News in Brief

Sat launch welcomed: Sri Lanka’s President Wednesday welcomed the first communications satellite launch in partnership with a Chinese state-owned company, to take television to rural areas of the island.

President Mahinda Rajapakse said the private venture, in which his youngest son Rohitha was a promoter, had given the island a “new age in its development and industrial progress”.

Rajapakse said the geo-stationary Supreme Sat I will provide DTH (direct to home) television in rural areas of Sri Lanka that cannot be reached by normal broadcasts.

“This is a major beginning for Sri Lanka to benefit from space technology in communications,” the president said.

The local partner of the joint venture, Supreme Sat, said the satellite was positioned in orbit on Tuesday evening after launching from the Xi Chang Space Center in China.

Financial details of the part- nership were not immediately known, but the local company said they envisaged a total investment of $320 million within five years. (AFP) Deadline stretched: Nepal’s president has given political parties one more week to agree on a new coalition government that would conduct elections next year.

A statement from his office said President Ram Baran Yadav met the political parties Thursday night and agreed to extend the deadline after the previous one was not met.

Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has been running a caretaker government since May when the constituent assembly expired. His government failed to hold elections this month, and he wants to stay in office until elections in April.

Opposition parties want a new government with representation from all the parties to hold the polls. (AP)