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Truecaller has announced plans to set up headquarters in Nairobi,Kenya and has appointed Zakaria Hersi as Director of Partnerships for Africa. In his position, Zakaria will be spearheading Truecaller’s expansion in the region and forging partnerships with various eco-system players. The Truecaller app allows people to see who is calling and filter out spam calls and SMSes and has more than 50 million users in Africa. The company also revealed that it has more than 6 million users in Kenya alone, where the user base has grown over 35 percent over the past year. The Truecaller app is identifying more than half a billion calls monthly, blocking and filtering out more than 4.4 million, including 14 million spam SMSes, 50 percent of these SMSes being reported as spam. “Over the years, Kenya has consistently been a top market for us, with some of our highest usage globally, which is why it made sense for us to set up headquarters in Nairobi. With this positive momentum of growth, we...

At least 10 demonstrators have been injured in clashes with Ukrainian police and another 100 detained in the capital Kiev after authorities began dismantling a makeshift "tent city" protesting against corruption. The tent city was set up in October by supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia who has become an opposition politician in Ukraine. Saakashvili, a critic of corruption in Ukraine, was deported to Poland in February. He said he was "kidnapped" by Ukrainian authorities and removed from the country against his will. Andriy Kryshchneko, police chief of police, said at the camp on Saturday that "two court decisions" allowed authorities to search and dismantle the camp. Police said that explosives and other weapons were found at the scene

The strike launched by non-academic university staff  based  on several demands is being continued for the 5th  consecutive day. Chairman of the University Trade Union Joint Committee, Edward Malwattage, said that they have decided to resort to trade union action as authorities have repeatedly failed to respond to their demands. Meanwhile, the State University examinations scheduled to be held during the weekend have been postponed until further notice due to the strike action by non-academic staff, University Grants Commission said.

A REALITY star is accused of making a sex tape with a wealthy businessman and trying to blackmail him with it. Serbian TV personality Anabela Scekic, 39, has been held for blackmail after allegedly filming a sex session with a 34-year-old named only as N.N. Scekic, also nicknamed Tigrica (tigress), was arrested along with 23-year-old Tijana S. and 41-year-old Radovan L. The two women were accused of demanding €20,000 (£17,770) from the Belgrade businessman as Radovan L. allegedly masterminded the operation. A police source said they threatened to post the videos online if he didn’t hand over the money. They added: “N.N. accepted their request but said he would give them the money in four instalments.

Samsung announced the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, the latest entries in its flagship line of smartphones, at Barcelona's Mobile World Congress — but benchmark results are awkwardly showing the devices scoring significantly lower than many of their competitors. Benchmarks are synthetic tests that give numeric, quantifiable results. They are generally applications programmed to make the devices' systems-on-a-chip (SoC) run a series of tasks and determine how long it takes them to complete. AnandTech is a site that specialises in running rigorous tests like these, and its early findings on Samsung's latest devices are curious to say the least— particularly compared to the latest iPhones, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 — which will power most of the Android flagships this year — and even Samsung's own Galaxy S8 from last year. In a number of tests — such as web browsing, writing, data manipulation, and photo editing — the Galaxy S9's Exynos 9810 consistently deliv...

Samsung said on Monday that preorders for its upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone are proving to be more popular than last year's Galaxy S7 in the United States. "The majority of consumers have been selecting the Galaxy S8+," Samsung said in an email to CNBC, noting that the larger model is more popular than the smaller Galaxy S8. Samsung added that it's already noticing "double digit growth" (at least 10 percent) over last year in the few weeks since pre-orders for the smartphone went on sale. This suggests a few things. First, there seems to be pent-up demand for a new Samsung flagship smartphone even after the Galaxy Note 7 debacle last year, in which random battery fires consumed some phones, forcing Samsung to recall the model entirely. While last year's Galaxy S7 was released without incident, the Note 7 was the last phone Samsung released in the U.S., and the Note line-up are the company's most advanced phones. Second, consumers don...

