Sri Lanka ruling coalition member party submits resignation from govt

August 02, 2007 (LBO) – Members of a Sri Lankan political party, Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), that helps keep the ruling coalition in power submitted their resignations from the government Thursday. “We have decided to quit the government,” R Yogarajan, Vice President of the Ceylon Workers Congress told LBO. CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman, who is […]

‘s Malinga to join Kent county cricket

August 02, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s star fast bowler Lasith Malinga is to join English county Kent for just under a month, the governing body of the sport here, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), said Thursday. Malinga becomes the fourth Sri Lankan to play for an English county in the current season — Muttiah Muralitharan […]

IMF plays down sharemarket falls as APEC finance meet opens

COOLUM, Australia, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) – The IMF played down recent sharemarket turmoil and said it would not lower its global economic outlook Thursday as a meeting of Asia Pacific finance ministers opened in Australia.International Monetary Fund (IMF) deputy managing director John Lipsky also said interest rates may need to rise in some countries […]

Walkie Talkie

August 2, 2007 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan celco is rolling out a mobile payphone system for rural communities that have limited access to telecommunications facilities, but it is a market worth billions of rupees, officials said. Sri Lanka has over six million mobile phone users, serviced by four operators. Contrary to popular perceptions that […]

Missed Call

August 02, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should unilaterally liberalise its telecommunications sector even further and update outdated regulations to avoid falling behind the rest of south Asia, a telecom expert has said. The country was also not living up to its commitments made in international trade negotiations and its telecom sector was losing momentum, […]

Sri Lanka earns more by selling less tea

Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s tea export volumes fell by 10 percent in the first six months of this year, but earnings rose marginally by three percent, a commodity broker said Thursday. Sri Lanka, which is better known for its high quality aromatic tea known by the country’s previous name Ceylon, is made […]

No More

August 2, 2007 (LBO) – Eminent banker Pelanage Amarasinghe passed away on Wendesday August 01.He has served Sri Lanka’s banking sector for over 36 years as a central banker and later also in commercial banks. He retired from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka after becoming its Deputy Governor and was a former chairman of […]

Super Profits

August 02, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank reported net profit for the second quarter ended June 2007 shot up 52 percent to 1.1 billion rupees from 753 million in the same 2006 period. Net interest income for the quarter soared 66 percent to almost three billion rupees, according to interim results released to […]

Sri Lanka bond deal goes to JP Morgan, Barclays and HSBC

August 02, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has appointed J P Morgan, Barclays Capital and HSBC to raise 500 million dollars from international market, the government’s debt office said.Twelve international banks and investment houses submitted their proposals and made presentations to be lead managers. Citibank, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, UBS Warburg were also in the […]

Sri Lanka mediaman killed by unidentified gunmen

August 01, 2007 (LBO) – Gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a journalist in Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna peninsula Wednesday, the Free Media Movement (FMM), a media rights group, said. Nilakshan Sahapavan (22), a journalism student of the Jaffna Media Resource Training Centre (MRTC) and a part-time journalist, was shot around 4.00 a.m. during […]

Thailand inflation plunges near four-year low in July

BANGKOK, Aug 1, 2007 (AFP) – Thailand’s inflation rate hit a 43-month low of 1.7 percent in July, despite rising food prices, as consumption remained slow, the Commerce Ministry said Wednesday.It was the fifth consecutive rate cut this year and came amid government calls on the bank to tame the volatile baht after the currency […]

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