Athirady

You are browsing the archives of 2010 July 04.

‘There is a cloud in front of the Sun, Therefore God did it’
Can anyone flatly contradict the statement that the brain plays the role of the control room of our body? Unquestionably, it has an astonishing ability to provide chances for us to gain access to everything we wish to have in life and to satisfy [...]

Archbishop Denis Hart says in a letter to be read out at services across the city over the weekend that recent abuse scandals have brought shame upon the Church
Sydney: The head of the Catholic Church in Melbourne has offered an “unreserved apology” to victims of sexual abuse by priests, a report said on Saturday.
Archbishop Denis [...]

On June 6, 2010, the 3rd South Asian Countries Commodity Fair (SACC) was officially inaugurated at the International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Kunming, the city of ‘Eternal Spring’.
The fair was opened by Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Wang Qishan, in the presence of Chinese Deputy Commerce Minister and leading officials of the Yunnan.
Province CCPIT [...]

COLOMBO, July 4: The Sri Lankan government won’t please international community despite coming under UN pressure, government spokesman said on Sunday.
“We are a small nation, a small economy but we will not bow down to external pressures,” Keheliya Rambukwella, also the minister of Media told reporters.
“We are a sovereign country and we will do what [...]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a condolence message said that he was deeply grieved by the sudden demise of Presidential Advisor on Muslim Affairs, Cleric Mohamed Niyaz Moulavi.
The President said that his heartfelt gratitude goes to Niyaz Moulavi not only because he was a Presidential Advisor but because he was a close friend as well.
The full [...]

Sympathisers, former extremists and civil liberties activists on Sunday sang revolutionary songs and paid their respects to top Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, whose last rites were performed in Panjagutta in Hyderabad.
The body of Azad, who was killed by the police in an alleged exchange of fire in the forests of Adilabad district Friday, [...]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to the island yesterday (03 July) after completing a successful three-day state visit to Ukraine.
He held bilateral discussions with the President of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovich and the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
The two Presidents signed four agreements enhancing cooperation in tourism, maritime shipping, and security sectors. They also [...]

Trade union leaders allied to the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) have protested government awarding maintenance contracts to an Indian company.
The convenor of the Organisation to Protect Railway Workers and Properties (OPRWP), Sumathipala Manawadu, told BBC Sandeshaya that allowing Rail India Technical Economic Services (RITES) to maintain railway tracks is a step towards privatisation
RITES, a [...]

GAZA, July 4: Families of Palestinian prisoners on Sunday marched towards the house of a Hamas leader in Gaza city and handed a letter demanding Hamas to insist on freeing 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in talks with Israel.
The rally, which comprises dozens of women and children, started from the Hamas-run ministry of prisoners affairs and headed [...]

A gold mixed copper Buddha statue, reported to have been stolen from a Raja Maha Vihara  in Galle, has been found from a house in the Katawela area in Deniyaya.
The statue was recovered during during a raid carried out by a team of police officers led by the OIC of the Galle Crimes Division, Sarath [...]

NANJING: The population of China, the world’s most populous country, is projected to reach 1.39 billion by the end of 2015, with those aged 60 or over topping 200 million people, said Li Bin, head of the country’s top population policy agency.
Li, director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, released these estimates Saturday [...]

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mahinda Balasuriya has transferred the OIC of the Mattakuliya police station and his police officers pending an inquiry over the tense situation which arose in Mattakuliya since yesterday.
A statement from the Police Headquarters said that the Colombo North SSP and SP have also been transferred. The IGP says disciplinary action [...]

LOS ANGELES: Mercury in saltwater fish poses more of a health threat to humans than freshwater fish, a new study suggests.
The potentially harmful form of mercury called methylmercury attaches onto dissolved organic matter in freshwater, but latches onto the salt (chloride) in seawater, explained researchers at Duke University.
Methylmercury is a potent neurotoxin that can cause [...]

