Whatsapp releases desktop apps for Mac and Windows

WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service that claims a billion users, has launched desktop clients for Mac and Windows. The release comes about 15 months after WhatsApp released its first web app.

People who have already been using WhatsApp on their web browsers will find that software isn’t significantly different. The company said in an announcement “our desktop app is simply an extension of your phone,” with all messages synced between devices.

WhatsApp’s success in countries like India, Brazil, and South Africa is of course driven by the high penetration of smartphones in those markets.

It also gives power users including people who rely on WhatsApp for work communications–desktop options helps it compete against other messaging services, like iMessenger, WeChat, Telegram and Skype.

WhatsApp is currently testing out B2C accounts, which would give it a new revenue source after dropping its 99 cent annual subscription fee.

Fonseka to rent building for over 8 million a month

Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka is to rent a building to house his reigional development ministry, in the same manner Duminda Dissanayake rented a building for his agriculture ministry, reports say.

On April 06, the cabinet approved the renting of a 49,556 square feet building at no. 1090, Sri Jayewardenepura Mawatha, Rajagiriya, owned by Sino-Lanka Properties Ltd.

Entering into an agreement for a five year period, a refundable indemnity deposit of Rs. 48,525,235.20 + VAT, which is six months’ lease money, is to be made for the building.

Also, agreement has been reached to pay an advance of four months’ rent that is to be deducted in the last two years of the leasing agreement, and a total sum of Rs. 194,100,940.80 + VAT.

Chairman of Sino-Lanka Properties is B.W. Kundanmal.

Duminda’s building

The media has reported that agriculture minister Duminda Dissanayake has decided to rent a 103,000 square feet bulding at no. 288, Sri Jayewardenepura Road, Rajagiriya for his ministry.

The state valuer has valued the rent at Rs. 150 per square feet, but the building’s owner Upali Jayasinghe, husband of actress Sabitha Perera, has demanded Rs. 165.50 per square feet plus a Rs. 60.50 service charge per square feet.

Accordingly, Dissanayake has agreed to pay him a monthly rent of Rs. 228 per square feet.

Couple dies in train accident in Wellawatte.

A couple was run over by a train this morning along the Colombo - Galle Railway Line in Wellawatte.

According to the locomotive driver the couple had walked from the beach towards the railway line and stood in front of the approaching train, police sources said.

The victims have been identified as a 25 years-old female and 24 years-old male who are the residents of Hatton.

The bodies has been transferred to the Kalubowila Hospital for the post-mortem.

Bodu Bala Sena Gnanasara Thera challenges Wimal, other MPs

Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagodaatte Gnanasara Thera today challenged MP Wimal Weerawansa over the statements he made to the media condemning the organisation. 

“I will challenge not only MP Wimal Weerawansa but also Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Manusha Nanayakkara, Dilan Perera, Rajitha Senarathne, Mangala Samaraweera and political analysts Gevindu Kumarathunga and Dayan Jayathileke for an open debate to discuss the statements made by them against the BBS,” the Thera said.

“They are claiming that BBS is funded by Norway and it is a conspiracy of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 

If there’s a CIA conspiracy and if we are funded by Norway, there should be investigations against us to find out the truth. If anyone funded us, there should be bank accounts and bills related to any transaction relating to those transactions. 

The BBS is funded by the innocent Sri Lankan Buddhists becase the work that we are doing is done for their sake. Unfortunately it is sad to say that several ministers were willing to making statements without knowing anything about the BBS,” he said. “Democracy is not saying lies and it is not a privilege given by Parliament to ministers. 

What we discussed in the previous government is valid even for this ‘Yahapalana’ government. They were the people who shouted at us when we exposed incidents which were threat to national security and they did nothing,” the Thera said. 

“We have not taken a penny from any government or NGO to build up the BBS. We are not the reason for the defeat of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Now he is reaping what he sowed,” the Thera said.

How Does Our Media Cover Tragedy?

