in measure of the bad blood between them today rajapakse was recently asked
if he had made any poor choices during his first four years in charge to which
he replied choosing my army commander was one of them
the relationship took turn for the worse when local media reported fonseka
horoscope indicated he was powerful and would one day be president making waves
in country where such readings are taken more seriously than opinion polls
fonseka who like rajapakse faces pressure from the un to submit to war crimes
investigation over the conduct of the fight against the tigers is lover of
boxing and swimming and served as an infantry officer for years
in april he survived an assassination attempt when tiger rebels targeted
him with suicide bomb tactic they used with deadly precision on number of
occasions during their fight against the colombo government
though seriously wounded fonseka bounced back to unleash sri lanka biggest
ever military onslaught which wiped out the tigers but may also have killed
civilians in its latter stages according to un estimates
fonseka still carries the scars from the suicide blast and proudly shows
them off in topless picture revealing his darkened tissue used in campaign
literature to bolster his image
his supporters see in him an honest leader who would bring discipline to the
country while detractors see future military dictator who is trying to claim
too much personal credit for the war victory
he says he has become politician only reluctantly
was not interested in getting into politics all wanted to do was retire
and be with my family fonseka told afp soon after entering the battle for
ballots won the war but the president failed to win the peace
he frequently accuses his charismatic former boss of nepotism and corruption
rajapakse immediate family and close relatives are in key positions charged
with control of defence ports and the reconstruction of war ravaged areas
they say rajapakse brothers run the country but the truth is that my
brothers have delivered results the year old president told reporters
during recent meeting
his younger brother gotabhaya is the top official running the defence ministry
another is minister of ports while third manages rebuilding in the former war
zones
rajapakse became the villain for international rights groups after dozen
journalists were killed or disappeared since he took office in although
he was leading campaigner for press freedom when he was in opposition
addressing critics who argued that children of poor farmers were enlisting in
the military while the upper middle classes were insulated from the horrors of
the war rajapakse saw his second son yoshita joining the navy as cadet
his public relations with the electorate are often spontaneous despite fears of
attacks rajapakse thrives on carrying babies and patting party workers on the
back and attending public rallies
in brief movie career he took on the role of an army general in the
sinhalese film nomiyana minusun the immortals
both presidential candidates had their schooling in sri lanka uncommon in
country where the political elite are generally educated abroad
fonseka has no political credentials and frequently appears uncomfortable out of
uniform particularly when facing the media his public speaking is in stark
contrast to rajapakse fiery rhetoric
he won us green card lottery which gives him residency rights in the united
states his two daughters aged and are studying in the central us city of
oklahoma
korea lashes out at seoul preemptive strike plan
seoul jan afp
north korea on sunday lashed out at south korea plan to launch preemptive
strike to thwart any nuclear attack from pyongyang as an open declaration of
war state media said
the north general staff of the korean people army said the south korean
defence chief recent remarks on preemptive strike had created grave
situation which could lead to war at any moment
they the armed forces will take prompt and decisive military actions against
any attempt of the south korean puppet authorities and blow up the major
targets including the commanding centre it said according to the korean
central news agency
the north warning came days after the south defence minister kim tae young
reiterated that seoul would launch preemptive strike to frustrate any nuclear
attacks by the communist regime
we would have to strike right away if we detected clear intention to attack
south korea with nuclear weapons kim told seoul forum on wednesday
it would be too late and the damage would be too big if in the case of north
korean nuclear attack we had to cope with the attack
the north warned in the statement sunday that the armed forces regarded this as
the south state policy and was an open declaration of war
kim made similar remarks in when he was chairman of the south joint
chiefs of staff
north korea also reacted angrily at the time temporarily expelling south korean
officials from seoul funded industrial park at kaesong just north of the
heavily fortified border
international efforts to bring pyongyang back to six party nuclear disarmament
talks have so far made little headway
north korea abandoned the talks last april month before defiantly conducting
second atomic bomb test following its first in which soon led to united
nations sanctions on the communist state
its foreign ministry repeated last week that it would not return to the talks
with the united states china south korea russia and japan until the sanctions
are lifted
the ministry also renewed demand for early discussions on peace pact aimed
at formally ending the war
the united states and south korea have rejected the demands saying the north
must first come back to the disarmament talks and show it is serious about
scrapping its atomic programmes
us assistant secretary of state kurt campbell will visit japan and south korea
early next month to discuss regional security issues including ways to revive
the six party talks
south korean foreign minister yu myung hwan said friday he hopes talks on north
korea nuclear disarmament can resume next month but reaffirmed that sanctions
will remain in force until progress is made
he said china and other participants were making efforts to restart the six
nation talks last held in december
hope the six party talks may resume before or after the lunar new year
february yu told journalists
tennis zheng first chinese ever into melbourne quarters
melbourne jan afp
history making zheng jie says it not unreasonable to hope for two chinese
players to make the semi finals of this year australian open
the year old world number made the bold claim after beating st seeded
ukrainian alona bondarenko on sunday to become the first chinese
player ever to make the quarter finals in melbourne
her reward for the victory is last eight showdown against either dinara safina
or maria kirilenko
li na plays her fourth round match on monday against fourth seed caroline
wozniacki and zheng said she would not be surprised if her countrywoman joined
her in the quarter finals
think australia is lucky for me because won my first grand slam doubles
title in australia with yan zi zheng said
so so how do you say happy in the quarter finals also
but think we can go further because you can see li na in the fourth round
hope both chinese players can be in the semi finals
you know now it the quarter final think everybody has big chance to
make the semi finals
zheng slugged it out for one hour and minutes against bondarenko proving
slightly steadier than her ukrainian opponent in match where both women
struggled to hold their serves
think my body and mind was ready today for tough match because know she
is very tough player because she just won last week in hobart beating zheng
in the quarter finals she said
zheng said her success along with li was giving tennis in china massive
boost
feel tennis is very quickly going up in popularity in china she said
adding that it was combination of the high profile china open and the success
of the top players
you can see lot of the chinese newspapers coming from china she said
pointing to the large number of chinese reporters in the interview room
think it started to become popular from li ting and tian tian won the
gold medal from the olympic games
but when it was pointed out that it was only the women who were doing well and
not the men zheng had ready answer
maybe men need to work harder she said with laugh
hope we have the men because we can play the mixed doubles
figure skating us championships results
spokane washington jan afp
results here on saturday from the united states figure skating championships
qualifier for the vancouver winter olympics
ladies
final standings after free skate
rachael flatt pts mirai nagasu ashley wagner
sasha cohen christina gao amanda dobbs
free skate
rachael flatt ashley wagner mirai nagasu
sasha cohen christina gao beatrisa liang amanda
dobbs
ice dance
final standings after free dance
meryl davis charlie white tanith belbin ben agosto
emily samuelson evan bates kim navarro brent bommentre
madison chock greg zuerlein madison hubbell keiffer hubbell
free dance
meryl davis charlie white tanith belbin ben agosto
emily samuelson evan bates kim navarro brent bommentre
madison chock greg zuerlein madison hubbell keiffer hubbell
six wounded in ambush near us mine in indonesia police
timika indonesia jan afp
six people were wounded sunday in shooting ambush near us company freeport
mcmoran massive gold and copper mine in indonesia eastern papua region
police said
three policemen and three mine workers were hurt in the ambush on convoy of
buses and land cruisers heading to the coastal city of timika from the grasberg
mine senior police officer mada aksanta told reporters
we re combing the area of the incident to gather evidence we re still
investigating who the perpetrators are aksanta said
one of the employees was foreigner james lockhart who received wound near
his left eye from flying glass he added
papua province police spokesman agus riyanto told reporters lockhart is us
national and he as well as two injured policemen are being flown to hospital
in jakarta for treatment
the national police and the military are still chasing the shooters he
added
the attack is the latest in string of mysterious ambushes on the road linking
the mine with timika
australian mine technician drew grant was killed in an attack on july last
year while freeport security guard and policeman were killed the following
day
the freeport mine sits on some of the world richest gold reserves and the us
company local subsidiary is the largest single taxpayer to the indonesian
government
papua resource rich region on the western end of new guinea island has been
the site of low level separatist insurgency since its incorporation into
indonesia in the
kraft promises investment in cadbury after takeover
london jan afp
the strategy director of us giant kraft foods vowed sunday to invest in british
chocolate maker cadbury and create more jobs in the business here as it seeks to
head off concern about its takeover
michael osanloo told the sunday telegraph newspaper that kraft would respect the
history of cadbury and the integrity of the brands after it agreed to buy the
