& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Lanka turns to less critical donors
AP, Colombo
Sri Lanka hailed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit Monday as an important step in cementing closer ties between the two nations.
Ahmadinejad arrived Monday evening on a special flight, said M.R. Hassan, an official at Sri Lanka’’s Foreign Ministry.
He is scheduled to meet with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the two men will sign economic and cooperation agreements, according to a statement by the Sri Lankan government.
But the trip also highlights Sri Lanka's slow turn from the West, which has expressed increasing concerns about Colombo's human rights record and its embrace of donors less critical of its escalating war against cthnicTamil rebels.
"In Asia, we don't go around preaching to our neighbours and our friends,” said Sri Lanka's foreign secretary, Palitha Kohona. "This public naming and shaming process that seems to have become so popular in.the West is really not so abdepted here ’
As ifto drive home the point, the capital city of Colombo was plastered Sunday with posters showing smiling photos of Ahmadinejad and Rajapaksa over the slogans: "The Friendly Path to Progress" and "Traditional Asian Solidarity."
State television also broadcast all of Ahmadinejad's movements live, and the government controlled Daily News called it "epoch-making."
In the past 18 months Rajapaksa has visited China twice, dropped in on neighbours India and Pakistan and traveled to Iran in November.
During that trip, Iran pledged SI.9 billion in soft loans and grants to Sri Lanka to help it expand its only oil refinery, develop an irrigation and hydropower project and buy Iranian oil, Kohona said.
"It is the biggest development assistance package for Sri Lanka at the moment." he said.
It is money Sri Lanka desperately needs as it continues to wage civil war with the Tamil Tiger rebels a fight projected to cost SI.5 billion this year.
Ahmadinejad was expected to meet top officials and tour several development projects during his. two-day visit. He held a prayer ceremony with the country's
Muslim community on Tuesday. It has not been announced whether he will come bearing further aid for the South Asian nation.
China is also giving about $1 billion in aid for a massive new port, an arts centre, a power plant and other development projects, Kohona said.
Meanwhile, Western nations have been giving far less money and much heavier criticism of Sri Lanka's conduct of the war.
A State Department report issued in March accused the government and allied militias of attacking civilians and practicing "torture, kidnapping, hostage-taking, and extortion with impunity."
A European Union delegation that visited last month said it had "very serious concerns" about reports of human rights abuses. It implied that if the situation did not improve. Sri Lankan exports could lose a lucrative tariff exemption.
Some Western nations and United Nations officials have also called for a UN human rights monitoring mission to be sent to the South.Asian island. The government hai rejected the idea ai a breach of its sovereignty.