An Open Letter to Sri Lankan Media Establishments,

On 25 April 2016, two 19 year-old young women were fatally hit by a train while attempting to crossa railway track in Dehiwala. The tragic incident quickly attracted the attention of the media, and journalists from every major domestic media outlet reported the incident, bringing to the nation and the world images and stories about the tragic death of two friends. The coverage included graphic

CCTV footage of their last moments, sound bites from devastated parents and family, as well as those from a grief-stricken student body.

We write this letter as citizens who observed this tragedy via the local media; we are deeply concerned by the visible lack of principles and ethics for journalism in Sri Lanka, as displayed in the coverage of this recent event. We believe reportage of this incident has revealed the major ethical failings of our media.

As a people we have experienced and continue to experience numerous challenges – a war, a major natural disaster, and various ongoing social conflicts; we would think, as a nation, that we have by now developed a heightened level of sensitivity towards tragedy and conflict, and that we would see this reflected in our media. However time and again, the Sri Lankan media, mainstream and otherwise, have displayed a troubling disregard for basic ethics, disappointing the public in our need for sensitivity. It has always been paramount to create a framework of value-based ethics, which can guide the work of our journalists and media publishers; today the need is most urgent.

Overview of incident:

According to our observations, both print and electronic media coverage of this incident was problematic.

Many mainstream TV news channels televised actual CCTV footage of the tragic accident without censure, with their first reports of the incident. This footage captured the actual point of contact between the victims and the train; in several reports, it was slowed down and replayed multiple times. The news reports of the events were then uploaded to social media networks including Facebook (and subsequently linked to respective Twitter accounts), and hosted on the media outlets’ respective channels on Youtube (the news reports including the CCTV footage were still available on many of these forums at the time of writing this letter.)

Print media printed false and unverified information in their reports, and carried contemptuous op-eds, which began a cycle of thoughtless victim-blaming.

This leaves us, as citizens of this country with a series of questions regarding the assumed role of the media in cases such as this, and the journalistic ethics we believe were flouted.

1. The editorial decision to televise this CCTV footage calls to question the commitment to sensitive reportage and exposes clear ethical issues.

 Did the editor/s consider the impact of seeing such graphic footage on the general public, and more importantly, on the families of the victims, for whom this remains a personal tragedy? Did the media consider what it might feel like to have the death of a loved one repeatedly televised?

 Were the families of the victims officially notified of the deaths before the broadcasting of the graphic footage?

2. The reportage could compromise genuine attempts to uncover the facts and is a clear display of irresponsible journalism.

 Was the CCTV footage of the accident released to the public by the media before the relevant law enforcement officials had an opportunity to review it? Does this compromise the integrity of a real investigation?

 Was this crucial bit of evidence released to the media by law enforcement officers or a third party? If the CCTV footage was released to the media by a third party, didn’t the media have a responsibility to support the investigation by not televising it?

3. The sensationalized reportage disregarded any respect for the privacy of the victims and their grieving families, and the community at large.

 We are aware that the photograph of the girls that was televised and printed was taken from a Facebook post uploaded by a grieving classmate, with a personal message. The photo was taken without the expressed permission of the said Facebook user, nor were the wishes of the family considered in this matter.

 Newsfirst’s report included a photo taken off one of the victim’s Instgram accounts, which was then used for an over-dramatized, fatalistic report. Camera crews visited the houses of the victims, televised the funeral, and images of grief-stricken parents. The street address and the house is clearly identifiable in the reports. The camera crews even followed the procession to the cemetery and attempted to speak to family and friends there.

4. Did the media sensationalize the reportage to exploit a tragic event but fail in their basic duty to report facts?

 What was the true motivation behind releasing and then highlighting the graphic footage of the accident in a situation such as this? The media may justify the showing of graphic footage at times when a ‘truth’ needs to be exposed in service of the public. Cases of major human rights abuses, corruption etc. come to mind. However, in a case such as this, where the incident is an accidental death – what is the real purpose of this kind of reportage?