Beijing, Jul 4:  A leading Tibetan environmentalist has been jailed for subversion, the third such verdict amid an apparent crackdown on intellectuals in the Himalayan region, activists said today.
Rinchen Samdrup, 44, was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for attempting to incite subversion by a court in Tibet’s Chamdo region, poet and rights activist [...]

A tense situation continued to prevail in the Mattakuliya area today after 20 suspects were taken into custody over the clash with the police last night with residents claiming that the police had now resorted to taking revenge.
A mob surrounded the Mattakuliya police station last night to vent their anger after a drug dealer in [...]

LOS ANGELES: Oil spills can raise arsenic levels in the ocean, creating an additional long-term threat to the marine ecosystem, a new study suggests.
Oil spills can partially block the ocean’s natural filtration system and prevent this from cleaning arsenic out of the seawater, according to the study published in the July issue of Water Research, [...]

Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Bandula Jayasekara has been recalled to Colombo just a few months after he was appointed to the post, External Affairs Ministry sources told Daily Mirror online.
External Affairs Ministry sources added that Jayasekera, a former Sri Lankan Consul General to Toronto, Canada, had been given [...]

A program to rehabilitate and develop communities who are being resettled will be launched in 120 villages under the ‘Yali Pibidemu’ (Reawakening) program in the Northern Province. This will take place shortly along with the resettlement program now under way in the newly liberated areas. “The new project will be launched in collaboration with the [...]

London, July 4:  More than 1,000 young people in India have been done to death every year owing to ‘Honour Killings’ linked to forced marriages and the country needs to introduce stringent legislation to deal firmly with the heinous crime, two legal experts have claimed.
Participating in International Child Abduction, Relocation and Forced Marriages Conference organised [...]

LHASA, July 4 — Reincarnation of the 5th Living Buddha Dezhub was chosen following a lot-drawing ceremony here Sunday.
A candidate with the secular name Losang Doje was selected as the reincarnation in accordance with a regulation on reincarnation of living Buddha of Tibetan Buddhism, issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, and with historical [...]

The Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) will purchase 100 new buses this month at a cost of Rs. 360 million to strengthen its current bus fleet and launch a semi luxury bus service from Colombo to Jaffna, CTB Chairman M.D. Bandusena told the Sunday Observer.
He said that the 100 new buses are due to arrive [...]

As authorities announced relaxation in curfew at 8 am for two hours in Anantnag, 55 kms from here, groups of youths came out on the roads at Lal Chowk and staged a march.

Curfew was relaxed for two hours this morning in Anantnag town of south Kashmir but had to be reimposed after groups of youths [...]

Whilst refuting claims that the government is grooming the detained LTTE leader Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias Kumaran (KP) to be the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, the Government said it was exploring his ‘data base’ on the LTTE to crush its international network.
Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa denying reports that the government has formed an ‘alliance’ [...]

Hundreds of people are expected to protest Gulf Islands governance Sunday by dumping coffee into Ganges Harbour off Saltspring Island, while some local men bare their behinds.
“All the conservation women got naked in a calendar so we figure, for our side, we want equal-opportunity nakedness so we’re having the men do it,” said Kimberly Lineger, [...]

Maoists called for a 48-hour ’Bharat Bandh’ from July 7 to protest the killing of their senior politburo member Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad at Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh by the police, top Maoist leader Kishenji said today.
Railways, milk, ambulance and fire services have been exempted from the shutdown.
Kishenji claimed that Azad, the Maoist spokesman, was [...]

BISHKEK: Career diplomat Roza Otunbayeva was sworn in as conflict-torn Kyrgyzstan’s president on Saturday, making her the first female leader in the history of ex-Soviet Central Asia.
Standing before an audience of more than 1,000 cheering onlookers in a packed Soviet-era concert hall in the capital Bishkek, Otunbayeva solemnly took her oath and promised a new [...]

