Form UNP Govt. to end political crisis- Keerthi Tennakoon

As Sri Lanka was confronted with a huge political crisis, it should form a Government comprising one party, the United National Party (UNP), Campaign For Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Executive Director Keerthi Tennakoon said.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, he said as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) did not have the Parliamentary majority, the UNP had the potential to form a new Government and find solutions independently.

“Confrontations can be seen within the Government due to the coalition Government. It was evident from the recent No Confidence Motion (NCM) against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that it was impossible to run a Unity Government. 

“There are no proper consensuses within the Government. Two parties have incompatible ideas. This can’t go on in this manner. The incumbent Government is not stable. Therefore, we are in a position to say that a Government consisting of one party is necessary to the country,” Tennakoon said.

He said the Unity Government had created the atmosphere for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to support the Government.

The TNA, the official Opposition should act its due role as the Opposition party rather than extending its consent to anything done by the Government,” he added.
(Sheain Fernandopulle) dailymirror

The country is heading towards anarchy - Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thero

Algerian military plane crash kills 257 people

At least 257 people were killed on Wednesday when a military plane crashed near the Algerian capital, Algiers, state media reported.

The plane crashed shortly after taking off from the Boufarik air base, between Algiers and the city of Blida. Ten of those killed were the plane crew, according to state-run Radio Algérie. It was not immediately clear whether there were any survivors.

Wednesday's plane crash was the deadliest since 2014, when 298 people were killed when a Malaysian airlines jet was shot down over Ukraine.

The plane was supposed to go from Boufarik to Tindouf, and then on to Bashar, which are both towns on the Algerian-Morocco border, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

One Country Is Making Sure All Employers Offer Equal Pay to Women

Iceland is credited for being the first country in the world to legalize abortion and the first to elect a woman as head of state in a national election. Now the progressive island nation in northern Europe will also be the first to ensure that all employees receive equal pay for equal work from employers.

On Wednesday—fittingly, International Women’s Day—Iceland’s government announced it would soon introduce legislation requiring that employers with at least 25 workers obtain a certificate proving they offer equal pay regardless of the gender, ethnicity, sexuality, or nationality, the Associated Press reported.

Court orders 24 years in jail for former President Park

A lower court in Seoul sentenced former President Park Geun-hye, 66, to 24 years in prison and fined her 18 billion won ($16.8 million) on corruption charges Friday.

This makes her the nation's third ex-president to be criminally convicted. 

The decision by the Seoul Central District Court came almost a year after she was removed from power. 

Park was not in the courtroom to hear the verdict and sentencing. 

She submitted her absence note earlier Friday, citing health problems, according to the court.

She has been boycotting hearings since last October. 

"As the head of state, Park ignored her responsibility and abused her power to destabilize the country, which is a total disrespect to citizens who elected her as president. Making it worse, she only denied all charges, which is not appropriate," judge Kim Se-yoon said.

Park has one week to appeal. Park's lawyers condemned Friday's ruling and said they'll consult with Park on what to do.

The prosecution which requested a 30-year prison sentence and a fine of 118.5 billion won ($110 million) in the final hearing in February did not have an immediate response. 

The judge found her guilty of pressuring major conglomerates to donate 77.4 billion won to the Mir and K-Sports foundations, organizations controlled by her key confidant Choi Soon-sil. Choi received a 20-year jail sentence in the lower court for taking bribes.

Park was also guilty of pressuring SK Group and Lotte Group to make separate donations to the K-Sports Foundation for projects and granted them business favors in return. 

Brazil's Lula given 24 hours to start prison sentence

Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, once one of the most popular politicians on the planet, was given 24 hours to surrender to police Thursday and start a 12 year prison sentence for corruption.

The timing of the order from Judge Sergio Moro, head of Brazil's huge "Car Wash" anti-graft probe, came as a complete surprise, given that lawyers said earlier that the leftist former two-term president had at least until next week before going behind bars.