 In further attempts to sensationalize the tragedy, various media outlets interviewed ‘eyewitnesses’ the next day; these reports said that the young women had their earphones plugged into their ears at the time of the accident, and that this was the main cause of the fatality. The media used this unverified information to create unnecessary, non-constructive discussions about the victims of the tragedy being responsible for their own deaths.

Reports later surfaced through other media sources that this piece of information was not true; the doctor who performed the post-mortem on the bodies of the young women very clearly stated he found they were not wearing any devices; this fact was next verified by the driver of the train.

 The media resorted to op-eds with a righteous, moralistic tone, questioning a) the ‘younger generations’ so-called obsession with technological devices, b) the victims choices, as young people and particularly as young women, in being out for a social gathering that night.

Archaic, and indeed sexist ideas were promoted through these op-eds. With the media behaving like this, it only encouraged the public to also engage in thoughtless and sometimes downright cruel banter about how the victims were to blame.

Conclusion

We are worried that the media is perpetuating a culture of morbid fascination towards tragedies, without consideration for the people who are worst affected. This leaves us with the unfortunate conclusion that media outlets do this because perpetuating such a culture simply leads to an increase in their readership/viewership.

Some media outlets, upon being publicly questioned on the ethics behind broadcasting graphic footage, did remove the footage from some of the forums on which they have an official presence.

But the removal of the footage did not occur across the boards, and to date, the footage is available on some mediums.

We urge all our media establishments to develop stringent guidelines and practice sensitivity in their work, and to educate themselves on some key fundamental journalistic principles which are universally accepted and practiced. While we fully appreciate the complex duties journalists must balance when reporting on sensitive topics, we must demand as a public that the media is more responsible and credible. Further, we ask that the media considers the important role it has to play in shaping the public’s responses to situations of crises, and consider this a serious responsibility.

Our email addresses are given below, and we would be happy for any responses from media personnel, publicly or privately, with regard to this matter. We are keen to begin a constructive discourse in a public forum, but believed it was the right thing to do to first send this directly out to as many journalists and editors as we possibly could. Your thoughts and concerns are welcome.

Subha Wijesiriwardena | s.menike@gmail.com
Jake Oorloff | jake.contact@gmail.com
Colombo, 09 May 2016.

Panama Papers Sri Lanka List Revealed : Full List

The Panama Papers affair has widened, with a huge database of documents relating to more than 200,000 offshore accounts posted online. The database became accessible from 18:00 GMT at offshoreleaks.icij.org

The papers belonged to Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca and were leaked to a German newspaper by a source simply known as "John Doe".

The company denies any wrongdoing.

"We do not intend to suggest or imply that any persons, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly" the ICIJ said, pointing out that there were legitimate uses of offshore companies.

The names of Sri Lankan companies and officers are given below.

Avant Garde

We publish below the list of all the persons connected to Sri Lanka published in ICIJ database;

Yapa Hetti Pathirannahalage Nissanka Yapa Senadhiathi – Avant Garde Pte Ltd

Y H P Kithsiri Manjula Kumara Yapa – Avant Garde Pte Ltd

Senerath Bandara Dissanayake – Avant Garde Pte Ltd

Prasanna Athanasius Sirimevan Rajaratne – Avant Garde Pte Ltd

Kenneth John Pendigrast – PASKEVILLE TRADING LTD

Kenneth John Pendigrast – SCATOLA FINANCE LTD.

Mohamed Siddeek Mohamed Ali – KALIN INTERNATIONAL COMPANY LIMITED

Mohamed Siddeek Mohamed Ali – KALIN INTERNATIONAL COMPANY LIMITED

Min Xuan – LENZSKI INTERNATIONAL LTD.

Jayakody Arachchige Dona Marian Srini Pamela Jayakody – GRAND RISE INDUSTRY LTD

Jayakody Arachchige Dona Martin Srini Pamela Jayakody – Lucky Stone Indus Ltd.

Palavinnege Sumith Cumaranatunga – EMPIRE STAR HOLDINGS LTD.

