Commonwealth Games- a Brief History...

The 19th Commonwealth Games got off to a spectacular start on Sunday evening in New Delhi with the glittering opening ceremony showcasing Indian culture through music and dance by thousands of participants.

The controversies surrounding the CWG was set aside as over 60,000 cheering spectators filled the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which was virtually glowing in colourful and strobe lights, with a spaceship-like balloon hanging over the venue.

The Games was inaugurated by Prince Charles and President Pratibha Patil. Prince Charles read out the message from the Queen and expressed his happiness to be able to attend the Games.

The 19th Commonwealth Games got off to a spectacular start on Sunday evening in New Delhi with the glittering opening ceremony showcasing Indian culture through music and dance by thousands of participants.

The controversies surrounding the CWG was set aside as over 60,000 cheering spectators filled the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which was virtually glowing in colourful and strobe lights, with a spaceship-like balloon hanging over the venue.

The Games was inaugurated by Prince Charles and President Pratibha Patil. Prince Charles read out the message from the Queen and expressed his happiness to be able to attend the Games.

Motto	HUMANITY – EQUALITY – DESTINY
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Commonwealth Secretariat	Hon. Michael Fennell OJ, CD
Website	Commonwealth Games Federation

Under that formula of the London Declaration, Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth, a title that is currently individually shared with that of Commonwealth realms.

A sporting competition bringing together the members of the British Empire was first proposed by the Reverend Astley Cooper in 1891 when he wrote an article in The Times suggesting a "Pan-Britannic-Pan-Anglican Contest and Festival every four years as a means of increasing the goodwill and good understanding of the British Empire

In 1911, the Festival of the Empire was held in come London to celebrate the coronation of KingGeorge V. As part of the festival an Inter-Empire Championships was held in which teams from Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom competed in events such as boxing, wrestling, swimming and athletics.

Countries which have hosted, or plan to host, the event Other countries which enter the games

Countries which have entered the games but no longer do so
• Host cities and year of games

In 1911, the Festival of the Empire was held in come London to celebrate the coronation of KingGeorge V. As part of the festival an Inter-Empire Championships was held in which teams from Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom competed in events such as boxing, wrestling, swimming and athletics.

In 1928, Melville Marks Robinson of Canada was asked to organise the first ever British Empire Games. These were held in Hamilton, Canada two years later.

The first Games were held in 1930 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The name changed to British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, to British Commonwealth Games in 1970 and assumed the current name of the Commonwealth Games in 1978.

At the 1930 games, women competed in the swimming events only.From 1934, women also competed in some athletics events.

So now all are looking forward to the 19th time the games are held in New Delhi.

External links

Commonwealth Games Official website

Statistics (1911 to 2006)

Flags and emblems of the Commonwealth Games – evolution of the emblems of the Games

Omg, can you imagine a time machine blender?!

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009

"For the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"

Won by..,

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak


This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to three scientists who have solved a major problem in biology: how the chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation.

They have shown that the solution is to be found in the ends of the chromosomes – the telomeres – and in an enzyme that forms them – telomerase.

The long, thread-like DNA molecules that carry our genes are packed into chromosomes, the telomeres being the caps on their ends. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak discovered that a unique DNA sequence in the telomeres protects the chromosomes from degradation.


Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn identified telomerase, the enzyme that makes telomere DNA. These discoveries explained how the ends of the chromosomes are protected by the telomeres and that they are built by telomerase.


If the telomeres are shortened, cells age. Conversely, if telomerase activity is high, telomere length is maintained, and cellular senescence is delayed. This is the case in cancer cells, which can be considered to have eternal life. Certain inherited diseases, in contrast, are characterized by a defective telomerase, resulting in damaged cells.

The award of the Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of a fundamental mechanism in the cell, a discovery that has stimulated the development of new therapeutic strategies.




Jack Szostak Elizabeth Blackburn Carol W. Greider

Dilshan awarded the T20 cricketer of the year

by sopphrano

Tillakarathna Dilshan has won the award for the best Twenty20 performer of the year at the ICC cricket awards 2009, held on the 1st of october. He has won the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year award in recognition of his breezy 96 off 57 balls against West Indies in the semi-final of the 2009 World Twenty20 in England. Dilshan's performance at The Oval included two sixes and 12 fours and helped steer his side into the finals of the tournament.

This is the second year the award has been given to recognise the most impressive performance by a player in Twenty20 internationals during the 12-month voting period, continuing to mark the advent of the shortest format of the game.

The award rounds off a good year of Twenty20 cricket for Dilshan who took the World Twenty20 by storm after showcasing his astonishing 'Dilscoop' - a flick-shot over his head - and also being named as Player of the Tournament, having scored 317 runs at 52.83.

According to the ICC Awards 25-member voting academy Dilshan's effort was the most impressive in the voting period between August 13, 2008 to August 24, 2009.

His performance beat competition from West Indies' Chris Gayle for his 88 off 50 balls against Australia, also during the 2009 World Twenty20 at The Oval; Umar Gul's 5 for 6 for Pakistan against New Zealand in the same tournament, as well as twin efforts from Shahid Afridi - a blitzkreig 51 off 34 balls and 2 for 16 against South Africa in the semi-final.

Collecting his award from last year's winner, Yuvraj Singh, Dilshan said: "This is a great feeling for me. I can't forget about that innings - it was so important and I was really happy about my overall performance in that tournament. It was a thrill for me to do well in England and do well for my team.

"I'm really proud of myself for having a new shot named after me (the Dilscoop). That shot has given me confidence. If I am under pressure I can play that shot and put the pressure back on the bowlers."

India hails Sri Lanka's new begining at the United Nations

(By Walter Jayawardhana)

India's External Minister S.M. Krishna told the United Nations that there is a new beginning in Sri Lanka today.

He said , " peace, security, stability and the welfare of India's neighbourhood is vital for India." This was an obvious reference to the end of the war by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)and the beginning of the development in the Northern and Eastern Provinces today.

"There is a new beginning in Sri Lanka; in Nepal strengthening the peace process is in our collective interest; and in Afghanistan, the international community must remain intensively engaged and support its development efforts and the maintenance of peace and stability. India is committed to establishing good neighbourly relations and resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through peaceful dialogue," the Indian Foreign Minister said, according to the transcript of his speech available on the UN website.

Ministry of Defence.
http://www.defence.lk

Gaddafi's Speech - Quotes

Gaddafi's Speech - Quotes

"All the terrorists in the house put your hands up!"


Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi gestures at the end of his address to the 64th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 23, 2009. Gaddafi, in his first ever address to the United Nations, on Wednesday accused the veto-wielding powers of the Security Council of betraying the principles of the U.N. charter. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Libyan leader and terrorist Muammar Gaddafi delivered his first ever address to the United Nations General Assembly today.

He had a 15-minute time limit. He went long.

(Note: Gaddafi = Gadhafi = Qaddafi)

From the New York Times:

In the first third of a speech that lasted more than 90 minutes, Colonel Qaddafi focused on what he called the inherent unfairness of the United Nations, which gives the five permanent members of the Security Council far more authority than the nations only in the General Assembly. This, Mr. Qaddafi said, was dictatorship, not democracy and, as such, “was terrorism itself.”

“We are not committed to obeying or adhering to resolutions by the Security Council in its composition right now,” he said, adding that the Security Council should be renamed the “Terror Council.” At one point, he even tore the edge of the founding charter of the United Nations he held in his hand, saying he agreed with the document’s preamble but nothing else.

He said the organization’s power dynamic should be reversed — to make the Security Council an instrument designed to “implement the will of the General Assembly.”

...Ali Abdussalam Treki, the Libyan diplomat who now holds the rotating presidency of the General Assembly, introduced him as the “leader of the revolution, president of the African Union, King of Kings of Africa.”

An hour into his address, Colonel Qaddafi began calling for investigations into each of the major wars since the United Nations was founded: the Korean War, the war over the Suez Canal, the Vietnam War and the ongoing war in Iraq, which he called “the mother of all evils.”

The Afghan war, too, he said, should be investigated for possible prosecution. At times, Colonel Qaddafi veered into conspiracy, saying, for example, that the H1N1 influenza virus, also called swine flu, might be a military or corporate weapon that got out of a lab, and he intimated that an Israeli hand was behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said, should be solved by the creation of a single state, which Mr. Qaddafi called Isratine, but Mr. Qaddafi stressed it was wrong to infer that Arabs hate the Jews. “You are the ones who burned them, not us. You expelled them,” he said, referring apparently to European nations.

