TAMILS TO OBSERVE MAAVEERAR NAAL NOV. 27 ...

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TAMILS TO OBSERVE MAAVEERAR NAAL NOV. 27

INDIAN IMMIGRANTS SET NEW RECORD IN CANADA

The fate of the United States presidency hung in the balance on the morning of November 4 as President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden battled for three familiar

battleground states—Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania—that could prove crucial in determining who wins the White House.

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STEPPING INTO A FOURTH YEAR WITH ALL SMILES!Voice for Justice Is Now Entering Its 4th Year of Circulation

Over these years, Voice for Justice has built a relationship of trust with you. Every month when we meet you, we make sure to provide news that is true, trustworthy and relevant. We see

your problems as ours and strive hard to find a solution in all meaningful ways. Thank you for supporting and trusting us over these years. This couldn’t have been possible without you - our loyal readers and advertisers who have much faith in us.

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MissionWith the view to providing a voice to expose acts of injustice against

individuals or communities, whether they be unfair, discriminatory, illegal or unjust, “Voice for Justice” stands firm on the ground that there can be no freedom without justice. Your support is needed to achieve this. Together, we can change society!

Objectives“Voice for Justice” represents the unheard voices of voiceless people the

world over living under extremely difficult political, social and economic conditions, conditions not of their making, that need to be exposed.

Impoverishment, exploitation and marginalization lead to injustices to the voiceless, devoid of education, good health and decreasing life expectancy with their children fast becoming the underclass of the underprivileged.

It is extremely difficult to describe the miseries that these peoples have to endure, and they have little hope of calling attention of their plight.

It is in this context that some freelance amateur journalists and professional academics have banded together to undertake the ambitious task of making a dent in the print media to educate and inform the world, which has little or no knowledge of the voiceless half around the world. The journal is also intended to provide a forum for these people to freely express their views.

As a result of questions as to how we could be of assistance to these people, we have decided to dedicate our time and energies to a publication that focuses on these people whose rights and justice are being denied.

This publication is not intended to pursue a particular ideology or to be a critique of governments, institutions or any group. “Voice for Justice” has no affiliation to any group or organization and is not motivated by any political consideration. The prime objective is to be a catalyst to sensitize the rest of the world by drawing their attention to the problems and injustices. We believe those distant and voiceless voices must be heard.

We invite you to contribute articles and papers and participate in other ways, including financial support, in making this newspaper venture a success. We will initially start off with a monthly publication. As we get more support from readers and commercial establishments, we will make it bi-weekly and then weekly.

Together, we can change society!

Disclaimer“Voice for Justice”, your free monthly bilingual (Tamil and English)

tabloid, is published in Toronto and circulated in Canada.

We are determined to publish an unbiased and informative journal. “Voice for Justice” prides itself on its professional team of journalists, writers, researchers, and academics from a cross section of communities around the world.

The opinion and views expressed in “Voice for Justice” are not those of the publisher. Advertisers are responsible for their content and “Voice for Justice” reserves the right to refuse any advertisement or article considered unfit and inappropriate for publication.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: Any unauthorized use or reproduction of any article published in this publication for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited and constitutes copyright infringement liable to legal action.

From the Editor-in-Chief

On this 36th publication, Voice for Justice is pleased and proud to announce we are stepping into our fourth year of publication. To mark our inception in this fourth year, we are expanding our publication to India. Since January 2020, we started printing English and Tamil versions separately. The English version is printed and circulated around the first week of every month while the Tamil version is released in the middle of each month. We thank our readers, advertisers and contributors for the immense and continuous support. Without you Voice for Justice would be impossible.

We strongly urge our well-wishers, readers, supporters, and business establishments to support us financially so we can sustain the publication.

It is important for us - the people of fourth world to have a platform to highlight the plight of millions of voiceless people. Like all oppressed people around the world, we are trying to do our bit to build a just and fair society. Voice for Justice can be heard only through the resources and support of literate and concerned people like you. We need your support. We urge you to subscribe to this newspaper by paying $12 per year for 12 issues or $20 for 24 issues (two years). If you can afford to pay more, please do so. We will issue receipts for the amount you pay. Every single penny you provide to Voice for Justice will be helpful for us to produce a quality publication and reach even more people.

Our first publication came out on November 1, 2017. Our goal is to keep the world communities aware of the problems faced by Indigenous groups and oppressed people living throughout the world. Voice for Justice will highlight the right to self-determination of oppressed people who are at the mercy of dominant governments or dictatorships. The vast majority of the Indigenous people in the world live below the poverty line, without getting access to basic goods and services - things that the western world generally takes for granted. Innocent people’s social and economic conditions have progressively deteriorated due to increasing impoverishment, exploitation, and marginalization leading to their economic and social isolation. Devoid of education, good health, and a decrease in life expectancy, the children of the oppressed are fast becoming the underclass of the underprivileged. There are hardly words in any language to describe the miseries these peoples have endured and continue to endure in their oppression. Their voices remain unheard. The media around the world, largely owned by conglomerates, control and influence public opinion. A media free of control and void of vested interests is a rare phenomenon. This journal is also intended to provide a forum for these people to freely air their views. This publication is not intended to pursue a particular ideology or to be a critique of governments, institutions, or any group. Voice for Justice has no affiliation to any group or organization and is not motivated by any political consideration. The prime objective is to be a catalyst to sensitize the rest of the world by drawing their attention to the problems and injustices. In other words, we want to be an outlet for those distant and voiceless people.

On November 27 Tamils across the world will be getting ready to observe programs to commemorate Tamil Eelam war heroes and pay their rich tributes to them, marking Maaveerar Naal Great Heroes Day. On that day every year Tamils remember those who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for their freedom, in memory of the first death of a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadre Lieutenant Shankar who died on November. 27, 1982. Tamils in different countries hold programs marking Maaveerar Naal, taking fresh vows to materialize the unfinished dream establishing a separate state for Tamils in Sri Lanka and of the war heroes who made the supreme sacrifice during the struggle for liberation.

At the time of printing, Joe Biden is leading in the US presidential election with 264 electoral votes (50.2 percent) and Trump from the Republican party has scored 214 votes (48.2 percent). The results are truly nail-biting!

We, the editors of this publication, strongly urge all readers, well-wishers, and concerned parties to spread the message through Voice for Justice.

Together, we can change society! We’ll meet you in the next issue. Until then, so long,

Yours,Satheesan Kumarasamy

Editor-in-Chief

Together, we can change society!

FOR JUSTICE


INDIAN IMMIGRANTS SET ...Continues from page 1

Indian immigrants accounted for one-fourth of the total permanent residencies granted by Canada in 2019, setting a new record.

India was easily the largest source country for permanent residents (PR), with 85,593 admitted last year, a number that is larger than the total for the next four nations taken together. The data was revealed as the 2020 Annual Report on Immigration to Parliament was tabled.

India has been the largest source country since 2017 when it overtook China among PRs, but the numbers have jumped in recent years, with an increase of over 20 percent between

2018 and 2019.

Canada’s minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, Marco Mendicino also tabled the 2021‒2023 Immigration Levels Plan.

The Canadian government is hiking the number of immigrants to be taken into the country between these years to make up for the projected shortfall this year due to the travel and other restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the previous plan set targets of 351,000 PRs for 2021 and 361,000 for 2022, these have been increased to 401,000 and 411,000.

The figure for 2023 is even higher at 421,000. The majority of the admissions, 60 percent, will be in the economic class, which has been dominated by Indians in recent years.

“Immigration is essential to getting us through the pandemic, but also to our short-term economic recovery and our long-term economic growth. Canadians have seen how newcomers are playing an outsized role in our hospitals and care homes and helping us to keep food on the table. As we look to recovery, newcomers create jobs not just by giving our businesses the skills they need to thrive, but also

by starting businesses themselves. Our plan will help to address some of our most acute labour shortages and to grow our population to keep Canada competitive on the world stage,” Mendicino said in a statement.

According to a statement from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Canada’s population growth between 2018 and 2019 was at 1.4 percent, the highest among G7 nations, and this was “overwhelmingly driven” by the “arrival of immigrants and non-permanent residents” who accounted for 82 percent of the rise.

TAMILS TO OBSERVE MAAVEERAR ... Continues from page 1

Tamils will observe Tamil National Remembrance Day or Maaveerar Naal on November 27 across the world to remember those who were killed by Sri Lankan forces during their struggle for freedom.

Although Remembrance Day falls on November 27, Tamils globally hold events throughout the week.

Elaborate programmes are chalked out to observe Maaveerar Naal in memory of the first death of a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadre Lieutenant Shankar, who died in combat on November 27, 1982.

Traditionally oil lamps are lit for the three days ending on the 27 November, and the Tamil Eelam flag

is raised at ceremonies.

The first Maaveerar Naal was held on 27 November 1989.

On 27 November 1989 around 600 LTTE cadres gathered secretly in the jungles near Nithikaikulam in Manal Aru, Mullaitivu District, to remember their fallen comrades who at that time numbered around 1,300.

Since the end of the armed conflict, Tamils have observed the day for the fourth time amid military threat and repression in pre-dominantly Tamil areas in Sri Lanka.

On November 3 Sri Lankan police warned activists at Tamil National People’s Front Head

Office that action will be taken against them if they attempted to commemorate Thamilselvan, who was assassinated by the Sri Lankan Air Force 13 years ago on that day.

This act of intimidation has given birth to concern in the minds of Tamil people in Sri Lanka about how they will hold programmes this month marking Maaveerar Naal.

Following the end of the civil war in May 2009, the Sri Lankan government and its security forces clamped down on any attempt at commemorating Maaveerar Naal and destroyed the remaining LTTE cemeteries. All Maaveerar Naal commemorations have been banned.

Critics of the ban argue the Sri

Lankan government is denying the Tamil people the basic human right to mourn their dead.

In 2018 Tamils across the northeast gathered at the LTTE cemeteries (Thuyilum Illam), which were demolished by the Sri Lankan military.

Families of fallen fighters are instrumental in organizing the events in all eight districts.

Many had requested politicians to stay away from the events in which local community people generally participate.

The sacrificial flames at each cemetery are lit by a family member of a Maaveerar resident in the local area.

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voiceforjustice.ca | November 2020PAGE 6

PRESIDENCY HINGES ON ... Continues from page 1Officials said results may take

longer this year in some states due to increased mail-in voting.

According to US media reports, the race between the two candidates was on a knife edge, with no clear winner as vote-counting continued.

Until the morning of November 4, Trump led by slender margins in North Carolina and Georgia, while Joe Biden was ahead in Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin. With most other states ‘called,’ these five states will determine who wins the US presidential race.

Results suggested a tight contest in important battlegrounds: Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Trump was so far projected to win 23 states, including Texas, Ohio and must-win Florida, having outperformed pollsters’ predictions.

There were seven states still left uncalled, including major prizes such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin--meaning both Trump and Biden still have a path to victory.

US media outlets have projected wins for the Republican incumbent

in 23 states including big prizes Florida and Texas, as well as Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio--all states he won in 2016.

Biden has captured 20 states including his home state Delaware and big prizes California and New York, as well as the US capital. The former vice president has flipped one state won by Trump in 2016--Arizona, in the southwest.

Nebraska split its electoral votes between the two--four for Trump and one for Biden. Biden won Maine but so far he only has three of the four electoral votes on offer, with the last still to be decided.

In the US election, voters decide state-level contests rather than an overall, single, national one.

To be elected president, a candidate must win at least 270 votes in what is called the electoral college. Each US state gets a certain number of votes partly based on its population and there are a total of 538 up for grabs.

Until the morning of November 4, Biden won 238 electoral votes and Trump 213.

The election was plunged into

DECISION TO PROSCRIBE LTTE FLAWEDA landmark judgement given last

month has paved the way for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to possibly become legal in the United Kingdom.

Britain’s Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission found last month the Home Office decision to keep the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) proscribed as a terrorist organisation was “flawed” and unlawful.

This is only the second time in the Commission’s history that such an appeal has been heard in the past twenty years.

The Commission issued its judgement in London on October 21 and will now hold a second hearing to decide on relief to be issued to the applicants.

The Commission could instruct the UK Home Secretary to lay a statutory instrument before Parliament that may ultimately remove the LTTE from the list of proscribed organisations in the UK.

According to media reports, the UK Home Office has sought relevant information on the LTTE from the members of the Proscription Review Group (PRG) to provide any relevant information on the LTTE.

Based on this evidence, the PRG held its own meeting wherein it discussed its analysis. The Commission has seen the PRG

meeting minutes and the JTAC report--two most important pieces of information considered by the Home Office in making their decision.

The Commission ultimately found the decision was severely flawed as the minutes of the PRG meeting were not attached to the submission made by officials to the secretary of state before they made their decision.

The Commission noted the submission prepared by officials for the secretary of state to review before coming to their decision on whether to uphold the ban “materially misstated the PRG’s views.”

However, the UK government is likely to oppose this form of relief and instead request the matter be remitted back to the home secretary to make a new decision on the ban, taking into consideration all of the evidence and activities of the Tamil Tigers.

The ruling has sparked hope amongst campaigners, particularly from the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) who led the application to remove the LTTE from the UK’s list of proscribed organisations.

A member of the TGTE said they hope the government will now lift the ban as it is flawed and not legitimate. “The LTTE is not

chaos in the morning on November 4 as Donald Trump prematurely declared victory and sought Supreme Court intervention to stop vote-counting--even as Joe Biden voiced confidence in his own chances.

In a divisive election cast under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 230,000 lives in the United States, Trump appeared to have avoided a Democratic wave predicted by some polls, but he still needs key states to secure another four-year term.

A late burst of votes in Wisconsin from Milwaukee gave Biden a small lead, but it was too early to call the race. Hundreds of thousands of votes were also outstanding in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The two candidates, who have proposed dramatically different visions for the nation, split territory across the U.S. after polls closed on the night of November 3. With neither candidate securing the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, Biden urged patience and vowed every vote would be counted.

However, Trump, in an extraordinary move from the White House, called for outstanding ballots not to be counted.

He alleged fraud, without offering evidence and said he will launch a Supreme Court challenge even though millions of votes were still left to be counted.

a terrorist organisation, and its members were freedom fighters.”

“An organisation can be proscribed if the home secretary reasonably believes that an organisation is currently engaged in terrorism,” said solicitor Jamie Potter. “Ultimately it found that the home secretary had been materially misled in the way that the advice of those groups had been presented to him at the time. Therefore, the decision that the home secretary made was unlawful.”

The judgement also threw light on different aspects of evidence solicited and considered by the UK Home Office after the TGTE submitted an application in November 2018 calling for lifting the ban on the LTTE, which was

designated a Proscribed Terrorist Group under the UK’s Terrorism Act 2000 since 29 March 2001.

However, no date had been set for the Commission’s hearing on relief until last week of October.

Meanwhile, The Sri Lankan government reacted to the landmark judgement by stating it will continue to closely monitor the progress of the case.

A statement from Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry in Colombo said on October 22 that though the government “could not make direct representations,” it had “assisted the government of the United Kingdom by providing relevant information with regard to continued terrorist activities.”


LIBERALS FACE PROBE INTO PANDEMIC RESPONSEOpposition parties in Canada

won their bid on October 26 to launch an investigation into the Trudeau government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic despite growing objections from industry and experts.

Following a week of Parliamentary turbulence over how to review their management of the crisis, MPs from all four opposition parties voted to pass a motion that orders the Trudeau government to turn over to the House of Commons health committee all records on a raft of issues related to the coronavirus response.

That includes how they have gone about procuring rapid tests for COVID-19, vaccine development and the availability of personal protective equipment.

The move by Conservative, Bloc Quebecois, New Democrat and Green

MPs, plus one Independent, comes five days after the government survived a confidence vote on a previous Conservative motion to create a special committee to investigate the WE Charity affair and other alleged examples of corruption.

The October 26 motion zooms out from the WE controversy to focus more broadly on Ottawa’s reaction to COVID-19, but the probe can still examine documents tied to the embattled charity.

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said in a statement the 35-day time frame to hand over requested documents—extended from the 15 days originally proposed—was reasonable.

Government House leader Pablo Rodriguez agreed but argued clearing the way for an effective response means assigning new tasks to public

HUAWEI EXECUTIVE MENG WANZHOU SCORES A VICTORY

Meng Wanzhou scored a victory in her battle to fight extradition on October 29 as the judge overseeing the proceedings agreed to let the Huawei executive’s lawyers pursue their claim the United States misled Canada about the basics of the case.

In a ruling posted online, Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes said there was an “air of reality to Ms. Meng’s allegations of abuse of process in relation to the requesting state’s conduct.”

At a hearing held in September, the chief financial officer’s lawyers said they believed the evidence was strong enough to prove the United States omitted key components of the case that undermine allegations of fraud against their client.

Holmes’ ruling means Meng’s lawyers will be able to include those claims as one of three lines of attack in February when they try to convince the judge the entire case should be thrown out for abuse of process.

In her ruling, Holmes noted staying the proceedings against Meng was a possibility if the defence can make its case, but that she might also consider a less drastic remedy, like cutting out parts of the Crown’s record deemed unreliable.

Meng is charged with fraud and conspiracy in the United States in relation to allegations she lied to HSBC about Huawei’s relationship with a hidden subsidiary that was accused of violating U.S. economic sanctions against Iran.

Prosecutors claim by lying to HSBC to continue a financial relationship, Meng placed the bank at risk of loss and prosecution for breaching the same sanctions.

As part of the extradition process, the United States provided a record of the case that includes slides from the PowerPoint presentation Meng gave an HSBC executive in Hong Kong in August 2013.

However, Meng’s lawyers claim the U.S. deliberately omitted two slides from the PowerPoint presentation that showed Meng didn’t mislead the bank.

They also claim where the U.S. said only “junior” employees knew about the real relationship between Huawei and its subsidiary, senior executives at the bank were also aware.

In her ruling, Holmes said she would allow two statements from the missing slides to be included as evidence in the extradition case. She also agreed to allow evidence about HSBC’s management structure to help determine who is junior and who is not.

Holmes noted if any one of those lines of argument were proven, they might not be enough in and of themselves to derail the case, but the cumulative effect of all of them might end in a stay.

Meng has been denying the allegations against her.

During his campaign to become Ontario premier, Doug Ford told hydro customers he’d slash electricity rates by 12 percent.

Since Ford took office in June 2018, the cost of electricity for average households has risen by about 1.8 percent according to the Ontario Energy Board.

Starting November 1 rates are set to increase again by another two percent compared to pre-pandemic prices.

Mary Camastra, a contractor from Milton, Ontario, feels deceived--let down by a promise of cheaper hydro bills that has yet to come true. “I just feel tricked,” she said.

The government’s COVID-19 discount on hydro rates, which fixed prices at a lower cost, is also set to expire on October 31.

This means roughly five million residential and small business customers on “time-of-use” billing could see a spike in their next monthly hydro bill, especially if they use electricity in the morning and early evening “on-peak” hours.

“The on-peak (price) is insane,” Camastra said.

In June Camastra started an online petition calling for rates to be lowered. So far, it’s gathered about 4,500 signatures.

Under the government’s COVID-19 pricing plan, hydro rates were fixed at 10.1 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity for time-of-use customers, regardless of the time of day. The government then increased prices under the plan to 12.8 cents per kilowatt hour starting June 1.

When prices go up on November 1, customers will be paying:

21.7 cents/kwh between 7-11 a.m. and 5-7 p.m. on weekdays (on-peak)

15 cents/kwh between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays (mid-peak)

10.5 cents/kwh between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. on weekdays and on weekends (off-peak)

Ontarians can, however, now choose to opt-out of time-of-use billing in favour of a fixed rate based on how much electricity they use. This option could save some customers money, depending on their consumption habits.

Speaking to reporters on October 13, the day the most recent price increase was announced, Ford said he hates the fact hydro rates are going up.

Ford blamed the previous Liberal government for the latest increases, saying he inherited a “mess” of an energy file, and that rates would be much higher if he hadn’t been elected. “I hate it,” Ford said.

HYDRO PRICES IN ONTARIO INCREASING

servants already overloaded with work.

Earlier on October 26, Procurement Minister Anita Anand warned an investigation would jeopardize federal contracts for personal protective equipment, vaccines and rapid test kits.

She said it could trigger the release of commercially sensitive information, scaring off manufacturers and drug companies that would otherwise do business with Ottawa.

The Conservatives also accused the Liberals of trying to trigger an election, though the government followed through on its pledge not to treat the motion as a confidence matter.

Pfizer Canada was the latest company to express concerns about the health committee probe, asking

how the pharmaceutical giant’s commercial secrets will be protected and what process will be used to vet sensitive information before it is released to the health committee.

Pfizer’s concerns about the proposed probe reflect those raised in recent days by other industry players, including Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, which represents thousands of companies in Canada.


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NATIONWIDE PET SCAMS: WOMAN JAILED FOR 33 MONTHS

SIX NATIONS COUNCIL CALLS FOR LAND CLAIM TALKS

A Newfoundland and Labrador woman was handed down a federal sentence last month for her role in a rash of pet scams that affected victims across Canada.

Brittany Cora Lynn Osborne, 26, appeared in Harbour Grace Provincial Court on October 29 by videolink from the Clarenville Prison.

She pleaded guilty to 24 charges—including fraud and identity fraud—for posing as two different dog breeders from Quebec and Ontario in a series of elaborate schemes. Osborne—who also goes by her maiden name, Mahaney—was sentenced to 33 months in prison, minus time served. There are 802 days (more than two years) remaining of her sentence.

She was arrested on June 26, the day after CBC Investigates reported on claims from multiple people from across the country who said they paid hundreds of dollars in e-transfers for puppies they never received.

The court heard that Osborne accepted email money transfers from victims in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia ranging from totals of $250 to $1,570, between December 9, 2019, until her arrest.

The elected council of an Ontario First Nation at the heart of an Indigenous land dispute called for calm last month amid tensions that escalated between police and demonstrators at a proposed housing development site.

On October 24 demonstrations were staged opposing the development at McKenzie Meadows, forcing local police authorities to close roads in parts of Caledonia, Ontario.

Opponents camped out at the site for months, contending the development is on unceded Indigenous land near Six Nations First Nation and violates the sovereignty of the Haudenosaunee people. Dozens of protesters have been arrested since the occupation began.

Six Nations Elected Council issued a statement on October 23 saying the community should focus on addressing land claims with the federal and provincial governments, describing it as a goal all members share despite other differences of opinion.

“We hope in the days ahead, that we can work in unity to focus on the common goal of addressing our Six Nations land claims,” the statement said. “It’s time for the federal and provincial governments to right their wrongs.”

The statement said council was disturbed by the permanent injunction issued by a judge on October 22 ordering all demonstrators off the land

The money was accepted as deposits on animals, ranging from Bengal kittens to golden doodles, that didn’t exist.

In some cases, once the first deposit was sent, Osborne would text to say she needed more money to help pay for the animal’s vet bills, and unsuspecting buyers would send more cash electronically.

Police believe Osborne used a texting app to generate various phone numbers from across the country, to further legitimize her location when texting or calling interested buyers.

Osborne would also supply a handwritten receipt, and sometimes a handwritten contract.

Upon inspection, police investigating Osborne said the handwriting on the receipts matched that of Osborne’s handwriting.

In several cases, Osborne also posed as two dog breeders, and supplied their CKC certificates. She also supplied one of the breeders’ passport photos.

Police searched Osborne’s residence on the same day she was arrested.

reclamation camp known as 1492 Land Back Lane. They described the injunction as an example of systemic racism in Canada’s judiciary.

Reports of violence came from Caledonia hours after Justice John Harper’s ruling, with demonstrators saying police fired rubber bullets and police alleging cruisers were damaged.

“We do not condone the violence or destruction of property and we are calling for calm to refocus our minds,” the council’s statement said.

On October 22 Harper refused to hear constitutional arguments on the case from Skyler Williams, a man named in an August temporary injunction, saying the camp occupants were in contempt of court by refusing to leave the site. Williams said he is planning to appeal that ruling.

Premier Doug Ford said on October 23 he wants dialogue with the demonstrators, while describing those who engaged in the alleged violence as “bad apples.”

“I don’t know if a few folks are going rogue, but the way you get things settled is by sitting around the table, talking about solutions,” Ford said. “You don’t go after our police.”

In its statement, Six Nations Elected Council also addressed tensions within the community over its controversial agreement with the developer at McKenzie Meadows to publicly support the project.

MOST CANADIANS DON’T WANT FEDERAL ELECTION DURING PANDEMIC

A new poll last month suggested most Canadians don’t want a federal election to be held during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic—or even next year.

According to the poll results, 47 percent of respondents want the next election to be held in the fall of 2023—four years after the last election—and 10 percent would like one to be held in 2022.

Twenty-five percent of respondents say they want Canadians to head to the polls next spring and 18 percent next fall.

“The context of the pandemic tends to favour stability,” said Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque.

“I believe it’s probably sort of a

natural or a normal reaction to the context of the pandemic.” There were sharp regional variations.

Fifty-three percent of respondents in Quebec and 51 percent of those in Ontario want the Liberals to govern until 2023, while 42 percent of those in Alberta and 36 percent of those in Manitoba and Saskatchewan want to cast ballots next spring.

The desired timing also varies along party lines, with nearly half of Conservative supporters saying they want an election next spring and 70 percent of Liberal supporters choosing 2023.

The online poll of 1,523 adult Canadians was carried from October 23 to 25 and cannot be assigned a margin of error because

CHAPTER: THE CORRECTION OF FAULTS

Couplet 432: A niggard hand, o’erweening self-regard, and mirthUnseemly, bring disgrace to men of kingly brith

Explanation: Avarice, undignified pride, and low pleasures are faults in a king

internet-based polls are not considered random.

The poll suggests the Liberal party is still leading among decided voters. Thirty-seven percent say they would vote for the Liberals, versus 30 percent for the Conservatives and 18 percent for the NDP. The Bloc followed with eight percent and the Greens at five.

The last six months of polling have shown the Liberals four to nine points ahead, said Bourque, adding the new Conservative leader has not yet managed to improve results for his party.

The survey also shows 71 percent of respondents are satisfied with the measures the federal government has put in place to fight COVID-19, while 25 percent are unsatisfied.

Meanwhile, 25 percent of respondents feel the federal government has done a worse job managing the second wave of the COVID-19 than it did for the initial wave last spring.

Only 14 percent feel it has done a better job this time around.


POLITICIANS IN ALBERTA FANNING FLAMES OF POLITICAL DIVISION,

TRUDEAU SAYSPrime Minister Justin Trudeau

said on October 30 politicians in Alberta are contributing to the less than favourable attitude toward his government.

“There is a bit of a political division that unfortunately sometimes takes the place of everything else,” Trudeau said, pointing to the recent backlash against the single-use plastics ban in Alberta as one example.

He made this observation during his appearance on the 630 CHED Mornings.

On October 6 the province announced the new ban would actually infringe on its plan for plastics. The plan would see plastic products manufactured in Alberta using natural gas, with enhanced recycling techniques to use recycled plastic in the manufacturing of new products.

“Stay in your own lane, stay within your own constitutional bounds,” Energy Minister Sonya Savage said at the time. “Those plastics are going to be manufactured somewhere, and if it’s not here in Alberta, it’s going to increase manufacturing in other places. We need it in Alberta to diversify the economy and create jobs.”

According to Trudeau, that argument contains a lot of “torque” because a big part of the ban is, while the government is banning specific toxic, one-use plastics, they also plan

to bring in a “significant” recycling program for use on plastics so the country can get economic benefits, while having fewer plastics end up in landfills.

“So a lot of the things that we’re doing actually do align with what a lot of really thoughtful people and businesses in Alberta are already going towards,” Trudeau said, adding that political division is also playing a part in getting Alberta the COVID-19 app.

There’s been a lot of discussion about why Alberta isn’t online with the COVID Alert app yet. Alberta created its own COVID-19 alert app but ran into troubles that required the app to remain open with certain operating systems.

While the province attempted to get that fixed, Premier Jason Kenney said the federal government told Google and Apple not to work with the province.

While appearing on the show, Trudeau was asked about the feeling in Alberta that a lot of his policies hurt Albertans more than help.

