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   http://www.lankanewspapers.com/elephanthouse - Archive of Apr 2011




Highlights from The Economist online`s Politics this week
Friday, 1 April 2011 - 2:24 PM SL Time

Highlights from The Economist online`s Politics this week
Libya: Where will it end?
Islam and the Arab revolutions
C te d`Ivoire: Coming to a crunch
Japan: Plutonium and Mickey Mouse
Myanmar: A long march
India and Pakistan: A willow branch
Australia: Strewth

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CULTURE CLUB 5 (1/3)
Friday, 1 April 2011 - 6:17 PM SL Time

While waiting for tomorrow`s big cricket final, we are going to kick off this exceptional weekend with two very big guys from the music world. Unfortunately they have left us a few years ago, but we shall always remember them for their outstanding talents.

Who would have thought that The Godfather of Soul and Il Maestro Luciano would join their efforts and appear at a concert together? Here it is, the famous It`s a man`s world . Please make sure you have it at 720 p HD (otherwise modify it).

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Why African Union Avoided London Conference on Libya
Saturday, 2 April 2011 - 1:54 AM SL Time

By Jaya Ramachandran

PARIS (IDN) - The decision of the 53-nation African Union (AU) not to participate in the Libya Conference in London on March 29 has drawn little focus. But it is of profound significance and is rooted in the development of the AU and Libyan President Muammar al-Gaddafi`s critical role in buttressing it.

AU officials said they could not attend the meeting due to `organisational reasons`. But informed sources at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa maintained that the member countries were divided on their stand over Gaddafi.

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With Tamil Tigers slain, booming Sri Lanka makes up for lost time
Saturday, 2 April 2011 - 9:38 AM SL Time

Eric Ellis
April 2, 2011

The country seems like a construction zone, with ports, highways and airports sprouting and former rebel strongholds blossoming, writes Eric Ellis in Colombo.

SO TINY Sri Lanka has made it to today`s Cricket World Cup final, to face mighty India in Mumbai in the first all-south Asian final.

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The Truth Can Get You Killed
Saturday, 2 April 2011 - 7:43 PM SL Time

April 2, 2011: Pakistan`s biggest problem is not the threat of attacks by Islamic terrorists, but the nationwide attitude of victimization by foreigners. Everything, even the widespread corruption, is blamed on some foreign conspiracy to bring Pakistan down. Every country has some of these myths, but some more than others. In Pakistan, the conspiracies are numerous and crippling. The worst examples of these involve India, and the overall theme that India is plotting to destroy Pakistan from within (via sponsoring terrorism and separatism) and without (modernizing armed forces that are already much larger than Pakistans). Other major conspirators are Israel, the United States and former colonial ruler Britain. Pakistani media and politicians have been blaming the foreign conspirators for decades, and many Pakistanis just take these beliefs for granted. After all, it was what they were raised on. At the same time, many Pakistanis, especially those who travel outside the country a lot, or have lived in the West, are exposed to other versions of history and have doubts. But to express these doubts back in Pakistan can get you in big trouble. The truth can get you killed.

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CULTURE CLUB 5 (2/3)
Sunday, 3 April 2011 - 10:41 AM SL Time

A real sportsman also knows how to lose.

Congratulations to India for the victory.
Congratulations to both teams for having allowed so many millions of people to spend a good Saturday and to forget all their problems for a while.

This music here is dedicated to all the supporters of the Sri Lankan Team who might find it difficult today by realising that their dream did not work out.


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CULTURE CLUB 5 (3/3)
Sunday, 3 April 2011 - 8:17 PM SL Time

Did you know that UNESCO has one of the finest digital libraries of the Internet? Have a look at

www.wdl.org

and convince yourself.

It is very interesting to notice, that under Asia, the highest number of documents are related to
Sri Lanka.

This Site
The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures from around the world on one site, in a variety of ways. These cultural treasures include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings.

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Cricket Victory Brings Relief From Scandal in India
Monday, 4 April 2011 - 9:47 AM SL Time

By VIKAS BAJAJ and JIM YARDLEY
MUMBAI, India India has had plenty of downbeat news in recent months: a litany of tawdry scandals, an unexpected sharp decline in foreign investment, the ineffectiveness of a bickering Parliament. A nation once brimming with confidence and global aspirations has seemed to stumble.

Then, on Saturday night, India won the World Cup in cricket, a sport that permeates life here the way monsoon rains seep into the soil. When the winning shot by the Indian captain, M. S. Dhoni, sailed upward into the lights of Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Indians erupted in delirious celebration. Fireworks exploded in city after city and village after village, as throngs of people poured into the streets, beating drums, shouting and cheering.

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The Muslim Sisterhood - New Egypt
Monday, 4 April 2011 - 6:29 PM SL Time

Visions of Female Identity in the New Egypt
By Dialika Krahe

The women of the Muslim Brotherhood played a supporting role in Egypt`s revolution, and now they want to have a hand in shaping its democratic future. Although many wear Western clothing under their veils, use Facebook and Twitter, and talk the talk of emancipation, they still seem to be wrestling with what it means to be a modern Muslim woman.

