Fuelling a flammable protest

Employees of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation held a demonstration against the government's proposal to restructure the Corporation. Pictured is one of the employees on a fuel bowser near the petroleum tank farm Kolonnawa holding his own demonstration.
Pic by U.K.Abeyratna

• Panic not, no strike says CPC boss
  "There is no strike either in the Petroleum Corporation or the Ceylon Electricity Board and people should not panic over a fuel shortage or power cut", Chairman Petroleum, Jaliya Medagama said yesterday (28).
  
  
• Dentists extract revenge on patients
  Dentists serving in government hospitals and dental institutions struck work yesterday causing a large numbers of patients to be turned away. General Secretary of the Government Dental Surgeons Association GDSA Dr. N. T. Gamage said the two-day token strike was to demand an immediate stop to the recruitment of school dental therapists.
  
  
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• The Palk Strait: Nature’s bi-lateral buffer zone
  December 26, 2004, was particularly significant to the Indian Ocean. A tsunami resulted from the 9.3 Richter scale underwater earthquake with it’s epicenter off Indonesia’s western coast near it’s Aceh province on the northern tip off Sumatra. It had a devastating effect on the coastal states which fronted the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka suffered its worst natural disaster in history. It’s summary toll as reflected in the assessment undertaken by the ADB / JBIC / World Bank, mirrors the scale of damage to the island nation
   
• When fear stalks a community
  She is a polite, articulate university student who speaks quietly, but passionately. Her message is simple: she wants to stop the recruitment and use of child soldiers. "The level of fear and brutality used to force children, some as young as 12 or 13, to become soldiers is severe," she says.
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• Dankotuwa’s strategic focus reaps rewards in second half, 2004
  After a disappointing first half of 2004 where the Company made a loss of Rs. 8.5 million, Dankotuwa’s change of business model and style of management has resulted in good results in the second half.
   
• World Tea Expo at Las Vegas
  Lankan company bags award for best Iced Tea
  Walter’s Bay, the North American arm of the sprawling Bogawantalawa tea plantations of Sri Lanka bagged the covetous first place in the most watched event of the largest Tea show- the best commercially brewed black iced tea contest at the World Tea Expo held at the Las Vegas Hilton, that closed yesterday. The Expo was held at the hotel in the capital city of Las Vegas in Nevada.
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• SLC goes ahead with AGM, elect Thilanga as Chairman
  Despite Sports Ministry’s appointment of an Interim Committee to run the affairs of Sri Lanka Cricket, the Annual General Meeting of the cricket board was held on Sunday as scheduled at it’s headquarters and Thilanga Sumathipala was elected uncontested as the chairman of the board. Sumathipala speaking to ‘The Island’ said that 84 percent of SLC’s membership turned out for the elections where top posts of the Executive Committee were elected uncontested.
   
  Newly elected SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala (fourth from left) shakes hands with outgoing SLC President Mohan de Silva (fifth from left) at the AGM held at SLc headquarters in Colombo on Sunday. Also seen from left are Nuski Mohammed (Treasurer), Aravinda de Silva (Vice President) and Secretary Ravin Wickremarathne. Pic by Nihal Chandrakumara.
   

• Minister calls election null and void
  Minister of Sports Jeevan Kumaratunga called yesterday’s Annual General Meeting and the election of office bearers at Sri Lanka Cricket as null and void. "I have appointed a committee to run the affairs of cricket and no one has the right to conduct a AGM and elect office bearers. I am upset about these high handed acts of certain people and I will be forced to take stern action to clean up the mess. They have no right to conduct an AGM and this AGM is null and void," an angry minister told ‘The Island’.

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