International and Bilateral Issues

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa launched a tri-lingual initiative here on Saturday, aimed at ensuring that all in Sri Lanka learn the three main languages in use — Sinhalese, Tamil and English.
As part of the initiative, 2012 has been declared as the year of Tri-lingual Sri Lanka, and a 10-year plan for it was also launched.
It was not merely economic or human development indicators that formed the measure of nobility, he said, but also the quality of people.
A socio-linguistic study conducted last year in Sri Lanka showed that a majority of the Tamils wanted to learn Sinhalese, and that Sinhalese wanted to learn Tamil.
The survey showed that native Sinhala and Tamil speakers had no desire to be isolated and maintain ethnic exclusivity in matters of business or employment, friendship or entertainment.

The continued political uncertainty in Pakistan threatens to derail the “India Show” to be held in Lahore from February 11 to 13. The show is aimed at giving a renewed emphasis on improving the economic and commercial relations between India and Pakistan.
The focus of the show would be sectors such as ICT (information, communication, technology), manufacturing, infrastructure, agriculture, automobile, auto ancillary and pharmaceuticals
According to a study, India, Pakistan trade amounts to less than 1 per cent of their respective global trade.

U.S. congressional leaders put anti-online piracy legislation [Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)] on hold on Friday following a wave of protests led by Google and Wikipedia denouncing the bills as a threat to Internet freedom.
It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products
The draft legislation has won the backing of Hollywood, the music industry, entertainment giants like Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce and others.
- But the bills have come under fire from online companies and digital rights groups for allegedly paving the way for US authorities to shut down websites accused of online piracy, including foreign sites, without due process.

A series of coordinated bomb and gun attacks by a radical Islamist sect, targeting police stations and the headquarters of Nigeria's secret police in northern city of Kano, killed nearly 150 people on Saturday and injured several others, including Indians.
The bombings, which numbered up to 20 and caused pandemonium in the metropolis, were followed by shoot-outs between the militants and security agencies