Sri Lankan army team on secret mission in Pune

A high-level team of officers from the Sri Lanka military intelligence corps (MIC) and army were brought stealthily into Pune five days ago for advanced intelligence training at Indian Army's various high-security institutions here.

The initial phase of the training at the National Defence Academy (NDA) got over on Friday. The team is expected to be briefed on advanced electronic warfare, command, control, communications and computer intelligence at the Military Intelligence Training School and Depot (MITSD), the only institution of the Indian Army which imparts training in all aspects of intelligence.

The secret visit comes as a precursor to the setting up of an intelligence training school in the island nation, which has been battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels for 25 years.

The visit assumes added significance in the backdrop of recent statements by chief of naval staff Admiral Suresh Mehta that Indian Navy and Coast Guard had shared intelligence regarding movement of LTTE Sea Tiger boats in the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar.

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/

Suicide-bombers | Just what are they dreaming of?

The list of causes and countries in which people are prepared to turn themselves, and those around them, into bloody piles of bone and gristle is long and growing. In Sri Lanka on February 3rd, a woman on a platform at Colombo's main railway station blew herself up, killing at least 15 people, including seven schoolboys and their sports coach. The next day, Israel saw its first suicide attack for more than a year: at a mall in Dimona, a Palestinian put an abrupt end to his own life, and that of an elderly Israeli woman.

As rescuers tended to an unconscious youth who appeared to be a wounded victim, they noticed—just in time—that he too was wearing an explosives belt. Meanwhile in the Pakistani garrison town of Rawalpindi, where Benazir Bhutto was slain in December, a human bomb on a motorcycle rammed into a military bus, killing at least ten people.

There is almost always something mysterious about suicide: a gap between everything that was ever said by or known about the self-destroyer (even by his family), and the silence that remains.

In the case of politically inspired suicide, the motives are at once more obvious and more elusive. Just why are terrorists, often promising young men (or increasingly, women) with much to live for, willing to kill themselves as well as others? It is exactly eight years since the first international conference on suicide terrorism was convened in Israel; since then, dozens of security pundits have been searching for new answers to the question.

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http://www.economist.com/world/international/

Indian delegation to visit Sri Lanka next week

A high level Indian business delegation led by Mr Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Commerce, would visit Sri Lanka next week, to give a boost to trade and investment between both countries.

"The Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh is leading a high-powered investment delegation for discussions with the Sri Lankan government on investment opportunities for Indian companies here," a senior Sri Lankan official said.

Representatives from Indian textile, IT and infrastructure companies, including Reliance, L&T, Mahindra and Mahindra, Aditya Birla Group, Indo-Rama, Vardhman, Arvind Mills, IOC, Quatrro, Virtusa and others would also accompany the delegation.

Among other engagements, they will have detailed discussions with the Sri Lankan Minister for Investment Promotion Mr Navin Dissanayake and other officials of the Sri Lankan Board of Investment (BOI).

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http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blnus/14081420.htm

Special committee for oil exploration

The Petroleum Resources Development Ministry has decided to appoint a Special Committee represented by all political parties in Parliament to supervise oil exploration activities in Sri Lanka.

Leader of the House Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva yesterday told Parliament a decision was taken at the Party Leader’s meeting held on February 6 to inform all political parties to nominate their representatives to this committee.

The Minister was responding to a question raised by JVP Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa regarding an assurance given by Petroleum Resources Development Minister A.H.M. Fowzie at the Budget debate to appoint a committee to supervise oil exploration.

Weerawansa said, however, the Minister has not yet taken steps to appoint this Committee.

Minister Fowzie agreed in this House to suspend the calling for tenders and appoint a Committee represented by all political parties to supervise oil exploration before these tenders are called.

Read more,
http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/02/08/news01.asp