with our foreign reserves at historic high of billion dollars sufficient
to meet over six months of imports we thought it is time to relax some foreign
exchange regulations cabraal told businessmen in colombo
the bank hopes to make the proposals law by march
under other changes sri lankans will be allowed to open and maintain bank
accounts overseas and buy shares or invest in the bonds of foreign companies
sri lankan insurance companies will also be allowed to invest part of their
assets overseas in line with the broad foreign exchange relaxation regime
government forces crushed the tamil tiger rebels in may last year bringing to
an end their year fight for independence
since the conflict ended the government has held series of treasury bond
sales to build up its reserves
the international monetary fund in july approved billion dollar rescue
after the nation reserves slumped to just over one billion dollars in march
when the military pushed their final offensive against the tigers
five us british troops killed in first afghan deaths
kabul jan afp
four us troops and british soldier have been killed in afghanistan officials
said monday the first reported fatalities of after record number of
foreign deaths in the conflict last year
four american soldiers serving with nato international security assistance
force isaf died in roadside bomb blast in southern taliban hotspot on
sunday the coalition said in statement
their deaths follow the killing last week of seven american cia agents in
suicide attack inside military base and four canadian soldiers and
journalist in roadside bombing both attacks were claimed by the taliban
four isaf service members from the united states died yesterday following an
ied strike in southern afghanistan the isaf statement said referring to an
improvised explosive device the taliban weapon of choice
an afghan police official told afp the soldiers were killed in panjwayi district
in kandahar province flashpoint of taliban unrest taliban spokesman said
the hardline militia was behind the attack
british soldier was killed in similar bomb blast the same day in the
neighbouring province of helmand the heartland of the taliban led insurgency
and where most british troops are based
the ministry of defence in london said the soldier died when an explosion hit
foot patrol in the nad ali area of helmand
total of british service personnel died in afghanistan last year the
bloodiest for the british military since the falklands war
in all foreign troops lost their lives in violence in afghanistan in
according to the independent icasualties org website tracking the deaths
the toll compares with foreign troop deaths in while us casualties
more than doubled to last year from in
most troop deaths are caused by ieds home made bombs used by the taliban and
other islamist insurgents who are said to have little other capability to fight
the well armed nato and afghan troops
the killing of the seven cia agents in the bombing last wednesday was one of the
deadliest blows ever for the agency which is increasingly on the frontline of
us wars
there are more than international troops under both us and nato command
deployed in afghanistan to curb an increasingly deadly insurgency being waged by
the remnants of the taliban
under washington new war plan troop numbers are due to increase to about
this year in bid to turn around the costly and unpopular war
up to more us and nato troops are to arrive over the course of
backed by thousands of civilians as the war strategy turns from battleground
tactics to development and aid
since being ousted from power the remnants of the taliban have regrouped in the
form of an islamist insurgency trying to topple the western sponsored government
in kabul and regain power
the rebels have constantly rejected calls for reconciliation by president hamid
karzai
top china dissident appeals subversion conviction lawyer
beijing jan afp
leading chinese dissident liu xiaobo has appealed his conviction on subversion
charges but is holding out only faint hopes that his year prison term will be
overturned his lawyer said monday
liu xiaobo directly handed his appeal over to the court on december his
lawyer shang baojun told afp
after considering his case he decided to make the appeal effort but he
understands that there is not big chance that the verdict will be changed
liu was convicted by beijing court on christmas day and sentenced to years
in jail for inciting subversion of state power prompting condemnation from
the united states the european union and other western governments
washington accused china of persecuting political opponents with us embassy
official urging beijing to respect the rights of all chinese citizens to
peacefully express their political views
china in turn slammed the west for meddling saying the case which included
trial that lasted just half day had been handled in strict accordance with
the law
we hope relevant countries will respect china judicial independence and will
not interfere in china judicial sovereignty and internal affairs foreign
ministry spokeswoman jiang yu said after the verdict was handed down
liu was detained in december after co authoring charter bold
manifesto calling for the reform of china one party communist system and the
protection of human rights
rights groups lashed out at what they called toughening of the political
climate in china given the heavy jail term for liu year old writer who was
previously jailed over the tiananmen pro democracy protests
shang who met with liu on monday said under normal conditions the appeals
trial should be held within one month of the appeal being lodged
the lawyer urged the international community to continue calling for liu
release saying more pressure on beijing could lead to successful appeal or at
least better prison treatment for the veteran dissident
we hope that everyone continues to make efforts to seek liu release shang
said
the subversion charge which was also related to anti government articles
