President Mahinda Rajapaksa has announced in the Budget Proposals his decision to increase the number of Grade 5 Scholarship holders from 15,000 to 25,000.  The revised figures for the Scholarship Examination will be officially announced by the Minister of Education Bandula Guanwardena onNovember 17.

A series of multi-religious programmes has been organized throughout the Kandy District to celebrate the birthday of President Mahinda Rajapaksa which falls onNov.17,  to confer blessings on the motherland, the President and the government and the members of the three armed forces.

Minister for Youth Affairs and Skills Development Dullas Alahapperuma stated that with the introduction of Technology as a subject in the school curriculum, the government has been successful in building bridges between the schools and work places. For the first time in history, unemployment has been reduced to less than 5 percent.

Beijing: China and Russia signed on Thursday (Nov.13) an agreement for the creation of a western route of the gas pipeline between the two countries, through which will annually pass 20 billion cubic meters of gas for three decades.