Sri Lanka threatens to nationalise Indian Oil

Sri Lanka has threatened to nationalise the local unit of Indian oil unless it reduces the retail price of diesel, local officials said on Friday.

Petroleum Minister AHM Fowzie said the government will take over the 160 fuel retail depots operated by Lanka IOC, the local subsidiary of India’s state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), unless it makes the reductions. Diesel is commonly used by public transport. “Steps could be taken to re-vest the filling stations given to the IOC,” the minister was quoted as saying in the state-run Daily News.

Sri Lanka sold a third of its petroleum distribution network to the IOC in 2003 as part of a move to end the monopoly on retail sales. While the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) sells diesel at Rs110 (1.02 dollars) a litre, the IOC sells it at Rs130. The CPC diesel is subsidised by the state. The government argues more motorists are buying the subsidised diesel and as a result, increasing losses are incurred by the state.

Lanka IOC said they were not able to absorb losses by selling diesel at the same price as CPC. “The minister wrote to us, asking to reduce our diesel prices to the same (level) as CPC or face sanctions,” Lanka IOC MD said.

Source: thenews

Indian delegation led by NSA in Sri Lanka

A delegation of top Indian government officials including the National Security Advisor (NSA) MK Narayanan flew to Colombo in an apparently unscheduled visit on Friday, triggering speculation about the possible reasons behind it.

Accompanying Narayanan were Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh.While the High Commission of India said the visit was in connection with the upcoming SAARC summit beginning end-July, Sri Lankan officials said the trio was here to continue dialogue on issues of mutual interest. Neither Indian diplomats nor Lankan officials were ready to comment on the visit of the three most powerful bureaucrats in India.

But it was confirmed that they would be meeting President Mahinda Rajapakse on Saturday morning. It was also learnt that Narayanan, Menon and Singh met their counterparts in the Sri Lankan government on Friday evening.

The three, along with at least two other middle-level officials, arrived on a special flight from New Delhi around 11.30 a.m. An Indian High Commission official said: “They would carry out a detailed assessment of the agenda to be taken up during the SAARC summit. They will also discuss Indo-Sri Lankan relations. The visit has been undertaken because India attaches a lot of importance to Sri Lanka.”

Source: hindustantimes

Chinese company gets contract for construction at Lanka port

The government of Sri Lanka has offered a leading Chinese company the contract to build a fuel tank farm and bunkering facility at the new harbour at Hambantota in the southern part of the country, a media report said here Thursday.

"The unsolicited project proposal sent by the China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corporation for building the bunkering facility and tank farm at the Hambantota harbour has been approved by the project committee and the cabinet-appointed negotiations committee," the state-run Daily News reported.

According to the agreement, the total value of the project would be $76.5 million and it would be completed by 2010.

A set of fuel tanks, bunkering facilities, aviation fuel storage facilities and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facilities will be built as part of the project at Hambantota, about 230 km south of Colombo.

The facilities would be constructed in such a way that they would be able to operate independently with separate loading arms and pipelines connecting the oil and gas jetty.

There is a proposal to take a loan for the project from the Exim Bank in China, the newspaper said.

The Hambantota Port Development Project consists of four stages and is expected to be completed within 15 years. Under the first phase of the project, an industrial port with a 1,000 metre jetty and an oil refinery estimated to cost $1 billion would be constructed.

Although the Hambantota port was initially planned as a service and industrial port, it is expected to be developed as a trans-shipment port at a later stage to handle 20 million containers per year.

Source: newkerala

Lanka ready to revive talks with LTTE

In an apparent softening of its stand, Sri Lanka has offered to hold talks with the LTTE after a two-year gap, saying the outfit does represent a "fair amount" of Tamils but ruled out immediate revival of the ceasefire scrapped in January.

"The (Sri Lankan) President has already announced that he is ready to talk (with the LTTE)," Basil Rajapaksa, the powerful Special Advisor to the President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said.

On whether the President has specified that he will not talk unless the LTTE lays down arms, Basil merely said "those are conditions that have to be worked out".

"The government is always open to talks but the government needs to have a certain environment in which we can talk," Basil, an MP and brother of the Sri Lankan President, told the Daily Mirror newspaper.

On being asked whether the LTTE represented the Tamil people, the senior advisor said "yes, they represent the Tamil people but they are not the only ones. That has been proved.

"But this doesn't mean they don't have the strength or that they represent no Tamils," he said.

