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Trade Indicator
Apr 22, 2011 (LBO) – Container volumes through Sri Lanka’s main port have maintained rapid growth so far this year with government data showing increasing domestic as well as transhipment cargo as local and regional trade rebounds. The number of ships calling at Colombo port has also increased after falling in 2010 compared with the […]
Galleon Trial
NEW YORK, April 21, 2011 (AFP) – The jury in Wall Street’s biggest insider trading court case in a generation was due to start deliberating Monday after the conclusion of a seven-week trial. The defense for Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam completed its case in New York federal court Thursday by saying the government […]
UN heads for rights confrontation with Sri Lanka
UNITED NATIONS, April 22, 2011 (AFP) – The United Nations hurtled toward a high-profile confrontation with the Sri Lankan government Friday over international action on alleged war crimes during a military offensive against Tamil separatists. Rejecting a Sri Lankan demand to keep a report by a panel of experts secret, the United Nations said the […]
UN rejects Sri Lanka call to hold back war crimes report
UNITED NATIONS, April 21, 2011 (AFP) – The United Nations insisted Thursday that a report on alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka would be released in full, rejecting demands by the government to hold back the study. “It remains our intention to publish the report of the panel of experts on Sri Lanka in full […]
Sri Lanka gets nanotechnology patents
Apr 22, 2011 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan private-public sector partnership has been able to acquire five international patents in nanotechnology in its first year of operations in a drive to commercially exploit the technology. Similarly, the export of nano carbon tubes and nano titanium dioxide in place of the raw minerals that are exported […]
Sri Lanka shares edge down
Apr 21, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shares closed weaker for the fourth day Thursday with active trading in newly listed firms and private deals in the dominant mobile operator which is said to be eyeing another phone company, brokers said.The All Share Price Index closed at 7,456. 82, down 0.24 percent (17.68 points) while […]
Cargo Flows
Apr 21, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), which runs the island’s ports, increased revenue and operating profit in 2010 on the back of the global economic recovery which generated double-digit growth in cargo flows. The SLPA’s operating profit increased by 126 percent to 4. 4 billion rupees in 2010 from the previous […]
Sub Prime
Apr 21, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s finance companies who lend to smaller sub-prime customers have grown their loan book 37. 6 percent in 2010 to 156.2 billion rupees as the sector recovered from runs in earlier years, official data showed. Sri Lanka’s commercial banks which had loans of 1. 5 billion to businesses and […]
Sri Lanka tea auction sees return of Libya
Apr 21, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices were firm at this week’s auction with brokers saying Libya had resumed buying and global prices seen staying high this year owing to lower production and growing demand. Despite the large volume of teas from plantation company estates on offer and “somewhat lower” quality prices were […]
Closing Argument
NEW YORK, April 20, 2011 (AFP) – Federal prosecutors cited “devastating” evidence Wednesday against hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam at the close of the biggest Wall Street insider trading trial in a generation. In the government’s closing statement against Sri Lankan-born Rajaratnam, Assistant US Attorney Reed Brodsky said secret tape recordings of phone conversations with […]