December 7, 2012 · 1:44 pm

It’s Murali v Warne in Big Bash spin-off

From The Australian, 7 December 2012

murali warne-the aus  Muttiah Muralidaran, Shane Warne, Aaron Finch and David Hussey meet before tonight’s Big Bash League opener between the Melbourne Stars and Renegades at Etihd Stadium. Picture: Stuart Walmsley Source: The Australian

SRI Lanka spin wizard Muttiah Muralidaran says he’s not seeking revenge against Melbourne Stars’ recruit Brad Hodge despite Hodge helping to lure Murali to rival Melbourne Renegades.  Test wicket world-record holder Murali, 40, has signed to play for the Renegades in the BBL Twenty20 at Etihad Stadium tonight as the Renegades host cross-town rivals and tournament favourites the Stars. T20 batting great Hodge has crossed to the Stars this summer and another ex-Renegade, Andrew McDonald, has joined the Adelaide Strikers.

“Hodge and McDonald convinced me to come and play Renegades,” Murali said yesterday. “At the time they were in the Renegades. Unfortunately they’re not there but still we have a good side.” Murali said he phoned Hodge recently to ask what happened to their plans to play together for the Renegades. “Yeah, he convinced me to come and play and after that he was gone to the Stars. So then I asked him, just a friendly call,” Murali said. “No revenge as such because we want to play a good game. We want to compete with them and see how it goes.” Continue reading →

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December 6, 2012 · 7:34 am

Labrooy’s Labour of Love: Restoring a Dutch House in the Dutch Fort of Galle, 1 Middle Street

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Stephen Labrooy has moved house

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December 2, 2012 · 4:43 pm

In memory of Professor Freddie Bartholomeusz and Peradeniya

Ranjan Abayasekara

Prof EFBEarlier this year an email was circulated which especially touched the hearts of Peradeniya Alumni in all corners of the world. It was titled “The world’s most beautiful university is in full bloom again”. The pictures of the flowering trees and scenic surroundings took us back in mind and spirit to the place we were fortunate to call home during an important part of our lives.

Pera2Those who gave of their time, energy and wealth to create ‘the worlds most beautiful university’, certainly had vision when they landscaped it. Generations of University students and staff would carry imprinted images of the flora of the University with them, wherever in the world they roamed. The University at Peradeniya was created by generous endowments of Ceylonese – who wished to create an institution for the ages – their gift to their Motherland. Continue reading →

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November 30, 2012 · 6:35 pm

Asoka Handagama’s INI AVAN, or “Him, Here, After,” in Paris

Press Release from the SL Embassy of Paris

INDI AVANOn November 28th, 2012, a special screening of Ini Avan (Him, Here After), Asoka Handagama’s latest movie, was organized at Club Lincoln, in Paris, by Heliotrope Films. Premiered at Cannes 2012 as one of the films under the Association of Independent Cinema ACID (l’Association du Cinéma Indépendant pour sa Diffusion), Ini Avan has been listed in some of the most prestigious film festivals in the world during the past months including Toronto, Edinburg, Tokyo, Hanoi. Continue reading →

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November 30, 2012 · 6:24 pm

Paper Tigers on the Prowl: Rumors, Violence and Agency in the Up-Country of Sri Lanka

Daniel Bass of Florida Atlantic University in Social Thought and Commentary

In February 2007, international press reports from Pakistan were filled with accounts of Pakistanis refusing to participate in polio vaccination campaigns coordinated by UNICEF out of fear that the vaccines caused sterilization (see Latif 2007; Walsh 2007). Several local clerics had claimed that the vaccines were actually part of an American-led conspiracy to sterilize Muslims. Similar rumors about vaccinations and sterilization were widespread in Nigeria’s Kano state in 2004 (see Associated Press 2004; Walsh 2007), and had also received significant attention in the international press. However, press accounts of these rumors contain little to no explanation for why local leaders in Pakistan and Nigeria spread these rumors, except for accusations of ignorance or general references to anti-Americanism. Continue reading →

