news in brief
Rajapaksa vows to win Aug 17 polls
BBC, COLOMBO: Sri Lankas former president Mahinda Rajapaksa has vowed to win an outright majority in parliamentary elections due on 17 August.
Rajapaksa told BBC Sinhala he was confident of winning more than half the seats in parliament.He is hoping to become prime minister, but the result is far from clear-cut. A Rajapaksa win would mean an uneasy cohabitation with party rival Maithripala Sirisena, who beat him in presidential elections in January.
6 dead in India train accident
AFP, NEW DELHI: A train crushed six people, including three children, to death in eastern India Thursday in the second accident this week to hit the nations crumbling rail network, a police officer said.The train ran over the pedestrians as they were crossing the tracks at a village in West Bengal, about 350 kilometres (220 miles) north of the state capital Kolkata.
Myanmar peace talks end sans resolution
AFP, YANGON: Talks aimed at reaching a historic Myanmar peace agreement between the government, army and ethnic armed groups ended without resolution Friday as negotiations stumbled on whether a deal should include all rebel groups.
With time running out to reach a ceasefire ahead of crucial November 8 elections in the former junta-run nation, negotiators said they were unable to seal an agreement. We could not conclude a deal today because both sides were unable to negotiate the issue, said Pu Zing Cung, of the ethnic group delegation.
Ebola vaccine works in monkeys
PTI, Washington: A single dose of an experimental Ebola virus (EBOV) vaccine, currently undergoing testing in humans, completely protects monkeys against the current outbreak strain, when given at least seven days before exposure, scientists have found.
The vaccine partially protects the cynomolgus macaques against the EBOV-Makona strain if given three days prior, researchers said.
