COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s chief justice, facing an impeachment motion filed by the government, rejected yesterday the charges against her and vowed to refute them. The bid to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, Sri Lanka’s first female head of the Supreme Court, has raised the risk of a destabilising clash between the government and judiciary.
The confrontation follows months of deteriorating relations between the chief justice and President Mahinda Rajapaksa, with the government complaining the chief justice had over-stepped her authority and Bandaranayake’s supporters complaining of interference.
The impeachment motion, filed by the ruling party and lodged in parliament on Tuesday, contains 14 charges ranging from undeclared assets to violating constitutional provisions.
S Korea finds cracks in nuclear reactor
SEOUL: South Korea said yesterday minor cracks were found at a nuclear reactor that have not caused a leak but still mean the facility will be kept offline, prompting fears of power shortages in the coming winter.
The cracks were found during maintenance work on control rod tubes at a unit in the Yeonggwang nuclear complex, where two other reactors were recently shut down for several months to replace unvetted components.
Half of Yeonggwang’s six reactors will now be offline until January, the country’s nuclear watchdog said, raising concerns of a pinch in power supply during the harsh winter months.
South Korea’s 23 nuclear reactors generate around 35 percent of the country’s electricity.
The cracks were found in a reactor that had been shut down on October 18 for regular maintenance work, which normally takes just over a month.
11 dead, 7 missing in Indonesia flash floods
JAKARTA: At least 11 people were killed and seven missing after a flash flood triggered by heavy rains hit a village on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, an official said yesterday.
Two days of torrential downpours in Mamasa district triggered a landslide that went into a river, causing the waterway to burst its banks, said Roki Asikin, head of the rescue agency coordinating the search. Eleven adults in the village were killed in Thursday’s flood and seven people were missing -- including four children and a six-month-old baby, he said. Indonesia has been repeatedly afflicted by deadly floods and landslides in recent years during its wet season which lasts around half the year.
Agencies