Jihan, the eldest, is sitting in an armchair in her second apartment in Cairo. A flowered veil frames her red cheeks, and a glass of apple juice rests in her hand. She says that, Inshallah, even a woman could become president in the new Egypt.

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Sawdust and Radioactive Water Dumps: The Increasingly Desperate Options at Fukushima
Tuesday, 5 April 2011 - 1:51 AM SL Time

Sawdust. It`s not the first thing most people would choose to put between themselves and highly contaminated radioactive water. But a mixture of sawdust ogakuzu in Japanese with chemicals and shredded newspaper is precisely what nuclear safety authorities and power plant officials turned to in trying to plug a 8-inch crack in a shaft near reactor 2 at the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima over the weekend.

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Sri Lanka`s unemployment figures dropped
Tuesday, 5 April 2011 - 9:43 AM SL Time

By H.D.Herat-Senewiratne
Colombo, 05 April, (Asiantribune.com): Sri Lanka`s unemployment figures has dropped by 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, the lowest quarterly rate since reaching 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, data from the Department of Census and Statistics revealed.

`Overall unemployment reported for females was 7.3 percent and 2.9 percent for males. Youth unemployment for the age group 15 to 24 was 18.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. The highest unemployment rate was reported from this age group with 15.1 percent for males and 23.4 percent for females. Unemployment was severe among females than for males across all age groups,` the government statistics office said.

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Civil War A Way Out Of Dictatorships in Africa?
Tuesday, 5 April 2011 - 1:42 PM SL Time

SAN BERNARDINO, USA (IDN) - If the Ivory Coast, one of the most prosperous African countries, can be considered a template for political change on the continent, democracy can replace dictatorship only by means of a civil war.

For the past five months, Laurent Gbagbo, the loser of the November 2010 Ivory Coast presidential race has been holed up in his palace defiantly clinging to power. He claims to have won the election by order of his handpicked `Constitutional Council`, even though the Ivorian Electoral Commission declared his challenger Alassane Ouattara the winner.

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Sri Lanka Parliament congratulates national cricket team
Tuesday, 5 April 2011 - 6:46 PM SL Time

By Muditha Gamage in Colombo
Colombo, 05th April, (Asiantribune.com): `Whether the Sri Lanka team won the Cup or not, reaching the final was a great achievement. The national team have done us proud,` Chief Government Whip Water Supply and Drainage Minister Dinesh Gunawardena extending congratulations to the team on behalf of the government said in the floor of the Sri Lanka Parliament today.

It is an honor to reach the finals thrice during cricket word cup tournaments. Minister said.

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`Sweet Micky`: Is Haiti`s Next President Democrat or Demagogue?
Wednesday, 6 April 2011 - 4:05 AM SL Time

When Haiti`s presidential election got under way last summer, the big question was how large a role the nation`s large and disaffected youth vote would play. We now know the answer: Huge. Half of Haiti`s population of 9 million is under the age of 25, and Monday evening, April 4, that cohort`s candidate, flamboyant former Carnival singer Michel Sweet Micky Martelly, was called the winner of the March 20 runoff vote. According to preliminary results, Martelly defeated former First Lady Mirlande Manigat 67% to 32%, one of the largest margins of victory ever in a Haiti presidential contest. Official results will be announced Saturday, April 16, but Martelly looks set to be sworn in next month.

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`Tigers` Become Tourists
Wednesday, 6 April 2011 - 12:00 PM SL Time

By Amantha Perera

SIGIRIYA, Sri Lanka - The younger ones in the group tried to imitate the older boys, in their teens and early 20s, who wear the latest fashion promoted by Hindi and South Indian movie stars faded denim jeans, tight T-shirts, and oversized belts hanging nonchalantly around their slim waists. Alongside them, the handful of women wore brightly coloured `shalwar kamiz` (traditional South Asian dress) that fluttered in the wind.

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Small wars, big consequences
Thursday, 7 April 2011 - 12:24 AM SL Time

Western involvement in foreign conflicts has a history of backfiring and re-shaping policies at home.

Did you know that the resistance of some Nicaraguan peasants nearly brought down the mighty Ronald Reagan?

In 1979, Sandinista guerrillas overthrew the US client regime of Anastasio Somoza. Unable to fund a `covert war` through Congress as the constitution requires and determined to crush the Sandinistas, the Reagan administration resorted to a wacky scheme involving selling arms to Iran via Israel to fund counter-revolution in Central America.

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India Suffers From Huge Digital Divide
Thursday, 7 April 2011 - 7:29 AM SL Time

By Richard Johnson

LONDON (IDN) - Software industry has been at the vanguard of India`s impressive economic growth but the country is confronted with the worst `digital divide` among the BRICs that include Brazil, Russia and China, according to a new index developed by a British risk analysis firm.

The so-called Digital Inclusion Index identifies countries whose populations and economies suffer from a lack of ability to use and access information communication technologies (ICTs), such as computers, the internet and mobile phones.

