Matthew Perry's ex reveals chilling death scene secrets and haunting five-word message

Matthew Perry's ex-girlfriend and former assistant Kayti Edwards is calling for a probe into his death as she lifts the lid on their relationship and the Friend's star's battles

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Matthew Perry's ex shares chilling three-word text and real reason she had to leave

EXCLUSIVE: Kayti Edwards, the ex-girlfriend and former assistant of the late Friends star, said she had to walk away from the actor after watching his addiction spiral out of control

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Desalination plants needed to meet country’s future water needs, Parameshwaran, Technical Specialist

Desalination plants could play an important role in improving Sri Lanka’s water supply in the coming decades, Kathiravelu Parameshwaran, Technical Specialist at Sydney Water told a recent symposium organised by the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL).

The global desalination market is expected to grow to 28.1 billion dollars by 2026, up from 16.5 billion dollars in 2020.Prameshwaran said climate change would impact many water sources used by Sri Lankans for drinking and other daily water needs.

“We have seen this happen in Australia. We completed a desalination plant in Sydney in 2019. This was established because there were worries that increasing droughts would affect Sydney water supply. However, within months we had a flood and the water sources we used to supply potable water were contaminated. The desalination plant really helped during this situation,” he said.

Parameshwaran said Sri Lanka hadone functioning desalination plant, the Thalaiyady Seawater Desalination Plant.

“If desalinated water will be Jaffna’s main source of water, we have to ensure that the system is foolproof. We can’t have technical issues that drag on for days,” he said.

Parameshwaran said desalination plants were complex and needed high levels of preparedness for any contingency. Desalination is an expensive process, he said. “Also, a very reliable power supply is very important. We need to have properly trained staff to ensure that the machinery is well maintained. Companies usually only give a seven year warranty, and these machines are expensive. If we think about power usage, equipment and staff costs, desalination is an expensive process,” he said.

Parameshwaran said rather than a single large plant, it would have been better to build several smaller ones in several locations. “This would have helped reduce contingency requirements and impacts caused by desalination plant intake, concentrate disposal and transmission costs,” he said.

(RK)

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Donald Trump blames UK riots on 'self-destructive' net-zero policies in stunning outburst

Trump said the UK's pursuit of net zero is "causing economic chaos, destruction, riots and death in the streets of British cities."

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More guns for MPs

Thursday 22nd August, 2024

All 225 MPs have been authorised to acquire two 12-bore repeater guns each in addition to the firearms already in their possession. It is being bruited about that some Opposition MPs have rejected the government’s offer of more guns. The issuance of weapons to politicians in the run-up to a crucial election is a matter of serious concern.

Whom is the government trying to protect the MPs against? LTTE terror is a thing of the past, and so is that of the National Thowheeth Jama’ath. If it is the public that the government fears, shouldn’t it, instead of providing more weapons to the elected, address the electors’ grievances which have the potential to give rise to another uprising?

Perhaps, their troubling memories of the tragic death of government MP Amarakeerthi Athukorale at the hands of a savage mob that unleashed retaliatory violence in the aftermath of the SLPP-led goon attacks on the Galle Face protesters in 2022, may have prompted the SLPP crossovers to ask for more weapons. But weapons are of little use in situations where waves of public anger barrel across the country.

The issuance of guns to the MPs to ensure their protection, in a volatile situation where public anger is bubbling, is like trying to control dysentery with a loincloth, as a local saying goes. Ruling party politicians are without any defence when the masses take to the streets in their thousands to oust failed or repressive regimes whose leaders cling on to power like limpets. Needless to say, the self-important MPs would be as vulnerable as a person who brings a knife to a gunfight in such an eventuality—absit omen!

