Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

New party leader hands over its doctrine to Sri Lanka President
Fri, Nov 20, 2009, 12:58 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Nov 19, Colombo: Justice and Law Reforms Minister, Parliamentarian Milinda Moragoda has formed a new party, Sri Lanka National Congress, to support the ruling alliance. Moragoda presented his party`s doctrine to President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Temple Trees today.

Issuing a statement Minister Moragoda said his party which is to function as a constituent party of the government is geared to reach the nation`s full potential rejecting violence, slander, and aggression and learn to work together for the betterment of the people.

World Toilet Organization (WTO) is a global non-profit organization committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide. WTO is also one of the few organizations to focus on toilets instead of water, which receives more attention and resources under the common subject of sanitation. Founded in 2001 with 15 members, it now has 215 member organizations in 57 countries working towards eliminating the toilet taboo and delivering sustainable sanitation.

WTO was created as a global network and service platform wherein all toilet and sanitation organizations can learn from one another and leverage on media and global support that in turn can influence governments to promote sound sanitation and public health policies.

China Commercial Aircraft plans plant in Shanghai

SHANGHAI -- Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China plans to build an assembly line for its homegrown C919 jetliners in Shanghai, the latest step in the country`s ambitions to become a leader in world aviation.

The company announced the showcase project following a signing ceremony Wednesday with officials of Shanghai`s Pudong district, where the plant will be located.

China is counting on the narrow-body, single-aisle C919, China`s newest and biggest homegrown commercial jetliner, to compete against Western rivals in the high-stakes international aviation market.

Now there are reports of intra-factional rivalry within the LTTE to wrest control of the organisation as well its assets. This has led to disenchantment and confusion among LTTE supporters.

`When the rebels were collecting money earlier they had a purpose. Now Tamils are questioning what they will do with the money. They also want the two competing groups to come together to highlight the Tamil cause,` says Shan Thavaraja, an exiled Tamil journalist based in Switzerland.

A penis implant grown in the laboratory and tested on highly-sexed rabbits could bring new hope to thousands of men.

Scientists in the US completely rebuilt the `stiffening` elements of the penis from donor cells - and showed that they worked.
Male rabbits given the implants attempted to mate within one minute of being introduced to a female partner, and 83 per cent succeeded.
Study leader Professor Anthony Atala from Wake Forest University in New Carolina, said: `Our results are encouraging and suggest that the technology has considerable potential for patients who need penile reconstruction.

A Brazilian student who was expelled from university for wearing a short dress has been readmitted.

Bandeirante University, a private college in a suburb of Sao Paulo, reversed its decision, following a public outcry and government criticism.

Videos of people jeering and swearing at the student, Geisy Arruda, have circulated widely on the internet. They show the 20-year-old being led off by security guards on 22 October with a long, white coat covering her dress.

The university said in a statement on Monday it was reinstating Ms Arruda, without offering an explanation. Earlier, it had said it had expelled her for disturbing classes through `a flagrant lack of respect for ethical principles, academic dignity and morality`.

New Delhi: Even as India is hopeful of pushing ahead with the under-sea power transmission link with Sri Lanka, the island nation`s government has questioned the long-term feasibility of the project.

The link is part of a bid to enhance economic and political ties between the neighbours.

The transmission project is to be implemented by state-run Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd (PGCIL), the country`s main power transmission company, and requires an investment of Rs2,300 crore to transmit around 1,000MW.

Nov 9, 2009 5:16 PM The wholesale prices of several essential food commodities will be reduced with effect from midnight today (Nov. 09) following a presidential directive.

Trade and consumer affairs minister Bandula Gunawardena made the announcement at a media briefing.

Accordingly, the new per-kilo wholesale prices will be sugar (Rs. 80), red dhal (Rs. 140), Bombay onions (Rs. 65), onions (Rs. 75), potatoes (Rs. 65), chillies (Rs. 95), garlic (Rs. 200), Basmati rice (Rs. 80) and milk powder (Rs. 425).

New Delhi: Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao gently reminded India`s neighbours on Wednesday not to play the China card. She did not say it in so many words but the point was evident.
Rao was delivering the keynote address at a conference organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) on `South Asia

Rao, India`s envoy to Beijing before assuming her current post, said relations with China are `complex but growingly variegated in texture and substance``. She felt India`s dialogue with China would acquire more substance and relevance in the years to come.

Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans has rejected a proposal by Sri Lanka`s immigration chief to allow unskilled workers to immigrate to Australia in a bid to stop the exodus of boatloads of immigrants turning up in Australian waters.

The Sir Lankan Commissioner P B Abeykoon told The Australian newspaper that his proposal would cut down the number of asylum seekers, a number that has been steadily rising over the past few months. It was whilst the Commissioner was in Canberra for talks that he raised the idea of unskilled migrants: The people who are going through the boats are unskilled labourers, fisherman, farmers, he commented.

As the Obama administration weighs its options in Afghanistan, the big question they are most certainly grappling with is: what does it take to defeat an insurgency? And as advisers pour through the history of successful counterinsurgency campaigns, they might be tempted to take a page from a very recent chapter.

Though it didn`t make much of a news splash here, in May the government of the small island nation of Sri Lanka finally claimed victory in their 26-year battle against one of the most formidable militant organizations the world has ever known, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or the LTTE.

If you`ve already been yelled at by your boss today, this is likely to make you feel a whole lot better.

For it`s not many workers who can say they destroyed an entire warehouse full of alcohol in just a few seconds.

Yet that is just what this poor forklift driver in Russia did in a video that emerged on the internet on Friday.

Five million roubles ( 105,000) worth of alcohol was destroyed in the accident, according to the Russian website that posted the video, scandalim.ru.

The line at Apple`s all-glass store in the Village at Sanlitun retail development was smaller, but at one point grew to at least 150 customers long, according to a late update on MobileCrunch. Customers at the Sanlitun store told reporters they hoped to get better service by buying directly from Apple.

Although China is the world`s largest cellphone market with more than 700 million subscribers, Western press reports have suggested that China Unicom (CHU) might have trouble attracting buyers under the terms of the deal it struck with Apple (AAPL). Due to restrictions imposed by the Chinese government, the iPhones being sold Friday won`t have a Wi-Fi receiver.

Sri Lankan exporters can enjoy tax-free, GSP Plus concessions to Europe until June 2010 after which, its fate rests on whether there are positive improvements in the country`s human rights situation, the top European Commission (EC)`s official in Colombo said this week.

Explaining the process, after a recent damning report by an EC-appointed panel which pointed to serious flaws in Sri Lanka`s implementation of 27 international conventions, Bernard Savage, the EC`s head of delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, said within a few weeks the EC will submit its recommendations and a roadmap (for implementation by the Sri Lankan Government) to the European Council which will decide two months from then on the next, final steps.

Above the cage hung a sign proclaiming: `The Missing Link.` A baby chimp sat disconsolately at the bottom of the enclosure, a single companion to the boy.

The year was 1906. This was a pygmy, brought to America as a novelty to be put on display in the monkey house.
The New York Times reported: `There were 40,000 visitors to the park on Sunday. Nearly every man, woman and child of this crowd made for the monkey house to see the star attraction in the park - the wild man from Africa.

`They chased him about the grounds all day, howling, jeering, and yelling. Some of them poked him in the ribs, others tripped him up, all laughed at him.`