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Meet Luna, the Jumping Cow
Thursday, 7 April 2011 - 3:49 PM SL Time

`Moo` Said the Horse
Meet Luna, the Jumping Cow
Regina Mayer`s parents refused to buy her a horse. So the Bavarian farmer`s daughter turned to the next best thing: Luna the cow. Now, the two are inseparable, and Mayer has even taught her bovine friend to jump.

What to do if your parents refuse to buy you a horse? You make one, of course. Out of a cow.

That, at least, is the rather unusual route taken by Regina Mayer, a 15-year-old from the Bavarian town of Laufen. After months of training Luna, a cow Mayer found in the paddock of her family`s dairy farm, Mayer can ride the bovine with little trouble. What`s more, Luna has also proven adept at clearing makeshift jumps her rider builds for her.

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Another strong quake strikes off tsunami-hit Japan
Thursday, 7 April 2011 - 10:49 PM SL Time

By CARA RUBINSKY, Associated Press Cara Rubinsky, Associated Press
13 mins ago

TOKYO Japan was rattled by a strong aftershock and tsunami warning Thursday night nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the northeastern coast.

Announcers on Japan`s public broadcaster NHK told coastal residents to run to higher ground and away from the shore.

The Japan meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning for a wave of up to 6 feet (two meters) after the magnitude-7.4 aftershock. The warning was issued for a coastal area already torn apart by last month`s tsunami, which is believed to have killed some 25,000 people and has sparked an ongoing crisis at a nuclear power plant.

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Sri Lanka- Two committees to oversee nuclear plant project
Friday, 8 April 2011 - 8:06 AM SL Time

By Muditha Gamage in Colombo
Colombo, 08th April, (Asiantribune.com): Sri Lanka has appointed two committees to oversee the feasibility study on the Countries nuclear plant project that is to be constructed in Sri Lanka, Soon.

Addressing the media yesterday, Chairman of the National Atomic Energy Authority Professor Wimaladarma Abeywickrama said:

Japan had built nearly 54 to 55 nuclear plants when the country was facing a threat of earth quakes. Through the feasibility study we would decide on the areas which are having threats and which areas are not. Weather it would be situated in coastal areas or in the up country. A decision cannot be reach until that .

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Millions Without Power After Japan Aftershock
Friday, 8 April 2011 - 7:57 PM SL Time

By HIROKO TABUCHI and ANDREW POLLACK
TOKYO More than 900,000 households remained without electricity on Friday after the strongest aftershock to hit since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan rocked a wide section of the country`s northeast.

The aftershock on Thursday night prompted a tsunami alert, raised fears of new strains on the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and knocked out external power at three other nuclear facilities.

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Fukushima: A `nuclear sacrifice zone`
Saturday, 9 April 2011 - 2:47 AM SL Time

Some experts believe Japan`s nuclear disaster could become worse than Chernobyl.
Dahr Jamail Last Modified: 08 Apr 2011 15:37

Japan`s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was heavily damaged by the tsunami from the massive March 11 magnitude 9.0 earthquake continues to spread extremely high levels of radiation into the ocean, ground, and air.

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the company that operates the plant, said on April 5 that radioactive iodine-131 readings taken from seawater near the water intake of the No. 2 reactor reached 7.5 million times the legal limit. The sample that yielded this reading was taken just before Tepco began releasing more than 11,000 tonnes of radioactive water into the sea.

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CULTURE CLUB 6 (1/3)
Saturday, 9 April 2011 - 6:50 PM SL Time

Languages
English has over 600,000 words -- but we`re still adding more. Some words evolve over time or come from foreign languages and, who knew it,
some
were
simply
made up,
including
thousands
coined
by
Shakespeare?

Another interesting video can be seen on
http://whoknew.news.yahoo.com/?nc&vid=24811671
regarding the same subject.

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 died 23 April 1616)[nb 1] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world`s pre-eminent dramatist.[1] He is often called England`s national poet and the `Bard of Avon`.[2][nb 2] His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays,[nb 3] 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

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Afghanistan pip Sri Lanka
Sunday, 10 April 2011 - 3:56 AM SL Time

KATHMANDU: Afghanistan defeated Sri Lanka 1-0 to record their first win in the AFC Challenge Cup Group `D` qualifiers here at the Nepal Armed Police Force Headquarters grounds today.

Striker Hadid Mustafa scored winning goal in the 82nd minute.

The win meant, hosts Nepal and Afghanistan tied on three points each ahead of Sri Lanka, who are yet to open their account. DPR Korea lead the group with six points from two matches.

Mustafa scored the decider when Sri Lankan goalkeeper Manannalage Manjula Sampath Kumara Fernando fumbled a 35-yard powerful strike from Israfeel Kohistani allowing the forward to fire from inside six-yard area.

