much like our own. Its timeline and narrative changes with according to what society(fans) deems acceptable again much like our own.
The story of X-men begins by dividing its characters into two groups. Humans and Mutants (who are also human but look different or have different abilities) Mutants being weird as they are, living in a human majority struggle to have normal lives. Bullied, misunderstood, isolated and unable to make friends with humans, they form their own groups. This leads humans to misunderstand them even more. Suddenly a crime committed by a mutant is seen as acts against humanity rather than crimes of different humans.
As the story unfolds the humans try to fight back this imaginary threat. First they form protests and throw mutants out of their communities. Naturally mutants form their own communities, some inside sewers while others buy islands and large areas of land. Then the humans form fearmongering political parties that promise to purge the land from mutants driving mutants to form militant groups and refuges. Now claiming mutants have their own land and militant groups, fear increases more and anti-mutant taskforces and unregulated prisons that abduct mutants are formed. Eventually this leads to formation of mutant terrorists and renegade anti-mutant task force.
Introduction to our world(Earth).
I am hoping that everyone who read-up this far already knows a little bit about evolution and how mutations occur in every human and how these mutations in turn define to an extent, who we are. Our color, our gender, our sexuality, our natural body types, our immunity, behaviors and many more qualities are dependent on our genes.
You might have also realized that we too have identified sorts of “mutants” or “unnatural humans” due to our lack of understanding what mutations really are and have formed societies including and excluding mutations as natural, unnatural and abnormal. (just to make it clear there is nothing abnormal with most mutations, it is simply how nature works)
For example, not long ago some people believed being white meant that they are superior than other races and other races were not capable of any intellectual endeavor. Most religions believe that being a man is superior to being a woman. Some communities treat transgender people as abominations while other communities treat them as gods preferred.
Of course, the world has never been simple so genes aren’t the only things that differentiate who we are, the books, Selfish Gene, Darwinizing Culture and The Art of Memetics, all talk about a different type evolution, evolution of culture and religion. These books explain how thoughts/ideas(memes) are also like genes randomly mutating and spreading; defining what culture and religion is, that in turn defines who we are to an extent.
The BASL admitted that the manner in which that particular case was being handled could send the wrong signal to the public.
The US has doubled import duties on some Chinese goods. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
Posters advocating for Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi hang on a police barricade in front of Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 8. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