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November 28, 2012 · 3:34 am

LTTE Roots in Tamilnadu

A. Subburaj of TNN in Times of India, 28 November 2012, where the title reads ” For Puliyoor Resdents, LTTE is Living Presence“

COIMBATORE: On Tuesday late evening, over 400 people including 100 women and children, gathered at Puliyoor, a nondescript village in Salem district, and lit candles to remember the fallen heroes of a war fought across the seas.  The  LTTE has been wiped out from Sri Lanka, but the Tigers are a living presence for the villagers here. At Ponnammaan Memorial Bus Shelter at Puliyoor Pirivu here, men, women and children from Puliyoor, Mettur Dam, Kolathur and surrounding villages stood in a line, with candles in hand, as they have been doing for the past 21 years, to remember Tamils who died fighting  Sri Lankan army during the three decades of ethnic strife. They sang songs in praise of the heroes and for the Eelam. Continue reading →

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November 27, 2012 · 4:36 am

Jaffna and the North today: Jehan Perera’s visit

Jehan Perera, in the Island, 27 November 2012

The landscape in the more densely populated parts of the once war ravaged North is a rapidly changing one. The government’s focus on investing in physical infrastructure such as public buildings and roads is showing visible results. Suddenly the skeletal structures of buildings get filled out and transform the appearance of an entire area. When we passed the town of Kilinochchi, the onetime administrative capital of the LTTE, it was lighted up even though the hour was late in the night. It looked like a model town. The challenge for the government will be to make this external change an internal one as well, in which the people who meant to be the beneficiaries also rejoice in the transformation and feel that justice is being done to them. Continue reading →

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November 27, 2012 · 4:20 am

Adelaide University establishes scholarship link in Sri Lanka

Courtesy of The Island, 27 November 2012

 Professor Quester is the lady in a blouse and Dr. Amal Karunaratne is the elegant gent with silver-hair to our right

The University of Adelaide, one of Australia’s leading research-intensive universities and ranked among the top one per cent worldwide, is for the first time offering a scholarship for a Sri Lankan student to study for a bachelor’s degree. Prof. Pascale Quester, Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic), Adelaide University, addressing a ceremony to announce the Lindsay McWha Accomodation Scholarship, valued at AUD 6,250, to a Sri Lankan student, at the Cinnamon Grand in Colombo on Friday, said that selection would be strictly on merit and it had to be taken in the year for which it was offered and could not be deferred. Continue reading →

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November 27, 2012 · 4:10 am

Chandrika bewails recent encroachments on the judiciary

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, in The Island, 27 November 2012, where the title is “Democracy, the State and the Judiciary”

The last few months have seen several attempts at interference with the proper functioning of the judiciary. The Mannar incident, the unprecedented statement of the Judicial Service Commission, the physical attack on the Secretary of the JSC who released the statement on the direction of the JSC, use of State media to attack the judiciary, especially the Chief Justice, and now a Motion to impeach the Chief Justice. A Member of Parliament who submitted the motion to the Speaker has publicly stated that the reason for the impeachment motion is the Supreme Court’s determination on the Divineguma Bill. As that Bill seeks to make severe inroads into the areas of competence of Provincial Councils while concentrating power in the hands of a single Cabinet Minister, such a determination was only to be expected. But, in the intolerant political environment that pertains today, judicial decision unpalatable to the Government are not tolerated. Continue reading →

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November 26, 2012 · 1:40 pm

Velupillai Pirapāharan: VEERA MARANAM

Michael Roberts

 That the LTTE talaivar, Velupillai Pirapāharan, died a heroic death as a vīra maranam on the 18th or 19th May 2009 is now certain.[1]Though Tamil sources claim that he shot himself with his pistol when he and his troops were trapped in the mangrove swamps on the eastern shoreline of Nandhikadal lagoon, the weight of evidence suggests that he was hit by a bullet “traveling diagonally across VP’s skull, probably from left forehead to right rear of skull –[a bullet that was part of] either a rifle round, or a rifle-calibre round”(David Blacker, email to Roberts, 14 February 2012).

 

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