Still on bord it can not be sparkling and spicy enough. Cheefully I order ice-cold Coke-Light and tomato juice refined with pepper and salt and relish a hot spicy chicken curry with rice and vegetables. At least the last ingredients will be my frequent companions at least three times a day for the next days. Not so sparkling on my tongue will be the bitter herbal elixirs.

For years, the Sri Lanka Working Group of the Gymnasium Isernhagen (SLAGI) has been collecting donations for the poor country. But just transfer the funds? That's not the way the Isernhagen people do it – and thus the donations are taken there in person.

Applications are invited from eligible students for the award of undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships offered by the Ministry of Higher Education of Sri Lanka under the Government of Sri Lanka Presidential Scholarships for Foreign Students for the academic year 2013. Scholarship brochures and the Application form can be downloaded from the Ministry of Higher Education website under http://www.mohe.gov.lk/images/pdf/Foreign_Scholarship_2013.pdf.

External Affairs Minister Professor G.L. Peiris, during his bilateral discussions in Berlin with Dr. Guido Westerwelle, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, emphasized that conditions in Sri Lanka today are conducive to significant expansion of trade and investment relations between the two countries.  Germany, he pointed out, is the second largest investor from the European Union in Sri Lanka, a very significant source of tourism, and the largest source of grant and soft loan assistance from the European Union to Sri Lanka.  In these circumstances, it is important for Germany to be fully informed, Minister Peiris said, about current developments in Sri Lanka.