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Teachers' protest this week
Teachers are set to engage in a mass protest in front of the Education Ministry premises at Isurupaya, on Thursday, reiterating their opposition to the privatisation of education and over a series of their unresolved issues.

Ceylon Teachers Service (CTSU) General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe said three months after the meeting with the Education Minister not a single issue taken up has been dealt with.

The CTSU is calling for an immediate halt to education privatisation, increase of teacher salaries in keeping with the high cost of living, abolishment of sudden transfers outside the national teacher transfer policy, immediate reintroduction of the Agrahara insurance policy abolished by the present government among several other demands.

Gnanakone storm now in Australia
'The Australian' , the equivalent of the London Times, has highlighted Capt. Charles Gnanakone as an agent of the LTTE known for "money-laundering and smuggling guns for the Tamil Tiger terrorists group of Sri Lanka". He is also "named as a major financial backer of the outlawed group".

Yesterday's The Australian linked Capt. Gnanakone to a cash-for-visa racket which has kicked a political storm in Australia. He is a director of Pioneer Spirit Development, a company with plans for a $55 million resort in Dubbo. Australian Immigration authorities are investigating this property scheme which is seen as a front for investors to buy their way into the country.

Yesterday's The Australian now links Capt. Gnanakone to businessman, Jim Foo, known to Interpol as Peng Boon Foo, who is on the run. Mr. Foo is an illegal immigrant embroiled in a scheme to allegedly buy an Australian visa through shady deals. Capt. Gnanakone is reported to have told an official in Dubbo that he is "very concerned" that Mr. Foo, who is wanted by the Australian Police, is on the run.

After a five-month investigation, The Dubbo 'Liberal' exposed the "bizarre double life" of Capt. Gnanakone who had claimed to be a "covert peace-broker…. rushed back to the war-torn country earlier this year after the peace talks stalled".

The investigative reporter, Kathy Stone, first focused on his activities in the provincial Daily Liberal (December 21, 2002) in Dubbo, a central-western country town in New South Wales.

Earlier the Liberal exposed the fact that the Sri Lankan High Commission in Canberra was directed by the Foreign Ministry to purchase a first class return ticket through a Dubbo travel agency for Capt. Gnanakone to fly to Sri Lanka in June.

The Liberal also said that Capt. Gnanakone was "catapulted to the center-stage of Sri Lanka's last national election campaign when he met with the Opposition leader, now Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe in Singapore.

The Australian quoting the Liberal adds; 'Capt Gnanakone who has been described as a shipping magnate has been named as a go-between for the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government'.

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