Modi’s reign like rain for all, says Shiv Sena advisor
The incident this week of angry Shiv Sena MPs force-feeding a chapatti on a fasting Muslim caterer in Maharashtra has heightened minority fears that India’s right wing Hindu groups are becoming more assertive under the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janatha Party government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Amid such fears, the Sunday Times speaks to a top [...]
Young trends to be showcased by Chitra Lane students
Young people from the Chitra Lane School for the Special Child will walk the ramp at the Colombo Swimming Club on Saturday, August 2 to showcase some cool young trends for the season. The show will be choreographed by designer and choreographer Brian Kerkoven and Colombo Jewellery Stores will be one of the main sponsors [...]
Making the audience happy
It was the World Choir Games in 2012 that put Norwegian youth group Defrost on the maps. For one in the audience, watching them perform, she knew “it was something special”. Soundarie David Rodrigo remembers thinking that Sri Lanka needed to see the talented youth choir. Celebrating 10 years this year with Soul Sounds, the [...]
Susan George Pulimood Oration
Prof. Malkanthi Chandrasekera (nee Balasuriya) delivered the annual Susan George Pulimood Oration on July 23 at the Jeremias Dias Hall of Visakha Vidyalaya. Prof. Chandrasekera, an eminent old girl of the school who is Senior Professor of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya and Vice Chancellor, South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine spoke [...]
Toccata Musical Productions box office now open
The box office for Toccata Musical Productions’ Sri Lanka shows this August is now open! Toccata Musical Productions is a collective of professional and semi-professional musicians, all based in the UK, joined under the banner “Musical Productions for Charitable Causes”. Founded in 2006 by Sunil Paulraj – classical musician and neonatal doctor! The group has [...]
Scientists ‘delete’ HIV virus from human DNA
Once HIV conquers a human cell, it will stay there forever. It inserts its deadly genome permanently into its victims’ DNA, forcing them to require medical treatment for the rest of their life. But now, for the first time, researchers in Philadelphia have found a way to completely delete HIV from human cells by ‘snipping’ [...]
Sri Lankan-born physician’s study breaks new ground in US
NEW YORK – A widely-recognised study by Sri-Lankan born Dr. A. Dhanya Mackeen, the Director of Research at the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, in the Geisinger Health System in the USA, is featured in the current issue of US Obstetrics and Gynecology. The study, which has been widely reported in the US media, including [...]
In China meat scandal, no nuggets in Hong Kong
HONG KONG (Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp has suspended sales of chicken nuggets and other items in Hong Kong after it said it imported products from Shanghai Husi Food, the U.S.-owned Chinese company at the center of a food safety scare in China. McDonald’s said it imported certain products from Shanghai Husi between July last year [...]
Researchers practise living on Mars – without leaving Earth
CAPE CANAVERAL Fla (Reuters) – For the past four months, a team of researchers have been living in a mockup Mars habitat on a Hawaiian volcano practising isolated living on the Red Planet. For the most part, expedition leader Casey Stedman and his five crewmates have stayed inside their 1,000-square foot (93-square meter) solar-powered dome, [...]
South Asia Analysis: Space diplomacy can boost development
Both China and India are keen to enhance links with smaller Asian countries in using satellites for communications, weather services, land use monitoring and navigation. They have also realised the value of ‘space diplomacy’, or using space related technical cooperation for strengthening foreign relations. The new government of India, elected in May, seems to have [...]
Are we there yet? Study claims Voyager 1 has not passed into interstellar space
It has becoming a running joke within the astronomy community – every few months, a new claim is made that Nasa’s voyager craft has passed into interstellar space. Earlier this month, Nasa claimed that it has effectively ended the debate, saying the craft had finally, definitely left the sun’s reach. However – a new study [...]
Don’t tell children vegetables are healthy
Telling children that carrots help you to see in the dark has been encouraging them to eat healthily for generations – or so parents thought. But according to research, these messages have the opposite effect – if you tell children a food is good for them, they are less likely to eat it. Scientists read [...]
