Author: lbostgadmin
India police sift for clues after deadly bomb blasts
JAIPUR, India, May 14, 2008 (AFP) – Police sifted for clues Wednesday after seven near-simultaneous bomb blasts tore through crowded markets in the Indian tourist city of Jaipur, killing at least 80 people.Police have detained one suspect over the attacks, which also targeted a packed Hindu temple, as schools and government offices shutdown Wednesday in […]
HP to buy EDS for 13.9 bln dlrs, to expand services
SAN FRANCISCO, May 13, 2008 (AFP) – Hewlett-Packard Co.on Tuesday revealed a 13.9-billion-dollar deal to buy Electronic Data Systems in a tie-up that creates a global powerhouse in computer services to compete against IBM.World leading computer maker HP said it will buy Texas-based business services outsourcing titan EDS for 25 dollars a share in cash, […]
” golden handshakes
BRUSSELS, May 13, 2008 (AFP) – Eurozone finance ministers are considering ways of discouraging “scandalous” excesses in executive pay, including by closing loopholes for golden hand-shakes, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said Tuesday.“We believe that the excesses of captains of industries’ (pay packages) that we have seen in several countries … are really quite scandalous and […]
” German president says
BERLIN, May 14, 2008 (AFP) – German President and former IMF head Horst Koehler attacked banks for allowing financial markets to become a “monster” that nearly caused a global collapse, in comments published on Wednesday.“It must by now have become clear to every responsible thinking person in the industry that international financial markets have become […]
Sri Lanka ministerial aide assassinated amid violence
May 14, 2008 (AFP) – At least 27 Tamil Tiger rebels died during battles with government troops, while separately a top advisor to a senior cabinet minister was shot dead in Sri Lanka’s restive north, the defence ministry said Tuesday.The sporadic clashes took place around the embattled Vavuniya and Mannar district on Monday, the ministry […]
Sri Lanka presses ahead with air and ground attacks against Tamil Tigers: military
May 14, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka pressed ahead with air and ground attacks Wednesday against Tamil Tiger rebels in the north, the defence ministry said, as the prime minster ruled out any ceasefire. Fighter planes gave air support to ground troops advancing toward rebel-held areas in Mannar district and bombed a suspected guerrilla training […]
Wider Portfolio
May 14, 2008 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka unit of India’s Tata Communications is looking to expand in to new areas after getting 30 percent of the outgoing voice traffic of the country, officials said. . “We are looking for new licenses to expand into areas demanded by our customers,” Tata Communications group chief N […]
Software Piracy
SINGAPORE, May 14, 2008 (AFP) – Software piracy increased last year in the Asia-Pacific region, boosted by China’s growing use of personal computers, an industry group said on Wednesday.The Asia-Pacific’s average PC software piracy rate in 2007 increased to 59 percent of the software in use in the region from 55 percent the previous year, […]
Costly Ruling
May 14, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s five-star city hotel Galadari Hotels said Wednesday it had been ordered to pay 101 million rupees in an arbitration hearing but that it would appeal against the ruling.The hotel said in a Colombo stock exchange filing that an arbitrator at the Sri Lanka National Arbitration Centre had delivered […]
Margin Play
May 14, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run Bank of Ceylon has seen margins squeezed in 2007 amidst directed lending and rising funding costs, but has pushed up fee income and cut bad loans in the period. In 2007 group revenue rose 40 percent to 52.3 billion rupees while interest income rose 56 percent to […]
Repeat Business
May 14, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard, a unit of Japan’s Onomichi and the country’s sole listed shipbuilder, has won two new orders from Greatship (India), for bigger and more expensive vessels, an official said. Greatship is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Great Eastern Shipping Company. The firm had previously ordered four […]
Sri Lanka treasury yields fall across tenors
May 14, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Treasury bill yields tumbled across tenors with the benchmark 3-month yield falling 54 basis points to 17.55 percent, the government’s debt office said. The debt office which is a unit of the country’s central bank said the government sold 6.0 billion rupees worth of bills out of a […]