THE DAILY MIRROR LK NEWS

15 May 2023 05:10 pm

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has informed the CID Director to commence an immediate investigation against Pastor Jerome Fernando’s controversial statements where he insulted the Buddha in front of a packed congregation recently and said even the Buddha needed Jesus.

In a national security council meeting held on Monday morning, the National Security Head raised concerns with the President over the Pastor’s critical remarks against Buddhismm, Islam and Hinduism and said this could lead to communal tensions in the country.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that he would not allow any individual to destabilize the country and said anyone instigating religious disharmony should be probed and stern action should be taken.

Wickremesinghe then advised the senior security heads to probe into Jerome’s controversial statements against the religions as well as his past preachings. The National Security Head immediately handed over the investigation to the CID Head and asked for a team to commence an extensive probe against Pastor Jerome Fernando.

The Daily Mirror reported on Monday that Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister Vidura Wickramanayake came out strongly against Jerome’s comments insulting the Buddha and said there would be no room for anyone to insult any religion and stern action would be taken against such individuals.

Minister Vidura also said there are a number of unlawful places of religious worship, including the one in which Pastor Jerome had made such inflammatory remarks.

Over the weekend, a video showing Jerome preaching against Lord Buddha and Buddhism made its rounds on social media, creating an uproar amongst the majority of Buddhists, who demanded immediate action against the Pastor for his derogatory remarks.

In his video, Jerome claimed that in a Buddhist’s mind, they never hear the love of Buddha as their focus is enlightenment and said that every Buddhist needs Jesus.

In the same sermon, Fernando also insulted Islam and Hinduism. In his sermons against Islam, Jerome said that Muslims cannot even call Allah as ‘Father’.

“You have 99 names for God in Islam. And yet love is not one of those,” Jerome said.

In his sermons insulting Hinduism, Jerome questioned the reasons why Hindus venerate so many animals. “Why do they have a God that looks like an elephant? Why do they have Gods that have 10,000 hands? They are not far from the truth. Why do they venerate cows? They are very close but they are still far away. Someone needs to go and tell the Hindu people that what they are doing may be true to them but there is a deeper truth,” Jerome said.

Jerome Fernando has hit the headlines in recent months against his controversial preachings and many have questioned his source of funding to host such large religious congregations where he is seen preaching against other religions. (JAMILA HUSAIN)

THE DAILY MIRROR LK NEWS

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MABIMA LK NEWS
By Mithun Jayawardhana -මැයි 13, 2023

කම්කරුවන්ගේ පැය 8ක සේවා මුරය සම්පූර්ණයෙන් ම අහෝසි කර පැය 12ක සේවා මුරයක් ගෙනෙන්නට වර්තමාන රජයේ සූදානමක් තිබෙන බවට නිදහස් වෙළෙඳ කලාප හා පොදු සේවක සංගමයේ සමලේකම් ඇන්ටන් මාකස් චෝදනා කළේ ය.

අතීකාල දීමනා ගෙවීමකින් තොරව සේවකයන්ගෙන් පැය 12ක් වැඩ ගන්නට කර්මාන්ත හිමියන්ට අවස්ථාව සලසා දීමට ආණ්ඩුව කටයුතු කිරීම වහා නතර කළ යුතු බව ද හෙතෙම කීය.

ලෝකයේ වෙනත් රටවල් පැය 8ක සේවා මුරය පැය 6ක් දක්වා අඩු කිරීමේ ප්‍රවණතාවක නියැළී සිටින මොහොතක මෙලෙස ලංකාව සේවකයන් පිට අධික බරක් පැටවීම අසාධාරණ බව ත් මේ හේතුවෙන් කම්කරුවන් දිනාගත් අයිතීන් උල්ලංඝණය වන බව ත් ඔහු පැවසීය.

රටට ආයෝජකයන් ගෙන්වා ගැනීමට කටයුතු කරන බවට විවිධ ප්‍රචාරයන් සිදු කරමින් වසර ගණනාවක් පුරා වෘත්තීය සමිති දිනාගත් ආරක්ෂණ නීති සියල්ල ඉවත් කිරීමට ආණ්ඩුව කටයුතු කරන බවට ඔහු චෝදනා කළේ ය.