He defended his government’s actions by pointing to COVID-19 supports like the emergency wage subsidy and CERB, as well as saying his government has “consistently” been there to support Alberta “whether it’s a billion dollars for orphaned wells, whether it’s hundreds of millions of dollars for emissions reductions funds.”

TRANSPORT REGULATOR FAILS TO SETTLE A SINGLE FLIGHT CANCELLATION COMPLAINT

The Canadian Transportation Agency has failed to settle a single complaint filed by Canadians demanding refunds due to cancellation of flights since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The independent tribunal said it has been inundated with close to 10,000 complaints from mid-March when global air travel largely ground to a halt until October 16.

The agency confirmed it’s still processing complaints it received before March 11; it has yet to deal with any cases filed during the public health crisis.

For months, Canada’s transport minister has said if Canadians are unsatisfied with refunds, the course of action is to file complaints with the tribunal.

Carly Aubertin and her husband Rob McLean are upset they filed a complaint in April, which has been sitting in limbo ever since.

“It’s just so disheartening,” said Aubertin. “It’s frustrating that the government’s not there to support us.”

The Ontario residents are considering selling their home as they wrestle with living off a single income because the pandemic has hurt McLean’s business. Sunwing gave them a voucher for a cancelled trip to Antigua due to COVID, rather than a full refund that could help pay their mortgage until the spring.

“Right now, I mean, $5,000? There’s five months of mortgage

right there,” she said.

The delay is partially due to a two-year backlog of complaints the CTA received before the pandemic struck. The backlog is tied to a significant influx of complaints received after new air passenger protection regulations came into effect in December 2019.

COVID-19 hampered further efforts to process complaints; the CTA temporarily paused its discussions with airlines regarding “dispute resolution activities” until June 30, 2020, to allow airlines to focus on more urgent matters. The agency also granted airlines an extension until October 28 to respond to passengers seeking compensation.

But the CTA says it’s making progress on tackling the caseload. The agency has processed a record number of complaints in the past fiscal year. The administrative tribunal also received a funding boost to get through cases more quickly and says it’s weeks away from starting on complaints filed during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Bloc Québécois MP and transport critic Xavier Barsalou-Duval said passengers and consumers have a right to feel upset about the federal government’s lack of action.

On October 23 he presented a bill seeking to amend the Canada Transportation Act in order to ensure passengers are fully refunded in the event an air carrier cancels a flight.

MI’KMAQ FISHERMAN INTENDS TO FIGHT FEDERAL LOBSTER CATCH CHARGES

A fisherman from a Mi’kmaq community in Cape Breton stated last month he intends to plead not guilty to charges of illegal fishing after his lobster traps were seized in 2019 by federal fisheries officers in southwestern Nova Scotia.

Ashton Bernard, 30, of Eskasoni First Nation, said on October 26 he will rely on the 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision in the Donald Marshall Jr. case.

The Supreme Court ruled that East Coast Indigenous communities have the right to fish for a moderate livelihood, citing peace treaties signed by the Crown in the 1760s. A subsequent clarification of the

court’s decision, however, also affirmed Ottawa’s right to regulate the fishery to ensure conservation of the resource.

Bernard said he believes the first portion of the Supreme Court decision will prevail.

“The highest court in Canada affirmed our treaty rights and we’re allowed to fish under a moderate livelihood,” he said. “I wasn’t going to wait around for the government to tell us when to fish or not.”

Bernard’s case is proceeding amid tensions over the launching on September 17 of a livelihood fishery by the Sipekne’katik First Nation, on the 21st anniversary of

the Marshall decision.

Since the Sipekne’katik Fishery began, federal fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan has confirmed she is committed to respecting the Mi’kmaq Treaty right to pursue a moderate livelihood. Her officials have been in talks with the band to define the fishery.

The seizures of Bernard’s catch occurred September 7, 2019, when Bernard says fisheries officers raided his boat in the early hours of the morning and removed 32 crates of lobster.

Meanwhile, in Ottawa the House of Commons Fisheries Committee delved into the dispute on October

26 with testimony from Indigenous leaders.

Paul Prosper, the Assembly of First Nations’ regional chief for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, told MPs it was a rude awakening when he learned the federal government doesn’t always uphold treaty rights.

“There is no mechanism to force government to, under the laws of this land,” he said.

Indigenous fishermen have been waiting for 21 years since Marshall decision for a mandate to practice their moderate-livelihood fishing rights, Prosper said.


HEALTH MINISTER SAYS SHE WENT MASKLESS AT AIRPORT WHILE EATING

CITY OF TORONTO APPROVES LOCATION FOR TAMIL COMMUNITY CENTRE

INDIGENOUS-LED CLINIC LAUNCHED TO HELP QUEBEC

The Steering Committee for the Tamil Community Centre project announced last month that Toronto City Council approved 311 Staines Road as the future location of the Tamil Community Centre. The City of Toronto will work with the Steering Committee on finalizing a land lease.

For the past year the Steering Committee has been working closely with the city, the mayor’s office, Councillor McKelvie, and other elected officials in the area to secure this piece of land for this project at minimal cost - $1 plus HST.

A clinic led by Indigenous will help the Quebec community, which is still shaken by Joyce Echaquan’s death.

The clinic will operate two afternoons per month, serving patients who are Indigenous and do not already have access to a doctor. Patients need to make appointments, and if the clinic cannot accommodate their needs, staff will try to guide and accompany them to other services, said Jennifer Brazeau, executive director of the Native Friendship Centre in Quebec’s Lanaudiere region.

“The idea is simple. Provide a culturally secure space where Indigenous people can get health care without feeling afraid,” Brazeau said in a recent interview, adding that reluctance to seek health services in Joliette, Quebec, has grown over the past month after an Atikamekw mother of seven died in a local hospital after filming staff hurled racial slurs at her.

Joyce Echaquan’s September 28 death has shaken the province, raising questions about systemic racism in health care and leading to calls for the provincial government to both recognize the problem and

Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu said she took off a face mask at the airport last month only to eat or drink.

She came up with a statement, following a Twitter post showing her without a face covering at Pearson Airport in Toronto.

Mayor Tory and Councillor McKelvie both spoke about the importance of the Tamil Community Centre to City Council.

“Tamil community is absolutely remarkable and sometimes they are more active than others,” Mayor Tory said in his message.

311 Staines Road is a surplus property that was purchased by the City of Toronto for the construction of a community centre.

However, it has sat vacant for an opportunity like this one. The land is at the centre of where the

take concrete action to stop it.

In Joliette, where about two percent of the city’s 47,000 residents identifies as Indigenous, Brazeau said the long-standing need for a clinic where members of the community feel safe is more pressing than ever.

The proximity clinic, called Mirerimowin, will welcome its first patients Tuesday afternoon in a room at the Native Friendship Centre in the city about 75 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

“When we launched this, we even had pregnant women wanting to know if they could have their babies here because they don’t want to go to the hospital,” Brazeau said.

Dr. Samuel Boudreault, a Universite Laval professor and a physician in a family medicine group that is affiliated with the regional health agency, is one of two doctors volunteering at the clinic.

He said the doctors as well as medical residents will collaborate with social workers at the Native Friendship Centre to make sure patients are comfortable and get medical follow-ups after their treatment.

Tamil community lives in the city of Toronto, the city of Markham, and the region of Durham. A quick glance at community centres and social services in this area reveal a marked lack of vital services.

We look forward to working with the Tamil community, the Huron-Wendat who are the ancestral rights holders of the territory, and the diverse local communities to create a space where they can all access cultural and human services in this underserved area.

The Committee will keep the community up to date on the process.

The recommendations of the

General Government and Licensing Committee included a City Council direct that the Tamil Community Centre shall be responsible for any and all amounts and costs payable with respect to any claim or litigation with respect to the change in use of the subject property, from a naturalized state to a new community centre, to be secured by an irrevocable and unconditional Letter of Credit in the amount of five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) from a major Canadian bank, in the form required by the chief financial officer and treasurer upon request of the executive director, corporate real estate management.

The photo of Hajdu without a mask was posted on October 26 by a self-described aide to Alberta’s advanced-education minister.

It shows Hajdu seated in a chair by herself with a piece of rolling luggage next to her, either speaking or smiling.

LIBERALS WIN TWO TORONTO BYELECTIONS

The federal Liberals held onto the Ontario ridings of Toronto Centre and York Centre in byelections held on October 26.

In Toronto Centre, Liberal Party candidate Marci Ien, a journalist, won with 42 percent of the vote, against 32.7 percent for Annamie Paul, Green Party candidate and leader. The NDP candidate, Brian Chang, placed third with 17 percent, with 144 out of 144 polls reporting.

In York Centre, Liberal Party candidate Ya’ara Saks won with 45.7 percent of the vote, against 41.8 percent for Conservative Party candidate Julius Tiangson after a very tight race. The NDP’s Andrea Vásquez Jiménez placed third with 5.8 percent, with 143 out of 143 polls reporting.

Maxime Bernier and his People’s Party garnered 3.6 percent of the votes in York Centre, which is in Toronto’s north end.

Both ridings are considered Liberal strongholds. The Liberals captured more than 50 percent of the vote in both ridings in last fall’s general election.

Ien said the first issues she will focus on after taking office will be housing and homelessness. She said people living outside need help because winter is coming. She also said she will take care of people in the riding as the second wave of COVID-19 continues to grip the

city.

Ien was most recently a co-host of the daytime talk show The Social on CTV. She was also a co-host of the network’s former morning talk show Canada AM.

In a statement, the Green Party congratulated Paul for running an “extraordinary” campaign. Saks is a co-owner of a yoga studio and director of a mental health charity.

Trudeau called the byelections for Toronto Centre and York Centre in September.

Toronto Centre became vacant when former finance minister Bill Morneau resigned in August.

York Centre became vacant when Liberal MP Michael Levitt resigned on September 1 to become CEO of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.

Elections Canada took steps to ensure voter safety in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, said spokesperson Natasha Gauthier.

An estimated 14,266 voters cast ballots over four days of advance polls in the byelections, Elections Canada said.

In Toronto Centre, an estimated 7,960 people voted in advance polls, down from 13,140 in the last federal election. In York Centre, some 6,306 people voted in advance, down from 9,881.

Hajdu replied by saying following public health rules is important to her, and she only removes her mask when those rules allow it, such as to eat or drink.

There’s no food or drink apparent in the image, though there is an open paper bag just visible on Hajdu’s side,

away from the camera.

In July, then-Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister were photographed talking in a departure area at Pearson Airport without masks, for which Pallister apologized.


FIRST CASE OF RARE SWINE FLU IN CANADA FOUND

Alberta public health and agriculture officials are investigating after a case of a rare swine flu variant was detected in October in a central Alberta patient.

This is the first case of rare swine flu in Canada, officials said, adding that the case is only the 27th in the world since 2005.

“A confirmed case of variant Influenza A (H1N2) v has been detected in central Alberta,” Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said in a joint statement on November 4 with Dr. Keith Lehman, chief provincial veterinarian.

“This currently appears to be one isolated case and there is no increased risk to Albertans at this time. This is the only influenza case reported in Alberta so far this flu season.”

Hinshaw and Lehman will talk more about the case at a news conference on November 4.

Hinshaw and Lehman said the virus was detected in mid-October when a patient with influenza-like symptoms sought medical treatment.

“The patient experienced mild symptoms, was tested and then quickly recovered,” they said. “There

is no evidence at this time that the virus has spread further.”

Health officials, working with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, have launched a public health investigation to determine the source of the virus and to verify no spread occurred.

The province said it will continue working closely with Alberta Health Services, the Public Health Agency of Canada and other partners across Canada.

“AHS will proactively offer influenza testing to residents in parts of central Alberta if they are presenting for COVID-19 testing at an AHS assessment centre,” the statement said. “This testing will be optional and supports our ongoing influenza surveillance in the region.

“We are taking this seriously, but Albertans should know that sporadic cases of variant influenza have been reported over the past decade in North America.”

The statement said H1N2 is not a food-related illness and is not transmissible to people through pork meat or other products that come from pigs. There is no risk associated with eating pork, the statement said.

TRUDEAU ANNOUNCES MADE-IN-CANADA VACCINE DEAL

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last month the first deal for a made-in-Canada vaccine candidate.

This is in addition to the other deals Canada has already signed to secure hundreds of millions of doses of promising COVID-19 vaccines.

Trudeau also said it’s reasonable to expect vaccines will roll out sometime in 2021 but cautioned it will depend how safety trials proceed in the coming months.

“We are hopeful that the vaccines will arrive yesterday, but they won’t, there’s still a number more months of work to do,” Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa on October 23.

Trudeau announced Canada has signed a $173-million deal to help Canadian biotech firm Medicago develop their vaccine candidate and build a production facility in Quebec City, where the company is headquartered. He said the government has agreed to buy 76 million doses of their vaccine.

Medicago began a phase one trial for its vaccine in July with 180 volunteers and plans to start phase two in early November and phase three in December.

Trudeau also said the government is giving $18.2 million to Vancouver-

based firm Precision NanoSystems, which also has a vaccine candidate, and is committing a further $23 million in funding for early-stage vaccine development by other Canadian companies.

The federal government already has deals in place for leading vaccine candidates from global firms that are currently doing phase three testing, including Moderna, Pzifer and AstraZeneca.

Meanwhile, Trudeau said rapid testing devices have started to be delivered in provinces and should be put into use soon.

One use of rapid testing will be a pilot project in Alberta that aims to reduce the 14-day quarantine time for international travellers. But Trudeau said different provinces may make different uses of the rapid testing tools.

“Access to rapid tests will vary across the country, depending on the strategy put forward by the province in question,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau said people must remain vigilant and follow public health advice, noting Canada recorded its highest-ever count of new COVID-19 cases on October 22. “We must reduce the spread, people’s lives are in danger,” he said.

WRITER RM VAUGHAN FOUND DEAD Police in New Brunswick found

writer Richard Vaughan dead on October 23, 10 days after he went missing. He was 55.

The author and video artist, who wrote under the name RM Vaughan, was a revered figure in Canada’s LGBTQ arts scene.

After finding Vaughan’s body, Fredericton Police said his death is not being treated as suspicious.

Born in Saint John, N.B, Vaughan recently returned to his home province from Montreal to serve as writer-in-residence at his alma mater, the University of New Brunswick for 2019-2020.

Police said he was last seen near his home in downtown Fredericton on October 12, and he was reported missing the next day.

The news sparked a flurry of concern in literary circles, with many writers sharing posts urging people

to keep an eye out for Vaughan.

Vaughan’s bibliography includes the poetry collections A Selection of Dazzling Scarves, Invisible to Predators, Ruined Stars, Troubled and Ve1Xe; the novels Quilted Heart and Spells; and the play “Camera, Woman” and “The Monster Trilogy.”

His works often touched on queer stories of coming-of-age and eroticism. He also had a taste for the supernatural and macabre and was captivated by the world of the celebrity.

A contributor to a variety of publications and anthologies, Vaughan published the book of essays Compared to Hitler in 2013, featuring many of his takes on contemporary culture.

In the 2015 non-fiction book Bright Eyed, Vaughan examined the health and historical context of his lifelong battle with insomnia.

MP CUZNER MADE NEW CONSULATE GENERALPrime Minister Justin Trudeau is sending former Liberal

MP Rodger Cuzner to represent Canada as the country’s consulate general in Boston. Cuzner was an MP for Cape Breton for nearly 20 years but quit politics before the last federal election in 2019. A consulate general is a major diplomatic outpost, subordinate only to the main embassy in a foreign capital. They’re mostly led by career diplomats but prominent former politicians such as former prime minister Kim Campbell and ex-NDP MP Joe Comartin have been tapped as well. The Boston consulate general serves Canadians in the northeastern United States and maintains relations with regional figures like state governors and business leaders. Cuzner succeeds David Alward, a former premier of New Brunswick.

CITIZENS IN U.S. TO BE HELPED IN CASE OF POST-ELECTION DISRUPTION

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on November 3 Canada’s diplomats will be ready to help Canadians living south of the border if there’s trouble in the United States after election day.

She said it’s always a federal government responsibility to assist Canadians who are outside the country, no matter where they are.

Freeland said it’s up to Americans to decide who will lead them and up to Canada to deal with whoever

American voters select.

Some observers of the U.S. presidential election expect late-counted votes could mean the outcome is still uncertain by the end of the night.

In the polarized American political environment, which saw clashes between demonstrators and police in many cities earlier this year, that could potentially lead to civil unrest. Freeland said the government has plans and will be ready no matter what happens.


BHUTAN SMOKERS HUFF AND PUFF OVER TOBACCO BAN

MAN LYNCHED IN BANGLA FOR ALLEGED QURAN DESECRATION

In downtown Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, Sonam Dema–who requested her real name not be used–owns a small corner shop in a quiet alleyway. Packaged food, drinks, confectionaries and pastries are on display. On a busy afternoon, a Bhutanese man walks into the shop and orders cigarettes in a hushed tone. Dema looks around cautiously. She leans down to her handbag and pulls out a pack of 10 cigarettes. “One hundred ngultrum (about $1.87),” Dema says. The transaction happens under the counter. The buyer slides the pack of cigarettes under his jacket and leaves in no time. “It’s illegal to sell cigarettes here. I don’t sell them to anyone I don’t know,” Dema says after her customer leaves.

Bhutan, a small Himalayan nation often called the Land of the Thunder Dragon, is the only country in the world that completely bans the sale and production of tobacco and tobacco products. Under the law, any individual found selling tobacco can face imprisonment for a period of three to five years.

The youngster confesses she is only doing it for financial reasons. “Look at everything in the store. Cigarettes bring more profit than anything else. I have to pay rent for this place, and if I stop selling cigarettes, my profits will plummet,” she says.

Bhutan, with a population of 700,000, has used an index called “Gross National Happiness” as a measure of progress. The government emphasises improving people’s happiness while relying on four pillars of development–good governance, natural environment, sustainable growth and cultural

Hundreds of people in a Bangladeshi town have beaten and lynched a man who had allegedly desecrated the Muslim holy book, police said.

During the last week of October the crowd seized two men who had been in official custody after they were accused of stepping on a Quran in the main mosque of Burimari in Lalmonirhat district, more than 300 kilometres from Dhaka.

“They beat one man to death and then burnt the body,” district police chief Abida Sultana told the AFP news agency.

Sultana said the two men told the imam at the mosque hard line fighters might have stored illegal arms inside the building, the DPA news agency reported.

The two men then tried to search for the weapons on a shelf where the Quran and Hadith (sayings of

values.

The Himalayan nation has a long history of tobacco control. In 1729 it perhaps became the first country in the world to have any kind of tobacco regulation, when the supreme leader Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal passed a law against tobacco use. Sudeva FC head coach becomes 1st Bhutanese at helm of an I-League club

Bracing up for their maiden I-League appearance, Sudeva FC appointed Bhutanese Chencho Dorji as the team’s head coach ahead of the upcoming season. I-League’s newest entrant is the first team from national capital New Delhi.

The league will be held in Kolkata from November to March. Dorji is the first Bhutanese coach at the helm of any club in the history of the I-League. He joined Sudeva’s academy in November 2019 and is now the chief tactician of the senior team. Dorji has previously worked at the Bhutan Football Federation for 12 years and has also had a brief stint at a Manipur-based club.

The new coach felt honoured at being appointed to the post. “It is a great honour to be part of the I-League. I really thank the president and the vice-president for believing in me and deciding to give the huge responsibility. lf you do well, you will survive and I am very excited about this challenge.”

“As with every head coach, I also want to win. l want to win all the matches, but that does not happen in football.” “We must be ready to handle such a situation wisely. This is our first season and we want to be in the best position at the end of the season.”

Prophet Muhammad) were kept in a way the imam found disrespectful to the holy books.

An altercation followed, and the locals initially confined the two men to a room.

Several hundred people then rushed to the scene in the night and took away one of the men to a nearby area where they beat him and set his body on fire, said the officer.

Police recovered the charred body of the man, local government official Abu Newaz Nishat said. The footage of the attack went viral on social media shortly after the incident.

The 35-year-old victim was reportedly struggling with psychological problems after he recently lost his job as a librarian at a college in neighbouring Rangpur district, Nishat said.

INDIA SUSTAINS TREND OF DECLINING COVID-19 ACTIVE CASES

India continues to report a trend of steadily declining active cases of COVID-19. For the third day since the active cases dropped below the 6 lakh-mark after nearly three months, the progressive decline has been maintained, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Presently India’s total active caseload is 5,70,458. The active cases have dropped to only 6.97 percent of the total positive cases in the country, demonstrating a steady falling percentage of the total cases, as per the Union Health Ministry.

The trajectory of the active caseload across different States/Union Territories (UTs) has been diverse, demonstrating their focused efforts and gradual progress in their fight against COVID-19. Karnataka has reported a steep decline in the active cases in the past 24 hours.

With the consistent decline in active cases, the cases per million in India are among the lowest in the world. India’s average cases per million stand at 5,930. As many as 17 States/UTs have cases per million

lower than the national average. There has been a steady decline in the number of deaths in India. 470 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours in the country. India’s deaths per million population is one of the lowest in the world and stand at 88.

As many as 21 States/UTs have deaths per million lower than the national average.

The declining trend of the percentage of active cases is commensurately supported by the rising percentage of recovered cases. The total recovered cases stand at 749,153. The gap between recovered cases and active cases has crossed 69 lakh (692,105).

With an increasing number of recoveries, this gap is continuously widening.

A higher number of recoveries has aided the national recovery rate to further improve to 91.54 percent. 58,684 have recovered and been discharged in the last 24 hours, whereas the new confirmed cases stand at 46,963.

MURDERED TAMIL JOURNALIST NIMALARAJAN REMEMBERED

Various programmes were held on October 19 across the northeast of Sri Lanka to remember Tamil journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan on the 20th anniversary of his assassination.

Nimalarajan, a senior journalist who contributed to the BBC Tamil and Sinhala services, the Tamil daily Virakesari and Sinhala weekly Ravaya, was murdered on October 19, 2000.

The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement shortly after his murder that read: “The assailants shot the journalist through the window of his study where he was working on an article,

and threw a grenade into the home before fleeing the premises. The attack occurred during curfew hours in a high-security zone in central Jaffna town.

“Local journalists suspect that Nimalarajan’s reporting on vote-rigging and intimidation in Jaffna during the recent parliamentary elections may have led to his murder.”

The EPDP, a government aligned paramilitary group, are suspected of carrying out the killing. 20 years have passed since Nimalarajan’s killing, but his killers have not been tried or punished.


PAKISTAN’S ISLAMIC BODY APPROVES CONSTRUCTION OF HINDU TEMPLE

Pakistan’s state-run council of clerics, which advises the government on religious issues, has given its approval for the construction of a new temple for minority Hindus, ruling that Islamic law allows minorities a place of worship.

Lal Malhi, a prominent Hindu leader who is also a member of Parliament, applauded Wednesday’s ruling but noted the council also recommended the government not spend public funds directly on the construction of private places of worship.

Currently, there is no functioning temple for Hindus in Islamabad. About 3,000 Hindus live in the capital with its population of more than one million, mostly Muslims.

In a statement, the Council of Islamic Ideology also said Hindus in Pakistan had a constitutional right to perform the last rites of their deceased.

“In light of this right, it is permitted for the Hindu community in Islamabad to have a suitable place

where they can perform last rites of the deceased according to religious instructions,” the statement said.

The council also permitted the building of community centres for the minority group to hold weddings and religious events, which the council noted was their constitutional right.

The decision by the Council of Islamic Ideology comes after the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan abruptly halted construction on the temple in the capital, Islamabad in June.

Khan’s decision came amid threats from hardline Muslims who called the construction of the temple a blasphemous act.

Some of those Muslims had threatened to try to stop the temple’s construction by force, raising tensions.

Khan turned to the council to decide if public money could be used for construction. He had promised $600,000 for the temple’s construction.

FORMER SRI LANKAN MINISTER BATHIUDEEN ARRESTEDSri Lanka’s Criminal

Investigations Department arrested former minister Rishad Bathiudeen and seven others during a raid on Dehiwela on October 19 for reportedly assisting a politician to evade arrest.

Two of the seven alleged accomplices are females, including one female doctor, and all will be charged with harbouring a suspect, said Sri Lanka police spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana. At least six police teams were involved in the operation, he added.

Bathiudeen’s arrest came just days after Sri Lanka’s defense secretary Major General Kamal Gunaratne said the state will show no mercy to Bathiudeen or his associates. Gunaratne added the security forces were hunting the Muslim politician.

The CID arrested Bathiudeen although his lawyers filed a writ

petition a week ago seeking an order to prevent his arrest.

Attorney Gowry Thavarasa said the stay order had not been given as it was not supported, and the police arrested the politician before the order was given.

Bathiudeen is accused of transporting internally displaced persons in 222 Ceylon Transport Board buses from Puttalam to Mannar to cast their votes during the 2019 presidential election.

Also, according to media reports, Bathiudeen will be charged with violation of election laws during the 2019 presidential election and criminal misappropriation of public funds.

State council Nishara Jayaratne claimed there is sufficient evidence Bathiudeen is guilty of misappropriating funds to the tune of Rs. 9.5 million.

MALDIVES TIGHTENS TOURIST VIRUS RULES AFTER SPIKE IN CASES

The Maldives has tightened entry requirements for tourists after a spike in coronavirus infections at more than a dozen resorts, the foreign ministry said recently.

The Indian Ocean archipelago re-opened its luxury resort islets in mid-July after a months-long lockdown and did not require visitors to be tested or carry virus-free certificates when entering the country. Since then, 29 local staff and 16 foreigners have tested positive at the resorts, officials said, where they were also being isolated.

Under the new guidelines, all tourists will be required to present a negative COVID-19 test result on arrival. Tourism is the major economic driver for the Maldives, a tropical island paradise popular with honeymooners and celebrities.

Authorities had hoped tourists

would flock back to the archipelago of 1,190 tiny coral islets after international flights restarted, but only 5,200 tourists have visited the country monthly since July 15--a fraction of the pre-pandemic 141,000 monthly average.

Meanwhile, the Maldives recorded more than 1,000 new infections in just the past week to take the total number of cases to 8,003. Most of the infections since the start of the pandemic have been among poor migrant labourers and locals in the densely populated capital of Male.

The government had imposed a night curfew in Male and neighbouring inhabited islands beginning in early August to contain the sharp rise in cases there. Some 29 people have died so far from COVID-19 in the nation of 340,000 people.

RAJAPAKSA CLAIMS LTTE STILL VERY ACTIVECalling upon the British

authorities not to lift ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sri Lankan prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed last month the movement is still “very active” and poses a “great threat to the national security of any country.

His call comes after Britain’s Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission ruled last month the decision to keep the LTTE’s proscription in Britain was “flawed” and unlawful.

Despite claiming the LTTE remained “very active,” Rajapaksa also said Sri Lanka had “defeated the LTTE and put a stop to its brutal

terrorist activities.” His tweet was referring to the military offensive he oversaw as president in 2009, which led to tens of thousands of Tamil civilians being killed in mass atrocities.

Since the massacres at Mullivaikkal, which remain unaccounted for, there has been increasing miltiarisation of the Tamil northeast and continued reports of human rights abuses.

“Remnants of LTTE terrorism remain very active around the world and pose a great threat to the national security of any country,” Rajapaksa tweeted.“ I hope the British government will maintain the proscription on the LTTE.”

INDIA-MALDIVES PARTNERSHIP HAS GROWN IN ALL AREAS OF DEVELOPMENTIndia-Maldives partnership has grown from

strength to strength, spanning all areas of development, and across the Maldives, said Abdulla Shahid, Maldives foreign minister, on the occasion marking the 55th year of India-Maldives friendship. “Celebrating 55 years of #MaldivesIndiaPartnership! India was among the first countries to recognise the independent Maldives, on 1 November 1965,” Shahid said in a tweet.

The appeal on the LTTE proscription in the UK was put forward by the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), an organisation who has been labelled an “LTTE front organisation” by the Sri Lankan

Foreign Ministry.The decision from Britain’s

Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission has paved the way for the organisation to possibly being legalised in the United Kingdom.


SAJITH CALLS FOR REPEAL OF US TRAVEL BAN ON ARMY COMMANDER

TAMILS REVIVING ANCIENT TEMPLE IN MULLAITIVU

Last month Sri Lanka’s Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa urged the government to push for a repeal on the US travel ban imposed on Sri Lankan Army commander, Shavendra Silva, and his immediate family.

Premadasa told the Parliament on October 23 the Sri Lankan government must “discuss this matter and obtain a statement from him (the US State Secretary) about lifting the travel ban.”

“This ban was imposed upon the betrayal of our war heroes by the previous government in Geneva,” Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Dinesh Gunawardana said in response to the opposition leader’s suggestion, maintaining he should have raised concerns with the previous foreign minister, whilst he held a ministerial post.

Premadasa has previously vowed to “stand by” Silva, calling him “one of the heroic field commanders who spearheaded the national effort to eradicate terrorism.”

He made this call ahead of US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo’s, visit to Sri Lanka on October 27.

Tamil villagers conducted a special worship at the ancient Athi Ayan Temple, Kurunthur Hill, Kumulamunai, Mullaitivu earlier lastmonth.

Like many ancient monuments in the Tamil homeland, this temple also is coming under attack from Buddist colonisation.

In 2018 a group of Buddhist monks tried to build a Buddhist vihara on the hill after designating the hill an archaeological site by claiming it contained an ancient Buddhist shrine.

When locals strongly opposed the move and resisted the bid to build the Buddhist vihara, a court order ruled locals can continue their worship activities as usual but no new constructions can take place on the hill, and archaeological objects cannot

The US travel ban was initially imposed on the Army commander in February this year, considering his role with regard to “gross human rights violations.” In particular, the US report highlighted “extrajudicial killings, by the 58th Division of the Sri Lanka Army during the final phase of Sri Lanka’s Civil War in 2009.”

The 58th Division engaged in a brutal military assault that saw hospitals repeatedly bombed, widespread sexual violence, torture, and the execution of surrendering Tamils.

In February the US State Department stated: “His designation underscores the importance we place on human rights in Sri Lanka and globally, our concern over impunity for human rights violations and abuses, as well as our support for promoting accountability for those who engage in such acts. We urge the Sri Lankan government to promote human rights, hold accountable individuals responsible for war crimes and human rights violations, advance security sector reform, and uphold its other commitments to pursue justice and reconciliation.”

be damaged. However, since the change of

government, a scepter from the hill was found destroyed.

A petition was filed by the temple administration earlier in the year opposing the construction of the checkpoint. The court had ruled it could not be erected as new constructions were prohibited.

Amid this situation, the villagers carried out a Pongal celebration at the Athi Ayan Temple during the full moon in early October.

However, local villagers have expressed concern the Kurunthur Temple has been marked in Sinhala and English as Kurundaseva Buddhist Temple on Google Maps.

SEVERAL DEAD AND MISSING AFTER LANDSLIDES IN NEPALLandslides triggered by

torrential rain swept through two villages in Nepal, killing at least 12 people, a government official said.

Ten people were killed and 21 declared missing after a massive landslide swept away homes and people in Bahrabise, 100 km east of capital Kathmandu near

the border with the Tibet region of China, Nepalese government official, Murari Wasti said.

The village and the surrounding area were among the regions worst hit by Nepal’s devastating 2015 earthquake and reconstruction work had been continuing when the landslide struck.

SRI LANKAN TROOPS IN LEBANON CONDUCT JOINT EXERCISE

Sri Lanka’s Force Protection Company (SLFP-Coy) conducted joint military exercises with the Lebanese Army last month.

The Sri Lankan military’s website posted a report on this exercise that said the Sri Lankan Force Protection Company (SLFP-Coy) serving the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) recently participated in a five-day long direct live firing exercise, “Ex-Steel Storm – 2020.”

France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Ireland, Germany, Slovenia, Ghana, South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, India, Indonesia, Serbia, Brazil, Bangladesh, China, Poland, and Lebanese Armed Forces also joined the exercise.

The SLFP-Coy included three officers and 27 other ranks used four Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) mounted with machine guns, five Multipurpose Machine Guns (MPMGs) and 10 personal weapons during this joint-exercise.

Sri Lankan troops have contributed to the United Nations Peace Keeping

since 2004. Sri Lankan troops are currently deployed in UN missions based in Lebanon, South Sudan, Mali and the Western Sahara.

This deployment follows a ban of all “non-essential” Sri Lankan troops deployed on peacekeeping missions, in response to the appointment of accused war criminal Shavendra Silva as head of the country’s military.

Sri Lanka’s military has been accused of a litany of human rights abuses both within Sri Lanka and abroad during peacekeeping operations.

At least 134 Sri Lankan soldiers were implicated from 2004 to 2006 in a child sex ring in Haiti, where “girls as young as 11 were sexually abused and impregnated by peacekeepers and . . . ‘left in misery’ to raise their children alone.” The paedophilic sex ring directly implicated Sri Lankan soldiers in the exploitation of nine children.

Following these revelations, Sri Lanka’s military repatriated 114 of the soldiers, but none has ever been prosecuted.

SENIOR AL-QAEDA LEADER KILLED IN AFGHANISTANAfghan security forces have killed

Abu Muhsin al-Masri, a senior al-Qaeda leader who was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Most Wanted Terrorists list, according to Afghanistan’s intelligence service.

Al-Masri, an Egyptian national believed to be al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, was killed during a special operation in the central Ghazni province, Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) said in a tweet late on Saturday.

Al-Masri, who also goes by the name Husam Abd-al-Ra’uf, has been charged in the United States with having provided material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organisation and conspiracy to kill US nationals.

The head of the US National Counter-Terrorism Center, Chris Miller, confirmed al-Masri’s death in a statement, saying his “removal from the battlefield is a major setback to a terrorist organization that is consistently experiencing strategic

losses facilitated by the United States and its partners.”

Al Qaeda’s loss of al-Masri, Miller continued, “highlights the diminishing effectiveness of the terrorist organisation.”

Last month US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said fewer than 200 al-Qaeda operatives remain in Afghanistan.

The death of al-Masri was announced on the same day 18 people were killed in a suicide bombing at an education centre in the Afghan capital, Kabul. At least 57 others were wounded in the attack in the area that is home to many from Afghanistan’s minority Shia community.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack and the Taliban denied any link.

The US has been gradually drawing down its troops from Afghanistan after striking a landmark deal with the Taliban in February.

The torrential rain, which caused a foothill to collapse, destroyed more than 100 houses in Bahrabise.

“We fear more landslides as the soil has grown weaker after the earthquake,” said Nimphunjo Sherpa, mayor of the affected Bahrabise municipality.

The municipality is planning to move some at-risk settlements, he added. Two others died in a landslide in Baglung in the northwest.

Both landslides struck the villages before dawn, and people could not escape to safety, rescuers said.


TGTE URGES US TO PROTECT SRI LANKA FROM BECOMING CHINA’S VASSAL STATEThe Transnational Government

of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) last month urged the United States to foil China’s bid to turn Sri Lanka into its vassal state.

In a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Prime Minister of TGTE Visvanathan Rudrakumaran urged him to ensure Sri Lanka does not become a vassal state of China.

The letter was issued ahead of Pompeo’s visit to Sri Lanka on October 27.

China recently assured Sri Lanka it will protect it in international forums including at the UN Human Rights Council.

“We would also like to call your attention to the situation at the port at Hambantota, which has been leased to a Chinese state-owned company. As the 2020 annual report from the US secretary of defense has noted, China appears to intend military use for this base as a means of power projection into the Indian Ocean,” Rudrakumaran, a New York

based lawyer, wrote in his letter.The letter further reads: “As China

is notorious both for human rights abuses and wanton environmental destruction, there is rational fear of the consequences of China’s use of this port. This increasing cooperation between China and Sri Lanka threatens to turn Sri Lanka into a Chinese vassal state.

“We therefore appeal to you to consider using the authority and discretion of your office to address these issues. Specifically, we ask you to raise these accountability issues as well as China’s use of the port at Hambantota on your visit to Sri Lanka.

“As you are likely aware, an estimated 70,000 people were killed in the last stages of armed conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The panel of experts appointed by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon reported credible evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed

SIRISENA WAS WARNED 43 MINUTES BEFORE EASTER ATTACKS

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCOI) last month revealed that former Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena received a call from State Intelligence Service Director Nilantha Jayawardena warning him an attack was imminent just minutes before bombs ripped through churches and hotels on the island, which left hundreds killed.

According to the PCOI’s findings, Sirisena received a 63-second call in which Jayawardena had contacted Sirisena’s security official just 43 minutes before the attacks of April 21, 2019.

Jayawardena had allegedly contacted Sirisena on multiple occasions to warn him of the foreign intelligence report anticipating the attacks after it was originally received on April 4 last year.

Although when testifying Sirisena said he did not receive a call from Jayawardena about the attack until after the explosions, the PCOI stated

this is untrue. Telecommunication analysis

carried out by the PCOI revealed that although Sirisena was hospitalized in Singapore during the attack, he was contacted by Jayawardena on several occasions prior to his departure to Singapore.

“There is a time difference between Singapore and Sri Lanka,” Sirisena claimed. “I do not recall receiving a phone call in the morning since I was hospitalized in Singapore at the time.”

Sirisena stated no security personnel were permitted to be close to him whilst in hospital on the day of the attack, implying he could not have known about such a call.

Sirisena has previously claimed he had not received prior warning of the attack and could not be held responsible.

He claimed the attack was planned to disrupt his heavy-handed war on drugs.

12 KILLED IN POWERFUL BLAST AND FIRE IN INDIA

A devastating fire and a powerful blast on November 4 rocked a cotton factory warehouse storing chemicals in western India and killed 12 people.

Officials of National Disaster Response Force said twelve bodies were recovered from the warehouse on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state.

Television images showed several workers fleeing. Twenty-four fire engines and more than 50 firefighters doused the blaze after several hours the fire control room said.

A portion of the warehouse

collapsed.Prime Minister Narendra Modi

said he was “anguished by the loss of lives due to the fire in the warehouse in Ahmedabad.”

Some nearby buildings also were damaged, the New Delhi television news channel said.

Poor safety standards are a frequent cause of fires in India.

Last December a fire believed to be caused by an electrical short circuit engulfed a building in New Delhi, killing at least 43 people.

by the Sri Lankan state, and the 2015 report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) noted the systemic crimes were committed primarily by the state of Sri Lanka.”

“It is our belief that ultimately the best solution for peace, justice, and the security of the region is a referendum similar to those in Scotland, Eritrea, and Kosovo. The aspiration to freedom of the Tamil people who inhabit the northeastern part of Sri Lanka and the 700 km costal area is just and valid, and the 2009 Mulliviakal genocide and the ongoing efforts to destroy the identity of the Tamil people makes the question urgent as well.”

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a democratically elected government of over a million strong Tamils (from the island of Sri Lanka) living in several countries around the world.

During his visit, Pompeo called China’s communist government a

“predator.”Pompeo made his latest attack

on China after talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on security cooperation to keep open vital Indian Ocean sea lanes just south of Sri Lanka.

TGTE was formed after the mass killing of Tamils by the Sri Lankan government in 2009.

It is leading a campaign to realize the political aspirations of Tamils through peaceful, democratic, and diplomatic means, and its Constitution mandates it should realize its political objectives only through peaceful means. It’s based on the principles of nationhood, homeland and self-determination.

The TGTE seeks that the international community hold the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Tamil people to account. TGTE calls for a referendum to decide the political future of Tamils.

A THIRD OF BANGLADESH UNDERWATER AFTER FLOODS

A third of Bangladesh is underwater after some of the heaviest rains in a decade, officials said.

Almost four million people have also been hit by monsoon floods in South Asia.

The monsoon–which usually falls from June to September–is crucial to the economy of the Indian sub-continent but also causes widespread death and destruction across the region every year.

“This is going to be the worst flood in a decade,” Bangladesh’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre chief Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan told the AFP news agency.

The floods started late last month, and after briefly easing, continued to worsen, destroying crops and driving people from their homes in several impoverished regions.

Bangladesh is crisscrossed by 230 rivers, including 53 shared with India. The heavy rains have swollen two main Himalayan river systems–the Brahmaputra and the Ganges–that flow through India

and Bangladesh.Bhuiyan said about a third of

flood-prone Bangladesh–a delta-nation crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers–was underwater, and at least 1.5 million people were affected, with village homes and roads flooded.

“The floodwater is constantly rising. Neither we nor our cattle can go out. So, I’m using a boat to go out. We’re having issues regarding food also. The cooking ovens have been flooded. Even our beds are also underwater,” Samsud Doha, farmer, said.


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SRI LANKA’S PARLIAMENT

PASSES 20TH AMENDMENTLast month Sri Lanka’s Parliament

approved a constitutional amendment that will concentrate power with the president and allow duel citizens to hold political office, in a move to strengthen President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s familial political clout.

The 20th Amendment to the constitution was passed on October 22 with a 91 vote majority as 156 legislators in the 225-member Parliament voted in favour. Sixty-five legislators voted against.

With the change, Rajapaksa will be able to hold ministries as well as appoint and fire ministers. He will also be the appointing authority of the elections, public service, police, human rights, and bribery or corruption investigation commissions.

These commissions were perceived independent with a constitutional council comprising legislators from different political parties and civil personalities making the appointments. With the amendment, the constitutional council is abolished for a Parliamentary council whose observations the president is not bound to implement.

The president can also dissolve Parliament after two years and six months of it being elected instead of the previous law that prohibited him from dissolving Parliament until six months before its five-year term ends.

Rajapaksa also overcame internal

opposition to a clause that lifted a ban on dual citizens holding political office.

This will pave the way for a sibling to enter Parliament, further strengthening the Rajapaksa family’s hold on Sri Lanka’s political power. Currently, Rajapaksa’s older brother, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, is prime minister. Another older brother and three nephews are also legislators–three of them ministers.

Rajapaksa renounced his US citizenship last year to run for president.

The amendment was passed with several changes because the Supreme Court earlier determined certain clauses in the original proposals were against people’s sovereignty, and they needed approval in a public referendum to become law.

Sri Lanka has been ruled under a powerful executive presidential system since 1978, but a reformist government in 2015 clipped much of the president’s powers and gave them over to Parliament and independent commissions, saying successive presidents had been more authoritarian.

Rajapaksa, however, said reduced powers have deterred him from performing his duties.

Though it was widely expected Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) would vote in favour of the move, the Parliament witnessed

some surprise defections from the Opposition which gave them the two-thirds they required.

Amongst the defections, four out of five Parliamentarians were from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC). The four lawmakers, Nazeer Ahamed, Faizal Caseem, HMM Harees and MS Thowfeek all voted in favour of the amendment, defying a call from party leader Rauff Hakeem.

“Some members who are representing the eastern province were urging us to consider this bill, and its present contents have sought to be amended positively, hoping that would be politically pragmatic given the development needs of the area,” he said before the vote. “It is my fervent hope that the political experience for the sake of compromises should not be doled out as political pragmatism.”

Despite his vote, Thowfeek was pictured at the beginning of the debate wearing a red “No to 20A” armband.

The Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), which heads Sri Lanka’s Opposition also found Assistant Secretary Diana Gamage also sided with the government. After the vote, Gamage told reporters she had “voted with her conscience” as she had “faith in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.”

Aravind Kumar from the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPF) also voted

in favour of the government. However, party leader Mano Ganesan later announced Kumar was henceforth sacked from the party politburo and suspended from the party.

The United National Party (UNP) led by former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, which holds one seat in Parliament, could not vote as debate arose within the party about who should occupy the single seat.

Opposition to the bill came mainly from Tamil parties in the northeast and JVP led National People’s Power (NPP). Parliamentarians from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) spoke out against the move, with Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam warning this was the “beginning of a slide that will ultimately lead to not just authoritarianism but dictatorship.”

“These are the same steps taken by Hitler of Germany in his early days of politics,” the SJB’s S.M. Marikkar added.

The amendment passed will now go to Sri Lanka’s speaker for certification.

Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister Ali Sabry told Parliament the constitutional change “will strengthen the executive, ensure national security and bring prosperity and vicarious joy and happiness to the nation.”


MORE NIGERIANS MIGHT HAVE CORONAVIRUS DUE TO PROTEST

The federal government said last month the risk of resurgence of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria is high due to the large gatherings of the #EndSARS protesters and the mayhem that followed.

Mr. Boss Mustapha, chairman of the, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, made the disclosure at a joint national media briefing of the taskforce in Abuja on October 26.

“The protests by youths, which has unfortunately metamorphosed into an unprecedented safety and security situation and COVID-19 developments in the country and around the world.

“Also, the large gatherings witnessed during the protests and during the break-ins at various warehouses, homes and looting of stores put us at a great risk of resurgence of the virus,’’ he said.

Mustapha, who is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), said Nigeria maintains the 5th position in highest cumulative cases after South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, and Ethiopia.

The SGF commended the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) for partnering with state governments in the distribution of palliatives to their people.

“With the support of the federal government, CACOVID has been working with the states through the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) to determine the quantum of their intervention, which was intended to be effective and equitable.

“Of particular concern to the PTF is the issue of palliatives found and looted from various warehouses around the country. It is important to make the following clarifications.

The FG said the risk of resurgence of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria is high due to the large gatherings of the EndSARS protesters.

In another development, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state said those behind the shootings of protesters at the Lekki toll plaza on October 22, would be brought to book.

Legit.ng reports the governor made this known in a statement by his chief press secretary, Gboyega Akosile, on the evening of October 26.

The statement quoted the governor as speaking during an interview session on CNN, adding that the federal government and Lagos state government would ensure anyone found culpable in the shooting would be held accountable for their actions.

GLOBAL NEWS

LABOUR PARTY SCORES LANDSLIDE WIN IN NEW ZEALAND ELECTION

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won a landslide victory last month in the country’s general election.

With all votes tallied, Ms. Ardern’s centre-left Labour Party won 49.1 percent, bringing a projected 64 seats and a rare outright parliamentary majority.

The opposition centre-right National Party won 26.8 percent in an October 17 poll - just 35 seats in the 120-seat assembly.

The poll was originally to be held in September but was postponed by a month after a renewed COVID-19 outbreak.

Ahead of the vote, more than a million people cast ballots in early polling, which opened on 3 October.

New Zealanders were also asked to vote in two referendums alongside the general election. The Electoral Commission’s final tally also gave ACT New Zealand eight percent of the vote (10 projected seats), the

Greens 7.6 percent (10), the Maori Party one percent (1) and others 7.7 percent (0).

Ms. Ardern, 40, told her supporters after the victory: “New Zealand has shown the Labour Party its greatest support in almost 50 years. We will not take your support for granted. And I can promise you we will be a party that governs for every New Zealander.”

National Party (NAT) leader Judith Collins, congratulated Ms. Ardern and promised her party would be a “robust opposition.”

No party had managed to win an outright majority in New Zealand since it introduced a voting system known as Mixed Member Proportional representation (MMP) in 1996.

Ms Ardern, who dubbed the poll “the COVID election,” pledged to instill more climate-friendly policies, boost funding for disadvantaged schools and raise income taxes on top earners.

SACRED ABORIGINAL TREE BULLDOZED FOR HIGHWAY

The bulldozing of a sacred tree for Aboriginal people to clear land for a highway sparked anger in Australia last month.

Protesters long camped at the site in Victoria to defend culturally significant trees, including some where local Djab Wurrung women have traditionally gone to give birth. But state authorities cut down the Djab Wurrung “directions tree” on October 26, the activists said. Officials defended the felling, saying the tree was not on a protection list.

In a deal last year, Aboriginal landowners negotiated with the Victorian government to save around a dozen of 250 “culturally significant” trees from destruction.

However, activists independent of the Aboriginal land group have remained at the site near Buangor to try to save more trees.

Victoria Police said they had arrested 25 protesters the following day who refused to leave the site as land clearing work continued.

Authorities said the tree removed on October 26 was a fiddle back thought to be about 100 years old, but protesters said it was in fact a yellow box species. They estimated it was 350 years old. Many condemned the news of its destruction.

“Absolutely gutted and feel the pain of our ancestors right now,” tweeted Lidia Thorpe, the first federal Aboriginal senator for the state of Victoria, and a Djab Wurrung woman.

Aboriginal writer Celeste Liddle blamed the state government for “cutting down a sacred part of Djab Wurrung heritage.”

Many Aboriginal people say the land is paramount to their identity. Djab Wurring activists have previously compared the cultural importance of trees in the area to a church or other spiritual place.

Among trees that will be protected are two “birthing” trees. These are centuries-old trees where women have also buried their placentas after giving birth, as part of a cultural tradition.

Critics were also angry at the timing of the destruction, noting it had coincided with the high-profile announcement of an end to lockdown in the state capital, Melbourne.

Victoria’s government has staunchly defended the highway project - a 12km (7.4-mile) expansion of a road between Melbourne and Adelaide arguing it will reduce traffic accidents.

ABORTION RULING IN POLAND SPARKS WOMEN’S STRIKE

Women in Poland went on strike last month opposing a court ruling that introduced a near-total ban on abortion in the mainly Catholic country.

Scuffles erupted in Parliament on October 27, the seventh consecutive day of the protest, with opposition MPs carrying signs saying “This is war” and “Shame.”

Series of demonstrations were staged against the decision that outlawed terminations on the grounds of severe health defects.

The powerful ruling party leader said the decision could not be reversed.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is also the deputy prime minister and widely considered to be the country’s real powerbroker, said the protests were an attempt to “destroy” Poland. He urged people to “defend” the nation as well as the Catholic Church.

The ruling given on October 15 by the Constitutional Court closed one of the few remaining legal grounds for abortion in Poland and followed a legal challenge by MPs from the ruling nationalist Law and Justice Party (Pis) last year.

The decision means terminations are

only valid in cases of rape or incest, or to protect the mother’s life. The ruling cannot be appealed against but only comes into force after it is published in the Journal of Laws, AFP news agency reports. It is not clear when that will happen.

An opinion poll conducted for Gazeta Wyborcza suggested 59 percent of those surveyed disagreed with the ruling.

Women opposed to the ruling are expected to stay away from work and school and refuse to do domestic chores in a protest inspired by a women’s strike in Iceland in 1975.

A similar demonstration was held in 2016 when thousands of Polish women marched through the streets wearing black as a sign of mourning for their rights as proposals to restrict terminations were being debated in Parliament.

Abortion is a deeply divisive issue in Poland, which already had one of the strictest laws in Europe. A 2014 opinion poll by the CBOS research centre found 65 percent of Poles surveyed were against abortion, 27 percent saw it as acceptable and eight percent were undecided.


Australian media previously reported all adult women who had boarded one plane from Doha to Sydney were ordered to disembark. They were taken to an ambulance on the tarmac and told to remove their underwear before being examined.

Many were distressed afterwards and had received health support from the Australian government, witnesses said.

On October 26, Australia’s foreign ministry said reports had indicated the incident was “beyond circumstances in which the women could give free and informed consent.”

But it declined to label it sexual assault while awaiting further details from Qatar officials. Opposition politicians in Australia have called it sexual assault.

Australia has also referred the matter to its federal police.

Australia’s foreign department

The superintendent of Virginia Military Institute (VMI) resigned last month after state officials alleged there’s “ongoing structural racism” at the school.

Retired Army General J.H. Binford Peay III wrote in his resignation letter to the Board of Visitors--the school’s 16-member supervisory board—on October 26 he was stepping down because Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s “chief of staff conveyed that the governor and certain legislative leaders had lost confidence in my leadership.”

Northam’s press secretary, Alena Yarmosky, said in a statement: “Change is overdue at VMI, and the Board of Visitors bears a deep responsibility to embrace it.”

Peay’s resignation comes after the Washington Post reported that Black students--about eight percent of the student body--face an “atmosphere of hostility and cultural insensitivity” as well as “relentless racism.”

The Post referenced a recent graduate who lodged a complaint last year, claiming a white professor “reminisced in class about her father’s Ku Klux Klan membership.” The professor continues to teach, according to the Post.

secretary Frances Adamson told a Senate hearing on October 28 that an Australian diplomatic official had been on the flight heading to Sydney.

She was not subjected to an exam but reported the incident to the ministry immediately.

“I was incredulous that this could have happened,” Ms. Adamson told the hearing.

“This is not - by any standard - normal behaviour and the Qataris recognise that, are appalled by it, do not want it to happen again.”

In its statement, Qatar said it was committed to ensuring the safety, security and comfort of travellers transiting through the country.

Doha’s Hamad International Airport has remained open as a key transit hub for international travel amid the pandemic.

In 2018, a white student told a Black freshman during Hell Week that he’d “lynch” him, according to the Post. The student was suspended but not expelled, according to the Post. In September, two Black students were punished for boycotting a speech by Vice President Mike Pence, the Post reported.

Two days after the Post article was published, Northam, along with several other legislative leaders including the state’s attorney general and lieutenant governor, wrote to the president of the VMI Board of Visitors, blasting the school for what they called a “clear and appalling culture of ongoing structural racism.”

“Black cadets at VMI have long faced repeated instances of racism on campus, including horrifying new revelations of threats about lynching, vicious attacks on social media, and even a professor who spoke fondly of her family’s history in the Ku Klux Klan,” the letter said.

The president of the VMI Board of Visitors, John Boland, on October 26 denied the existence of systemic racism at the school, adding that Peay’s resignation was accepted “with deep regret.”

QATAR TO INVESTIGATE INVASIVE EXAMS OF WOMEN

MILITARY INSTITUTE LEADER RESIGNS AMID PROBE INTO ALLEGED RACISM

HONG KONG ACTIVIST DETAINED NEAR US CONSULATE

A Hong Kong activist was detained by plain-clothed police officers near the US consulate last month.

Tony Chung had planned to enter the consulate on October 27 and claim asylum, the UK-based activist group Friends of Hong Kong said.

He was arrested along with two other former members of a student pro-independence group.

Mr. Chung, 19, was the first public figure arrested under a controversial new national security law in July.

He was accused of being involved in an organisation that vowed to fight for an independent Hong Kong and later released on bail.

Hong Kong’s national security law, imposed in June, makes secession, subversion of the central government, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces punishable by up to life in prison.

It has been widely condemned across the world, with critics saying it ends freedoms guaranteed for 50 years after British rule ended in Hong Kong in 1997.

A number of pro-independence groups disbanded after the law was introduced.

According to the South China Morning Post, Mr. Chung was at a

coffee shop opposite the consulate when he was detained in the morning of October 27.

Footage taken from near the consulate shows the teenager being carried away by people dressed in casual clothing.

Group Student localism said three of its former members including Tony Chung were detained by officers at the scene.

Police said the arrest was part of an ongoing investigation.

In a recent interview with BBC Chinese, Mr. Chung had said, “Beijing is winning at this stage now.” But he also said activists had not given up. “At the right moment, we will come out to protest again,” he said.

Hours after Mr. Chung’s arrest, unconfirmed media reports said four activists managed to enter the US consulate but were later turned away.

In August Chinese authorities are said to have arrested 12 people after intercepting a boat believed to be heading for Taiwan from Hong Kong.

Hong Kong media said those on board the vessel were trying to claim political asylum in Taiwan.

MELBOURNE OPENS UP DINING, SHOPPING AS 4-MONTH LOCKDOWN LIFTED

Melbourne’s shops, restaurants and hotels opened for business on October 28 after a four-month coronavirus lockdown.

The state of Victoria and its capital Melbourne, Australia’s second most populous city, has been the epicentre of COVID-19 infections, but the strict lockdown has ended a second wave, with only two new cases and two deaths overnight.

“Around 180,000 workers can return to work on site. That is an achievement that every single Victorian should be proud of,” state premier Daniel Andrews told a regular media briefing.

“We all have to follow the rules, to protect staff, to protect customers, to protect this fragile thing that we have built...So we can have the Christmas we have been looking forward to, with the people we have missed the most.”

Salons and restaurants still have to comply with strict spacing requirements

that cap dining numbers at 10 per indoor space and 50 outdoor, which will make it uneconomic for some businesses to reopen. Others have already closed for good.

Dotted among the cafes, bakeries, and barbers on the shopping strip were vacant shop fronts plastered with For Lease signs.

Strict social distancing measures, mass testing and swift contact tracing has seen Australia successfully combat a fresh outbreak of the virus, having stamped down cases from more than 700 a day in July, even as many other developed countries grapple with a third wave of record infections.

