Monthly archive

By Farzana Shah-Asian Tribune Correspondent in Pakistan

Pakistani cricket officials Wednesday appeared before the commission investigating the deadly attack on the Sri Lankan squad in Lahore and their statements were recorded. Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt, chief operating officer Salim Altaf and umpire Ahsan Raza -- injured in the attack -- as well as other senior PCB officials appeared before the commission. ‘The commission summoned us for our statements which we recorded today and hope that once the inquiry is completed action will be taken against those who were responsible,’ Butt told media persons.

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU Ravinatha Aryasinha has called on EU member states to take action against LTTE terrorist front organizations operating in Europe "as a public good”, saying “not only are these organizations a problem as they serve terrorists and contribute to the mayhem they create, they also effectively exploit the generosity and decency of civic minded people in these countries. Additionally, they undermine financial systems, particularly at a time when it already is in deep crisis". Ambaddasor Aryasinha made these observations when he delivered the keynote address at a Tactical Meeting on "LTTE Front Organisations" hosted by Eurojust (the European Union’s Judicial Cooperation Unit) which was held in the Hague on 30 – 31 March 2009.

By Farzana Shah-Asian Tribune Correspondent in Pakistan

At least 12 people were killed and 13 wounded on Wednesday in a US drone attack in Khadizai area of Orakzai Agency in tribal areas of Pakistan. Residents of Khadizai village said the missile hit a Taliban headquarters killing 12 people. According to sources the attack was aimed at targeting leadership of Baitullah Mehsud’s Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Kosh Raj Koirala – Asian Tribune Correspondent in Nepal

Amidstt worsening power crisis in the Himalayan nation, the Power Trading Corporation (PTC) of India has offered to sell 200-MW electricity to Nepal.The revised proposal comes after Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the sole state-utility to supply electricity in the country, did not respond to the PTC's proposal to sell 500-MW electricity last week. Officials at NEA confirmed that the revised proposal sent by PTC's Chairman and Director Tantra Narayan Yadav has already reached to them via fax.

Hemantha Abeywardena from London

Christopher Paul who has been entertaining three generations of Sri Lankans of all races with a sweet unique voice, is in London to entertain a huge army of fans during the forthcoming Sinhala & New Year festival in Feltham, a suburb of London. Christo, as he loves to be called by both the young and old alike, looks remarkably fit for his age: the humble human being is a living monument to modesty. Christo who was a heartthrob in 1950’s still carries the traces of the personality of a jolly-good-man, who loves to live the life to the full. A brief chat with him rekindles the good old days of Sri Lankan music which had a irreversible soothing effect on the past generation.

The AUDF, a political amalgamation of different socio-religious and educational organizations of all the Muslim denominations and other religions in Maharashtra received nearly 50 applications from various constituencies out of which only 7 candidates have been selected to contest in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections by the party president Badruddin Ajmal, says Tarun Rathi, Mumbai president of Maharashtra AUDF has so far nominated candidates in Assam, West Bengal and Maharashtra. AUDF may nominate a few more candidates in Bihar, Jharkand and UP in next few days with Lock & Keys as party’s election symbol.

By Quintus Perera – Asian Tribune

'Enter Growth' a project under the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Sri Lanka will organise a Sub-regional Conference on Local Economic Development (LED) for South Asia to be held in Colombo from June 16 to 17, 2009. The Conference will be held in Colombo from June 16 – 17, 2009 followed by a study tour to two LED examples in Sri Lanka.‘Enter-Growth’ works with public and private sector in Kurunegala, Puttalam, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Districts, to improve business for micro and small enterprises. Local Eonomic Development (LED) has emerged as an attractive alternative to traditional development strategies, its advantage being the ability to tailor-make strategies to suit the local setting.

Abstract. Rudyard Kipling, the famous english author of "The Jungle Book" , born in India, wrote one day these words: "Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet". In my paper I show that Kipling was not completely right. I try to show the common ground between Buddhist philosophy and quantum physics. There is a surprising parallelism between the philosophical concept of reality articulated by Nagarjuna and the physical concept of reality implied by quantum physics. For neither is there a fundamental core to reality, rather reality consists of systems of interacting objects. Such concepts of reality cannot be reconciled with the substantial, subjective, holistic or instrumentalistic concepts of reality which underlie modern modes of thought.