british firm in deal worth billion pounds billion dollars
as far as cadbury in the uk goes it is our hope desire and our plan to invest
in cadbury he said
would fully expect that once we can actually look at what is going on and
have more informed perspective that this should down the road increase
manufacturing jobs in the uk
genuinely believe that we can create tremendous amount of savings in things
like procurement on how we source cocoa dairy sugar packaging and
advertising
am very optimistic that the vast majority of our synergy savings will come
from things that do not affect jobs
prime minister gordon brown said this week his government had sought assurances
from kraft about the future of the more than workers at cadbury amid
public dismay at the sell off of such an iconic british brand
osanloo said it was unfortunate that cadbury had previously been cutting jobs
at its two major plants in britain adding would love to be able to figure
out way to do something other than what the current plan is
malaysian police hold six over indonesian maid murder
kuala lumpur jan afp
malaysian police in southern malacca state said sunday six people had been
detained over the murder of an indonesian maid
state police chief rodwan mohamad yusof said year old nurul aida from bogak
in indonesia is believed to have died at her employer home last week
it is understood the employer ordered woman from the agency that hired the
maid to take the body away and provide replacement but rodwan said no
undertaker would accept the body without death certificate
rodwan said the agency worker went to the indonesian embassy which directed her
to hospital where police were told about the death of the maid whom rodwan
said was believed to have been working illegally since her passport expired last
year
we have arrested six people including the maid employers an elderly couple
their son the maid agent and two helpers over the death rodwan told afp
my officers are now trying to determine how the maid died and received the
injuries consistent with post mortem finding of blunt force trauma he said
adding the case has been classified as murder
string of worker abuse cases in malaysia have strained relations with
indonesia and prompted jakarta to temporarily ban sending domestic workers to
the neighbouring nation since june last year
malaysia said last month it would set up task force with indonesia to look
into the grievances of indonesian maids but expressed confidence the ban would
be lifted in the next few months
one of asia largest importers of labour malaysia depends heavily on domestic
workers with about from indonesia but it has been criticised for not
introducing legislation to enshrine their rights and conditions
tennis murray zheng rewrite open history books
melbourne jan afp
andy murray and zheng jie rewrote the australian open history books as they
powered into the quarter finals on sunday
scotland murray tamed big serving john isner to make the
last eight for the only time and becoming the first briton to get that far since
john lloyd in
his reward is clash with either defending champion and second seed rafael
nadal or unseeded croat ivo karlovic who play later
zheng achievement was equally impressive with the unseeded chinese upsetting
ukrainian st seed alona bondarenko
it gave her the distinction of becoming the first chinese player to make the
quarters at melbourne park as she and li na who plays her fourth round match
on monday continue to popularise the game in their homeland
the victory sets her up with crack at either second seed dinara safina or
fellow russian maria kirilenko
murray the us open finalist showcased his exciting strokeplay against the
ft in metre tall american and has yet to drop set in his four
victories at the year opening grand slam
ve been moving pretty well and played some great shots out there so
haven got much to complain about so far said the year old
the first set was the key because he is little bit tired after he won the
auckland tournament last week and he had some long matches and he winning
doubles here as well
zheng disposed of bondarenko in one hour minutes on hisense arena
proving to be marginally steadier than the ukrainian in match where both women
struggled to hold their serves
the stage was set for tense battle from the opening game when bondarenko broke
zheng but that was the first of many in topsy turvy opening set
the second set began as the first ended with zheng breaking bondarenko only to
lose her serve immediately
there was another break of serve each until at when zheng broke bondarenko
to love and then held firm as she served for the match pumping her fist with
delight
think australia is lucky for me because won my first grand slam doubles
title in australia so also very happy in the singles quarter final
she said
hope both me and li na can be in the semi finals
justine henin attempts to keep her fairytale comeback on track when she faces
fellow belgian yanina wickmayer later sunday with both players having plenty to
prove
henin is still finding her feet after an month retirement and admitted after
her last round match that she was struggling to recover peak fitness
world number wickmayer is in better shape after being forced to go through
qualifying after failing to register with organisers in time after having
doping ban suspended
third seed svetlana kuznetsova is also in action but has had limited
preparation after her third round match ran until nearly am on saturday
the russian takes on th seed nadia petrova who is on high after crushing
kim clijsters in the third round with the winner playing henin or wickmayer for
place in the semis
seventh seed andy roddick will aim to join murray in the quarters when he takes
on chilean th seed fernando gonzalez in an evening match
the prize will be showdown with us open champion juan martin del potro or th
seeded marin cilic of croatia
nba gibson three pointer lifts cavs over thunder
cleveland ohio jan afp
daniel gibson was an unlikely hero for cleveland saturday draining three
pointer with seconds left to help the cavaliers to nba victory over
oklahoma city
cavaliers star lebron james scored points with assists and nine rebounds
shaquille neal added season high points as the cavaliers won their fourth
straight game
gibson three pointer put cleveland up the thunder kevin durant had
chance to tie but his shot with nine tenths of second remaining was blocked
by james who then made two free throws
durant then hit shot at the buzzer but it was too late for oklahoma city who
lost in the waning seconds for the second straight night
gibson was in the starting lineup for the first time since december only
because of injuries to point guards mo williams and delonte west
gibson didn record an assist at point guard but his shot was crucial
james seized the rebound after thunder miss and drove the length of the floor
before finding gibson who made his third three pointer of the game gibson
finished with points
durant had points and russell westbrook added for the thunder
china to step up efforts to avert overheating analysts
beijing jan afp
china is expected to further clamp down on rampant lending in the months ahead
and possibly even raise interest rates to prevent its blistering economy from
overheating analysts said
the prospects for fiscal tightening have increased following the release
thursday of data showing the world third largest economy expanded by
percent in and percent in the fourth quarter analysts said
the fastest quarterly growth rate in two years and the biggest rise in inflation
in months has increased the chances of further tightening measures as beijing
seeks to maintain steady economic growth analysts said
we expect inflation to continue rising throughout this year with additional
tightening steps including rate hikes said citigroup economists ken peng and
shen minggao in research report
beijing has already moved this month to calm growing inflationary pressures and
the threat of asset bubbles caused by soaraway bank lending which last year
nearly doubled from
the people bank of china on thursday raised the interest rate on its benchmark
three month treasury bills for the second time in two weeks in bid to deter
new lending
it followed an earlier move on its benchmark one year treasury bills
chinese banks have been ordered to increase their capital reserves
effectively limiting the amount of money they can lend out amid mounting
fears over bad debts as consumers go on spending spree on property and cars
as economic growth heats up analysts said they expect policymakers to push
reserve ratios even higher and further increase rates on treasury bills before
resorting to more aggressive measures such as hiking interest rates
we look for minor acceleration in quantitative tightening through lending
restrictions and raising the reserve requirement ratio said credit suisse
research analyst tao dong
interest rates would likely stay on hold until inflation went above three
percent or the us federal reserve raised its own rates tao said
raising rates before the us does so may encourage investors to buy the
relatively higher yielding yuan denominated assets exacerbating inflation and
putting pressure on the yuan to appreciate
china consumer price index rose percent year on year in december and
analysts expect full year inflation to exceed three percent
the index fell percent over with china only emerging from an almost
year long bout of deflation in november
moody economy com associate economist alaistair chan said rumours of an
imminent interest rate hike were likely to prove unfounded
while this is possible it seems much more dramatic step than the government
is willing to take he said
but chan said he expected to see further tightening measures
these include even higher bill yields increased bill auctions higher capital
reserve ratios and public and private discouragement of bank lending
an increase in interest rates is still expected to happen but mid at the
earliest he said
last week premier wen jiabao said beijing was carefully monitoring the risks
associated with its hefty pump priming of last year which included four
trillion yuan billion dollar stimulus package and state sanctioned bank
lending
wen comments appeared to boost the likelihood that china could exit its
aggressive stimulus policy and apply the brakes
key dates in sri lanka recent past
colombo jan afp
sri lanka is staging its first peace time presidential election after declaring
victory in its decades old conflict with the tamil tigers
here are the key dates
armed with just revolver velupillai prabhakaran forms tamil militant group
that eventually becomes the liberation tigers of tamil eelam ltte
sri lanka adopts presidential system of government borrowing elements
from the french us and british constitutions
july
ltte ambushes an army patrol killing soldiers in the jaffna peninsula and
sparking anti tamil riots elsewhere that leave about people dead
july
sri lanka opens first direct talks with tamil guerrillas they fail
july
india and sri lanka reach agreement on deployment of an indian peacekeeping
force india loses troops at the hands of the ltte and withdraws in march
leaving the tigers in control of large swathes of northern sri lanka
may
former indian premier rajiv gandhi killed allegedly by an ltte suicide bomber
may
sri lankan president ranasinghe premadasa killed by ltte suicide bomber
october opposition presidential candidate gamini dissanayake is
assassinated by tiger suicide bomber in colombo
december
sri lankan army captures the jaffna peninsula fighting escalates
october
the united states declares the ltte foreign terrorist organisation
december
president chandrika kumaratunga is wounded in suicide bomb attack at her final
re election campaign rally in colombo
february
britain outlaws the ltte as terrorist organisation followed by canada and
australia the european union follows with similar ban
february
government and tamil tiger rebels sign norwegian brokered ceasefire agreement
december
at peace talks in norway the government and rebels agree to share power with
the minority tamils enjoying autonomy in the mainly tamil speaking north and
east despite several rounds the talks break down
march
renegade tamil tiger commander muralitharan known as karuna leads
damaging split from main rebel movement
november
mahinda rajapakse narrowly wins presidential elections which were boycotted by
the tamil tigers
january
sri lanka withdraws from the ceasefire agreement and steps up attacks against
the tigers
march
the united nations human rights chief says both sides in the conflict could be
guilty of war crimes
may
the un security council for the first time asks warring parties to spare
civilians as the world body describes fighting in the last remaining patch of
tiger territory as bloodbath for civilians
may
defence officials say prabhakaran and his two deputies are shot dead while
trying to flee advancing troops
army chief lieutenant general sarath fonseka declares an end to military
operations
november
sri lanka government announces presidential elections two years ahead of
schedule
december
president mahinda rajapakse submits papers to seek re election at the january
election he is challenged by his former army chief sarath fonseka and
other candidates
sri lanka factfile
colombo jan afp
key facts about sri lanka which holds its first ever peace time presidential
election on january
government presidential system with parliament both are separately elected
for six year term with the president having executive power local government
through provincial councils established in
electorate million men and women over the age of years voting at over
polling booths manned by over officials and police
population million population growth percent
ethnicity sinhalese percent sri lankan tamils percent moors
percent indian tamils percent
religion buddhists percent hindus percent christians
muslims percent
poverty population earning below two dollars day percent
literacy percent
separatism separatist campaign by tamil tiger rebels began in and was
declared over in may when government forces killed the leaders the un
estimates the conflict claimed to lives between and
economy main exports are tea clothing and labour while the island imports all
its oil requirements
sri lanka has advanced as middle income country with gdp per capita income
at provisional dollars in
foreign reserves fell dramatically in early and the island received
billion dollar bailout from the imf
military voluntary service army navy airforce and civil defence force
estimated at
defence the island budgeted billion dollars for defence spending in
calendar or nearly third of government revenue budget for not
presented yet
geography sri lanka has surface area of square kilometres
square miles located off the southern tip of the indian subcontinent the
teardrop shaped tropical island is separated from its giant neighbour by
narrow strip of sea known as the palk straits
sources department of census and statistics the central bank of sri lanka
official military sources united nations
un climate panel reviewing claim natural disasters report
london jan afp
the un climate panel is re examining its claim that global warming is linked to
worsening natural disasters after doubts were raised about the evidence
british newspaper reported on sunday
the news brings fresh embarrassment to the intergovernmental panel on climate
change ipcc which this week admitted errors in forecast about melting
himalayan glaciers that was included in landmark report
that report which won the panel nobel peace prize and has become
benchmark in climate science also contained claim that rapidly rising costs
from events such as floods and hurricanes were linked to climate change
according to the sunday times however the claim was based on an unpublished
study that had not been subjected to routine scientific scrutiny
when the study was finally published in it included caveat saying we
find insufficient evidence to claim statistical relationship between global
temperature increase and catastrophe losses
the ipcc included the claim despite doubts raised by at least two scientific
reviewers at the time and also failed to issue clarification after the study
was published the sunday times said
professor jean pascal van ypersele climatologist at the universite catholique
de louvain in belgium and the vice chairman of the ipcc told the newspaper that
he would be reviewing the evidence
we are reassessing the evidence and will publish report on natural disasters
and extreme weather with the latest findings despite recent events the ipcc
process is still very rigorous and scientific he said
the ipcc fourth assessment report published in was page opus
whose warning that climate change was on the march spurred politicians around
