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Oil mania worse than dot-com craze: report
June 14, 2008 (LBO) – The current oil bubble which has seen crude rising 700-pct since November 2001 is worse than the dot-com bubble which saw the Nasdaq composite index rising 640 percent before it crashed, a media report said. Food riots in poor countries have increasingly put pressure on the Federal Reserve to alter […]
Sri Lanka raises US$150mn dollars from international loan
June 13, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has raised 150 million US dollars from a loan put together by Standard Chartered Bank at 250 basis points above the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), the government’s debt office said. At a current 6-month LIBOR rate of 3.13 percent the loan costs 5.69 percent a year with […]
Better Rates
June 13, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank is offering a rate of 12.5 percent a year for savings deposits which maintain a balance of more than 50,000 rupees, the bank said. The savings deposit scheme branded ‘Hit Saver’ gives an annual effective rate of 13.24 percent, the bank said in a statement Friday. […]
‘s Dialog celco links with AeroMobile
June 13, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan celco Dialog, a unit of Telekom Malaysia said it had partnered with AeroMobile to provide in-flight mobile communications, becoming the first in the region to do so. “Dialog Telekom has achieved the distinction of being the first operator in the region to partner with AeroMobile..,” the company said […]
Sri Lanka tourist arrivals up 18.5-pct in May
June 13, 2008 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka rose a steep 18.5 percent in May against a sharp fall last year but cumulative figures were little changed amidst bad publicity from an internal conflict, the latest official data showed. The number of arrivals increased by 1.2 percent to 196,403 for the first five […]
Sri Lanka Tigers say 27 kid fighters released; UNICEF says there are more
June 13, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers said Friday they had released 27 more child soldiers, and contested a United Nations estimate that over 1,000 under-age fighters were still in rebel ranks.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are fighting for an independent state and control much of the north of Sri […]
Sri Lanka jets bomb Tiger weapons stock: military
June 12, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan war planes destroyed a suspected Tamil Tiger rebel arms manufacturing facility in the island’s north on Thursday as ground battles killed 15 people, the defence ministry said.The air force hit an “arms and ammunition manufacturing yard” of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the ministry said in […]
Sri Lanka insurance IPO gets foreign interest
June 13, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Janashakthi Insurance says there is strong foreign interest centered around the Middle Eastern region for their 400 million rupee initial public offering that is opening on Monday. In the year to December 2007, the group posted 525 million rupees in profits and reported revenues of 5.2 billion rupees. […]
EU to end preferential tariffs for Vietnamese-made footwear: official
BRUSSELS, June 13, 2008 (AFP) – The European Union will soon end preferential customs tariffs for imports of footwear from Vietnam, an EU official said Friday.EU ambassadors have struck an agreement that would do away with the tariffs but the decision still has to be endorsed by ministers, the official said on condition of anonymity. […]
Worst of financial crisis appears to be over: IMF chief
OSAKA, June 13, 2008 (AFP) – The worst of the financial crisis appears to be over but the major economies are likely to grow sluggishly for the rest of this year, International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Friday. “We have good reason to think that the financial crisis is mostly behind us but it’s […]