සතියකට දවස් 4ක් වැඩ කළ යුතු වන අතර දවස් 3ක් නිවාඩු ලබා දී එම නිවාඩු දිනයන් වැටුප් රහිත ඒවා බවට පත් කිරීමට ආණ්ඩුව යෝජනා කර ඇති බව ත්, එසේ ම, සාමාන්‍ය සතිඅන්ත නිවාඩු දිනයක් වන ඉරිදා දින නිවාඩුව ඉවත් කර සතියේ කුමන හෝ දවසක එම නිවාඩුව ලබා දෙන්නට අවස්ථාව සකස් කර ඇති බවත් ඔහු පැවසීය.

කම්කරු වෘත්තීය සමිති සංවිධාන සියල්ල මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් එකමුතුව කටයුතු කරන බව ත් මෙවැනි යෝජනා මුල් අවධියේම පරාජය කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය පියවර සියලු දෙනා එකමුතුව ගත යුතු බව ත් ඔහු වැඩිදුරටත් පැවසුවේ ය.

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ‘ඉරිදා මව්බිම‘ කළ විමසීමේදී කම්කරු කොමසාරිස් ජනරාල් බී.කේ. ප්‍රභාත් චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති කීවේ එවැනි කිසිදු යෝජනාවක් කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව ගෙන නොමැති බව ත් මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් තොරතුරු කිසිවක් වාර්තා වී නොමැති බව ත් ය.

TAGSSri Lanka

BBC NEWS- Published 5 hours ago
By Caroline Davies and Matt Murphy
In Islamabad and London
12/05/23

Watch: Crowds swarm Imran Khan as he arrives at court on Friday

Pakistan’s ex-prime minister Imran Khan is to be freed from custody, a day after the Supreme Court ruled his dramatic arrest on corruption charges was illegal.

Judges granted Mr Khan protected bail, meaning he can not be re-arrested on those charges for two weeks.

The court also ordered he could not be arrested on any charges filed after last Tuesday until 17 May.

Despite the rulings, the corruption charges against Mr Khan still stand.

The 70-year-old – who was arrested on Tuesday as he arrived at a courthouse in Islamabad – pleaded not guilty to the charges when a judge formally indicted him with corruption for the first time in the dozens of cases he faces.

Officials say Mr Khan unlawfully sold state gifts during his premiership, in a case brought by Pakistan’s Election Commission.

He remained at court after the hearing on Friday seeking preventive bail against other charges, which he told the BBC included counts of terrorism, sedition and blasphemy.

Conviction would disqualify the former international cricket star – and Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022 – from standing for office, possibly for life. Elections are due later this year.

Mr Khan had arrived at the hearing under heavy armed guard, and greeted supporters with a single raised fist.

Speaking during Friday’s hearing, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial said the arrest was unlawful because it took place on court premises.

He ordered that the “whole process” of Mr Khan’s arrest “needs to be backtracked”.

The dramatic saga has significantly escalated tensions between Mr Khan and Pakistan’s powerful military.

Many analysts believe Mr Khan’s election win in 2018 happened with the help of the military, which both parties denied.

But he later fell out with the army. After a series of defections, and amid mounting economic crises, he lost his majority in parliament.

Since being ousted less than four years into his term, he has become one of the military’s most vocal critics, and analysts say the army’s popularity has fallen.

And his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party says the charges against him – which relate to gifts given to him by foreign leaders while he served as prime minster – are politically motivated.

Media caption,
Watch Tuesday’s dramatic arrest of Pakistan’s former prime minister

His dramatic arrest outside the courthouse on Tuesday sparked outrage among Mr Khan’s supporters.

At least 10 people were killed and some 2,000 arrested as unrest swept the country. Those protests included an attack at a military commander’s home residence in Lahore, which was set on fire.