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CULTURE CLUB 6 (2/3)
Sunday, 10 April 2011 - 12:28 PM SL Time

Families: Bicultural Kids
By Amy Dickinson

When Brian and Cheryl Boyd were first looking into adopting children from South Korea, a counselor at the Children`s Home Society of Minnesota warned the couple that if they chose to raise a child from Korea, `you will no longer be Americans. You will be Korean Americans.` The Boyds took the leap and became the proud parents of daughters Sarah, 14, and Anna, 11. Their home is filled with Korean art and artifacts, they have traveled to South Korea several times, Sarah takes part in a local Korean dance troupe with other adopted kids, and both girls attend `culture camp`--a weeklong summer camp in Wisconsin where young Korean adoptees learn about their native culture, food and music. `Maybe we`ve gone a little overboard, but we feel we didn`t have much of a choice,` says Brian, 52. `We wanted our girls to feel connected to their birthright.`

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CULTURE CLUB 6 (3/3)
Sunday, 10 April 2011 - 11:02 PM SL Time

Who doesn`t remember Pops famous song what a wonderful world ?
Isn`t it a nice way to get ready for another week of hard work?
Wish you all a very good week.

Louis Daniel Armstrong[1] (August 4, 1901 July 6, 1971),[2] nicknamed Satchmo[3] or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an `inventive` cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the music`s focus from collective improvisation to solo performance.

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Saviours of the Nation / Job opportunities at Fukushima nuclear plant
Monday, 11 April 2011 - 12:32 PM SL Time

With the current unstable situation at the Fukushima plant it won`t surprise anyone, that the temporary job agencies are having more and more difficulties to find new employees for this site.

As a last resort they have turned to the Burkamin`s, a sort of untouchable cast like the one we know in India. Officially the cast system does no longer exist in Japan, but these people continued to be discriminated and now all of a sudden become the savers of the nation.

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Done deal
Monday, 11 April 2011 - 7:43 PM SL Time

The budget
Done deal
Apr 9th 2011, 4:57 by E.M. | WASHINGTON, DC

.
THE phrase at the eleventh hour seems to be taken quite literally in Washington. At midnight on April 8th the federal government was due to shut up shop, when the latest of the six stopgap spending measures it has been subsisting on this year in lieu of a budget expired without replacement. Despite weeks of negotiations the Republicans who run the House of Representatives and the Democrats who run the Senate seemed unable to agree on how much the government should spend, and on what, for the remaining six months of the fiscal year. It was not until 11pm that the two sides announced they had reached a deal to avert a government shutdown.

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Former Leader of Ivory Coast Is Captured
Tuesday, 12 April 2011 - 4:13 AM SL Time

By ADAM NOSSITER
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast The strongman of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, was captured on Monday after a week-long siege of his residence and placed under the control of his rival claimant to power, according to French and United Nations officials.

Troops loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of Ivory Coast`s presidential election last year, had pressed toward the residence where Mr. Gbagbo had been holed up for days. According to French officials, Mr. Gbagbo surrendered at the entrance to the residence, while four French Gazelle helicopters swirled around the area.

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What After Saudi King Abdullah?
Tuesday, 12 April 2011 - 1:20 PM SL Time

NEW DELHI (IDN) - Who after? Democracies are often confronted by this question, especially after a strong and powerful leader. This is so when democracies tend to have arrangements for orderly power transfers and even leaders-in-waiting. Succession is a far more serious problem in the Middle East where state security is often co-terminus with regime survival.

Hence, when King Abdullah bin-Abdul Aziz decided to go to the U.S. in November 2010 for a complete medical check-up because of a slip disc and accumulated blood clot, the region worked into frenzy with rumours, anxieties and uncertainties. Initial reports indicated that the surgery was successful and the King moved to Morocco for convalescence. This, however, could not last and on February 23, 2011 Abdullah rushed home in the wake of regional upheavals especially in next door Bahrain.

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Sri Lanka: UN chief receives report of panel of experts on human rights issues
Wednesday, 13 April 2011 - 4:24 AM SL Time



Sri Lanka: UN chief receives report of panel of experts on human rights issues

12 April 2011 The panel of experts set up to advise Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on accountability issues with respect to the conflict in Sri Lanka today delivered its report to the United Nations chief, who is sharing a copy with the Government prior to making it public.
The three-member panel was set up following the Joint Statement made by Mr. Ban and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa after the Secretary-General visited the South Asian nation shortly after the end of the conflict in May 2009.

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Finland`s Educational Success? The Anti-Tiger Mother Approach
Wednesday, 13 April 2011 - 5:00 PM SL Time

By Joshua Levine

Spring may be just around the corner in this poor part of Helsinki known as the Deep East, but the ground is still mostly snow-covered and the air has a dry, cold bite. In a clearing outside the Kallahti Comprehensive School, a handful of 9-year-olds are sitting back-to-back, arranging sticks, pinecones, stones and berries into shapes on the frozen ground. The arrangers will then have to describe these shapes using geometric terms so the kids who can`t see them can say what they are.


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The Story of Barack Obama`s Mother
Thursday, 14 April 2011 - 3:55 AM SL Time

Each of us lives a life of contradictory truths. We are not one thing or another. Barack Obama`s mothers_day.jsp' class=black>mother was at least a dozen things. S. Ann Soetoro was a teen mother who later got a Ph.D. in anthropology a white woman from the Midwest who was more comfortable in Indonesia a natural-born mother obsessed with her work a romantic pragmatist, if such a thing is possible.

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U.S. Nuclear Plants Confronted 14 Serious Failures in 2010
Thursday, 14 April 2011 - 11:01 PM SL Time

TORONTO (IDN) A new report reveals that in 2010 nuclear plants in the United States experienced at least 14 `near misses`, serious failures in which safety was jeopardized, at least in part, due to lapses in oversight and enforcement by U.S. nuclear safety regulators.

`While none of the safety problems harmed plant employees or the public, they occurred with alarming frequency -- more than once a month -- which is high for a mature industry,` says the report authored by the prestigious Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

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News Analysis: What can world learn from BRICS summit in Sanya?
Friday, 15 April 2011 - 7:13 AM SL Time

Picture shows Chinese President Hu Jintao (C), Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (2nd R), Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (2nd L), Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (1st L) and South African President Jacob Zuma (1st R) attend a photocall in Sanya, south China`s Hainan Province, April 14, 2011. The BRICS Leaders Meeting was held here Thursday morning. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

by Ming Jinwei


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CULTURE CLUB 7 (1/3)
Friday, 15 April 2011 - 12:36 PM SL Time

Something really exceptional for the New Year and the weekend just round the corner!

Eric Whitacre put together a choir of 185 singers from 12 countries who never sang together until their voices were edited together. Here they perform Whitacre`s composition Lux Aurumque.

Eric Whitacre (born January 2, 1970 in Reno, Nevada) is an American composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation.[1][2] In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD Cloudburst (released by the British ensemble Polyphony on Hyperion Records) became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination.

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CULTURE CLUB 7 (2/3)
Saturday, 16 April 2011 - 9:21 AM SL Time

SADE ADU

Out of her wide collection of songs, I was hesitating for some time between Smooth Operator and The Sweetest Taboo to inroduce you to Sade.

Helen Folasade Adu, OBE (born 16 January 1959), better known as Sade, is a British[1] singer-songwriter, composer, and record producer. She first achieved success in the 1980s as the frontwoman and lead vocalist of the popular Brit and Grammy Award winning English group Sade.

Biography
Sade was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.[2] Her middle name, Folasade, means honor confers your crown.[3] Her parents, Bisi Adu, a Nigerian lecturer in economics of Yoruba background, and Anne Hayes, an English district nurse, met in London, married in 1955 and moved to Nigeria.[2] Later, when the marriage ran into difficulties, Anne Hayes returned to England, taking four-year-old [4] Sade and her older brother Banji to live with her parents.[2] When Sade was 11, she moved to Holland-on-Sea to live with her mothers_day.jsp' class=black>mother,[5] and after completing school at 18 she moved to London and studied at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.[2]

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UN Allegations: Sri Lanka president ready to scarify his life on behalf of the Motherland
Sunday, 17 April 2011 - 7:28 AM SL Time

By Muditha Gamage in Colombo
Colombo, 17 April 2011, (Asiantribune.com):
Mahinda Rajapaksa Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa has said on Saturday that he is even happy to sit even on the Electric chair on behalf of his mothers_day.jsp' class=black>motherland.

Addressing the Sri Lanka Freedom Party organizers for the first time in the New Year at the Temple Trees, in Colombo, he further said that the some people were feeling anger about him and spreading false information against him and the government because of the cessation of the 30 year old brutal war against LTTE.

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Is The Hague a positive answer to the sufferings of ALL war victims families?
Sunday, 17 April 2011 - 3:51 PM SL Time

As promised in my previous posting, let`s see where these war crime allegations could lead us to and explore a possible way out of this with the main objective being to help the families of all war victims and not the mounting international pressure. I could have written pages, but let`s stick to the key points.

Introduction:
[The Summery report which was published Saturday in Asian Tribune also mentioned that the Accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law is not a matter of choice or policy it is a duty under domestic and international law. These credibly alleged violations demand a serious investigation and the prosecution of those responsible. If proven, those most responsible, including Sri Lanka Army +commanders and senior Government officials, as well as military and civilian LTTE leaders, would bear criminal liability for international crimes. ]

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CULTURE CLUB 7 (3/3)
Monday, 18 April 2011 - 12:35 AM SL Time

The Sweetest Taboo
Another song of SADE to finish this Sunday in a good mood.

Wish you all a very good week.

Your CultureElephant


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Sri Lanka s amazing economic growth recognized at Washington IMF-World Bank Spring Meeting
Monday, 18 April 2011 - 12:27 PM SL Time

Dr. Ngozi Okonja-Iweala of IMF/World Bank with Minister Sarath Amunugama

Daya Gamage US National Correspondent Asian Tribune
Washington, DC. 18 April (Asiantribune.com):
Dr. Ngozi Okonja-Iweala of IMF/World Bank with Minister Sarath AmunugamaRecognizing Sri Lanka`s emergence as a growing economy and this South Asian nation which emerged through the total defeat of a separatist/terrorist movement two years ago and successfully moving toward a middle-income nation, the Managing Director of the World Bank Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala pledged, in addition to the current assistance from the IDA the concessional finance arm of the World Bank the doubling of the development funds for Sri Lanka next year.

