Author: lbostgadmin
‘s final council poll
October 10, 2009 (AFP) – Voting got underway in southern Sri Lanka Saturday in the final local council poll before national elections due next year, officials said.Some 1.7 million people are eligible to vote for the 55 members of the Southern Provincial Council, a stronghold of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s United People’s Freedom Alliance. “Voting started […]
Sri Lanka Tamil refugees should move freely: US
WASHINGTON, October 9, 2009 (AFP) – The United States on Friday called on the Sri Lankan government to allow Tamil refugees displaced by recent fighting to move freely around the country.Assistant US Secretary of State Robert Blake, who is focussed on US relations with central and southern Asia, “emphasized the importance of the government allowing […]
Sri Lanka wraps up final council poll ahead of national elections
October 10, 2009 (AFP) – Vote counting got under way in southern Sri Lanka Saturday after nine hours of polling for the final local council before national elections due next year, officials said.Nearly two thirds of the 1.7 million eligible voters turned out to elect the 55-member Southern Provincial Council, a stronghold of President Mahinda […]
Sri Lanka power failure worst in history: chairman
Oct 10, 2009 (LBO) – Three consecutive failures of Sri Lanka’s power grid has raised new questions about the reliability of the island’s distribution system, but officials say there will be a probe to examine ways to reduce future blackouts. The immediate cause of the failure seemed to be a cable break in a key […]
Sri Lanka, India in joint navy training exercise
Oct 10, 2009 (LBO) – The Indian and Sri Lankan navies held a three-day joint exercise in the seas off Colombo earlier this week to train officer cadets and practice manoeuvres for maritime security operations.The manoeuvres included flights by an Indian navy light helicopter which dropped supplies on two Sri Lankan navy patrol vessels to […]
” IMF faces rough road toward bigger role
ISTANBUL, October 7, 2009 (AFP) – The IMF gained new stature as global lender at annual meetings with the World Bank in Istanbul that ended Wednesday, but is on a rough road between a fragile economic recovery and dissension among members.The finance chiefs from the 186 member nations of the institutions agreed after two days […]
Sri Lanka can avoid foreign pressure by putting economy right: think tank
Oct 09, 2009(LBO) – Sri Lankan can avoid foreign pressure tied to aid or trade concessions by putting its own economic house in order through better management, a think tank has said. Such reforms will sustain higher growth over the longer term, the IPS said. “The immediate task is to restore macroeconomic stability,” it said. […]
Sri Lanka, India coal plant deal to be inked in November
Oct 09, 2009 (LBO) – Ceylon Electricity Board, Sri Lanka’s state-run power utility, will sign a firm deal with India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to build a 500MegaWatt coal plant in November, an official said.The plant is a 50/50 joint venture between CEB and NTPC with each partner putting 75 million US dollars of […]
Sri Lanka suffers nationwide power failure
Oct 09, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s faced a nation-wide power outage in the early hours of Friday, and state-run Ceylon Electricity Board is working on restoring supply, officials said.Power is distributed in Sri Lanka by two firms, the CEB and Lanka Electricity Company, which is also state-run.The system was energized twice but it failed […]
Sri Lanka Ceylinco Insurance says Maldives unit pays big dividend
Oct 09, 2009 (LBO) – The Maldives subsidiary of Sri Lanka’s Ceylinco Insurance said it had declared an interim dividend of 70 percent for its share holders for the year 2009.The majority shares of the Maldives subsidiary is owned by Ceylinco Insurance. “Against a backdrop of worldwide recession that has seen companies struggle for survival, […]
Sri Lanka raises defence budget by 20 percent: report
October 9, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has raised its defence expenditure by another 20 percent this year following its military victory over separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. Parliament late Thursday approved an additional 33 billion rupees (287 million dollars) to pay for hardware and beef up security in former conflict zones. At the beginning of […]
Sri Lanka mulls fuel from sugar cane
Oct 09, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan prime minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake has called for lower consumption of sugar, saying diabetes was on the increase, and alternative uses for the crop such as fuel production. “We consume far too much sugar for our health,” he told the 25th anniversary celebrations of the island’s Sugarcane Research Institute. […]