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Option Collar
February 6 (LBO) – The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation will hedge up to a quarter of its diesel imports using options, with the first contract to be signed in a matter of days, officials said Tuesday.. Ceypetco wanted to cap the diesel import price at around 70 dollars a barrel, but the price had already moved […]
Post Men
Feb 06, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is boosting is postal service with thousands of new postmen, the country’s outgoing posts minister said. Former posts and telecommunications minister D M Jayaratne, who was replaced in a recent cabinet re-shuffle, said Sri Lanka post had received state approval to recruit 5,000 postmen and 4,000 substitutes. The […]
Philippines inflation hits 3-year low at 3.9 percent in January
MANILA, Feb 6, 2007 (AFP) – The Philippines posted an inflation rat of 3.9 percent in January, the slowest pace of price increases in 39 months, the government said Tuesday.Inflation stood at 3.6 percent in October 2003. The January figure was at the low end of the central bank’s projected range of between 3.9 and […]
Ex-child soldier cry for freedom at UNICEF conference
PARIS, Feb 5, 2007 (AFP) – A former child soldier from Sierra Leone who started killing at the age of 12 opened an international conference on Monday with an appeal for action to stop the exploitation of children in war.“At that time, taking a gun and shooting somebody had become as easy as drinking a […]
‘s new coach
MELBOURNE, Feb 5, 2007 (AFP) – Tim Nielsen will become coach of Australia’s Test and one-day cricket team when John Buchanan retires after next month’s World Cup, Cricket Australia said Monday.Nielsen, 38, is head coach at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, which includes managing the respected Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) men’s cricket programme. […]
” to beat India
NEW DELHI, India, Feb 5, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka will rely on unpredictable fast bowler Lasith Malinga to rattle India in the one-day series starting this week, vice-captain Kumar Sangakkara said on Monday.The 23-year-old Malinga has claimed 71 wickets in 21 Tests and scalped 37 victims in 25 one-dayers with his unusual round-arm slinging […]
Two killed in Vavuniya after peace call in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, Feb 5, 2007 (AFP) – Two people were killed and five others injured in ethnic violence in Sri Lanka, a day after the president invited Tiger rebel proxies to join his government, the defence ministry said Monday.Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels hit an army camp in the island’s restive northern town of Vavuniya, killing a […]
British Tamils pressured into donating money to Tigers: report
LONDON, Feb 4, 2007 (AFP) – Ethnic Tamils living in Britain are being pressured into donating money to support Tiger rebels in their native Sri Lanka, facing harassment if they refuse, The Times reported in an early edition of its Monday newspaper. According to the newspaper, which interviewed a number of Sri Lankan Tamils living […]
’s tax department tries to rope in larger numbers of taxpayers
Jan 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tax office is moving towards increasing the number of taxpayers to five percent of the total population, a top official said. At present, only about two percent of the population in Sri Lanka are income tax payers, Commissioner General of Inland Revenue said at a workshop organized by […]
Yen weakness to top agenda at G7 finance summit
FRANKFURT, Feb 4, 2007 (AFP) – The current weakness of the Japanese yen is likely to top the agenda when finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of Seven (G7) countries gather in the western city of Essen next weekend. But if European governments entertained any hope the club of the world’s seven […]