COLOMBO (Reuters) – He was pardoned by the president and released from jail, but Sri Lankan former army chief Sarath Fonseka had nothing but scorn for the government on his first day of freedom and vowed to fight for its downfall.

The ex-general said it could take 5 to 10 years to change the political culture of the island nation but he was determined to join forces with opposition parties even if the terms of his release prevented him from standing for office.

“I might not be able to contest and vote, but still I can do politics,” Fonseka, 61, told Reuters on Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home outside the capital, Colombo.

“I can educate the people, I can talk to people and have meetings,” he said. “And I can do anything else to ensure that this government is thrown away and try to bring another government that will look after the welfare of the people.”

Hailed by many as a hero for helping end Sri Lanka’s 25-year civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels, the four-star general fell out with the government in 2009 before a failed presidential bid against Mahinda Rajapaksa, his one-time friend.

He was arrested two weeks after the election, sentenced to 5-1/2 years in jail for various crimes – among them corruption and engaging in politics while in uniform – and stripped of all his rank and retirement perks.

Fonseka allies said the conditions of his release on Monday, which came after pressure from Western nations, do not allow him to stand in electoral politics.

COLOMBO (Reuters) – He was pardoned by the president and released from jail, but Sri Lankan former army chief Sarath Fonseka had nothing but scorn for the government on his first day of freedom and vowed to fight for its downfall.

The ex-general said it could take 5 to 10 years to change the political culture of the island nation but he was determined to join forces with opposition parties even if the terms of his release prevented him from standing for office.

“I might not be able to contest and vote, but still I can do politics,” Fonseka, 61, told Reuters on Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home outside the capital, Colombo.

“I can educate the people, I can talk to people and have meetings,” he said. “And I can do anything else to ensure that this government is thrown away and try to bring another government that will look after the welfare of the people.”

Hailed by many as a hero for helping end Sri Lanka’s 25-year civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels, the four-star general fell out with the government in 2009 before a failed presidential bid against Mahinda Rajapaksa, his one-time friend.

He was arrested two weeks after the election, sentenced to 5-1/2 years in jail for various crimes – among them corruption and engaging in politics while in uniform – and stripped of all his rank and retirement perks.

Fonseka allies said the conditions of his release on Monday, which came after pressure from Western nations, do not allow him to stand in electoral politics.

COLOMBO, May 22 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s central bank expects recent measures it has taken to boost the rupee will help the currency recover to below 125 to the U.S. dollar, but it is not targeting a particular level, Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal told Reuters on Tuesday.

The rupee is hovering around 129-130 despite a warning from the Treasury Secretary last month that the authorities would intervene in the market if it did not appreciate to 125.

“Actually we don’t have a target as such,” Cabraal said. “We don’t necessarily have a number in mind but our own assessment is that it should settle below the 125 rupee mark.”

However, he said further steps to curb market speculation, which the authorities say has caused an unwarranted depreciation, could not be ruled out.

“We would probably be watching the situation carefully to see whether it needs any further adjustment, but our assessment right now is that we won’t need to,” he said, when asked if fresh measures to counter speculative trading were needed.

The rupee has fallen 11.9 percent since the central bank halted open market interventions on Feb. 9, after it had defended the currency with more than $2.6 billion in the second half of last year.

An over-valued rupee and low interest rates caused the country’s trade deficit to more than double to $9.7 billion in 2011 and turned the balance of payments from a surplus to a $1 billion deficit, prompting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to withhold a loan payment last August.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s military, which has dominated the country for much of its turbulent history, has less sway over foreign policy, and a new power equation is emerging within America’s strategic ally, said the foreign minister.

Pakistan has been directly ruled by generals for more than half of its 64-year history and indirectly for much of the rest.

The military has largely controlled foreign and security policies, and has taken the lead in relations with Washington.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said new dynamics were now taking hold in nuclear-armed Pakistan, one of the most unstable countries in the world.

“I want you to also understand that things have changed in Pakistan,” she told Reuters in an interview.

“I think this overbearance of the role of the military in the foreign policy of Pakistan is something which will recede as time passes.”

Some may question Khar’s assessment of the military’s role in foreign affairs given the long dominance of the generals.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – For India to reach its target for cutting the budget deficit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would almost certainly have to raise prices for subsidised fuel products.

For Singh, it is an unhappy choice between sound economics and political survival. Since the former risks bringing down the government, he is likely to sacrifice budget discipline to hang on to power.

The annual budget unveiled on Friday set a goal of easing what has become a crippling subsidy burden, largely due to rising global oil prices, but it gave few details on how to get there.

Singh himself conceded that he will have to “bite the bullet” on subsidies after a budget presentation that aims to push the subsidy burden below 2 percent of GDP – from 2.4 percent now – and get the fiscal deficit down to its targeted 5.1 percent of GDP in the year starting April 1.

It is a tall order for a coalition government of peevish allies that seems to weaken by the day. Cheap diesel and cooking fuel, as well as food and fertiliser subsidies, are vote-winners in a country where vast numbers of the population are poor.

Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi quit on Sunday under pressure from his own party, a partner in the coalition, less than a week after proposing an increase in passenger fares for the first time in eight years. His exit underscored just how hard it is for Singh’s government to make prudent but unpopular decisions.

Sanjaya Baru, a former media adviser to the prime minister, said that to meet its fiscal targets, Singh has no choice but to ruffle feathers of his already fractious coalition partners.

NEW DELHI, March 19 (Reuters) – For India to reach its target for cutting the budget deficit, Prime Minister Manmoham Singh would almost certainly have to raise prices for subsidised fuel products.

For Singh, it is an unhappy choice between sound economics and political survival. Since the former risks bringing down the government, he is likely to sacrifice budget discipline to hang on to power.

The annual budget unveiled on Friday set a goal of easing what has become a crippling subsidy burden, largely due to rising global oil prices, but it gave few details on how to get there.

Singh himself conceded that he will have to “bite the bullet” on subsidies after a budget presentation that aims to push the subsidy burden below 2 percent of GDP – from 2.4 percent now – and get the fiscal deficit down to its targeted 5.1 percent of GDP in the year starting April 1.

It is a tall order for a coalition government of peevish allies that seems to weaken by the day. Cheap diesel and cooking fuel, as well as food and fertiliser subsidies, are vote-winners in a country where vast numbers of the population are poor.

The railway minister quit on Sunday under pressure from his own party, a partner in the coalition, less than a week after proposing an increase in passenger fares for the first time in eight years. His exit underscored just how hard it is for Singh’s government to make prudent but unpopular decisions.

Sanjaya Baru, a former media adviser to the prime minister, said that to meet its fiscal targets, Singh has no choice but to ruffle feathers of his already fractious coalition partners.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Rahul Gandhi slept under the stars in rural India, he shared simple meals of lentil curry and bread with poor villagers, and he was even arrested for joining farmers in a land protest.

The scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty tried over the past year to project himself as a man of the people. He dressed down and grew a beard to look more rugged as he campaigned tirelessly for the ruling Congress party in Uttar Pradesh, a vast state straddling the River Ganges that with 200 million people is more populous than Brazil.

“I want the mosquitoes to bite me like they bite you so that I can understand your pain,” the 41-year-old Gandhi told villagers at one of more than 200 election rallies in the state.

The strategy flopped.

Vote tallies last week gave Congress just 28 of the 403 seats at stake for the state’s legislative assembly, a miserable fourth place.

Gandhi’s performance was seen as a test of his fitness to take the reins of the party from his ailing Italian-born mother Sonia and eventually to become prime minister if Congress and its allies retain power in national elections due in 2014.

That made the result a stinging slap for India’s first family in the very state from which it rose as the beacon of freedom before independence from Britain in 1947.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Rahul Gandhi slept under the stars in rural India, he shared simple meals of lentil curry and bread with poor villagers, and he was even arrested for joining farmers in a land protest.

The scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty tried over the past year to project himself as a man of the people. He dressed down and grew a beard to look more rugged as he campaigned tirelessly for the ruling Congress party in Uttar Pradesh, a vast state straddling the River Ganges that with 200 million people is more populous than Brazil.

“I want the mosquitoes to bite me like they bite you so that I can understand your pain,” the 41-year-old Gandhi told villagers at one of more than 200 election rallies in the state.

The strategy flopped.

Vote tallies last week gave Congress just 28 of the 403 seats at stake for the state’s legislative assembly, a miserable fourth place.

Gandhi’s performance was seen as a test of his fitness to take the reins of the party from his ailing Italian-born mother Sonia and eventually to become prime minister if Congress and its allies retain power in national elections due in 2014.

That made the result a stinging slap for India’s first family in the very state from which it rose as the beacon of freedom before independence from Britain in 1947.

NEW DELHI, March 6 (Reuters) – India’s Rahul Gandhi failed spectacularly to deliver a promised comeback for his Congress party in crucial state elections, casting fresh doubt on his capacity to become the next member of a storied dynasty to lead the country.

The Congress party flop in India’s most politically vital state was also a blow to the already-tottering government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, reducing his scope to re-launch reforms and reverse a slowdown in economic growth.

“It has been a disaster for the Congress, it’s an even bigger disaster for Rahul Gandhi and the Gandhi family,” political analyst Amulya Ganguli said as results came in from Uttar Pradesh and four smaller states that went to the polls.

“They were banking on success in these elections, hoping to get at least four out of five states. It has gone exactly the opposite way. It shows that there is no charisma left in the Gandhi family.”

With the count nearing its conclusion on Tuesday, the Congress party was trailing in fourth place in the big northern state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), which with 200 million people would be the world’s fifth-most populous country if independent.

It looked set to win about 28 of the state assembly’s 403 seats, a marginal improvement on its lacklustre performance there five years ago and far short of the 100-plus tally it had boasted Gandhi’s tireless election campaigning would deliver.

“NOT GOOD”