All Blogs
Slim Gains
Nov 17, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Pan Asia Bank Corporation said net profit for the September quarter grew 14 percent to 46 million rupees, with tax costs shooting up and foreign exchange gains falling. Revenues for the September quarter had increased by 32 percent or 200 million to 816 million rupees. Interest expenses for […]
Bank Trends
Nov 17, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Commercial Bank group net profit for the September quarter rose 6.81 percent to 937.5 million rupees from a year ago although loan growth was slowing, interest margins were eroding and bad loans increasing. Total group income for the quarter rose almost 19 percent to 11.2 billion rupees, according […]
Lease Rating
Nov 17, 2008 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka has confirmed People’s Leasing Company (PLC) national long-term rating at ‘A-(lka)’ with a stable outlook, but warned its aggressive loan growth was a concern. It also confirmed the ‘BBB+’ rating on PLC’s proposed unsecured subordinated debenture issue of up to a billion rupees, and the ‘F1’ short-term […]
Sri Lanka sea pollution increasing
Nov 17, 2008 (LBO) – Pollution of the seas around Sri Lanka is increasing mainly because of pollutants from land, the Marine Pollution Prevention Authority (MPPA) has warned.MPPA chairman Ranjith Kularatne said most people were not aware that 90 percent of the pollution of the island’s waters came from activity on land. These include pollutants […]
Floods under Antarctic ice speed glaciers into sea: study
PARIS, November 17, 2008 (AFP) – Scientists unveiled Sunday the first direct evidence that massive floods deep below Antarctica’s ice cover are accelerating the flow of glaciers into the sea.How quickly these huge bodies of ice slide off the Antarctic and Greenland land masses into the ocean help determine the speed at which sea levels […]
Sri Lanka troops take two more towns from Tigers: defence ministry
November 17, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops on Monday captured two more strategic towns from Tamil Tiger rebels following fierce fighting in the north of the island, the defence ministry said.Security forces battling to dismantle the rebels’ mini-state entered the town of Mankulam, located just south of the Tamil Tiger political capital of Kilinochchi, […]
Corn Probe
Nov 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan customs authorities are holding a ship that carried 72,000 tonnes of wheat to a mill owned by Prima of Singapore in the eastern port of Trincomalee, a media report said. The report said Prima Ceylon Ltd general manager Jay Ong had declined to comment. The Sunday Times newspaper […]
Sri Lanka draws dragonfly watchers
Nov 16, 2008 (LBO) – At the site on an ancient monastery in Sri Lanka, a group of British visitors are peering into ponds, looking closely at stone walls and adjusting their cameras and binoculars to get a better angle.Other visitors to the ruins in Arankelle in north central Sri Lanka are looking at the […]
Sri Lanka steps up air strikes after capturing town
November 16, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka stepped up air attacks against suspected rebel targets in the island’s north Sunday, a day after ground troops re-captured a highly strategic town, the defence ministry said.Mi-24 helicopter gunships and fighter jets were deployed to pound defence lines of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the […]
Sri Lanka detained journalist says threatened daily; quizzed in court over writing
Nov 16, 2008 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan journalist who had been detained for over eight months had been questioned about what he wrote, and had also revealed to court that he had been repeatedly threatened, a media report said. Tissainayagam had told court on May 9 after he had seen another arrested colleague being […]