U.S.-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release January 25, 2015

U.S.-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region

As the leaders of the world’s two largest democracies that bridge the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean region and reflecting our agreement that a closer partnership between the United States and India is indispensable to promoting peace, prosperity and stability in those regions, we have agreed on a Joint Strategic Vision for the region. 

India and the United States are important drivers of regional and global growth.  From Africa to East Asia, we will build on our partnership to support sustainable, inclusive development, and increased regional connectivity by collaborating with other interested partners to address poverty and support broad-based prosperity.

To support regional economic integration, we will promote accelerated infrastructure connectivity and economic development in a manner that links South, Southeast and Central Asia, including by enhancing energy transmission and encouraging free trade and greater people-to-people linkages.

Regional prosperity depends on security. We affirm the importance of safeguarding maritime security and ensuring freedom of navigation and over flight throughout the region, especially in the South China Sea. 

We call on all parties to avoid the threat or use of force and pursue resolution of territorial and maritime disputes through all peaceful means, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. 

We will oppose terrorism, piracy, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction within or from the region.

We will also work together to promote the shared values that have made our countries great, recognizing that our interests in peace, prosperity and stability are well served by our common commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

We commit to strengthening the East Asia Summit on its tenth anniversary to promote regional dialogue on key political and security issues, and to work together to strengthen it.

In order to achieve this regional vision, we will develop a roadmap that leverages our respective efforts to increase ties among Asian powers, enabling both our nations to better respond to diplomatic, economic and security challenges in the region.

As part of these efforts, the United States welcomes India's interest in joining the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, as the Indian economy is a dynamic part of the Asian economy. 

Over the next five years, we will strengthen our regional dialogues, invest in making trilateral consultations with third countries in the region more robust, deepen regional integration, strengthen regional forums, explore additional multilateral opportunities for engagement, and pursue areas where we can build capacity in the region that bolster long-term peace and prosperity for all. 

Source:the White House
Link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/25/us-india-joint-strategic-vision-asia-pacific-and-indian-ocean-region

Marks and Spencer is looking at investing in Sri Lankan apparel sector

Marks and Spencer is looking at investing in Sri Lankan apparel sector
Business

The Chief Executive Officer of Marks and Spencer Company, Marc Bolland met the Minister of Finance, Ravi Karunanayake and had discussions.

Minister Karunanayake was in London to attend the Sri Lankan Investor Forum, organized by Colombo Stock Exchange, Sri Lankan Embassy in London and Bloomberg.

During his visit, Minister Karunanayake had talks with Bolland who has said they are looking at a big investment in Sri Lanka.

The British multinational retailer CEO also requested Minister Karunanayake to widen the scope of investment opportunities in Sri Lanka.

The Chief Executive Officer of Marks and Spencer Company, Marc Bolland with Minister of Finance, Ravi Karunanayake
He said Sri Lankan employees in the garment industry had shown exquisite performance and skills when compared to their counterpart in other countries. Bolland added that Marks and Spencer was prepared to give priority to Sri Lanka when investing in the garment industry and several other fields.

Founded in M&S is one of the UK’s leading retailers, with over 1,330 stores worldwide. It markets high quality, great value products to 33 million customers through their 852 UK stores and their e-commerce platform.

It has two divisions: Food which accounts for 57% of our turnover, and General Merchandise, which accounts for the remaining 43%. M&S have market leading positions in Womenswear, Lingerie and Menswear. M&S has 480 wholly-owned, jointly-owned or franchised stores in 59 territories across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

British Forces Rush to Help Afghans Hold Off Taliban in Helmand

ASIA PACIFIC

Afganistaan Forces in Helmand

British Forces Rush to Help Afghans Hold Off Taliban in Helmand
By MUJIB MASHAL and TAIMOOR SHAHDEC. 22, 2015


KABUL, Afghanistan — Besieged Afghan forces were struggling to head off a complete Taliban takeover of the critical southern district of Sangin on Tuesday, and a new deployment of British troops was rushed in to help direct an increasingly pressed battle across the surrounding province of Helmand.

A small contingent of British forces in an advisory role arrived at Camp Shorabak, the largest British military base in Afghanistan before it was handed over to the Afghan forces last year, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

“They are not deployed in a combat role and will not deploy outside the camp,” the statement said.

The new deployment, which Afghan officials said included about 40 people, was in addition to an influx of American Special Operations forces that deployed to Helmand when the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, was on the verge of falling several weeks ago.

Ebadullah Alizai, a member of the provincial council in Helmand, said much of the Sangin district center was under Taliban control, with an Afghan Army unit surrounded and in urgent need of reinforcements.

But attempts to get the extra troops to Sangin were being slowed by roadside bombs, he said.

Sangin has been one of the deadliest Afghan battlegrounds for British and American troops throughout the war. Within months of the NATO transfer of security control to Afghan forces there, the district began coming under heavy insurgent pressure.

The Afghan forces have been mostly penned into their bases there over the past year. But in recent weeks, the situation became even worse, as police forces began taking witheringly heavy casualties, Afghan officials said. By Tuesday, the remaining police contingent and members of the civilian government had retreated from the district center and were surrounded at an army base about two miles away, said Abdul Bashir Shakir, head of the security committee at the provincial council.

“The reinforcements have been sent, but heavy I.E.D.s about four kilometers from the district center stopped their approach,” Mr. Shakir said.

Still, officials said there were no coalition forces in Sangin itself, as they were focused on assisting the broader fight across Helmand Province.

The Taliban has made huge strides in its Helmand offensive this year. For months, Afghan forces have been struggling to repel Taliban advances across several districts, including Khan Neshin, Gereshk, Marja, Kajaki and Washir. The insurgents have made it as close as three miles from Lashkar Gah, in the suburb of Babaji, where fighting has gone on for weeks.

“We have severe challenges in 13 districts, only Garmsir and Nawa districts are calm at the moment,” Mr. Alizai said.

The largest province in Afghanistan in terms of territory, Helmand holds great symbolic value both to the Taliban and the Afghan government and its Western backers.

It was at the heart of President Obama’s troop surge after he took office, where fresh American forces and resources were rushed in to try to break the Taliban’s hold. British troops also fought bloody battles there, suffering some of their worst casualties.

For the Taliban, Helmand is a crucial prize because of its resources. The province produces the biggest opium poppy harvest in Afghanistan, and its deserts fall right on the lucrative trafficking route that the Taliban have increasingly exploited. One of Afghanistan’s biggest marble mines is also in Helmand, with the Taliban profiting from the royalties.

The province shares a long and fluid border with Pakistan, where most of the Taliban’s senior leadership lives. Some Afghan officials believe the insurgents have pushed harder for Helmand this year specifically to create a haven and operational headquarters in Afghanistan, allowing their leaders to come back into the country.

Much of the Helmand offensive has been waged by fighters loyal to Mullah Qayum Zakir, a former Guantánamo Bay inmate who is considered one of the architects of the Taliban resurgence and is a leading rival to the new Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour.

Even as the Taliban’s southern offensive has gained ground, so have their military pushes in eastern Afghanistan, and in the north as well, where they briefly occupied the provincial capital of Kunduz in September.