Lula, 72, easily leads polls in Brazil's October presidential election and his apparent downfall will throw the race completely open. Currently, hard-right former army officer Jair Bolsonaro, who openly praises Brazil's 1964-1985 dictatorship, is in second place.

Moro's order said that in view of Lula's stature as a former president, he would have "the opportunity to present himself voluntarily" to police in the city of Curitiba, where the "Car Wash" probe is based, by 5:00 pm (2000 GMT) Friday.

A special cell "was prepared in advance... in which the ex-president will be separated from other prisoners, with no risk for his moral or physical integrity," Moro wrote.

There was no immediate reaction from Lula, who had been described earlier by supporters as facing his jailing calmly.

However, Senator Lindbergh Farias, from Lula's Workers' Party, issued a defiant call for supporters to congregate in front of Lula's house in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a suburb of Sao Paulo, on Friday.

Salman Khan gets 5-year jail term

Four other actors acquitted in blackbuck poaching case for want of evidence

A local court sentenced actor Salman Khan on Thursday to five years in jail for having poached two blackbucks in a case from 19 years ago.

The court acquitted four other Hindi film actors — Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre — and a local travel agent, Dushyant Singh, who were co-accused, for want of sufficient evidence.

Fine imposed

Chief Judicial Magistrate (Jodhpur Rural) Dev Kumar Khatri also imposed a fine of ₹10,000 on Mr. Khan.

Mr. Khan was accompanied by his two sisters, Alvira and Arpita, in the court room when the verdict was pronounced. As the judgment came, the sisters broke down and hugged their brother.

The actor also broke into tears as he was taken into custody in the court room and shifted to the Jodhpur Central Jail, where he has been lodged with special security arrangements.

In its 201-page judgment, the court described Mr. Khan, 52, as an actor whose conduct was followed by the common people. The magistrate gave the benefit of the doubt to the four other actors, accused of accompanying him in a Gypsy car while the two blackbucks were being hunted on the night of October 1-2, 1998. Mr. Khan was charged with killing two endangered blackbucks in Kankani village, near here.

Senate committee summons FB, Google, Twitter CEOs to testify in Cambridge Analytica case

The hearing will broadly cover privacy standards for the collection, retention and dissemination of consumer data for commercial use.

A powerful Congressional committee has summoned the CEOs of the top three tech giants — Facebook, Twitter and Google — to testify next month about UK communications firm Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of private data from up to 50 million user profiles.

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Sunder Pichai of Google and Jack Dorsey of Twitter have been invited to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled for April 10 by the Committee’s Chairman Chuck Grassley.

In a statement, Mr. Grassley on Monday said that Mr. Zuckerberg had been invited to discuss the company’s past and future policies regarding the protection and monitoring of consumer data.

The hearing will broadly cover privacy standards for the collection, retention and dissemination of consumer data for commercial use. “It will also examine how such data may be misused or improperly transferred and what steps companies like Facebook can take to better protect personal information of users and ensure more transparency in the process,” a statement said.

Mr. Grassley also invited Mr. Pichai and Mr. Dorsey to discuss the future of data privacy in the social media industry and how to develop “rules of the road” that encourage companies to develop tailored approaches to privacy which satisfy consumer expectations while maintaining incentives for innovation.

Senator Mark Warner also sought answers from the tech companies on data protection.

“I celebrate the success of Facebook, Google & Twitter; but with their power comes responsibility that they must acknowledge. This isn’t a Russia problem. If we value civic discourse and fair elections, they have to step up and answer to more than their shareholders,” he said.

Senator Ed Markey said Facebook’s failure to protect millions of Americans’ private information in the Cambridge Analytica breach showed “why we cannot rely on corporations” to police themselves.

“We need laws that prevent corporations from abusing Americans privacy rights,” said Mr. Markey.

Meanwhile, online news publication ‘Intercept’ reported that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement used backend Facebook data to locate and track immigrants that it is working to round up.

Congressman Bobby L. Rush has introduced a legislation that would require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue regulations requiring companies like Facebook that own or possess data containing personal information to establish specified security policies and procedures to treat and protect such information.

