MH 370: Disappearance deliberate, says Najib
KUALA LUMPUR, March 15, (AFP) – A missing Malaysian airliner was apparently deliberately diverted and flown for hours after vanishing from radar, Prime Minister Najib Razak said today, stopping short of confirming a hijack but taking the excruciating search for the jet into uncharted new territory. Najib said investigators believed “with a high degree of [...]
US under fire in Geneva for rights violations
The US came under sharp criticism at the UN human rights committee in Geneva on Thursday for a long list of human rights abuses that included everything from detention without charge at Guantánamo, drone strikes and NSA surveillance, to the death penalty, rampant gun violence and endemic racial inequality. At the start of a two-day [...]
Remembering Sir Robert Chalmers, Governor of Ceylon and Pali scholar
Sir Robert Chalmers, Governor of Ceylon from 1913-1916 is remembered as being the Governor during the Sinhala – Muslim riots in 1915 when the colonial authorities imposed martial law for three months, causing considerable trauma to sections of the Sinhala population. Chalmers is frequently accused as having been anti-Buddhist but in reality, was one of [...]
Army pays tribute to musical maestro Pandit W. D. Amaradeva
The Sri Lankan Army will present yet another musical extravaganza, ‘Sannaliyane- Amarasara Jeewana Geththama’ a fundraising concert organised by the Army Seva Vanitha Unit (ASVU) as a tribute to the country’s music maestro ‘Pandit W. D. Amaradeva. All proceeds of the event will be for the construction of Abimansala – wellness resorts for the lifetime [...]
Red Lotus distributes ‘First Aid Boxes’
The distribution of First Aid Boxes among schools, Dhamma schools and Buddhist temples in disaster prone areas is the latest project launched by the Red Lotus Humanitarian Services Organisation. Its first programme, in the first phase, was recently conducted at the Bodhirajarama Temple in Talduwa , Avissawella. First Aid boxes with medicines, equipment as well [...]
“Dhamma and You”: Coping with the loss of a loved one
Prof. Asanga Tillekeratne will speak on ‘Coping with the loss of a loved one’ on “Dhamma and You” at 9.30 p.m on Channel Eye, this Sunday, March 16, Poya Day. ‘Dhamma and You’ is a new series of monthly Dhamma discussion programmes, to be telecast every Poya night at 9.30 p.m on Channel Eye, featuring [...]
Ven. Derangala Mangala sworn in as All-Island JP
Ven. Derangala Mangala was sworn in as an All-Island Justice of the Peace recently. He is the chief priest of Andayam Godella Sri Kheththarama Viharaya at Walahanduwa, Akmeemana. Ven Derangala Mangala Thera has established the Manavila Vidya Pradeepa Pirivena, Maithree Dharmayathanaya and Sri Mangala Dhamma School and pre-school. He has been teaching at these institutions [...]
New film on Noah offends both Christians and Muslims
The Hollywood epic about Noah’s ark has managed to unite Christians and Muslims. Members of the two religions – at odds for more than a thousand years – are singing with one voice to condemn the £75 million film Noah for its take on the Biblical hero. The blockbuster has already been banned in three [...]
A traditional symphony
Flags waving, schoolboys taking to the street in trucks and on bicycles, yes, it’s March and we’re into the Big Match season when young and old are at the cricket grounds soaking in the atmosphere, the camaraderie and of course, the cricket. While shouts and cheers and songs fill the air, playing on in the [...]
Photography students click their best
Students who followed the one year diploma course in photography at the Kelaniya University will hold an exhibition, titled, ‘Vilokana 2013′ at the National Art Gallery on March 22 and 23. The exhibition is held annually and this is the sixth batch of students to have followed the course.
B Sharp Lanka fund three student scholarships
B Sharp Lanka, the Colombo-based software development arm of North American Health IT vendor, B Sharp Technologies Incorporated (www.bsharp.com), is committed to developing a quality workforce by supporting the next generation of IT professionals. As part of this commitment, B Sharp is making contributions to the University of Colombo, School of Computing (UCSC) that include [...]
Buddhi Keerthisena receives Life Time Award
Buddhi Keerthisena, well known for his pioneering work in the batik industry received the prestigious HSBC Colombo Fashion Week Life Time Award for his contribution to the fashion industry through his batik creations. The award was presented to Buddhi by designer Yoland Aluvihare on the final day of the HSBC CFW at the Colombo Hilton [...]
