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Top Fed official says core inflation should be dumped
May 19, 2011 (LBO) – A top US central banker has suggested that the Federal Reserve drop ‘core inflation’, a sham index that has been used to deceive people for decades and fire economic bubbles by setting a deceptive target that understates actual price rises. Core inflation excludes prices of food and energy and represents […]
Travel industry looks to China, India, Brazil for boom
LAS VEGAS, May 18, 2011 (AFP) – China, India and Brazil are poised to fuel an explosion in international tourism in the coming years, showering money and jobs on countries ready for it, and trouble for those that aren’t, industry leaders say. With an estimated two billion new middle class consumers expected to come into […]
Bollywood marketing goes mobile
MUMBAI, May 18, 2011 (AFP) – Times have changed in Bollywood from the days when all that was required to promote a film was a giant, hand-painted poster, a television or cinema trailer and the pulling power of a star actor. Now, the popular Hindi-language film industry is harnessing the latest technology, hoping that the […]
Stumbling Block
May 17, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan celcos are showing signs of recovering from cut throat competition and soaring inflation a few years ago, but experts say the recovery is short lived as the sector has already hit its next stumbling block. Shorter life spans in emerging technologies and ill advised expansion plans are the […]
‘s rich flaunt wealth
NEW DELHI, May 17, 2011 (AFP) – In booming India, being rich is not enough. For the moneyed classes, it’s increasingly about flaunting their wealth in ways typical of the nouveaux riches in Russia, China or the Middle East. India’s well-heeled used to be more shy about displaying their wealth in the decades after independence […]
Sri Lanka win England tour opener
LONDON, May 16, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka enjoyed a successful warm-up ahead of their Test series against England with a four-wicket win over Middlesex on the third and final day of their tour opener at Uxbridge on Monday. Several batsmen spent time in the middle, Thilan Samaraweera leading the way with 49, as Sri […]
Sri Lanka urged by India to probe rights record
NEW DELHI, May 17, 2011 (AFP) – India broke with past practice on Tuesday and called on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of human rights abuses during the island’s civil war, upping pressure on President Mahinda Rajapakse. India has not joined recent demands from the United Nations and Western countries for a probe into alleged […]
Sri Lanka intercepts Tamil Tiger propaganda
May 17, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lankan authorities on Tuesday detained a Canada-bound container with a cargo of propaganda material for the island’s Tamil Tiger rebels, a police official said. Police were asked to investigate the consignment of promotional material for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), on its way to Canada from the […]
Sri Lanka frees 850 prisoners on Buddhist holiday
May 17, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka freed 858 convicts on Tuesday to mark the most important day in the Buddhist calendar, a prison official said. President Mahinda Rajapakse granted freedom to 13 women and 845 men held at 29 prisons across the country to commemorate Vesak, which marks Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, commissioner […]
Sri Lanka Treasuries yields steady
May 16, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Treasuries yields were steady at the weekly auction, brought forward to Monday owing to religious holidays in the next two days, according to the government’s debt office. The yield on three-months bills edged up to 7. 07 percent from 7.06 percent, that on six month bills rose to […]