Eight new cases were reported in Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, on October 28. Seven were overseas travellers in hotel quarantine and one was local. Queensland state logged two cases, bringing Australia’s total cases to 27,552.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”

– Aristotle


ABORTION RULING IN POLAND SPARKS WOMEN’S STRIKE

Women in Poland went on strike last month opposing a court ruling that introduced a near-total ban on abortion in the mainly Catholic country.

Scuffles erupted in Parliament on October 27, the seventh consecutive day of the protest, with opposition MPs carrying signs saying “This is war” and “Shame.”

Series of demonstrations were staged against the decision that outlawed terminations on the grounds of severe health defects.

The powerful ruling party leader said the decision could not be reversed.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is also the deputy prime minister and widely considered to be the country’s real powerbroker, said the protests were an attempt to “destroy” Poland. He urged people to “defend” the nation as well as the Catholic Church.

The ruling given on October 15 by the Constitutional Court closed one of the few remaining legal grounds for abortion in Poland and followed a legal challenge by MPs from the ruling nationalist Law and Justice Party (Pis) last year.

The decision means terminations are

only valid in cases of rape or incest, or to protect the mother’s life. The ruling cannot be appealed against but only comes into force after it is published in the Journal of Laws, AFP news agency reports. It is not clear when that will happen.

An opinion poll conducted for Gazeta Wyborcza suggested 59 percent of those surveyed disagreed with the ruling.

Women opposed to the ruling are expected to stay away from work and school and refuse to do domestic chores in a protest inspired by a women’s strike in Iceland in 1975.

A similar demonstration was held in 2016 when thousands of Polish women marched through the streets wearing black as a sign of mourning for their rights as proposals to restrict terminations were being debated in Parliament.

Abortion is a deeply divisive issue in Poland, which already had one of the strictest laws in Europe. A 2014 opinion poll by the CBOS research centre found 65 percent of Poles surveyed were against abortion, 27 percent saw it as acceptable and eight percent were undecided.

SOUTH KOREA VOWS TO GO CARBON NEUTRAL BY 2050

South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, declared in October the country will go carbon neutral by 2050, bringing it into line with other major economies.

In a policy speech in the national assembly on October 28, Moon said South Korea, one of the world’s most fossil fuel-reliant economies, would “actively respond” to the climate emergency “with the international community and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.”

He vowed to end its dependence on coal and replace it with renewables as part of its Green New Deal, a multibillion-dollar plan to invest in green infrastructure, clean energy and electric vehicles.

South Korea is the latest major economy to commit to zero emissions. The European Union set itself a similar target last year, with Japan following suit in the third week of last month. China said in September it would achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Moon’s announcement is in line with a proposal made by his ruling party before April’s national assembly elections.

Its Green New Deal calls for an end to financing of overseas coal plants, the introduction of a carbon

tax, creating urban forests, recycling, establishing a foundation for new and renewable energy, and creating low-carbon industrial complexes.

Campaigners welcomed Moon’s announcement, but warned that South Korea–the world’s seventh-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2017, according to the International Energy Agency–would have to transform its energy policy to stand a chance of reaching the zero-emissions milestone.

Jude Lee of Greenpeace East Asia said Moon’s pledge was “another important step forward. We expect that this important pledge leads the Korean industry to swiftly shift from fossil fuels to a 100 percent renewables-based system.”

South Korea relies on coal for about 40 percent of its electricity generation, with renewables making up less than six percent. It still has seven coal power units under construction. It is also one of the top three public financiers of overseas coal power projects, mostly in Asia, Solutions for Our Climate said.

The country will struggle to achieve net-zero emissions “without fundamental changes in energy policy,” Kim said.

US FIRMS FUND DEFORESTATION, ABUSES IN AMAZON

Major US financial firms are helping fund environmental destruction and Indigenous rights abuses in the Amazon, according to a report published last month.

The report by the environmental group Amazon Watch and the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples (APIB) said six top firms--BlackRock, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Vanguard, Bank of America and Dimensional Fund Advisors--have invested more than $18 billion over the past three years in mining, agribusiness and energy companies involved in a “series of abuses” in the world’s largest rainforest.

“Major financiers... are using their clients’ money to enable the wanton behavior of companies linked to Indigenous rights violations and the devastation of the Amazon rainforest,” said Amazon Watch program director Christian Poirier.

“This financial complicity in destruction contradicts the climate and human rights pledges touted by some of these firms, exposes their investors to significant risk and contributes dramatically to the world’s growing biodiversity and climate crises,” he said in a statement.

The report investigates the firms’ investments in nine Brazilian and

multi-national companies accused of abuses in the Amazon, including mining companies Vale and Anglo American, agribusiness companies Cargill and JBS, and energy company Eletronorte.

It accuses those companies of harmful practices including land seizures, violence against Indigenous groups, illegal deforestation and the use of harmful pesticides.

Mining giant Vale, meanwhile, faces accusations of contaminating water and failing to comply with its agreements to mitigate the impact of its activities on Indigenous lands, says the report.

Such conflicts around land are fueling a surge in violence against Indigenous peoples in the Amazon, including an annual increase of 135 percent last year in the number of land invasions and the murder of seven Indigenous leaders, it says.

Many of the companies denied the accusations.

Firms including Vale, Anglo American, Cargill and JBS presented evidence they said contradicted the report’s findings of abuses.

Financial firms investing in them also denied wrongdoing.

RWANDAN GENOCIDE SUSPECT ARRIVES IN THE HAGUE TO FACE TRIALFrance’s top court ruled in

September the former coffee tycoon could be transferred to UN custody. Felicien Kabuga, 87, had spent two decades living close to Paris under a false name.

Kabuga, suspected of having helped finance the 1994 Rwandan genocide, has been moved from France to The Hague to stand trial on charges of genocide, a UN tribunal said on October 26.

“His initial appearance will be held in due course before a judge of the trial chamber assigned to his case,” the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals said in a statement.

The tribunal is handling outstanding war crimes cases for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

Kabuga, once one of Rwanda’s richest men, will face seven criminal charges, including committing genocide and crimes against humanity. He was first indicted by the former UN tribunals for war crimes in Rwanda in November 1997.

The 87-year-old evaded arrest for more than two decades, living on the outskirts of Paris under a false name. He was finally arrested in the French

capital this past May.Kabuga’s lawyers initially asked

that he be put on trial in France, but in September the country’s top court ruled he could be transferred to the UN tribunal.

Prosecutors accuse the former tea and coffee tycoon of bankrolling and importing huge numbers of machetes for ethnic Hutu militias.

The groups killed hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda during a 100-day period in 1994.

They also allege he helped create the Hutu militia group called Interahamwe and the radio station called Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines, whose broadcasts incited people to murder.

Kabuga, who has yet to appear before the UN court, dismissed accusations against him as “lies” during extradition hearings in France.

Three judges will preside over his trial, according to a tribunal statement—Britain’s Iain Bonomy, Uruguay’s Graciela Susana Gatti Santana and Uganda’s Elizabeth Ibanda-Nahamya.


Algerian security forces arrested thousands of migrants and refugees last month, cramming them onto trucks and buses before expelling them across the border to Niger, Human Rights Watch said.

“Since early September, Algeria has expelled over 3,400 migrants of at least 20 nationalities to Niger, including 430 children and 240 women,” the rights watchdog said on October 9.

“This brings the number of people summarily expelled to Niger this year to over 16,000–a little over half of them to Niger.”

Landlocked Niger is on a key cross-Saharan route for African migrants trying to reach the Mediterranean and then cross to Europe.

“Algeria is entitled to protect its borders, but not to arbitrarily detain and collectively expel migrants, including children and asylum seekers, without a trace of due

process,” said Lauren Seibert, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“Before moving to deport anyone, authorities should verify their immigration or asylum status individually and ensure individual court reviews.”

Some of the deportees interviewed by the rights watchdog said they had been abandoned at border crossings and told “the way to Niger.” Others said they were stripped of all their belongings before being told to leave.

“I had no shoes, I walked barefoot. It took us five or six hours,” said Tamara from the Ivory Coast. “They told us, ‘you came to Algeria with nothing, and you will leave with nothing,’” the 28-year-old said.

Algeria has carried out waves of deportations in recent years, including an estimated 25,000 to Niger in 2018, and another 25,000 in 2019, HRW added.

ALGERIA EXPELS THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS China has started once-a-decade

census in which about seven million people will drive the two-month data-collection effort, covering areas from downtown Shanghai to remote Tibetan mountain villages.

According to media reports, about seven million community workers and volunteers have begun knocking on doors across the country for a once-a-decade headcount of the world’s largest population, which for the first time will use mobile apps to help crunch the massive numbers.

China conducts the census every 10 years to determine population growth, movement patterns, and other trends, using the findings to apportion resources for education, health, transportation, labour, elderly care and other services.

The previous tally in 2010 counted 1,339,724,852–an increase of 5.83 percent, or 73,899,804 people–equal to adding more than the population of France over 10 years.

Much of the attention on this year’s census–expected to take two years to fully compile–will focus on whether it indicates any population bump from China’s relaxation of its former “one-child policy.”

The policy was introduced in the late 1970s to slow rapid population growth amid concerns over too many mouths to feed, but it was relaxed

four years ago to allow couples to have two children in the midst of fears over China’s fast-aging society and shrinking workforce, but the change has not yet resulted in a baby boom.

The national birth rate last year was the slowest since the founding of Communist-ruled China in 1949, with many Chinese today choosing smaller families amid rising living costs. The government estimates the 2020 census could update the population to 1.42 billion, a 5.99 percent increase.

A research institute affiliated with real estate giant Evergrande Group issued a study saying the government figure was an overestimate and recommended three children be allowed.

“If adjustments are not made, it will seriously affect national rejuvenation and [China’s] rise as a great power,” the researchers said, citing two of the stated goals of President Xi Jinping.

Despite the door-to-door visits, most citizens are expected to enter their information via a smartphone app, adding to rising concerns about privacy protection.

Vast amounts of Chinese economic activity and payments are handled through digital apps such as WeChat and its rival Alipay, offered by Alibaba-affiliated Ant Group.

CHINA STARTS ONCE-A-DECADE CENSUS

FRENCH TEACHER BEHEADED FOR SHARING CONTROVERSIAL CARTOONSA French teacher named Samuel Paty was beheaded

on October 16 near Paris after sharing caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad with his class. The suspect, an 18-year-old Chechen man, was shot dead by police. The images were part of a lesson on freedom of speech held in October. The controversial cartoons were originally published by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2012 and were cited as the motivation behind the killing of 12 people by Islamist extremists at the magazine’s offices. Tens of thousands of people joined nationwide rallies on October 18 to honor Paty. French President Emmanuel Macron called the murder an “Islamist terrorist attack” during a visit to the school. “One of our compatriots was murdered today because he taught … the freedom of expression, the freedom to believe or not believe,” he said. French authorities arrested 11 people, including four members of the suspect’s family, in connection with the attack. However, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan criticized Macron for his anti-Muslim statement. Erdogan urged Muslims across the world to boycott French products. Demonstrations against Macron were staged in different Muslim countries. A week later, in an interview with Aljazeera, Macron said he understands the feelings of Muslims who are shocked by the displaying of cartoons of Prophet Muhammad but added the “radical Islam” he is trying to fight is a threat to all people, especially Muslims.

SUSPECTED ADF ATTACK KILLS OVER 20More than 20 civilians were killed

in an attack on a village in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on October 30, according to local authorities.

Authorities on Saturday blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group for the attack the previous evening, saying its fighters first attacked a rival group of Congolese militia members before killing inhabitants in the village of Lisasa.

Local administrator Donat Kibwana, from the Beni territory in North Kivu Province, put the “preliminary death toll” at 21. The figure was confirmed by the head of the Buliki area, where Lisasa is located. A local NGO called Cepadho said in a statement that of the 21 killed, 15 were women.

All three sources told media more people were kidnapped. A health centre was also ransacked, while homes were set on fire and a Catholic church desecrated.

The ADF, which originated in the 1990s in western Uganda with the aim of creating an Islamic state, is one of dozens of armed groups that plague the eastern provinces of the vast DRC.

About six years ago, the ADF

started to attack villages, killing people using machetes and guns and abducting hundreds of others.

The ADF has never claimed responsibility for any attacks.

Several attacks attributed to the ADF have also been claimed by ISIL (ISIS), although United Nations experts have found no evidence of a direct connection between the two groups. A year ago, the Congolese Army launched a large-scale campaign against the ADF.

In response, the group abandoned its bases, split into smaller, more mobile groups and retaliated against civilians. On October 21 hundreds of prisoners escaped from a jail in Beni following an attack by armed men. Police blamed the ADF while ISIL took credit for it.

The latest attack comes only days after the ADF killed 19 people in the remote village of Baeti at night on October 28. The village’s church was torched, as were about 40 homes.

“During the month of October, the ADF has targeted Christian churches. This is not insignificant,” Cepadho head Omar Kavota said.

ISIL claimed responsibility on October 30 for the Baeti attack.


Thai Airways launches a new flight with a plan to feature in-flight spirituality in a very different way.

The airline will fly a one-off flight dubbed the “THAI Magical Flying Experience Campaign” over some of Thailand’s holiest Buddhist religious sites, with passengers reciting mantras along the way.

Thai Airways’ sightseeing “flight to nowhere” will last for three hours on November 30.

The plane will take off from Bangkok and travel over 99 sacred sites such as Wat Arun and the Temple of Emerald Buddha in Bangkok, Phra Samut Chedi in Samut Prakarn, Wat Phra Boromma That Chaiya in Surat Thani and the UNESCO-listed heritage sites in Sukhothai and Ayutthaya.

In total, passengers will fly over 31 of Thailand’s 77 provinces before returning to the Thai capital.

On board, Dr. Khata Chinbunchon, a celebrity fortune teller and religious history expert, will lead the in-

flight chanting of Buddhist mantras, according to a statement of the airline.

Wiwat Piyawiroj, a vice president at Thai Airways, said in a statement the flight is intended to fall under the Thai government’s plan to boost domestic tourism in the country.

Thailand, like many other places around the world, has experienced a significant decrease in tourism revenue amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

While sightseeing flights in places like the Grand Canyon and the Nazca Lines have existed for a long time, the “flight to nowhere” is a more recent fad. As airlines struggle to recoup their losses and travelers are hemmed in by closed borders, these sightseeing flights have become an option to meet in the middle.

Economy class tickets aboard the “Magical Flying Experience” start from 5,999 baht ($193) for economy class and 9,999 baht ($321) for premium class. Bookings can be made by calling +66 (0)2 356 1515.

THAI AIRWAYS LAUNCHES FLIGHT FOR RELIGIOUS WORSHIPERS

Calling upon countrymen to the streets, Tanzania’s two main opposition parties demanded re-election after alleging widespread fraud in the election held on October 28.

A joint statement released on October 31 by the CHADEMA and ACT Wazalendo parties came hours after populist President John Magufuli was declared the winner for a second five-year term.

Magufuli was declared the winner with 12.5 million votes, or 84 percent, while top opposition candidate Tundu Lissu received 1.9 million votes, or 13 percent.

The governing party also secured nearly every seat in Parliament, giving it the power to change the country’s constitution.

“What happened on October 28 was not an election but a butchering of democracy,” CHADEMA chairman Freeman Mbowe told reporters, asserting more than 20 people were killed during the election.

“We demand the election repeated with immediate effect and the dissolving of the national electoral commission.”

The opposition has urged people to come onto the streets for peaceful

protests.It has alleged widespread

irregularities before and during the vote in the east African nation, including rejection of thousands of election observers, a considerable slowdown in the internet speed and affecting text messaging services and ballot-box stuffing.

Lissu earlier rejected the vote and called on the international community not to recognise it. The National Electoral Commission, in its announcement late on Friday, called all votes legitimate.

The turnout was roughly 50 percent. Few international observers were allowed to observe the vote.

The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, said on October 30, “We remain deeply concerned about reports of systematic interference in the democratic process.

“We continue to review credible allegations of the use of force against unarmed civilians,” he said in a tweet.

The US Embassy in Tanzania said on October 29 there had been “credible allegations of significant election-related fraud and intimidation” in the vote for a president and politicians.

TANZANIA OPPOSITION PARTIES DEMAND VOTE RERUN

AUSTRIA DIDN’T FOLLOW UP SLOVAK WARNING

Austria has admitted a warning from Slovakia last summer about a gunman who went on the rampage in the centre of Vienna was not followed up, reports media quoting country’s interior minister.

The November 2 attack left four people dead and 23 others wounded.

Police in Slovakia revealed they had tipped off Austrian authorities about “suspects from Austria” trying to buy ammunition in July.

Reports suggest the trip to buy bullets failed as the gunman had no licence. It has also emerged he was released early from a jail sentence last December for trying to join jihadists in Syria.

According to German media, the 20-year-old, who was shot dead by police nine minutes after the attack began, travelled to neighbouring Slovakia to buy ammunition for a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle but returned empty-handed.

Slovak police said they had informed their Austrian colleagues immediately, adding they would not comment further.

Asked about the revelations on Wednesday, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said the information had been investigated by the BVT domestic intelligence agency but no further action had

been taken.

“Something obviously went wrong in communication,” he told reporters, adding he wanted an independent inquiry to find out why.

More details have emerged about the four people murdered in the centre of Vienna in the hours before new coronavirus restrictions were due to come into force:

Among the 23 people wounded in the attack, 13 suffered bullet wounds and seven are in a serious condition. Most are from Austria, but some are from Germany, Slovakia, Luxembourg and other countries. One of those in a serious condition was also a student at the University of Applied Arts, known as Die Angewandte.

Austrian authorities said the killer was armed with an automatic weapon, a pistol and a machete as well as a fake explosive belt.

They were initially unsure if there had been more than one gunman in the attack which lasted nine minutes across six crime scenes.

The interior minister confirmed on November 4 he had acted alone, as a review of videos received by police was now complete. Jihadist group Islamic State (IS) claimed on its propaganda outlet Amaq it was behind the attack.

ETHIOPIA PM ABIY AHMED ORDERS MILITARY OFFENSIVE FOLLOWING ATTACK

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military offensive on November 4 to subdue the authorities in Tigray state.

The order came after an alleged attack on an Army base.

Mr. Abiy accused the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), of launching the attack, which resulted in “many martyrs, injuries and property damage,” he said in a TV address.

The cabinet has declared a state of emergency in the region for six months. “This situation has reached a level where it cannot be prevented and controlled through the regular law enforcement mechanisms,” a statement from the prime minister’s office said.

The national authorities have also shut down electricity, telephone and internet services in Tigray.

Tensions between the government and TPLF, which used to be part of the governing coalition before falling out with Mr. Abiy, have escalated in recent months, with both sides accusing the other of plotting to use military force.

On November 3, the federal Parliament proposed the TPLF be designated a “terrorist organisation.”

Mr. Abiy said attackers “tried to loot” military assets during the attack in the morning on November 4, adding “the last red line had been crossed,” forcing the federal government into a military confrontation.

Mr. Abiy’s office also accused the TPLF of dressing its soldiers in uniforms resembling those of the Army of neighbouring Eritrea to “implicate the Eritrean government in false claims of aggression against the people of Tigray.”

“The national defence force that has been in the bunkers for the past 20 plus years defending its people and the country by paying heavy sacrifices with its blood and flesh, has been attacked, this evening in Mekelle and many other places by traitors and the force they organised,” Mr. Abiy said in a TV address.

“The Army has been attacked from behind by its own citizens and many have been martyred, wounded and properties destroyed,” he added.


Many Indian newspapers and some issues on strategic analysis carried the news that the R & AW Chief led a nine-member delegation to Kathmanu on 21st October by noon and is said to have returned the same night. By all reports, the delegations stayed in Kathmandu for nine hours.

The chief landed in Kathmandu in a plane with Indian Air Force markings. He had a one on one meeting with Prime Minister Oli at

the latter’s residence at Baluwatar. He is also said to have met the leader of opposition Sher Bahadur Deuba, former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, formerly a Maoist and now a part of the merged Terain parties, and Mahant Thakur a leading Terain leader.

What is to be noted is not the people whom the chief met but those who were left out. This included the co-chairman of the Nepal Communist Party, Dahal, two other top leaders, Madhav Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal as the former foreign minister and

someone close to Dahal- Narayan Kaji Shrestha as well as the other Terain leader, Upendra Yadav.

The prime minister’s office confirmed the meeting. Surya Thapa, the press advisor to the prime minister said the issues like Nepal India relations, resolving pending problems through dialogue and continuation of mutual cooperation were discussed but termed it a “courtesy visit.” This means nothing as there appears to have been no

agenda for the meeting, which the media said was informal.

At the moment Nepal- India relations, thanks to the border issue and irresponsible statements from Prime Minister Oli, have brought the relations to the lowest point. There is an intense internal bickering within the ruling party and Oli is staying on PM thanks to a band aid solution suggested by the Chinese. The differences came out in the open more recently when Dahal’s man, the chief minister in Karnali, was to face a no confidence motion from his

own party colleagues who owe their allegiance to Oli.

Oli has continued to make important appointments including

diplomatic posts and cabinet posts without discussions with his senior colleagues as was promised.

It was in this situation that the visit of the chief of the Indian intelligence took place openly with a large number of people accompanying him.

As the media mentioned, rarely is a visit of the intelligence chief known or even reported. I know of many cases where the chiefs come quietly and leave quietly, and no one knows about it. Then, why was this visit made so public and the media, particularly the Indian media ( Nepal’s Republic reported also), had gone berserk?

One of the media reports said the visit was to give a “warning to China!” The Chinese would definitely come to know even otherwise and their Nepali friends including the PM would have told them to keep the record straight.

The visit has naturally raised a huge controversy. Both the top leaders of the UML faction of the UML, Madhav Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal stated the visit being done in a clandestine manner (?) was detrimental to national interests, Former Deputy PM Bhim Bahadur Rawal also criticized the visit.

Dahal, once the darling of the Indian establishment, made the nastiest remark. He said the visit was improper and objectionable.

Narayan Kaji Shrestha, a former foreign minister, wanted to know whether the visit was personal or official. If it was official, there should have been an agenda.

With PM Oli’s known antipathy towards India, the visit has raised many speculations. These could have been avoided unless the visit was meant to be made public. If so, the reasons should have been known. This was not so.

The visit could have been organised in a more professional manner as other chiefs have done on earlier occasions, not only to Nepal but to other neighbouring countries. I would stop from naming the countries.

VISIT OF R&AW CHIEF TO NEPAL

By Dr. S. Chandrasekharan

FIVE NEW JUSTICES JOIN ONTARIO COURT OF JUSTICEFive new justices--Faria, Fraser,

Ishak, Strasberg, Thomas--joined the Ontario Court of Justice on October 22.

Justice Lori Anne Thomas has worked as a sole practitioner focusing on criminal defence trials and as a volunteer lawyer helping unrepresented parties as a part of the Summary Conviction Appeal Program.

Called to the bar in 2009, Justice Thomas has served as president of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, member of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association Board and course developer and instructor at the Ryerson Law Practice Program. She has been a mentor to staff, associates, articling students and

law students.

Justice Cidalia Conceição Gouveia Faria served as an assistant Crown attorney, practising criminal law at the Ministry of the Attorney General for over two decades. In this role, she handled serious criminal offences, specialized prosecutions and summary conviction offences. Called to the bar in 1996, Justice Faria holds a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School. She acts as secretary of the committee on diversity and inclusion for the Ontario Crown Attorneys Association and a member of the Portuguese Canadian Lawyers Association.

Justice Peter Fraser has been an assistant Crown attorney at the

Ministry of the Attorney General for more than a decade. Through this position, he has acquired extensive criminal litigation experience through prosecuting criminal cases and through conducting trials, bail hearings, sentencing proceedings and dangerous offender hearings. Admitted to the bar in 2007, Justice Fraser has served as an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Justice Derek Ishak has been legal counsel to the deputy attorney general. He has also served as acting deputy director in the Court Services Division, where he managed a team of lawyers and furnished legal advice to the government on criminal, civil and family law matters.

Justice Jennifer Deanna Strasberg was called to the bar in 2000. Since 2018 she has been the education lead at the Ontario Provincial Strategy to Combat Internet Crimes Against Children where she educated and advised Ontario Crown attorneys and Canadian police on cases involving internet child exploitation. Prior to that, Justice Strasberg prosecuted a wide range of criminal cases as an assistant Crown attorney and appeared before the Ontario and Superior Courts of Justice. From 2016 to 2018, she was a deputy Crown attorney in the Etobicoke Crown Attorney’s Office.

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams”

– Dr. Seuss


The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia announced last month it will establish two new satellite courtrooms for the safe conduct of criminal jury trials in Halifax Regional Municipality amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The court will convert the leased space, measuring approximately 22,000 square feet, located on Mellor Drive in Dartmouth, to accommodate jury selections involving a maximum of 200 potential jurors.

The courtrooms will observe the required physical distancing protocols and be staffed onsite only when jury selections and trials are currently undergoing.

“This space will allow for the safe return of in-person criminal jury trials in metro Halifax for counsel, accused, victims, witnesses, jurors, court staff and members of the judiciary,” said Mark Furey, the province’s attorney general and justice minister.

Earlier, Deborah Smith, the court’s chief justice, suspended all jury trials in the province until September 8 in line with COVID-19-related health protocols. An assessment then took place, during which courtrooms and courthouses in the province

were evaluated for their ability to accommodate in-person appearances in accordance with public health guidelines.

The results of the assessment concluded the four criminal jury courtrooms at the Law Courts in Halifax did not have enough space to allow for the conduct of criminal jury trials. It was also found these courtrooms could not be reconfigured to accommodate the safe hearing of matters.

Patrick Duncan, the court’s associate chief justice, noted that criminal trials and criminal jury trials involve unique demands, and this solution is the best option available under the circumstances.

“This was a great example of the judiciary and the Department of Justice collaborating to address a challenging problem in a challenging time,” said Duncan.

“The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the right of accused individuals to be tried within a reasonable time; equally important are the rights of the victims and families involved in these matters,” said Chief Justice Smith.

NOVA SCOTIA SC TO CREATE TWO SATELLITE COURTROOMS IN DARTMOUTH

The University of Ottawa recently launched a Legal Technology Lab at the school’s Centre for Law, Technology and Society.

“By treating legal texts as data, thousands of contracts or judgements can be investigated, categorized and analyzed within seconds, making law more accessible to everyone,” said a news release.

The lab is involved in a wide array of activities, such as researching how to automate legal processes and how to improve legal text mining,

assisting in the development of legal technology applications, advancing legal technology education, serving as an incubator to encourage legal technology entrepreneurship and supporting firms, legal technology companies and researchers.

The lab recently collaborated on a project with the university’s public law centre, which will utilize legal data analytics to determine how Supreme Court of Canada decisions deal with equality claims.

The release said the lab aims to

UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA LAUNCHES LEGAL TECHNOLOGY LAB

Last month the government of Canada appointed Justice Luc Martineau as chair of the Copyright Board of Canada.

Navdeep Bains, minister of innovation, science and industry, announced the appointment of Justice Martineau on October 13. In this role, he will help further realize reforms to the board and eliminate backlogs in decision-making to ensure a transparent and predictable marketplace. He assumed the chair position on October 2, 2020, for a five-year term.

Justice Martineau, who holds a Master of Law from the University of Ottawa, was called to the Bar of Quebec in 1978 and was a lawyer for 24 years, eventually establishing his own firm in 1996. He was appointed judge of the Federal Court of Canada and member of the Court of Appeal in January 2002. In April of the same year, he was named judge of the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada. He was appointed as a member of the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal in 2007, serving as the tribunal’s president from 2010 to 2014. His extensive experience on the bench will bring invaluable insight to

his work with the Copyright Board.The government thanked

departing chair, Justice Robert A. Blair, who was appointed to the Board in 2015 and has now concluded his mandate. Justice Blair was instrumental in initiating the modernization of the Copyright Board following amendments to the Copyright Act in 2018. His service to the markets overseen by the Board has been of great value.

In its news release, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada said the federal government is committed to supporting a copyright market which functions well, ensures creators receive fair and timely payments, and generates new innovation opportunities. “A well-resourced Copyright Board fulfills an important economic and cultural function for Canadians,” said federal minister Navdeep Bains in a news release.

“As Canadians, we understand that telling our stories from a uniquely Canadian perspective and ensuring the protection of our content is key to healthy Canadian democracy and culture,” said Steven Guilbeault, federal minister of Canadian heritage.

JUSTICE MARTINEAU APPOINTED TO CHAIR COPYRIGHT BOARD OF CANADA

SETTIFY NOW AVAILABLE TO ONTARIO FAMILY LAWYERSFamily lawyers in Ontario will now be able to use Settify, an AI-powered online client service tool, which aims to assist clients in preparing for

their initial consultation. Settify is a user-friendly platform that interacts with family law clients in real time to deliver bespoke guidance on pertinent legal issues and synthesizes the clients’ background information which will be provided to their lawyer. The system is accessible via smartphone, tablet or computer. Firms can also incorporate Settify on their websites or issue email invitations to clients. Lawyers from eight Toronto-based firms—Bales Beall LLP, Boulby Weinberg LLP, Epstein Cole LLP, Goldhart & Associates, Lerners LLP, Normandin Chris LLP, Ricketts Harris LLP and Torkin Manes LLP—collaborated with the legal technologists at Settify to adapt the system for Ontario. Firms representing about a hundred family lawyers have already contracted Settify even though it was launched only recently in Ontario. There are also plans to launch the system in British Columbia and other provinces. In 2017 family lawyers in Australia established Settify, which has since been adopted by over 300 firms globally and utilized by over 60,000 clients. “Settify empowers family law clients by providing an online streamlined process for organizing relevant information so they can swiftly obtain appropriate information and advice,” said Oren Weinberg, partner at Boulby Weinberg, one of the firms that worked on this initiative. Roslyn M. Tsao, managing partner of Epstein Cole, another collaborating firm, said she was “impressed with how the client can keep a copy of his/her own information regardless of whether the client retains us or any other Settify firm.” Interested individuals may witness Settify in action on Epstein Cole’s website. “We are used to getting things done online, and more and more clients will choose law firms that harness technology to provide a seamless experience, and embrace effective, efficient ways to progress their best interests,” said Edward Kirk, head of North America at Settify.

come up with technology-based solutions which will address the challenges of lawyers in their work, citizens in seeking access to justice, firms in meeting the demands for cost-effective services and the legal sector in Canada, which is changing and becoming more complex.

The lab, which is an interdisciplinary effort of the university’s Faculties of Law and Engineering, will complement the current efforts of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society and

will be supported by students from diverse backgrounds. The Canada Foundation for Innovation funded the lab.

Dr. Wolfgang Alschner of the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, leads the team with his experience in the application of data analytics to the empirical study of law, while Dr. Diana Inkpen of the Faculty of Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, co-leads the team.


Given the background of two divisions-Muslim League and Congress had already been created defacto, it is pointless to bring about the Hindu-Muslim divide after decades of majority-minority rule practiced throughout the world despite the unfairness it entails. Neil Ferguson used the words “historical evidence of technological innovation, religious effects, and economic differences, among other factors, to explain why the West, and Western Europe especially, was the dominant force in the world for centuries.” He added the West used to be hugely powerful. That was not because of chance. It was because of distinct traits that made the West more innovative and intrepid than the rest of the world.” Stanley Wilbert gave credit to colonialism, “despite its occasional brutality,” was largely beneficial because it brought civilization and the attendant advances to areas of the world that were still living in barbaric versions of the Stone Age. Colonialism, made possible by the fact the West was more powerful than “the rest,” is what led to the rest of the world getting to experience the benefits of Western civilization.

It is debatable: what factors led to Narendra Modi’s victory in the elections: is it his muscularity vis-à-vis China and Pakistan or the benefits the common people got from his domestic reforms or was it his Hindutva philosophy which he has been preaching as a “pracharak” from his young age or the amalgamation of all these factors? Sashi Tharor Congress party leader, explains Hinduism is a rich religion brimming with multifariousness. As opposed to the Semitic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the most well-known faiths in the Western world have some beliefs in common: every one of the three, for instance, accept that there’s just a single God and that he’s an existent and immaterial being. A genuine devotee

must acknowledge that basic tenet.

Hinduism, with regards to the mentioned tenet, is a totally contrasting religion. In opposition to their monotheistic partners, Hindus affirm the existence of several divine beings. These include Ganesh, the remover of deterrents, and Shiva, the destroyer. There is likewise a wide cluster of Holy Scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita and the Rigveda. Each Hindu is allowed to pick which gods she adores, which writings she upholds and when and where she supplicates. That makes Hinduism a profoundly individual-specific faith that differs from one adherent to another.” In other words, Hindus are freerer than others in the choice of their god.

A contrary argument could be confusion, which more often than not leads to physical confrontation, particularly in plutocratic societies. Imagine a household where husband and wife pray to different gods. Hinduism generally regarded every other religion and venerated their consecrated writings and welcomed Buddhism and Sikhism as coming from the same roots.

The present scenario of slaughtering beef-eating Muslims and the anti-Muslim riots being read and seen on television screens give another picture. Communal fault-lines are not new in the country. When India was partitioned in 1947—leading to the creation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan—tens of millions of Muslims chose a secular India as their homeland; they were betting on a more promising future in a country that enshrined religious equality into its constitution. But Hindu nationalists have long claimed a greater moral right over the nation and have questioned the patriotism of Indian Muslims. And the prejudice is no longer just rhetorical. It has turned into violent hatred that has spilled onto the streets of the country. The shift in India’s

attitude towards Muslims has been there for centuries--ever since the Muslims started invading India. This is the first time Hindu population have voted BJP as a single majority political party with a group of people capable and willing to implement an anti-Muslim agenda. Such activities are in violation of the Constitution, contrary to the oath taken by the Council of Ministers, harmful to the image of India carved out by the predecessors and are of little importance when President Trump at Allahabad meeting termed it as the internal affairs of India.

Gone with the wind when Pandit Nehru, President Nkrumah, Gamal Abdul Nasser dared to clear a path of Non-Aligned Movement when the US was busy with forming NATO, SEATO, CENTO and other alliances to guard the Russian encirclement of East Europe. Indian Congress party leader Sashi Tharoor in his book Why I am a Hindu states, “In 1989, the BJP adopted Hindutva as its official ideology. The BJP or Indian People’s Party has been ruling since 2014. From the beginning of their assumption of power, the nation has seen a flare-up of insularity which would have been incomprehensible to its Hindu ancestors. The BJP is focused on Hindutva, signifying “Hinduness.” Tharoor traced the thought to a previously developed one of the mid-twentieth century.

At the point when India’s foremost sovereignty leader Mahatma Gandhi advocated for solidarity between the future sovereignty’s different religious societies, he experienced harsh criticism from various commentator, one being Vinayak Savarkar, a government official, and essayist who promoted the idea of Hinduness with his 1923 book Essentials of Hindutva. Savarkar’s seminar in

Hindu patriotism asserted Hindus were the earliest occupants of India. That, he surmised, implied India was by definition the place of habitation of the Hindus–a controversial move which right away proscribed other different religious faiths from Savarkar’s idea of citizenship. In 1939 a conservative mastermind called MS Golwalkar expounded upon that line of thought in We, or Our Nationhood Defined. Golwalkar asserted nationality was dictated by culture as opposed to geology. India, obviously, was socially Hindu from his point of view. A Muslim may live inside the nation’s physical territory, yet she wasn’t genuinely Indian since she didn’t partake in or identify with Hindu culture. That makes the BJP a great deal like a fundamentalist crusades. Like its partners in different parts of the world, its stubborn and discriminatory assertions about social personality sets up a precedence for an institutionalized abuse of minority groups.

Be that as it may, here’s the Catch 22: Hinduism is profoundly dedicated to a reverence for other faiths and religious inclusiveness, putting Hinduness up against an indispensable part of its own legacy. Can one find similarity with the Nazi belief of superiority over other creeds if one were to go with Golwalker’s assertion that Nazi Germany’s institutionalized extermination of Europe’s Jews was a case of “race pride at its best,” something from which he trusted India would do well to learn?

MINORITIES IN INDIA

AMENDMENTS TO CONDOMINIUM ACT 2015 PROPOSEDMinister of Justice Tracy-Anne

McPhee tabled Bill No. 16 on October 8, which would modernize the legislative framework and adopt the best practices for condominium ownership and development in Yukon.

Proposed amendments to the Condominium Act, 2015 focus on balancing consumer protection with development and economic opportunities. These amendments bring clarity to how condominiums will be developed and regulated, facilitating a stable housing market in Yukon.

The proposed amendments include modifying insurance requirements to create greater flexibility for condominium corporations to respond to the changing insurance market; establishing a clear reserve fund scheme; modifying voting

entitlements and proxy voting for condominium corporation boards; clarifying rules related to condominium liens; modifying timelines for developers and purchasers related to delivery of documents and funds; providing a legislative framework to create and manage mixed-use condominiums; and establishing requirements for bare land condominiums.

The proposed amendments would also add and modify transitional provisions to allow owners and developers an opportunity to prepare for and implement the new legislative requirements, such as those pertaining to insurance, reserve funds, timing of agreements and management contracts. Condominiums make up a growing portion of the housing Yukoners are buying, and our government is committed to modernizing our legislation to facilitate condominium

ownership and development. These amendments respond to concerns we have heard from Yukoners and support the continued development and availability of well-built and well-run condominiums as part of a healthy, diversified housing market for Yukoners.

“Condominiums make up a growing portion of the housing Yukoners are buying, and our government is committed to modernizing our legislation to facilitate condominium ownership and development,” wrote the minister in the news release from the territorial government.

If passed, Bill No. 16 or the Act of 2020 to Amend the Condominium Act, 2015 will adjust certain elements of the legal regime, including the insurance requirements, which will enable condominium corporations to more flexibly adapt to the shifting

insurance market; proxy voting and voting entitlements for the boards of corporation condominiums; and the timelines for developers and purchasers to deliver documents and funds. The bill also clarifies the rights and obligations for developers and the rules for condominium liens.

Other proposed changes pertain to the establishment of a clear reserve fund scheme, of requirements applicable to bare land condominiums and of a legislative framework to create and manage mixed-use condominiums. There are also provisions tackling phased developments and the security for completing construction.

The proposed changes reflect the best practices for condominium ownership and development in Yukon and the concerns expressed by Yukoners.

By Kazi Anwarul Masud

Continues from previous issue…


The doubts about the passage of the amendment increased further when an internal critique also simultaneously emerged from within the ruling party. If the government had failed to obtain the 2/3 majority to pass the 20th Amendment due to an internal revolt by some of its members, the situation that would have arisen might have been like that which existed between the years 2015-19. During that period, the coalition government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena who headed the SLFP and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who headed the UNP failed to collaborate with each other which led to governmental drift and a failure to resolve problems. The continuing public support to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is on account of his reputation for being decisive. It is also necessary his team makes decisions that are in the best interests of the country.

Personalised DecisionsThe 19th Amendment, which was

the most significant legislation prior to the 20th, and which obtained near unanimous assent in Parliament, reduced presidential powers and shared them with other state institutions. As a result of equalizing powers within the executive branch of government between the president and prime minister, it paved the way for conflict between the president and prime minister. This led to the irresponsible neglect of national security, with neither the president nor prime minister taking full responsibility for it, which culminated in the atrocious security breach on Easter Sunday 2019. The massive victory obtained by the present government, which mirrored the defeat suffered by the previous government, can be attributed to the failure of the power sharing scheme presented by the 19th Amendment.

The passage of the 20th Amendment has almost completely rolled back the power sharing arrangements of the 19th Amendment and will ensure the reality of a decisive government that is unfettered by checks and balances. This amendment will give back to the presidency almost all the powers that were vested in it by the 1978 Constitution in its original formulation. It might be recalled the architect of that constitution; former President JR Jayewardene once

The passage of the 20th Amendment to the constitution has taken place at a time of unprecedented crisis in the country. During the months since it surfaced as a draft, the government leadership had been giving it priority attention to garnering support for the legislation in the face of mounting challenges. Despite securing an enormous majority of seats in Parliament, and only five short of an outright 2/3 majority required for constitutional change, there were times the challenge seemed too big to accomplish. The peculiar feature of the 20th Amendment was it called on the parliamentarians to voluntarily give up their existing powers as a collective and entrust it to the presidency.

The unexpectedly forthright critique of the 20th Amendment by top ranking religious clergy and by prestigious associations such as the Bar Association created a momentary doubt about the prospects of the government obtaining the 2/3 majority. In particular, the powerful statement issued by the joint Amarapura-Ramanna Samagri Maha Sangha Sabha which made its opposition to the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. It further stated the proposed amendment was regressive “and paves the way for an undeveloped tribal society, that will seriously impede progressive characteristics of human society such as freedom of thought and action, and therefore, the Sangha Sabha decided to make a strong emphasis to the government that they should not pass the proposed 20th Amendment.” The fact that so senior a collection of Buddhist monks issued this statement is indicative of the concerns within the larger community that can surface in opposition to abuse of power in the future.

OPPOSITION TO 20A CALLS FOR POWERS TO BE USED WITH CAREdescribed it as giving the president the power to be free from the “whims and fancies of Parliament” as he put it. President Jayewardene sought cohesive and strong powers to make the decisions that had to be made for the long-term gain of the country. However, it would be prudent to remember the super powers he assigned to himself were not able to stop and indeed contributed to the events of 1983 and the armed conflict and subsequently the resurgence of JVP violence.

Armed with the powers that the 1978 Constitution originally envisaged, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is likely to seek to directly implement development and problem solving activities in the country. The president has already showed his impatience with existing systems by going on surprise visits to government institutions and trying to put things right. He has also stated his verbal orders should be considered by government officials to be actionable in the same way as written circulars. He has also appointed a plethora of retired military personnel to senior positions in the public administration. There will, however, be dangers to guard against. Mixing civilians systems of administration with military systems is unlikely to work effectively. Military systems are essentially top-down with orders expected to be followed without question.

Problem Solving VisionBy way of contrast, civilian systems

are consultative, as civilian issues need to accommodate a diversity of perspectives and multiple interests. The system of checks and balances evolved out of the experience of power being utilized to satisfy narrow interests rather than broader interests. There are many challenges the government has to take including the escalating COVID spread, which is now emerging as community transmission, and its impact on the poor and marginalized; economic hardships that affect the majority of people; the mounting foreign debt and threats to national sovereignty resulting from this; and repatriation of our migrant workers. In the face of these unprecedented crises, both government and opposition parliamentarians need to dialogue before decisions are made, and

those with proven competence from professional fields must be made part of this dialogue.

There is also the question of the problem-solving vision. With the passage of the 20th Amendment, the presidency will wield enormous powers. Unless presidential leadership is utilized to resolve long standing issues made unresolvable by partisan politics such as the ethnic conflict and politicization of the public service, this will be another lost opportunity among many lost opportunities. A modern state that incorporates a nationally designed reconciliation process in which equal citizenship and inclusive development leaves out no section or part of the country needs to be the goal. A significant number of parliamentarians representing ethnic and minority parties, voted in favour of the 20th Amendment. If not, for the support of ethnic minority parliamentarians who broke ranks from their party leaderships to give their support to the government, a 2/3rd majority required for constitutional change may not have been a reality.

The drafting of a new constitution for which the government has called for public representations, offers an opportunity to ensure values that will have the support of all sections of ethnic and religious communities living in Sri Lanka. Attempts at formulating a new constitution have been long drawn and not finalized in the recent past. The current attempt should not suffer the same fate in respect of the time taken and the failure to present a final draft due to divergent political responses. Especially in a plural society such as Sri Lanka’s, dialogue and inclusion are more likely to lead to sustainable solutions than imposed solutions. Although such a process can take more time, it is essential for democratic problem solving with all stakeholders being made part of the solution. It is useful to recall the president’s pledge shortly after he took his oaths, that he was the president of all Sri Lankans and not only those who voted for him. It is also useful to recall President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s motto of the 3 Cs: consultation, compromise and consensus. These two visionary statements of two presidents stand the test of time.

By Jehan Perera


Couplet 433:Though small as millet-seed the fault men deem;As palm tree vast to those who fear disgrace ‘twill seem

Explanation: Those who fear guilt, if they commit a fault small as a millet seed, will consider it to be as large as a palmyra tree


TAMIL EELAM INDEPENDENCE AND INDIAN SECURITY IS INSEPARABLE “Saving Tamils means saving India.

If the Tamils perish, India will perish in turn”

(This interview was given to Toronto-based newspaper, the Tamil Mirror on December 5, 2009. Although this interview was given eleven years ago. The points mentioned are still relevant for those scholars, Indian foreign policy experts and others who are interested in this

issue)Mr. Eelaventhan was a former

member of Parliament representing Tamil National Alliance from 2004 – 2007. He served in the Central Bank of Ceylon in various capacities for 26 years beginning in 1954. He was actively engaged in propaganda work for Tamil cause in India for over two decades and was deported twice for his active role, first in 2000 and again in 2004 while being an M.P carrying a diplomatic passport covering SAARC countries. He also observed a fast in South Africa to highlight the Tamils’ plight at the height of Eelam War IV, in April 2009. Following is an exclusive interview from his Toronto residence.

Tamil Mirror (TM): In the present context of post conflict of Eelam struggle, what in your opinion are the reasons for the set back, and where do you think we are heading from this set back?

Mr. Eelaventhan: (E): The present setback may seem very unfortunate, but that doesn’t mean the story ends here. In any freedom struggle there are ups and downs. It not only affects me but every Tamil who had built up hope of achieving Eelam early. However, we don’t blame the Freedom Fighters or the Tigers for that.

It should be noted that the Tigers were up against the racist policies of the Sinhala Regime and were fighting to free the Tamil nation from Sinhala subjugation, whereas the Sinhala regime took undue advantage of the post September 11 anti-terrorism trend to get the entire world to move against the Tigers. In the name of wiping out terrorism, they were determined to wipe out the entire Tamil race in Sri Lanka. We looked helpless against the mighty prowess of all the countries, especially the unpardonable dirty part played by India, whom we earlier described and sincerely believed as “Bharatha Maatha” or Mother India, who would come to our rescue. We I often spoke of the umbilical code relationship between the Eelam Tamils and India.

We also said that the Tamil Eelam independence and Indian security are inseparable, Saving Tamils means saving India. If the Tamils perish,

India, too, will perish in tum. These words came from our heart. Eelam Tamils sincerely believed and thought of ourselves as part of the Indian thinking. So, we drew inspiration from India and their freedom struggle. Even during the Bangladesh war, we backed India. So, to be let down by India is something that we find it difficult to accept or comprehend!

When this problem cropped up

in 1958, Mr. Krishna Menon, who was the Defense Minister of India, asked Mr. C. N. Annadurai, who was an important Leader then, “Why do you enter into a confrontation with Sri Lanka, which is a close and loving neighbour? You should not do this.”

Mr. Annadurai had replied, “Who am I compared with you; you are a mighty intellectual giant and a politician. But I only ask one question: if I see my neighbour hugging and kissing his wife, then certainly I shall not look at them. Out of shyness I will look the other way. But under the pretext of a family, if the husband mercilessly attacks his wife, and she cries in agony pleading for help, am I to watch on? This is the plight of the Eelam Tamils.” Mr. Krishna Merion could not reply to Mr. Annadurai. This is why there is a saying no country should interfere in the internal affairs of a country for the love of it. However, when there are clear signs of a genocide, a third party intervention is justified under the UN charter. So, India could have done it. It did it in the case of Bangladesh. We backed India on that war.

When I had discussion with Indian leaders I was told that they fear that the day we have our Eelam there will be no more India, “Eelaventhan, you are logically legal and historically correct in your arguments. But, that doesn’t mean we accept the concept of Eelam,” I was told. I asked then, “Why do you say that?” They said there will be repercussions felt in the Indian subcontinent. Tamil Nadu also will separate and merging with Tamil Eelam will challenge India.”

I again asked, “Did your creation of Bangladeshi result in it joining West Bengal and challenge India?” They

put a smile on and said “no.” I asked, “Then why do you doubt us? Can you keep Tamil Nadu with you, while suspecting Tamil Nadu is likely to go away? Can you sleep with your wife whom you suspect?” Then again they put on a smile.

They said, “Mr. Eelaventhan, you are very fine in your argument. But in the case of Bangladesh, whether we were right or wrong is another matter. We may have made a blunder. But we won’t give any reason if we had blundered. We had our reasons because the creation of Bangladesh was a necessity, to teach Pakistan a lesson. So, we did it. Therefore, you can’t draw a parallel with your struggle. “I again asked them,” Why do you think that we are going to be against India? We have always drawn inspiration from India? So, why do you refuse to back our case? Something we don’t understand!”

Then I told them to give us something even minus Eelam, pleading with the Indian government officials to agree for a meaningful federal structure. However, I said that. “With due respect I want to say that we are not in a position to accept the Indian Constitution, a quasi federal structure, with article 356 under which the central government can dissolve any state assembly. I am not here to tell Indian government what is good for the Indian people. But Indian type of Federalism is not applicable in the context of Sri Lanka, because we have a genuine fear that the Sri Lankan government won’t honour what they agree to. Therefore, for us only an independent state can be a solution and panacea for all the political ills we are facing.”

TM: You had these discussions with whom?

E: I had discussions with top government officials, people from South Block, university dons, mass media et al. But Mrs. Indira Gandhi was a different person. She said, “I agree with what you say, Tamil Eelam independence and the Indian security are inseparable. Saving Tamils is saving India. Please repeat it wherever you go.” That was her thinking.

But unfortunately Indira Gandhi was assassinated, and her son Rajiv Gandhi became the prime minister. What a mother, what a son? Rajiv was too small for a big country. Former Sri Lankan

President J.R. Jayawardene was too big for a small country. So, the mess up took place. Rajiv Gandhi neither had proper advice nor political maturity. Jawaharlal Nehru was the son of Mothilal Nehru. However, his grand son, Rajiv had no qualification

to be a leader of a country. On his own, he didn’t have the kind of maturity a leader needed. But Indira Gandhiii possessed immense qualities of leadership, and that’s why when she died people from the entire Tamil Eelam cried. But with the death of her son, no one was bothered.

TM: But the Tigers were blamed for the death of Rajiv Gandhi? Do you really think that Rajiv Gandhi was killed by the Tigers?

E: No, there is no proof. Why I am saying this is that at the guard of honour during the Indo-Sri Lanka agreement, Rajiv Gandhi was hit to his neck with the rifle butt by a Sinhala Navy guard. If he had been hit on his head, then the story would have been different. But the Indian government, Indian mass media and the Indian intelligence have short memory to forget what the Sinhala Navy officer did to the prime minister of India the day after both governments signed the agreement during the guard of honour.

An important evidence that should be mentioned is that Chandraswamy, a questionable spiritual leader and a good friend of Narasima Rao, following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi shouted and said that “now Narasima Rao will take up the leadership.” For your information, it is not my imagination, but it was reported in the front page of Indian Express, Dinamani and other papers as well. So when Chandraswamy makes the immediate pronouncement that Narasima Rao is going to succeed after Rajiv’s death, what does that say? There must have been some kind of plotting, also, at different levels.

Again, the other thing is, how could Rajiv Gandhi enter into an agreement with the Sri Lankan government? J.R. Jayawardene, the oppressor, and Pirapakaran representing the oppressed people, should have been the parties to the agreement, and Rajiv Gandhi or the Indian government should have been the mediator. Here the mediator and the oppressor had entered into an agreement ignoring the oppressed. So it is not an agreement but rather an imposition.

Again, why did India decide on a confrontation with the Tamil fighters? You hould member the words of J.R Jayawardene at that time. He said that “Hereafter, there is nothing for me to worry, the Indian Armed Forces will look after the Tamil combatants. My Sri Lankan armed forces are now safe.” These statements are on record. So J.R. was very clever, and as I said, he was too big for a small country. He played the game very well and Rajiv got caught in his trap.

By M.K Eelaventhan

To be continued in next issue…



Couplet 434: Freedom from faults is wealth; watch heedfully‘Gainst these, for fault is fatal enmity

Explanation: Guard against faults as a matter (of great consequence; for) faults are a deadly enemy

LRWC CALLS OUT BREACH OF LAW IN STAFF RECRUITMENTLawyers’ Rights Watch Canada

(LRWC) has called for an independent review of the alleged rescission of a verbal agreement to hire a director for the University of Toronto Faculty of Law’s International Human Rights Program.

A letter written by Catherine Morris, executive director at LRWC, and addressed to Edward Iacobucci, dean of the law school, urged the university to acquire an external investigator for the review and make the investigator’s findings public.

The matter relates to allegations the university rescinded the hiring committee’s agreement to

recruit Dr. Valentina Azarova, an international human rights scholar, for which a verbal offer and acceptance were made and for which implementing steps were taken by both the university and by Azarova.

Allegedly, the university decided to rescind the arrangement when a sitting judge of the Tax Court of Canada, who is a donor to the university, raised the issue of Azarova’s research about international human rights and international humanitarian law in connection with Israel and occupied Palestinian territories. Justice David Spiro is reportedly facing complaints filed with the

ROGERSON LAW GROUP EXPANDS PRACTICE

Rogerson Law Group has taken initiative to expand into civil litigation cases focusing on abuse and bullying.

The group has added Brian Murphy as its counsel in this regard.

Murphy acted for Bullying Canada in A.B. v. Bragg Communications Inc., 2012 SCC 46 (CanLII), [2012] 2 SCR 567, where the Supreme Court of Canada held that cyberbullying victims have the right to stay anonymous in court applications. He has also advised clients with abuse claims against schools, religious institutions, police forces, jails and penitentiaries.

Rogerson Law Group, acting on behalf of clients alleging bullying at Havergal College, initiated the cases of Mother Doe and Jane Doe v. Havergal College, Seonaid Davis et al. and Andrew Rogerson and Grace Rogerson v. Havergal College, Catherine Misson and Kate White.

The clients claim that Havergal Girls School allowed and abetted certain students to bully other students, including one who twice attempted to take her own life, and did not provide a safe environment.

“Multiple individuals have come forward including several former

students, each with detailed and disturbing reports–some reporting firsthand experiences, others as witnesses to bullying episodes,” said a news release from the firm. “It is hoped that with the addition of Murphy, Rogerson Law Group will obtain justice.”

Licensed to practice law in Ontario and New Brunswick, Murphy holds an LLB from the University of New Brunswick and an LLM from York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School. His early legal career took place in Moncton and Toronto. He has appeared before all levels of court in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Ontario.

Murphy had also ventured into politics, serving as city councillor and mayor of Moncton and as a member of Parliament from 1998 to 2011. In Ottawa, he was also Liberal Party of Canada Justice Critic, vice-chairperson of the Commons Justice Committee and chairperson of the Canada-Ireland Parliamentary Committee.

Murphy has been named a member of the Order of Moncton, Queen’s Counsel by the Province of New Brunswick and Chevalier de l’Ordre des Lettres et des Arts by the Republic of France.

Canadian Judicial Council, the letter stated.

LRWC cited potential violations of international law if these allegations are found to be true, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Articles 10, 11 and 18 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders; and Articles 16 and 23 of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.

The UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers state that legal practitioners have the right to freedom of expression, belief, association, assembly and participation in the public

discussion of matters relating to the law, the administration of justice and human rights. These principles also state lawyers should be able to freely carry out their advocacy without being intimidated, hindered or harassed.

“The legal profession and legal academic communities have an important role to play in ensuring respect for international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” wrote Morris in the letter. “Unpopularity of the implications of international law within some sectors of society is an illegitimate reason for failure to uphold it.”

COURT RULES CHILD SHOULD ATTEND HEBREW SCHOOL

The Ontario Superior Court recently ruled a child should go to a religious school instead of to a secular school, which would require the child to attend a supplementary religious education program during weekends.

The applicant father and the respondent mother, who were married then separated, disagreed on the school their three-year-old child would attend. The father wanted the child to go to Thornhill Nursery School and Kindergarten, a secular school, while the mother preferred the child to attend Associated Hebrew Schools, a private Jewish school. Both parents are Jewish and were raising their child in the Jewish faith.

The father contended the child had previously attended the secular school and would benefit from the stability of returning there, the cost of this school was significantly lower, and the child could have a separate Jewish education on Sundays.