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Wickets and wariness
Monday, 18 April 2011 - 11:32 PM SL Time

Cricket diplomacy is not new to the subcontinent, yet one World Cup game showed sport can still be a vehicle for change.
Shashi Tharoor Last Modified: 16 Apr 2011 12:18

India-Pakistan relations a challenge at the best of times, and in the doldrums since the terrorist attacks on Mumbai of November 2008 received an unexpected boost last month from an unlikely source: cricket.

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Zsa Zsa Gabor May Become a Mother at Age 94
Tuesday, 19 April 2011 - 4:30 AM SL Time

Zsa Zsa Gabor`s husband says that the ailing actress may become a mothers_day.jsp' class=black>mother again, at age 94.

Prince Frederic von Anhalt, Gabor`s ninth husband, says that the couple plans to add to their family using a donor egg, artificial insemination and a surrogate mother.

`We talked about it,` he told AFP, `saying `Remember, we always wanted a baby, and now it`s too late.` And I said to her, `Well maybe its not too late.``

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U.S. Warned on Debt Load
Tuesday, 19 April 2011 - 3:43 PM SL Time

BUSINESSAPRIL 19, 2011.U.S. Warned on Debt Load
S&P Signals Top Credit Rating Is in Danger, Stoking Political Battle on Deficit.By DAMIAN PALETTA And E.S. BROWNING

A blunt warning Monday from a credit-rating firm about the U.S. government`s mounting debt pushed stock markets lower and intensified political divisions in Washington about how best to tackle growing deficits.

Both the Obama administration and House Republicans scrambled to gain leverage from Standard & Poor`s changing its outlook on U.S. Treasury securities to `negative` from `stable.`

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BP anniversary: Toxicity, suffering and death
Tuesday, 19 April 2011 - 8:37 PM SL Time

The Gulf of Mexico oil disaster has caused the biggest chemical poisoning crisis in US history, experts say.

April 20, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of BP`s catastrophic oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. On this day in 2010 the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, causing oil to gush from 5,000 feet below the surface into the ninth largest body of water on the planet.

At least 4.9 million barrels of BP`s oil would eventually be released into the Gulf of Mexico before the well was capped 87 days later.

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Floods play havoc once again in Sri Lanka
Wednesday, 20 April 2011 - 4:56 AM SL Time

A.A.M.Nizam in Colombo
Colombo, 20 April, (Asiantribune.com): Heavy rains play havoc once again in many districts of Sri Lanka. Director General of Irrigation Department Dr.G.G.A.Godaliyadda said several tanks and reservoirs in six districts are overflowing at present due to torrential rains.

Hakwatuna-Oya and Ambakolawewa in the Kurunegala district, Wahalkada tank in the Anuradhapura district, Igimitiya reservoir in the Puttalam district, Devahuwa tank in the Matale district, Weheragala and Lunugamwehera and Udawalawa in the Hambantota district and Handapanagala reservoir in the Moneragala district are reported to be overflowing. The National Disaster Management said 34 families in the Ambalanthota area have been displaced due to Walaweganga overflowing. Nuwarawewa tank in the Anuradhapura district has reached spill level.

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On Journey, Young Tunisians Need Only a Final Destination
Wednesday, 20 April 2011 - 2:05 PM SL Time

By STEVEN ERLANGER
VENTIMIGLIA, Italy In the American Bar, across the square from the train station here, they have had enough. The Tunisians are everywhere, the waitress said. It`s been like this for a month. They sleep in the station and on the streets, and we`ve lost a lot of customers.

Mara Scasso, an emergency room nurse, said she had never seen so many police officers in this western edge of Italy, on the French border. Helping the refugees is a moral duty, she said. But here we have one of the highest unemployment rates in Italy it`s a dead zone. I don`t see how we can help them.

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Sri Lanka: ICRC steps up cooperation with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society
Wednesday, 20 April 2011 - 6:58 PM SL Time

Picture:
Jaffna Jaipur Centre for Disability Rehabilitation. An ICRC physiotherapist helps an amputee learn to walk on his artificial leg. The ICRC provides technical and financial support to the centre, which assists people in the north of Sri Lanka who have been injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war.

20-04-2011 Operational Update
The ICRC recently closed its two last field offices in Jaffna and Vavuniya at the request of the Sri Lankan government, and since 1 April has been operating exclusively from Colombo. Enhanced cooperation with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) will enable the organization to continue vital humanitarian programmes for people affected by the past conflict.

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Israeli Luminaries Press for a Palestinian State
Thursday, 21 April 2011 - 5:14 AM SL Time

By ETHAN BRONNER
JERUSALEM Dozens of Israel`s most honored intellectuals and artists have signed a declaration endorsing a Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders and asserting that an end to Israel`s occupation will liberate the two peoples and open the way to a lasting peace.

The signers plan to announce their position on Thursday from the same spot in Tel Aviv where the Jewish state declared its independence in the spring of 1948. The page-long declaration is expected to be read there by Hanna Maron, one of the country`s best-known actresses and a winner of the Israel Prize, the country`s most prestigious award, which is granted yearly on Independence Day.

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Forward To The Future In Quest Of Global Security
Thursday, 21 April 2011 - 4:53 PM SL Time

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) - Europeans are finding it hard to keep their heads above water as tidal waves of an overwhelming desire for participation in governance pound at the Arab shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The challenge thrown down by Arab uprisings is however only one front in the uphill battle for achieving `security for the global world`.

Is there a European answer to that challenge? Nobel Peace Laureate Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to find that out, and his `New Policy Forum` gathered together in Munich a cross-section of some fifty knowledgeable people from around Europe and beyond.

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Desperately waiting for the official UN report
Friday, 22 April 2011 - 4:19 AM SL Time

This UN report saga has really reached a level that I would qualify as more than folkloric.

For all those who are so desperately waiting for the official version of this famous report and find the time a bit too long, there is nothing better than having a good laugh to recover a minimum of common sense and to avoid suffering from a reportmania over the long Easter weekend.

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Culture Club 8: Indian TV show Saath Nibhana Saathiya to be shot in Switzerland
Friday, 22 April 2011 - 4:30 PM SL Time

After filmmakers, television producers have taken a fancy to Switzerland. Star Plus has tied up with Switzerland Tourism to shoot a few special episodes of its show ` Saath Nibhaana Saathiya` in the picturesque Swiss landscapes.

`It`s a great opportunity to bring dream destinations like Switzerland closer to our viewers who otherwise would catch only glimpses in big Bollywood movies. We are confident that our viewers will have a joyride with their favourite parivaar from Star Plus,` Suzana Ghai, head of fiction - Programming, Star Plus, said in a press statement.

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CERN marks advance in universe mysteries search
Saturday, 23 April 2011 - 7:35 AM SL Time

By Robert Evans

GENEVA (Reuters) - Scientists at the CERN physics research center reported on Friday that they had smashed particles together at a record intensity in a key advance in their program to unveil mysteries of the universe.

The development came in the early hours after they fed beams into the giant Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with some 6 per cent more particles per unit than the previous record, set by the U.S. Fermilab`s Tevatron collider last year.

Each collision in the LHC`s 27-kilometre (16.8 mile) circular underground tunnel -- at a tiny fraction under the speed of light -- creates a simulation of the Big Bang which brought the universe into existence 13.7 billion years ago.

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CULTURE CLUB 8 (2/3)
Saturday, 23 April 2011 - 4:00 PM SL Time

Save to favoritesModern Poetry of Pakistan
Reviewed by Swetha Regunathan


Dalkey Archive Press, 2010
In the foreword to Modern Poetry of Pakistan, Chairman of the Pakistan Academy of Letters Fakhar Zaman assures American readers that they will be both surprised and delighted by the kaleidoscopic colors of [Pakistan`s] poetry. While his promise reveals the asymmetry of the global literary order, it also challenges it. For a country often drawn in newspapers as the backdrop of mosque and market bombings, troubled politics, and underdevelopment, the possibilities for literary expression are not grim to the contrary, poetry seems to waft through every aspect of Pakistani life. As the fragrance that spreads everywhere in a subtle, almost imperceptible way, poetry transcends all borders and nationalities, Zaman tells us. It is precisely this sense of permeability and syncretism that the poets of this collection challenge us to reckon with.

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CULTURE CLUB 8 (3/3)
Saturday, 23 April 2011 - 10:49 PM SL Time

Our world literature tour now leads us to Bangladesh and to its Bengali writer Buddhadeva Bose. Love has always been the leading subject in literature and this book is no exception.

My Kind of Girl
Reviewed by Tommy Wallach

Translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha
Archipelago Books, 2010

The Bengali writer Buddhadeva Bose published over one hundred sixty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama between 1930 and 1974, and another forty have been published since then. He started and edited the renowned poetry magazine Kavita, and was famous for proponing a Modernist, Western agenda in Bengali poetry and prose. He was a visiting professor at many universities in both India and the United States, and was even a journalist for the major Indian newspaper The Statesman.

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Farmers in India convert to organic cotton
Sunday, 24 April 2011 - 8:26 AM SL Time

Cotton is one of the most polluting industries in the world. India is the second largest producer after Turkey. Although cotton only occupies five percent of cultivated land in India, it accounts for more than half of the total pesticides used in farming there. The cost to the country has not just been environmental.

The Green revolution in the late sixties introduced new hybrid seeds which were highly dependent on man made fertilizers and pesticides.The overuse of chemicals has resulted in poisoned water sources and loss of land fertility often with deadly consequences.

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Time to create a united force in Sri Lanka
Sunday, 24 April 2011 - 1:45 PM SL Time

Sun, 2011-04-24 11:03 editor
Article
By Shenali Waduge

The Ban Ki-moon appointed panel report will not be the first and certainly not the last attempt to crucify Sri Lanka by western forces just because Sri Lanka entered history books by becoming the only nation to defeat a terrorist group militarily.

