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Kashmir
rocks Colombo conference Officials said India's Labour Minister Sahib Singh raised objections at the inaugural morning ceremony on Wednesday presided over by Labour Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe when a video was being shown about labour exporting countries. He said the map had some inaccuracies over the disputed Kashmir region. Diplomats present at the conference said the issue seemed to affect both India and Pakistan, though the latter represented by High Commissioner Ashraf Qureshi did not raise any objections. Both India and Pakistan are sensitive about maps demarcating the two countries on the Kashmiri border. At the closing sessions of the meeting, Mr. Samarasinghe apologised to the Indian delegation for what he called was an unintentional "technical error" and said it was being rectified. As he made the apology from the chair, the Indian minister entered the conference room at the BMICH nodding his head in acknowledgement of the apology. Cold
shoulder for LTTE should be no surprise’ US Embassy Spokesman John Lohof said that the fact that the LTTE is among one of the terrorist organizations was known the LTTE cannot be surprised about it. He said the LTTE would have to get off the terrorist list first to be considered to be invited for such a meeting. "The LTTE
knows how to get off the list of terrorist organizations "
he said. "The exclusion of the LTTE from reconstruction efforts in the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka is against the spirit of the peace process. It also undermines confidence in both the reconstruction initiative and the peace process. The LTTE is therefore dismayed and disappointed by the U.S action," read the statement issued by the LTTE office in Kilinochchi. Govt
bailout for tea exporters Deputy Plantations Minister Naveen Dissanayake told The Sunday Times that the government was also offering warehouse space for exporters to store additional tea stocks and offering an incentive to tea smallholders. The proposal to financially support tea exporters came after nearly one million kilograms of low grown tea mainly exported to West Asian markets went unsold for the second successive week. But, exporters and tea brokers said the situation had improved, compared to the previous week. Plantation Minister Lakshman Kiriella met tea exporters and appealed to them to co-operate with the government to ensure that the tea market was not affected. LTTE-TULF
talks on Wednesday Mr. Anandasangaree who has been critical of the LTTE did not attend the last two meetings with the LTTE. Wednesday's meeting is likely to focus on TULF members making public statements on the LTTE. The TNA members have been summoned for a separate meeting with LTTE political wing leader S. P. Thamilselvan on Thursday. Computer
studies optional for O/Ls The selected schools will receive internet connections and schools in the category 1 A and B will receive 20 computers and three printers, while those in the category 1 C will receive 15 computers and two printers. An expenditure of 2.5 million will be spent on each school in the 1 A and B categories. The decision to launch such a project was that although Sri Lanka's literacy rate is high at 92 percent, we are mainly supplying housemaids to the global job market while India with a much lower literacy rate is producing doctors, nurses and software specialists because it has a high computer literacy rate.(NK) |
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