"They (the LTTE) do represent a fair amount of Tamil people. Unfortunately their way of doing it can't be approved. Otherwise the President is always willing to have negotiations and a settlement. The best scenario is where we negotiate and settle it with the LTTE," Basil said.

The two sides had six round of talks after the 2002 ceasefire but the rebels pulled out in 2006. The peace process received a crushing blow in January when the government scrapped the tattered ceasefire, a move that unleashed a fresh wave of violence as the military intensified its offencive against the Tamil Tigers in the north.

Source: pti

Gun Battles Kill 25 Tamil Tiger Rebels, 7 Soldiers

Twenty-five Tamil rebels and seven soldiers were killed during gun battles in Sri Lanka's Northern Province, the Media Centre for National Security said.

Sri Lankan soldiers and members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam clashed in the regions of Mannar, Jaffna, Vavuniya and Welioya yesterday and early today, the government's Media Centre said in a statement on its Web site. Six soldiers and four rebels were injured in the battle, it said.

The military is staging almost daily attacks on the northern region, the only area controlled by the rebels since they were driven from Eastern Province in July. The LTTE has been fighting for a separate homeland since 1983 in an insurgency that has left more than 70,000 people dead. The rebels are designated a terrorist group by the U.S., the European Union and India.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has vowed to eradicate terrorism on the South Asian island while seeking a settlement with all Tamil groups. It ended a 2002 cease-fire with the LTTE in January, prompting the United Nations to call on the government and Tamil Tigers to prevent an escalation of violence against civilians.

A group of rebels ambushed an army post in Mannar, killing a soldier, the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com said in a statement on the Web site. Another soldier was seriously injured in the grenade attack, it said.

The Sri Lankan military killed 68 civilians, including seven children, during its offensive in May, the LTTE said in a statement on its Web site. Another 44 people ``disappeared,'' the group said.

Source: bloomberg

Malaysian Govt will crack down on Tiger link

The Home Ministry is investigating claims that Malaysians were working with Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger terrorists to carry out a bomb attack in Colombo.
This followed the arrest of six members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Saturday in Wattala, Sri Lanka where the authorities also seized 2.7kg of high-powered C4 explosives.

According to a Sri Lankan news report, the suspects under interrogation (by Sri Lankan government troops), said they were waiting for instructions from some Malaysians - via the telephone - to launch the attack.

Commenting on the report, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the government would not hesitate to act against Malaysians linked to the LTTE.

He said his ministry would contact the Sri Lankan government to clarify the allegations and seek its assistance to obtain information on the Malaysians said to be involved.
"I have checked the report. Malaysia will never tolerate any type of terrorism. If it is true that Malaysians are involved, we will find them and take severe action.

"There have always been allegations that some Malaysians are involved with the LTTE," Syed Hamid said after the opening ceremony of the Eighth Asean Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (8th-SOMTC) here yesterday.

The report in the Sri Lankan online daily, The Daily Mirror, stated that six LTTE suspects, allegedly responsible for the recent bomb blasts in Colombo and its suburbs, were taken into custody by a special police team on Saturday.

Police investigations revealed these suspects, five men and a woman from Welikanda and Vavuniya, had been living in Wattala in a rented house for a long period.

It was also revealed this group had planned to explode a bomb in Colombo on Saturday but police foiled their plans.

The report also stated the suspects had been given directions to carry out attacks from Malaysia over the phone.

A senior police official was quoted as saying: "They were awaiting orders from Malaysia to carry out the attack on Saturday."

Meanwhile, a top LTTE operative, who masterminded an international LTTE credit card scam, was nabbed on the same day by police in Wellawatte.

At the time of arrest, the suspect had in his possession a large number of personal identification numbers (PIN) and bank receipts issued by both local and Malaysian banks.

Source: nst

Italian police arrest 28 Tamils on terror charges

Italian police arrested 28 Sri Lankan Tamils on Wednesday on charges of aiding and abetting the outlawed Tamil Tigers group fighting a separatist insurgency against the government in Colombo.

Some 200 police were involved in the operation which saw raids across the country from Naples in the south to Bologna in the north, and also on the island of Sicily, an official with the police counter-terrorism cell told AFP.

The 28 people arrested were suspected of membership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and of providing funding for the group, the official said.

The LTTE is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union.

The Tigers have been fighting for a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka since 1972. Tens of thousands have died in the conflict.

