Middlesex welcome Vaas

Chaminda Vaas will make his Middlesex debut in the LV County Championship Division Two match against Derbyshire at the County Ground.

The Sri Lanka left-arm seamer is named in a 13-man squad following his belated arrival in England after World Cup duty.

However, Andrew Strauss, who scored a century in Middlesex’s rain-affected draw with Nottinghamshire last week, is unavailable due to England commitments and Indian spinner Murali Kartik misses out as he awaits the results of a scan on a hamstring injury sustained at Trent Bridge.

Read more,
http://www.ecb.co.uk/domestic/lv-county-championship/derbys-midd,12838,EN.html

Photo,
http://content-sl.cricinfo.com/ci/content/image/263842.html

Sri Lanka attracts $150 mn investment from India's Bharti Airtel for mobile network

Sri Lanka's Board of Investment Tuesday said it had given approval for India's largest publicly-listed telecom firm, Bharti Airtel, to be the island's fifth mobile phone operator with an investment of 150 million dollars.

Airtel CEO Narendra Gupta says the firm sees a lot of potential in Sir Lanka's mobile market as the overall penetration rate is still a low 20 percent despite the presence of three fixed line and four mobile operators.

"The initial investment proposal is 150 million dollars and we plan to cover the entire country (with the service)," Gupta said following the signing of the BOI documents.

The firm, having mobile, broadband and telephone and enterprise services, hopes to use infrastructure of the other telecom companies to gain coverage in the country.

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http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?newsID=
1930081308&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=5

UNP trying to whitewash LTTE - JHU Leader

"Politicians trying to obstruct the Government's efforts to save the country from the present national crisis will end up in the dustbin of history," JHU Leader Parliamentarian Ven. Ellawala Medhananda Nayaka Thera said.

Ven. Medhananda Nayaka Thera in a statement issued yesterday said a limited section of the UNP led by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe were making a hue and cry here and abroad calling for the removal of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa from the Defence Secretary's post and making allegations of human right violation in the country when foreign delegations who have visited the country have dismissed such claims.

The UNP today was like a derelict house on the verge of collapse. The UNP Leader unable to protect it, was making wild allegation against the Government like a mentally deranged person.

Read more,
http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/05/15/pol03.asp