All Blogs
Sri Lanka former minister Anura Bandaranaike dies
Mar 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s former minister Anura Bandaranaike, a member of a powerful political family that has produced two prime ministers and a president, died Sunday at a private hospital, a senior ruling party official said. Anura Bandaranaike is the son of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) founder and former prime minister […]
Roadside bomb kills Sri Lankan soldier, fighting rages
March 16, 2008 (AFP) – At least one soldier was killed and four others wounded in a road side bomb attack in northern Sri Lanka Sunday, defence officials said. Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off the blast as troops drove in an autorickshaw in Vavuniya district, an area of ongoing heavy fighting between the government […]
Regional Design
Mar 15, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan architects are finding new opportunities designing hotels for India’s booming leisure sector as an intensifying conflict delayed projects at home, a top architect said. “We have not had too many opportunities in Sri Lanka,” says Channa Daswatte, who now spends more time in India than at home. “With […]
Airport Alert
LONDON, March 15, 2008 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan national appeared in court in London Saturday charged with endangering aircraft after a major security alert at the city’s main Heathrow airport. Ketheeswaran Uthayakumar, who has no permanent address in Britain, was remanded in custody after a short hearing at Uxbridge Magistrate’s Court in west London. […]
Russia offers India aviation secrets in fighter contract bid
MOSCOW, March 14, 2008 (AFP) – Russia is ready to hand India military aircraft engineering secrets in a bid to win a 12-billion dollar (7.65-billion euro) aviation contract tender, Interfax agency reported Friday.Other world military aviation giants competing for the contract include Americans Boeing and Lockheed Martin, French group Dassault, the European consortium behind the […]
Bear Stearns facts and figures
NEW YORK, March 14, 2008 (AFP) – The troubled US investment bank Bear Stearns said Friday it was receiving an emergency loan organized by a rival bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Bear Stearns share price plummeted after its president and chief executive, Alan Schwartz, said the bank’s liquidity position had “significantly […]
Sri Lankan spinner gets suspended jail sentence
March 15, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi on Saturday was handed a four-year suspended jail sentence for driving carelessly and killing a woman pedestrian in 2003.The leg-spinner, who has played 21 one-day internationals and four Tests, was banned for four months by Sri Lanka Cricket on disciplinary grounds following the car crash.Judge […]
Sri Lanka jets bomb Tiger base: military
March 15, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan government jets bombed a Tamil Tiger training base as fighting across the northern region claimed at least another 29 lives, the defence ministry said Saturday.Sri Lanka pulled out of a six-year-old truce with the LTTE in January, saying it had the upper hand to crush the rebels militarily. […]
Sri Lanka could gain more in next phase of trade liberalization: study
March 15, 2008 (LBO) – A new study on a south Asian regional trade deal has said Sri Lanka will gain more in the next phase of liberalisation but the island’s private sector representatives have expressed scepticism about the outcome. The study on the benefits of the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) found that […]
Terminal Condition
March 14, 2008 (LBO) – The Asian Development Bank and Sri Lanka are holding talks to modify an agreement to avoid further delays in starting work on a bank-funded breakwater for a new port, a senior ADB official said. “The breakwater contract is time critical in that if it is not awarded soon the project […]