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Fleecing Ethics
Jan 18, 2007 (LBO) — Sri Lanka’s opposition has added fuel to the growing fire over petroleum firms fleecing petrol users to give subsidies to diesel consumers especially in commercial sectors.Sri Lanka’s government also taxes petrol users heavily but now the two main fuel distributors, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and Lanka IOC, a unit of Indian […]
Sri Lankan stocks edge lower as trading dries up
Jan 17, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks fell again Thursday but not as sharply as yesterday with trading drying up even further as investors remained cautious owing to continuing violence, brokers said.The All Share Price Index fell 3.28 points or 0.14 percent to close at 2,378.88, while the more liquid Milanka index shed 3.23 […]
New Buildings
Jan 17, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Mercantile Shipping Company Ltd. is acquiring two newly built cargo ships as part of efforts to renew its fleet, company officials said. The company has signed an agreement with the Dutch government for a ship building grant for the two multi-purpose vessels each of 7,800 tonnes deadweight. The […]
Terror Funding
Jan 17, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) set up under the Central Bank to combat money laundering and terrorist financing should be more independent, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. Sri Lankan authorities should ensure that the FIU should be given operational independence to ensure freedom from undue influence or […]
Authors flock to Sri Lanka as Galle literary festival opens
Galle, Sri Lanka Jan 17, 2008 (LBO) – Hundreds of international and local authors, dramatists, poets, historians and architects are flocking to a coastal town in southern Sri Lanka, as the ‘Galle International Literary Festival’ takes off. . The festival is being staged in and around a fort in Galle, a southwestern coastal town 116 […]
Fibre Rail
Jan 17, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will invite a private operator to build an optical fibre backbone in partnership with the state-owned railway system, a senior minister said. Sri Lanka’s transport ministry which runs the railways department had been given approval to start looking for a telecom operator to lease the country’s 1,200 kilometres […]
‘s Mihin charts flight path for 2008: interview
Jan 17, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state owned budget carrier Mihin Air is promising better results this year after burning up its capital and clocking up a 1.4 billion rupee loss in the first year of operations. In a wide ranging interview with Shamindra Kulamannage from ETV’s Lanka Business Report (LBR) program Mihin chief […]
Maldives nab foreigners for prostitution
January 17, 2006 (LBO) — Five foreigners have been arrested in the Indian Ocean Island of Maldives for allegedly offering commercial sex and having lubricants and condoms on them, police said Thursday.“Three men and two women were arrested Tuesday midnight on a tip off from a house in Male,” police spokesman Sergeant Ahmed Shiyam said […]
Kenya crisis hits tea hard
NAIROBI, Jan 17, 2008 (AFP) – Tea is a casualty of the turmoil sparked by disputed presidential elections in Kenya, with thousands of workers forced to flee plantations in one of the world’s top exporters, industry sources say. Between 26,000 and 70,000 tea sector employees from the western region of Kericho, where Kenya’s main plantations […]
Sri Lanka jets bomb Tiger hideout: military
Jan 17, 2007 (LBO) — Sri Lanka Air Force jets have bombed a meeting place of Tiger leaders in the northern guerilla stronghold of Kilinochchi Thursday, the military said. The defence ministry said the target was a gathering of “senior leaders’ at Jayapoor near Kilinochchi at 09.30 am. Yesterday the guerillas blasted a bus and […]