written by liu that were posted on the internet is routinely brought against
those who voice opposition to china ruling communist party
rights activists accuse china of deliberately pushing such cases through the
courts during the western holiday season to attract less global attention
un high commissioner for human rights navi pillay said the case had cast an
ominous shadow over beijing commitments to protect and promote human rights
football ivory coast dadi leaves perth for phoenix
sydney jan afp
ivory coast striker eugene dadi will play out the remainder of the australian
league season with wellington phoenix after gaining an early release from his
contract with perth glory the clubs said on monday
dadi whose contract was due to expire at the end of this season sought an
early release from perth glory and later monday wellington phoenix said they had
immediately picked him up in the january transfer window
phoenix chief executive tony pignata said dadi would provide another attacking
option for the new zealand club which already has overseas strikers paul ifill
and chris greenacre
eugene vastly talented and experienced striker who will offer coach ricki
herbert something different up front pignata said
he big strong and cunning striker and as club we feel he be
valuable for us in the closing stages of the season as we seek to secure spot
in the playoffs
dadi played games and scored goals for perth after joining the club in
the increased competition for places at glory meant dadi managed just three
starts and three other substitute appearances this season
us militant suspects wanted to help in afghanistan
sargodha pakistan jan afp
five us militant suspects were remanded back into custody by pakistani court
monday after telling judges they wanted to help muslims in war torn
afghanistan lawyers said
the five young men were arrested in december on suspicion of trying to contact
al qaeda linked groups and are facing terror charges for allegedly plotting
attacks in pakistan which could see them jailed for life
the men appeared briefly in the courtroom in sargodha town in eastern pakistan
handcuffed and dressed in jeans and scarfs two unarmed police guards were
present in the courtroom as elite police commandos guarded the premises
questioned by judge anwer nazeer two of the men denied links to al qaeda but
said they were trying to travel to afghanistan where us nato and afghan forces
are fighting virulent taliban insurgency
one of the suspects said that they were going to afghanistan to help the
muslims said public prosecutor nadeem akram cheema
when the judge addressed them and said so you admit that you were going to
afghanistan another suspect said yes we were going to afghanistan to help
muslims cheema said without naming the suspects who spoke
defence lawyer amir abdullah rokri told afp that his clients denied sending an
email to an al qaeda linked figure named saifullah
they told the judge that they have neither committed any crime in pakistan nor
had they any intention to do so they were going to afghanistan to help injured
and homeless people rokri said
cheema said police requested the five be remanded into custody while khalid
farooqi the pakistani father of two of the suspects be freed
police requested the court to discharge khalid farooqi as there is no evidence
against him and he had been convincing and trying to stop his sons from going
for jihad cheema said
both requests were granted on monday
the court released khalid farooqi and sent the others on judicial remand
rokri told afp the next hearing will be on january
police have said investigations into the men activities are complete with the
court requested to file charges under the anti terrorism act
it has now been established that the five men had contacts with militants some
of them foreigners in south waziristan and they had come to pakistan to carry
out acts of terror senior police official tahir gujjar said saturday
pakistan has been fighting against the taliban in south waziristan part of the
northwest tribal belt on the afghan border that us officials call al qaeda
chief sanctuary and the most dangerous place on the planet
the area is also known as training ground and haven for militants plotting
attacks against foreign troops based in afghanistan and the united states is
pressuring islamabad to do more to monitor the porous frontier
the suspects who are all us citizens with dual nationality including two
pakistani americans have also been questioned by the fbi
there has been concern in the united states that extremists within pakistan
might try to take control of nuclear assets or attack atomic facilities despite
insistence from western officials that the facilities are safe
pakistani court last month ordered that the five suspects cannot be deported
without its permission
dockers strike disrupts french container port
le havre france jan afp
strike by french dockers on monday brought container traffic to halt at le
havre france second busiest port the port authority said
the cgt union said all freight workers in le havre and most of the
employees of the port authority had walked off the job to protest major reform
of the ports
under law adopted in july france seven major ports are turning to
private companies to run many of their services in move to make them more
competitive
ferry services to england oil deliveries and security services at le havre were
not however disrupted by the national strike called by the cgt union le havre
is the largest container port in france
novartis says seeking full ownership of alcon
basel switzerland jan afp
swiss pharmaceutical group novartis said on monday that it had bought
controlling stake in the world biggest eye care firm alcon from nestle and
that it was seeking full ownership of alcon
novartis intends to gain full ownership of alcon inc by first completing the
april agreement with nestle to acquire percent majority stake in
