COLOMBO, Jan 20: A Sri Lankan archaeologist is set to join an international team of experts researching the social and economic conditions prevailing during the Buddhist era at Buddha’s birth place, Lumbini in Nepal.
Prof Prishantha Gunawardhana from the Department of Archaeology at Kelaniya University will leave today for Kapilavastu in Lumbini and will be the only Sri Lankan to take part in the research.
“As a result of a research done one and a half months ago, a very important determination of Buddha’s birth era came to be known. The research will now be expanded to delve further into the social and economic conditions that prevailed at the city of Kapilavastu during the Buddha era”, Prof Gunawardhana said.
The research, led by Robin Coningham, Professor at Durham University in the UK would also look at Kapilavastu’s urbanisation if any during the period.
“This was a main city during the Buddhist era according to literature”, the professor said.
Coningham and his team had found a timber structure dating back to the sixth century BC, which strongly suggests that Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini in Nepal in that era, two centuries earlier than previously thought.
Lumbini, widely considered to be the birthplace of the Buddha based on the presence of a sandstone pillar with an inscription recording a visit by Emperor Ashoka in the third century BC.
Archaeologists call it the oldest Buddhist shrine in the world.
Located in the Rupandehi district of central Nepal near its border with India, Lumbini was named a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1997.
Tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Buddhists pay homage there annually. (AGENCIES)

DHAKA, Jan 20: Three operatives of Pakistani Taliban have been arrested in Bangladesh and a laptop containing bomb making information has been seized from their possession, police here said today.
The trio —  Osman, Mehmud and Fakhrul — were arrested last night from the capital.
Police claim they are members of banned militant outfit Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
“We arrested the three last night from in front of the Shilpakala Academy premises… They confessed they were recruits of the TTP,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Monirul Islam told reporters.
Islam said during the initial interrogations, police found that they were Myanmar-born Pakistani nationals and were “planning to launch their activities in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhaine state with their expertise to prepare high-powered explosives”.
“We are yet to know the details of their plans, but it seems from the initial interrogations that there are people inside Bangladesh who offered them shelters,” Islam said.
“It also appears that they came to Bangladesh with a ‘jihad mission’ ahead of the elections… But their organisation later planned to send them to Myanmar”.
Police said they have seized a laptop containing some “important evidence”.
The trio, aged between 25 and 50, will be produced before a court later today and the police will seek their custody for further interrogations.
Police said the three detained Pakistanis were also arrested in Bangladesh earlier but were released on bail.
Law enforcement agencies earlier said LeT and several other militant groups were still active in Bangladesh.
The militants use Bangladesh for transit to neighbouring India. (AGENCIES)

DHAKA, Jan 20 A local leader of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami was killed today in a gunfight with Bangladesh’s security forces carrying out raid at one of the party’s hideouts.
Tarique Mohammad Saiful Islam, 35, assistant secretary general of Jamaat’s Meherpur district unit, was killed as he tried to evade the police.
According to reports, police arrested Islam yesterday on charges of attacking police and leading the violent campaign ahead of January 5 elections. They carried out the raid at a village in the district in line with Islam’s confession that fellow party men were holding a clandestine meeting there.
The report said as soon as the police reached the scene the Jamaat activists opened fire, triggering the gunfight when Islam tried to flee the scene and came in line of fire.
“He (Islam) was shot as he came in line of fire as the gun battle began when the Jamaat activists launched the attack on the policemen,” Meherpur’s police chief AKM Nahidul Islam told newsmen.
The death of the Jamaat’s regional leader came two days after another activist of the party was killed during a gunfight with joint forces comprising paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and police at north-western Nilphamari.
A crucial allay of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat last year was barred from participating in the general elections by the Election Commission in line with a court order. (AGENCIES)

BEIJING, Jan 20: About 34 million Chinese males would have to look outside China to find brides as male population continue to heavily outnumber the women population in the world’s most populous country.
China had 697.2 million males and 663.4 million females in 2013, which meant that there were 33.8 million more men than women, head of China’s National Bureau of Statistic, (NBS) Ma Jiantang, today said.
The total population of China barring Hong Kong and Macau was 1.36 billion in 2013, he said.
The skewed sex ratio was attributed to sex-selective abortion and preference for a male child as also seen elsewhere in Asia where people believe male heirs can ensure their families’ bloodline is preserved.
The Chinese Government has been cracking down hard on sex determination tests to “eliminate discrimination against girls” and continue promoting gender equity.
The sex-selective abortions thrived in many parts of the country for the past three decades after the government vigorously implemented the one child policy.
Chinese men opted to marry Vietnamese brides in the wake of paucity of women and increasing gender gap. (AGENCIES)

BEIJING, Jan 20: A knife-wielding man injured three security staff members at an airport in northwest China today.
The man, who was not identified, rushed through the security check area at the airport in Lanzhou, capital of Ganzhou province, and started attacking people.
He was brought under control by security staff, a spokesman with the Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport said.
The three injured security staff members, two in critical condition, have been taken to a local hospital.
The knife-wielding man has been detained by police. The motive behind the attack is under investigation.
Attacks by disgruntled people have become common in recent years in China.
The airport has resumed service and flights are operating normally, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. (AGENCIES)

VIENNA, Jan 20: Iran is due today to unplug key nuclear equipment for six months in return for a slight easing of crippling Western sanctions, as an interim deal between Tehran and world powers takes effect.
This starts the clock on negotiating a trickier long-term accord aimed at ending the Iran nuclear standoff and averting war once and for all, a process threatened however by possible new US sanctions.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif yesterday said he hoped for “positive results for the country, as well as regional and global peace and security”.
UN inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Tehran on Saturday standing ready to report back first thing todayo from sites around Iran that the freeze has begun.
On day one, Iran has to halt the enrichment of uranium to medium levels — close to weapons-grade — and to begin diluting half of its stockpile of this material.
If the IAEA gives the thumbs-up, in Brussels EU foreign ministers will adopt legislation loosening sanctions on items like auto parts and gold, followed later in the day by a similar move in Washington.
Over the next six months Iran will also not install or switch on new nuclear machines and will grant the IAEA more access, including daily visits to the Fordo and Natanz enrichment facilities.
The total sanctions relief — staggered over the six months — is worth some USD 6-7 billion, including USD 4.2 billion in frozen overseas assets. The first USD 550 million instalment is due February 1.
But the core sanctions will still bite. Over the next half-year alone, Iran will miss out on USD 30 billion in oil revenues, the White House says. Most of Iran’s USD 100 billion in foreign exchange holdings remains off-limits.
Iran and the P5+1 — the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — will soon begin talks on a long-term comprehensive accord.
According to Mark Fitzpatrick, a former US State Department official now at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the powers will want Iran to slash the number of centrifuges to 3,000-4,000 from the current 19,000. (AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Cardamom prices were up by 0.35 per cent to Rs 736 per kg in futures market today due to rise in demand in the spot market amid tight supplies from producing belts.
At the Multi Commodity Exchange, cardamom for delivery in March rose by Rs 2.60, or 0.35 per cent, to Rs 736 per kg in business turnover of 29 lots.
In a similar fashion, spice for delivery in February gained Rs 1.80, or 0.26 per cent, to Rs 707 per kg in 168 lots.
Market analysts said besides rise in demand in the spot market, tight supplies from producing regions mainly helped cardamom prices to trade higher at futures trade. (AGENCIES)