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Bollywood star Dutt jailed for six years
July 31, 2007 (AFP) – Bollywood movie star Sanjay Dutt was Tuesday sentenced to six years in jail for illegal weapons possession in connection with serial bombings in Mumbai in 1993. Dutt was also the last of the 100 people convicted in the long-running court case to be sentenced.Of them, 12 were given death sentences […]
India tightens monetary policy further with inflation 4.41% in mid-July
MUMBAI, July 31, 2007 (AFP) – The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday hiked its cash reserve ratio for banks by 50 basis points to seven percent, but kept short-term borrowing rates unchanged.The central bank said in a quarterly review that while inflation had fallen below its five percent forecast for the year to March […]
News Corp. bid for Dow Jones on brink as deadline passes
NEW YORK, July 30, 2007 (AFP) – Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. late Monday awaited a decision from the family that controls Dow Jones & Co. on its five-billion-dollar offer for the company and its crown asset, The Wall Street Journal. A reported deadline for members of the Bancroft family — which controls 64 percent of […]
Sri Lanka names new cricket selection panel
July 31, 2007 (AFP) – Former Sri Lanka fast bowler Asantha de Mel was re-appointed chief of the national cricket selection committee which was reshuffled by the sports minister on Tuesday. De Mel and Don Anurasiri were retained from the previous selection panel and will be joined by Mahes Goonathilake and Ranjith Madurasinghe in the […]
Sri Lanka north blast kills three soldiers
July 31, 2007 (AFP) – Three soldiers died in a bomb attack in northern Sri Lanka Tuesday, while the military said it had uncovered a new Tamil Tiger weapons cache in the island’s east.The three security personnel were killed by a roadside bomb set off by suspected rebels in the northern peninsula of Jaffna Tuesday, […]
Sri Lanka July inflation up sharply
July 31, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s consumer prices shot up to 17.6 percent in the year to July with the index growing 2.8 percent in the past 30 days, the government’s statistics office said Tuesday. . In the year to June inflation was only 13.0 percent, but monthly inflation has been edging up on […]
Sri Lanka government workers eat up new tax revenues
July 31, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s bloated public sector has consumed a bulk of the additional tax collections in the first five months of the year, with the salary bill rising 30 percent, data released by the finance ministry shows. During the last three years the treasury and revenue authorities have tightened loopholes and […]
Sri Lanka markets quiet at noon; state names sell dollars
July 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka stocks were down 0.8 percent by noon Monday while the rupee traded around 111.78 to the dollar with state names intervening in the market, dealers said.The action had been initiated by East West Group chairman Nahil Wijesuriya, the newspaper said. In cash markets, overnight repo rates moved between […]
Demotion
July 30, 2007 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings has downgraded the rating outlook of National Development Bank from ‘positive’ to ‘stable’ after a proposed merger with the Commercial Bank was aborted. NDB has an asset base of 65 billion rupees. National Development Bank, originally a development finance institution, merged with NDB Bank, its commercial banking subsidiary […]
Rating Shuffle
July 30, 2007 (LBO) –The Sri Lanka unit of Rating Agency Malaysia (RAM) said Monday its operations will not be affected by a restructuring of the parent. Lanka Ratings Agency (LRA) said the credit ratings services and consultancy services of RAM had been separated under a regulatory requirement in Malaysia. RAM has been re-named RAM […]