Category:
Pricing Politics
Sept 14, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan fuel users are suffering from the lack of a transparent price formula and severe politicization of pricing that had sometimes caused high inflation and balance of payments troubles in the island. Diesel users are mostly commercial enterprises and super rich sections of society including politicians who are allowed […]
Three dead in New Delhi blasts: report
NEW DELHI, September 13, 2008 (AFP) – Three people were killed as a series of blasts hit the Indian capital New Delhi on Saturday, television reports said. India’s Star News network said the three died in an explosion in the central Connaught Place district.Another Indian television network CNN-IBN also reported three people had died. Police […]
Maldives can maintain dollar peg if budgets improve: IMF
Sept 13, 2008 (LBO) – The Maldives can maintain its dollar peg despite a steep rise in inflation if budgets improve and the island’s newly re-constituted monetary authority does not print money to finance fiscal deficits, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.–break— Inflation was projected at 15 percent for 2008 up from 7.4 percent, […]
432 Chinese babies get kidney stones from tainted milk powder
BEIJING, September 13, 2008 (AFP) – China’s health minister said 432 babies had kidney stones after drinking contaminated milk powder and vowed to punish those responsible as the country’s latest product safety scandal escalated Saturday. Gao Qiang said production had been halted at Sanlu Group after industrial chemical melamine, added by farmers and milk sellers […]
Catastrophe looms as Hurricane Ike pounds Texas coast
GALVESTON, September 13, 2008 (AFP) – Mammoth Hurricane Ike lashed the Texas Gulf coast with rain and wind late Friday, flooding parts of Galveston and threatening “catastrophic” destruction as it heads on a path towards Houston, the fourth largest US city. More than a million people have fled their homes as the Texas-size storm bore […]
Oil prices around US$100, despite hurricanes, OPEC cuts
NEW YORK, September 12, 2008 (AFP) – Oil prices closed narrowly mixed Friday amid a near-total shutdown of offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, where a massive Hurricane Ike was bearing down deep in the heart of the US oil industry. In choppy trade, the market also watched signs of further financial stress in […]
Bank Rating
Sept 11, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Fitch Ratings has confirmed the ‘AA(lka)’ rating of state-run Bank of Ceylon, with ‘stable’ outlook, and said its exposure to the government had fallen, though it remained high.Fitch said the bank’s ‘Individual’ rating at ‘D/E’ and ‘Support’ rating at ‘4’, reflected its systemic importance as the largest bank […]
Cyber Education
Sept 12, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is starting post-graduate university courses using broadband mobile links provided by Mobitel, a celco, to remotely lecture students, officials said.The mobile learning of ‘mlearning’ system was developed by the University of Colombo, Mobitel and the IT firm Microsoft. “This is a hybrid system of learning, which includes traditional […]
Suspected US missile kills 12 in Pakistan: official
MIRANSHAH, September 12, 2008 (AFP) – A missile from a suspected US drone killed 12 people Friday in a Pakistani tribal area where US forces have been aggressively targeting Al-Qaeda militants — fuelling anger from its key “war on terror” ally. The missile hit a house on the outskirts of Miranshah, the main town in […]
Bomb explodes in Sri Lankan capital: police
COLOMBO, September 11, 2008 (AFP) – A bomb exploded on a railway track in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Thursday, the second such blast in as many days, but there were no casualties, police said. The blast caused little damage to the railway line at Sedawatte, a slum area of the city, a police […]
Sri Lanka power utility to start net metering
Sept 11, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s power distributors are to start net metering, where customers would be able to generate small amounts of renewable energy, ‘export’ to the national grid, and only pay for the ‘net’ amount of electricity used.A note to cabinet said the proposal would encourage customers to generate their own electricity […]
Venezuela expels US ambassador, threatens to cut oil
CARACAS, September 12, 2008 (AFP) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled the US envoy to Caracas late Thursday and threatened to halt crude exports to the United States on a day he highlighted the recent arrival of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers. Chavez on Thursday ordered US ambassador Patrick Duddy to leave the country within […]