Source: AFP

UTStarcom wins SLT IPTV contract

UUTStarcom Inc. said Tuesday it has signed a new contract to supply its Internet protocol television equipment to Sri Lanka Telecom Public Ltd. Co.

The Alameda company's "multi-million dollar" agreement with Sri Lanka Telecom partner Just In Time Holdings Pvt. Ltd. will eventually support the delivery of voice, Internet, and television services to Sri Lanka Telecom's 1.3 million customers on the south Asian island.

The initial rollout of UTStarcom Inc. (NASDAQ: UTSI) equipment is designed to support about 100,000 subscribers over the next two years. It will also enable the company to provide video services to future subscribers over copper lines in the next three to four years, it said.

Source: bizjournals

UTStarcom

Fortune 1000 company that specializes in IP-based networking products for telecommunications companies and service providers. Its core markets are multimedia communications and broadband, including IP communications and entertainment (IPTV), next generation broadband networks and optical network solutions. It also sells handsets and other consumer products including DSL modems and voice over IP terminal adapters. It has a large customer base in Asia, particularly in China, where it manufactures the majority of its products and where most of its employees are located. It also has business operations in the United States, India and Japan as well as research and design operations in the United States, China, Korea and India.

History of UTStarcom

The company was founded in 1991 by Lu, a China-born, US-educated entrepreneur, as Unitech Telecom. In its early years, the company was focused on the telecommunications markets in China. In 1995, Unitech merged with Starcom Networks to form UTStarcom. After several years of trying to build its business in China, UTStarcom launched the Personal Handy-phone System (PHS), also known as the Personal Access System. PHS is a scaled-down version of a cellular network and has 56 million subscribers in China. UTStarcom went public in March 2000. The IPO and a series of acquisitions helped the company expand its business and technology beyond its base in China to other emerging economies in Asia and Latin America as well as to Japan, the United States and Europe. Acquisitions Between 2002 and 2004, UTStarcom acquired several companies to expand its technology portfolio and market opportunities in areas such as handsets, CDMA technology, broadband and IP-based communications.

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Stock is doing well this year

Stock up 100%

Note: i do not own UTStarcom(NASDAQ:UTSI) or SLT(COL:SLTL) shares

Norway to continue promoting peace in Sri Lanka

The Norwegian government said on Sunday that its policy towards Sri Lanka remains unchanged and it will continue promoting the peace in Sri Lanka, according to reports reaching here from Oslo.

"The policies guiding our engagement with Sri Lanka remain firm and will not change," Deputy Foreign Minister of Norway Raymond Johansen said in a statement.

Norway is committed to assisting Sri Lanka in finding a solution to the ethnic conflict while respecting the country's territorial integrity, he stressed.

Norway will support a negotiated solution that addresses the legitimate grievances of the Tamil speaking communities and is acceptable to all communities, the official added.

The Norwegians facilitated six rounds of direct talks between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) between September 2002 and March 2003. But its facilitation role in Sri Lanka had reached a dead end following the government decision in the beginning of this year to formally withdraw from the six-year-old ceasefire brokered by the Norwegians.

Source: xinhua

20 killed in Lanka clashes, jets destroy LTTE facility

Sri Lankan Air Force jets destroyed a key LTTE combat logistic facility in a rebel stronghold today as fierce ground clashes killed 17 Tamil Tigers and two soldiers in the island's embattled north, the military said.

One civilian was shot dead in eastern Trincomalee by an unidentified assassin yesterday, the police said.

Giving details of the airstrike on the rebel stronghold, Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said the facility was used to maintain and service LTTE's combat vehicles.

"Sri Lankan Air Force fighter jets launched precision air sorties destroying a key LTTE combat-logistic facility located at Venavil in Mullaittiuvu district this morning," Air Force Spokesperson Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said.

Large explosions were observed from the target site, Nanayakkara said quoting fighter pilots. He said the facility was used to convert, maintain and service LTTE's combat vehicles.

The spokesman said the workshop at this site was used to modify, maintain and service combat transport vehicles for the LTTE.

It is also believed to be a prime logistic and combat supply storage for the outfit militants, he said.

"According to latest information, the LTTE site is still burning following a series of explosions that were reported immediately after the air raid this morning," he said.

"This strategically important facility also consisted a large fuel dump," sources said.

In ground clashes, troops killed eight rebels in fierce clashes in Periyamadu tank in North-western Mannar yesterday, the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said.

Source: pti