The broad pattern of fighting has desperately stretched the Afghan forces in a year when NATO air support was wound down with the end of the formal combat mission in 2014, Afghan officials say.

Ahmad Shakib contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on December 23, 2015, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: British Forces Rush to Help Afghans Repel Taliban in Helmand. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

ரணிலுக்கும் சந்திரிக்காவிற்கும் இடையில் லண்டனில் சந்திப்பு

ரணிலுக்கும் சந்திரிக்காவிற்கும் இடையில் லண்டனில் சந்திப்பு
வெள்ளிக்கிழமை, 25 டிசெம்பர் 2015,

பிரதமர் ரணில் விக்ரமசிங்கவுக்கும் முன்னாள் ஜனாதிபதி சந்திரிக்கா பண்டாரநாயக்கவுக்கும் இடையில் லண்டனில் சந்திப்பு நடத்தப்பட உள்ளதாகத் தெரிவிக்கப்படுகிறது.

தனிப்பட்ட விஜயமொன்றை மேற்கொண்டு கடந்த 22ம் திகதி பிரதமர் ரணில் விக்ரமசிங்க லண்டன் சென்றிருந்தார்.

அதேபோன்று தனிப்பட்ட விஜயமொன்றை மேற்கொண்டு கடந்த 18ம் திகதி முன்னாள் ஜனாதிபதி சந்திரிக்கா பண்டாரநாயக்க குமாரதுங்க லண்டன் சென்றிருந்தார்.

ஆக இந்த இரு ``தனிப்பட்ட விஜயங்களிலும்`` பின்வரும் தேசியப்  பிரச்சனைகள் விவாதத்துக்கு எடுக்கப்படுமெனவும் அதே ஊடகங்கள் தெரிவித்துள்ளன!

1) தற்போதைய அரசாங்கத்தின் நடவடிக்கைகள், 

2) உத்தேச அரசியல் அமைப்பு திருத்தங்கள், 

3) கடந்த மஹிந்த ஆட்சிக் கால ஊழல் மோசடிகள் குறித்த விசாரணைகளின் நிலைமை, 

4) எதிர்வரும் நாட்களில் மேற்கொள்ளப்படவுள்ள அமைச்சரவை மாற்றங்கள் 5) உள்ளிட்ட பல்வேறு விடயங்கள் குறித்து இந்த பேச்சுவார்த்தையில் கவனம் செலுத்தப்பட உள்ளதாக ஊடகச் செய்திகள் கூறுகின்றன!

PFLP Condemns the assasination of Smir Kuntar

PFLP condemns the assassination of the martyr

Samir Kuntar, Arab resistance leader and liberated prisoner

Dec 20 2015

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine condemned the assassination of the martyr Samir Kuntar, who was dedicated to the resistance and liberation of Palestine from a young age, and continued to struggle after his freedom from captivity in occupation prisons, for the liberation of the Golan Heights and Palestine.

The Popular Front urged all forces of Arab resistance to unite to confront the Zionist fascist forces that feed on internal division and conflict, and promote destructie schemes against the Arab people.

“This treacherous crime that targeted the struggler, liberated prisoner Samir Kuntar, confirms the extent of the Zionist enemy’s hatred for the role of the great martyr Kuntar,” said Comrade Maher al-Taher, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP, denouncing the “act of Zionist terrorism that targeted the leader Samir Kuntar on the land of Syria.”

“Throughout four decades of his life, Samir Kuntar was a guerilla, a prisoner, a steadfast leader and a spearhead of the resistance,” said the Prisoners’ Commission of the PFLP, in a statement on the assassination of Kuntar.

“As we mourn the martyr of the Arab nation and the resistance, we are proud to affirm that the leadership and struggle of Samir Kuntar, who gave so much in steadfastness and in his blood, will remain a beacon for all who fight for liberation in the world, and will remain a symbol of struggle and resistance for generations to come,” said the Commmission.

Further, the Commission said, “we warn of the consequences of continuing to target liberated prisoners, which indicates the hatred of the Zionist war machine for them. This treacherous crime must be confronted and liberated prisoners must be protected from the attacks of the Zionist enemy. The blood of the leader Samir Kuntar will not create anything but more determination to continue on the same path of resistance, of Palestinian, Lebanese and Arab resistance and liberation in the Golan, of the occupied Arab lands in Bekaa, and all of Palestine.”

PFLP Com Barakat: On US,Israel,Saudi trangle against Palestine

PFLP Comrade Barakat

Barakat: The U.S., the Zionist state and Saudi Arabia are the triangle of sabotage and terror in the region
Dec 16 2015 berlin4

“The Palestinian people have been struggling for decades against imperialist, Zionist and reactionary terror in Palestine, and have paid a dear price in this struggle as a victim of colonial occupation,” said Comrade Khaled Barakat, responding to media reports of the decision of the Palestinian Authority to participate in the so-called “Islamic Coalition Against Terror” led by Saudi Arabia.

“This is an absurd decision that represents only those who have taken it and does not represent the Palestinian people. The Palestinian Authority is standing in one valley and the Palestinian people are standing in quite another,” Barakat said. “Terror in our region has been imposed by the criminal actions of the enemy camp with all of its arms: imperialism, Zionism and reactionary regimes. This is the lived experience of our nation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf,” said Barakat.

The masses of the Palestinian people are aware of the U.S., Zionist and Saudi role in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and the region as a whole, and that these parties have no legitimacy to talk about “opposing terror” while imposing terror upon the Palestinian and Arab people, Barakat said.

Over a million migrants and refugees have reached Europe this year, says IOM

Over a million migrants and refugees have reached Europe this year, says IOM
International Organisation for Migration announces latest figures, with Greek island of Lesbos now the main refugee gateway
Tuesday 22 December 2015 12.43 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 23 December 2015 00.50

Syrian refugee throws wife and baby on to train tracks in protest to migrant camps in Hungery

More than a million people have now reached Europe through irregular means in 2015, the International Organisation for Migration has announced, in what constitutes the continent’s biggest wave of mass migration since the aftermath of the second world war.

Out of a total of 1,005,504 arrivals by 21 December, the vast majority – 816,752 – arrived by sea in Greece, the IOM said. A further 150,317 arrived by sea in Italy, with much smaller figures for Spain, Malta and Cyprus. A total of 34,215 crossed by land routes, such as over the Turkish-Bulgarian border.

The overall figure is a four-fold increase from 2014’s figures, and has largely been driven by Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war. Afghans, Iraqis and Eritreans fleeing conflict and repression are the other significant national groups.

The European migration flow is nevertheless far more manageable than in the Middle East, where roughly 2.2 million Syrian refugees live in Turkey alone. In Lebanon, 1.1 million Syrians form about one-fifth of the country’s total population, while Jordan’s 633,000 registered Syrian refugees make up around a tenth of the total.

The denial of basic rights to refugees in those countries, where almost all Syrians do not have the right to work, is one of the causes of Europe’s migration crisis. Refugees who have lived for several years in legal limbo are now coming to Europe to claim the rights bestowed on them by the 1951 UN refugee convention.

Other refugees are fleeing directly from the war zones themselves. Aruba al-Rifai, a 44-year-old civil servant from the outskirts of Damascus, arrived on Lesbos this week having come straight from Syria. “The bombs are getting worse, and it’s just the beginning,” said Rifai. “I come to Europe to feel like a human being.”

