Done Deal

August 10 (LBO) – John Keells Holdings said Thursday that it bought up about a million shares or just over an eleven percent stake in Associated Motorways Limited, through a private placement. A block of 1,032,231 shares of ten rupees was sold at a premium of 370 rupees apiece, a shareholding of 11.12 percent of […]

Sri Lanka looks at reviving sovereign bond issue : CB Governor

Aug 10 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is looking at reviving a sovereign bond issue, which was shelved earlier this year, to raise medium term dollars, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said. After getting a sovereign rating last year, (BB- from Fitch and B+ from S & P) Sri Lanka was planning to go to the […]

Tamil rebels insisting EU monitors must go: Sri Lanka

Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels are insisting that truce monitors from EU countries quit Sri Lanka despite efforts by peace broker Norway to persuade them to drop their demand, the government said Wednesday.Norway’s top peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer told the government that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were demanding monitors […]

Five killed in attack on ambulance

Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) – Five people including a doctor were killed when an ambulance was caught up in a mine attack carried out by government forces, Tamil Tiger rebels said.A Claymore mine attack in the island’s central district of Kandy killed a senior police commando officer and his driver on Monday. The blast hit […]

War fears ease as fighting stops over Sri Lanka canal

Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) – Water flowed down a disputed canal in Sri Lanka Wednesday after peace broker Norway defused the island’s bloodiest battle in four years and averted a return to civil war, residents and officials said.Norway’s special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer arranged for the Tamil Tiger rebels to end a water blockade at the […]

”

PARIS, Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) – A French charity on Wednesday demanded that the “butchers” behind the murder of 17 of its employees in Sri Lanka’s embattled northeast be brought to justice and full light shed on the killings.ACF director Benoit Miribel was to leave for Sri Lanka Wednesday to attend ceremonies commemorating the dead […]

‘s Union Bank

LONDON, Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) – Standard Chartered, the Britain-based emerging markets bank, said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy 80.86 percent of Pakistan’s Union Bank for 413 million dollars (321 million euros). “The acquisition of Union Bank will make Standard Chartered the sixth largest bank in Pakistan by market share of assets and […]

‘ Block

Aug 9, 2006 (LBO) – Reporters Without Borders has called on both sides in Sri Lanka’s civil war to see that journalists could continue reporting in areas of fighting, especially in the northeastern town of Muttur, and criticised them for refusing to allow the media into these zones.“We know some parts of the country have […]

Postal Finance

Aug 9, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s postal department is looking to provide agency financial services to boost revenue and reduce its operating deficit.It has a long association with the state-owned National Savings Bank and is used to dealing with savings accounts. “We feel that the post office is the ideal location in the rural […]

Grief-stricken Sri Lankan refugees haunted by conflict

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – Grief-stricken men, women and children trudge to a refugee camp after fleeing deadly fighting through ghost towns and past decomposing bodies, haunted by what they have seen.They are escaping from Sri Lanka’s troubled northeast and many do not talk, instead simply gesturing for food and water. Stunned […]

Toll of aid workers killed in Sri Lanka rises to 17

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – Police have recovered the bodies of 17 aid workers employed by the Paris-based Charity Action Against Hunger (ACF) and autopsies were underway Tuesday, officials said.The aid agency and authorities had initially thought that 15 ACF staff were shot dead at work in the nearby coastal town of […]

Families of Sri Lankan massacre victims cry for justice

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – Slumped on the ground outside the hospital in this strife-torn Sri Lankan port town, Khanthasami Sivapaka cries for justice for his favourite daughter — one of 17 aid workers mown down by gunmen.Beside him are freshly painted maroon coffins, delivered to the Trincomalee General Hospital’s gloomy mortuary […]

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