Sri Lankan Presidential advisor on Muslim Affairs Mohamed Niyaz Moulavi passed away this morning, the government information department said. President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed Mohamed Niyaz Moulavi in 2008 as the Coordinating Secretary to the President on Muslim Religious Affairs.

WASHINGTON: U.S. authorities decided to end a decade of investigation and arrest suspects in an 11-person alleged Russian spy ring because of a threat to the case, a report said Saturday.
“Something happened that was going to affect them all,” a senior law enforcement official told The Washington Post, without disclosing what occurred to prompt the [...]

Diego Maradona’s future as Argentina coach is unclear after the team’s devastating 4-0 loss to Germany in the World Cup quarterfinals.
“I may leave tomorrow, but I’d like that these boys continue showing who they are and keep playing real Argentina football,” Maradona said, looking tired and heartbroken after the match in Cape Town.
Asked to clarify [...]

The Kalash with their unique culture, traditions, rituals, values, festivals and attire are not be found anywhere else in the world.
Kalash Hazrat Gull, 23,  was not wearing her traditional headgear as a sign of mourning for her uncle who had passed away a few days back but the community accorded him a burial after three [...]

DNA Leader and Colombo District M P Gen. Sarath Fonseka said ,the Secretary General of the UN is working according to the agreement entered into with the SL President. While displaying pseudo patriotism and deceiving the people ,the Govt. is going begging round the world and kowtowing to the foreign countries.
Gen. Fonseka who is to [...]

David Villa’s fifth goal in five games took him to the top of the World Cup scoring charts and carried Spain into the last four of the tournament, just as hard-working Paraguay thought they had done enough to take the game to extra time.
Just eight minutes remained on the clock when Villa’s strike did what [...]

My dear Mahinda Aiya,
Ayubowan, vanakkam, assalamu alaikkum and best wishes as we enter July, which reminds us mainly of the 1983 black July with striking if not dangerous parallels to what happened before and after that month of horror.
In 1977 J. R. Jayewardene led the United National Party (UNP) to a historic election victory with [...]

Iranian state television says the Surena 2 robot weighs 45 kilos and is 4.76 feet tall. It was developed by more than 20 robotics experts at Tehran University.
Tehran:  Iranian officials have unveiled a human-shaped robot that can walk like a person, although at a slower pace.
Iranian state television says the Surena 2 robot weighs 45 [...]

With no let-up in tension, authorities on Friday clamped curfew in Srinagar and other major towns of the Kashmir Valley to foil the “Eidgah march” called by separatist Hurriyat Conference. At least 60 people were injured in clashes as people tried to defy curfew at several places.
Apprehending more trouble, the authorities, for the first time [...]

There is absolutely no basis for Opposition accusations that one-time LTTE heavyweight Kumaran Padmanathan alias “KP’ will contest forthcoming elections for the Northern Province as the UPFA’s chief ministerial candidate,  a senior government official says.
Responding to recent criticism of the UPFA government receiving the support of an influential section of the Tamil Diaspora through ‘KP”, [...]

The Andhra Pradesh police on Friday said it had shot dead top naxalite Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, along with an unidentified cohort, in an exchange of fire in Adilabad district, close to the State’s border with Maharashtra.
The death of Azad, a member and spokesman of the Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist) and a member [...]

The Sri Lankan people have sat and watched this war for years. A jury of peers could judge this war, yet foreigners have to be our conscience. When Mahinda Rajapaksa says that no civilians have died we know that it is a lie, but we say nothing.
We also know that the Presidential Committee on Lessons [...]

Thousands of victims and survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy held a demonstration here on Saturday to reiterate their demand for a fair compensation.
The demonstrators condemned the “opportunism displayed by various political parties” and submitted to Governor Rameshwar Thakur a petition addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“It is sad that instead of paying attention to [...]

Since winning the war on May 18 last year one of our major preoccupations has been the question whether or not we can proceed to win the peace also. It would certainly be premature to attempt anything like a definitive judgment on this question at the present stage. What can be said definitely, however, is [...]