Hello Hello

February 09 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Telecom’s profits surged in the last quarter by 160 percent driven by strong revenue growth taking annual profits up by 76 percent, results released Friday showed. SLT’s group revenue with mobile services rose 25 percent to 40 billion rupees in the year to December, while profits after-tax grew to […]

Health Cover

Feb 03 (LBO) – Large numbers of refugees in Sri Lanka are at increased risk of insect borne diseases and failing health, with officials looking for new and novel ways to fight off infection. The number of Sri Lanka™s internally displaced people (IDP) has gone up by 2.8 percent between April 2006 and the end […]

Feed Line

February 09 (LBO) – A ship carrying essential foodstuff from India is due to reach the Jaffna peninsular next week, an official said. The first ship had brought of 3,200 tonnes of essential foods and this ship would have 1,000 tonnes of rice, 500 tonnes of sugar among its cargo, Nalin Fernando, chairman of the […]

Political Storm

February 9 (LBO) – Three ministers in President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government has been removed from their posts, officials and state television said.Anura Bandaranaike lost the tourism ministry in last month’s cabinet re-shuffle and has been publicly expressing his displeasure. Bandaranaike is former President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s brother. Sri Lanka Freedom Party strongman Mangala Samaraweera who held […]

Pension Hit

February, 9 (LBO) – A one-off pension charge hit Commercial Bank of Ceylon’s earnings in the last quarter, dragging down annual profits despite capital gains from equity sales, draft accounts released Friday said. The bank lost 276 million rupees in the December quarter as a 1,738 million rupee charge to a restructured pension scheme took […]

‘s western province, bad policies worsen it elsewhere

February 08 (LBO) – Economic reforms has slashed poverty in Sri Lanka’s western province while backward policies that kept agriculture stagnant in rural areas were trapping people in poverty, researchers have found. Poverty in the western province fell from 19 to 11 percent between 1991 and 2002, with the region growing at twice or three […]

Not Funny

February, 08 (LBO) – A decision by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation to tender its liquid petroleum gas output in the open market will re-create an absolute monopoly, Sri Lanka’s second gas retailer has said. CPC which produces about 10 percent of the country’s annual L P gas requirements now sells its production to Laugfs Lanka, […]

Hindu priest shot dead after welcoming Sri Lanka president

Feb 8, 2007 (AFP) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot dead a Hindu priest who welcomed President Mahinda Rajapakse to a former guerrilla bastion in the island’s east, military officials said Thursday. Selliah Parameswar was dragged out of his house in Batticaloa district and shot dead late Wednesday by a group of unidentified gunmen, officials […]

” by US peace envoy call

Feb 8, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Thursday said it was not ‘unduly worried’ over a proposal to US President George W.Bush by American lawmakers to appoint a special envoy to help bring peace to the embattled Indian Ocean island.Sri Lanka cabinet spokesman and Media Minister Anura Yapa said Colombo believed the US would continue […]

Rain stops India-Sri Lanka one-dayer

KOLKATA, India, Feb 8, 2007 (AFP) – Unseasonal rain turned into a torrential downpour, forcing the first one-day international between India and Sri Lanka to be called off here on Thursday.A sell-out crowd of 88,000 at the Eden Gardens returned home disappointed as the weather ruined what promised to be an absorbing contest. Sri Lanka […]

Broader Access

Feb 08, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s largest mobile operator, Dialog Telekom which helped make mobile phones a ubiquitous device in the country, says it wants to do the same to the digital pay TV industry. “If I were to trace back ten years, we took that device that was considered a luxury – a […]

Jumbo Records

February 8, 2007 (LBO) – Guinness World Records could start a new record category on jumbo sized cabinets of ministers if a formal request is made, a Guinness official said. Rajapakse’s former ally, the Marxist JVP or People’s Liberation Front, said the huge cabinet for a country of 19.5 million people had made Sri Lanka […]

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