The best way to assuage public anger and prevent it from spilling over onto the streets is to defuse tensions in the polity by addressing the people’s burning problems and restoring the rule of law. The axiom, “in times of war the law falls silent” holds true for civil unrest, too, as seen in Sri Lanka in 2022 and in Bangladesh recently. The Constitution of Sri Lanka specifies how an elected President can be removed. This process is so complex that Dr. N. M. Perera once had this to say: “Can the President be removed from office before the expiration of his allotted time-span? Yes, certainly, but the process is so complicated and will entail such delay that one can safely predict that such an eventuality will never arise.” Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, another staunch opponent of the Executive Presidency argued: “An incumbent President will in practice be irremovable. The procedure provided for removal of a President by Parliament is so cumbrous and prolix that one cannot see it ever being resorted to in respect of intentional violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, misconduct or corruption involving the abuse of the powers of his office or any offence under any written law, involving moral turpitude.” But in 2022, the people just took to the streets and ousted the Executive President! The well-fortified defences of the President’s House fell like the Walls of Jericho amidst roars of angry protesters and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former frontline combat officer, who used to boast of having made the Tigers bolt, raced like a hare, as the marchers closed in on his official residence in Colombo. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, described as the Iron Lady, resorted to a brutal military crackdown, which snuffed out hundreds of lives, in a desperate bid to hold anti-government protesters at bay, but she had to flee the country. It has thus become clear that all power does not necessarily flow from the barrel of a gun contrary to what Mao Zedong believed.

Moreover, before politicians are given any more weapons, those who received firearms and ammunition from the governments of President J. R. Jayewardene and R. Premadasa during the second JVP uprising (1987-89) must be asked to return those lethal items, most of which have gone unaccounted for. The Ministry of Defence has placed the figure of missing weapons at 700. This is only a ballpark figure, and the actual number is believed to be much higher, given the intensity of counterterror operations we witnessed and the sheer number of paramilitary operatives involved therein. Similarly, not all arms caches of the JVP have been traced. These missing weapons pose a serious threat to national security.

Those who have undertaken to provide more weapons to the MPs, especially the ones who are accused of corruption, extortion, drug dealing, chain snatching, etc., in a bid to ensure their safety ought to realise that theirs is an exercise in futility. It is popularly said in this country that no clay pot is too big for a wooden pole. They had better realise that they are looking down the wrong end of a gun barrel, mend their ways and rule the country democratically, abiding by judicial decisions, addressing the grievances of the irate public, ending the culture of impunity and corruption, and respecting fundamental rights of the people in whom sovereignty resides.

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Passenger refuses to leave plane despite blood pouring down his face

A man and woman have been arrested after refusing to deplane an American Airlines flight from Miami to Las Vegas, despite the man bleeding from his head

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Sri Lanka dig deep through de Silva, Rathnayake after top-order collapse hands England control

Dhananjaya de Silva justified his own decision to bat first with a gutsy 74 from 84 balls, while Milan Rathnayake  followed his captain’s lead with a startlingly composed knock of 72 from 135 balls, the highest by a debutant at No.9 in Test history. Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, however, even those exceptional efforts couldn’t quite atone for a dreadful top-order collapse that had handed England control of the first Test by stumps on day one at Emirates Old Trafford.

By the time Vishwa Fernando was last man out, run out for 13 from 61 balls in an innings that echoed his famous tail-end defiance in partnership with Kusal Perera at Durham in 2019, Sri Lanka had been bowled out for 236 in gloomy half-light that had caused England to rely exclusively on spin bowling for the final hour of their bowling stint – an early challenge for Ollie Pope’s tactical acumen on his first day as Ben Stokes’ captaincy stand-in.

And, even though that total was seemingly below-par on a hard and dry surface that Pope anticipated would stay true for the first half of the match at least, it was riches compared to what had been anticipated after the first half-hour of the contest. At that point, Sri Lanka’s innings had been in tatters at 6 for 3 after seven overs, with all three wickets falling in the space of ten deliveries to Gus Atkinson and Chris Woakes.

The first blow was landed by Atkinson, who had limited Dimuth Karunaratne to a solitary scoring stroke in his first 17 deliveries, only for the batter to fluff his first shot in anger, a swish across the line to a well-directed lifter. Four balls later, Nishan Madushka’s early discipline also deserted him as Woakes served up a juicy outswinger that he could only scuff straight to Joe Root at first slip, who clung on in the heel of his palms.

And with the final ball of the same over, Woakes had his second courtesy of a ghastly misjudgement from Angelo Mathews. The hero of the 2014 series win was gone for a five-ball duck, burning a review in the process as he offered no stroke to an inducker that was shown to be hitting the top of middle.

Kusal and Chandimal showed some gumption in a limited counterattack, with the first five boundaries of the innings all coming in the space of 12 balls, four of them to Kusal off Matthew Potts, whose wide angle into the stumps offered the chance to free the hands through the off-side, and who would finish as the attack’s weakest link with 48 runs from his nine overs.

But, after limping to drinks on 37 for 3, there was another challenge waiting for the second hour. Wood tore into his opening spell with typical gusto, and struck with his seventh ball – a gruesomely quick lifter to Kusal that crashed into his left thumb and looped to Harry Brook at second slip. Much like the snorter that broke Kevin Sinclair’s wrist in the West Indies series, Kusal left the crease wringing his hand, and looking in urgent need of an ice-pack at the very least.

Out came de Silva to shore up the listing innings, but with lunch approaching, his measured stand of 32 in seven overs with Chandimal was undone in cruel and unusual fashion. Shoaib Bashir entered the attack for an exploratory pre-lunch spell, and struck in his second over with an unplayable daisycutter, reminiscent of Nasser Hussain’s viral moment against Carl Hooper in Trinidad in 1998. Though Chandimal gambled on the review, hoping against hope that he’d been struck outside the line, Bashir’s sheepish appeal and celebration could have told him everything he needed to know.

That would, however, be the nadir of Sri Lanka’s innings. De Silva himself grew into his role either side of the lunch break, farming the strike well in between a diet of eight well-struck boundaries, each of them showcasing his sharp footwork and delicate balance, not to mention his pre-toss faith in the surface’s true nature.

Though there would be some more guileless dismissals to come – with both Kamindu Mendis and Prabath Jayasuriya snicking off with uncertain footwork after Woakes and Atkinson had varied their lines and lengths – Rathnayake would not prove quite so gullible in his shot selection.

Despite channelling a bashful schoolboy while being presented with his Test cap by Kumar Sangakkara before the start of play, Sri Lanka’s debutant was more than man enough to withstand England’s eager attempts to dislodge him. His first role was to act as de Silva’s doughty sidekick, which he did to superb effect, picking off the first of his four fours in an eighth-wicket stand of 63.

And then, when disaster had seemingly struck just before tea, with de Silva fencing a Bashir offbreak to Lawrence at leg slip to leave his team on 176 for 8, Rathnayake took up the cudgels for his team with impressive results. Despite boasting a previous best of 59 in 52 previous first-class innings, he picked the perfect moments to cut loose, first with a lusty swing over long-on to reach his half-century, and then a sweet drill over long-off to move along to a new career-high.

England did at one stage attempt to bring Wood back into the attack to break up his burgeoning 50-run stand with Vishwa, but with his jumper halfway over his shoulders, the umpires stepped in to insist that the light was too poor for the pace bowlers. And though it took a while, Bashir eventually did the needful, tempting Rathnayake into one lofted launch too many, as Woakes back-pedalled at mid-off to end his fun.

With half-an-hour to the close, Sri Lanka also turned instantly to slow bowling as the reply got underway, with two spinners sharing the new ball in a men’s Test in England for only the second time since 1970. With Lawrence opening the batting in place of Zak Crawley, he and Ben Duckett showed the probable riches still on offer in the surface, in clattering along to 22 for 0 in four overs.

Prior to the start of play, both sides lined up on the outfield for a tribute to the late Graham Thorpe, who died on August 4, aged 55. England will be wearing black armbands throughout the match in memory of an England great who averaged 44.66 in a 100-Test career, and went on to play a key role as a batting mentor to many of the current team, including Pope, Root and Stokes.

Brief scores:

England 22 for 0 in 4 overs (Ben Duckett 13*, Dan Lawrence 9*)  trail Sri Lanka 236 in 74 overs (Kusal Mendis 24, Dhananjaya de Silva 74, Milan  Rathnayake 72;  Chris Woakes 3-32, Gus Atkinson 2-48, Shoaib Bashir 3-55) by 214 runs

(Cricinfo)

 

 

 

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