Sri Lankan Gen Sarath Fonseka was arrested accused of working with anti-government forces and planning a coup and assassinations.

Sri Lankan Gen Sarath Fonseka was arrested  accused of working with anti-government forces and planning a coup and assassinations.

He denies the charges.

Jointly the opposition parties said the general would be killed in detention.
   
Rauf Hakeem said they will take this matter to courts, before the people and the international community.

Gen Fonseka's wife told the BBC she had been allowed to visit him at the navy headquarters in Colombo where he is being held.

Anoma Fonseka said he trusted no one there and had therefore not eaten or drunk anything until she had taken him a meal.

Parliamentary elections are expected to be held on 8 April. Gen Fonseka is hoping to capitalise on his comfortable victory in the presidential poll, correspondents say.

[The above para was written by BBC person --- It sounds highly illogic to me.]

Mr Rajapaksa fought the presidential poll on the back of the government's successful military campaign to end the long insurgency by Tamil Tiger rebels in the north and east of the country.

Gen Fonseka also took credit for ending the civil war last year.

The two men fell out soon after the fighting ended and embarked on a bitter election campaign.

Hours before his arrest, the general said he was prepared to give evidence in an international court on any war crime charges against the state.

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Buzz with Google's Social Site

Google has taken the wraps off its latest social network known as Buzz.

The service - integrated directly with its e-mail service Gmail - allows users to post status updates, share content and read and comment on friends posts.

BBC News technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said

"They've launched Buzz with plenty of interesting new features, particularly for mobile users.

But the real question is whether there's enough to entice social networkers away from sites like Facebook and Twitter," he said.

The new features are built directly into Google's free e-mail service Gmail.

Users can post private or public status updates - known as a buzz - and share content from other sites such as Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Picassa.
Facebook page

Facebook has nearly 400 million users

The messages - highlighted with a Buzz symbol - are incorporated directly into a person's Gmail inbox.

Private updates are automatically added to a user's profile page, whilst public updates will also be available to search engines.

The site also incorporates elements of Twitter, such as the ability to "follow" people that share updates, and features that appear in Facebook such as the ability to "like" content.

Buzz will also recommend content from people that it thinks you may like to see and incorporate it directly into a users content stream.

It is not the first time Google has tried to launch a social network.

In 2004, it released Orkut. However, while it has become big in countries such as Brazil and India, it has been overshadowed by sites such as Facebook elsewhere.

The firm also recently launched Google Wave.

A tool that mixes e-mail, with instant messaging and the ability for several people to collaborate on documents in real time.

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Sri Lanka's mixed group of opposition parties supported Gen Fonseka should decide how to fight this campaign or to stay together

. 

Sri Lanka's recently re-elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa dissolved parliament to hold elections.

The date will most likely be 8 April, with parliament convening on 22 April.

The mixed group of opposition parties which supported Gen Fonseka have yet to decide how to fight this campaign and whether to stay together. 

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says President Rajapaksa is hoping to increase the narrow majority of seats held in parliament by his Freedom Alliance.

benaloy says,  between the two major parties of majority race,  both minority groups could swing the result.   Will they ?

Gen Sarath Fonseka suffered injuries at an assassination attempt by LTTE and gets national credit for defeating the ruthless group.
But he is definitely not a charismatic leader of people.  

The leader of TNA,  Sampanthan, and his comrades in Parliament were quick to condemn an Army atrocity but never had the guts to point out violence by LTTE. 

Thus they lost the credibility among the majority earned by SJV Chelvanayagam of whom it was said,  ''an honest politician'' even though his party was ''Federal'' in English and ''தமிழ் அரசு'' meaning,  ''Tamil Governance'',  a subtle deception !

Muslims of Lanka have yet to combine and select a leader of foresight and NOT of myopic view.

So long as we do not admit our faults we will never correct our selves and achieve greatness.  

We must cast aside the oldies and select stout hearted youngsters who hands are NOT tainted by blood of anyone,  anyone at all !

We must be wary of the gun carrying lot who are actually selfish bastards !!!   

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Sri Lankan former Army Officers arrested by Police over The Sunday Leader founder editor Lasantha Wickrematunge on January 8, 2009.

Lasantha killing: Two ex-army men arrested

Two former Army officers have been arrested by Police over The Sunday Leader founder editor Lasantha Wickrematunge on January 8, 2009. They had been arrested on information provided by the Army intelligence unit and were being questioned, police sources said.

Two other officers were also arrested on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. They, too, are being questioned on Wickramatunga’s killing.

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President Barack Obama has done so much to heal racial divisions that he "forgot he was black"

MSNBC's Chris Matthews says President Barack Obama has done so much to heal racial divisions that he "forgot he was black" while watching his State of the Union address.

Those four words - "forgot he was black" - so instantly set the Twitter world afire that Matthews came back less than 90 minutes later to explain what he meant.

He said it was noteworthy to him that a black president was addressing a room of mostly white people and how it didn't seem to be an issue.

He said he saw it in the context of growing up at a time racial divisions were ever-present.

Says Matthews: "I went in the room tonight, you could feel it wasn't there tonight and that takes leadership on his part, to get us beyond those divisions."

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Macquire Banker Dave Kiely looked at semi-nude pics of Ausy Model Miranda Kerr hungry media made song n dance n flopped.

An Australian banker who was caught on live TV looking at photos of scantily clad model Miranda Kerr will not lose his job, the bank said Friday.

Macquarie Bank worker Dave Kiely was at his desk as a colleague was being interviewed about interest rates when the camera showed him apparently opening e-mail attachments of nearly nude photos of the model.

The clip became a YouTube hit and other media broadcast it during prime-time Tuesday.

Australia-born Kerr, 26, who is engaged to "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Orlando Bloom, had said she hoped Kiely would not lose his job.

"I am told there is a petition to save his job, and of course I would sign it," news.com.au quoted her as saying.

On Friday, Macquarie said in a statement it had completed an internal review and Kiely would keep his job.

"Macquarie and the employee apologize for any offense that may have been caused," the bank said.

Any red blooded man, irrespective of age,  will look at such a beautiful female form with both cheeks open to view so shamelessly as if all her parts are meant for public exhibition !

Ah !  Culture indeed !!

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'Chuckle' Taylor is ordered by US court to pay $ 22m for torturing five men in Liberia. Will Lankan president and Mugabe too pay?

A US judge has ordered the son of ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor to pay more than $22m (£14m) to five people tortured during its civil war.

The abuses were carried out by a paramilitary unit led by the son, Charles 'Chuckle' Taylor.

It comes a year after Chuckie was sentenced to 97 years in prison by the same Miami federal court.

He was the first person convicted by a US court of committing human rights abuses outside the US.

The five Liberian victims had testified before the court that they had been tortured and abused by the Anti-Terrorist Unit - the official title by which the group Chuckle Taylor ran was known.

They said they had been held in pits in the jungle that were filled chest-high with water, had been exposed to electric shocks to the genitals and other body parts and had witnessed the killing of others by the paramilitaries.

Human rights groups have welcomed this latest ruling against him.

They say it is a move that might serve as a warning to others who commit similar abuses that they will be held accountable for their actions.

Chuckle Taylor's father is currently on trial in The Hague.

He faces 11 charges including murder and rape in connection with the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s.

Are there any chances of Sri Lankan President and Zimbabwe President facing such charges in International Court?

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