The FTC confirmed last week that it had opened an inquiry over the alleged misuse of data by the UK consulting group Cambridge Analytica, the scandal-hit communications firm at the heart of the Facebook data scandal.

The hindu

Fire tragedy at Kemerovo shopping mall leaves at least 64 dead More

The death toll from a blaze that ravaged a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo has reached 64, Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov told reporters.

"Regrettably, we have to announce that 64 people have died in the disaster," he said. Six bodies are yet to be recovered.
The risk of building collapse remains, nonetheless. According to the emergencies minister, structure reinforcement equipment has been delivered to Kemerovo

Earlier, Russia’s Investigative Committee Spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko confirmed 56 deaths. "After the fire broke out, 44 people requested medical assistance, ten of them were hospitalized," she added.

Puchkov said earlier that 16 people were still reported to be missing after the deadly blaze.

On March 25, a fire erupted on the top floor of the four-storey Zimnyaya Vishnya (or Winter Cherry) shopping mall, engulfing a total of 1,500 square meters. The fire was extinguished but, in Puchkov’s words, the rubble has started to smolder due to the multilayer floorings in the building. Firefighters are currently dousing the smoldering spots found earlier.

Tass news

Modi govt officials look at Sri Lanka differently… without understanding: Gotabaya Rajapaksa

In his first interview since 2010, former defence secretary of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa spoke about the geopolitical situation in the region, the changing character of Indian diplomacy, the meaning of peace, and his own role in the war.

At the peak of the war against the LTTE, then defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the most feared and powerful man in Sri Lanka. The UN Human Rights Council had asked Sri Lanka to probe war crimes in which Gotabaya was accused. Nearly a decade later, the 68-year-old is being talked about as a possible presidential candidate, with brother Mahinda Rajapaksa not able to contest again due to the constitution’s upper limit of two terms. He lives in a small two-storey house in Colombo, guarded by not more than two security personnel.

In his first interview since 2010, Gotabaya spoke about the geopolitical situation in the region, the changing character of Indian diplomacy, the meaning of peace, and his own role in the war:

India helped Sri Lanka during the war, but there is a feeling that Colombo is betraying India by moving closer to China.

In his first interview since 2010, Gotabaya spoke about the geopolitical situation in the region, the changing character of Indian diplomacy, the meaning of peace, and his own role in the war:

India helped Sri Lanka during the war, but there is a feeling that Colombo is betraying India by moving closer to China.

If you read Shivshankar Menon’s book (Choices — Inside the making of India’s foreign policy), the former Indian National Security Adviser has categorically said that Sri Lanka had given India assurance and shown that it was concerned about any threats to Indian security concerns. Our government never allowed Sri Lankan soil to be used by any foreign country against India… Diplomacy is an art of reciprocity, it is about engagement, conversations and mutual trust. In diplomatic relationships, you cannot replace empowered diplomats with intelligence officers. India has to come out of this ‘China phobia’ with regard to its relationship with Sri Lanka.

US says concerned about reports of HR violations in SL

The US yesterday said it was concerned about ongoing reports of human rights violations and abuses in Sri Lanka by members of the security services and recent attacks targeting members of religious minority communities.

In its statement to the 37th Session of the UNHRC, the Permanent Mission of the US in Geneva said it urges the Sri Lankan government to hold accountable all those responsible for human rights abuses and violations and to protect religious minorities and their places of worship.  

“We further urge the government to take additional steps to fully implement the commitments it made in HRC resolution 30/1 and reaffirmed in HRC resolution 34/1. We look forward to seeing Sri Lanka’s progress on implementing the UPR recommendations accepted by the government over the next five years as well,” it said

The US welcomed the Sri Lankan Government’s decision to accept US’s recommendations on full implementation of HRC resolution 30/1 and on accountability for the government’s, including the security forces, human rights violations and abuses, as well as accountability for those responsible for harassment and violence against members of religious minority communities.

“We are pleased with the Government’s support for these recommendations,” it said.
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