Category: usa

Following the landmark deal by Hilton to manage six more hotels in Sri Lanka, senior management of the Hilton met visiting Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake in Washington D.C. on the sidelines of the ongoing World Bank and IMF meetings.  Senior Vice President of Hilton Jonas Neihardt met with Minister Karunanayake, facilitated by Nisha Biswal, Senior Advisor of Albright Stonebridge Group, to brief on measures being taken by this renowned global hospitality company of the United States to strengthen its market footprints in Sri Lanka and to discuss initiatives for further expanding its presence in Sri Lanka, described as one of the most sought-after destination in the world, at present.

The discussions centered on how Hilton Group could not only manage more hotels and resorts in Sri Lanka, but as to how the Group can promote Sri Lanka as a destination among American public, and worldwide.

The media release issued by Hilton (attached below)  entitled “Hilton Signs Landmark Deal for Six Hotels in Sri Lanka” provides details of the new properties that will come under Hilton management at several prime destinations within Sri Lanka.

Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce highlighted prospects for increasing bilateral trade and U.S. investment in Sri Lanka at a breakfast roundtable meeting hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce.  Minister Karunanayake was in Washington leading Sri Lanka delegation to the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings.

Alluding to many investment opportunities in areas such as infrastructure development, agro processing, health care, export oriented manufacturing and the tourism sector, Minister Karunanayake outlined the business-friendly policies adopted by the Government of Sri Lanka to position the country as the gateway to Asia. He discussed the benefits that US companies in Sri Lanka could avail of under the existing and potential Free Trade Agreements with countries in the region, which can provide a larger market in the region beyond Sri Lanka.

Minister Karunanayake presented an overview of the progress in macroeconomic fundamentals of the country, which are integral cornerstones of a favourable investment climate and urged U.S. companies to look at Sri Lanka not only as an investment destination but also as a country with a high quality of life with excellent amenities for rest and recreation.  He pointed out that the government is putting in place mechanisms to support entrepreneurship, technology adoption, trade diversification and environmentally friendly industries and urged U.S. businesses to forge partnerships with the Sri Lankan private sector paving the way to strengthen business links over the next decade.

In his concluding remarks, Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam reiterated that with its market-friendly economic policies, geo-strategic location and high quality physical environment, Sri Lanka has become a business-friendly, eminently livable and welcoming destination in the region.

The roundtable discussion was attended among others, by senior officials of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce South Asia Team, senior representatives from Coca Cola, Exxon Mobil, Ventech Engineering LLCs, McLarty Associates, Bower Group Asia, USIBC, CIPE, Mastercard, FedEx, Trimble Navigation Ltd.

The United States continues to be Sri Lanka’s largest export market. Bilateral trade turnover currently stands at approximately USD 3.3 billion and the U.S. accounts for 28% of Sri Lanka’s total exports in 2016.

ඇමරිකාවේ ඩිට්‍රොයිට් නගරයේ වෛද්‍යවරියකට ගැහැණු ළමුන්ගේ ලිංගඡේදනය කිරීමේ යෝනි සුන්නත් සැත්කම් (FGM- Female genital mutilation) සිදු කිරීම පිළිබඳව චෝදනා ලැබ සිටින්නීය.

ජුමානා නගර්වාලා නමැති වෛද්‍යවරිය අවුරුදු හය, අට සහ දොළහ ආදී වයස්වල දැරියන්ට යෝනි සුන්නත් සැත්කම් කර ඇති බව පොලීසිය පවසයි.බලධාරීන් වෛද්‍යවරිය පරීක්‍ෂාවට ලක්කළේ ලැබුණු ඔත්තුවකට අනුවය.

අදාළ චෝදනාවට වැරදිකාරිය වුවහොත් ජීවිතාන්තය දක්වා සිරදඬුවම් විඳීමට ඇයට සිදුවනු ඇත. යෝනි සුන්නත ඇමරිකාව තුළ නීතිවිරෝධී බවට ප්‍රකාශයට පත්කෙරුණේ 1996 වසරේදීය.

මේ පිළිබඳව පරීක්ෂණ පවත්වන්නන් සමග ස්වේච්ඡාවෙන් සම්මුඛ සාකච්ඡාවකට එක්වෙමින් වෛද්‍ය නගර්වාලා ඇයට එරෙහි චෝදනා ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළ බව ප්‍රාදේශීය මාධ්‍ය වාර්තා කරයි.

එහෙත් පැමිණිලි පක්ෂය පවසන්නේ ඇය සිදුකර ඇති භයානක සහ අමානුෂික ක්‍රියාවට සමාජයේ වඩාත්ම අසරණ පිරිසක් ගොදුරුවී ඇති බවය.

මිචිගන් ප්‍රාන්තයේ සිට මෙම වෛද්‍යවරියගේ සායනයවෙත ගිය ඇතැමුන්ට මෙය රහසක්ව තබාගන්නා ලෙස වෛද්‍යවරිය පවසා තිබූ බවද ඔවුහු පවසති.

Two journalists who say they were added to the government’s terrorist “kill list” by mistake, are suing President Trump and other U.S. officials to be removed, according to Politico.

In the lawsuit, former Al Jazeera Islamabad bureau chief Ahmad Zaidan and freelance journalist Bilal Kareem claim that although they were placed on the list by the Obama White House, the decision to keep them on the list has been maintained by the Trump administration.

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, names President Trump, Defense Secretary James Mattis, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions as defendants, among others.

Both journalists deny having any connection to terrorist groups. They say they were put on the list after being flagged by “flawed” computer algorithms. They say their placement on the “kill-list” violates due process as well as international law, according to the lawsuit.

Both Kareem, a U.S. citizen who’s done reporting from Syria, and Zaidan, a Syrian and Pakistani citizen, have reported from war zones. Karim said he nearly died in five different airstrike attacks. Zaiden has interviewed Osama bin Laden.

In the suit, Zaidan claims the issue has forced him to leave Pakistan, and his career, and move to Qatar. Kareem is thought to be reporting from Syria.

Far more men than women are reporting the news, at least at some of the most prominent news organizations in the United States.

At ABC’s World News Tonight, 88 percent of the on-camera and producer credits on stories went to men. At the New York Daily News, 76 percent of bylines were men’s.

Those are a few of the numbers from the Women’s Media Center 2017 study released recently,    which tracked reporting from broadcast, wire, newspaper, and digital-only outlets for three months in 2016. The study analyzed bylines, on-air anchor and correspondent appearances, and producer credits on 24,117 news pieces produced between September and November of last year by four broadcast TV outlets, 10 newspapers, four digital outlets, and two major wire services.

Across all platforms, a gender gap persists, but the report found the starkest disparity in the TV news outlets it examined, where women — counting anchors and on-air correspondents — reported only a quarter of the news (down from the 32 percent found in WMC’s last report in 2015). PBS News Hour, which prior to Gwen Ifill’s death in November had two female co-anchors, was closest to achieving gender parity. At the 10 newspapers analyzed, men reported 62 percent of the news and women 38 percent.

The gender gap was smaller at the digital outlets analyzed, with women making up 46 percent of the bylines. The best performer: FoxNews.com, which finished at 50.1 percent men and 49.9 percent women.

The imbalance was also reflected in the sources quoted in stories that touch on women’s lives.

Women wrote 37 percent of stories around reproductive rights from the newspapers and wire services analyzed in the WMC report, versus 52 percent by men. (About 11 percent of stories analyzed had no byline, including unsigned editorials.) Men and women writing about reproductive issues quoted people differently, too: Women quoted other women in 42 percent of the quotes in those stories, while men quoted women in only 27 percent of theirs.

A similar pattern emerged in stories about campus sexual assault. Men wrote 55 percent of the stories vs. 31 percent by women (the remainder having no byline). In the stories by men, 28 percent of the quotes were from women; in stories by women, 42 percent were.

