Sri Lanka Janashakthi, Kayjay in home security insurance deal

April 20, 2008 (LBO) – Insurers have been collaborating with banks to sell their services for years, but a tie up with a security firm looking after daytime-unoccupied homes is gaining a lot of interest.. People are getting busier and there is more work pressure and more females are also working so most of the […]

Oil multinationals of old admit powerless to influence prices

ROME, April 20, 2008 (AFP) – Oil-consuming countries and international oil producers acknowledged Sunday they can no longer influence oil prices, as a global gathering of the energy elite got underway in Rome.“In the 1970s, international oil companies (IOCs) controlled nearly 75 percent of global oil reserves and 80 percent of oil production,” said Paolo […]

Iran criticized for money printing amid 18-pct inflation

TEHRAN, April 19, 2008 (AFP) – Three of Iran’s top clerics have criticised President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over his handling of the economy, which is currently battling 18 percent inflation, the press reported Saturday. “We shift problems and faults onto others and in order to say we are innocent we blame others,” Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavikani, […]

” against torch protesters on Everest

KATHMANDU, April 20, 2008 (AFP) – Authorities in Nepal said Sunday they had deployed security forces on their side of Mount Everest and could use gunfire against pro-Tibet protesters when China takes the Olympic torch to the summit.Nepal has been under pressure from Beijing to seal off the world’s highest peak for next month’s stages […]

Sri Lanka rice price controls temporary: minister

April 20, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s price controls are temporary, until foreign rice stocks arrive at the end of the month and prices fall towards ceilings imposed by the government, a senior minister said. “Rangoon rice will arrive in Sri Lanka before the end of the month, then prices will fall,” consumer affairs minister […]

Sri Lanka price controls disrupt rice market: reports

April 20, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Zimbabwe-style price controls on rice have started to disrupt supplies threatening to turn what was simply a steep spike in domestic rice prices into a full blown crisis with actual rice ‘shortages’. . Last July Zimbabwe, a country with a history of money printing and 100,000 percent inflation […]

Broad Service

April 19, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Electroteks, a communications firm, says it will launch a wireless broadband service in May which will have voice telephony services at half the existing tariffs. Electroteks chief B A C Abeywardene says the service will use CDMA (code division multiple access) based technology to provide up to 1Mbps […]

Sri Lanka says 29 killed in fighting

April 19, 2008 (AFP) – At least 28 Tamil Tiger rebels and one soldier have been killed in artillery duels across Sri Lanka’s war-ravaged north, the defence ministry said on Saturday.Security forces killed 25 members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Mannar district while three others were killed in nearby Weli Oya […]

Iranian president to inaugurate Sri Lanka hydro-power project

April 19, 2008 (AFP) – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will travel to Sri Lanka later this month to inaugurate construction of an Iranian-funded hydroelectricity project, the government said on Friday.Iran is paying for the 450-million-dollar Uma Oya power project which is slated to produce 100 megawatts of electricity annually. “The Iranian president will be arriving […]

‘s strengths: analysts

SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2008 (AFP) – Tough times in the US economy play into Google’s strength as businesses trust the Internet giant to best target their precious advertising dollars, analysts said Friday.While the US economy staggers and the dollar sinks, Google’s profits defied worries and soared to 1.31 billion dollars in the first three […]

Page 2889 of 4076