Among rights workers, Tuesday’s news prompted renewed calls for Europe to set up safe and legal access to refugees. Save the Children, which says that over a quarter of refugee arrivals to Europe this year have been minors, said the absence of a more humanitarian response meant that the values of the continent were now at risk.

“Despite many European countries and people generously helping one million refugees, Europe is doing too little to protect and help vulnerable refugee children and stop families drowning on our shores,” said Kirsty McNeill, the charity’s campaigns director.

“This is the test of our European ideal. When children are dying on our doorstep we need to take bolder action. There can be no bigger priority.”

Among other demands, McNeill also called for better provision for refugees once they arrive in Europe. “Some reception facilities, especially at borders, aren’t adequately providing for basic needs like food, water or healthcare,” McNeill said in a statement. “The situation is expected to worsen with the onset of winter – especially for children -who are also more vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, violence and trafficking. We urge European states to focus on immediate humanitarian needs on the ground, especially for children.”

The record movement of people into Europe is a symptom of a record level of disruption around the globe, with numbers of refugees and internally displaced people far surpassing 60 million, UNHCR said last week.

“I don’t understand why people are insisting that this is a European problem. This is a global issue,” Michael Moller, director of the UN office in Geneva, told a news conference on Tuesday.

The UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres called on Friday for a “massive resettlement” of Syrian and other refugees within Europe, to distribute many hundreds of thousands of people before the continent’s asylum system crumbles.

He called for European countries to recognise the positive contributions made by refugees and migrants and to honour what he said were “core European values: protecting lives, upholding human rights and promoting tolerance and diversity.”

Lesbos is now the main refugee gateway to Europe, with just under half of those entering the continent in 2015 doing so by using the island as a staging post between the Greek mainland and the nearby shores of Turkey. Despite the worsening weather, and despite a so-called crackdown on Turkey’s people-smugglers, the numbers arriving in December are still higher than in June and July. Over 15 boats arrived on Lesbos on Monday. Across the Greek islands, the average number of refugees arriving each day in December is 3,338, lower than the October peak of 6,828, but far higher than July’s 1,771.

The IOM data is the latest in a slew of different and sometimes contradictory figures being used to quantify the European migration crisis. Other sources include the UN refugee agency, which is not publicly monitoring land arrivals; Frontex, the EU border agency, which sometimes double-counts people; and Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, whose data conflates numbers from the refugee crisis with those that refer to internal European migration.

Between 12 and 14 million Europeans are estimated to have been displaced in the aftermath of the second world war.

IMF bail-out package for SL seen as unavoidable

IMF bail-out package for SL seen as unavoidable
December 25, 2015, 9:52 am

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The rise in global interest rates in the wake of the US Federal Reserve interest rate hike, makes unavoidable for Sri Lanka a bail-out package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), top economist Professor Razeen Salley said.

"IMF doesn’t have confidence in the Lankan government, in particularly its ministry handling the country’s finances, as the maiden budget of the national unity government has ignored fiscal consolidation — one of the top conditions imposed by the lender when  extending support, Professor Salley said at a recent seminar organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

In 2009, Sri Lanka was bailed-out by the IMF from a balance of payment (BOP) crisis—which was triggered by excessive money printing to support subsidies—through a US $ 2.6 billion Stand-By-Arrangement (SBA).

He said ISIS rebels creating greater instability in the Middle East could also hurt Sri Lanka’s economy.  However, the message sent out by Budget 2016 could make the dialogue with the IMF for a potential SBA facility problematic, as the budget seriously lacked fiscal consolidation.

Professor Salley, Visiting Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, pointed out that Sri Lanka has a culture of acting irresponsibly over its finances and then expecting to be bailed out by the IMF. He stressed that continuing this vicious circle of resorting to the IMF is very damaging.

"It prevents a sinner from repenting and it’s another excuse to continue sinning, said Professor Salley. He noted that the last SBA facility was clearly political and was given under very easy conditions.

"The last government pretended it was reforming and the IMF pretended the government was reforming but it kicked the can down the road, he remarked.

"Sri Lanka cannot expect the IMF to come and sort out all its problems as most of the reforms must be carried out internally, he added.

Deputy Director, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka Dr Dushni Weerakoon said at a seminar that since the country’s foreign exchange reserve is dropping fast due to a high import bill, Sri Lanka will require a bail-out package from the IMF or any other institution.

"A bailout package to salvage the economy is inevitable next year because of foreign reserve deterioration, she added.

Next year would be a tough year for Sri Lanka because world commodity prices, especially those for tea, will also experience a slump due to manifold reasons, such as, a global financial crisis and insecurity in the international arena, due to terrorism and economic crises, she said.

விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் தர்மேந்திராக் கலையகத்தின் இன்றைய நிலை

பாழடையுமோ புலிகளின் பாசறை,

நாளடையுமோ புதிய தலைமுறை?

தோள் சுமக்குமோ புதிய தேசத்தை,

வேர் அறுக்குமோ அந்நிய பாசத்தை!

========================== ENB=========================== 

விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் 
தர்மேந்திராக் கலையகத்தின் இன்றைய நிலை
[ வெள்ளிக்கிழமை, 25 டிசெம்பர் 2015, 12:18.15 PM GMT ]

தர்மேந்திரா என்னும் ஒரு போராளிக் கலைஞனின் வீரமரணத்தை தொடர்ந்து விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் தலைவர் பிரபாகரனின் சிந்தனையில் உருவாக்கப்பட்டது தர்மேந்திரா கலையகம்.

தர்மேந்திரா கலையகம்

இக்கலையகம் பல்வேறு மூத்தகலைஞர்கள் மென்மேலும் வளர்ச்சியடைய ஒரு களமாக இருந்ததுடன், இலைமறைகாயாக இருந்ந பல தமிழீழக் கலைஞர்களை வெளிக்கொண்டு வந்துள்ளது.

இந்தக்கலையகத்தில் பல்வேறுபட்ட விடுதலை எழுச்சிப்பாடல்கள், தத்துவப்பாடல்கள், பக்திப்பாடல்கள் மற்றும் திரைப்படங்கள், குறும்படங்கள், தொடர் நாடகங்கள் என அனைத்திற்கும் பின்னணி இசையையும் வழங்கியிருந்தது.

தர்மேந்திரா கலையகம்

அந்தவகையில் 2004ம் ஆண்டு ஏற்பட்ட ஆழிப்பேரலையினால் மக்கள் மீளாத்துயரடைந்து இருந்தபொழுது, அவர்களை ஆற்றும் நோக்கில் சுனாமிப் பாடல்களையும் வெளியீடு செய்திருந்தது.

2009ம் ஆண்டு ஜனவரி மாதம் கிளிநொச்சி நகர் இலங்கை இராணுவத்திடம் வீழ்ச்சியடைந்த போது, கிளிநொச்சி திருநகரில் அமைந்திருந்த இந்தக்கலையகம் இராணுவ ஆக்கிரமிப்புக்குள் சிக்கிக் கொண்டது.

தர்மேந்திரா கலையகம்

2015ம் ஆண்டு இன்று வரை குறித்த கலையகம் இராணுவ ஆக்கிரமிப்பிற்குள் சிக்கி சிதைவடைந்து காணப்படுகின்றது.