Concert in aid of school for the differently-abled
Barefoot Café will be the venue on Friday, March 21 for a concert for a cause. Bands Out of Time and Pascal’s French Connection will perform in aid of a small school for differently-abled children in Rajagiriya, called IDE, the Association of Individual Development Education School, (http://ideschool.org/). All funds raised will go towards the school [...]
‘Vague but exciting’
Twenty five years ago today, a proposal was sent internally at a research company in Switzerland that was about to change the world. Dubbed ‘Information Management: A proposal’, the document was created by a 34-year-old computer scientist called Tim Berners-Lee and was sent to his boss Mike Sendall. That proposal, which Sendall described as ‘vague [...]
When Zach met Barack
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama took his quest to sign young people up for health insurance to an edgy comedy website on Tuesday, where he traded insults with host Zach Galifianakis while plugging his signature Obamacare health programme. Obama sat for an interview on “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis,” on the Funny or [...]
Could a fatwa save the tiger?
From the tiger to the orangutan, Indonesia is home to some of the world’s most threatened animals. And now the country’s highest Islamic body has issued a fatwa declaring that the hunting and trading of endangered species is immoral. While many people might associate fatwas with death threats, after the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini [...]
The Bastille: Where the bottle saved the day for raucous law students
(The first part of this article appeared last week.) The sergeant carried a baton and was sporting the police hat, which in those days, was big enough to cover one’s face. He looked like Lee Van Cliff from the Hollywood Blockbuster, “The Good, the Bad & the Ugly”. Those days the police sergeants wore shorts, [...]
50,000 protest Crimea action in Moscow
MOSCOW, March 15 (AFP) -Around 50,000 people rallied in central Moscow today in protest at Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, a day before the Crimean peninsula votes on switching to Kremlin rule. Waving both Ukrainian and Russian flags and shouting slogans heard during the anti-government protests in Kiev, the demonstrators urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to [...]
Statesmen, power and human rights
“When a statesman errs, it is irrevocable,” said Henry Kissinger on April 11, 2012 at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre where he engaged in a conversation on foreign policy with Prof. Joseph Nye (the man who developed the theory of soft power). If Kissinger were to be right about the actions of a statesman, then, our [...]
U.S. prosecutors again indict Indian diplomat Khobragade
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A grand jury in New York has returned a new indictment against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade for visa fraud, two days after a U.S. judge dismissed a similar indictment because she had diplomatic immunity. Khobragade’s arrest in December and a subsequent strip search drew outrage in India, causing a major diplomatic [...]
Pope sees banner first year, but expectations high
From his simple sound bites to his breaking of Vatican rules, Pope Francis has made being Catholic cool in his first year. He might not like his superstar status, but he certainly knows how to work a crowd and he has endeared himself to the public for looking out for the poor and radically shifting [...]
Flight MH370: 5 other mysterious disasters
The disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight is increasingly baffling, but it is not the first plane to vanish without trace or have its investigation surrounded by confusion and chaos. From adventurer Steve Fossett’s disappearance over the Nevada desert to the claims of a revenge killing behind the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990, here are [...]
Education without borders
LONDON – As the third anniversary of the start of Syria’s civil war approaches, there is a race against time to deliver a groundbreaking education project to the conflict’s hardest-hit victims — hundreds of thousands of child refugees. A shocking three million Syrian children have now been displaced. More than one million of them have [...]
Russian Arms to Egypt threaten to undermine U.S. in Mideast
UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) – Russia, which is at loggerheads with Washington over the spreading political crisis in Ukraine, is threatening to undermine a longstanding military relationship between the United States and one of its traditional allies in the Middle East: Egypt. A photograph of Russian President Vladimir Putin shaking hands with Egypt’s de facto leader [...]
India’s oldest MP calls it a day, says parliament today is waste of time
Rishang Keishing still remembers the first time he travelled to work as a newly elected MP in India’s first parliament, in 1952. He made the journey by bicycle, but as he crossed Delhi’s busy Connaught Place, he was pulled over by the police. “They told me it was one-way traffic and I was going the [...]