global leader in eye care and subsequently entering into an all share direct
merger with alcon for the remaining percent minority stake said the
pharmaceutical giant in statement
novartis had announced deal with nestle last year to buy about quarter of
alcon for billion dollars with an option to purchase nestle additional
percent majority stake from january
on monday the drug company said it has decided to acquire the percent stake
for billion dollars billion euros and that it would also buy
remaining alcon shares held by minority shareholders for billion dollars
this values the complete purchase of the eye care firm at billion dollars
the pharmaceutical group said full ownership of the eye care firm could generate
cost savings as well as provide the much needed clarity on alcon future
this is the right time to simplify alcon ownership to eliminate uncertainties
for employees and shareholders said daniel vasella novartis chairman and
chief executive
it will also allow us to strengthen innovation power by combining amp
efforts and grow our global market presence thanks to our complementary product
portfolios he added
the group acknowledged that job cuts would be made following the acquisition
although it said that the strong growth outlook in eye care is anticipated to
compensate for integration related workforce reductions
tennis russians win thriller against germany
perth australia jan afp
elena dementieva service yips didn stop russia edging past germany in
their hopman cup group tie here monday
as has often been the case during her career dementieva struggled to hold serve
and dropped her opening singles match of in disappointing fashion to
youngster sabine lisicki
but igor andreev was able to square the tie by beating philipp kohlschreiber in
the men singles
the russians then claimed the match with gripping win over the
germans in marathon deciding mixed doubles that lasted over two hours
dementieva old service woes surfaced again in her first outing of the year
with the promising lisicki winning in surprisingly one sided
encounter that lasted barely an hour
the year old world number five appeared to have made great strides with her
serve over the past year but was long way off the touch that saw her storm
through her last antipodean campaign
then she won successive tournaments in new zealand and sydney before reaching
the semi finals of last year australian open on the back of match winning
streak
the shaky dementieva serve was broken six times by lisicki and double faults
from her racquet on the final two points of the match took her tally to
horrible in just nine service games
the normally precise dementieva forehand also misfired with confident
lisicki hitting forehand winners to just three
dementieva admitted the quality of lisicki play exposed her own lack of match
practice
wish had more preparation for match like that the russian said
it was similar story in the mixed doubles with more double faults from
dementieva who was only able to hold serve twice from five attempts
however her groundstrokes improved noticeably in the mixed and heavy hitting
from she and andreev who by contrast was always able to serve himself out of
any trouble enabled them to scramble the win
while it left dementieva with something to ponder the women singles match was
tremendous start to the new season for the year old lisicki who was
troubled by ankle and shoulder injuries in the second half of but still
ended the year ranked nd after climbing up from
ve been working really hard in the off season and am really happy to win
that match she said
want to get higher in the rankings did great jump last year and am
looking forward to this year
andreev leveled the tie by continuing his dominance of kohlschreiber with his
eighth win in as many meetings with the german
afghanistan karzai sacks convicted kabul mayor
kabul jan afp
afghan president hamid karzai has fired the mayor of kabul who was sentenced to
jail term over corruption charges last month and appointed an engineer to
take over in the capital his office said monday
mir abdul ahad sahebi was convicted in primary court in early december and
sentenced to four years in prison on charges linked to corruption he was
released on bail pending appeal and swiftly returned to work
karzai had previously defended sahebi calling him clean person and ordering
an investigation into the charges against him
the former mayor mr sahebi has been fired presidential spokesman siamak
herawi told afp
the president has appointed new mayor for kabul the new mayor is mohammad
younus nawhandish he is civil engineer the spokesman said
herawi said however that the dismissal was not linked to the conviction
no it has nothing to do with the court case the president just wanted to have
new and capable person in the job he said
the sentencing of sahebi was the first high profile corruption conviction since
karzai came under renewed western pressure to crack down on graft after winning
second term in presidential elections last year
abbas discusses peace process with egypt mubarak
cairo jan afp
palestinian president mahmud abbas met on monday with egyptian president hosni
mubarak for talks on relaunching peace negotiations with israel the official
mena news agency reported
the two met at the egyptian resort of sharm el sheikh and discussed efforts to
revive the peace process efforts to end settlement activity lifting the
blockade on the palestinian people and achieving reconciliation between
palestinian factions mena said
abbas arrived on sunday and met with egypt intelligence chief omar suleiman
before heading to sharm el sheikh he will later travel to qatar kuwait and
turkey
his visit to egypt comes almost week after israeli prime minister benjamin
netanyahu met mubarak in cairo about the stalled peace process and as diplomats
said washington was drafting letters of guarantee for the peace talks
according to israel maariv newspaper washington is pushing plan to restart
israeli palestinian peace talks that foresees reaching final deal in two
years
under the plan the israelis and palestinians will immediately start final
status talks that were suspended during the gaza war year ago and mubarak
would press abbas to agree to the deal maariv said
us president barack obama has repeatedly called on the two sides to resume peace
talks but the palestinians have demanded israel first freeze all settlement
activity and commit to framework for the talks to include that the borders of
future palestinian state encompass all of their land israel occupied in
the palestinians have insisted that mostly arab east jerusalem occupied by
israel in and later annexed in move not recognised by the international
community be the capital of their future state
abbas suspended peace talks with israel after it entered day war with
hamas the islamist rulers of gaza that killed more than palestinians and
left swathes of gaza devastated thirteen israelis were killed
hamas takeover of gaza in which shrank abbas powerbase to the west
bank left deep rift between palestinians that have also hampered peace talks
with israel
egyptian foreign minister ahmed abul gheit and suleiman are meanwhile planning
to visit washington on january for talks with officials there
two german skiers found dead in austria
vienna jan afp
two german skiers were found dead off piste on monday in vorarlberg in western
austria after having fallen into ravine rescue officials said
the man and woman were and years old and were found near the diedamskopf
station officials said
three people have died at austrian ski stations since the start of the year
tennis emotional henin makes winning return
brisbane australia jan afp
an emotional justine henin said she was almost overwhelmed by the occasion when
she made triumphant return to the women tennis tour at the brisbane
international on monday
henin playing her first match since may upset second seeded russian nadia
petrova in the first round of the season opening tournament
the former world number one proved she can still be force in the women game
as she showed all her steely determination to defeat petrova
while her trademark backhand may have been little rusty in patches henin was
able to convert break points at key moments in both sets to clinch victory
but despite looking in complete control throughout henin conceded she had been
affected by her emotions beforehand
ve been waiting for this moment for so long and finally walked on the
court and the crowd cheered was really touched by the crowd she said
at the beginning everything seemed very big the stadium all the people
not used to it any more
but now so happy she added
happy about what did on the court happy about my feelings and what
ve done and the winning of course
henin retired from tennis in may while ranked number one in the world
saying she had lost the desire to compete at the top level
however soon after compatriot kim clijsters won the us open after making
her own comeback henin announced that she too was coming out of retirement
clijsters also playing in brisbane won her first round match on sunday and
organisers will be delighted that there is still chance the two belgian rivals
will meet in saturday final
it different henin petrova said
to me it looks like she playing better tennis than before she retired
the russian said that instead of playing game of attrition the newly
aggressive henin was trying to win points earlier in the rallies which made her
even harder to play against
henin now plays sesil karatancheva of kazakhstan in the second round ahead of
probable quarter final against seventh seeded hungarian melinda czink
if successful there she would likely face serbia ana ivanovic in the semi
finals
ivanovic also looking to reclaim her place in the top survived big scare
against australia jelena dokic before winning
the serbian pin up is desperate to recover from disappointing which saw
her slump to in the world after run of injuries and poor form
it my goal to get back to the top and play the championship at the end of
the year she said
last year was tough year but learned lot from it and think it helped
me lot to be mentally stronger and to know more what want and not take
anything for granted
this has made me appreciate it more and realise have to work hard for every
match and not just expect it to come
she will now play timea bacsinszky in the second round following the swiss
player win over russian qualifier alla kudryavtseva
there was minor upset when russia anastasia pavlyuchenkova beat fifth seeded
countrywoman alisa kleybanova while other winners included czech
lucie safarova hungary agnes szavay and roberta vinci of italy
euro manufacturing output narrowly up in december survey
brussels jan afp
manufacturing activity across the eurozone expanded in december but at slower
pace than initially detected and with the shadow of price pressures building
survey showed on monday
the nation euro currency bloc purchasing managers index pmi for the
manufacturing sector published by data and research group markit rose to
points in december from points in november
it was the third month running in which the widely watched reading has been
above the crucial boom or bust line but the readings were uneven
output of investment goods and consumer goods rose fastest while new orders
increased for the fifth consecutive month the rate of job losses eased slightly
and italy joined france and germany in taking sigificant leap forward
however it was the th month in row in which people overall left the
workforce instead of joining it and irish output fell while the downturns in
crisis hit greece and spain remained entrenched
the final december readings confirm that eurozone manufacturing ended the year
on positive note with the headline pmi at month high said markit
senior economist rob dobson
although this was tempered by the lower than flash outcomes for the output and
