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Sri Lanka to Ban Phone Sharing to Thwart Terrorist Activities

We've seen countries institute some pretty weird regulations when it comes to wireless handsets, but this one is apt to seem patently absurd to anyone outside of (and possibly within) Sri Lanka. Government officials are reportedly gearing up to implement legislation that would require handset owners to "to carry a certificate of ownership at all times when carrying their phone around."

The new law will hopefully cut down on some terrorist activities that have apparently been going on, but it will also inconvenience quite a few innocent citizens as well. Ah well, at least locals can legitimately ask their mooching friends to get their own without sounding all snobbish. [Source: Cellular News via textually]

Text Messages Blocked In Sri Lanka out of Security Concerns

Text messaging in Sri Lanka was suspended Monday by that country's government for fear that Tamil Tiger rebels would use the system to scare people away from independence day celebrations.

The country's telecommunications regulator ordered the suspension of SMS text messages for the duration of the celebration and the leading service provider, Dialog, complied.

In the Western world, we often hold Edward Bulwer-Lytton's famous line "The pen is mightier than the sword" to be a hard-fast truth but it seems in some tension-filled regions the pen -- or in this case the text -- could be used to instill fear, or worse.

While most of the country engaged in celebrations, suspected rebels blew up a passenger bus, killing 13 people. This follows other suicide attacks during the weekend.

Besides blocking text messages, the government also blocked main roads throughout Sri Lanka's capital city of Colombo.

From Textually.org.


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