Verdict delivers crippling blow; can Jayalalithaa fight back?
BANGALORE: The Special Court’s verdict against former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case leaves her with legal options to fight her case, but it delivers a serious blow to her political career. She is known for her resilience and the spirit to fight back. But this time she might find [...]
Can’t sleep? Have rice for dinner
If you can’t sleep at night then it might be worth changing what you have for dinner. Scientists have discovered that eating lots of rice can trigger a deep slumber, while pasta and noodles can actually hinder sleep. The Japanese researchers also found eating bread products – including white bread, pancakes and pizza – had [...]
A walk down memory lane
She told me it was not going to be a big book, but this ‘small book’ – ‘Treasured Memories’ written by Ilika Malkanthi Karunaratne has made a great and glossy impact – and not just for the quality of paper she has chosen. The book takes the reader through different eras in time. From awe [...]
London Buddhist Vihara celebrates 150th birth anniversary of founder
London Buddhist Vihara, the oldest Buddhist temple in Europe celebrated the 150th birth anniversary of its founder, Anagarika Dharmapala with a week-long exhibition culminating in a public meeting at the Hammersmith Town Hall last Sunday attended by over 950 members. Speeches were made by Ajahn Amaro, Abbot of the Amaravati Monastery; Prof. Ven. Bellanvila Wimalaratne, [...]
Talk on Buddhism and animal rights
Senaka Weeraratna, Attorney at Law and Hony. Secretary, German Dharmaduta Society, will deliver a public talk on ‘The Contribution of Buddhism to the cause of Animal Rights’ at the Dharmavijaya Foundation, 380/7, Sarana Road, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7 on Saturday October 4, 2014 at 4.30 p.m. as part of the commemoration of World Animal Day. [...]
An evergreen vision and mission
To coincide with Srimath Anagarika Dharmapala’s 150 birth anniversary which fell on September 17, the Anagarika Dharmapala Trust launched multi-faceted programmes, one of which was an analysis of the national hero’s diaries and their relevance to modern times. Sri Lanka annually conducts religious, social and cultural ceremonies in gratitude for the Anagarika’s service. A cluster [...]
New book covers Sri Lanka’s rich maritime history
Thursday, September 25 marked a momentous evening for Dr. Nirmala Chandrahasan as she launched her book “Maritime Boundaries in the Indian Ocean” Sri Lanka and the Law of the Sea. A distinguished law academic, Dr. Chandrahasan was the head of the Law Faculty (University of Colombo) also holding the position of Visiting Lecturer at eminent [...]
Free seminar on married life and Islam
The Mina Foundation – the social service wing of the MINA Herbal House that promotes herbal medicine – will hold a two-day free seminar on October 11 and 12 for newlywed Muslim couples and those who are planning to get married in the near future. Prominent Islamic scholars, academics, doctors and sociologists will address the [...]
India Cultural Centre commemorates Gandhi birth
The India Cultural Centre, Colombo will organise Gandhi Jayanti – a programme to commemorate the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 at 6 p.m. at its auditorium 16/2 Gregory’s Road, Colombo 7. The Gandhi Jayanti Celebrations are aimed at disseminating Gandhian philosophy, principles and beliefs. This day is also observed by the United [...]
Fatal viral illness is 100% preventable
The Global Alliance of Rabies Control marks World Rabies Day, today, with the theme ‘Together Against Rabies’. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over 60,000 people die of rabies annually the world over. Rabies is prevalent in more than 150 countries, including Sri Lanka. (The actual number is believed to be in the range [...]
SOSL’s music from the movies gets repeat performance
On September 7, the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka performed a concert of music from the movies to a hall that was packed to capacity. Not one single seat of the Ladies’ College hall remained empty, and many who waited to get their tickets at the door had to turn back, disappointed. It was one [...]
Retirement of Senior Professor Rezvi Sheriff
Senior Professor Mohamed Hussain Rezvi Sheriff retires on September 30 after 41 years of service to the University of Colombo. His contributions to universities, the discipline of medicine and the health sector of Sri Lanka are too many to enumerate. On Thursday, as is traditional, the ‘Grand Round’ was held by Prof. Sheriff in Ward [...]
India’s Mars mission cue for third world
[NEW DELHI] India’s successful Mars Orbiter Mission holds out possibilities for its neighbours in South Asia to enter the rarefied world of space science. On Wednesday, when the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s spacecraft, Mangalayaan, entered Martian orbit, it made India the only country to achieve the feat on a first attempt – and that [...]