இந்தக் கலையகக் கலைஞர்கள் தற்பெழுது நிர்க்கதியான நிலையில் தமது கலைத்திறனை வெளிக்கொண்டு வரமுடியாமல் தவிக்கும் நிலை காணப்படுகின்றது.

தர்மேந்திரா கலையகம்

இன்று எமது செய்தியாளர் மேற்படி கலையகத்திற்கு நேரடியாக சென்று உடைந்திருந்த அந்த கலையகத்திற்குள் நின்று ஒளிப்பதிவு செய்துள்ளார்.
நன்றி செய்தி: ஊடகங்கள்

Opposition questions US interest on Sri Lanka

Opposition questions US interest on Sri Lanka

December 16, 2015 15:52

Dullas AlahapperumaThe opposition today questioned the keen interest the United States is having on Sri Lanka with several top US officials already having visited the country this year.

Opposition Parliamentarian Dullas Alahaperuma said that while the Government says it is following a middle line in Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, the reality does not seem to be the case.

Alahaperuma said that over the past four months top US officials including Nisha Biswal, Samantha Power and Thomas Shannon visited Sri Lanka and had talks with the Government.

“I the last four months there were six US officials who visited Sri Lanka. In the past six months so many US officials have not gone to any other country. Are they coming with a good intention,” he asked.

Alahaperuma noted that even after the August 17 Parliament elections, before the cabinet took oaths, three Ministers took oaths so they could have talks with US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal who was visiting the country at the time.

US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Designate) Thomas Shannon is the latest US official to visit Sri Lanka.

Speaking at an event today Shannon said Sri Lanka is an example of the power of citizens to reinvigorate their democracy, to retake control – through the ballot box – of their country’s trajectory, and to set a course to a brighter future.

He said the US now looks to Sri Lanka to also provide inspiration to others around the world, to show them how justice and compassion can overcome a difficult past and help create a stable and prosperous future, and strengthen a nation’s security, prosperity, and prestige. (Colombo Gazette)

Paris Accord Considers Climate Change as a Factor in Mass Migration

EUROPE
Paris Accord Considers Climate Change as a Factor in Mass Migration
By SEWELL CHANDEC. 12, 2015


LE BOURGET, France — The two-week United Nations climate conference outside Paris that drew to an end on Saturday focused on many of the physical dangers associated with climate change: extreme weather, severe drought, the warming of oceans, rain forest destruction and disruptions to the food supply.

But global warming has already had another effect — the large-scale displacement of people — that has been an ominous, politically sensitive undercurrent in the talks and side events here.

Scientists have said that climate change can indirectly lead to migration by setting off violent conflicts. Scholars have made this connection since at least 2007, when they cited climate change as a reason for the war in Darfur, Sudan.

A drought that lasted from 2006 to 2011 in much of Syria has been cited as a factor in the long-running civil war there, fueling a mass migration to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, but also to Europe, Canada and, in small measure, the United States.

Global leaders celebrated a landmark accord on climate change on Saturday after nearly 200 nations agreed to the deal.Nations Approve Landmark Climate Accord in ParisDEC. 12, 2015
A demonstration near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Saturday to show support for actions against climate change.Protesters Are in Agreement as Well: Pact Is Too WeakDEC. 12, 2015
Ban Ki-moon, left, the secretary general of the United Nations, with Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister of France, at the talks.Draft of Climate Pact Is Ready, U.N. Officials SayDEC. 11, 2015
Europe, in particular, is experiencing the largest influx of migrants since World War II — Germany alone has already taken in nearly a million this year. Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, told world leaders on Nov. 30 that climate change could “destabilize entire regions and start massive forced migrations and conflicts over natural resources.”

From 2008 to 2014, an average of 26.4 million people were displaced each year by floods, storms, earthquakes and other natural disasters, according to a report released in July by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, part of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Most moved within their countries.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification — like the climate talks, it grew out of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 — and the British Defense Ministry recently cited a 2009 report estimating that 135 million people are at risk of displacement because desertification, the drying out of once-fertile land, will reduce drinking-water supplies and lower coral yields. The problem is most pronounced across a band of Africa, from the Sahel in the west to the Horn of Africa in the east.

By 2020, some 60 million people could move from the desertified areas of sub-Saharan Africa toward North Africa and Europe, the report found; by 2050, about 200 million people may be permanently displaced.

The report was prepared by a research and advocacy organization led by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, that shut down in 2010; some of the report’s findings have been disputed. Indeed, the numbers are so staggering that Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who with Mr. Swing and others spoke at a panel discussion here, took pains to point out that the vast majority of migration worldwide takes place in the developing world.

As early as 1990, a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned, “The greatest single impact of climate change could be on human migration.”

It was not until 20 years later, at the 2010 United Nations climate conference in Cancun, Mexico, that countries formally agreed that “climate change-induced migration, displacement and relocation” were among the challenges the world faced in adapting to a warmer planet.

In 2012, the Norwegian and Swiss governments established a research entity, the Nansen Initiative, which found that “a serious legal gap exists with regard to cross-border movements in the context of disasters and the effects of climate change.” The initiative has held consultations in four particularly vulnerable regions — Central America, the Horn of Africa, Southeast Asia and the islands of the South Pacific — and plans to recommend a “protection agenda” that may include standards of treatment.

People forced to leave their homes because of climate change are not easily classified under existing human rights, refugee or asylum law. In July, a New Zealand court dismissed a landmark case brought by a man from Kiribati, Ioane Teitiota, who had sought to have his family classified as “climate change refugees.” They were deported in September.

Somini Sengupta contributed reporting from the United Nations.

A version of this article appears in print on December 13, 2015, on page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Global Warming’s Role in Mass Migration Is Addressed . Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Post-war relations: UK seeks closer ties with SL military

Post-war relations: UK seeks closer ties with SL military
December 19, 2015, 9:04 am by Shamindra Ferdinando

Vice Admiral Wijegunaratne and Captain Borland exchange mementos.

Close on the heels of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s assurance to President Maithripala Sirisena that UK would provide expertise and financial backing for military reforms here, a senior British officer visited Colombo.

PM Cameron gave that assurance on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta late last month.

British Naval and Air Adviser in India Captain Stuart Borland met Navy Chief Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne at navy headquarters on Dec. 15. A senior SLN official told The Island that the talks were aimed at enhancing the relations with the focus on training opportunities in the UK. "They discussed matters of mutual interest and bilateral importance."

A British High Commission spokes person told The Island that the UK’s non-resident Defence Advisor designated to Sri Lanka had been in Colombo for a series of introductory meetings.

UK withdrew its Colombo-based defence adviser in 2009. Another British HC official said that the move was made following a review of distribution of defence advisers.

During the war Sri Lanka couldn’t secure armaments of British origin due to a ban on weapons exports prompted by Indian objections and vociferous protests by UK based Sri Lankans, defence sources told The Island. Sources said with the conclusion of the war the UK was in a position to renew military ties. Responding to a question, sources said that over the years, Sri Lanka had completely ceased the use of British weapons.

Some UK based Diaspora activists have sought a clarification from the British government through a Labour Party MP as regards the new relationship between the UK and Sri Lanka.

Expressway to Jaffna through Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee

Expressway to Jaffna through Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee

Three mega road projects to be launched next year, trip to Kandy in 75 minutes
By Damith Wickremasekara

Three mega expressway projects, including one to the north through Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee, will be launched next year, officials said yesterday.

Funding for the projects estimated to cost US$ 13.4 billion (Rs. 1,900 billion) will come from multiple sources including China, the Asian Development Bank and local avenues, Road Development Authority Director General M.P.K.L Gunaratne told the Sunday Times.

He said the expressway to the Central Province will be the first to be started in March next year, followed by the expressway between Kahathuduwa and Pelmadulla and then the northern project.The northern expressway would start from Dambulla and cut across Polonnaruwa, Kantale, Trincomalee and Mullaitivu to reach Jaffna. It is estimated to cost US$ 5.5 billion.

He said that earlier the plan was for the northern expressway to be built through Vavuniya and Kilinochchi.

RDA Chairman Nihal R. Sooriyaarachchi said the change was made to cater to the needs of the Trincomalee harbour and the thriving tourism industry there. He said acquiring lands for the new expressway would also be easier as it would pass through largely uninhabited areas.

He said that currently the RDA believed the A9 road to Jaffna through Vavuniya and Kilinochchi was sufficiently developed.

Central Expressway Project Director L.V.S. Weerakoon said this expressway would be built in four stages with construction taking place simultaneously and more than 20 km of the road would be on elevated structures.

The first stage of 37 km from Kadawatha to Mirigama would be funded by China. The second stage of 49 km from Mirigama to Kurunegala and the Ambepussa link road would be funded by the ADB while the third stage of 32.5 km from Pothuhera to Galagedara would be built with local funding. For the stage four of 60 km from Kurunegala to Dambulla, the funding source is yet to be determined, as is the final part from Galagedara to Katugastota.

He said the 48 km Ruwanpura project from Kahathuduwa to Ratnapura would cost US$ 1.5 billion and the 23 km from Ratnapura to Pelmadulla would cost US$ 2.2 billion. Highways Minister Lakshman Kiriella told the Sunday Times that once the central expressway project was completed the travel time between Colombo and Kandy would be about one hour and 15 minutes compared to the four and half hours now.

Mr. Kiriella said they hoped to complete the Kandy expressway in three years. There would be service stations and fuel stations in Mirigama with extra safety features where the expressway passes through hills and difficult terrain.

Sri Lanka plantations firms warn of higher losses if wage hike

Sri Lanka plantations firms warn of higher losses, if (from) wage hike
Dec 17, 2015 13:56 PM GMT+0530

ECONOMYNEXT –

Sri Lankan plantations companies have warned that a wage hike demanded by labour unions would increase losses at a time when commodity prices remain low, with workers themselves losing if the industry collapses.

With wage talks deadlocked, the Planters’ Association of Ceylon, which represents listed regional plantations companies, said unions would have to accept either the PA’s proposal for productivity linked wages or a revenue sharing model.

PA Chairman Roshan Rajadurai said the 1,000 rupee wage hike demanded by unions “is plainly impossible and completely unaffordable.”

He said in a statement the RPCs understand the demand of the workers for a higher wage and have continuously provided significant wage increases – in some years even exceeding 35% – whenever they were able to.

The PA said that if the wage hike was granted, the cost of production of the RPCs, which is in the region of 450 rupees per kilo, would exceed 610 rupees.

Since the total sale average of tea at the Colombo tea auction in the last week of November 2015 only amounted to 409 rupees, the loss from a single kilo of tea produced by RPCs would increase from around 50 - 70 rupees at present to over 200 rupees.

This would make their operations “completely financially and economically unviable and impossible.”

Rajadurai said that for the unions to adamantly stick to “impractical demands which cannot be fulfilled is a short-sighted policy akin to ‘killing the goose that lays the egg.’ 

“An adverse impact on the Regional Plantation Companies and its eventual collapse would be totally detrimental to the workers themselves and the nearly one million resident population living in RPC estates, who enjoy many facilities provided by the RPCs despite not being part of our workforce,” he added.

The PA said that since the privatisation of the estates in 1992, the labour wages have increased 13 fold, although the tea prices have increased only by 6 fold in the same period.  

Many of the RPCs are listed companies which are answerable to shareholders.

“We cannot simply agree to draconian terms which will inevitably put the companies further in financial jeopardy and to its eventual collapse,” the statement said.

The RPCs have provided viable alternatives; productivity based wages and revenue sharing – which will be a win-win, workable method, enabling workers to earn their desired income by increasing output, which unfortunately the unions have failed to agree with.”  

(Colombo/December 17, 2015)

===========================================
மலையகத்தில் மின்னொழுக்கு, தொழிலாளர் லயன்கள் தீக்கிரை
16-12-2015 04:20 PM
-சிவாணி ஸ்ரீ

இரத்தினபுரி, அபுகஸ்தன்ன மூக்குவத்தை தோட்டத்தில் இன்று புதன்கிழமை (16) அதிகாலை ஏற்பட்ட மின்னொழுக்கு காரணமாக 06 லயன் குடியிருப்புக்கள் தீப்பற்றி எரிந்துள்ளன.

மேற்படி ஆறு குடியிருப்புக்களில் தங்கியிருந்தவர்களுக்கு உயிராபத்துக்கள் எதுவும் ஏற்படவில்லை. எனினும், பெறுமதியான பொருட்கள் பல முற்றாக எரிந்து நாசமாகியுள்ளன.

தோட்ட மக்களின் முயற்சியினால் தீ கட்டுப்பாட்டுக்குள் கொண்டு வரப்பட்டுள்ளது.

மேற்படி குடியிருப்பைச் சேர்ந்த 30க்கும் மேற்பட்ட மக்கள்,  அப்பிரதேசத்தில் உள்ள ஆலயத்தில் தஞ்சமடைந்துள்ளனர்.

All nationalities can be resettled in NP

ENB File Photo: Palihakkara and Moon

All nationalities can be resettled in NP – Palihakkara

Governor of the Northern Province H.M.G.S. Palihakkara told Ceylon Today that the Northern Provincial Council has come to an agreement with the government, opening the way for the settlement of families from all nationalities in the Northern Province.

This includes Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims who had lived in the North prior to the commencement of the war.

By Niranjala Ariyawansha

Governor of the Northern Province H.M.G.S. Palihakkara told Ceylon Today that the Northern Provincial Council has come to an agreement with the government, opening the way for the settlement of families from all nationalities in the Northern  Province.

This includes Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims who had lived in the North prior to the commencement of the war.

Palihakkara said steps will be taken to restore several acres of land which the Army had been using in Valikamam West, in the Northern Province, to their rightful owners who lived there prior to being displaced by the war.

Meanwhile, another 41,000 IDPs, who were displaced by the war, still live in eight camps and with friends and relatives.

Land belonging to civilians had been acquired by the Army during the war on the basis of a policy decision of the government.

He added Grama Niladharies in the Northern Province at Grama Niladhari Divisional Level are gathering information on all residents who had lived in the above mentioned properties prior to the war.

