Sri Lanka president wins re-election

COLOMBO:  Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has won a second term in office, a local news channel reported on Wednesday.

"The president has recorded a remarkable victory, with amore than 1.8 million vote majority," Rupavahini said. Official final results were not due for another three hours, but polling showed the incumbent with a powerful lead over his chief opponent, former army commander General Sarath Fonseka.

The two war victors turned to foes in a bloody campaign that culminated in a largely peaceful election on Tuesday, with turnout that independent observers placed at between 70 and 80 percent of the Indian Ocean island's 14 million registered voters.

Fonseka, a political neophyte, delivered an election day shock by admitting he was not registered to vote, after saying he may have done so but did not want to say where for security reasons.

The winner will take the reins of a $40 billion economy which has enjoyed a partial peace dividend, and is on the path to recovery with big Chinese and Indian investments into infrastructure and plans to put $4 billion into development.

London meeting to bolster Yemen in Qaeda fight

LONDON:  A high-level international meeting in London on Wednesday aims to bolster Yemen's fight against al-Qaeda by helping it tackle the poverty that can create a breeding ground for militants.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hurriedly called the meeting after a Yemen-based al-Qaeda affiliate said it was behind a failed Dec. 25 attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound plane with 300 people on board.

The attack drove home how al-Qaeda could threaten Western interests from Yemen and highlighted the risk that the country could become a failed state, compounding security challenges already posed by lawless Somalia just across the Gulf of Aden. more

"Avatar" becomes highest-grossing movie

LOS ANGELES:  "Avatar" has surpassed "Titanic" as the highest-grossing movie worldwide, giving director James Cameron a remarkable double a week before his sci-fi spectacular is expected to rack up a slew of Oscar nominations.

Gregg Brilliant, a spokesman for the News Corp (NWSA.O)-owned studio 20th Century Fox, said on Tuesday the worldwide box office total for "Avatar" stands at $1.859 billion, beating the $1.843 billion racked up by Cameron's romantic drama "Titanic" in 1997-1998.

"Avatar" broke the record in a little over six weeks.

The film has enjoyed an unbroken reign in most countries, including the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and Australia.

The data are not adjusted for inflation.

Ticket sales got an additional boost from premium prices for 3-D screenings. Fox said 72 percent of worldwide sales come from 3-D engagements.

The action-adventure movie, starring Sigourney Weaver, is set in 2154 and tells the tale of a disabled ex-Marine sent to Earth to infiltrate a race of 10-foot (3-metre) blue aliens and persuade them to let his employer mine their homeland for natural resources.

More than five years in the making, it was reportedly one of the most expensive films with a budget of at least $300 million, due partly to its high-tech special effects and the creation of a new language used by the extra-terrestrial Na'vi race.

Despite some industry skepticism last year, the movie was released in December to glowing reviews and went on to win a the Golden Globe for best drama earlier this month.

Tom O'Neil, an awards pundit at www.TheEnvelope.com, said "Avatar" was not just a sure bet for a best picture Academy Award nomination on Feb. 2, but a leading contender to win the top Oscar on March 7. It is also expected to dominate the technical categories.

"It is the Oscar front-runner," O'Neil told Reuters. "It won the Golden Globe, it has conquered the global box office and it has won universal praise."

"The only cliffhanger is, will the notorious snobs in the Academy finally appreciate sci-fi?," he said, noting that a science fiction movie has never won a best picture Oscar.

French parliament report calls for burka ban

PARIS:  France was set to move one step closer to barring Muslim women from wearing the full Islamic veil with the release Tuesday of a report calling for a ban on the burka, also known as niqab, in public institutions.

A French parliament report called for a ban on the full Islamic veil in all schools, hospitals, public transport and government offices, saying it was an affront to French values.

"The wearing of the full veil is a challenge to our republic. This is unacceptable," the report released by a parliament commission said. "We must condemn this excess."

After six months of hearings, the panel of 32 lawmakers recommended a ban on the face-covering veil in all state-run institutions and offices, the broadest move yet to restrict Muslim dress in France.

The commission called on parliament to adopt a formal resolution stating that the burka was "contrary to the values of the republic" and proclaiming that "all of France is saying 'no' to the full veil."

Women who turn up at government offices wearing the full veil should be denied services such as a work visa, residency papers or French citizenship, the report recommended.

The panel however stopped short of proposing broad legislation to outlaw the niqab on the streets or in shopping centers after cautioning that such a move would have to be reviewed by the courts to establish its legality.

"The wearing of the full veil is the tip of the iceberg," said communist lawmaker Andre Gerin, the chair of the commission.

"There are scandalous practices hidden behind this veil," said Gerin who vowed to fight the "gurus" seeking to export a racial brand of fundamentalism and sectarianism to France.

"Not welcome" in France

President Nicolas Sarkozy set the tone for the debate when he declared the burka "not welcome" in France and described it as a symbol of women's "subservience" which cannot be tolerated in a country that considers itself a human rights leader.

Hopes for reaching any sort of political consensus have evaporated, with the opposition Socialists, divided by those calling for a total prohibition and those opposed to stigmatizing wearers of the full veil, planning to abstain from the vote on the report.

The leader of Sarkozy's right-wing party in parliament, Jean-Francois Cope, has already presented draft legislation that would make it illegal for anyone to cover their faces in public for reasons of security.

Home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority, estimated at about six million, France is being closely watched at a time of particular unease over Islam, three months after Swiss voters approved a ban on minarets.

No European country has adopted sweeping national legislation on restricting the full veil.

Despite a large Muslim presence, the sight of fully-veiled women is not an everyday occurrence in France. Only 1,900 women wear the niqab, according to the interior ministry.

Half of them live in the Paris region and 90 percent are under 40.

French support for a law banning the full veil is strong: a poll last week showed that 57 percent are in favor.

While lawmakers are divided on the scope of the restrictions, with many fearing that a draconian law would stigmatize Muslims who are already bristling at the anti-Islam rants heard during the government's national identity debate, they agree that some time will be needed to craft a solid text that would stand up to a court challenge.