Monthly archive

By Habib Siddiqui

If there is one way to measure how a person might fare in a new job, a sure thing is to check him or her out after a few days. For the President of the USA it is 100 days. Why 100 and not 30 or 60? No one really can answer satisfactorily. But that is how it is with the topmost job in the USA – that of the President. Well, so how did President Obama fare in the first 100 days of his presidency? Is he the right man for the job or did the voters pick the wrong guy?

By Farzana Shah-Asian Tribune Correspondent in Pakistan

A full-scale military offensive has forced the Taliban 'on the run' in northwest of country but militants are stopping civilians from leaving the conflict zone, the army said on Saturday. "They are on the run," the army said in a statement, adding that Taliban fighters were "trying to block the exodus of innocent civilians by preventing their departure through coercion, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), road blocks with trees and even (making them) hostages".

Hemantha Abeywardena writes from London…..

We are in deep recession and it is official. The world has gone into a fiscal equivalent of hibernation and shows the corresponding signs of a disturbing slowdown on many fronts: air lines report reduced traffic and falling passenger numbers; high street traders moan about lack of spending by the public; hundreds of jobs are lost everyday as firms go bust on daily basis; industry giants, ranging from car makers to steel giants, go cap in hand for state bail-outs after drastically curtailing the output. In a desperate attempt to give the crisis a moral dimension, extravagance was downgraded to vice and prudence hastily elevated as virtue, by those who holds – or a bit more precisely, manipulate – the levers of power.

M.A Qader-Asian Tribune Correspondent in Bangladesh

Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s husband Dr M A Wazed Miah, 66, died on Saturday afternoon after prolonged illness. The nuclear scientist Wazed slipped into coma and died of multiple complications 4:25pm on Saturday, at the Square Hospital in Dhaka, doctors said. Dr Miah had been under treatment at Square Hospital for the last one year. He had also received treatment in Delhi and Singapore. In the most recent spell, he was admitted to the hospital on April 7. The body was taken yresterday evening to his Sudha Sadan home at Dhanmandi 5, in an ambulance.

Hilary Rajakarunanayake, Editor – Sri Lanka, Asian Tribune

The Sri Lanka Railway National Museum will be inaugurated jointly by Minister of Cultural Affairs and National Heritage Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena and Minister of Road Passenger Transport Lasantha Alagiyawanna on May 11. Lots of valuable information on the heritage of the Sri Lanka Railway is vividly depicted in this Museum. The railway network in Sri Lanka was introduced to the country by the British in 1864. The Railway, then known as Ceylon Government Railways, was conceived in the 1850’s as an instrument to develop and unify the country. The 1st sod of the Sri Lanka Railways was cut by Sir Henry Ward, the Governor, in August in1858. The 1st Train ran on 27th December 1864, with the construction of the Main Line from Colombo to Ambepussa, 54 kilometers to the east. This line was officially opened for traffic on 02nd October 1865.

The Government of the Russian Federation strongly supports the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka to eradicate the menace of terrorism from the island. This pledge was made by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov to his Sri Lankan counterpart, Rohitha Bogollagama during a telephone discussion between them last Wednesday. Minister Bogollagama, who initiated the telephone call, gave a comprehensive account to the Russian Foreign Minister of the action taken by the Sri Lankan security forces in recent weeks to liberate thousands of civilians entrapped by the LTTE as hostages in the no-fire zone (NFZ).