Dialog Missed Call Top Up enables customers to instantly top-up Rs 100/= to their prepaid or postpaid mobile account using Sampath Bank account. Any Dialog customer who is having a Sampath Bank account and registered with SMS Banking Service will be automatically qualified to use the Dialog Missed Call Top-Up service. All customers have to do is dial 458. Once done the call will be automatically dropped and the funds will be transferred instantly. Customers will be able to transfer up to Rs. 500/= from their Sampath Bank account to the Dialog number using this service on a daily basis.

Mobitel & Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure partners with Ericsson for the first 5G Island of Innovation in South Asia Ericsson in collaboration with Mobitel and the Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure has formally signed the 5G Island of Innovation Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 10th March 2017, representing a landmark strategic ICT partnership that aims to bring 5G Internet of Things (IoT) innovation and entrepreneurship to Sri Lanka for the first time in South Asia. Mobitel was also the pioneer in South Asia to launch a Super 3.5G network, to successfully demonstrate HSPA + MIMO technology and successfully trial 4G-LTE and 4.5G-LTE Advanced Pro technology.    The 5G Island of Innovation environment will further advance the nation’s ICT skills and capabilities, supporting the ambition to transform Sri Lanka into a digital and knowledge based society, driving new and increased emplo...

A 16-year-old school girl has died after drowning in Balangoda. Reports reveal that the incident occurred when the student had gone to bathe at the Randola Gorokgahakandura Falls in Balangoda. The deceased student, who was a resident of the area, had gone to bathe at the waterfall with a group of friends at the time of the accident. Police stated that the girl’s body was found about an hour after the incident occurred. The post-mortem investigation is scheduled to be carried out today (11).  - By Derana

Now, you can register to BLOCK promotional Calls and SMS from your mobile service. To Fully Block ALL PROMOTIONAL Alerts (SMS and OBD) OPTION 1 : Type PROMO OFF and SMS to 678 OPTION 2 : Call our 24 HOUR Hotline at 1777 and speak to our contact center agent For this fully blocked category, customer will NOT receive any promotional calls or SMS to the mobile number registered for this service. To Block ONLY Promotional Calls OPTION 1 : Call our 24 HOUR Hotline at 1777 & speak to our contact center agent OPTION 2 : During an automated voice call, PRESS 9 at the end of the call to STOP receiving promotional calls in future For this block only promotional call category, customer NOT receive any promotional calls to the mobile number registered for this service but will continue to receive SMS.

PT XL Axiata, the Indonesian wireless carrier, fell to the lowest in nearly a year after people with knowledge of the matter said its Malaysian parent company is planning to sell part of its stake. Shares of XL Axiata dropped as much as 4.9 percent Tuesday and were down 3.4 percent to 2,560 rupiah at 12:29 a.m. in Jakarta, headed for their lowest close since October 2015. The benchmark Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite Index fell 1.6 percent. Axiata Group Bhd., Malaysia’s biggest mobile-phone operator, is seeking to trim stakes in some of its overseas operations in deals that could raise as much as $700 million, people familiar with the matter said. Axiata, based in Kuala Lumpur, is seeking a buyer for about 11 percent of Indonesian unit XL Axiata, according to the people. It is also selling as much as 30 percent each of listed Sri Lanka unit Dialog Axiata Plc and closely held Cambodian subsidiary Smart Axiata Co., the people said, asking not to be identified because th...

Sri Lanka’s strong gains in both internal and external peace enabled it to jump up 18 positions in the latest Global Peace Index, the second-largest rank improvement overall.  In a ranking of 163 countries, compiled by global think tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), Syria has been named the least peaceful, followed by South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. On the other hand, Iceland was ranked as the world’s most peaceful country, followed by Denmark and Austria. Sri Lanka is ranked 97, up 18 places from last year’s rank of 114, the greatest upswing in its score in the region and the report attributed the country’s increased peacefulness to “better relations with neighbouring countries, particularly India”. “The country successfully conducted two sets of elections in 2015— presidential in January and parliamentary in August which brought a reformist administration with a strong mandate. The country’s increased peacefulness is also due to bett...

