Snap polls a waste of money - President

We have got a mandate till 2010. So I am not in a hurry to hold a general election before that, President Mahinda Rajapakse said today adding that it is a waste of money to conduct snap polls.

Thun Hele Kele Thula Sinha Petaw

Ira Handa Payana Loke

Dilan Perera resigns

It is reported that Minister Dilan Perera has resigned from his ministerial post on a directive received from the Presidential Secretariat. During the provincial council election campaign Mr. Dilan Perera was engaged in campaign activities of the government party at Welikande area in Pollonnaruwa. At meetings held he had introduced Minister Maithripala Sirisena as "the future prime minister."The President who has been furious at this had, through Presidential secretariat, informed Mr. Perera to resign. Reliable sources say Mr. Perera has already submitted his letter of resignation. Coconut Development Minister Salinda Disssanayake too has been asked to resign from his post say these sources.

Sri Lanka - PM hits back foreign nations on HR

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake charged several key foreign nations for questioning Sri Lanka’s human rights records despite their own human rights violations.

The Emergency Unit of the Colombo National Hospital has commenced a first aid course for Air Force

The Emergency Unit of the Colombo National Hospital has commenced a first aid course for Air Force personnel to equip them to administer first aid to injury victims in the operational areas and during other contingencies, before their dispatch to a Hospital. Here the chief instructor at the Emergency Unit nurse Pushpa Ramani Soysa conducting a drill on resuscitation for the airmen.

Lightning strike suspected of starting fire that razed Buddhist temple hall

A weekend fire that destroyed a hall at a temple designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site was possibly caused by lightning, officials said.
The fire that broke out in a corner of Daigoji temple razed the Juntei Kannondo hall and a rest house. The blaze died down at about 2:50 a.m. on Sunday.
Investigators said that a temple priest on duty at the time heard the sound of thunder and a lightning strike late on Saturday, so went around to check the compound, and discovered the fire shortly after 12 a.m. on Sunday.
At the time, a thunderstorm warning had been issued for southern Kyoto. Kyoto Prefectural Police and other officials believe that there was a high possibility that a lightning strike started the fire.
Juntei Kannondo hall is not registered as a cultural asset. The fire did not damage any neighboring cultural assets, and no one was injured, although it was believed that the hall's main Buddhist statue was destroyed by fire.( News -Mainichi Japan)

Mobile carriers focus on smart phones

Japanese mobile carriers have stepped up efforts to promote multi-functional smart phones such as the iPhone and BlackBerry, hoping to stimulate demand among business people.
Smart phones can make business easier as users can send and receive emails, view attached files and create documents. Operability has improved with addition of large-sized keys and touch panels.
The carriers’ efforts could fuel demand and energize Japan’s almost saturated mobile phone market, industry watchers said.
Since March, NTT DoCoMo Inc has launched two models, its first smart phone roll-out for about two years.
In August, the company started offering BlackBerrys, which had been previously available only to corporate customers, to individuals.
The company believes that many business people hope to use such mobile devices casually when working outside their offices or after returning home, an NTT DoCoMo official said.
Softbank Corp and EMobile Ltd, a mobile unit of broadband service provider EAccess Ltd, have expanded their lineups by releasing two models each this year.
KDDI Corp is poised to launch its first smart phone by the end of this year.
KDDI is now considering what products can meet user needs, the company’s president, Tadashi Onodera, said.
Higher transmission speeds and improved compatibility with personal computers have allowed the use of smart phones in the business environment, said Shigehiro Tanaka, an analyst at research firm BCN Inc.
More models are likely to be released and the market is expected to expand, Tanaka said.

S Korea to complain over use of 'Sea of Japan' in Olympic closing ceremony

South Korea said Monday it plans to complain to China over the use of the name ‘‘Sea of Japan’’ to refer to the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan in the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics instead of ‘‘East Sea’’ as it is known to South Koreans. ‘‘The government plans to point out to the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee the invalidity of describing the East Sea as only ‘Sea of Japan’ and request ‘East Sea’ be used as well,’’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae Young said in a regular press briefing.South Korea will continue its efforts for ‘‘East Sea’’ to be used in naming the sea through international agencies, governments of other countries and manufacturers of private world maps, Moon added. Moon’s remarks followed critical reaction in South Korea over the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee’s display of a world map that used ‘‘Sea of Japan’’ during the prelude to the Olympic closing ceremony broadcast live across the world on Sunday. South Korean scholars and citizens argue that ‘‘East Sea’’ should be adopted as the historically and geographically appropriate name for the sea, which Japan began to refer to as ‘‘Sea of Japan’’ after its colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula in 1910, according to Yonhap News Agency.

12 LTTE fighters killed in Sri Lanka: Army

At least 12 LTTE fighters were killed in fierce clashes with government troops in northern Sri Lanka, military officials said today.Sri Lankan soldiers killed 12 Tamil Tigers and injured 13 in fresh clashes in the areas of Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Welioya yesterday, the Defence Ministry said.According to sources in the Media Centre for National Security, 17 security personnel were injured in the clashes.Sri Lanka's ruling coalition yesterday won control of two provincial councils in an election seen as an endorsement of President Mahinda Rajapksas hardline military policy against the LTTE.In the 33-member North Central provincial council the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition won 20 seats as it also captured 25 seats on the 44-member Sabaragamuwa council.The main opposition United National Party (UNP) won a total of 29 seats on the two councils, while the Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP) got just three seats.Renewed clashes on Saturday on the northern front killed at least 30 rebels and three soldiers, military officials said.Reports of fighting have increased in recent months amid government's declaration to crush the group by the end of the year.Fighting, which has escalated in the past two years, further flared after the government in January pulled out of the 2002 cease-fire pact with the rebels.The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an independent state for the minority ethnic Tamils, alleging marginalization of the community for decades by governments dominated by the Sinhalas.

Nawaz Sharif pulls out of Pakistan Govt

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pulled his party out of the ruling coalition on Monday, deepening a political crisis that has diverted Government attention from pressing security and economic problems.
The move came just a week after the coalition parties had celebrated the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf in the face of the coalition's threat to impeach him.
Sharif said the party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, which leads the coalition, had repeatedly broken promises on resolving a judicial dispute and on who should be the next president.

Sri Lanka to launch equity derivatives: report

Sri Lanka will introduce derivatives for its stock market in 18 months to help investors mitigate risks, the island nation's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) director general was quoted as saying. "The first derivative product is expected to be introduced in 18 months' time," SEC Director-General Channa de Silva said in comments reported in Monday's edition of the daily newspaper The Island. Silva could not be reached by Reuters for comment. Though the SEC and the Colombo Stock Exchange have talked about the introduction of derivatives for years, this is the latest signal from the regulatory body that the plan would move forward. The bourse has fallen over 5 percent so far this year and over 20 percent since it hit a life high of 3038.48 on Feb. 19, 2007. High interest rates and inflation, plus increased fighting in a 25-year civil war with Tamil Tiger separatists, has shaken investor confidence and kept the market volatile. "When you have a risk hedging mechanism, that will definitely improve the market confidence," Vajira Premawardhena, head of research at Lanka Orix Securities, told Reuters. "In a declining market, you will be able to protect your investment. It will allow more people to participate in the market and it will improve the liquidity in the market."