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‘s Qantas reports record profit
SYDNEY, August 21, 2008 (AFP) – Australia’s national airline Qantas Thursday reported a 44 percent increase in annual net profit to a record 969 million dollars (842.6 million US dollars). Revenue for the year ended June 30 rose 7.5 percent to 16.19 billion dollars after Qantas carried 38.6 million passengers, up 6.0 percent, the company […]
Sri Lanka CB governor says South Asian policy making improving
Aug 21, 2008 (LBO) – Economic policies in South Asia are improving and people are taking ownership for policymaking and are no longer driven by multilateral institutions, Sri Lanka’s central bank governor Nivard Cabraal said.“We are now taking ownership of our own destinies,” Cabraal said at the opening of a regional symposium of senior central […]
Casualty
Aug 20, 2008 (LBO) – A cargo vessel owned by Sri Lanka’s Vallibel group sank off the Bangladeshi port of Chittagong Wednesday after colliding with a tanker, shipping and company officials said. The Vallibel group of businessman Dhammika Perera owns a few merchant ships. The crew of Sri Lankan and Burmese was rescued, they said, […]
Free Tests
Aug 20, 2008 (LBO) – Brown & Company and its associate Klevenberg have launched a campaign to conduct free mobile emission tests on vehicles in parts of Sri Lanka, the company said in a statement. Klevenberg is the sole agent for Lucas batteries in Sri Lanka. It is also the sole agent for brands such […]
Tight Margins
Aug 20, 20078 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank’s net profits for the quarter ended June 2008 has fallen 32-pct to 309.6 million rupees on tighter margins, interim accounts filed with the Colombo Stock Exchange showed. Total deposits were up 3.85 percent to 117.6 billion rupees. Group assets grew 3.3 percent to 162.4 billion rupees […]
Slow Mobile
Aug 20, 2008 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka unit of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecom says its mobile subscribers in the island will drop after correcting an “overstatement” and tighter government registration rules in 2008. Revenue in the six months to June had risen 3.5 percent to 89 million Hong Kong dollars from 86 million dollars […]
Sri Lankan military gets US training in probing rights abuses
Aug 20, 2008 (LBO) – The United States military’s Pacific Command has conducted a military law exchange programme to train Sri Lankan security forces to investigate and report human rights abuses, a US embassy statement said. Legal and law enforcement officers, operational commanders, investigators and academics from the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, Attorney […]
Sri Lankan Airlines in the black with aircraft sales
Aug 20, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s national carrier SriLankan Airlines has posted a 4.8 billion rupee profit with capital gains from aircraft sales, in a year that it was hit by rising fuel costs and weak tourist arrivals to the island. The carrier had lost 6.1 billion rupees (57 million US dollars) on its […]
”, Venezuela, spooks oil market to drive prices up
SINGAPORE, August 20, 2008 (AFP) – World oil prices rose in Asian trade Wednesday on fresh supply concerns after key producer Venezuela indicated it could ask OPEC to cut output, dealers said. In afternoon trade, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, rose 40 cents to 114.93 dollars a barrel. The contract […]
Matsushita says new DNA technology identifies disease risks
TOKYO, August 20, 2008 (AFP) – Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Wednesday that it had developed a new way of predicting from a person’s DNA their response to medication and risk of developing disease. Matsushita, which is best known for its Panasonic brand, said it had developed a technology to electronically identify sequence variations […]