Another contingent of 102 Army, 50 Navy and 48 Air Force personnel left to Haiti as part of the UN peace keeping force. This departing scene was captured at Bandaranaike International Airport, a short while before take off on Friday. 

News Headline

Postal workers back

Postal workers yesterday morning called off the five-day old 'work to rule' campaign after 10 hours of lengthy discussions with authorities winning 19 demands.
They were on 'work to rule' since September 26 and started negotiations with the authorities at 6.00 pm on Friday and concluded discussions on a satisfactory note at 4.30 pm yesterday morning. About a million letters including presidential election related letters were in postal bags unsorted and left idling in post offices, mail exchanges and central mail exchanges.
However, union members agreed to clear all the delayed mail in two days. Authorities agreed to grant a special overtime payment for them to clear the backlog.
Nine unions took to the 'work to rule' campaign refusing to work overtime which resulted in the collection of loads of postal sacks in mail exchanges and post offices islandwide.
Postal workers were pushed to work to rule as a result of the Postal Department and the Ministry failing to attend to their routine administrative work.
Post and Telecommunication Ministry Secretary Piyatissa Ranasinghe agreed to heed to the 19 demands before mid October, Union of Post and Telecommunication Officers' General Secretary K. S. Weerasekara told the Sunday Observer.
Accordingly, the Ministry will fill 49 vacant Chief Postmaster posts, 333 Grade 1 Postmaster posts, 7 Deputy Postmaster General Posts, 28 Divisional Superintendent posts, 28 Regional Administrative Officers posts, gazette competitive exams for internal promotions, grant salary anomalies for class I and II postmasters, minor staff salary increments, reinstate interdicted officers, etc.
Authorities also agreed to provide 10,000 bicycles for postmen without deducting the cost from their salaries. After five years, postmen will own these bicycles, Weerasekara said.
In addition, the authorities also agreed to fill about 5,000 vacancies in the department with Graduate trainees.

EU ban : No impact on peace facilitation
The European Union travel ban on the LTTE will not impact on the role of the Norwegian peace facilitators, a Norwegian Embassy spokeswoman said.
"We are not party to the declaration...The ban will not have any impact on us," Norwegian Embassy spokeswoman Kjersti Tromsdal told the Sunday Observer.
Norway is not a member state of the European Union.
"Our role remains unchanged," she said adding Norwegians would resume peace diplomacy once Oslo finalises its coalition government.
Former Head of the Mission of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Trond Furuhovde will visit the island, as scheduled, in the middle of this month to consult the government and the LTTE on reviewing the Ceasefire Agreement. The 25 nation European Union last Tuesday announced a travel ban on the LTTE delegations visiting the member states, while threatening a complete ban on the Tigers.
"The EU is actually considering the formal listing of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation. In the meantime, the EU has agreed that with immediate effect, the delegations from the LTTE will no longer be received in any EU member states until further notice".
The EU declaration further stated that the member states would take national measures to curb illegal activities, including fund-raising and propaganda by LTTE front organisations and individual supporters.
Meanwhile, thousands of people thronged into Jaffna University grounds on Friday, in an LTTE organised Pongu Tamil (Tamil Resurgence) festival, declaring the right to self-determination as non-negotiable and denouncing the EU ban as one sided punitive action.

The government on Friday said the EU ban would help break the deadlock in the negotiations and would facilitate and not complicate the peace process
"We do not think the EU ban will in anyway be a hindrance to the peace process, Cabinet Spokesman Nimal Siripala de Silva told the weekly Cabinet briefing.

7 Muslims detained by the LTTE in Batticaloa

LTTE captured seven Muslims persons who had gone to Akkurana forest in the LTTE control area to cut tree. They are still detained by the LTTE. They are as follows-

1. Pakiri Muthu Basheer

2. Ali Ismail

3. Adhambava Vellaithamby

4. Asanar Muhamadu Nasar

5. Muhamadu Ismail Eliyas

6. Scapillai Ismail

7. Rasoor Maharoop

Their 7 carts and 14 bulls have also been detained at Illupaiyadichenai by the LTTE. The picture of these bullock carts has been published in LTTE Newspaper "Eelanatham" from Batticaloa.