"In 2009 at the time that the war ended, the Army had possession of 12,000 acres of land in the Northern Province alone. The previous government from time to time returned some of this land to the original residents or owners. Another 1000 acres in Sampur were returned to the original owners by the new government. Only 5000 acres of land belonging to civilians are occupied by the Army" Palihakkara said.

Lanka declared eligible for assistance under the Millennium Challenge Account

Lanka declared eligible for assistance under the Millennium Challenge Account
 17 December 2015

Sri Lanka was selected as an eligible country for assistance from fiscal year 2016 at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) held in Washington DC on  December16, Sri Lankan embassy in Washington said.

This decision of the Board was conveyed by telephone on the same evening, 16 December, to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, by the Chief Executive Officer of the MCC, Dana J. Hyde.

"Created by the U.S. Congress in 2004 with strong bipartisan support, the MCC is an innovative U.S. foreign assistance agency that operates on the principle of delivering assistance on the basis of a long-term consultative partnership with individual

countries. The criteria for consideration in entering a partnership include a country’s commitment to good governance, economic freedom and investment in citizens." a statement from the embassy said.

Country ownership and country-led solutions for reducing poverty through sustainable economic growth is an important underlying principle based on which MCC grants are provided. Grants are designed to complement other U.S. and international development programmes, and create an enabling environment for private sector investment.

"The MCC’s Board of Directors is chaired by the US Secretary of State John Kerry and includes as members the Secretary to the Treasury, the U.S. Trade Representative, the USAID Administrator, CEO of MCC and four private sector representatives, appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. "

In keeping with the Government’s vision for good governance, strengthening the rule of law, and achieving reconciliation, development, durable peace and prosperity for all, the government of Sri Lanka will work to foster an enduring engagement and partnership with the MCC with the objective of reaping benefits for all the people in the country.

The selection of Sri Lanka as an eligible country for long-term partnership with the MCC is a demonstration of recognition of the progress made by Sri Lanka since January 2015 under the leadership of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

India to build sea bridge,tunnel to connect Sri Lanka"

India to build sea bridge,tunnel to connect Sri Lanka"

New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) Keen on promoting connectivity in the South Asian region, India is set to build a sea-bridge and tunnel connecting Sri Lanka while a pact has been inked with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal for seamless flow of traffic and passenger vehicles, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

"The Asian Development Bank is ready to fully finance a bridge building project connecting Rameshwaram to Sri Lanka.

The project was also discussed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his counterpart during the latter's recent visit," Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha.

The India-Sri Lanka connectivity project cost is pegged at about Rs 24,000 crore.

"The Government, right from the day it assumed office, has been focussed on enhancing regional cooperation.

Subsequent to PM's announcement of 'Act East policy', India pro-actively engaged in building effective and credible links between South Asia and South East Asia through enhanced regional connectivity," he said.

A major milestone was the signing of the Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) in Thimphu to facilitate seamless movement of passenger and cargo vehicles in the region, he said.

Under BBIN MVA, a cargo trial run was held on the 640 km Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala route last month, which was a substantial reduction compared to the traditional 1,550 km transit route from Kolkata to Agartala via Siliguri-Guwahati- Silchar, he said.

"The four countries have also identified 14 routes for passenger services and 7 routes for cargo movement under the BBIN MVA...Several major Road Transport Corridor Projects for approximately 2400 kms have been identified in India and particularly in the North Eastern region at an estimated investment of USD 4.6 billion which are proposed to be taken up with ADB support," Gadkari said.

Once BBIN and other agreements are operationalised, the dream of seamless movement of all types of vehicles between SAARC and ASEAN nations will become a reality and "I hope that this will happen soon", he said.

About 110 km on the Imphal-Moreh (NH 39) will be taken up for upgradation by NHIDCL with loan being provided by ADB while the Ministry has also proposed projects for JICA loan assistance for developing road infrastructure to connect neighbouring countries through the North East, he said.

UN chief notes changes in Sri Lanka this year

ENB File Photo 

UN chief notes changes in Sri Lanka this year
December 17, 2015 08:19

As 2015 draws to a close, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that among the highlights of this year was the changes which took place in Sri Lanka.

Despite the “daunting” situations, Ban said that political progress and smooth transfers of power over the past year, including in Sri Lanka and Nigeria is encouraging.

Speaking at his year-end press conference, Ban summed up the “pivotal year” in which the UN marked its 70th anniversary by highlighting landmark steps taken to advance sustainable development, climate action, conflict resolution and provision of humanitarian assistance.

Ban said that 2015 has brought “breakthrough and horror”, and added that the UN will continue to strengthen itself, including through wide-ranging assessments of peace operations, peacebuilding and our future role and capacities. (Colombo Gazette)

Cameron’s Bombings of Syria, Equals Blair’s Iraq War Crimes

Illegal Slaughter: Cameron’s Bombings of Syria, Equals Blair’s Iraq War Crimes

By Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, December 12, 2015

“Russia bombing Syria will lead to further radicalization and increased terrorism”. Prime Minister David Cameron, 4th October 2015.

How desperately Prime Minister Cameron has been yearning to bomb the Syrian Arab Republic.

In August 2013 when his aim was defeated in Parliament by a 285-272 vote, his vision of the UK joining US-led strikes bit the dust. His dreams of illegally joining the bigger bully and bombing an historic nation of just 22.85 million people (2013 figures) three and a half thousand kilometers away, posing no threat to Britain, was thwarted.

The US threw a conciliatory bone to the snarling Cameron and according to the BBC (1): “would ‘continue to consult’ with the UK, ‘one of our closest allies and friends.’France said = that) the UK’s vote does not change its resolve on the need to act in Syria.

After the vote … Cameron said it was clear Parliament did not want action and ‘the government will act accordingly.’

Chancellor George Osborne whined on BBC Radio 4′s flagship “Today” programme that: “there would now be “national soul searching about our role in the world “, adding: “I hope this doesn’t become a moment when we turn our back on all of the world’s problems.

Translation: “Inconsequential politicians on small island only feel like real men when sending off their depleted air force to blow modest populations far away to bits.”

The then Defence Secretary Philip Hammond: “ … told BBC’s Newsnight programme that he and the Prime Minister were “disappointed” with the result, saying it would harm Britain’s “special relationship” with Washington. Ah ha, that tail wagging,

panting, lap dog “special relationship” again, for which no body part licking, no crawling on all fours, no humiliation, no deviation of international law is too much.

The excuse for the 2013 rush to annihilate was accusations that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons in March and August of that year, a claim subsequently comprehensively dismissed by detailed UN investigations (2.)

Cameron’s excuse for attack had all the validity of Tony Blair’s fantasy Iraq weapons of mass destruction, but of course he regards Blair as a trusted advisor. Judgement, it might be argued, as Blair’s, is not one of Cameron’s strong attributes.

Then came the Friday 13th November tragedies in Paris and by 2nd December Cameron’s parliamentary press gangs managed to threaten and arm twist through a vote to attack Syria in an action of shame which will surely haunt him as Blair is haunted by Iraq.

As the bombs fell, on 6th December, Cameron celebrated the anniversary of his his tenth year as Leader of the Conservative Party with his very own military action, Libya’s tragedy forgotten and belonging to yesterday. That, as Blair’s Iraq, it is entirely illegal (3) apparently bothers the former PR man not a whit.

As the Parliamentary debate was taking place, before the vote, it was reported that RAF reconnaissance ‘planes had already taken off for Syria from Scotland – of whose fifty nine parliamentarians, fifty seven voted against the attack. Cameron thumbed AFGL
789MNC N.'is arrogant nose to near and far.

Apart from the illegality, did it even cross Cameron’s mind, or did he care, that using the Paris attack not only defied law, it defied reason. To repeat again, the attackers were French and Belgian born, of North African extraction, with no Syrian

connections apart from that some of them had been there joining the organ eating, head chopping, people incinerating terrorists. Syria is the victim, not the perpetrator, deserving aid and protection, not cowardly retribution from 30,000 feet.

After the vote, pro-killing MPs reportedly went straight into the Commons bar to celebrate with tax payer subsidized booze. Warned that the main doors in to Parliament had been closed due to anti-war protesters outside, one woman MP apparently shouted gleefully “It’s a lock in.” How lightly mass murder is taken in the Palace of Westminster.

Chancellor George Osborne: “eschewed the celebratory drinks … and joined a carol service in nearby St. Margaret’s Church – in aid of a charity for child amputees. You couldn’t make it up”, wrote a ballistic friend.

Within a week Osborne was in the US addressing the Council on Foreign Relations stating that with the air strikes Britain had “got it’s mojo back” and stood with the United States to “reassert Western values.”

It was he said “a real source of pride” to have the authority for air strikes in Syria.

“Britain has got its mojo back and we are going to be with you as we reassert Western values, confident that our best days lie ahead.”

Britain was prepared to play a “bigger role”, he vowed.

“Mojo” according to varying dictionaries means “a quality that attracts people to you, makes you successful and full of energy”, denotes “influence” and “sex appeal.” The man needs help.

Immediately after the vote during a visit to RAF Akrotiri, the British base in Cyprus from which the airborne killers will take off to drop their human being incinerating ordnance, UK Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, told military personnel that their mission had the backing of “both the government and the people of Britain.” He lied.

A recent ITV poll showed 89.32 % of British people against bombing. Governmental “mojo” has clearly passed them by.

Pro bombing MPs though, it seems, are anything but warrior material. When angry emails arrived from their constituents condemning the bombing, the heavyweight Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson (pro bombing) complained of

“bullying” saying stronger social media policy was needed to prevent such correspondence.

Anti war campaigners had also sent graphic photographs of dead Syrian children to MPs to persuade them not to vote for creating more mutilated little souls. This, the warmongers said, was “intimidation.”

One pro-war parliamentarian said the messages led him to have concerns for the health of his pregnant wife. Beyond pathetic, try being the husband of a pregnant wife, or the wife, in Syria with Britain’s bombs incinerating your neighbourhood.

Another MP was so keen to become a member of the “bullied” club, she was found to have added a death threat to herself at the end of a justifiably angry email from a member of the public. Her attempt to was speedily uncovered. The desire to tarnish those repelled by illegally murdering others is seemingly becoming common currency in the Cameron Reichstag.

A majority of British politicians, prepared to drop bombs on people, blow their children, parents, relatives, villages, towns, homes to bits and are cowed by a few words. As for “bullied”, try being under a bomb Mr Watson, one of the bombs you voted for. “Bullying” doesn’t come bigger than that.

Upset at being sent pictures of dead babies? Imagine being a mother or father holding the shredded remains of theirs. Courtesy the RAF.

Have they any idea of the reality of their “mojo” moment? People tearing at the tons of rubble that was a home, trying to dig friends, beloveds out with bare, bleeding hands?

Further reality is the demented, terrified howls of the dogs who hear the ‘planes long before the human ear can, the swathes of birds that drop from the sky from the fear and vibration, their bodies carpeting the ground, the cats that go mad with fear,

rushing from a loving home, never to be seen again. And the children that become mute in their terror, losing the ability to speak for weeks, sometimes months and even years.

Yet David Cameron allegedly called Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and those who voted against this shameful act of terror: “terrorist sympathisers”, reportedly telling a meeting of a Parliamentary Committee before the vote: “You should not be walking through the lobbies with Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers.” (5)

This presumably was juvenile pay back time for Corbyn having stated correctly that: “Cameron’s approach is bomb first, talk later. But instead of adding British bombs to the others now raining down on Syria what’s needed is an acceleration of the peace talks in Vienna.”

Cameron also received widespread derision, including from Conservative Parliamentarian Julian Lewis, Chairman of the influential Defence Select Committee, for his claims that there were 70,000 “moderate” fighters on the ground ready to take on ISIS after British bombing.

One government source compared the claim to Tony Blair’s fantasy that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction on the West “in 45 minutes.” Lewis commented: “Instead of having ‘dodgy dossiers’, we now have bogus battalions of moderate fighters.” (6) Another commentator referred unkindly to Cameron’s “70,000 fantasy friends.”

Perhaps the best encapsulation of anger and desperation came from author Michel Faber, who sent his latest book to Cameron (7.)

In searing sarcasm, he wrote in an accompanying letter that he realized: “a book cannot compete with a bomb in its ability to cause death and misery, but each of us must make whatever small contribution we can, and I figure that if you drop my novel from a plane, it might hit a Syrian on the head … With luck, we might even kill a child: their skulls are quite soft.”

He explained:

“I just felt so heartsick, despondent and exasperated that the human race, and particularly the benighted political arm of the human race, has learned nothing in 10,000 years, 100,000 years, however long we’ve been waging wars, and clearly the likes of Cameron are not interested in what individuals have to say.”

He speaks for the despairing 89.32% who hang their heads in shame. He speaks for those of us who simply cannot find the words.

Notes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23892783
http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-un-mission-report-confirms-that-opposition-rebels-used-chemical-weapons-against-civilians-and-government-forces/5363139
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-uk-parliaments-decision-to-bomb-syria-is-illegal/5493200
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14129765.Osborne__UK_has__got_its_mojo_back__with_air_strikes/?ref=twtrec
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/01/cameron-accuses-corbyn-of-being-terrorist-sympathiser
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/dec/04/so-david-camerons-70000-syrian-forces-claim-really-is-dodgy?CMP=share_btn
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/07/michel-faber-donates-book-of-strange-things-to-syria-cameron
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Felicity Arbuthnot, Global Research, 2015

UN failed to respond to sex abuse claims in CAR

Report: UN failed to respond to sex abuse claims in CAR

Damning report accuses UN of "gross institutional failure" to probe allegations that peacekeepers abused children.

17 Dec 2015 21:43 GMT | Central African Republic, Africa, UN

Reports of French peacekeepers abusing children in CAR first appeared in July 2014 [EPA]

A new report has condemned the UN for failing to respond to allegations of child abuse against peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The independent investigation released on Thursday said the UN handling of the case was "seriously flawed", accusing it of not taking the required action after the alleged abuse of young boys by French soldiers became known.

"The end result was a gross institutional failure to respond to the allegations in a meaningful way," the Taking Action on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by Peacekeepers report said.

Are UN peacekeepers doing more harm than good?

Those on the investigative panel, chaired by Marie Deschamps, a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, condemned the organisation for passing responsibility for tackling the abuse from "desk to desk and inbox to inbox", with no one willing to take responsibility for the allegations.

