All Blogs
Trendy Oldies
BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 16, 2007 (AFP) – It could be the answer to grandma’s prayers: a mobile phone designed specifically for the over-65s that aims to take the fear out of technology and get the elderly connected.A small Austrian company shrugged off the buzz of innovation and youth-oriented marketing at the 3GSM mobile phone trade […]
Sri Lanka war planes bomb rebel targets
COLOMBO, Feb 16, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s air force bombed suspected Tamil Tiger rebel targets in the northern Jaffna peninsula on Friday, the defence ministry said.War planes pounded the towns of Sorampattu and Palai, destroying mortar positions, the statement said. But the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com said the military targeted civilian settlements in the north in […]
Sri Lanka housing bank to raise 500 million rupees and branch out to lifestyle loans
Feb 15, 2007 (LBO) – HDFC Bank is to raise 500 million rupees through a 4-year debenture shortly and branch out into related lending schemes officials said.The 4-year debenture would be privately placed by the First Capital group CEO, C A Sarathchandra said. The bank, which gives housing mortgages up to 15-years also give lifestyle […]
Pension Penetration
February 15 (LBO) – Life Insurance Corporation Lanka is breaking into the untapped pension market in the country offering a long-term product that pays an annuity.“There is a large ageing population in the country,” LIC Lanka General Manager S S Mathiapanan said. “The joint family system in our culture is breaking down, children are in […]
Cutting Duds
February 15 (LBO) – Sri Lanka financial authorities are clamping down on cheque returns with the help of a newly commissioned digital clearing system, officials said. “We have already cut down the proportion of cheques to less than half of what it was,” says Anura de Silva who heads, LankaClear, Sri Lanka’s central cheque clearing […]
Calling Asia
BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 15, 2007 (AFP) – With mobile phone markets nearly saturated in the developed world, network operators and handset manufacturers are turning their attention to the fertile ground of emerging countries. Making affordable phones and targeting consumers with smaller budgets have now become priorities for the largest companies in the sector who were […]
IT Aid
Feb 15, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s software developers will get cash incentives to develop software that can make small enterprises more efficient, or modernize export industries and tourism, officials said. œThe initial boost provided through these innovation grants will be just the beginning of a much wider involvement both from the government and the […]
Britain willing to play bigger peace role in Sri Lanka: minister
COLOMBO, Feb 15, 2007 (AFP) – Britain’s junior foreign minister said here Thursday his country was willing to play a bigger role in bringing peace to Sri Lanka’s long-running ethnic conflict.Kim Howells made the comments at the end of a three-day visit to the former British colony to try to salvage the peace process and […]
Sri Lanka faces international isolation: ex-foreign minister
COLOMBO, Feb 15, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka faces international isolation for failing to pay close heed to human rights issues, former foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera warned Thursday.He said he was troubled by the renewed violence and a rising number of deaths, as well as a big increase in unsolved kidnappings across the island. “There […]
India seizes Tamil rebel boat off southern coast
CHENNAI, India, Feb 15, 2007 (AFP) – India’s coast guard said it had foiled a major attack when it seized a boat belonging to Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels packed with weapons, bomb-making chemicals and a “suicide belt.” Officials said five men including a top Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) rebel were on the […]