Source: Nieman Lab

U.S. Senators grilled the Navy and the Marine Corps’ top leaders on Tuesday amid a growing scandal involving a private Facebook (FB.O) group and its surreptitious distribution of explicit images of women in the armed forces – often with obscene, misogynist commentary.

The Facebook group, called “Marines United,” is reported to have nearly 30,000 followers, including active-duty U.S. Marines, Marine Corps veterans and British Royal Marines.

“If we can’t crack Facebook, how are we supposed to be able to confront Russian aggression and cyber hacking throughout our military?” Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand asked during a Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing.

Gillibrand said online harassment had become evident as early as 2013 and military leaders were made aware of it but have still been unable to stop

“I don’t have a good answer for you,” the Commandant of the Marine Corps General Robert Neller said. “We’ve got to change, and that’s on me.”

Neller has vowed to hold those responsible for the photo sharing accountable and change the culture behind it.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said that the scandal could have an impact on recruiting women, and called it “devastatingly bad.”

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) has opened an inquiry into the matter.

Acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley said more than 50 calls had been received on an NCIS tip line so far and that the scandal could involve more websites.

U.S Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a statement last week that personnel involved in any alleged sharing of nude photos of female colleagues were guilty of “egregious violations of the fundamental values.”

The U.S. Code of Military Justice explicitly outlaws distribution of sexually explicit photos of others without their consent as an offense punishable by court-martial.

A panel discussion on empowering women’s economic leadership under the title of “Women Entrepreneurs: Empowering Women’s Economic Leadership” will be held at the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations on March 15th 2017 from 3 PM to 5 PM

Policy makers from Sri Lanka, Kenya and UN Women will be the panelists.  The event also features three outstanding women entrepreneurs who have built their own businesses and who actively support mentoring women to become leaders of their own business initiatives for sustainable economic growth.

The panel discussion will focus ways to stimulate and promote economic growth through the promotion of competition, entrepreneurship and innovation, and to reduce unemployment, particularly amongst young women by encouraging entrepreneurship.

As practical methods to enhance business opportunities for women this event will  focus on Sri Lanka’s experiences as it embarks on a transformative process of economic recovery.

President Donald Trump is seeking what he called a “historic” increase in defense spending, but ran into immediate opposition from Republicans in Congress who must approve his plan and said it was not enough to meet the military’s needs.

The proposed rise in the Pentagon budget to $603 billion comes as the United States has wound down major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and remains the world’s strongest military power.

The plan came under fire from Democratic lawmakers, who said cuts being proposed to pay for the additional military spending would cripple important domestic programs such as environmental protection and education.

A White House budget official, who outlined the plan on a conference call with reporters, said the administration would propose “increasing defense by $54 billion or 10 percent.” That represents the magnitude of the increase over budget caps Congress put in place in 2011.

President Donald Trump’s “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct, based on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal report seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The report’s estimated price-tag is much higher than a $12-billion figure cited by Trump in his campaign and estimates as high as $15 billion from Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The report is expected to be presented to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly in coming days, although the administration will not necessarily take actions it recommends.

The plan lays out what it would take to seal the border in three phases of construction of fences and walls covering just over 1,250 miles (2,000 km) by the end of 2020.

With 654 miles (1,046 km) of the border already fortified, the new construction would extend almost the length of the entire border.

Many cost estimates and timelines have been floated since Trump campaigned on the promise of building a wall. The report seen by Reuters is the work of a group commissioned by Kelly as a final step before moving forward with requesting U.S. taxpayer funds from Congress and getting started on construction.

A DHS spokeswoman said the department does “not comment on or confirm the potential existence of pre-decisional, deliberative documents.”

A White House spokeswoman said it would be “premature” to comment on a report that has not officially been presented to the president.

The report said the first phase would be the smallest, targeting sections covering 26 miles (42 km) near San Diego, California; El Paso, Texas; and in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley.