LTTE was created by India

Two former commanders of the Army and Air Force last week came down hard on India over comments made by the Indian National Security Adviser that Sri Lanka should not seek weapons from Pakistan or China.

Former Army Chief Hamilton Wanasinghe said India should not tell Sri Lanka from where it should purchase military hardware or not. It is Sri Lanka's choice, so the request is 'unfair'," General Wanasinghe who commanded the Army from 1988 to 1991 told the Daily Mirror.

Praising Pakistan and China for their continued support to Sri Lanka, the former Army Chief also said we had to depend on Pakistan and China at critical points of time in the past. "We can't antagonize those two countries, as they were there when we needed them."

Accusing neighbouring India of creating Sri Lanka's conflict, the former Army Commander said India was partly responsible for creating the problem for us. "The LTTE was created by India. That's the truth."

Meanwhile, former Air Force Chief Air Vice Marshal Harry Gunatilake said Sri Lanka had the freedom to go to any country to purchase weapons.

Extracted from,
http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_36720.shtml

Asia lifts the second edition of the Afro-Asia Cup

The Asian captain won the toss and elected to bat first.

But things didn’t go right for the Asians at first. Africa was obviously on top of the game as Asia kept loosing wickets at regular intervals.

The scoreboard read 5/72 when the Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene and Indian Wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni came to the team’s rescue. Elegant centuries from both batsmen ensured another successive 300+ total for them.

The two right-handers rebuilt the innings in a record breaking 218-run stand for the sixth wicket. Jayawardene recorded his 10th century in a 106-ball- 107 hitting 9 fours and two sixes while Dhoni was much quicker with 15 fours and 5 sixes in his unbeaten 97-ball-138, his third ODI century.

Read more,
http://lankacricket.wordpress.com/2007/06/10/
asia-lifts-the-second-edition-of-the-afro-asia-cup/

Sri Lanka PM expresses regret

Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake on Sunday expressed `regret' over Thursday's eviction of 376 "jobless Tamils" living temporarily in lodges in Colombo and suburbs to their places of permanent residence in the north and east.

Addressing a news conference here, Mr. Wickramanayake said his Government accepted "responsibility" for what happened and said such incidents would not recur. However, he was not ready at this juncture to pin the blame on anyone.

On Friday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa called for an immediate report from Inspector-General of Police Victor Perera on the `manner' of eviction, amid reports that the Tamils were put to great hardship and inconvenience.

Read more,
http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/11/stories/2007061115040100.htm

Sri Lankan Operator Announced Network Expansion Plans

Sri Lanka's Dialog Telekom has signed an investment agreement with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BoI) to invest a further US$300 million in the country's Telecommunications and Media sectors within the next 2 years.

The investment will be targeted at large scale expansion of services across all regions of Sri Lanka. Associated infrastructure investments would include expansion of the company's GSM and 3G mobile networks, introduction of Value Added Services and the establishment of Broadband transmission networks across the island based on Fibre Optic and Microwave transmission technologies.

The Company will also make substantial investments in the provision of International Bandwidth to Sri Lanka's ICT sector via the SeMeWe4 submarine cable.

Read more,
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/24271.php