Modi crowned BJP’s prime minister candidate
NEW DELHI, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi has been crowned by the main opposition party as the candidate for prime minister of India, cementing the remarkable rise of a leader adored by business but tainted by deadly religious riots that broke out on his watch. On a path that from humble roots [...]
Law and disorder in Sri Lanka: That tourist paradise!
(The first part of this article appeared last week) The Government’s popularity has fallen steeply. The ruling clique, comprising an all-powerful Executive President, an uncrowned king, head of a jumbo cabinet of ministers who actually wield little or no power; an executive presidency bolstered by a triumvirate of siblings, together ruling over the entire Island [...]
India’s central banker told he’s a sex symbol
NEW DELHI, Sept 14 (AFP) – Already credited with causing a bounce in India’s battered financial markets, new central bank chief Raghuram Rajan was told Friday he had become a “sex symbol” after just a week in the job. Rajan, a 50-year-old from southern India, has been depicted in the local media as James Bond and [...]
Abbott’s new style slows pace of Aussie politics
SYDNEY, Sept 14, (AFP) – Australia’s prime minister-elect Tony Abbott will not be sworn in until next week but he has already stamped a markedly different style on government, fostering an air of studious, steady calm. That stands in stark contrast to the “chaos” he liked to accuse his Labor predecessors of fomenting as almost hourly [...]
‘Impressions 2013′: Students showcase painting prowess
Painting prowess of the students of Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya, was showcased at ‘Impressions 2013′ held by the Teen Art Club on Thursday, Friday and yesterday at the school’s Green Hall. This exhibition which included 550 beautiful works of art by students from Grades 1 to 13 was held to mark the 110th anniversary of [...]
‘Nidhanaya’ is reborn
Named by France’s Cinemathèque Française as one of the World’s Best 100 Films ever made, Dr Lester James Peries’ acclaimed work is to be re-released in digital form. It was a very homely media gathering. We met at Dr. Lester James Peries’ home where the topic of discussion was the restoration of ‘Nidhanaya’. The highly [...]
New initiatives at Colombo Fashion Week’s Resort Show
The second HSBC Colombo Fashion Week Resort wear Show hits the ramp on October 5 and 6 providing a platform for Sri Lankan designers across the island. Last year, the debut Resort Wear show was held at the picturesque Jetwing Lagoon Negombo and this year moves to the south west coast, to the Galle Fort [...]
China says 400 million can’t speak national language
BEIJING (Reuters) – More than 400 million Chinese are unable to speak the national language Mandarin, and large numbers in the rest of the country speak it badly, state media said on Thursday as the government launched another push for linguistic unity. China’s ruling Communist Party has promoted Mandarin for decades to unite a nation [...]
Is the clash of civilisations yet to come?
The world’s only superpower continues its diplomatic shadow boxing with its one-time super power rival Russia over the seeming imbroglio in Islamic Syria. On the 12th anniversary, a few days ago, of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York by Islamic extremists, the United States and others mourned the thousands killed on that fateful day that [...]
Syria rebel chief rejects US-Russia chemical weapons deal
ISTANBUL, Sept 14 (AFP) -Syria’s rebel Free Syrian Army chief rejected today a US-Russian deal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014. ”We cannot accept any part of this initiative,” General Selim Idriss told reporters in Istanbul. He preceded that by saying: “We in the Free Syrian Army are unconcerned by the implementation of any part [...]
Powerful bomb blast in India’s northeast kills nine
SHILLONG, India, Sept 14 (AFP) -A powerful bomb blast in India’s restive northeast — plagued for decades by separatist violence — has killed nine labourers and injured about 21 other people, police said today. The explosion took place late Friday in a busy area on the outskirts of Imphal, capital of the state of Manipur, which [...]
Discovering extraterrestrial life and its impact on humanity
The magnificent sight of the Milky Way that would have greeted our ancestors in prehistoric times would have been far more spectacular than anything we can hope to experience today through heavily polluted skies. The number of stars visible to the naked eye would then have been greater by factors of over a thousand. Such [...]
J.K. Rowling returns to wizarding world
LONDON (Reuters) – Best-selling “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling will return to the wizarding world for her screenplay debut with a film inspired by one of her fictional boy wizard’s textbooks. Rowling has agreed to write the screenplay for “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, a film from Warner Bros. based on the adventures of [...]
How the world is going to end
They are an improbable group of superheroes. But some of Britain’s greatest minds have got together to focus their powers on saving humanity from itself. Led by the Astronomer Royal and Cambridge don Martin Rees, famous thinkers such as physicist Stephen Hawking and former Government chief scientist Robert May have formed a society to draw up [...]
Sunila Abeysekera: A woman of substance
My first encounter with Sunila Sundari Janet Abeysekera was at the Women and Media Collective, a Colombo-based non-governmental organisation. I was present for an interview and was nervous. While the other members of the interview panel questioned me on my curriculum vitae and achievements, Sunila managed to be friendly and calm, immediately relieving me of [...]
Pope Francis to drive his own ‘popemobile’ inside Vatican City
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis plans to drive around Vatican City at the wheel of a “popemobile” that is a lot like him: frugal, clad in white, and with a fair bit of mileage. The 1984 Renault 4 economy car with 300,000 km (186,000 miles) on the clock was given to him by a [...]
A plea for caution from Russia
Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organisation – the United Nations – was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again. The United Nations’ founders understood that decisions [...]
The remaking of the Middle East
JERUSALEM – The Middle East’s descent into extreme violence — with mass killings of Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in Cairo followed closely by Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria’s civil war — has dashed the hopes raised by the Arab Spring in 2011. The question now — and in terms of the future — [...]
Big-money butlers
Butlers may seem like a relic of another era, but in some other countries, particularly emerging economies, they are in huge demand – and their employers can often afford to pay handsomely for the privilege. If PG Wodehouse’s unflappable valet Jeeves had been called upon to work in the Arabian peninsula, you can be sure he [...]