Tristan Laurens Bernard – Hotel IQ International Ltd.

Nicola Dawn Hakansson – NETWORK LIMITED

Michael Robert Nasmyth MacPherson – KACHINE LIMITED

Aroon Hirdaramani – Brown International Limited

Mona Hirdaramani and Aroon Hirdaramani as Joints tenants with Rights of Survivorship – STONECROFT INVESTMENTS INC.

Arun Prakash Mahtani – PASSION CHINA LIMITED

Mukesh Khubchand – ADVANI INVESTMENTS LIMITED

NG Yin Peng – GENIUS.COM LTD.

Simon Finch – BEST CHEERS LIMITED

Christopher Rohan Martin -Trump Trading Limited

list of intermediaries (the lawyers and service providers who help set up or act as the registered agents for the offshore companies)

SIMON PAUL FINCH – BEST CHEERS LIMITED – FLAT 8B; CEYLINCO SEYLAN TOWER; 90 GALLE ROAD; COLOMBO 5; SRI LANKA.

ASIA CAPITAL LIMITED – 21- 01 – West Tower, World Trade Center – Colombo -1

ADVANTEC NETWORK SYSTEMS PVT. LTD. – OVERSEAS FINANCE LIMITED, 7/11, Liberty Plaza, Duplication Road, Colombo 3.

List of offshore entities (these are the companies, trusts, foundations and more)

BEST CHEERS LIMITED – SIMON PAUL FINCH FLAT 8B; CEYLINCO SEYLAN TOWER; 90 GALLE ROAD; COLOMBO 5; SRI LANKA.

TECLLOYD LTD. – ASIA CAPITAL LIMITED – 21- 01 – West Tower, World Trade Center – Colombo -1

OVERSEAS FINANCE LIMITED – ADVANTEC NETWORK SYSTEMS PVT. LTD., 7/11, Liberty Plaza, Duplication Road, Colombo 3.

Sri Lankans In Panama Papers: Full List

Irida Divaina editor apologises from JVP, slams Wimal

Editor of the Irida Divaina - Anura Solomons has apologised with regard to the contents of the lead story in yesterday’s (08) publication.

Solomons has said, “I am Anura Solomons, editor of the Divaina newspaper… We made a mistake and express our deep regret for the matter… We have already apologised to the party and wish to publish a correction in the next week’s edition… Please send us a full page reply we will publish it with prominence… Again I wish to apologise and say that I take responsibility for this,” he has said.

When being asked what can be done if people like Wimal Weerawansa would start harping on this, Solomons had said that people don’t have much regard for what Weerawansa says these days likening his stories to jokes of Samuel Rodrigo.

The voice clip of Solomons in Sinhala is shown below :

Lightning kills four elephants IN

Four elephants, including two calves, were killed by lightning in the North in one of the worst wildlife tragedies to hit the country in years.

A female elephant, aged about 25 years, and two of her calves, aged 10 months and two years, and an eight-year-old female were found dead on Sunday just outside the Wilpattu wildlife sanctuary, an official said.

"Villagers from neighbouring areas alerted the authorities and we carried out autopsies," wildlife veterinary surgeon Chandana Jayasinghe said. "The deaths were caused by lightning."

Local villagers in Mahavilachchiya, 250 kilometres (156 miles) north of Colombo, had reported heavy rains accompanied by thunder and lightning in the shrub jungle area on Friday when the elephants were thought to have been struck.

It was the worst natural disaster involving elephants since February 2011 when four baby elephants drowned in a major flood in the north-east of the country.

Elephants are venerated in the mainly Buddhist country and they are a highly protected species. Elephant deaths must be investigated and death certificates issued before disposing of the carcasses.

Despite tough conservation laws and the elephant’s association with Buddhism, nearly 200 jumbos are killed each year by villagers after accidentally straying onto farmland, while the animals themselves kill about 50 people each year.

Sri Lanka’s elephant population has reduced to just over 7,000, according to a census five years ago, down from a population of over 12,000 at the start of the 20th century.