Bioactive Metabolites workshop at IFS
A ‘National Workshop on Investigating Bioactive Metabolites from Natural Sources: Enzyme inhibitory studies, NMR and LC-MS interpretation” will be held during October 13 – 17, at the Institute of Fundamental Studies (IFS), Hantana Road, Kandy. The keynote speaker and Chief Guest at the inaugural session will be Prof. Atta-Ur-Rahman, FRS, UNESCO Science Laureate, an internationally [...]
The good cop and the bad cop
Several articles, of late in the Sunday Times, have drawn attention to the plight of police officers due to politicisation. In respect of empathising with serving police officers it behoves me to point out that they fall into two distinct categories. The first category consists of police officers who are compelled to carry out unlawful [...]
India, China agree to end Himalayan face-off
(Reuters) – India and China have agreed to pull back troops ranged against each other on a remote Himalayan plateau, the Indian government said on Friday, ending their biggest face-off on the disputed border in a year. The two armies mobilised about 1,000 soldiers each in Ladakh this month, accusing the other of building military [...]
Britain’s UKIP takes on Tories, Labour as elections loom
DONCASTER, United Kingdom, Sept 27, (AFP) – Britain’s eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) on Friday said it was ready to take on the main Conservative and Labour parties in two key votes next month that it hopes will deliver its first parliamentary seats ahead of May’s general election. In his speech at the party’s annual [...]
Indo-Lanka ties have more than some wrinkles
Even if President Rajapaksa manages to swing a bilateral meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his current visit to New York for the UN General Assembly sessions and Commonwealth meetings, it will be more of a preliminary skirmish. The Modi government’s stand on Sri Lanka seems somewhat unclear in these early days. [...]
The Gaza Strip
Gaza on fire; Gaza at breaking point; Gaza fighting intensifies; Gaza truce holding, but . . . Until the ceasefire, the world media were focused squarely for weeks on that 51-kilometre stretch of tension and suspense known as the Gaza Strip, along the Mediterranean’s southeastern edge. Edgy is how things have been over there for [...]
Victim and Witness Protection law touches only the fringe of the problem
A new law has been proposed to set out rights and entitlements of victims of crime and witnesses and for protection of rights of victims and witnesses (V&W). A National Authority for the Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses (Authority) is to be instituted for this purpose. The problem which the proposed law confronts [...]
Abbas demands end to Israeli occupation ‘now’
UNITED NATIONS, United States, Sept 27 (AFP) – Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas demanded on Friday an end to Israeli occupation, telling the United Nations that “the hour of independence for Palestine has arrived.” “There is an occupation that must end now. There is a people that must be freed immediately,” Abbas said in an address [...]
Obama blasts brutality and bullying, but not by Israel
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 26 2014 (IPS) – When U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday, he was outspoken in his criticism of Russia for bullying Ukraine, Syria for its brutality towards its own people, and terrorists of all political stripes for the death and destruction plaguing Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Somalia. But [...]
Eating a curry ‘can help beat dementia’
Lovers of spicy Indian food could be better equipped to ward off dementia, research suggests. A compound in the aromatic spice turmeric, a key ingredient in most curries, may hold the key to repairing the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. In laboratory tests, aromatic turmerone promoted the proliferation of brain stem [...]
India’s Mars mission: Picture that spoke 1,000 words
When the crowded command control room of India’s Mars mission exploded into applause after it successfully put a satellite into orbit around the Red Planet, photographer Manjunath Kiran of the AFP news agency clicked this remarkable image of scientists congratulating each other. Wednesday’s picture arrived with a rather anodyne caption saying “staff from the Indian [...]
Vatican arrests former archbishop on paedophilia charges
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican arrested a former archbishop accused of paying for sex with children while he was a papal ambassador in the Dominican Republic, the first-ever arrest inside the city state on charges of paedophilia. Jozef Wesolowski, a Pole who was defrocked by a Vatican tribunal in June, has been placed under [...]
Our century of last opportunity
Judge C. G Weeramantry, former Senior Vice President of the International Court of Justice was invited to speak at the Peace Summit of the World Alliance of Religions held at Seoul from September 17-19. This was a conference attended by around 2,000 delegates from all countries, religious leaders of all denominations and some former and [...]
The Congress of Vienna revisited
PARIS – Two hundred years ago, on September 25, 1814, Russia’s Czar Alexander I and Friedrich Wilhelm III, the King of Prussia, were greeted at the gates of Vienna by Austria’s Emperor Franz I. The start of the Congress of Vienna ushered in the longest period of peace Europe had known for centuries. So why [...]
Obama embraces democracy promotion once again
For more than a decade, democracy has been in retreat around the world. Democratic governments, having wrongly assumed that the crumbling of the Soviet bloc inevitably would lead to a new era of freedom, have not marshalled much of a response. But this week President Obama sounded something like the beginning of a counterattack. If [...]
The capture and trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann
It was not only Adolf Eichmann on trial, but the whole Nazi system was in the dock. SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann fled Germany at the tail end of the Second World war, and for more than 15 years remained in Buenos Aires, Argentina after having had plastic surgery done to change his face. He, [...]
Lawsuit makes for awkward start to Modi’s big US visit
NEW YORK/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off his maiden visit to the United States as India’s leader on Friday, facing an unwelcome reminder of his once-strained relations with his host nation: a lawsuit alleging he failed to stop anti-Muslim rioting in 2002. Washington and New Delhi brushed off the suit brought [...]
Russians hand in Western T-shirts in patriotic fashion drive
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Looking to put a patriotic spin on international sanctions over Ukraine, a local group is touring Moscow, urging passers-by to swap their Western-branded T-shirts for homegrown tops sporting pro-Russian slogans. “Sanctions? Don’t make my Iskanders laugh,” reads one T-shirt, referring to a Russian missile system. “The Topol is not afraid of sanctions,” [...]
US in ‘near continuous’ strikes against IS in Syria
DAMASCUS, Sept 27 (AFP) -The US-led coalition widened its air strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria today as part of “near continuous” raids against the jihadists. The expanded operations in Syria by Washington and its Arab allies came after three more European governments deployed fighter jets for strikes against IS in Iraq, freeing [...]
Iran vows to attack jihadists in Iraq if they near border
TEHRAN, Sept 27 (AFP) -Iran will attack Islamic State group jihadists inside Iraq if they advance near the border, ground forces commander General Ahmad Reza Pourdestana said in comments published today. “If the terrorist group (IS) come near our borders, we will attack deep into Iraqi territory and we will not allow it to approach [...]
Police clear HK democracy protesters who stormed govt HQ
HONG KONG, Sept 27 (AFP) -Police cleared dozens of protesters who had been holding out at government headquarters today after storming the complex overnight, as a week-long protest against Beijing’s refusal to grant the city unfettered democracy turned angry. Police escorted the remaining 50 demonstrators from the building’s forecourt on Saturday afternoon, hauling some of [...]
New underwater discoveries in hunt for MH370
SYDNEY, Sept 27 (AFP) -Remnants of volcanoes, towering ridges and deep trenches have been discovered on the seabed of the southern Indian Ocean by experts mapping the underwater terrain as part of the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. Australian authorities released the three-dimensional images on Friday, revealing for the first time details about [...]
Catalan leader calls independence referendum
BARCELONA, Sept 27 (AFP) -Catalonia’s president today formally called a referendum to decide whether Spain’s richest region should be independent, defying Madrid which has vowed to block the move. The Spanish government has said it will appeal to the Constitutional Court which is expected to annul the decree signed by Catalan leader Artur Mas. Fired [...]
IMF unblocks cash as desperate west Africa awaits Ebola aid
MONROVIA, Sept 27 (AFP) -The International Monetary Fund fast-tracked $130 million (102.5 million euros) in aid Friday to fight the Ebola epidemic after the governments of the worst-hit countries in west Africa said they were desperately counting on promises of global aid to be backed up with cash. The IMF’s executive board said it wanted [...]
Volcano erupts in central Japan; hikers reported injured
TOKYO, Sept 27 (AFP) -A volcano erupted in central Japan today, shooting ash and rocks into the air that reportedly left 11 hikers injured, including seven unconscious, and forced 150 people to shelter in cabins near the summit. The eruption of the 3,067-metre (10,121-foot) Mount Ontake straddling Nagano and Gifu prefecture happened around midday, the [...]
Egypt court postpones Mubarak verdict to November 29
CAIRO, Sept 27(AFP) -An Egyptian court today postponed the verdict in the murder retrial of deposed president Hosni Mubarak to November 29, citing the reams of evidence. Judge Mahmud Kamel al-Rashidi played a short video showing the volumes of case files the court had to study before he announced the surprise decision, as Mubarak watched [...]
