The Nation GAIN

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

TVS unit enters Sri Lanka´s solid tyre industry

Sun Tyre & Wheel Systems, part of India´s TVS Group, has acquired Watts Lanka Pvt. Ltd., a solid industrial tyre maker in Colombo.

Watts Lanka Pvt. Ltd. was a joint venture between Watts Tyres Ltd. of England and KVK Invest JSC of Bulgaria, principal shareholder in Balkancar Zarya P.L.C.

The acquisition of the Sri Lankan company will not only add much-needed capacity and considerably ease delivery pressures, but also provide strategic location advantages by establishing a base in the world’s center for solid tires. Work already has begun on adding more manufacturing equipment to increase the base capacity in Colombo. Production and shipment from Sri Lanka will commence within the next four weeks, Sun Tyre said.

Sun Tyre generates more than 95 percent of its sales overseas, with distribution across all continents, and despite expanding its manufacturing facilities in India substantially over the past three years, still finds itself seriously short of capacity. Even during the global recession, the company clocked a healthy growth rate of 40 percent, which it said is continuing unabated.

TVS Group describes itself as one of the 10 largest industrial groups in India, with annual sales of more than $6 billion. Among its holdings is TVS Srichraka, an automotive tire maker.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Nafeek's death sentence confirmed

RIYADH: The Supreme Court in Riyadh has endorsed the death sentence given to a Sri Lankan maid who murdered a Saudi infant in 2005, sources from Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry told Arab News Sunday.

A three-member panel of judges from the Dawadami High Court headed by Chief Justice Abdullah Al-Rosaimi found Rizana Nafeek guilty of murdering the four-month-old son of Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al-Otaibi and sentenced her to death on June 16, 2007.

The court heard that Nafeek killed the child after she was asked to bottle-feed him by the sponsor's wife.

The court informed Nafeek that she could file an appeal against her death sentence, which she did.

When the maid's case was referred to the Supreme Court via the Court of Cassation, the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) assigned Saudi law firm Khateb Al-Shammary on a reported SR150,000 contract to defend her.

The Supreme Court referred the case again to the Dawadami court for further clarification on the appeal made by Al-Shammary before issuing its verdict.

Nafeek arrived in Riyadh on May 4, 2005 to work as a housemaid for Al-Otaibi. According to Nafeek’s passport, her date of birth is Feb. 2, 1982, while her birth certificate indicates her actual date of birth as Feb. 4, 1988.

She killed the baby on the afternoon of May 22, 2005. She was arrested by Dawadami police officers the same day, and allegedly confessed to killing the child.

AHRC Executive Director Basil Fernando told Arab News by telephone from Hong Kong Sunday that he would seek the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to resolve the case.

He also appealed to Al-Otaibi to consider sparing Nafeek’s life on humanitarian grounds and give her clemency.

"At the moment, we have no comment on the verdict of the Supreme Court," a senior diplomat from the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh said.

In Sri Lanka, the Rupavahini and MTV Sirasa televisions channels also reported the outcome of Nafeek's case.

A social worker who visited Nafeek in jail during the weekend told Arab News that the maid was fine and desperate to see her parents and family.

"Although the prison authorities are aware of the final verdict, they have not told her, nor have I," the social worker said.

BCCI and SLC fight over Raina's bookie issue

Mumbai, Oct 24 (IBNS) The Indian cricket board has denied a news story that Sri Lanka Cricket had reported against Suresh Raina on association with illegal bookmakers during a tour of the island nation and that it remained non-committal to the complaint.

"The BCCI has just learnt that several media outlets are claiming that Sri Lanka Cricket had submitted a report on Suresh Raina to it, and that no action was taken by the Board on the same.

"The BCCI would like to clarify that it has received no such report from SLC. The claims being made by a section of the media are totally baseless and false," said N. Srinivasan

Hony. Secretary, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in a media release on Sunday.

An earlier media report said the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit of International Cricket Council (ICC) is probing why the BCCI is silent about a report of its player Suresh Raina being seen in the company of a woman linked to an associate of an illegal bookmaker.

Sri Lankan gold medalist at CWG fails drug test

72 year gold wait doesnt end......

Colombo, Oct 24 (DPA) Sri Lankan boxer Manju Wanniarachchi has failed a doping test at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi where he won a gold medal earlier this month, a sports ministry official said Sunday.

Wanniarachchi, 37, faces being stripped of the medal if found guilty of a doping offence.

