China spots possible debris in southern Indian Ocean
KUALA LUMPUR/PERTH, Australia, March 22 (Reuters) -China said today it had a new satellite image of what could be wreckage from a missing Malaysian airliner, as more planes and ships headed to join an international search operation scouring some of the remotest seas on Earth. The latest possible lead came as the search for Malaysian [...]
Ukraine base in Crimea stormed, shots fired
BELBEK, March 22, (AFP) -Armed forces backed by armoured vehicles broke inside a Ukrainian airbase in Crimea today, firing from automatic weapons into the air, an AFP correspondent saw. An armoured personnel carrier rammed through the gate of the base, and at least two more broke through the wall as armed men went inside and [...]
Mrs. Jeremias Dias: A visionary of the 20th Century
Today, the slogan “Educate the girl child” is popular the world over. It is important to educate the girl child, to ensure educating generations to follow, thereby educating all nations and uplifting the whole world. Almost a hundred years ago, Mrs. Jeremias Dias, a lady from Panadura who had studied only up to the fifth [...]
Writer, actor and dramatist: Remembering K.S. Balachandran
As a tribute to K. S. Balachandran, the well-known Tamil writer, actor, dramatist who passed away recently in Canada, the Indian Cultural Centre is organising an event titled “Remembering K.S. Balachandran”, on Sunday, March 30 at 5.30 p.m. at Colombo Tamil Sangam, No. 7, 57th Lane, Colombo 6. Several writers and colleagues of Balachandran will [...]
Sri Lanka marks 48th year at ITB Berlin
Sri Lanka has been again represented prominently at the ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show held annually in the German capital. More than 174,000 visitors, among them 114,000 trade visitors, and 11,000 represented companies including tour operators, booking agencies, destinations, airlines, hotels and car rental companies from 189 countries participated in the ITB. [...]
Fr. Joe: All that is not given is lost
A champion of social justice and a widely respected priest for all people and all seasons, the Very Reverend Fr. Joe de Mel passed away on Friday at the age of 85. He hailed from a rich and powerful family with his brothers including the late Navy commander Royce de Mel. Fr. Joe gave up [...]
Poor diagnosis driving global multidrug- resistant TB, WHO warns
LONDON (Reuters) – Half a million people fell sick with dangerous superbug strains of tuberculosis (TB) in 2012, but fewer than one in four were diagnosed, putting the rest at risk of dying due to the wrong medicines or no treatment at all. Latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which says drug-resistant TB [...]
Mindfulness meditation can cut chocolate cravings
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Looking to cut cravings? A recent study suggests the key may be attaining a sense of detachment from them through a form of meditation with roots in Buddhism. Practising mindfulness meditation, which emphasizes identifying and distancing oneself from certain thoughts – without judging them – weakened chocolate cravings among people [...]
How to spot a flu outbreak on Twitter
New York’s flu outbreaks are being tracked on Twitter in a bid to show the social network can reliably track medical trends. Experts have created ‘word clouds’ to scan tweets to find those associated with an infection. They believe the system could eventually be used to track national trends as flu and other viruses spread. [...]
‘Stop doing evil,’ pope tells mafia
ROME (AFP) – Pope Francis called on the mafia to “stop doing evil” as he met relatives of their victims on Friday to demonstrate the Catholic Church’s opposition to organised crime. Over a thousand people attended prayers with the pope at a church near the Vatican, where a list of 842 names of victims of [...]
Whither water resources policy in Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka has more than 51 Acts and some 40 agencies dealing with water, often resulting in duplication, confusion and inaction — fertile grounds for corruption. Though a Comprehensive Water Resources Policy was approved more than a decade ago, the policy is in limbo — and no all-encompassing legislation was adopted due to lack of [...]
Gorilla born in rare C-section has pneumonia
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – A baby gorilla born in a rare Caesarian section at the San Diego Zoo last week has pneumonia and was treated for a collapsed lung, officials said on Tuesday. The 17th gorilla delivered at the Southern California zoo developed the illness, an inflammation of the lungs with congestion, around the time [...]
Astronomers discover first direct proof of Big Bang expansion
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Astronomers announced on Monday that they had discovered what many consider the holy grail of their field: ripples in the fabric of space-time that are echoes of the massive expansion of the universe that took place just after the Big Bang. Predicted by Albert Einstein nearly a century ago, the discovery [...]
SpiceJet defends Holi jig
Low-cost carrier SpiceJet on Thursday defended its on-board entertainment routine that saw crew on eight flights perform a two-minute jig on Holi day. Even so, it suspended the pilot and co-pilot who flew the Goa-Bangalore route on Monday for exiting the cockpit during the cabin crew’s performance as that was not part of the plan. [...]
Asian art brings global buyers
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ancient ritual wine vessels, modern contemporary paintings and masterpieces representing Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism and Shintoism are among the highlights of Asian art sales in New York next week. The Asia Week auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s will feature thousands of items in a series of sales that could top $100 million. [...]
Here comes Yoko
Mick Jagger left his girlfriend L’Wren Scott behind on the latest Rolling Stones world tour because his bandmates branded her the group’s Yoko Ono, according to a report in the US. The other Stones allegedly ‘loathed’ the 49-year-old American fashion designer because she was so controlling. ‘When they saw her, they said, “Here comes Yoko”,’ [...]
Find of the century? Scrap dealer finds $20 million Faberge egg
LONDON (Reuters) – When a scrap metal dealer from U.S. Midwest bought a golden ornament at a junk market, it never crossed his mind that he was the owner of a $20 million Faberge egg hailing from the court of imperial Russia. In a mystery fit for the tumultuous history of Russia’s ostentatious elite, the [...]
Catch them before they’re gone
Millionaire globetrotters who are bored of five-star hotels and superyachts can splash out on the ultimate travel adventure – to see 18 of the world’s most endangered animals… before they’re lost forever. The unusual once-in-a-lifetime offering will set you back a cool $1million, but it will last three months and take in 11 of the [...]
Sweet smell of success: Human noses can detect one trillion smells
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – What does your nose know? A lot more than you might expect. Scientists studying the breadth of people’s sense of smell said on Thursday the human nose can discern far more than the 10,000 different odours long cited as the outer limit of our olfactory abilities. They concluded that the human nose [...]
Why Lanka figures large in Britain’s foreign policy
With the United States, Britain has led an uncompromising campaign against the Sri Lankan Government. They have remained steadfast in the belief that the international community should act with the powers vested in the UNHRC to investigate accusations of war crimes. Since the CHOGM meeting in November last year, criticism has intensified to supplement the [...]
Indian literary legend Khushwant Singh dies
NEW DELHI (AFP) – Khushwant Singh, one of India’s best known writers who won fame for a searing book on partition of the subcontinent as well as his once-daring descriptions of sex, died Thursday aged 99. The country’s most prolific author, who died at his home in New Delhi after suffering breathing problems, had only [...]
Ukraine coup lawful, Crimea referendum unlawful
UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, conscious of the stark ineffectiveness of the Security Council over the upheaval in Ukraine, is engaged in a round of shuttle diplomacy with Russian and Ukrainian leaders to help resolve the crisis in that region. “The secretary-general is desperately trying to create a UN role in the [...]
Indian parties jostle for Muslim vote
A few weeks ago on a windy day in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Chief Minister Narenda Modi was flying kites with Bollywood superstar Salman Khan. On India’s eastern tip in Kolkata, the state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was busy breaking bread with the Muslim community. In Lucknow in central India, former chief minister Mayawati was talking of [...]
Book on awkward dating problem wins award
LONDON (Reuters) – A tongue-in-cheek book that purports to deal with an awkward but critical issue, “How to Poo on a Date”, scooped an award for the Oddest Book Title of the Year on Friday. The winner of the Diagram Prize, awarded annually since 1978 and based on a public vote since 2000, beat out [...]
Vatican library to digitise its archives
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican library began a project on Thursday to digitise thousands of historical manuscripts, dating from the origins of the Church to the 20th century, and make them available online. Working with the Japanese technology group NTT Data, the library intends to scan and digitally archive about 1.5 million pages from [...]
Nokia protests new $414 million tax claim in India
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland’s Nokia, currently embroiled in an Indian Supreme Court tax case, said it has received a new 300 million euro (250 million pounds) sales tax bill from Tamil Nadu, a claim it considered “absurd”. According to the company, authorities in the southern state had alleged that handsets from Nokia’s Chennai plant were [...]
Now that’s an open plan office: New pictures reveal Facebook’s ‘hacker cave’
If you’ve ever been annoyed by your colleagues or complained about noise in an open plan office, spare a though for Facebook’s engineers. The firm today revealed the final plans for its new office building – which includes a giant room housing 2,800 engineers. At more than 435,000 square feet, spread across 22 acres, the [...]
Google gives Gmail a major security boost
Google has given its Gmail service a major security overhaul in a bid to stop spy agencies snooping on users – even boosting security on its own networks. ‘Every single email message you send or receive – 100 percent of them -is encrypted while moving internally,’ the firm said. ‘This ensures that your messages are [...]
China’s Xi heads to Europe as Ukraine crisis deepens
THE HAGUE, March 22 (AFP) -China’s President Xi Jinping touches down in the Netherlands today for his first-ever Europe tour, with the continent in a diplomatic frenzy after Russia’s absorption of the Crimea. Xi is expected to land at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport shortly after noon (1100 GMT), where he’ll be welcomed by Dutch King Willem-Alexander [...]
Voting begins in Maldives parliamentary polls
MALE, Maldives, March 22 (AFP) -Parliamentary elections got under way in the Maldives today despite the island nation’s new president expressing doubts over whether the vote can be conducted, officials said. An ally of President Abdulla Yameen had petitioned the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking a delay of Saturday’s polls, arguing that a depleted Elections [...]
Venice votes to split from Italy
Venetians have voted overwhelmingly for their own sovereign state in a ‘referendum’ on independence from Italy. Inspired by Scotland’s separatist ambitions, 89 per cent of the residents of the lagoon city and its surrounding area, opted to break away from Italy in an unofficial ballot. The proposed ‘Repubblica Veneta’ would include the five million inhabitants [...]
Egypt mass trial of Morsi supporters opens, adjourns
CAIRO, March 22 (AFP) -A court in Egypt adjourned the mass trial of more than 1,200 supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi after a brief hearing today, state media reported. The country’s biggest trial since the army removed Morsi last July after a turbulent single year in office was adjourned until Monday. About 500 [...]
Chidambaram poll shy as party popularity slides
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has declined to stand in upcoming national elections, adding to a sense of gloom in the Congress party as a growing list of high-profile cabinet members shies away from facing voters at the ballot box. After ten years in office, the Congress party is trailing in opinion [...]
Twittersphere rallies to help Turks by-pass block
WASHINGTON (AFP) -The global Internet community rallied to help Twitter users in Turkey circumvent a block on the popular messaging service on Friday, as some experts said Ankara’s efforts are backfiring. After Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened toto “wipe out” Twitter and the site went dark there Thursday, there was no lack of [...]