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Newly-elected President Maithripala Sirisena today invited all political parties in parliament to unite in forming a national unity government. “I invite all political parties in parliament to join the all-party government to create good governance and drive the country towards expected aspirations,” he said, delivering his first address to the nation. He also pledged that the unlimited powers vested with the Executive Presidency will be transferred to the Parliament, Cabinet and Judiciary. The President addressed the nation from the Paththirippuwa (the Octagon) of the Sri Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic) in Kandy. Sirisena stated that the first step of his new government would be to eradicate poverty from the country and also pledged to promote religious coexistence and communal harmony in the country by ensuring the freedom and rights of every religion. He further said that the new government would take every measure to also eradicate ...

The Sri Lankan authorities should urgently investigate deadly violence against Muslims by Buddhist hardliners, Human Rights Watch said Friday. The violence, which began June 15 after a rally led by the Buddhist Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS), left several dead, 80 injured, and numerous homes and businesses destroyed in Aluthgama town and surrounding areas. Senior government officials as well as President Mahinda Rajapaksa have denounced the violence and promised compensation to the victims. But the government needs to seriously investigate who is responsible for the attacks on Muslim communities, Human Rights Watch said. Police have detained at least 40 people. “Sri Lankan authorities need to do more than arrest those carrying out the anti-Muslim violence. They need to investigate and identify any instigators,” said the US-based group.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived in Beruwala area a short while ago, President’s Media Division confirmed. He is scheduled to ascertain the current situation in the area first hand after unrest in the last few days. 

India’s next Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to invite all heads of governments of SAARC countries including Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for his swearing-in ceremony on May 26. Modi apparently wants to send out through this invitation a “very strong signal of a neighbour-friendly new government “, BJP sources say. Modi conveyed this wish of his to President Pranab Mukherjee when he met him on Tuesday. The President seemingly welcomed it as a ‘good idea’ and has passed this on to the ministry of external affairs which is now examining the proposal, sources in Rastrapati Bhavan said here. There is no recent precedent for inviting foreign heads of governments when an Indian prime minister has been sworn in, but Modi has a penchant for doing the most unusual. SAARC nations include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Modi apparently wants to send out through this invitation a “very strong signal of a neighbour-friendly n...

Though the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) was first to introduce PayPal to Sri Lanka through the Sampath Bank, it is revealed that three other banks too have been now earmarked by the CBSL. A senior official from the CBSL told AdaderanaBiz, “We were to first introduce PayPal through the Sampath Bank. However, we now plan to introduce this service to the country through four banks. We also plan to gradually involve the rest of the banks in the country.” While the CBSL is discussing with the PayPal branch in India to introduce the service to Sri Lanka, PayPal’s Indian arm has reportedly requested a report on Sri Lanka’s exports. The senior CBSL official told AdaderanaBiz that they would be submitting such a report and hence the introduction of PayPal to Sri Lanka would face a slight delay. Though cash cannot be remitted to Sri Lanka through the world renowned PayPal money transfer service sending money from Sri Lanka is possible even now.

India’s ambassador urged Sri Lanka’s government on Friday to expedite power sharing with ethnic minority Tamils after a recent United Nations resolution authorized an international war crimes investigation. Ambassador Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha said early talks between the government and the main ethnic Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, are a “key imperative” and urged the government to create conditions that would lead to a resumption of the dialogue. The party is seeking wider regional autonomy in Tamil-majority areas ravaged by the civil war, which ended in 2009 with the government’s defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels. The rebels fought for an independent Tamil state. The talks stalled in 2011 when the government said it wanted issues of greater local autonomy to be discussed by a parliamentary committee, instead of in talks with the Tamil alliance. The party now controls the provincial council in the northern region after winning a majority of seats in an election last year. Sinha’...