DESPITE yesterday's rain, at least 500 devotees thronged the Sri Lankaramaya Buddhist Temple in St Michael's Road in the evening.

The group was celebrating the 60th anniversary of the planting of the Bodhi Tree and the laying of a Foundation Stone in the temple's compound.

BERLIN - GERMAN auto maker Volkswagen will cut all of its temporary staff, which numbered some 16,500 in 2008, company head Martin Winterkorn said in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine.

Asked how many temporary workers the company will have by the end of the year, Mr Winterkorn said: 'We will no longer employ any of them. It is dreadful for those concerned, but there is no other solution.' He added, however, that permanent employees were not at risk for the time-being.

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIAN police on Saturday used watercannons on ethnic Indian demonstrators and arrested 17 protesting the ill-treatment of a detained rights group leader, an opposition politician said.

Lawmaker Gobind Singh Deo said nearly 400 supporters of banned Indian rights group Hindraf had gathered at a police station in the capital when police hit the crowd with chemical-laced water.

CHA-AM (Thailand) - SOUTH-EAST Asia will be 'severely tested' as the global financial crisis deepens, Thailand's leader warned on Saturday, as the export-dependent region braced for the possibility the world could be blighted by several years of anemic growth.

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the region's annual summit, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva expressed hope the meeting would be a stepping stone for regional measures to combat the economic slump but did not announce anything concrete.