- Indian
envoy meets president
LTTE
to free Indian crew of bombed ship
The LTTE had agreed to
free the 17-member Indian crew from the MV
Princess Kash they had seized on
Friday off the Mullaitivu coast, the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
said yesterday. But the fate of the four Sri
Lanka crewmen on board remained uncertain.
An ICRC spokesman said that the Tigers were
willing to release the 17 Indians but high level
talks were on about the four Lankans on board.
The SLAF bombed the 6,000-mt freighter on Friday
and destroyed it to prevent its cargo falling
into Tiger hands. (full story)
- Presidential
Secretariat explains how ‘MV Princess
Kash’ was bombed
- Tigers claw at
balance sheet
Sri Lanka’s Tamil
Tiger guerrillas are known to be ferocious in the
battlefield, but they are also increasingly
proving to be equally formidable in tearing the
country’s balance sheet apart.
As the army’s biggest and the bloodiest
campaign against the Tamil Tiger rebels entered
its 16th straight month Thursday, the government
announced that defence spending had overshot the
budgeted allocation by 18 per cent.
Justice Minister G. L. Peiris said defence
spending would rise by eight billion rupees (120
million dollars) over and above the estimated 44
billion rupees because of intense rebel
resistance to the army drive to capture a key
highway. (full
story)
- Island Capers
Forth Editor!
Lake House was
agog with the news on Friday night that Mr. Nihal
Ratnaike had been abruptly relieved on his duties
as editor of the Daily News and Lankapuwath
Editor Geoff Wijesinghe appointed to succeed him.
He becomes the fourth editor of the Lake House
flagship since the PA government assumed office.
Lake House employees speculated that Ratnaike may
return to the job of chief administrative officer
of the editorial department, a position he
briefly held after his return to ANCL in 1996.
But there was no confirmation.
Wijesinghe had long been the editor of
Lankapuwath, the so-called national news agency.
Although Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera
pledged to close down Lankapuwath within a week
of his appointment, the agency continued and
Wijesinghe was appointed editor of a new Lake
House news magazine in addition to his work at
Lankapuwath.
ANCL has had six chairmen since the advent of the
PA and the current incumbent, Mr. Aloy Ratnayake,
celebrated his first anniversary on the job with
a front page report of the event, illustrated
with a smiling portrait of himself.
- Postponement
of PC elections
"Not
a new development: UNP did it too" - GL
Yet another
election has been postponed under Emergency
Regulations and the government as expected has
justified its decision while the opposition
parties have launched protest campaigns calling
on the government to hold the Provincial Council
Elections without further delay.
The now familiar reasoning is " if they
could do it why can't we".But the question
that needs answering is whether this practice of
postponing elections for purposes of political
expediency should be stopped even at this late
stage.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister
G.L.Peiris, considered an authority on
constitutional matters, when asked if the
government was legally justified in postponing
the Provincial Council Elections said the
postponement of elections under emergency
regulations is not a new development . The UNP
had done it before, he pointed out. (full story)
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- TNL and
Yasodhara: the rest of the story
The charge that the TNL
television station had endangered President's
Kumaratunga's daughter, Yasodhara, was the
highlight of Media's Minister Mangala
Samaraweera's cabinet news briefing last
Thursday.But the full
story had not been revealed there. The minister,
for instance, has not released details of the
letter he wrote TNL's chairman and managing
director, Mr. Shan Wickremesinghe, on June 30 -
the day after the June 29 newscast about which
the president had complained.
Most pertinently, not a word
was said about the letter that TNL's then news
director, Ishini Wickremesinghe Perera, wrote in
reply. A TNL spokesman said that a correction of
the report, cleared with Minister Samaraweera,
was telecast the next day. (full story)
- Inquiry
into local govt reforms
Proceedings
only in Sinhala, insists Chairman
The Presidential
Commission of Inquiry Into Local Government
Reforms is tied up in knots following the
insistence of its chairman, Dr. H.A.P.
Abeywardene, that proceeding be in Sinhala only.This has angered other members of the
commission, particularly Mr. N. Selvakkumaran of
the Law Faculty of the Colombo University who
withdrew from the first public sitting of the
commission last week when no interpreter was
provided. Selvakkumaran is the only non-Sihalese
on the commission.
Provincial Councils and Local
Government Minister Alavi Moulana said yesterday
that if there are any problems, they must be
sorted out. He described the chairman as a ``very
knowledgeable man.'' All members of the
commission must co-operate if the commission is
to achieve its objectives, the minister said. (full story)
- 1000 prizes
for successful GCE (O/L) students
Stone 'N' String (Pvt)
Ltd., Sri Lanka's established high fashions
jewellery manufacturers and marketers, since 1980
have organized a programme to encourage students
who have passed the GCE (OL) examination in 1997
throughout the country and are to give away 1000
prizes valued at Rs. 350 each to the prize
winners.This promotional
programme was organized by Stone 'N' String to
encourage students who had passed O/L's in 1997
to pursue higher studies.
This is an initial effort by
Stone 'N' String to encourage the younger
generation in various spheres of activity. (full story)
- Chartered
Accountants hold 21st AGM
At the 21st Annual General Meeting of
the Association of Chartered Certified
Accountants held recently at its new branch
office at 9, Rosmead Place, Mr. T. L. Raj, who
had been re-elected for the seventh year outlined
the progress made during the past year,
highlighting the fact that the total strength of
students and members had grown substantially and
the branch office had relocated to its present
address.
A new qualification, Certified
Accounting Technicians (CAT) had been launched in
October 1997, at which Mr. Mark Protherough and
Ms. Ann Motts from the parent body had been
present. (full
story)
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