new orders indexes the rates of increase signalled for both these variables
still represent marked turnaround from the unprecedented downturn at the start
of the year he added
the nations which use the euro and the wider nation european union home
to half billion people posted expansion in the third quarter percent
in the eurozone area and percent for the whole eu
malaysia muslims plan protest over allah ruling
kuala lumpur jan afp
malaysian muslims plan nationwide protest on friday after court ruled last
week that catholics can refer to god as allah the organiser said
syed hassan syed ali secretary general of malay rights group pribumi perkasa
told afp on monday that the group would launch protest outside major mosques
we want the government to revoke the court decision sure the word allah is
only to be used by muslims there is no doubt about it he told afp
the government has called for calm and said it would file an appeal some
muslims claim the use of the word allah will confuse their community
the row is among string of religious disputes that have erupted in recent
years straining relations between muslim malays and minority ethnic chinese and
indians who fear the country is being islamised
religion and language are sensitive issues in multiracial malaysia which
experienced deadly race riots in
meanwhile catholic newspaper website which was taken down by hackers over the
weekend was up and running on monday its editor said
the website came online again this morning after it was hacked twice since
saturday night editor father lawrence andrew told afp
our technicians are closely monitoring the situation we had found the attacks
came from number of places it not just one person it concerted thing
he added
tennis brisbane international results second update
brisbane australia jan afp
results from the second day of the brisbane international tennis tournament on
monday denotes seed
first round
men
richard gasquet fra bt jarkko nieminen fin
marc gicquel fra bt philipp petzschner ger
wayne odesnik usa bt arnaud clement fra
alejandro falla col bt jeremy chardy fra
harel levy isr bt michael llodra fra
thomaz bellucci bra bt juan ignacio chela arg
women
roberta vinci ita bt sara errani ita
timea bacsinszky sui bt alla kudryavtseva rus
ana ivanovic srb bt jelena dokic aus
sesil karatantcheva kaz bt casey dellacqua aus
lucie safarova cze bt anna lena groenefeld ger
justine henin bel bt nadia petrova rus
anastasia pavlyuchenkova rus bt alisa kleybanova rus
agnes szavay hun bt peng shuai chn
indonesian inflation hits record low pct in govt
jakarta jan afp
indonesia posted record low inflation of percent in the statistics
agency said on monday as the economic downturn and dip in the cost of world
oil dragged on prices
these two factors mean there are no drastic increases in the prices of
commodities like food and transport so they remain very low ciptadana
securities head of sales john teja told afp
the inflation this year is record low last year inflation was nearly
percent he added
indonesia consumer price index rose percent in december compared to the
same month year earlier the inflation rate for the full year is defined as
the year on year rise in december
on month inflation edged up to percent in december from negative
percent in november as processed food and clothing prices increased the agency
said
year on year core inflation which excludes volatile food items and government
set prices was percent compared with percent in november
clothing prices rose percent on the month while processed food prices were
percent higher agency chairman rusman heriawan told reporters
transportation and communications prices increased percent from november
housing and energy costs gained percent and healthcare costs were
percent higher he added
bank indonesia is expected to keep its key interest rate steady at percent
when it meets wednesday
dow jones newswires contributed to this story
top china dissident appeals subversion conviction lawyer
beijing jan afp
leading chinese dissident liu xiaobo has appealed his conviction on subversion
charges but is holding out only faint hopes that his year prison term will be
overturned his lawyer said monday
liu xiaobo directly handed his appeal over to the court on december his
lawyer shang baojun told afp
after considering his case he decided to make the appeal effort but he
understands that there is not big chance that the verdict will be changed
liu was convicted by beijing court on christmas day and sentenced to years
in prison for subversion prompting condemnation from the united states the
european union and other western governments
he was detained in december after co authoring charter bold manifesto
calling for the reform of china one party communist system and the protection
of human rights
rights groups lashed out at what they called toughening of the political
climate in china given the heavy jail term for liu year old writer who was
previously jailed over the tiananmen pro democracy protests
shang who met with liu on monday said under normal conditions the appeals
trial should be held within one month of the appeal being lodged
the lawyer urged the international community to continue their calls for liu
release saying more pressure on beijing could lead to successful appeal or at
least better prison treatment for the veteran dissident
we hope that everyone continues to make efforts to seek liu release shang
said
the subversion charge which was also related to anti government articles
written by liu that were posted on the internet is routinely brought against
those who voice opposition to china ruling communist party
rights activists accuse china of deliberately pushing such cases through the
courts during the western holiday season to attract less global attention
powerful quake strikes near solomon islands
honiara solomon islands jan afp
about homes were destroyed or damaged when powerful magnitude
earthquake rocked the solomon islands on monday causing panic but no major