The mother alleged requiring the child to have a separate Jewish education on Sundays would limit his time with his family and friends and

would result in additional costs.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice – Family Court decided it was in the child’s best interests for his parents to enrol him at the Associated Hebrew Schools. The court noted the child had already recently gone through much disruption due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, his move away from the matrimonial home and his travel between his parents’ residences.

He would experience change regardless of whether he attended the secular school or the Jewish school, given the gap time would mean he would have different teachers and a different classroom even if he returned to the secular school, the court said.

The court agreed with the mother’s submission that the supplemental Jewish program on Sundays would potentially and unnecessarily lessen his time with his family and friends and his ability to participate in extracurricular activities and would mean he would have to receive his education six days a week.


Continues from previous issue…

5.0 Intelligence Resources of the Advance HQ OFC

5.1 However, by the time two more divisions were inducted into Sri Lanka and the structure of the Advance HQ of the OFC was formalised, an intelligence unit specifically structured for the IPKF operations designated as the Ad Hoc Liaison Unit was raised. The unit had both intelligence acquisition and interrogation capabilities. The unit commanded by a lieutenant colonel had its headquarters in Chennai with a team each deployed in Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Batticaloa. It also had three rehabilitation centres (with one interrogator each) for the three divisions. In all, it had 12 officers and over 100 other ranks. An effort was made to induct as many Tamil or South Indian officers and NCOs of Intelligence Corps into the unit. One Sinhala knowing officer was also posted sometime towards the end of 1988. 57 Int and FS Coy provided the intelligence cover for 54 Div sector including Kilinochchi. Both the units served under the command of Col GS (Int) of the Advance HQ OFC.

5.2 Communication intelligence was provided by the EWCP. It worked closely with the troops and provided accurate real time information.

5.3 Though the RAW had complained they were not consulted prior to the launching of Jafffna operations, after the formation of the Advance HQ OFC, the Chennai RAW unit maintained close touch and provided valuable inputs particularly on political developments in Sri Lanka. However, its contribution on militant disposition and assessment of LTTE capabilities were neither timely nor exhaustive.

5.4 Despite enjoying excellent personal relations at the senior level with MI officers, the Q Branch of the Tamil Nadu State Police and the Joint Directorate of the IB, Chennai provided no information throughout the entire IPKF operation. They had enormous information on the LTTE and its tentacles in Tamil Nadu, which could have helped us in our operations against the LTTE. However, such information was never provided. In the case of the Q Branch, this was mainly due to the absence of formal orders from the state government, which had taken a politically hostile stand against the IPKF operations. The IB usually fobbed off our requests saying that they had only political information, though in counter insurgency political information also had a great relevance on military operations.

6.0 MI Performance: Positives and Negatives

6.1 The MI personnel, despite the initial glitches of command and control and resource limitations, made some positive contributions. A few of these were as under: 6.11 As early as September 1987, the MI detachment in its assessment to the DGMI, said if the IPKF went to war it would take

three years to reduce it to manageable proportions. This assessment almost came true.

6.12 Despite the lack of clarity in the early stages, the DGMI managed to rise to the occasion to extend maximum possible support in identifying intelligence resources and moving them within a couple of months. It also made efforts to recruit Sinhala knowing Tamils who had migrated from Sri Lanka.

6.12 Even during the period of troubled peace from August to October 1987, the MI officers made some useful contacts both within the LTTE and among influential pro-LTTE civilians, particularly in Jaffna and Trincomalee. These contacts came in handy when the operations started. They provided valuable inputs on political moves of the LTTE as well as on some key issues like LTTE’s contact with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which was carrying out its own insurgency in Sinhala areas, procurement of MANPADS by the LTTE, contacts between the Sri Lanka President Premadasa and the LTTE leadership etc.

6.13 Well before the operation, we videographed the LTTE inspired civilian agitations in Jaffna and Trincomalee and identified key ring leaders. When the operation started, some of them were picked up and successfully turned into informers who gave useful tactical information on the movement of LTTE pistol groups and ambushes.

6.14 In two cases we managed to get clinching evidence in the form of photographs and wiretaps of collusion between Sri Lankan Army elements and the LTTE. These helped us to understand the extent of collusion between the Sri Lanka government and the LTTE.

6.15 Useful contacts were built in Sri Lanka’s National Intelligence Bureau. Though some of their information was misleading, it helped to insulate us against some of the counterintelligence threats MI was facing.

6.2 There were also some weaknesses in the MI functioning; these were as follows:

6.21 Lack of MI resources allocated prior to the operation by the DGMI resulted in the absence of intelligence assets in Sri Lanka. This had an adverse impact on the initial inability of the MI to provide timely and useful information to the 54 Inf Div for the Jaffna operations.

6.22 Despite receiving inputs from both RAW and IB and other agencies on a regular basis, the DGMI did not provide assessments that could have helped the IPKF operations. Similarly, the HQ Southern Command also failed to provide useful assessments or inputs.

6.23 There was little MI input on LTTE activity in Tamil Nadu. This was mainly due to the completely negative attitude of the Tamil Nadu government, resulting in the total denial of access to

information on the LTTE available with the state intelligence. Action taken to rectify this by the DGMI and the Army HQ, if any, had little impact on their attitude.

6.24 The LTTE was acting with impunity in Tamil Nadu during the entire period of operations, exposing the troops to a potential LTTE threat. This created a great feeling of insecurity among our Tamil sources, who felt we were not seriously involved in tackling the LTTE. They were reluctant to work for us as they felt we did not have enough “influence” in this ambience. This affected MI’s performance.

6.25 Most of the MI officers had little background knowledge on Sri Lanka or its environment when they were inducted. There is perhaps a requirement for building regional specialists in the course of MI officers’ careers so that they could improve their expertise.

6.26 Intelligence NCOs performance was far below par. They had no capability to carry out elementary interrogations. Nor were they clear about their duties in a counter insurgency environment. Both officers and NCOs tended to accept un- assessed information from sources without vetting the credibility.

6.27 Intelligence staffing was poor in formation headquarters. At one stage, in three of the four divisions, the GSO1 (Int) were low medical category officers; a few of them had no intelligence exposure. As intelligence had limited dedicated staff resources, their posting in divisions was far from prudent.

6.28 Quality of frontline soldiers’ knowledge of handling prisoners, segregating them for detailed interrogation etc. was poor. The Command HQ was in the best position to address such lacunae to provide short term training to officers and NCOs from all arms on a rotational basis. This was probably not even contemplated, though it had been done in the past in 1971.

6.29 There was practically no input from air or naval intelligence sources. This was surprising because in Colombo more than one merchant ship officer reported seeing fishing boats flashing “LTTE” in semaphore signals in the Gulf of Mannar, indicating regular movement of boats supplying the LTTE from Tamil Nadu.

6.291 The Tamil media in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka was a rich open source of information, which went untapped due to shortage of manpower. Similarly, there was not enough interface with Indian media men who had travelled into LTTE areas either covertly or openly. This rich source also went unexploited.

6.292 At the end of the IPKF operations, there was no formal MI arrangement for taking over the network of intelligence sources built over the

period of IPKF operations in Sri Lanka. Similarly, the rich data base on the LTTE militants went unused.

6.293 Few formation commanders had used MI resources as part of their overall intelligence planning. Generally, they expected MI to produce tactical information reactively. Thus, there was often a lack of convergence between their expectations and results.

PART-2 INTELLIGENCE COORDINATION AT VARIOUS

LEVELS

7.0 Lack of intelligence coordination and cooperation among various intelligence agencies is a hardy perennial in the investigative studies of all or most all operations in India. The most recent report of this genre is the K. Subrahmanyam Committee report on Kargil operations. And probably, in spite of findings of such committees, this problem is likely to persist because intelligence agencies apply the principle of Need to Know (from their point of view) to often withhold information. This is inherent in the nature of intelligence operations, which carry enormous risks for the individuals who originate such information.

8.0 Unfortunately, in the Sri Lanka operational scene, despite our best efforts, intelligence coordination with civil agencies produced very little useful intelligence. The Core Group was supposed to be a body to handle such issues. Some of those who had attended its meetings said the Core Group probably spent more time discussing the situation in Afghanistan than resolving difficult problems that had cropped up during IPKF operations. The problems faced by the IPKF due to political developments in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka that required Core Group directions were left unresolved. This left the IPKF with the fall out of such aberrations. Many such decisions though outside the scope of intelligence coordination, had their impact on the MI operations. MI’s intelligence acquisition effort was handicapped as a direct consequence of the absence of meaningful coordination in both letter and spirit at the top level.

INDIA’S SRI LANKA WAR

By Col R Hariharan

To be continued in next issue…


An unassailable present Rajapakshas government could rule for another ten years and possibly more if the 20th Amendment finds its way in the Constitution. An entrenched dynastic rule appears to be looming, partly contributed by dishevelled and splintered opposition from UNP and United Peoples Action parties along with contribution from the disunited wrangling self-centered Tamil political parties numbering seventeen with seventeen leaders vying for the leadership of Tamils and focused on strengthening their political base and party while motivated to boost their images, seeking self-glory and popularity.

It need not be detailed again to list the grievances of Tamils which commenced in 1948 and continue to pile up and accumulate with no redress in sight from the Sri Lankan Governments ruled by the majority Sinhalese and their parties who are working overtly and covertly to make Sri Lanka a pure SINHALA BUDDHIST STATE exclusively to foster, promote and preserve the Sinhala Buddhist culture, religion, language and race. The casualties in this racial and religious discriminatory genocidal process are the minorities, Tamils and Muslims, who are facing the grave and inevitable prospect of gradual extinction as distinct races who have inhabited the Island for more than 2500 years, before the purported arrival of mythical Vijaya in BC 483.

Though Sri Lanka’s democracy has resulted in free and fair elections, general and local, the irony is the democratic Parliament being dominated by Sinhala Buddhists has been utilized to pass anti-democratic and discriminatory legislations to satisfy the Sinhala-Buddhists and Maha Sanga. These deep flaws in the governance by successive Sri Lankan governments have led to the polarizations based on race, religion and language, resulting in pogroms, massacres and growth of militancy among the Tamil youths. The 99 percent Sinhala dominated security forces and the state discrimination of minorities has created insecurity,

uncertainty and fear among the Tamils and Muslims.

The genocidal war between the security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE], which snatched the lives of more than 70,000 civilians with more than 25,000 involuntary disappearances, knocked the eyes and ears of United Nations, UNHRC and the international community who for the past 72 years since independence, maintained deadly silence and ignored hundreds of massacres including pogroms in 1956, 1958, 1971, 1977, 1981, 1983, 1987, 1996 and genocidal full scale war from 2006-2009.

The United Nations and UNHRC belatedly scrambled into action and finally brought Sri Lanka into their radar. This resulted in the UNHRC Resolutions 30/1 and 40/1, calling Sri Lanka to implement their recommendations to mete out accountability and justice while upholding the rule of law. As expected and prophesized, Sri Lanka pursued its usual delaying tactics and finally quitting the resolutions and recommendations for state burial. The present government has defiantly and contemptuously declared its rejection of 30/1 and 40/1 resolutions and also vowed not to implement any of those recommendations. It is to be noted though Sri Lanka has the right to refuse to implement the recommendations, the resolutions will not lose their legality and validity and its binding effect on Sri Lanka. Consequently, UNHRC is expected to pass its final resolution against Sri Lanka in the March 2021 UNHRC sessions after studying the final reports and recommendations of UN rapporteurs, some of them could visit Sri Lanka before the March 2021 UNHRC sessions.

In the light of the intransigent attitude of Sri Lanka, UN, UNHRC and the international community cannot sit and watch passively without plunging into taking meaningful mandatory measures against Sri Lanka.

However, the minorities, particularly Tamils and those who are victims of war, do not see any light at the end of the tunnel. On the contrary, instead of taking remedial and healing measures, the present government has embarked on an accelerated Sinhala-Buddhisisation, program in the North and East to obtain its goal of making Sri Lanka a SINHALA BUDDHIST STATE. The words Tamils, political settlement and their grievances are no more in their dictionary though numerous promises were given to the UN and the international community.

CRUCIAL TIME FOR URGENT ACTIONS BY UNHRC, UN, INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AND DIASPORA TAMILS

Militarization and colonization coupled with state appointed commissions to study the archaeological sites in the Eastern Province to hide, destroy, and or distort the Tamil’s historical and archaeological sites and evidences to concoct a conclusion to support the existence of Buddhist civilization which could not be a Sinhala civilization as Sinhalese as a race evolved for recognition only in the 6 AD when the Sinhalese language achieved its language status in Sri Lanka.

A solemn duty, therefore, lies on the United Nations and UNHRC to recognize the genocide committed against the Tamils since 1948, which includes ongoing structural genocide. There is no dearth of evidences to confirm the genocides, which were all seen, reported and heard by United Nations UNHRC and the international community, during the periods of pogroms in 1956, 1958, 1971, 1977, 1983, 1987 and the genocidal war between the Sri Lankan Security Forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Rubbing salt to the wounds of Tamils, the Sinhala political parties are now united, pursuing an anti-Tamil and hostile campaign vowing not to accept or grant the devolution and powers specified in the 13th Amendment, which is an international accord signed between Sri Lanka and India.

In addition, moves are underway to enact a new Constitution, which will automatically guarantee the demise of the 13th Amendment. Besides, the impending passage of the 20th Amendment in Parliament with unfettered powers for the president over Parliament, judiciary and civil service, will empower and facilitate the speeding of the process of Sinhalisization and Buddhisization with hardly anyone making a successful challenge in courts or stall it through peaceful protests.

In this respect, it is relevant to quote the UN high commissioner’s opening statement at UNHRC in the 45th session in Geneva. “I encourage the council to give renewed attention to Sri Lanka in view of the needs to prevent threats to peace and reconciliation.” This clearly confirms the worsening human rights situation in Sri Lanka. It has to be stated the United Nations, UNHRC and international community partly contributed to the sufferings of the Tamils, adopting a wait and see and lethargic approach towards a defiant Sri Lanka.

The Tamil political parties and leaders also partly contributed to

this predicament of Tamils displaying disunity, self-interest coupled with flip flopping and flirtations with government having no agenda or ground map to mount united and coordinated nonviolent campaigns to put a break on the genocidal measures of the government.

In view of the toxic political climate enveloping the traumatised and helpless Tamils, United Nations, UNHRC and international community cannot remain complacent any more but are duty bound to take appropriate steps to right the wrongs and put a halt to the gradual extinction of Tamils through assimilation. Some of the possible steps which could be taken by UNHRC and United Nations are to:

Set up an independent international investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity etc. and calling for a UN supervised referendum in the North and East for the people of the land to decide their future.

Consider referring Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court.

Enforce mandatory political, economic and diplomatic sanctions. The visa ban on Army commander Shavendra Silva, an alleged war criminal, must be followed further with similar bans by western countries to show their commitments to rule of law, accountability and justice.

It is hoped the United Nations, UNHRC and the international community will rise to the occasion and ensure accountability, justice and rule of law to vindicate their credibility and reliability. Merely issuing statements of condemnations and concerns is like comforting an injured with words of consolation without providing the healing medicine.

In this respect, the Diaspora Tamils, numbering more than one million, should get together under one umbrella and form a Diaspora Tamils united action front and engage in active relentless campaigns with lobbying of political leaders in their respective countries employing pressure for follow up action against Sri Lanka on the question of genocide. Similarly, the ten Tamil political parties and their leaders recently conducted a united fasting protest to mark the sacrifice of Thileepan. This precedent should be followed to launch further agitations to advance the causes of Tamils to ensure their future and existence in Sri Lanka.

WORDS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES WHILE ACTIONS

SPEAK FOR OTHERS.

By Thambu Kanagasabai


STAY IN TOUCH11 - 2623 Eglinton Ave EastScarborough, ON M1K 2S2

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEFMr. Satheesan Kumarasamy

COPY EDITOR – ENGLISHMs. Janet Musick

LAW & POLITICS EDITORDr. Paul Newman

MEDICINE & HEALTH EDITORDr. Brian Senewiratne

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Mr. Ravi Devaraj

ECONOMY & SOCIAL ISSUES EDITOR

Dr. Subra Jayahanthan

SENIORS, WOMEN & CHILDREN ISSUES EDITOR

Ms. Dayasiya Puviraj

ONLINE EDITOR – ENGLISHMr. Humayun Kabir Badal

ONLINE EDITOR – TAMILMr. Sivasankaran Balasubramanian

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GRAPHIC DESIGNERMr. Selvaratnam Amutheesan

WEBSITE DESIGNERMr. Vinoth Poovalingam

CONSULTINGMr. Samy Ramachandran

MR. SATHEESAN KUMARASAMY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Mr. Satheesan Kumarasamy has worked in the media nearly two decades. He has contributed articles in English and Tamil for various newspapers, and is an

editor for an online journal since 1999. Mr. Kumarasamy received a Bachelor of Science in Biology (Natural Science) and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with Honours, and Master of Arts in Integrated Studies degrees with specialization in Political Science. Mr. Kumarasamy is currently pursuing his studies in LLB and PhD in Human Rights.

MS. JANET MUSICK COPY EDITOR - ENGLISH

Ms. Janet Musick has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, and has worked as an editor, writer and proofreader. She has a strong background in manuscript editing, copy editing and proofing, as well as corporate communications. Currently, she edits manuscripts for Texas-based Defiance Press and Publishing, as well as for individual authors. She also works with new authors at a discount to help them become better writers as a way to give back to the writing profession.

DR. PAUL NEWMAN EDITOR-LAW & POLITICS

Dr. Paul Newman is a professor of Human Rights at the University of Bangalore, India. He holds a PhD, and his research thesis was ‘Internal Displacement and Human Rights situation in Northern Sri Lanka from 1995 - 2001.’ He is a member of the Forum Against Death Penalty based in Chennai in India. Dr. Newman is a staunch supporter and voice for oppressive and suppressive regimes around the world; in particular, he is a voice against human rights abuses perpetuated against minority groups.

DR. BRIAN SENEWIRATNEEDITOR-

MEDICINE & HEALTH

Brian Senewiratne was born in Sri Lanka and educated at Cambridge

University and London University. He rose to be a consultant physician in London, but voluntarily opted in 1968 to return to Sri Lanka as associate professor of medicine and consultant physician in the teaching hospital in Kandy. With increasing instability in Sri Lanka, he moved to Brisbane in 1976 as associate professor of medicine at Queensland University, and a senior specialist visiting physician in Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH), a post he held till 2000. He relentlessly campaigns against violation of the human rights of the Tamil minority, and for their right to live with equality, dignity and safety in the country of their birth. Dr Senewiratne is a Sinhalese from the majority community.

MR. RAVI DEVARAJ EDITOR-SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Mr. Ravi Devaraj obtained his law degree in BABL. He currently works as deputy manager in Quadrant Televentures in the southern State of Tamil Nadu. Mr. Devaraj does research in Tamil, Tamilian History. He is interested in restoration and reclaiming the history of the Tamil race, culture, and identity. He has more than ten years of experience and expertise in Tamil, Indo-European open source interpretation, and analysis. Currently, he is doing research on the history of the Tamil language and Tamilian in Homeland (Tamil Nadu and Eelam). He is collecting Tamil words to compare with the words of European and Asian languages and has found the influence of Tamil in these countries’ languages.

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CHILDREN

Ms. Srimathi Sridharan has been a journalist for the past five years. Her experience in working in a newsroom has brought immense value in addition to copy editing, reporting and journalistic ethics of the journal. She has a bachelor’s degree in Electronic Media and masters in Communication and Journalism. She also has a YouTube channel and generates quality content. Young and enthusiastic,

she has participated in many global pop-up newsroom projects and has come up with innovative ideas for the future of journalism.

MR. SARAVANA RAJENDRAN

ONLINE EDITOR – TAMIL TAMIL.VOICEFORJUSTICE.CA

Mr. Saravana Rajendran completed his post-graduate work in chemistry. He worked at British Petroleum in its research section for several years. Due to his passion for journalism, he shifted his career to newspapers in 2008. He provided his services to Thina Thanthi, a Tamil newspaper in the Mumbai office for a few months. Then he served Maharashtra State Government Secretariat and Mumbai Corporation Office as translator in the public relations sections. At present, he works as a journalist in Chennai. He is a prolific translator in Tamil, Hindi, Marathi and Arabic languages. His books have been published by Eastern Publishers, Self-Esteem Publishers and Manimegalai Publishers, and he currently writes articles for Tamil and Hindi dailies and weekly magazines.

MR. KABIR BADAL HUMAYUN

ONLINE EDITOR ENGLISH VERSION

VOICEFORJUSTICE.CA

Mr. Humayun Kabir Badal is a senior journalist based in Bangladesh. After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1988, he became a journalist for about 30 years. He has worked in both Bengali and English daily newspapers. Currently, he works for the English version of Daily Nayadiganta as a special correspondent. A committed human rights activist, Mr. Kabir is a founding member of Shishu Kalyan Sangbadik Parishad (Children Welfare Journalists Association), which works for poor and oppressed children. He advocates for the welfare of the down-trodden section of society when they become victims of government repression, discriminatory policy, or are exploited by any vested quarter around the world.


STUDY FINDS VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY LEADS TO OBESITY

We have now one more reason to maintain vitamin D in our body as researchers have recently found Vitamin D deficiency during early development can disrupt the metabolic balance between growth and fat accumulation.

Using a zebrafish model, the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests a linkage between Vitamin D and metabolic homeostasis, or equilibrium.

“The Vitamin D deficient zebrafish exhibited both

hypertrophy and hyperplasia - an increase in both the size and number of fat cells,” said study author Seth Kullman from North Carolina State University in the US.

This, combined with stunted growth, indicates Vitamin D plays an important role in the ability to channel energy into growth versus into fat storage.

For the study, the research team looked at groups of post-juvenile zebrafish on one of three diets: no Vitamin D (or Vitamin D null),

MORNING WALK KEY TO SOUND SLEEP AFTER HEART SURGERY

Just half an hour walk in the morning can help heart bypass surgery patients get a sound sleep at night, according to a new study.“Many patients have trouble sleeping after heart bypass surgery. When this persists beyond six months it exacerbates the heart condition and puts patients at risk of having to repeat the surgery,” said study author Hady Atef of Cairo University, Egypt.This study investigated the effect of exercise on both sleep and functional capacity. The study enrolled 80 patients aged 45 to 65 years old who had sleep disorders six weeks after heart bypass surgery and also had reduced functional capacity.The patients were randomly allocated to two exercise groups: aerobic exercise or a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise.Both groups did 30 exercise sessions in the morning over a 10-week period.During the aerobic exercise sessions, participants walked on a treadmill for

30 to 45 minutes. During the aerobic and resistance exercise sessions, participants walked on a treadmill for 30 to 45 minutes and did circuit weight training, a form of light resistance exercise.After 10 weeks changes in sleep and functional capacity were compared between the two exercise groups.Both exercise programmes—aerobic exercise alone and combined aerobic/resistance exercise—improved sleep and functional capacity over the 10-week period.But isolated aerobic exercise was much more beneficial on sleep and function than the combined programme, according to the study presented on ACNAP Essentials 4 You, a scientific platform of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).“Our recommendation for heart bypass patients with difficulty sleeping and performing their usual activities is to do aerobic exercise only,” said Atef.

ELECTRONIC MEDIA USE IN LATE CHILDHOOD AFFECTS STUDY

A new study of 8- to 11-year olds reveals an association between heavy television use and heavy computer use and poorer numeracy—the ability to work with numbers--and poorer reading performance.

Lisa Mundy of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues recently presented these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

The researchers found that watching two or more hours of television per day at the age of eight or nine was associated with lower reading performance compared to

peers two years later; the difference was equivalent to losing four months of learning.

Using a computer for more than one hour per day was linked to a similar degree of lost numeracy. The analysis showed no links between the use of videogames and academic performance.

These findings could help parents, teachers, and clinicians draw plans and recommendations for electronic media use in late childhood. Future research could build on these results by examining continued associations in later secondary school.

Vitamin D enriched and control.

The zebrafish spent four months on their particular diet, then the researchers looked at their growth, bone density, triglyceride, lipid, cholesterol and Vitamin D levels.

They also examined key metabolic pathways associated with fat production, storage and mobilization and growth promotion.

The zebrafish in the Vitamin D deficient group were, on average, 50 percent smaller than those in the other two groups, and they had significantly more fat reserves.

After the initial testing, the Vitamin D deficient zebrafish were given a Vitamin D enriched diet

for an additional six months, to see if the results could be reversed.

While the fish did continue to grow and begin to utilize fat reserves, they never caught up in size with the other cohorts, and they retained residual fat deposits.

“This work shows that Vitamin D deficiency can influence metabolic health by disrupting the normal balance between growth and fat accumulation,” Kullman said.

Future work will involve looking at the offspring of Vitamin D deficient mothers, to determine whether this vitamin deficiency has epigenetic effects that can be passed down, the researchers noted.

TRANS FAT-A SILENT KILLERA by-product of a process called

hydrogenation that is used to turn healthy oils into solids, Trans Fatty Acid (TFA), commonly known as trans fat, has now emerged as a deadly threat to life on Earth.

This abdominal fat is dangerous because it pumps out chemicals that are linked to the risk of diabetes and heart disease, several studies have pointed out.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), of the people who die each year of heart-related diseases, a significant number of them are directly attributed to trans fat intake.

Partially hydrogenated oils (PHO) were commercially introduced in the early 20th century.

This process through which liquid vegetable oil could be made solid or semi-solid at room temperature won its inventors a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1912. Now this has turned out to be a boomerang for the mass consumers.

When the vegetable oil is converted into butter-like semi-solid margarine, these become PHOs, the main source of industrially produced TFA. It can contain up to 25-45 percent trans fat.

Also, if vegetable oils are used repeatedly while deep frying foods

with the same oil for a long time at high temperatures, TFAs are produced.

Usually, restaurants use the same oil for multiple cycles in order to reduce their cost of preparing food.

TFAs reduce the High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) or ‘good cholesterol’ from blood serum, leading to the accumulation of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) or ‘bad cholesterol’ in the blood vessels and ultimately disrupting the blood flow.

Consequently, excessive consumption of trans fat results in an increased risk of coronary heart disease, increased risk of death from heart diseases, dementia and cognitive impairment.

Trans fat intake is strongly associated with diabetes while a high level of TFAs increases the overall death risk by 34 percent. It also increases the risk of heart disease by 21 percent and the risk of deaths from such diseases by 28 percent.

Very low traces of TFA can be found in beef, mutton, dairy milk and dairy products, but they are virtually harmless for the human body.

WHO recommends either limiting TFA to 2g per 100g total fat in oils, and foods, or banning the production and use of PHO.


FISH OIL SUPPLEMENTS LOWER HEART DISEASE RISK

INSOMNIA IDENTIFIED AS A NEW RISK FACTOR

Taking fish oil as a dietary supplement has a history dating back centuries, but whether it really has a positive effect on our health has been a subject of heated debate.

The latest volley is a new study linking regular use of fish oil supplements to a lower risk of premature death and cardiovascular disease (CVD) such as heart attacks and strokes.

“With regard to fish oil and CVD, the data for the most part have been positive, albeit with some wobbling among studies. The latest study adds to the database suggesting effectiveness,” said Alice Lichtenstein, the Gershoff professor of nutrition science and policy, and director and senior scientist at the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at Tufts University. She

A new “global atlas” study published in Diabetologia has identified insomnia as a risk factor associated with increased risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes (T2D).

Diabetologia is the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD].

The study identified 34 risk factors that are thought to increase (19) or decrease risk (15), as well as a further 21 “suggestive” risk factors where evidence was not quite as strong.

Researchers found evidence of causal associations between 34 exposures (19 risk factors and 15 protective factors) and T2D. Insomnia was identified as a novel risk factor, with people with insomnia being 17 percent more likely to

was not involved in the research,

but Lichtenstein stressed taking fish oil tablets was no “magic bullet,” and the study wasn’t able to shed any light on what dosage was needed to achieve a clinically meaningful effect.

This latest research, which was published Wednesday in the BMJ Medical Journal, included nearly half a million people from the UK between 40 and 69 years old enrolled in the UK Biobank study.

