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‘s Assurance
Feb 01, 2008 (LBO) – Janashakthi Insurance has tied up with India’s ICICI Bank to launch bancassurance services in Sri Lanka but says high capital requirements and regulations in India constrain access to the competitive market on the sub-continent. Janashakthi Insurance Company Thursday signed a bancassurance agreement with ICICI Bank to promote insurance to banking […]
Electronic Crime
Feb 01, 2008 (LBO) – Canadian police are probing links with Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers in a bank payment card fraud involving suspects of Sri Lankan origin, a media report said. Canadian police had stopped a car that ran a stop sign and arrested two Canadian and two British residents of Sri Lankan origin with […]
Sri Lanka and India in talks over Weerawila airport
Feb 01, 2008 (LBO) – India’s Cochin airport said a delegation had met Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapakse and visited a site in the island’s south where it is interested in developing a new airport. Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) said it had met aviation minister Chamal Rajapakse who is the president’s brother, central bank […]
‘s former chief leaves board of directors
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – Dethroned Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel left the struggling Internet firm’s board of directors on Thursday.Semel’s departure comes just two days after Yahoo revealed plans to lay off 1,000 employees as part of an effort to revitalize a company that analysts say strayed from its profitable strengths while […]
Tiger smuggler in Thailand surrenders
BANGKOK, Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) – A Thai man accused of trafficking tiger and leopard carcasses as well as hundreds of live pangolins has turned himself over to authorities, police said Friday.The Thai navy raided the trafficking operation on the Laos border late Tuesday and retrieved the carcasses of six tigers and five leopards, plus […]
Climate change could devastate South Asia, Africa crops: study
CHICAGO, Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – Climate change will cause severe crop losses in Africa and Asia within the next 20 years unless farming practices are changed, a study released Thursday has found. Those crop losses could lead to food shortages and a loss of livelihood among the world’s poorest people, the authors warned. And […]
OPEC to keep oil output steady; Venezuela wants higher prices
VIENNA, Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – OPEC ministers turned down calls for extra output on Thursday, voicing concern that the weak US economy may cause oil prices to drop further from recent historic peaks above 100 dollars. Most members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps 40 percent of world oil, said the […]
Sri Lanka cricket runs out of cash, looks for Indian loan: Ranatunga
Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s new cricket chief and former captain Arjuna Ranatunga has revealed his board has no money left and is banking on financial support from India to stay afloat.Ten Sports’ 50-million dollar deal ends in 2009 and there were allegations that the previous administration had extended it till 2012 without […]
Sri Lanka troops, Tigers in gunbattle, 18 rebels dead: officials
Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) – Security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels have traded heavy artillery fire in northern Sri Lanka, killing 18 rebels, officials said Friday, a day after Japan warned it may stop aid unless fighting subsided. Backed by war planes and heavy guns, the military smashed several rebel bunkers and killed at least […]
Sri Lanka warring parties human rights violations unchecked: HRW
NEW YORK, Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – Global concern is mounting over Sri Lanka’s worsening human rights record, but action by key international players has been “slow and lacked cohesion,” Human Rights Watch said in its annual report. The group said Sri Lanka managed to head off censure in the UN Human Rights Council by […]