Author: lbostgadmin
Sri Lanka president rejects foreign war crimes probe
May 28, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse has rejected international calls for a war crimes probe into the final offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels last year. Sri Lanka has been under pressure to submit to an international investigation after the United Nations reported that at least 7,000 civilians perished in the final […]
Australia to start legal action against Japan over whaling
SYDNEY, May 28, 2010 (AFP) – Australia will start legal action to stop Japan hunting whales next week, officials said on Friday, following years of tensions over the annual slaughter in waters near Antarctica. Documents will be submitted to the International Court of Justice in The Hague “early next week”, after repeated threats of proceedings […]
Soft Skills
May 28, 2010 (LBO) – An information technology firm has set up a software development centre in Sri Lanka’s former war-torn eastern region with support from the United States, its embassy in Colombo said. Kingslake Engineering Systems had set up development centre in Akkaraipatti in the Ampara district with financial support from the US Agency […]
Tech Craze
PARIS, May 28, 2010 (AFP) – Thousands of die-hard Apple fans mobbed shops in parts of Europe and Asia on Friday after the iPad, touted as a revolution in personal computing, began its global launch. Long queues of customers snaked outside Apple shops in Australia and Japan hours before the opening and similar huddled masses […]
Lease Growth
May 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s People’s Leasing Company, a unit of state-run People’s Bank is planning to raise 500 million rupees from a 4-year debenture which has been rated ‘A-(lka)’ Fitch Ratings Lanka said. “The proceeds from the issue will be utilised to fund the growth of PLC’s lease, hire purchase, and loan […]
Flat Quarter
May 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Deutsche Bank unit’s March 2010 quarter profits were flat at 235.2 million rupees on lower net interest income balanced by higher exchange income, published accounts showed. Deutsche Bank’s Sri Lanka unit’s gross assets grew 13 percent to 27 billion rupees. Deutsche Bank’s March quarter interest income fell 21 […]
Sri Lanka forex reserve edge up in March
May 27, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka foreign exchange reserves rose to 5,192 million US dollars in March 2010 from 5,032 million dollars a month earlier, with imports and remittances also expanding, the Central Bank said. Sri Lanka’s has a pegged exchange rate and foreign remittances as well as net foreign borrowings of the state […]
Boat People
KUALA LUMPUR, May 27, 2010 (AFP) – Sixty-one Sri Lankan asylum seekers held in a Malaysian immigration depot Thursday entered day three of a hunger strike in a desperate effort to win freedom and settlement in a third country. Immigration authorities could not be reached for comment. Activists say Malaysia is often used as a […]
Great Expectations
May 27, 2010 (LBO) – Education is an issue which many of us think we know how to fix, but, nobody is giving us the reigns. Lucky Minister Bandula Gunawardna the education ministry has fallen on his lap. Unlucky Minister BG – expectations about the ministry are high but there is no way that they […]
Sri Lanka welcomes end to US travel warning
May 27, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Thursday welcomed the lifting of a US warning against travel to the Indian Ocean island, anticipating a boost to tourism and investment a year after a bloody civil war ended. The number of holidaymakers arriving in the four months to April this year rose nearly 50 percent […]
Sri Lanka urges US to tackle business, not just human rights
WASHINGTON, May 26, 2010 (AFP) – New Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris on Tuesday urged Washington to seize business and other opportunities in post-war Sri Lanka rather than focus only on alleged human rights abuses there. Visiting Washington after Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s party won parliamentary elections last month, Peiris parried criticism […]
Sri Lanka protectionists stage high profile protest against freer trade
May 25, 2010 (AFP) – Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in the capital Colombo Tuesday demanding Sri Lanka’s government abandon a proposed trade pact with neighbouring India. President Mahinda Rajapakse met the demonstrators at his tightly-guarded Temple Trees residence in Colombo and vowed he would not enter any pact that was harmful to […]