Closed Circuit TV cameras will be put into operation in the city from tomorrow (29) to monitor mainly the traffic flow on busy roads, Police Media Spokesman, SSP Prishantha Jayakody says.

"The cameras have been installed covering Lipton Circus, Maradana, Borella, bridges at the entrance to Colombo, high security zones, security forces headquarters and some ministries," Jayakody said.

• Key posts including leader, subject to poll unless there’s consensus
• All speakers stress unity is key to UNP recapturing power

Leader of the UNP Ranil Wickremesinghe and his main rival Sajith Premadasa claimed victory yesterday, as the UNP adopted a new constitution that makes it the only political party, in Sri Lanka and possibly in Asia, to institutionalise the democratic process.

The convention was a noisy affair as expected, with Wickremesinghe and Premadasa being cheered on during their respective speeches, but the ‘fireworks’ that many had predicted did not materialise. It ended with Premadasa’s supporters carrying a replica of an elephant around and Wickremesinghe urging them to place it on the stage, where he and the other UNP leaders were standing.

Sri Lanka is aiming to bring down poverty to 4 percent during the next few years and Central Bank statisticians have estimated that the economy would grow by 8 percent this year, and around 10 percent during the next few years.

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal yesterday said poverty would be brought down to 4 percent within the next few years.

"There is no use of having high per capita incomes and GDP growth if it does not trickle down and every citizen feels it," he said.

Including several new faces President Rajapaksa appointed 59 member cabinet and 33 deputy ministers. Several junior ministers in the previous cabinet received senior minister posts

Prime Minister D.M.Jayarathne - Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs Minister

Heavy rains lashed Colombo from 8.00 p.m. on Wednesday till yesterday morning hampering all day-to-day activities and affecting over 100,000 people in Colombo city.

Vehicular traffic came to a standstill due to a number of roads leading to the city being flooded. Electricity supply was disrupted in some parts as CEB substations were submerged. Schools were closed due to the low student turn out while office workers were stranded all round in the city.

The Education Ministry postponed school term tests scheduled to commence yesterday.

Meteorology Department announced that 440.2 mm of rain had fallen during the 24 hours ended at 8.30 am yesterday.

China has claimed the top spot on the list of the world's supercomputers.

The title has gone to China's Tianhe-1A supercomputer that is capable of carrying out more than 2.5 thousand trillion calculations a second.

To reach such high speeds the machine draws on more than 7,000 graphics processors and 14,000 Intel chips.