Maldives vote goes to second round

The first-ever democratic presidential battle in the Maldives is to go into a second round after Asia's longest-serving leader failed to deliver a knock-out blow to his rivals, officials said yesterday.

With most votes from Wednesday's polls counted, incumbent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom - who has run the Indian Ocean archipelago unchallenged for 30 years - was ahead with 40 per cent, but short of the majority needed to avoid a tough run-off.

He will have to face his most outspoken critic former political prisoner Mohamed "Anni" Nasheed who was in second place with 25 percent, election officials said.

Gayoom told reporters that he was "proud" of the result, even though he had predicted a first round win. He said he was in a strong position to win the second round, which must be held within 10 days.

Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) was also upbeat on his chances.

AFP

French author wins Nobel literature prize

French-born author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clzio was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature yesterday in Sweden. The Nobel Prize committee described the 68-year-old as an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilisation."

Le Cl‚zio moved with his family to Nigeria as a boy for two years before returning to Nice. He has lived all over the world, including France, Mexico, Panama, England and Albuquerque, N.M.

"Western culture has become too monolithic," he told news magazine Label in 2001. "It places the greatest possible emphasis on its urban and technical side thus preventing the development of other forms of expression: religiosity and feelings, for example. The entire unknowable part of the human being is obscured in the name of rationalism. It is my awareness of this that has pushed me towards other civilisations." LA Times

Sri Lanka 'A wondrous family holiday destination'

Sri Lanka is one of the best destinations for a family holiday, according to one travel commentator.

Given that the country suffered huge losses as a result of the 2004 tsunami, tourists spending money can "in a small way" contribute to the island's recovery, wrote Will Buckley for The Observer.

Highlights of his family's recent holiday in Sri Lanka included an elephant ride and visits to beautiful temples.

"It is a wondrous abundant island inhabited by gloriously friendly people and there can be few happier places in the world to enjoy a family holiday," states Buckley.

According to World Travel Guide, Sri Lanka has many "cultural and natural treasures", with an interesting mix of cultures due to the different groups which have inhabited the island throughout its eventful history.

It also suggests that tourists can be an important factor in aiding the progress of the country away from a troubled political past to a more hopeful future.