Bid to end Reliance, Essar row over oilfield award

The Petroleum Secretary, Dr. Vijay Kelkar, is likely to meet the Finance Secretary, Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, this week, regarding the award of Ratna/R Series oilfield. In a communication to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas last week, the Finance Ministry raised queries on the empowered committee’s recommendation that Ratna/R Series oilfield be awarded to the Essar group. The move follows the Reliance group’s appeal against the empowered committee’s recommendation.

Sri Lanka’s economy is showing signs of dynamic

economic renewal, the President, Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, said as the country marked 48 years of independence on Sunday on a low key following a devastating attack in Colombo’s financial area last Wednesday by Tamil separatist rebels. “The economy shows every sign of dynamic renewal,” said the President, addressing the nation from Independence Square in Colombo. Mrs. Kumaratunga did not elaborate on the economic aspects but said her Government had started the implementation of “a three-pronged strategy of dialogue, development and devolution.”

Pet insurance catching on in Europe, US

Five times last year, Ms. Meleah Larocca’s dog Gumbo ate all or part of a tennis ball, and five times he had surgery. The unkind cut was the bill — $800 a pop. Told by a veterinarian that her black Labrador was an “obsessive- compulsive, “ and facing mounting medical costs, Ms. Larocca would ordinarily have doomed Gumbo to the Big Sleep. But Gumbo was saved by his major-medical plan. “He wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for his pet insurance,” Ms. Larocca says.

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