Ranil's last gamble: jumping from the frying pan into the fire

At the end of the day, there is no way in which anyone take away from Ranil Wickremesinghe his three major attributes:
1) his insensitive capacity to sell the nation to its enemies in the name of peace which he can't win with appeasement

2) his proven ability to run down his party until only he is left holding the fort and

3) his knack of picking the wrong political partners and issues in the mistaken belief of saving himself, irrespective of what happens to the UNP or the nation.

If you add up all three it amounts to committing political suicide. And he has done it so many times that he now stands out as the nearest thing to a dead man walking.

His failures are legion and in any other democracy he would have resigned and faded out of public life.

But he clings on to the wobbly presidential chair of the UNP promising to take over power tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow which never comes. These promises are essentially to prevent his backbenchers from crossing over. But his frontbenchers and backbenchers have seen through him and they have deserted him. The last remaining talent is K. N. Choksy and he too has decided to leave him sooner or later.

On top of all this comes the news that Tilak Karunaratne, the UNP Treasurer, has resigned citing Wickremesinghe's latest gaffes of belittling Thoppigala and attacking Buddhist monks. The outstanding quality of any leader is to solve problems.

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http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2007/07/29/fea03.asp

ECB officials satisfied with security arrangements

An England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) delegation comprising England cricket director John Carr and security manager Reg Dickson are presently in Sri Lanka making a security assessment ahead of England's tour of Sri Lanka, which starts in the final week of September.

Sri Lanka Cricket tour organizing committee chairman Shibley Vilcassim said the delegation had expressed great satisfaction over the security arrangements made for the tour. "We had a meeting at the SLC headquarters on Friday where they met representatives of the bomb squad, Sri Lanka Army, Ministry Security Division (MSD) and SSPs of all regional police stations where the matches are to be played."

The delegation also visited the match venues and hotels where the England team will be staying. The matches are scheduled to be played in Colombo (SSC and R. Premadasa Stadium), Dambulla, Kandy and Galle.

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http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/australia/content/current/story/304166.html

No Clemency From Family in Rizana Case

A top level Sri Lankan delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Bhaila leaves the Kingdom today after meeting with several Saudi officials to seek clemency for a young Sri Lankan woman who was found guilty of murdering an infant child, opening the way for her to be publicly beheaded.

The woman, who was 17 at the time she came to the Kingdom to work in 2005 as a housemaid for a Saudi family near Riyadh, claims the four-month-old baby she was told to care for accidentally choked to death. The death occurred on the maid’s second week on the job.

Rizana Nafeek was found guilty of murder rather than accidental death on June 16 by a panel of three judges. Earlier this month the Sri Lankan mission in Saudi Arabia succeeded in filing a last-minute appeal, which has temporarily put execution off the table pending the outcome of the Cassation Court trial.

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http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article
=99059&d=29&m=7&y=2007&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom