wonderful hand !

Hillary Clinton met Jayalalithaa

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today voiced concern over the plight of Internally Displaced Persons in Sri Lanka and said her country was looking at some innovative and creative ideas to break the impasse over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue
Hillary,who called on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at the secretariat here,told her that U.S. was looking at some innovative and creative ideas to break the impasse and enable Sri Lankan Tamils in camps get back to their own homes.
Jayalalithaa said though the war between the Sri Lankan army and LTTE in the island nation was over two years ago, Sri Lankan Tamils in Jaffna area are still in camps and unable to go back to the original areas where they used to live.
While discussing the issue of Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa told Hillary they have been provided all facilities that were available to local citizens.
Both of them discussed various social,political and economic issues of common interest, an official press release said. The US Secretary of State also congratulated Jayalalithaa on her electoral victory in the April 13 assembly polls. During the meeting,Jayalalithaa recalled the strong bilateral trade relations between India and United States.
Inviting more US investment in the Automobile sector in Tamil Nadu, she said Tamil Nadu enjoyed pre-eminence in automotive and auto components. Jayalalithaa also expressed concern over reduction in issue of H1B visas even though in terms of number of Visas issued, the Chennai US Consulate was the second largest in the world.
Hillary invited Jayalalithaa to visit US which would enable Americans to know about the great achievements of Tamil Nadu.
The meeting lasted for an hour.

Fear over Jaffna poll

[ Saturday, 18 June 2011, 05:17.35 PM GMT +05:30 ]

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has written to Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya expressing fears over the conduct of a free and fair election in Jaffna next month.

The TNA said it has raised the concerns with the elections chief after the first election rally to be staged by the TNA for the upcoming local government polls came under an attack this week. According to the TNA, similar letters were also sent to the Parliament Speaker, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Defence Secretary. Elections for 64 local government bodies including in Jaffna will be held on 23rd July and election monitors including LPAFFRE and CAFFE have also expressed concerns over the incident. The TNA warned had this week warned that talks with the government on issues concerning the Tamil community has been put under severe strain following the attack on the TNA meeting in Jaffna . TNA MP Suresh Premachandran said that the party was discussion the incident which took place in Jaffna on Thursday and the implications it will have on the talks being held with the government. The TNA and the government have had several rounds of talks over the past few months and the next round has been scheduled for 23 June. Premachandran said that five TNA MPs were on a stage addressing the public when the armed men initially chased away the public and later attempted to assault the MPs. Security officers however prevented the armed men from assaulting the TNA MPs. The TNA MP condemned the incident and said a complaint was lodged with the police and the army. The police are investigating the incident.