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The U.S. government shut down the Megaupload.com content sharing website, charging its founders and several employees with massive copyright infringement, the latest skirmish in a high-profile battle against piracy of movies and music. The Department of Justice announced the indictment and arrests of four company executives in New Zealand on Friday as debate over online piracy reaches fever pitch in Washington where lawmakers are trying to craft tougher legislation. The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet piracy and content theft, but major Internet companies like Google and Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship. A Justice Department official said the timing of the arrests was not related to the battle in Congress. New Zealand police on Friday raided a mansion in Auckland and arrested Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, 37, a German national with New Zealand residenc...

All lectures for 2nd year students of the Science Faculty at the Kelaniya University have been suspended until further notice.  The decision, taken by the University’s administration, has already been informed to the students, director of the University media unit, Prof. Mapa Thilakaratne said today. Accordingly, the relevant students have been instructed by the administration to vacate university premises and hostels.   (Ada derana)

The construction of South Asia’s tallest multi-functional Tower ‘Lotus Tower’ will commence on January 20. The proposed tower with an entertainment centre will be constructed at the Beira Lake water front in Colombo and the total height of the tower is 350 meters, a statement issued by the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRCSL) said yesterday. TRCSL is planning the construction of a multi-functional telecommunication tower and an Entertainment Centre which has been approved by the Cabinet. The proposed tower will be constructed on a plot of land of 3.06 hectares, and it will be situated between the Eastern Beira Lake and D R Wijewardena Mawatha. It is destined to be a striking city symbol and an important landmark by being the tallest Tower in South Asia. It will be a free -standing tower with a four-storey high podium; a concrete tower shaft of moderate diameter; eight storied tower head; and a steel framed antennae mast surmounted at the top. ...

National level and District level rankings of the 2011 G.C.E Advanced Level examination results, released last night following a long delay, have been temporarily suspended due to a technical error, the Ministry of Higher Education said.  Secretary of the Higher Education Ministry Sunil Jayantha Navarathna stated that the decision was taken as a result of a technical error which had occurred during the calculation process of the merits and affirmed that the rankings will be re-released after the problem is resolved.  He however added that there will be no change in the ‘Z-scores’ or the A/L results in general as they are correct. (Ada Derana)

Christmas is indeed a jolly time of year for some former Virginia tobacco farmers who have switched to a more health-friendly crop. On a 25-acre Christmas tree farm at Mouth of Wilson, in remote Appalachian Virginia, Ron Cooper has a spring in his step as he awaits the arrival of his seasonal workers. It's just after 8 a.m. on a weekday, and the crew will go to work planting Fraser Fir seedlings, which Cooper says are by far the most popular Christmas tree. The 60-year-old is going out on a limb planting this time of year, having never done so before. He hopes the seedlings, while withstanding the cold, will not dry up and die as he says often happens to crops sown in the summer. Cooper grew tobacco on "anywhere from five to six acres" for about 15 years, last growing it in the early 90s, before deciding he would be better off concentrating on the Christmas tree business. The tobacco growing habit skipped a generation because his grandparents grew the crop ...

Four men who brutally murdered a Sri Lankan born shopkeeper while his children watched on CCTV have been jailed for life by a UK court. Suppiah Tharmaseelan, 48, died after being stabbed, punched, kicked and eventually chased out of his own store in November 27 last year. Twins Ian and John Meenan, Anthony Bayliss and his half-brother Liam Ryan were given minimum terms of between 20 and 27 years for killing the father-of-four. Passing sentence at Birmingham Crown Court, Mr Justice Wyn Williams described the killing in the Kingstanding area of the city as a “mindless” attack on a vulnerable victim. A fifth defendant, getaway driver James Moore, was jailed for six years and nine months after admitting robbery but being cleared of murder. Following a trial which ended last month, it emerged that one of the victim’s children telephoned the police after they witnessed the attack via CCTV in another part of the shop premises. During his sentencing remarks, the ju...

The crash of a CIA drone in Iran has brought into the open what U.S. intelligence agencies would prefer kept secret: intense spying efforts in a country where the United States has no official presence. Iran on Thursday aired with great flourish footage of the captured drone, which appeared largely intact. Pentagon and CIA spokesmen would not comment on whether it was the missing U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aircraft. A person familiar with the situation confirmed that the drone that crashed was on a surveillance mission over Iran. It is believed to have crashed because of a malfunction and not from being shot down or computer-hacked by the Iranians, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. Although there are risks that Iran could attempt to reverse engineer the technology, or sell it to other countries, like China, U.S. officials believe that Iran will not be able to mine the drone's computer systems to learn details of the U.S. surveillance mission....