For Mr. Obama personally, however, he had only warm words, calling on the collected nations to welcome “our son” on the occasion of his first United Nations appearance. “We are content and happy if Obama can stay forever as the president of America,” he said, and added that he feared America would return to its old ways after the end of Mr. Obama’s term.

Here's more, from Bloomberg:

In a rambling speech that lasted more than 90 minutes, Qaddafi tried to rip in two a pocket-sized copy of the UN Charter, charging that the council’s existence violated the provision that all UN members be treated equally. He called for power to go to the General Assembly, whose rotating presidency this year is held by Libyan diplomat Ali Treki.

“The Security Council since its establishment did not provide us with security but on the contrary provides us with terror and sanctions,” he said. “It was used against us. It should not be called a security council, it should be called a terror council.”

... “Sixty-five wars broke out after the establishment of the UN and the Security Council, and the victims are millions more than the victims of World War II,” he said. “Were these wars in the interest of all of us? No, they were in the interest of one country or three countries or four countries.”

Turning to the heads of state gathered in the assembly chamber, Qaddafi said, “You are just like speakers on Hyde Park Corner” in London. “You make a speech and then disappear.”

... “The General Assembly is the parliament of the world, the master of the world, and no one should object,” he said.

...The Libyan leader said he is proud of Barack Obama’s election to the U.S. presidency as a “son of Africa” and called him “a glimmer in the dark.” He praised Obama’s call for a reduction in nuclear weapons.

...Turning to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, just days after Obama urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to build two states living side-by-side in peace, Qaddafi said a two-state solution was “not practicable.”

“The solution is an Arab state without religious fanaticism,” he said. “Look at Palestinian youth, look at Israeli youth -- they want peace and want to live in one state.”

...At one point, Qaddafi noted that many world leaders appeared to have dozed off during his speech, and complained that holding UN sessions in New York caused jet lag. He said he had woken up at 4 a.m. because of the change in time zones.

More quotes, from the Wall Street Journal:

At another point, Mr. Gadhafi asked why the U.N. is situated in the U.S. and questioned whether it would be better to move the headquarters elsewhere.

"Everyone here today came across the Atlantic or the Pacific, and I ask you, why?" he said. "Is this Jerusalem, or Mecca? All of you have jetlag and are physically tired. Many of you are very tired because your biological mind should be asleep right now. Think about it, why should we continue to meet here in America?"

"We should not have to come to New York," he said.

But Mr. Gadhafi softened his tone when referring to Mr. Obama, saying, "We are happy and proud that a son of Africa is president of the U.S. in a place where blacks could not go in a bus where whites go." He said Mr. Obama was "the beginning of a change."

"Obama is a glimpse in the dark, and I am afraid that we may go back to square one. Can you guarantee how America will governed after Obama?" he asked, looking back at U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon. "As far as I'm concerned he can stay president of America forever."

Mr. Gadhafi later turned this attention to Iraq.

"The Iraqi war was the mother of all evils," he said. "Why did we invade? This should be investigated. It was a violation of the U.N. charter, without any justification."

He asked why prisoners of war were tried, including Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein. "How is the member of a government and president of a country be sentenced to hang? Who were these people in masks that did this? Did they have the right to do it?"

He said some believed that the executioners were Americans. "We don't the identify of these people. The U.N. has the duty to answer these questions, who implemented the death sentence."

Mr. Gadhafi then rambled further afield, even touching on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He asked who killed the U.S. president and why this hasn't been answered yet. "We know that the Israeli Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald, who had killed the president," he said. "And then this Israeli died. … We have to know how and why this happened, so such things will not be repeated."

Touching on the subject of piracy, Mr. Gadhafi said he had met with pirates in Somalia who have made headlines in the past year for dozens of hijackings of cargo ships.

"These men are not pirates," he said. "We are the pirates. We are all pirates. We went there to their territorial waters, and they are just protecting the food of their children. The solution does not lie in sending military ships to Somalia."

If I were Obama I wouldn't be too pleased with Gaddafi's words of praise.

It's not good to be embraced by a terrorist and conspiracy nut like Gaddafi.


Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi waves as he leaves the podium after addressing the 64th United Nations General Assembly, at the U.N.headquarters in New York, September 23, 2009. Gaddafi, in his first ever address to the United Nations, on Wednesday accused the veto-wielding powers of the Security Council of betraying the principles of the U.N. Charter. REUTERS/Mike Segar (UNITED STATES POLITICS)