The allegations of abuse were brought forward by 10 children and allegedly took place in a centre for displaced people near Bangui airport between December 2013 and June 2014.

The children, who were as young as six, reportedly approached French soldiers looking for food and were told by the troops to perform sex acts in exchange.

The French government was made aware of the abuse in July 2014 by the UN's high commissioner for human rights.

The UN employee who exposed the incidents, Swedish national Anders Kompass, turned his report over to French authorities after his bosses at the UN failed to take action, the Guardian newspaper reported earlier this year.

Ban Ki-moon vows to act

In a statement released on Thursday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon promised to review the report's recommendations and act immediately.

"The report depicts a United Nations that failed to respond meaningfully when faced with information about reprehensible crimes against vulnerable children," Ban said in a statement.

"I express my profound regret that these children were betrayed by the very people sent to protect them."

"Though the soldiers who committed the abuses were not under United Nations command, the report shows that the United Nations, which uncovered the abuse, did not subsequently handle the case with the speed, care or sensitivity required."

'Everything went wrong'

Al Jazeera's James Bays said the scandal had exposed flaws in the way the UN handled claims of abuse.

"There are some very serious allegations against some very senior people in the United Nations in this report and it says that the whole human rights process in many ways is flawed.

"Prince Zaid bin Raad, the high commissioner for human rights, with single minded determination pursued an investigation against him (Kompass), his actions are described as questionable," Bays said.

Paula Donovan, who leaked the internal report to the Guardian in April, said that "everything went wrong" at the UN.

"According to the stated policy - the stated commitment of the secretary general - there is no tolerance whatsoever for sexual abuse.

"That means that as soon as you have a hint that it's going on - and certainly when you have evidence that's given to you in the testimony of young boys who provide the level of details that they did back in 2014 - then you must act, and every single arm of the United Nations needs to act," Donovan, the co-director AIDS-Free World, a group that launched a campaign to end immunity for peacekeepers, told Al Jazeera.

"As the reports went up the chain there was just negligence and an omission of duty everywhere you could turn within the United Nations."

In June this year, the UN released a report documenting allegations of sex abuse in a number of countries peacekeepers had operated including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Haiti and South Sudan.

The report said 480 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse had been made between 2008 and 2013, of which one-third involved minors.

Climate Accord Is a Healing Step, if Not a Cure

Climate Accord Is a Healing Step, if Not a Cure
By JUSTIN GILLISDEC. 12, 2015

LE BOURGET, France — After the stomping and cheering died down, and the hugs and toasts ended, a question hung in the air as the climate conference came to a close: What does the new deal really mean for the future of the Earth?

Scientists who closely monitored the talks here said it was not the agreement that humanity really needed. By itself, it will not save the planet.

The great ice sheets remain imperiled, the oceans are still rising, forests and reefs are under stress, people are dying by tens of thousands in heat waves and floods, and the agriculture system that feeds seven billion human beings is still at risk.

And yet 50 years after the first warning about global warming was put on the desk of an American president, and quickly forgotten, the political system of the world is finally responding in a way that scientists see as commensurate with the scale of the threat.

The agreement reached here on Saturday will, if faithfully carried out, achieve far larger cuts in emissions than any previous climate accord. It will reduce, without eliminating, the risk that runaway climate change might render parts of the Earth uninhabitable. It will lessen somewhat the possibility of a collapse of one of the ice sheets, which would cause a rise in the sea of 20 feet or more.

The deal, in short, begins to move the countries of the world in a shared direction that is potentially compatible with maintaining a livable planet over the long term.

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber — a pioneering environmental scientist, chairman of the German government’s advisory committee on climate change, and climate adviser to Pope Francis — declared on Saturday that “this is a turning point in the human enterprise, where the great transformation towards sustainability begins.”

Perhaps the most important part of the deal is that it explicitly recognizes that countries were not ambitious enough in the emissions cuts they pledged ahead of the Paris negotiations, pledges that were incorporated into the document. The agreement, in effect, criticizes itself for not doing enough.

To compensate, the deal sets up a schedule of regular review that will encourage countries to raise their goals over time. It envisions a tighter system to monitor whether the nations are keeping their promises — though how tough that will really be was put off to future debates.

In interviews, scientists with long experience studying climate change, and a long history of being discouraged by the politics of the issue, said they were heartened by the cooperative tone in Paris.

But for the deal to mean anything, they said, the celebratory moment must give way immediately to an era in which intensive efforts are made to squeeze emissions out of the world economy. That task will fall largely to businesses and investors, operating under emissions-reduction policies that countries have pledged to put into effect by 2020.

Emissions of greenhouse gases — primarily of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests — have been rising for decades, interrupted only briefly by economic downturns. They stalled this year, projected to fall 0.6 percent in part because of the softness of the Chinese economy, in what some experts hope is an early sign of things to come.

Yet 2015 will nonetheless be the hottest year in recorded history, breaking a mark set only one year earlier. All 10 of the hottest years in a global record stretching to 1880 have occurred since 1998. No one under 30 has ever lived through a month of global temperatures below the 20th-century average.

Since an agreement in Cancun in 2010, the official goal of international climate policy has been to limit the warming of the Earth to 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 Fahrenheit, above the level that prevailed before the Industrial Revolution. With the rapid warming that has occurred since 1950 as a result of industrial emissions, the planet is already nearly halfway there.

The Paris deal sets a more ambitious target, declaring that the global average temperature rise ought to be kept “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, and that countries should try go further, limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

As small as that difference might sound, as an average warming over the surface of an entire planet, it is actually substantial. Scientists say it could make the difference, for example, between saving much of the Greenland ice sheet and losing it.

The research organization Climate Central found recently that 280 million people live on land that could eventually be submerged by the sea if warming were allowed to reach the higher number. If it were kept to the lower target, that number would be cut by more than half, to 137 million people.

Yet action on global warming has been delayed for so long, and emissions allowed to rise so high, that reaching either target will be exceedingly difficult.

Scientists say that limiting warming to the higher target would require that industrial emissions of greenhouse gases come to an end by roughly 2050, and to stay below the lower target, by about 2030.

But coal-burning power plants are being built today that can be expected to operate well past 2050, and fossil-fuel companies are spending hundreds of billions a year looking for new reserves that cannot be burned if either target is to be met.

A serious campaign to meet the more ambitious goal would mean that in less than two decades, the nations of the world would likely have to bring an end to gasoline cars, to coal- or gas-burning power plants in their current form, and to planes or ships powered by fossil fuels.

Countries have offered no plans that would come remotely close to achieving either goal, and, given the current state of technology, it is difficult to see how they could be achieved. That led some scientists on Saturday to dismiss the tighter temperature targets as feel-good measures with no real meaning.

And yet, the tighter targets do throw the seriousness of the situation into sharp relief. Experts hope that, by highlighting the gulf between humanity’s stated goals and its plans to achieve them, the Paris deal will launch a more intensive push to figure out how it might actually be done.

“We lost a lot of time squabbling over the science,” Dr. Field said. “We lost a lot of time that could have been used trying out innovative solutions. Now, we have a lot of experimentation still to do.”

A version of this news analysis appears in print on December 13, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Healing Step, If Not a Cure. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe