Sri Lanka stars top ICC rankings

Sri Lanka's prolific Kumar Sangakkara took over as the No.1 Test batsman after his record-breaking feats in the first Test against England, according to official new rankings.

Sangakkara's teammate Muttiah Muralidaran, who this week overtook retired Shane Warne as the leading wicket-taker, already tops the Test rankings for bowlers on International Cricket Council rankings.

Left-handed Sangakkara, 30, continued his brilliant recent form by making 92 and a match-winning 152 to help Sri Lanka defeat England by 88 runs in the Kandy Test.

Read more,
http://foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,22884286-23212,00.html

South Asian Blood, Sweat, and Tears In The Middle East

Just consider the words of Kumari Indunil, age 23, a former domestic worker in Kuwait:

‘Even if I went to bed at 3:30 a.m., I had to get up by 5:30 a.m… I had continuous work until 1:00 a.m., sometimes 3:00 a.m.... Once I told the employer, “I am a human like you and I need an hour to rest.” She told me, “You have come to work; you are like my shoes, and you have to work tirelessly.”

‘The conditions were getting worse. I told the employer that I wanted to leave but she would not take me to the agency…. [Her husband] would say, “You want to go, you want to go?” and he would pull my hair and beat me with his hands.

He went to the kitchen and took a knife and told me he would kill me, cut me up into little pieces, and put the little pieces of me in the cupboard… By this time they owed me four months’ salary….There are more and more innocent women going abroad, and planning to go.

It is up to the women to care of themselves. The [Sri Lankan] government gets a good profit from us; they must take care of us. They must do more to protect us.’

Read more,
http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=120607065031

EuroAsian satellite radio station planned, focusing on Sri Lanka

The World Institute of Asian Studies (WIAS) is planning a 24-hour radio station called EuroAsian Radio. The WIAS is a non-profit organisation registered in Sweden which publishes the Asian Tribune, aimed at the Sri Lankan diaspora.

According to the editor of Asian Tribune, K T Rajasingham, EuroAsian Radio will be the new live voice of the WIAS, broadcasting to Asia, Australasia, America, Africa and Europe simultaneously.

EuroAsian Radio will a 24-hour service. There will be a daily 12 hour English language broadcast with hourly news, sports, weather and background news, views, reviews, comments, discussions, interviews etc. The other 12 hours will be allotted to hourly programmes in the major Asian languages. Accordingly, there will be daily one hour Tamil language and one hour Sinhala language programmes. There will be special websites for the Tamil and Sinhala language services with 24 hour availability of the latest one hour programme.

Read more,
http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/euroasian-satellite-