(Colombo Lankapuvath) Udeshika Hettiarachchi from Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo obtained  the best results at the GCE(OL) Examination 2011. She was  followed by Anusha Perera  from Science College, Matale into second place, the Examination Department announced.

The third slot went to Bharatha Madusanka from Dharmaraja College, Kandy with Dilmi Samudhika from Pinnawela College occupying the fourth place.

(Colombo, Lankapuvath) – Staging a ‘Socialist Drama’,  JVP dissidents hijacked Karl Marx leaving Lenin and Engels in tears at the party head quarters, JVP sources said.

The photograph of Karl Marx was hung in the centre with Lenin and Engels beside at the so called Socialist Revolutionary Headquarters.

While comrades Lenin and Engels looked to be in tears over the missing comrade Karl Marx, the living comrade Somawansa Amarasinghe and his able Lieutenant Tilvin Silva are in a ‘No-win’ situation with the dissidents.

The dissidents, not stopping at that have even deleted the party’s official organ ‘Niyamuwa’ on the computer.

Today’s print media cartoonists drew Somawansa Amarasinghe, Tilvin Silva and Anura Kumara Dissanayake into many humorous shades, in one where the trio hiding inside the padlocked room to save their shirts and trousers being removed by the dissidents as dissidents seems to remove everything hanging or otherwise at the party headquarters.

In another cartoon Somawansa being questioned about the missing picture of Karl Marx says he has sent the picture for repairs. The Moderator questions whether Somawansa has also sent the ‘Socialist Doctrine’ for repairs.    

With the JVP splitting, cracking and cracking more the story of the JVP and the dissidents look similar to the nursery brief - The Fox and the Sour Grapes.

(Colombo-Lankapuvath) All life supporting machines have been removed from wounded MP Duminda Silva who is being treated at the ICU at  Sri Jayawardenapura hospital  , Hospital Director Dr Sachendra Gamage said a short while ago.

Therefore, the team of doctors have recommended raw food for him.

The Director added that he is now responding to the medical actions given by the doctors.

However, it is not advisable to take him overseas for treatment at the moment as his condition is on the path of improvement, Dr.Gamage added.
 

(Colombo, Lankapuvath) Medical specialists treating injured parliamentarian Duminda Silva  are of the view that Silva would have to stay in hospital for an unspecified period as his condition needed to be monitored closely,hospital sources said. 

Silva suffered brain damage in the shoot out Mulleriyawa on mini polls day in which former parliamentarian,Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra was killed.

The wounded parliamentarian yet has a pellet which penetrated into the skull while two were removed during the surgery following the shoot out.

Eye specialists have diagnosed that Silva's vision was perfect and the patient is being kept on the ventilator from time to time to ease breathing problems.

(Colombo Lankapuvath) Medical specialists treating injured parliamentarian Duminda Silva claimed that the MP’s condition was changing rapidly though the MP has his eyes wide open, Hospital sources said.

Eyes surgeons have declared that his eyesight was normal and the extent of brain damage could not be ascertained immediately.

A further CT scan on Duminda Silva’s brain was done yesterday (13) and his brain condition was fluctuating at times for the good and changes again, Director General of Sri Jayawardenapura hospital, Dr Sachendra Gamage said.

Medical specialists are closely monitoring the health condition of Dumnida Silva.
 

(Colombo Lankapuvath) Promising trade union leader Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra,bades farewell to the nation today (12). He fell victim to a cruel bullet fired at him by a political assassin. The amiable Bharatha Lakshman was a former Parliamentarian who maintained the highest level of discipline and decorum in the Parliament he represented.
 
One must not forget that this young man in the late 1980’s stepped into Kolonnawa to face all odds aimed at him by the then UNP strong man Weerasingha Mallimarachchi.

Bharatha took the challenge fearlessly and re-established the might and popularity of the SLFP in Kolonnawa after the demise of veteran SLFP leader T B Illangaratne. His popularity was not only confined to Kolonanwa but to the entire Colombo district and the country. The name Bharatha Lakshman became a household name overnight.

As Presidential Advisor on Trade Unions, Bharatha Lakshman treated all SLFP, UNP and JVP trade unions alike. That was why there were no open battles between political party trade unions in the State sector.

He was a promising successor in the future to the aging veteran trade unionist, Alavi Maulana. In the words of Alavi Maulana following the demise of Bharatha Lakshman, the latter was described as a ‘Loveable Giant’ in the trade union annals of this country.  

This affable man’s death came as a blow to the entire nation as he was a true leader of the down trodden masses and the working class of this country. He spoke to the lumpen class and not to the elite of the white collar breed. His voice will echo everywhere his people would walk in this country.

Goodbye Bharatha Lakshman!, This country will never see the likes of you again. May you attain the Supreme Bliss of Nirvana!
 
 

(Colombo Lankapuvath) Following a shooting incident at Kolonnawa, former UPFA MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra was killed and Parliamentarian Duminda Silva was critically wounded with head injuries, Police said.

Silva was rushed to the Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital for emergency surgery, hospital sources said.

The shooting had taken place in Kolonnawa this afternoon close to a polling centre between two rival political parties, police added.

(Colombo Lankapuvath) Commonwealth delegates from Oceania have added their support to the momentum behind Sri Lanka’s bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Having visited ‘the island jewel of the Indian Ocean’ last week, representatives from Oceania countries have joined a growing list of those backing Hambantota 2018.  Despite reports in July suggesting they had agreed long ago in October 2010 to vote as a block for the other bidding city, Australia’s Gold Coast, an ‘excellent and competitive’ bid has given them ample food for thought.

Graham Osborne, representing Papua New Guinea, summed up the sentiment when he declared: “I think you will end up getting a few more votes than you think you might get.”

Niko Palamo of Samoa, said: “Coming here has changed what we know about Sri Lanka and what we hear about Sri Lanka… A lot of the developing countries have already hosted the Games three or four times.  And so for hosting (the Games) to them it’s another event.  But it’s like Sri Lanka is representing the other 60 developing countries who haven’t hosted the Games so far.”

Australia (1938, 1962, 1982, 2006) and Canada (1930, 1954, 1978, 1994) have hosted the Games four times; New Zealand (1950, 1974, 1990) three times; England (1934, 2002) and Scotland (1970, 1986) twice; and Wales (1958), Jamaica (1966), Malaysia (1998) and India (2010) once. With Scotland hosting Glasgow 2014, a Hambantota 2018 Games will install Sri Lanka as the 10th country in a list that would have added three ‘new’ hosts in two decades.

Bruce Farara, CGF Vice President who joined the delegation, added: “They are two very different bids… here the concept around the sports village is an excellent concept; it’s not yet built but it will be by 2016 (two years ahead of the Games).  It’s a very competitive bid.  It has its own assets and strengths… It’s going to be a very interesting competition between Australia and Sri Lanka.”

In its 144-page report on the two bidding cities, the CGF Evaluation Commission describes Hambantota 2018 as one of ‘the most compact Commonwealth Games concept designs ever developed.’  The bid is unique in that all but three of the competition venues are in a single cluster – the Games Park – which will also house the Games Village and training venues for most sports.
It means that the majority of athletes will travel no more than 1km from the Games Village to their respective competition or training venue.  In 2018 the cluster will also be just 13km from the new Hambantota International Airport and well served by a new road and rail network.

On seeing a large-scale model of the futuristic development – already under construction – Jonathan Snell from Norfolk Island, commented: “I think you (Sri Lanka) have a fantastic opportunity to make a wonderful sporting complex down south, which I’m sure you will achieve.  As for my personal view, the plans we saw, the hospitality and the bid document that we’ve read, you have a very sound bid as far as I’m concerned and I think it will go very well.”

Rosie Blake, representing the Cook Islands, added: “I’m sure that by the time your sports complex is finished, it will be a showcase for the world.  So I hope they (the Commonwealth countries) get behind Sri Lanka and give their support… I think you have a lot to offer.”

Hambantota 2018 has impressed many with the calibre of its ‘life-changing’ bid, dubbed so because of the myriad benefits it promises the unified nation and its proud population.  Described as ‘visionary, exciting and unique’ by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Evaluation Commission, it has since wowed ‘inward missions’ from the Caribbean, Africa and Europe.

Next week Hambantota 2018 will look to secure the valuable support of its friends from Asia, who form the last inward mission from 7-10 October.  There will then be just one month until the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) chooses the host city at its general assembly in St Kitts and Nevis on 11 November 2011.