Myth that we use just 10% of our brains
It is a concept that has been repeated so often that it has almost become accepted wisdom. But the old saying that human beings use only 10 per cent of their brains is actually a myth, scientists say. The fallacy forms the central concept in new movie ‘Lucy’. In the film, directed by Luc Besson, [...]
The New Thirty Years’ War
NEW YORK – It is a region wracked by religious struggle between competing traditions of the faith. But the conflict is also between militants and moderates, fuelled by neighbouring rulers seeking to defend their interests and increase their influence. Conflicts take place within and between states; civil wars and proxy wars become impossible to distinguish. [...]
How schizophrenia is shaped by our culture
People suffering from schizophrenia can often hear imaginary voices so terrifying that they are left traumatised. One American patient described the voices as ‘like torturing people, to take their eye out with a fork, or cut someone’s head and drink their blood.’ A study has now found that these voices can be shaped by culture, [...]
Colombo city, the War and Gota
I recently had some well-endowed friends from Ireland visiting Sri Lanka for ten days. To see Sri Lanka through Irish eyes was indeed a happy revelation to me. Simply because we in the country take everything for granted. It was their observation that the City of Colombo was not only one of the cleanest cities [...]
Typewriters are the start of a fightback against cyberspying
A German politician called Patrick Sensburg announced this week that his country’s government was thinking about reverting to the use of an un-hackable technology: typewriters. Mr. Sensburg is head of the Bundestag inquiry into the US National Security Agency’s snooping in the country and a member of the governing party of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Another [...]
Israel’s US-made military might overwhelms Palestinians
UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) – The overwhelming Israeli firepower unleashed on the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the ongoing battle in Gaza is perhaps reminiscent of the Algerian war of independence (1954-1962) when France, the colonial power, used its vastly superior military strength to strike back at the insurgents with brutal ferocity. While France was accused [...]
Gaza toll mounts as fragile 12-hour truce takes hold
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, July 26 (AFP) -A 12-hour truce between Israel and Hamas entered into force today, with emergency workers taking advantage of the lull to uncover 35 bodies from the rubble of Gaza homes. The bodies were retrieved in the first three hours of the “humanitarian” truce that came into effect at 0500 [...]
U.N. aviation body to hold safety meeting with IATA, others : Sources
MONTREAL (Reuters) – The U.N. civil aviation agency will hold a broad international meeting to discuss airline safety in the industry’s most coordinated response to the downing of a Malaysian airliner, two sources familiar with the matter said. The meeting of ICAO and top officials from the airline industry and air traffic controllers, to be [...]
Gunmen stop minibuses, kill at least 14 in Afghanistan
KABUL (Reuters) – Gunmen intercepted two minibuses travelling through central Afghanistan and killed at least 14 passengers overnight, officials said. Local officials in the remote, mountainous province of Ghor said most of the passengers were from the ethnic Hazara Shi’ite minority, but that could not be independently verified. “The insurgents stopped two vans and after [...]
Qaeda releases video of US suicide bomber in Syria
BEIRUT, July 26 (AFP) -Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate has released a video of a young US suicide bomber from Florida who blew himself up at an army post in the northwest of the country. Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, alias Abu Hurayra al-Amriki, was believed to be the first American national to carry out such an attack [...]
Is loss of wildlife to be blamed for rise in organised crime?
Violent conflicts, organised crime and child labour are being driven by declines in wildlife population. This is according to a recent report which highlights how losses of food and employment from wildlife are creating political instability. The research also suggests that falling animal populations could be connected to an increase in human trafficking as criminal [...]
Want to repel mosquitoes? There’s an app for that
The muggy weather is creating a ‘perfect storm’ for mosquitoes to descend on our gardens. But the latest high-tech weapon in the battle against the bloodsuckers doesn’t come in the form or a spray or clip, instead it’s a free app on your smartphone. Anti-mosquito apps emit ultrasonic frequencies designed to frighten the mosquitoes away. [...]
