All Blogs
Four children abducted as Sri Lankan military faces probe
Nov 15, 2006 (AFP) – Unidentified gunmen abducted four students in eastern Sri Lanka, a Tamil pro-rebel website said Wednesday as the president promised to probe allegations security forces recruited child soldiers.The Tamilnet.com website said the four youths were abducted Tuesday while working on a road construction project to supplement family income. The incident came […]
Grid Failure
Nov 15 (LBO) – Sri Lanka was blacked out for nearly two hours Wednesday as the national grid shut down during the even peak demand hour.Power failed in most parts of the island except areas like Jaffna which is isolated from the national grid and Trincomalee in the east, residents said.Power failed shortly after 7.30 […]
‘s export earnings races ahead of import bill in Sept: Central Bank
November 15, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s trade deficit expanded 38.4 percent to 2,597 million dollars for the nine months to September, over the same period 2005, the central bank said Wednesday, as the island spent more to import fuel. Sri Lanka’s 24 billion dollar economy is forecasted to expand by 7.0 percent by end-2006, […]
Seylan Bank opts for private placement to beef up capital
November 14, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank Ltd plans to raise a billion rupees by privately placing two tranches of 500 million rupees worth of debentures, the bank said Tuesday. The funds are required to meet capital adequacy requirements stipulated by the Sri Lanka’s Central Bank, Seylan’s Assistant Company Secretary, N N Najumudeen […]
‘s Central Bank continues to fight inflation with negative interest rates
November 14, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank on Tuesday froze interest rates, maintaining a wait-and-see policy over the economy, amidst soaring inflation, an expansion in money supply and real interest rates being negative. The bank said its benchmark reverse repurchase rate, used to manage liquidity and contain inflation, will remain at 11.125 percent. […]
Sri Lankans brace for high growth and high inflation
November 14, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka may have to settle for high inflation in the coming months as the government is keen to keep up the high economic growth momentum, treasury secretary P B Jayasundara said Tuesday. Though the budget will announce measures to contain demand pressure, it may not go as far as […]
Sliding
November 14, 2006 (LBO) – High taxes have hit profits of DFCC on the September quarter but six months profits are still higher than the previous year.After tax profits of DFCC group after minority interest fell to 395 million rupees for the latest quarter down from 451 million for the same period last year. At […]
Banking Online
Nov 14, 2006 (LBO) – Bank of Ceylon (BoC), Sri Lanka’s biggest lender in terms of assets, plans to finish linking up all its branches within the next few days, allowing customers to carry out their banking needs by using the Internet, officials said Tuesday. “We have 302 local branches and 248 of those branches […]
Steady Pace
November 14, 2006 (LBO) – Hatton National Bank Ltd, Sri Lanka’s second biggest privately owned lender by assets, Tuesday said group net profits rose to 580.60 million rupees for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 35 percent reported in the same period 2005. Hatton National Bank, which is active in leasing, corporate finance, […]
History Lessons
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 13, 2006 (AFP) – Google added historic map overlays to its free interactive online globe of the world on Monday to provide views of how places have changed with time.Google Earth engineers digitized one of the largest US map collections and integrated the information into its program, which lets users virtually navigate […]