Nearly a third of the 427,678 men and women in the data bank said they took regular fish oil supplements at the start of the study.

Using hospital and death records, the researchers kept track of participants over a nine-year period

on average and found that fish oil supplements were associated with a 13 percent lower risk of death, a 16 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, and a 7 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease events such as stroke or heart attack.

As an observational study, it can only show an association, and we can’t know for sure if it was the fish

oil supplements alone that lowered the risk of stroke or if other changes to people’s diets or lifestyle contributed.

But the authors said their analysis of the data showed the benefits were independent of factors including age, sex, lifestyle habits, diet, medication and other supplement use.

develop T2D than those without.

The other 18 risk factors for T2D were depression, systolic blood pressure, starting smoking, lifetime smoking, coffee (caffeine) consumption, blood plasma levels of the amino acids isoleucine, valine and leucine, liver enzyme alanine aminotransferase (a sign of liver function), childhood and adulthood body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, internal fat mass, resting heart rate, and blood plasma levels of four fatty acids.

The study confirmed several previously established risk factors and identified novel potential risk factors for T2D. Findings should reform public health policies for the primary prevention of Type 2 Diabetes.

MOTHERS’ ANXIETY DURING PREGNANCY LINKED TO ASTHMA IN KIDS

Scientists have found depression and anxiety in moms-to-be is linked to a heightened risk of asthma and poorer lung function in their 10-year-old children.

The findings, published in the journal Thorax in October, suggest the risk of later life respiratory disease is likely programmed in the womb, rather than necessarily influenced by as yet unmeasured genetic, social or environmental factors.

Psychological distress, to include anxiety and depression, during pregnancy is associated with increased risks of respiratory disease in preschoolers, but whether this association persists into later childhood isn’t known.

To find out, the researchers from Erasmus University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, drew on participants in the Generation R Study, a population-based prospective cohort study, which has been tracking life from early pregnancy onwards in Rotterdam.

The degree of overall psychological distress, depression and anxiety experienced by each parent in the second term of pregnancy and three years after the birth was assessed using a validated 53-item questionnaire.

Depression and anxiety were assessed only in the mothers, at two and six months after birth. In all, 362 (nearly nine percent) of the mothers and 167 (just under four percent) of the fathers were clinically depressed

and/or anxious during the pregnancy.

The lung function of 3,757 of the offspring was measured when they were 10 years old, and information on asthma obtained in 3,640 of them. Almost six percent had asthma.

Mothers’ overall psychological distress and symptoms of anxiety and depression during pregnancy were all associated with a 45-92 percent increased risk of current asthma in their children, after adjusting for potentially influential factors such as age, ethnicity, smoking during pregnancy, and pet keeping.

Factoring in fathers’ psychological distress during pregnancy didn’t change this association. Further analysis of the patterns of psychological distress showed that mostly depressive or anxiety symptoms both during and after pregnancy were associated with a heightened risk of asthma in the children.

But separating the potentially influential factors into three different groups, including lifestyle and health-related, socioeconomic, and birth and early childhood factors, made no difference to the associations found.

“Our results may indicate an intrauterine effect of maternal psychological distress during pregnancy on foetal lung development and respiratory morbidity, rather than an effect of unmeasured genetic, social, behavioural or environmental factors,” the authors wrote.

MUSICAL TRAINING MAY IMPROVE WORKING MEMORY IN KIDS

Neuroscientists have found new evidence that learning to play an instrument may be good for the brain, and it helps kids be more intelligent and sharper.

According to the study published, musically trained children have greater activation in brain regions related to attention control and executive functions known to be associated with improved reading, higher resilience, greater creativity, and a better quality of life.

“Our most important finding is that two different mechanisms seem to underlie the better performance of musically trained children in the attention and working memory (WM) task,” said study author Leonie Kausel from Pontifical Catholic University in

Chile.

Here, “domain” refers to how sensorial modalities--types of senses such as heat, sound, or light--are encoded by the brain, while domain-specific means only one vs. more than one sensorial modality is processed, the team explained. Both mechanisms seem to have improved functions in musically trained children.

For the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience in October, the research team tested the attention and working memory of 40 Chilean children from 10-13 years of age.

Twenty played an instrument, had at least two years of lessons, practised at least two hours a week and regularly played in an orchestra or ensemble.

Twenty control children, recruited from public schools in Santiago, had no musical training other than in the school curriculum.

Their attention and working memory were assessed through the previously developed and validated “bimodal (auditory/visual) attention and working memory (WM) task.”

During this task, the research team monitored the brain activity of the children with functional magnetic

resonance imaging (fMRI), detecting small changes in blood flow within the brain.

There was no difference between the two groups in reaction time. However, musically trained children did significantly better on the memory task.

The research team suspects musical training increases the functional activity of these brain networks.


SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY

&HED IMMUNITY IS DANGEROUS

AND FLAWED APPROACHThe idea of using a herd immunity

approach to manage COVID-19--by allowing immunity to develop in low-risk populations while protecting the most vulnerable--is “a dangerous fallacy unsupported by the scientific evidence,” according to a new letter signed by 80 international researchers.

In the open letter published by the journal The Lancet, the experts stated it is critical to act decisively and urgently.

The authors acknowledge ongoing restrictions have understandably led to widespread demoralisation and diminishing trust among the public, and in the face of the second wave of infection, there is renewed interest in so-called natural herd immunity approaches.

They stressed any pandemic management strategy relying upon immunity from natural infections for COVID-19 is flawed.

Researchers explained uncontrolled transmission in younger people risks significant ill-health and death across the whole population - with real-world evidence from many countries showing it is not possible to restrict uncontrolled outbreaks to certain sections of society, and it is practically impossible to isolate large swathes of the population.

Instead, they said special efforts to protect the most vulnerable are

essential but must go hand-in-hand with multi-pronged population-level strategies.

They also stated there is no evidence for lasting protective immunity to SARS-CoV-2 after natural infection and warned this waning immunity as a result of natural infection would not end COVID-19 but instead result in repeated waves of transmission over several years.

They said this could place vulnerable populations at risk for the indefinite future, as natural infection-based herd immunity strategies would result in recurrent epidemics, as seen with many infectious diseases before mass vaccination.

Instead, the authors call for the suppression of the virus until the population can be vaccinated.

The authors also warn natural infection-based herd immunity approaches risk impacting the workforce as a whole and overwhelming the ability of healthcare systems to provide acute and routine care.

They noted, “We still do not understand who might suffer from ‘long COVID,’” and that herd immunity approaches place an unacceptable burden on healthcare workers, many of whom have died from COVID-19.

FACEBOOK INTEGRATES MESSENGER WITH INSTAGRAM

Last month Facebook announced plans to connect the Messenger and Instagram apps for cross-app chats while bringing some of the best Messenger features to the popular photo and video sharing platform.

This is the first serious step in realizing the dream of CEO Mark Zuckerberg to integrate its family of apps.

Messages and calls from friends and family using Instagram will stay in your Instagram app, but people using the Messenger app can now reach you on Instagram without you needing to download a new app, and vice versa, said Dam Mosseri, head of Instagram.

“You can also control where you receive messages and calls, such as in your chats, in your message requests or not at all,” added Stan Chudnovsky, head of Messenger.

The social network said it is also adding more than 10 new features like selfie stickers and Vanish Mode (where messages disappear after a certain period of time).

“We’re also bringing familiar features from Messenger like replying to a specific message, forwarding a message, and customisable chat colours and themes,” Mosseri said.

Facebook is rolling out these new features on Instagram and Messenger

in a few countries around the world and will be expanded globally soon.

People on Instagram can decide whether to update immediately to this new experience. “On Facebook’s family of apps alone, people send more than 100 billion messages to their friends and family each day,” Mosseri informed.

Other features coming soon to the new Messenger experience on Instagram are “Communicate Across Apps,” “Watch Together,” “Forwarding,” “Replies,” “Animated Message Effects,” “Message Controls” and “Enhanced Reporting and Blocking Updates.”

“Over time, you’ll see even more fun ways to connect with friends and family. Some features such as custom emoji reactions and selfie stickers will be available on Instagram first and will come to Messenger soon after,” Facebook said.

The company said that this new update, you’ll have the choice and controls to manage your privacy, including whether message requests go to your Chats list, your Message Requests folder, or whether you receive them at all.

Zuckerberg last year detailed his vision for cross-app messaging across its family of apps, including end-to-end encrypted WhatsApp that raised eyeballs globally.

GOOGLE USING ANDROID PHONES TO DETECT EARTHQUAKE

Alphabet Inc’s Google Android phones started detecting earthquakes around the world last month to provide data that could eventually give billions of users precious seconds of warning of a tremor nearby with an alert feature first rolling out in California.

Japan, Mexico and California already use land-based sensors to generate warnings, aiming to cut injuries and property damage by giving people further away from the epicenter of an earthquake seconds to protect themselves before the shaking starts.

If Google’s approaches for detecting and alerting prove effective, warnings would reach more people, including for the first time Indonesia and other developing countries with few traditional sensors.

Seismology experts consulted by Google on August 11 said turning smartphones into mini-seismographs marked a major advancement despite the inevitably of erroneous alerts from a work in progress and the reliance on a private company’s algorithms for public safety. More than 2.5 billion devices, including some tablets, run Google’s Android operating system.

Google’s program emerged from a week-long session 4-1/2 years ago to test whether the accelerometers in phones could detect car crashes, earthquakes and tornadoes, said principal software engineer Marc Stogaitis.

Accelerometers--sensors that measure direction and force of motion--are mainly used to determine whether a user is holding a phone in landscape or portrait mode.

The company studied historical accelerometer readings during earthquakes and found they could give some users up to a minute of notice.

Android phones can currently separate earthquakes from vibrations caused by thunder or the device dropping only when the device is charging, stationary and has user permission to share data with Google.

If phones detect an earthquake, they send their city-level location to Google, which can triangulate the epicenter and estimate the magnitude with as few as several hundred reports, Stogaitis said.

The system will not work in regions such as China where Google’s Play Services software is blocked.

Alerts will trigger for earthquakes magnitude 4.5 or greater, and no app download is necessary.

MyShake, an app launched by Allen’s Berkeley lab last year to provide Californians warnings and let them report damage, has drawn 1 million downloads.

Stogaitis also said Google has not discussed its plans with Apple Inc, whose competitor to Android comprises half the market in countries including the United States.


COWS PREFER LIVE COMMUNICATION WITH HUMANS

After months of technology-based communication enforced by COVID-19, many may be missing a “live” human interaction, but we are not the only ones feeling so--a new study reveals cows also prefer a face-to-face chat.

The study, published in Frontiers in Psychology last month, discovered cows are actually more relaxed when spoken to directly by a live human, rather than when listening to a recorded voice via a loudspeaker.

“Cattle like stroking in combination with gentle talking. In scientific contexts, a recording of a human voice speaking gently could be used to relax the animals, because it can be difficult to repeat the same phrases in the same way during experiments,” said study author Annika Lange from the University of Veterinary in Austria.

Using a recorded voice means conditions are as similar as possible in each trial, following a concept known as “standardization”--an important principle of scientific experimentation.

However, the team of scientists

wanted to find out if cows respond differently to the sound of recorded voices compared to a human talking directly to them.

“Our study suggests that live talking is more relaxing for our animals than a recording of a human voice. Interactions may be less positive when they become artificial through standardization,” Lange added.

The team worked with a herd of 28 cattle, comparing the benefits of either stroking the animals while playing a recording of an experimenter’s voice or stroking while speaking to the animals directly.

After monitoring the animals’ responses during the experiments, they found live talking was the best mood enhancer for their bovine friends. Heart rate variability was higher when cattle were spoken to directly, indicating they were enjoying themselves.

After this treatment, heart rates were lower than after listening to a recorded voice, showing the animals were more relaxed following the live chat.

ARGENTINA BECOMES FIRST COUNTRY TO APPROVE GM WHEAT

Argentina has become the first country to approve the growth and consumption of genetically modified wheat, according to an announcement by the country’s agriculture ministry.

The ministry’s scientific commission said in a statement released on October 8 in Buenos Aires, it had approved a drought-resistant variety of wheat in the world’s fourth-largest exporter of the crop.

“This is the first approval in the world for drought-tolerant genetic transformation in wheat,” the National Commission for Science and Technology (CONICET) said in a statement.

However, experts expressed concern about the growth and marketing of genetically modified crops (GMOs), citing difficulties in marketing such produce to consumers concerned about their effect on health and the environment.

CONICET said the genetic modifications to Argentina’s wheat crop would have to be approved in Brazil, historically the country’s biggest export market, to be commercially viable.

Some 45 percent of Argentina’s wheat exports in 2019 went to Brazil. Other key markets are Indonesia, Chile and Kenya.

The drought resistant HB4 wheat

variety was developed by Argentine biotechnology company Bioceres, working with the National University and CONICET.

“Approval of our HB4 wheat in Argentina represents a ground-breaking milestone for the entire global value chain of this important crop, given the substantial yield increases and significant environmental benefits that our technology offers,” said Bioceres CEO Federico Trucco.

“Now we must go out into the world and convince people that this is super good and be able to generate markets for this wheat, which represents an evolutionary leap.”

Trucco admitted that winning approval from Brazil, the country’s key export market, could prove difficult.

“The first country we have to convince is Brazil, and it may be hard work,” he said.

Experts in the Winter Cereals Committee of the National Seeds Institute expressed concern over the government greenlighting of the project.

They warned no country approved the use of transgenic wheat varieties “due to the non-acceptance by local and/or foreign consumers of products made with transgenic crops and the difficulty of keeping GMO and non-GMO production separate.”

NOKIA INVENTS THERMAL CAMERA TO DETECT COVID-19 SYMPTOMS

Nokia has created an automated system that uses a thermal camera and real-time video analytics to determine if a person has COVID-19 symptoms and is wearing a mask. The Finnish company has invented the camera as part of efforts to protect its employees as they return to work and has been using the system in its factory in Chennai, India, for two months. It has screened more than 200,000 people in that facility. The factory, which was closed for some time to comply with Indian regulations following the coronavirus outbreak, has more than 1,000 employees. The system detects whether a person has a high temperature or is not wearing their face mask and alerts the operation centre, the head of Analytics and IoT for Nokia, Amit Shah, told Reuters. It comes with privacy settings where faces can be blurred to comply with local regulations and deployed across different locations. It can be monitored from a central facility without the need to keep a person at every check point. “Nokia factories and R&D centres are deploying this,” Shah said, adding that talks were also at “pretty advanced stages” on deploying the system in North America, Latin America and Asia and across sectors including schools and government buildings. Nokia said customers could expand the product to add other features including predictive surveillance, machine maintenance and security threats.

EXOPLANET HUNTER SNARES EXTREME SUPERHOT WORLD

A European Space Agency satellite tasked with tracking down exoplanets has made its first big catch, a world so hot that its atmosphere could melt iron, astrophysicists have reported.

Launched into Earth’s orbit in December 2019, the CHEOPS space-based telescope spotted the gas giant circling close to one of the hottest known stars with a planetary system, according to a study published last month.

Some 322 light years away in the constellation Libra, WASP-189b is so close to its host star that it orbits in less than three days.

It is too far away from Earth to see directly but can be detected in other ways.

When a planet passes between its star and an observer--whether an astronomer on land or a telescope in space--it dims the star’s light by a tiny but measurable amount.

This “transit” method has detected the vast majority of exoplanets discovered so far. NASA’s Kepler spacecraft used it to find thousands of candidates from 2009

to 2013.Exoplanets--any planet outside

our solar system--were first confirmed to exist in 1995 by two Swiss astronomers, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, an exploit that earned them a physics Nobel in 2019.

Queloz is among the more than 100 co-authors of the new study, published last month in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

There are 4,284 confirmed exoplanets as of September 29 according to the NASA Exoplanet Archive and at least as many likely candidates.

The vast majority are bigger than those of our solar system: 1,339 so-called ice giants, 1,457 Neptune-like gas giants, and 1320 “super Earths” with masses many times greater than the rock we call home.

There are relatively few--162--terrestrial planets with Earth-like mass, and of those only a handful are in a “temperate” zone that would support liquid water, a key ingredient for life as we know it.


Last month the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved new emergency aid for 28 of the world’s poorest countries to help them alleviate their debt and better cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The announcement, which follows a similar measure passed in mid-April for 25 countries, is intended to help the countries cover their debt repayments to the IMF for the next six months and “free up scarce financial resources for vital emergency medical and other relief efforts” during the pandemic.

The 28 countries receiving the second tranche of aid are Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi,

IMF APPROVES EMERGENCY AID FOR 28 POOREST COUNTRIES

Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo and Yemen.

Mali is also eligible for aid but has not yet been added to the list because “there is a lack of clarity as to whether the international community recognizes/deals with the current military regime as the government of Mali,” the IMF said on October 5.

The debt relief is channeled through the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT), which enables the IMF to provide grants to the poorest and most vulnerable countries hit by a natural disaster or public health crisis.

Subject to sufficient resources in the CCRT, grants could be provided for a two-year period through mid-April 2022 for an estimated total amount of $959 million.

The IMF’s goal is to endow the CCRT with $1.4 billion so it can also meet future needs.

To date $506.5 million has been contributed by several countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, China, Mexico, Sweden, Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Malta.

MACHINES TO HANDLE HALF OF WORK TASKS BY 2025

CORONAVIRUS TO HIT ADDITIONAL SRI LANKA FINANCE COMPANIES

Because of “robot revolution,” half of all work tasks will be handled by machines by 2025 in a shift likely to worsen inequality, a World Economic Forum report forecast last month.

The think tank said a “robot revolution” would create 97 million jobs worldwide but destroy almost as many, leaving some communities at risk. Routine or manual jobs in administration and data processing were most at risk of automation, WEF said.

However, it also said new jobs would emerge in care, big data and the green economy. The Forum’s research spanned 300 of the world’s largest companies, who between them employ eight million people around the world.

More than 50 percent of employers surveyed said they expected to speed up the automation of some roles in their companies, while 43 percent felt they were likely to cut jobs due to technology.

WEF said the pandemic had sped up the adoption of new technologies as firms looked to cut costs and adopt new ways of working. But it warned workers now faced a double threat from “accelerating automation and the fallout from the COVID-19 recession.”

“[These things have] deepened existing inequalities across labour markets and reversed gains in employment made since the global financial crisis in 2007-2008,” said Saadia Zahidi, managing director at WEF. “It’s a double disruption scenario that presents another hurdle for workers in this difficult time. The window of opportunity for proactive management of this change is closing fast.”

WEF said currently around a third of all work tasks were handled by machines, with humans doing the rest, but by 2025 the balance would shift.

Roles that rely on human skills such as advising, decision-making, reasoning, communicating and interacting would rise in demand. There would also be a “surge” in demand for workers to fill green economy jobs, and new roles in areas like engineering and cloud computing.

But it said millions of routine or manual jobs would be displaced by technology, affecting the lowest paid, lowest skilled workers the most.

It said millions would need to be re-skilled to cope with the change, while governments would have to provide “stronger safety nets” for displaced workers.

The “second wave” of coronavirus will further hit Sri Lanka’s finance and leasing companies (FLCs) while import controls could hurt their growth, but most of the companies have capital to absorb losses, a rating agency, Fitch, said last month.

“Weak earnings due to rising credit costs and slow loan growth will weigh on FLCs’ internal capital generation,” Fitch said.

“We view this risk as more acute for small FLCs which already have weak profitability buffers, with credit costs consuming more than 70 percent of their pre-impairment operating profits.” Fitch expects Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product to contract 3.7 percent in 2020. Sri Lanka is now in the middle of a spike in coronavirus with at least one large cluster and a mini-cluster in Kuliyapitiya.

“The risk of a second coronavirus wave, together with weak borrower sentiment in an already fragile operating environment, would put further stress on Sri Lankan finance and leasing companies’ (FLCs) credit

profiles, adding to existing pressures on asset quality and profitability,” according to Fitch Ratings. These risks will test FLCs’ loss-absorbing capacity, but Fitch Ratings believes that the capital and profit buffers of most Fitch-rated standalone-driven FLCs1 (except for Bimputh, which will experience material capital erosion due to losses) will be adequate to cushion against moderate asset-quality shocks.

The economic downturn had already raised loans six months in arrears to 14.1 percent by June 2020 and return on assets fell to 2.3 percent. Meanwhile an import restriction on cars will stunt the growth of the sector, Fitch said.

It also said a prolonged restriction on vehicle importation and the resultant surge in second-hand vehicle prices are likely to hamper Sri Lankan FLCs’ medium-term growth prospects. The sector’s loans contracted by 0.2 percent yoy in 1QFY21 (CAGR of 12 percent FY15–FY20), and leasing and hire purchases accounted for 55 percent of the sector’s lending (FYE15:60 percent).

As Canada’s law on medical assistance in dying came into effect more than four years ago, healthcare costs have declined millions of dollars, according to a Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) report.

Released on October 20, the report on assisted dying said since becoming legal on June 17, 2016, Canada’s healthcare costs have declined $86.9 million.

Many studies have shown that healthcare costs in the last year of life, and especially the last month, are “disproportionately high,” according the PBO report. The costs represent between 10 percent and 20 percent of total healthcare costs despite those patients representing only about one percent of the population.

The report emphasized the numbers should “in no way be interpreted” as suggesting assisted dying be used to reduce healthcare costs. The PBO report added that access to medically assisted dying will result in a reduction in healthcare costs for provinces, but the reduction “represents a negligible portion” of the healthcare budgets of provinces. The findings come as the federal government has reintroduced legislation contained in Bill C-7, to amend Canada’s law on medical assistance in dying.

HEALTHCARE COSTS IN CANADA DECLINEThe government has until December

18 to amend the law to comply with a Quebec court ruling last fall, which found it was unconstitutional to allow only those whose natural death is “reasonably foreseeable” to be able to get medical help to end their suffering.

Justice Minister David Lametti introduced a bill in response to that ruling last February but it didn’t get beyond the initial stage of the legislative process before the House of Commons adjourned in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The bill scraps reasonably foreseeable death as a requirement for an assisted death but retains the concept to set out easier eligibility rules for those who are near death and more stringent rules for those who aren’t. The PBO report also found expanding access to medical assistance in dying would lead to nearly 1,200 more assisted deaths next year.

The budget office estimates the legislation would mean an additional 1,164 medically assisted deaths in Canada in 2021, on top of the 6,465 deaths expected under the current regime. Provincial health budgets would see a savings of $149 million next year if the numbers hold true, largely from declines in spending on end-of-life care.


IMF SEES LESS SEVERE GLOBAL CONTRACTION

SRI LANKA BANK URGED TO TAKE PRE-EMPTIVE ACTION ON DEBT

A former financial sector executive and business leader last month urged Sri Lanka’s central bank to take pre-emptive action on impending debt risks in the country.

“It is essential that you and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka take the leadership in urgently making the leaders in governance and connected key executives aware of the true nature of any potential debt sustainability challenge or crisis that Sri Lanka may face in the medium term,” Chandra Jayaratne, a former head of Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said a letter to Central Bank governor W D Lakshman.

“This awareness effort must be sustained and be continuous, in order that the leaders in governance are endowed with the critical knowledge as to whether the likely risks facing the nation will be in the nature of a cash flow/liquidity challenge or a crisis involving a solvency based risks

leading to a possible future default.

“If leaders in governance continue to fail or postpone taking strategic action steps required now in order to mitigate any impending challenges and possible consequential risks or treat such risks with low priority, due to inadequate awareness of the true nature of the challenge or crisis, the nation and its stakeholders may face drastic repercussions, as evidenced by other case study examples, from other nations of the world.”

“This strategic action step must be given equal priority alongside priority issues currently focused on by you and the Central Bank top team connected with COVID 19 related loans schemes and renaissance facilities, budget 2021, negotiations with the IMF and bi-lateral agencies, debt management connected issues, tax reforms, fiscal consolidation and economic growth and inflation control,” he wrote further.

China’s super wealthy have earned a record $1.5 trillion in 2020, more than the past five years combined, as e-commerce and gaming boomed during pandemic lockdowns, according to an annual rich list.

An extra 257 people had also joined the billionaires club in the world’s number-two economy by August, following two years of shrinking membership, said the Hurun Report released on October 19.

The country now has a total of 878 billionaires. The US had 626 people in the top bracket at the start of the year, according to Hurun in its February global list.

The report found there were around 2,000 individuals with a net worth of more than two billion yuan ($300 million) in August, giving them a combined net worth of $4 trillion.

Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce titan Alibaba, once again topped the list after his wealth surged a whopping 45 percent to $58.8 billion as online shopping firms saw a surge in business owing to people being shut indoors for months during strict lockdowns to contain the virus.

He was followed by Pony Ma ($57.4 billion), boss of gaming giant and WeChat owner Tencent who made an extra 50 percent despite concerns about his firm’s US

CHINA’S SUPER RICH EARNED $1.5 TRILLION DURING PANDEMIC

outlook after it was threatened with bans there over national security fears.

First-time list member Zhong Shanshan, 66, best-known for his bottled water brand Nongfu, parachuted into third spot with $53.7 billion after a Hong Kong IPO in September, the report found.

“The world has never seen this much wealth created in just one year,” Hurun Report chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said in a statement.

This year’s list shows China was “moving away from traditional sectors like manufacturing and real estate, towards the new economy,” he added.

Wang Xing, founder of food delivery app Meituan, quadrupled his wealth and jumped 52 places to 13th in the list with $25 billion, while Richard Liu, the founder of online shopping platform JD.com doubled his money pile to $23.5 billion.

Healthcare entrepreneurs also moved up the list on the back of the pandemic, with Jiang Rensheng, founder of vaccine-maker Zhifei, tripling his value to $19.9 billion.

China shut down major cities around the country in late January and February to contain the virus that first emerged in Wuhan, causing an unprecedented economic contraction in the first quarter.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said last month forecasts for the global economy were “somewhat less dire” as wealthy countries and China rebounded more quickly than expected from coronavirus lockdowns but warned the outlook was worsening for many emerging markets.

The IMF forecast a 2020 global contraction of 4.4 percent in its latest world economic outlook, an improvement over a 5.2 percent contraction predicted in June, when business closures reached their peak. It is still the worst economic crisis since the 1930s Great Depression, the Fund said on October 13.

The global economy will return to growth of 5.2 percent in 2021, the IMF said, but the rebound will be slightly weaker than forecast in June, partly due to the extreme difficulties for many emerging markets and slowing reopening momentum as the virus continues to spread.

The forecasts reflect revised foreign exchange weightings for purchasing power parity that slightly increase the influence of advanced economies on global output.

IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said some $12 trillion in fiscal support and unprecedented monetary easing from governments and central banks helped to limit the damage, but employment remains well below pre-

pandemic levels, with low-income workers, youth and women hardest hit.

“The poor are getting poorer with close to 90 million people expected to fall into extreme deprivation this year,” Gopinath said in a blog posting.

The IMF said the United States will see a 4.3 percent contraction in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during 2020, considerably less severe than the 8 percent contraction forecast in June. However, the US rebound in 2021 will be somewhat lower at 3.1 percent - a forecast that assumes no additional federal aid beyond around $3 trillion approved by Congress in March.

The euro zone’s economy will shrink by 8.3 percent in 2020, an improvement from a 10.2 percent contraction predicted in June, but there is wide divergence within the group.

Export powerhouse Germany will see a contraction of 6.0 percent in 2020, while Spain’s economy, more dependent on tourism, will contract 12.8 percent. The Eurozone will resume growth of 5.2 percent in 2021, the IMF said.

China, which saw a strong early reopening and rebound from the pandemic, will be the only economy to show positive growth in 2020, 1.9 percent - nearly double the rate predicted in June - and reach 8.2 percent growth in 2021, its highest rate in nearly a decade, the IMF said.

CANADIAN NATIONAL QUARTERLY PROFIT MISSES ESTIMATES

Canadian National Railway Co missed analysts’ estimates for third-quarter profit on October 20 due to lower crude shipments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the beginning of the year, rail operators, who moved record-high Canadian oil volumes, witnessed a plunge in crude volumes as energy companies cut production in the face of falling demand due to coronavirus-driven lockdowns.

The company’s operating ratio, a closely watched measure of operating expenses as a percentage of revenue, rose to 59.9 percent from 57.9 percent.

However, grain and fertilizers carloads, the amount of freight loaded into cars during a specified period, rose 12 percent in the quarter as reduced shipment of

crude and consumer goods has freed up railway space, boosting movement of grains.

Smaller rival Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. missed Wall Street estimates earlier in the day as shipments declined during the pandemic.

On an adjusted basis, Canadian National earned C$1.38 per share, missing analysts’ average estimates of C$1.46, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net income fell to C$985 million ($750.36 million), or C$1.38 per share, in the quarter ended September 30 from C$1.20 billion, or C$1.66 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell 11 percent to C$3.41 billion.


In Sudan Islamic schools known as “khalwas” teach students to memorise the Quran.

A BBC News investigation has uncovered systemic child abuse and evidence of sexual abuse inside those

NETHERLANDS WILL COMPENSATE CHILDREN OF EXECUTED INDONESIANS

STUDENTS CHAINED AND SEVERELY BEATEN IN SUDAN’S KHALWAS

INDIA’S DALIT WOMEN ARE AMONG THE MOST OPPRESSED

A 19-year-old Dalit (formerly untouchable) woman died after she was allegedly gang raped by four upper-caste men, sparking outrage in India last month.

The woman was admitted to a hospital in Delhi with several serious injuries.

The attack occurred on September 14 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Four men were arrested in connection. The news of her death has prompted many in India to take to social media and demand justice.

Police told local media the four men had dragged the victim to a field in Hathras district, where they allegedly raped her. She was grievously injured.

The news shone the spotlight again on the rampant sexual violence faced by India’s 80 million Dalit women, who, like their male counterparts, languish at the bottom of India’s unbending and harsh caste hierarchy.

After the alleged rape, the government of Uttar Pradesh, which is ruled by an upper caste politician belonging to the ruling BJP party, hastily cremated the victim in the middle of the night and briefly barred the media and opposition politicians from visiting the victim’s village and family. This prompted suspicions of a cover up. In an unprecedented move, the government hired a private public relations agency to push its narrative this was not an incident of rape.

The aftermath of the rape and murder of the woman, allegedly by upper caste men, played out the way it usually does when a Dalit

Islamic schools.

Reporter Fateh Al-Rahman Al-Hamdani of BBC filmed inside 23 schools across the country for 18 months that show boys as young as five-years-old were routinely chained, shackled and beaten by the sheikhs or religious men in charge of the schools.

Khalwas have existed in Sudan for hundreds of years. There are nearly 30,000 of them, and they’re celebrated for providing free education to children across the country. While secretly filming the inside of the schools, reporter Hamdani witnessed extreme forms of abuse.

In many of them, he saw children shackled and chained. Sometimes

woman is attacked: police are slow to register a complaint; investigations are tardy; officials raise doubts there was a rape; there are insinuations it had nothing to do with caste; and authorities appear, perhaps, to be complicit in siding with the upper caste perpetrators of violence. Even some of the media, from newsrooms dominated by upper caste journalists, question why sexual violence should be linked to caste.

In other words, the state and parts of society in India conspire to downplay or erase the links between sexual violence and the hierarchies of caste.

Despite a 1989 law to prevent atrocities against the community, there was no let-up in violence against Dalit women, who are among the most oppressed in the world.

In a 2006 study of 500 Dalit women in four states across India on the forms of violence they had faced, 54 percent had been physically assaulted; 46 percent had been sexually harassed; 43 percent had faced domestic violence; 23 percent had been raped; and 62 percent had been verbally abused.

And Dalit women bear the brunt of violence of all castes, including their own. The Centre for Dalit Rights group examined 100 incidents of sexual violence against Dalit women and girls across 16 districts in India between 2004 and 2013. It found 46 percent of the victims were aged under 18, and 85 percent were under 30 years old. The perpetrators of the violence came from 36 different castes, including Dalit.

six or seven students were chained together and forced to run. When they fell over, they were whipped. Some students were as young as five-years-old. The reporter said he found students were routinely beaten, punished by the sheikhs who ran the schools or by one of the older students for making mistakes while reciting Quran.

The children looked unhealthy and malnourished. Many were forced to sleep on the floor in extreme heat. And sick children were left without medical help.

During the course of investigation, the reporter discovered students were also sexually abused there. But the school authorities denied these charges.

Mohamed Nader is one of those who was abused. He was imprisoned and tortured for five days and received such a brutal beating he nearly died.

He had to undergo treatment in

Bahri Hospital in Khartoum.

The boy’s injuries were so severe the doctors didn’t think he would survive.

Al-Hamdani spoke to him about what happened, his recovery, and his family’s fight for justice in a country where the sheikhs still wield huge power and influence.

The government of the Netherlands said last month it will offer compensation to the children of Indonesians who were executed by Dutch soldiers during the Indonesian War of Independence between 1945 and 1950.

The announcement on October19 follows a court ruling earlier this year that ordered the state to compensate widows and children of 11 men killed between 1946 and 1947 in Indonesia’s southern Sulawesi island, then called Celebes.

Dutch judges previously also slapped down arguments by the state claiming the violence committed during Indonesia’s independence struggle from its former colonial master were bound by a statute of limitations.

In a joint letter to Parliament, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Stef Blok and Minister of Defence Ank Bijleveld said they will not appeal the March court ruling.

“Children who can prove that their father was a victim of summary execution as described … are eligible for compensation,” the two ministers

said, adding that the compensation amounted to 5,000 euros ($5,890).

However, those claiming compensation needed to conform to a set of criteria including proof the parent had indeed been killed in a documented execution and proof of paternity through identity papers.

Dutch courts are hearing several other cases of relatives asking for compensation for atrocities committed by Dutch colonial troops during so-called cleansing actions to root out Indonesian freedom fighters.

At least 860 men were killed by firing squads, mostly between December 1946 and April 1947 in Sulawesi.

The Dutch government apologised in 2013 for the killings carried out by its colonial Army and announced compensation to the widows of those who died but had consistently refused to pay damages to their children.

A government spokesman said it was not clear how many people would ask for compensation under the new settlement.


HUMANITARIAN VERGARA PÉREZ WINS NANSEN REFUGEE AWARD 2020While announcing the name of

Mayerlín Vergara Pérez as the winner of this year’s Nansen Refugee Award on October 1, the UN refugee chief said an educator and rights defender who has spent more than 20 years rescuing exploited and trafficked children in Colombia, represents “the best of us.”

Ms. Vergara Pérez, the Caribbean regional coordinator for the Renacer Foundation, has worked hard helping the Colombian non-profit reach its goal of eradicating sexual exploitation and abuse of children and adolescents.

Her “bravery and selfless pursuit to rescue and protect some of the world’s most vulnerable children is nothing short of heroic,” said Filippo Grandi, UN high commissioner for refugees.

For more than two decades, Ms. Pérez has gone to extraordinary lengths, often risking her own safety to rescue girls and boys who are victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking.

On foot she has combed the streets of remote communities in northeast Colombia where human traffickers and smugglers operate.

She explained the exploitation left youngsters with deep mental scars.

Founded 32 years ago, the Renacer Foundation has assisted over 22,000 child and adolescent survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and survivors of other types of sexual and gender-based violence.

The 2020 Nansen Award laureate leads a team of dedicated staff in close coordination with the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, a government child protection body.

In 2009 Ms. Vergara Pérez’s relentless activism and advocacy helped usher in two landmark pieces of legislation: a minimum 14-year prison sentence for those convicted of aiding in the sexual exploitation of children, and the other, targeting establishment owners who allow children to be sexually exploited on their premises.

Global estimates indicate millions of people continue to be trafficked every year, with women and girls accounting for the largest numbers of detected victims, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Since 2015 an estimated 1.7 million Venezuelans have sought shelter in neighbouring Colombia, many falling prey to human trafficking networks, criminal gangs and illegal armed groups along borders. UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award honours outstanding service

UNFPA WORKING TO MEET BASIC NEEDS OF WOMEN

After the Beirut Port explosion, life still remains uncertain for thousands of women and girls. Among the displaced are an estimated 84,000 women and girls of reproductive age.

UNFPA, the agency specializing in reproductive and maternal health worldwide, is working with 12 partners on the ground to distribute dignity kits, which contain sanitary pads, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste and towels. These items are helping women and girls maintain their personal hygiene even amid the destruction and displacement.

This is essential, community members have emphasized.

“Just like I would want my girls to be fed, I would also want them to have these basic hygienic needs,” said Hayat Merhi, a woman with three adolescent daughters whose family was affected by the blast.

The blast and its aftermath come on top of the COVID-19 pandemic and an economic crisis years in the making. Job losses have curtailed family spending, even as disease prevention is becoming more urgent than ever.

Too often, the needs of women and girls are the first to go unmet.

“There was a time when my

daughters were using a piece of cloth instead of pads,” said Lina Mroueh, who also has three adolescent daughters.

UNFPA partners have been canvassing blast-impacted areas as they distribute the dignity kits, speaking with women and girls about their circumstances. The work is challenging, but rewarding, they say.

“Bringing light into their broken homes and telling women and girls that their dignity, safety and personal needs matter to the world in these difficult times is the least we can do,” described Rima Al Hussayni, director of Al Mithaq Association.

The distribution of dignity kits is also an opportunity to address yet another crisis: gender-based violence, according to UNFPA.

Gender-based violence is known to increase in humanitarian settings and in times of economic stress. Amid the pandemic, many countries are reporting increased violence against women and rising demands for support services.

The dignity kits contain referral information to connect survivors with help. The people distributing the kits are also trained to provide this information.

to forcibly displaced people.

To date more than 82 individuals, groups or organizations have

received the award for their unwavering dedication to refugees, and outstanding work on behalf of forcibly displaced or stateless people.

U.S. TO EXECUTE SECOND WOMAN AFTER NEARLY 70 YEARS

The U.S. Justice Department has scheduled the first federal execution of a woman in almost 70 years, setting a December 8 date to put to death Lisa Montgomery, convicted of a 2004 murder.

Montgomery, who was found guilty of strangling a pregnant woman in Missouri, will be executed by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, the department said in a statement.

The last woman executed by the U.S. government was Bonnie Heady, who was put to death in a gas chamber in Missouri in 1953, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The justice department on October 16 also scheduled a December 10. execution for Brandon Bernard who with his accomplices, murdered two youth ministers in 1999.

The two executions will be the eighth and ninth the federal government has carried out in 2020.

The Trump administration ended an informal 17-year-hiatus in federal executions in July, after announcing last year the Bureau of Prisons was switching to a new single-drug protocol for lethal injections, from a

three-drug combination it last used in 2003.

The new protocol revived long-running legal challenges to lethal injections. In August a federal judge in Washington, D.C. ruled the Justice Department was violating the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in not seeking a doctor’s prescription to administer the highly regulated barbiturate. But an appeals court held the violation did not in itself amount to “irreparable harm” and allowed federal executions to proceed.

In 2007 a U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri sentenced Montgomery to death after finding her guilty of a federal kidnapping resulting in death.Bernard’s attorney, Robert Owen, said in a statement the federal government misled the jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, which in 2000 found Bernard guilty of murder. Its decision was tainted by false testimony, Owen said.

“This evidence confirms that Mr. Bernard is simply not one of the ‘worst of the worst’ offenders for whom we reserve the death penalty, and that sparing his life would pose no risk to anyone,” Owen said.

CYCLE OF VIOLENCE FOR FLEEING MIGRANTS MUST BE ADDRESSED

The UN human rights office OHCHR, last month called for urgent action to address the “unimaginable horrors” faced by migrants attempting to cross the central Mediterranean Sea in search of safety in Europe.

On October 2 OHCHR highlighted what it called a “cycle of violence” whereby people faced deprivation and abuse in Libya, only to be left to drift “for days at sea.” Often, their boats were intercepted dangerously by the authorities and returned to Libya, the UN rights office said, noting that migrants then faced arbitrary detention, torture and other serious human rights violations.

And the situation has become even more acute amid the COVID-19 pandemic, OHCHR continued in its statement, as humanitarian search and rescue vessels have been prevented from heading out to sea, while there is also a lack of access by civil society groups that help migrants. “What is happening to migrants…is the result of a failed system of migration governance…marked by a lack of solidarity forcing frontline states…to bear the brunt of the responsibility,”

said UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet.

Despite the lack of sufficient safe and regular migration channels, migrants continue to take the precarious sea journey, often multiple times, encountering danger and suffering. Arbitrary detention, torture, trafficking, sexual abuse, forced labour and other serious human rights violations were some of the horrors migrants in Libya described.

And many reported being intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard, including having their boats rammed or shot at, causing vessels to capsize or people to desperately jump into the water.

While some reports reflected commercial vessels did not come to their assistance, others affirmed commercial ships picked them up only to return the individuals to detention centres in Libya. OHCHR pointed out if true, “These are serious allegations of failure to assist people in distress at sea and possible coordinated push-backs that should be duly investigated.”


TOM CRUISE BECOMES HONORARY NAVAL AVIATOR

Hollywood actor Tom Cruise has become an honorary naval aviator for supporting the US Navy.

The 58-year-old movie star has been named the 35th honorary naval aviator, while Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer - whose credits include “Black Hawk Down” and “Top Gun” - became the 36th honorary naval aviator in a ceremony held at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles last month.

The Naval Air Forces explained: “In the history of motion pictures, there is not a more iconic aviation movie than the 1986 Paramount Pictures film “Top Gun.”. Its characters, dialogue, and imagery are ingrained in the minds of an entire generation of Americans.

“The movie captured the hearts of millions, making a profound positive impact on recruiting for naval aviation.”

The release also explained the 1986 movie - in which Tom played Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a US Navy pilot - “significantly promoted and supported naval aviation and put aircraft carriers

and naval aircraft into popular culture.”

Tom and Jerry have both returned to the franchise to make a sequel called “Top Gun: Maverick,” which is slated for release in 2021.

They’ve been hailed by the Naval Air Forces for seeking to ensure the franchise remains “true to the unparalleled tactical excellence of the Navy Fighter Weapons School, the ethos of naval aviation, and the fighting spirit of the men and women of the world’s greatest Navy.”

The “Mission: Impossible” actor and the 77-year-old producer are now both entitled to wear the Navy’s wings of gold and enjoy the other privileges afforded to naval aviators.

Previous recipients of the award include comedy legend Bob Hope, who became an honorary naval aviator in 1986, having made more than 50 tours for the United Service Organisation and entertained thousands of American military personnel around the world.

ELTON JOHN SETTLES LEGAL SPAT WITH EX-WIFE

Elton John and his ex-wife, Renate Blauel have resolved a legal dispute which was triggered by the rocker’s autobiography and the “Rocketman” biopic. Blauel, who was married to Elton from 1984 to 1988, sued her ex over the summer, claiming he had broken the terms of their divorce deal by discussing details of their time together.

She demanded an injunction to prevent future disclosures, as well as hefty damages, but now the former couple has settled the matter.

“The parties are happy to announce that they have resolved this case, in a way that acknowledges Renate’s need for privacy,” read a joint statement from lawyers for both parties, BBC reports.

“For her part, Renate acknowledges that Elton has acted in a dignified and respectful way towards her in the last 30 years and has been always happy to help her,” it went on, clarifying: “They will not be discussing each other, or their marriage, in future and will be making no further comment about the case.”

Renate’s lawyers claimed the details Elton disclosed in his memoir triggered mental health problems, including “depression and anxiety,” for their client, but his legal team argued the details in the book and film were public knowledge and the divorce agreement applied only to “private and confidential matters.”

Blauel also took exception to scenes in “Rocketman,” including a restaging of the former pair’s wedding day and sequences suggesting the couple slept in separate bedrooms.

The settlement means Elton and Renate won’t have to meet in court.

Elton came out as a gay man shortly after the marriage to Renate fell apart. He is now married to movie producer, David Furnish.

KANGANA RANAUT RECEIVES RAPE THREATS FROM LAWYER

Actress Kangana Ranaut last month said she received rape threats in the comment sections of her Facebook post that came from an advocate based in Odisha, named Mehendi Reza. The comment provided, “Should be raped in mid town.”

However, later the advocate took to social media to claim his account had been hacked and wrote, “Today my Facebook ID got hacked at evening and some derogatory comments got posted. This is not my views regarding any women or any community. I am also very shocked and apologise

for it. I request to all the people to kindly accept my apology and forgive me whose sentiments got hurt. I am really sorry for it.” Soon after this, he even deleted his account.

The “Queen of Bollywood” Kangana Ranaut, who was last seen in the sports drama “Panga” with Richa Chadha, has been dominating headlines for quite some time now. After raising her voice against nepotism in industry post Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, the actress got involved in an ugly tussle with Shiv Sena over her comments on Mumbai police and state government.

ADITI RAO CONFIRMS OPTING OUT OF TUGHLAQ DURBAR

Media reported earlier that Raashi Khanna replaced Aditi Rao Hydari as the female lead in Vijay Sethupathi’s “Tughlaq Durbar.” Aditi had opted out owing to date issues and director Delhiprasad Deenadayalan had approached Raashi for the role.

On October 20 Aditi also released a statement on her social media account, confirming the same.

The actress tweeted, “Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the world, including the Indian Film Industry, came to a standstill for 6-8 months this year. While work has slowly started in phases, and the film industry is getting back on its feet, there have been delays, and schedules are being reassessed. As an actor, I feel a responsibility to not keep anyone waiting. I am committed to finishing projects that I had already begun shooting for, and I don’t want to cause any delays in projects that I haven’t started yet, however much I want to make it work (sic).”

Aditi continued, “Keeping the

current scenario in mind, I, in consultation with the producer Mr. Lalit Kumar of Seven Screen Studio and director Delhi Prasad Deenadayal, have decided to take a step back from a project we were all looking forward to. I would like to wish the director, Delhi Prasad, Mr. Vijay Sethupathi, and the entire team of “Thuglaq Durbar” the very best (sic).”

Wishing Raashi Khanna the best, Aditi wrote, “Raashi Khanna over to you! All the very best, and I hope you enjoy making the film! And to all you super sweet fans, thank you for your messages. I promise, I will see you all at the theatre very soon. Until then, stay safe, take care and lots of love (sic).”

Delhiprasad also informed us, “Both Vijay and Raashi have begun shooting for their portions, and we recently filmed a song as well. We have completed nearly 50 percent of the film and plan to wrap up the shoot by the first week of December.”


Action movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme came to the rescue of a three-month-old chihuahua, saving her from euthanasia on October 19 after a legal tussle between Norway and Bulgaria.

The dog named Raya was sold to new owners in Norway in September, but officials there would not register her because she had travelled on a fake Bulgarian passport.

Norway tried to repatriate the animal, but Bulgaria refused to take her back because of European Union rules about transport of live animals, leaving the dog facing euthanasia–until the Belgian film legend got involved.

Van Damme launched an emotive campaign on social media, posting selfies of him hugging his chihuahua, which eventually persuaded the Bulgarian Food Safety Authority to accept the dog back.

“I beg, please, for my birthday, the Food Safety Authority, change your decision,” Van Damme wrote over the weekend, launching a petition to save the dog. “They made a mistake, the people who didn’t do the paper

correctly... But they cannot kill that little chihuahua.”

The Food Safety Authority said Raya will have medical checks when she gets back to Bulgaria and will be put up for adoption.

Yavor Gechev from the Four Paws animal rights organisation told AFP on October 19 Bulgaria should be congratulated for showing flexibility but called for stricter control on illegal breeders and animal traffickers.

“The export of pets from eastern to western and northern Europe is a lucrative business,” he said.

The dog’s fake passport meant she would have been put down on October 20 under Norway’s legislation, said Gechev.

The misadventures of Raya resemble the story of Penka the cow, who also faced a death sentence after wandering over Bulgaria’s border with Serbia in May 2018.

Penka was saved thanks to an international campaign in her defence joined by former Beatle Paul McCartney.

VAN DAMME SAVES LIFE OF PUPPY IN FAKE PASSPORT ROW

SHAH RUKH KHAN RETURNS ON SCREEN AFTER TWO YEARS

King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan returned on screen last month after two years in KKR anthem Laphao, with his new hairstyle.

SRK is a part of the new Kolkata Knight Riders’ fan anthem, titled “Laphao.” IPL 2020 is being played in the UAE this year while observing social distancing norms.

The Bollywood king launched the fan anthem on October 20 for his team Kolkata Knight Riders, and he also made an appearance in it. The actor’s fans, who have been waiting for him to make an announcement about his next film, can probably just get their fix from the song, titled “Laphao.”

The actor appeared in the song wearing a hoodie he eventually takes off to debut his new hairstyle. His mane is appreciably longer, something he has kept hidden under a beanie as he was photographed while watching the Indian Premiere League matches in the UAE. SRK has been cagey about his new release. He was last seen on screen in December 2018 in “Zero” and has often responded to questions about his new release in his signature witty style.

New reports now suggest the actor may be seen in a Yash Raj Films production, titled “Pathan.” Neither SRK nor the production house have commented on the reports. The actor is also celebrating the 25th anniversary of his iconic film, “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.”

The KKR fan anthem was performed and composed by Badshah. Along with the rapper and SRK himself, it also features KKR players. It gives the message of social distancing, explaining why the IPL is taking place in the UAE this year. The catch phrase of the anthem, “Laphao,” means to jump in Bengali.

Talking about the fan anthem, Shah Rukh said during its virtual launch, “I have been attending the matches, and I truly miss the energy of our toofani fans! Since we have to show our love to each other thoda door se this year, we created a fan anthem that captures the emotions of all our fans aptly and was even launched by them today. It was great fun to interact with the team today, and we hope to keep making our fans proud.”

Actress Vedhika recently set the internet on fire after she dressed up as a Tamil ponnu and said she loves speaking in the Tamil language. Vedhika said she has fallen in love with the language so much so that it’s like her mother tongue now.

She wrote on her social media page, “Have I said it enough yet how much I love speaking in Tamil!?!!!! In love with the

language. Ippo ennoda Thai mozhi madari daan.”

Vedhika began her acting career in 2006 with the Tamil film “Madrasi.” She has so far acted in many films that, among others, include “Muni,” “Kaalai,” “Sakkarakatti,” “Paradesi,” “Kaaviya Thalaivan” and “Kanchana 3.” She has also acted in “Malayalam,” “Telugu” and “Kannada.”

VEDHIKA SAYS SHE LOVES TAMIL LANGUAGE

Tollywood action hero Prabhas who turned a global phenomenon after the humongous success of his SS Rajamouli directed Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion which collected more than 2500 crores, is signing consecutive pan Indian mega projects.

After the action entertainer Saaho, Prabhas is back acting in another multilingual movie titled

“Radheshyam,” and this movie is jointly produced by UV Creations and T-Series.

Media reported that composer Justin Prabhakaran has been signed to compose music for “Radheshyam.”

The movie also stars Pooja Hegde, Sachin Khedekar, Bhagyashree, Priyadarshi, Sasha Chettri, Sathyan and will be released in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi.

MUSIC DIRECTOR JOINS PRABHAS PAN INDIAN MOVIE


NAHAS COLLECTS CANADA’S 4TH MEDAL AT JUDO GRAND SLAM

CANADIAN GOALKEEPER SPEAKS OUT AGAINST CYBERBULLYING

WORLD 100 METRE CHAMPION HANDED TWO-YEAR BAN

Canada wrapped up the judo Grand Slam in Budapest, Hungary with a fourth medal, courtesy Shady El Nahas, on October 25.

The 22-year-old Montreal resident defeated Russia’s Arman Adamian in an under 100-kilogram match.

El Nahas, who was born in Alexandria, Egypt and raised in Toronto, has already won several medals on the international stage and qualified for the Tokyo Olympics next summer.

Canadian international goalkeeper Milan Borjan, who plays his club soccer in Serbia, said last month he plans to sue a rival team official for cyberbullying.

The Red Star Belgrade keeper points the finger at Partizan vice-president Vladimir Vuletic after a social media post showing a doctored photo of Borjan and his three-year-old son, Filip.

“You can’t do stuff like that. He went too far ... He crossed a big line,” said the 33-year-old Borjan, a well-known sports figure in Serbia.

The doctored photo, which came after the rival teams’ most recent meeting on October 18, replaced the face of Borjan’s son with that of the Serbian national team coach. The connection there is Borjan’s wife Snezana.

“My wife before she married me worked for Partizan. And that coach was working there,” Borjan explained. “A lot of people were talking here that my wife has been with him before, in a relationship.”

In July 2019 he won a gold medal at the Zagreb Grand Prix in Croatia, three weeks after capturing silver on the final day of the Montreal Grand Prix.

El Nahas won four times by ippon on the way to gold at the Pan Am judo championships last April in Peru.

He previously won medals in Grand Slam tournaments - silver in Osaka, Japan in November 2018 and bronze four months later in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Borjan, while calling the post “hateful,” has heard such talk before. He is no stranger to rival fans taunting him or his wife, but he was quick to take action after his son was involved.

“I am going to sue him for this,” he said. “I’ve got the support of (my) club, I’ve got the support from my national team, which is something unbelievable—that people like that stand up for you in these hard moments.

The original photo, which was posted on Borjan’s Instagram feed, showed a smiling Borjan and his son in matching camo track suits.

The feud has drawn plenty of attention from Serbian media.

Borjan said he has had run-ins with the Partizan official before, but things have escalated this time with Borjan saying his family has received death threats.

Red Star and Partizan are fierce rivals. Borjan was in goal when the two teams tied 1-1 at Partizan in the 163rd edition of the derby.

World champion sprinter Christian Coleman is set to miss next year’s Tokyo Olympics after being banned from athletics for two years for anti-doping violations, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on October 27.

The American, who won the men’s 100 metres at last year’s world championships in Doha, was provisionally suspended for three “whereabouts failures” in June.

World Athletics’ Disciplinary Tribunal upheld the charge and banned Coleman for two years, backdated to 14 May 2020. The 24-year-old has 30 days to appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

He is set to miss next year’s Olympic Games in Japan, where he would have been among the favourites to win 100 metre gold.

Coleman, who is also the 60 metre world record holder, only ran in the 4x100 metre relay heats in his first Olympic appearance in Rio de

Janeiro four years ago.

The AIU charged Coleman for missed tests in January and December 2019, as well as for a “filing failure” last April. To prove an anti-doping violation, an athlete has to have committed three whereabouts failures within 12 months.

Coleman previously escaped suspension on a technicality ahead of last September’s world championships.

Those three whereabouts failures were recorded on June 6, 2018, January 16, 2019, and April 26, 2019.

Coleman last competed at the US Indoor Championships in February, running a world-leading 6.37 seconds in the 60 metre, just three hundredths of a second slower than his world record.

He also posted the best 100 metre time last year -- the 9.76 second he ran to win the world title.

UEFA STRONGLY OPPOSE EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE

UEFA last month reiterated its “strong opposition” to a European super league after the controversial project received a surprise shot in the arm from Josep Maria Bartomeu as he stood down as Barcelona president.

In a resignation bombshell on October 27, Bartomeu declared one of his last acts as the Catalan team’s chief had been to accept a proposal for Barcelona to play in “a future European super league,” which “would guarantee the financial stability of the club.”

The notion of a splinter league for the continent’s high rollers first surfaced through a series of leaked emails and documents in November 2018, claiming a host of Europe’s biggest clubs were working on plans for a 16-team super league to kick off as early as 2021.

The idea was knocked on the head by European football boss, Aleksander Ceferin the following February.

He vowed that while he and Andrea Agnelli, president of the European Club Association (ECA), were in office “there will

be no super league. This is not a promise. It is a fact.”

Responding to Bartomeu’s October 27 admission for the first time of the project’s existence UEFA told AFP that Ceferin “has clearly indicated on several occasions UEFA is strongly opposed to a super league.”

Any super league involving only Europe’s wealthiest clubs would be in direct conflict with the UEFA-run Champions League and Europa League, competitions open to any team based on their domestic league performances.

“The principles of solidarity, promotion, relegation and of open leagues are non-negotiable,” UEFA said.

“This is what is behind European football and makes the Champions League the best sporting competition in the world.”

European football’s ruling body said it refused to “destroy” its crown jewel, pointing out “a super league of 10, 12 or even 24 clubs” with the risk of outsiders crashing the party would become “inevitably boring.”


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