Whether their wrath is against the Sri Lankan Government for deciding to eliminate the LTTE or Sri Lanka as a nation becomes irrespective for the calls that are emerging from these international lobbies will only bring misery to the public. Therefore, the only way that these external forces cannot make any headway is to ensure we have a united force in Sri Lanka that clearly tells the West that Sri Lanka will not be allowed to be disunited like they have done and are doing to nations around the world.

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Sri Lanka: New life for former LTTE cadres
Sunday, 24 April 2011 - 5:20 PM SL Time

Sun, 2011-04-24 01:45 editor
News
By Muditha Gamage in Colombo
Colombo, 24 April, (Asiantribune.com): Sri Lankan government today handed back 483 former LTTE cadres to their family members after a successful rehabilitation process.

Addressing this ceremony which was held in Vavuniya earlier yesterday, Minister of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Chandrasiri Gajadeera said that the government has planned to recruit rehabilitated LTTE cadres to the ongoing development work in the North and Eastern Provinces

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Giant, stinky flower to bloom after 17 years
Monday, 25 April 2011 - 8:32 AM SL Time

A giant, rotting-flesh-scented flower was expected to draw 10,000 people to a Swiss garden to watch it bloom for the first time in nearly 20 years.

The nearly two-metre Amorphophallus titanum flower opened its giant petals Friday evening at Basel Botanical Gardens in Basel, Switzerland.

It has been 75 years since a plant of this variety has bloomed in Switzerland.

The bloom of the so-called `corpse flower` - coined for its foul smell to attract insects for pollination - is expected to last just a day or two until it wilts Saturday night or Sunday.

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Casualties of War: Helping Female Soldiers Get Back on Their Feet in Sri Lanka
Monday, 25 April 2011 - 1:16 PM SL Time

By Amantha Perera / Colombo

Right through our one hour interview, she kept twitching her fingers nervously. A blue handkerchief, neatly folded when we sat down, was a crushed mess by the time the we stopped talking. She did not want her real name used instead, she wanted me to call her Selvi. A former member of the women`s wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Selvi is, for the first time in her adult life, unsure about what she will do next. Like many of the women in their ranks, Selvi was a semi-forced recruit of the Tigers. Now the insurgency, is no more, their once-feared military might brought to naught by Sri Lankan government forces in May 2009.

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A Small Indian Tribe Fights a British Giant
Monday, 25 April 2011 - 5:02 PM SL Time

By Devinder Kumar

IDN NewsReport

NEW DELHI (IDN) - A small tribe in India is pitted against a British giant like the proverbial David against Goliath. Some 8,000 members of the Dongria Kondh tribe are resisting a bid by $8 billion worth Vedanta Resources to start digging an open-pit mine to obtain bauxite, the ore from which most aluminium is extracted.

The Dongria Kondh live in villages scattered throughout the Niyamgiri Hills in India`s eastern Orissa state. They farm the hill slopes, grow crops in the forest and gather wild fruit and leaves for sale. They call themselves Jharnia, meaning `protector of streams`, because they guard their sacred mountains and the life-giving rivers that rise within the thick forests.

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A Liquidator Searches for the Truth at Chernobyl 25 Years On
Tuesday, 26 April 2011 - 4:03 AM SL Time

26 April 2011

Twenty-five years ago, Alexander Glushchenko volunteered to join the `liquidators,` an army of 600,000 who put their lives on the line to clean up the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

But sitting in his Moscow apartment, packed with books and photos about the catastrophe, he argued that with a disaster this big, there could be no liquidation, only a `minimization` of the consequences.

Glushchenko, 68, said crucial facts about the catastrophe remain `silenced` and that the global community still has not learned its lesson.

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Greatest challenge for Sri Lanka is to achieve real reconciliation, US says
Tuesday, 26 April 2011 - 3:00 PM SL Time

Tue, Apr 26, 2011, 01:02 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.


Apr 26, Colombo: The greatest challenge for Sri Lanka is to reunite the country and achieve real reconciliation for all communities live in harmony, the United States says.

The United States Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert O. Blake, Jr. has made this remark on Monday in an interview with the CNBC TV18 in Philadelphia.

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India Arrests Former Chief of Commonwealth Games
Wednesday, 27 April 2011 - 3:52 AM SL Time

NEW DELHI Investigators here arrested the former chief organizer of the scandal-marred Commonwealth Games on Monday, after uncovering what they said were irregularities in the awarding of contracts for the international sporting event.

Federal agents arrested the former official, Suresh Kalmadi, on charges that he had conspired to steer an inflated contract to a Swiss firm that provided timing equipment for the games, which were staged here in October. Investigators said the organizing committee for the games awarded a $33 million contract to the Swiss firm, even though the actual cost should have been roughly a third of that.

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World`s last typewriter factory ends production
Wednesday, 27 April 2011 - 11:48 AM SL Time

It was once an essential item in any office, but the humble typewriter could soon be gone for good after the last factory producing them shut down production.

Godrej and Boyce has closed its production plant in Mumbai and say they only have around 200 machines still in stock.

While computers replaced typewriters years ago for much of the world, they remained popular in India, until recently when they finally lost out to new technologies.

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