All Blogs
Indian inflation falls to near five-year low
NEW DELHI, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) – India’s annual inflation rate has fallen to a near five-year low, official data on Friday showed, but soaring global crude prices threaten to push the cost-of-living higher, economists said.Inflation slowed to 3.32 percent for the week ended September 8 from 3.52 for the previous week, according to the […]
Playboy opens first European store in London
LONDON, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) – Playboy continued its evolution from adult magazine to international merchandising brand by opening its first store in Europe Friday at the heart of London’s shopping district.Playboy has a long history of doing business in the British capital.In 1966, it opened its first club and casino on London’s upmarket Park […]
Sri Lanka India sea canal row escalates
CHENNAI, India, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) – A state leader in India has dismissed a deity worshipped by millions as a “big lie”, deepening a highly sensitive row over plans to dredge a shipping lane through an area sacred to Hindus. The chief minister of India’s southern Tamil Nadu state said the government was justified […]
World Bank ex-chief says power heading east
HONG KONG, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) – The former president of the World Bank said Friday that rich countries were ill-prepared to deal with the “tectonic shift” in economic power towards developing nations, in particular to India and China.James Wolfensohn said rich nations still treated major developing nations with a “colonial” attitude and had not […]
Dollar sinks to new euro low as Fed prints more money; Saudi to drop dollar peg?
NEW YORK, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) – The dollar sank to a record low against the euro Thursday after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warned that US mortgage woes may deepen, raising hopes of interest rate cuts. Also weighing on the US currency were rumors that Saudi Arabia is going to drop the domestic currency’s […]
Sri Lanka minister rejects charges of funds misuse
Sept 21, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s deputy finance minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya rejected charges that the government had misused funds in starting a new budget airline and a bank. He gave no further details in his speech. He also said the government has evidence of transfers of funds by previous governments from the Treasury to […]
Sri Lanka fighter jets bomb Tiger areas
Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan war planes bombed a Tamil Tigers’ ammunitions store in the north of the island Friday, causing heavy damage, the defence ministry said.The ammunitions cache was used by Imran-Pandiyan, an elite regiment of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the military said. “The air strikes taken were based […]
Sri Lanka tax office clearing tarnished reputation, says official
Sept 21, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tax department is slowly regaining its reputation which had been tarnished by a tax scam and complaints of bullying tax payers, the island’s top Treasury official said Friday. “The image of the Inland Revenue Department is changing from being 100 percent bad to being slightly positive,” Treasury Secretary […]
Sri Lanka downgrades official growth forecast
Sept 21, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has downgraded its economic growth forecast to between six and seven percent for 2007 as a fast growing public sector and a budget deficit that pushed interest rates up, dragged the island down. “Last year it was 7.4 percent this year it will be certainly higher than 6 […]
Ship Imports
Sept 20, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s ship owners have warned that an unresolved dispute with Customs over a tax on vessels could force them to leave the Sri Lanka flag of registry. This could hurt the island’s prospects of building up its merchant fleet and encouraging foreign owners to register their vessels in the […]