While this week’s violence petered out after the army was deployed in Islamabad and other areas, such as Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the country remains on edge.

There was a large security presence at the court on Friday.

Speaking to the BBC before his bail hearing, Mr Khan said he feared immediate re-arrest once released, and urged authorities against a move as “there might be huge reaction which will go out of control. Because mobs are out of control, no-one controls mobs.”

“How am I supposed to control what happens afterwards?” he told the BBC.

Critics say the PTI has been fuelling unrest through social media posts calling for protesters to take to the streets, and judges told Mr Khan that he must condemn the violence and tell supporters to stop.

Mr Khan told the BBC he and his party had only called for peaceful protest and asked for supporters to “act within the constitution”.

“We have never broken the law. Even now, when I tell them to protest I say ‘They should be peaceful protests’,” he said inside the courtroom on Friday.

Pakistan’s current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who took power after Khan was ousted, criticised the Supreme Court’s ruling to free Khan in a cabinet speech aired on state television.

He alleged that judges had favoured Imran Khan, and their ruling had caused “the death of justice in Pakistan”.

He further criticised Mr Khan and his party for their inflammatory language, and encouraging protesters to take to the streets.

“Imran Khan has divided the nation,” he said.

Additional reporting by Frances Mao.

SKY NEWS UK
By -Tim Baker Political reporter
Thursday 11 May 2023 13:43, UK

Sky News understands some of the missiles are already in Ukraine. Ukraine has long been calling for such weapons, but the US and other countries have been unwilling to supply them in case strikes inside Russia lead to escalation.

The UK is sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has confirmed.

The minister said that Storm Shadows missiles will be provided to Ukraine’s military.

Sky News understands that some of the missiles are already in Ukraine – with Mr Wallace saying the projectiles “are now going into or are in the country itself.”

Ukraine has long been calling for such weapons, but the US and other countries have been unwilling to supply them in case strikes inside Russia lead to escalation.

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Storm Shadow is a long-range, air-launched cruise missile developed by British Aerospace and a French company, which carries a 450kg conventional warhead to a range of up to 200 miles (300km).

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Wallace said: “The donation of these weapons systems gives Ukraine the best chance to defend themselves against Russia’s continued brutality, especially the deliberate targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, which is against international law.

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“Ukraine has a right to be able to defend itself against this.”

He added that the missiles would be for use “within Ukrainian sovereign territory”.

Missiles being launched into Russia would raise the likelihood of a greater Russian reaction.

British forces used Storm Shadows in the Iraq in 2003
Image:
British forces used Storm Shadows in the Iraq in 2003
In response to reports the deal had been done, Moscow said the move would require an “adequate response from our military”.

Mr Wallace said he would not give in-depth details of the capabilities of Storm Shadow – but said: “These weapons will give Ukraine new capability, members should recognise that these systems are not even in the same league as the Russian AS-24 killjoy hypersonic missile,” or “even the Kalibr cruise missile with a range of over 2,000 kilometres, roughly seven times that of a Storm Shadow missile”.

The deployment of the Storm Shadow cruise missiles mark a significant step-up in the capabilities of arms the UK has sent to Ukraine.

The missile has a strike capability of nearly 200 miles (300km) – meaning it would potentially allow Ukraine to hit further into Russian territory.

The missile weighs 1.3 tonnes and is just over 5m long.

It is launched from the air, and in theory can be used from Ukraine’s Soviet-made jets.

UK-owned Storm Shadow missiles are made in Stevenage by MBDA. Each cruise missile costs an estimated £2m.

The Storm Shadow was originally developed as a project between the UK and France in the early 1990s.

It was used in Iraq in 2003, while France, Italy and the UK used it in Libya in 2011.

The missiles have also been used to bomb Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pleaded with Western nations for these types of missiles for months – but the requests have been denied, especially by the US.

In his speech, the defence secretary laid out some of the ways Russia had been attacking Ukraine – including allegations it had used white phosphorous.

He said that using such weapons – “which burn at 800C” – is in contravention of “protocol three of the Convention of Certain Conventional Weapons”.