Author: lbostgadmin
Five sailors killed in Sri Lankan naval clash
June 28, 2006 (AFP) – Five Sri Lankan sailors were killed and three wounded in an exchange of fire with Tamil Tiger boats in the island’s northwest, the defence ministry said Wednesday.The navy and the Tamil Tigers clashed in the same area earlier this month in a major sea battle that killed more than 50 […]
” not enough
June 28, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Wednesday demanded the Tamil Tigers apologise for the 1991 assassination of former Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi, saying their latest expression of regret over the killing was meaningless. “The whole world knows that the LTTE killed Rajiv Gandhi,” Sri Lankan government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said. “In their latest television […]
Welcome Back
June 28, 2006 (LBO) – India has asked Sri Lankan vanaspati manufacturers to begin exports of the vegetable oil under new controls, amidst trade talks between the countries in Colombo. The move is one that violates the spirit of the free trade agreement between the countries, Sri Lanka™s Department of Commerce says and will take […]
Housing King
June 28, 2006 (LBO) – HDFC Bank, the island’s largest housing bank, plans to expand its core business with moves to get into property development, an equity research firm said Wednesday. Executed through a fully-owned subsidiary HDFC Real Estate Development Ltd the state-run housing bank hopes to pay for the mammoth projects by leveraging its […]
More Goodies
June 28 (LBO) – Sri Lanka™s Board of Investment has re-done its tax incentive scheme with an emphasis on off-shore investments and large scale infrastructure projects. The traditional five year tax holiday will be replaced with a more rationalised scheme to raise the quality of investments, BOI chief Lakshman Watawala told businessmen on Wednesday. The […]
Nest Egg
June 28, 2006 (LBO) – A collective agreement covering the salaries and benefits of the state bank employees is due to be signed Thursday, Sri Lanka’s largest bank employees union said. After two-years training, the government has agreed to absorb the trainees into the permanent cadre, main union said.More than 20,000 state-bank employees would get […]
High Altitude
June 28, 2006 (LBO) – SriLankan Airlines said Wednesday group net profit in the year to March rose nearly 50 percent annually to 2.04 billion rupees over 62.49 billion rupees in revenues, amidst soaring fuel costs and stiff competition. For the financial year ended March, the carrier’s net profits rose to 797.93 million rupees over […]
Sri Lanka truce monitors hold crisis talks amid rising war fears
June 27, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan peace broker Norway goes into crisis talks Thursday to try to salvage the island’s faltering ceasefire, as the assassination of a top army general underscored the threat of renewed war. “It is a case where they want to score something and then say, ‘Let’s talk’,” said retired army […]
Troops, roadblocks as Sri Lanka ups security after suicide bombing
June 27, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Tuesday deployed more troops and threw up roadblocks in Colombo as the government tightened security following the assassination of a top army general.Heavily armed soldiers took up positions around the capital while police stepped up random vehicle searches, a senior police officer told AFP. “There is a […]
Senior Tamil Tiger leader regrets 1991 Gandhi slaying
NEW DELHI, June 28, 2006 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebel leader expressed regret Tuesday over the 1991 assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, in an interview aired on Indian television.“I would say it is a great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy for which we deeply regret and we call upon […]
Slender Loris gasps for survival as urban India expands
BANGALORE, India, June 27, 2006 (AFP) – Hunted for centuries for its purported qualities as an aphrodisiac, asthma cure and as a kind of living voodoo doll, the tiny primate known as the Slender Loris has long faced a battle just to survive.But the biggest threat to the rare nocturnal animal, which has a distinctive […]
Regional, bilateral trade pacts threaten to weaken WTO
PARIS, June 27, 2006 (AFP) – Regional and bilateral trade pacts forged outside the scope of the World Trade Organization are increasingly attractive, undermining the WTO just as it struggles to stitch together a new global deal to boost commerce. Although trade ministers are to convene Thursday in Geneva to mount a last-ditch effort to […]