Issue Stamp in memory of late Naleem Hajiar – IA-YMMA

At a special committee meeting chaired by Al-Haj M. Ashroff Hussein, National President of the International Assembly of YMMA (Sri Lanka) yesterday, the committee unanimously adopted a proposal by its Governor Hassan Al Fassi Sheriff, seconded by the Kandy District Governor M.S.M. Fouzer to request the Minister of Post and Telecommunication to issue a stamp in memory of the late Business/ Gem Tycoon, Social and Religious worker Al-Haj M.I.M Naleem.

The late Naleem Hajiar has rendered a yeoman service to the Muslim community of Sri Lanka. Jameeyah Naleemiya the citadel of Sri Lanka Muslim Renaissance in the field of Islamic education and Iqra which was producing competent people of technical field were some of his remarkable ventures, to help the needy. The presence of these ventures will ensure that this great Muslim entrepreneur lives in the hearts of the people forever.

The IA-YMMA is also to call upon the local government authority in Beruwela to name the road that leads to the Jameeyah Naleemiya Islamic Academy to be named after this great philanthropist and the patriotic Sri Lankan citizen.

child 

Today, the world celebrates the International Children�s and Elders� Days. The happy juxtaposition of the two days is indicative of the circle of life that begins with childhood and ends in the twilight years. Even as the child pictured here contemplates life in an even more competitive future, this elderly couple amble along at their own pace helped by another elderly person.  

Headline News

At least three killed in Sri Lanka's volatile east ahead of prime minister's visit

Gunmen fatally shot two ethnic Tamils and a Sinhalese man in separate attacks in Sri Lanka's volatile east, hours before a planned visit Saturday by presidential candidate and current Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, police said.

The Tamil men, both aged 23, were shot dead by unidentified gunmen just before midnight in Valaichchenai village, 220 kilometers (135 miles) east of the capital, Colombo, said Rohan Abeywardene, the region's top police chief.

Around six hours later, an ice-cream seller, belonging to the Sinhalese majority was shot dead in the neighboring eastern district of Ampara - parts of which are under Tamil Tiger rebel control.

The fresh outbreak of violence came as Rajapakse traveled to the coastal village of Oluvil, in Ampara, to address an election rally.

Security has been bolstered by special anti-terrorist commandos and the police ahead of his visit, Abeywardene said.

He said while the violence is unlikely to have an impact on the premier's visit, ``we are not taking any chances.''

The premier's special security team also combed the area ahead of Rajapakse's arrival by helicopter.

Rajapakse will contest presidential elections expected on Nov. 17.

Oluvil is a Muslim-dominated village. Rajapakse also visited another Muslim village in Ampara on Friday. The Muslim vote will be crucial at the poll for Sri Lanka's new president, and could determine whether Rajapakse or his main opponent, Ranil Wickremesinghe, wins.

``I will make sure there will be an honorable peace where Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims can all live without fear,'' Rajapakse told the crowd.

Muslims generally do not trust the Tamil rebels, who are mostly Hindus. Muslims claim their 1.3 million minority have been discriminated against since an earlier Sri Lankan government signed a cease-fire agreement with the rebels.

Authorities suspect the latest violence was linked to feuding between militant groups.

The split in the Tamil Tiger rebels in March 2004, sparked internecine clashes that have killed scores, mainly in Sri Lanka's east. In recent months, the fighting has spilled over into the capital.

Sri Lankan President leaves on foreign visit amid party dispute

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga who is nearing the end of her official term in December has undertaken a visit to Paris amidst a serious policy dispute with her presidential candidate and the incumbent prime minister Mahinda Rajapakse.

The ruling party officials said Saturday the President had lefthere early Saturday morning to attend sessions of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

The ruling party, Sri lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), said Friday that Kumaratunga had agreed to address Rajapakse's election rallies despite her earlier call on him to explain his electoral pacts with extremist political parties aimed at winning the Nov. 17 poll.

Kumaratunga who cannot contest a third time for President choseRajapakse as the party's nominee.

But she is unhappy with Rajapakse's pacts with the two hardlineparties who are opposed to a federal solution being looked at as an ultimate settlement to the separatist armed conflict.

The SLFP sources said that Kumaratunga appointed a nine-member committee comprising senior ministers and provincial governors. The committee has been mandated to formulate the policy document for Rajapakse while preserving the SLFP's own policies whilst recognizing the policies of parties who had entered deals with theparty's presidential candidate