Author: lbostgadmin
Bunker Losses
Sept 15, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings says its bunkering unit lost 20 million rupees (184,000 US dollars), because it was unable to remove all oil stocks by a court deadline of September 12, after it was ordered to vacate a tank farm.The company said oil stocks valued 45 million rupees (416,000 […]
Sri Lanka raises US$60mn in 2-year bonds
Sept 15, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has raised 60 million US dollars in 2-year bonds at a premium of 2.895 percent above the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) to help repay a maturing 70 million US dollar bond issue, the government’s debt office said.The Central Bank said the money would go to settle a […]
Pricing Politics
Sept 14, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan fuel users are suffering from the lack of a transparent price formula and severe politicization of pricing that had sometimes caused high inflation and balance of payments troubles in the island. Diesel users are mostly commercial enterprises and super rich sections of society including politicians who are allowed […]
‘s Brown facing growing revolt
LONDON, September 14, 2008 (AFP) – The calls for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to face a leadership contest grew Sunday as former ministers attacked his performance and more party members backed a showdown. The mutiny against Brown gathered pace less than 48 hours after a member of his government for the first time broke […]
EU finance chiefs still see no end in sight to crisis
NICE, September 14, 2008 (AFP) – The crisis roiling the financial sector will probably grind on for some time, but European banks should be able to avert serious trouble, EU finance chiefs said. US investment bank Lehman Brothers’ fight for its very survival over the weekend highlighted just how fragile the sector remains more than […]
‘s war-torn north
September 14, 2008 (AFP) – The United Nations said Sunday its aid staff were unable to comply with a Sri Lankan government order to quit the war-torn north of the island because of protests by local civilians. UN agencies say some 160,000 people have been displaced in the past few months in the districts of […]
Bunker Move
Sept 14, 2008 (LBO) – Lanka Marine Services (LMS), a unit of John Keells Holdings selling bunkers in Colombo port, has moved out most of its stocks from a tank farm by the court ordered deadline of September 12, a media report said.The Sunday Times quoting sources at Sri Lanka’s revenue office said, it had […]
Oil prices around US$100, despite hurricanes, OPEC cuts
NEW YORK, September 12, 2008 (AFP) – Oil prices closed narrowly mixed Friday amid a near-total shutdown of offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, where a massive Hurricane Ike was bearing down deep in the heart of the US oil industry. In choppy trade, the market also watched signs of further financial stress in […]
Catastrophe looms as Hurricane Ike pounds Texas coast
GALVESTON, September 13, 2008 (AFP) – Mammoth Hurricane Ike lashed the Texas Gulf coast with rain and wind late Friday, flooding parts of Galveston and threatening “catastrophic” destruction as it heads on a path towards Houston, the fourth largest US city. More than a million people have fled their homes as the Texas-size storm bore […]
432 Chinese babies get kidney stones from tainted milk powder
BEIJING, September 13, 2008 (AFP) – China’s health minister said 432 babies had kidney stones after drinking contaminated milk powder and vowed to punish those responsible as the country’s latest product safety scandal escalated Saturday. Gao Qiang said production had been halted at Sanlu Group after industrial chemical melamine, added by farmers and milk sellers […]
Maldives can maintain dollar peg if budgets improve: IMF
Sept 13, 2008 (LBO) – The Maldives can maintain its dollar peg despite a steep rise in inflation if budgets improve and the island’s newly re-constituted monetary authority does not print money to finance fiscal deficits, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.–break— Inflation was projected at 15 percent for 2008 up from 7.4 percent, […]
Three dead in New Delhi blasts: report
NEW DELHI, September 13, 2008 (AFP) – Three people were killed as a series of blasts hit the Indian capital New Delhi on Saturday, television reports said. India’s Star News network said the three died in an explosion in the central Connaught Place district.Another Indian television network CNN-IBN also reported three people had died. Police […]