The sports ministry official said that Sri Lanka has been informed by officials in New Delhi that he tested positive for the steroid nandrolone.

Wanniarachchi beat Welshman Sean McGoldrick in the bantamweight final and was given a rousing welcome for winning a first gold for Sri Lanka at the Games in 72 years.

Immediately after the report on the positive test the boxer filed a police complaint that he suspects that a doctor who administered an injection on him two months back may have been responsible for injecting the steroid.

The doctor who originally claimed to hold a medical degree has now found not to be a properly qualified medical doctor, according to investigating police.

The boxer's coach Dian Gomes said he was shocked about the outcome of the doping test.

Wanniarachchi has two weeks to request the examination of the b-sample. He faces losing the medal if the second test confirms the original finding and he is found guilty of a doping offence. In this case the gold would go to McGoldrick.

Aussie Bayliss to quit as Sri Lanka cricket coach


SYDNEY - Australian Trevor Bayliss will quit as coach of the Sri Lankan team after next year's World Cup, reports said on Monday.Bayliss has handed in his notice after more than three successful years coaching Sri Lanka and plans to finish up after the World Cup in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh next April, the reports said. Bayliss, 47, said he wanted to spend more time with his wife and two children, who still live in Sydney, but he also intended to keep coaching. Click here to find out more! "I'm on the lookout (for a new job)," Bayliss told The Sydney Morning Herald. Bayliss took up his role with the Sri Lankans in August 2007 and became the fifth Australian to coach Sri Lanka after Dav Whatmore, Bruce Yardley, John Dyson and Tom Moody. Under his guidance, Sri Lanka have enjoyed a win ratio of better than 50 percent and are ranked third in Test cricket and fourth in one-day internationals. "They've got a good chance in this World Cup coming up and I'm looking forward to it very much," he said. Sri Lankan-born Whatmore coached Sri Lanka to their greatest cricket triumph in 1996 when they co-hosted and won that year's World Cup, defeating Australia in the final. Sri Lanka are playing warm-up one-dayers ahead of their three-match ODI series and a one-off Twenty20 match against Australia next month.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Sri Lanka raises defence spending by six percent

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka announced Tuesday it would raise defence spending by six percent in 2011 -- broadly in line with annual hikes announced during the government's war with Tamil rebels.

The government allocated 215 billion rupees (1.92 billion dollars) for defence in calendar 2011, according to official figures tabled in parliament Tuesday -- about a fifth of the national budget.

Official sources say the state needs to keep defence spending high, despite the fact the ethnic war has ended, because of hefty installment payments on military hardware bought to fight the separatist Tamil Tigers.

Government forces crushed the rebels in May 2009, ending what had become Asia's longest-running ethnic conflict that claimed up to 100,000 lives over nearly four decades, according to UN estimates.

The highest portion of the defence budget next year in the island nation of 20 million people will go to the army.

The army will absorb just over half of the entire defence spending to maintain its 200,000 personnel, the figures show.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is also finance minister, is due to unveil the full 2011 budget on November 22, when he is expected to announce new revenue raising proposals to meet state expenses.

Sri Lanka's fiscal deficit shot up to 9.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, exceeding the seven percent target set by the International Monetary Fund when it released a 2.6-billion-dollar bailout package in 2009.

World Cup tickets to go on sale in Lanka this week

Tickets for the 12 games of World Cup 2011 in Sri Lanka, which will take place between 20 February - 29 March, will go on sale on Thursday (October 21) and cricket fans that make reservations will be able to collect their physical tickets during the first week of February, 2011, an International Cricket Council (ICC) press release said on Monday.

Reservations can be made in Kandy at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium and in Hambantota, at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium.

In Colombo, fans can ensure their places via the official ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Secretariat at the Sri Lanka Cricket Headquarters (35, Maitland Crescent). Tickets can also be purchased online via, www.iccevents.yahoo.com.

Ticket prices range from Sri Lankan Rs. 30.00 to Rs. 2500 with corporate enclosures available for Rs. 5,000.00 / Rs. 10,000.00 and an individual can purchase a maximum of four tickets.

A number of tickets will be made available to school children so that they can share in the excitement around the ICC’s flagship event. Veterans of the recently concluded civil conflict will also receive tickets.

Sri Lanka will boast of three brand new state of the art world class cricketing venues. The Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy, with a capacity of 25,000, while the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota and the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo, will have the ability to host to 27,000 and 30,000 cricket fans, respectively.