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Sri Lanka bombs Tamil Tiger naval assets
Dec 27, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military announced air strikes inside rebel-held territory on Thursday, a day after a sea battle left a large number of combatants dead, according to both sides.He said security forces had already scored major victories against the guerrillas in the past year and hoped to build on them. War […]
Sri Lanka 3-month treasuries soar to 21.30-pct
Dec 26, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s 3-month treasury bill yield soared 116 basis points to 21.30 percent amid a year-end cash crunch as the Central Bank refrained from printing money to intervene in the bill auction Wednesday.During the past four weeks, 3-month yields have shot up 523 basis points, 6-month 220 basis points and […]
Bridge Building
MATARA, Sri Lanka, Dec 26, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka marked Wednesday the third anniversary of the devastating Asian tsunami by opening a showpiece bridge in the south of the island where 31,000 people died.President Mahinda Rajapakse formally commissioned the 116-metre (383 feet) bridge across the Nilwala river here in this southern coastal town of […]
Sri Lanka navy, Tigers in naval clash
COLOMBO, Dec 26, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy Wednesday clashed with suspected Tamil Tiger vessels off the island’s northern coast of Jaffna, leaving at least 40 rebels dead, the defence ministry said. Twelve naval fast attack craft, backed by an Mi-24 helicopter gunship, confronted a flotilla of 16 rebel boats off the southern seas […]
Sri Lanka navy boards suspicious ship
Dec 26, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s navy is investigating a ship off the island’s east coast on suspicion that it could be a Tamil Tiger arms smuggling vessel, navy officials said Wednesday The suspicious vessel was detected some 90 nautical miles east of Arugam Bay, a small coastal resort town in eastern Sri Lanka. […]
Sri Lanka detains French TV crew
Dec 25, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka detained two foreign television journalists and 11 locals from a Tamil family they were filming in the island’s south, police said Tuesday. The two-member crew of France 24 were detained overnight at Ratgama, 105 kilometres (65 miles) south of the capital, after they were taken into custody by […]
Sri Lanka meets reserve money targets, inflation goes haywire
Dec 26, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank kept its policy rates frozen in December with inflation raging close to 20 percent a month before, but said reserve money targets have been met this year. . Updated The Central Bank’s policy rates remained unchanged at 12.00 percent, far below inflation as the monetary authority […]
In Christmas homily, pope deplores selfishness, harm to environment
VATICAN CITY, Dec 25, 2007 (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday used his Christmas homily to speak out against selfishness and the degradation of the environment as he celebrated midnight mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica.The tradition of the creche in St Peter’s Square was established by Benedict’s predecessor John Paul II in 1982. “Man […]
England fined for dawdling against Sri Lanka
LONDON, Dec 24, 2007 (AFP) – England captain Michael Vaughan was on Monday fined 40 percent of his match fee for his team’s slow over rate during the third and final Test against Sri Lanka. The tourists failed in their bid for victory in the match in Galle last week, with the drawn result meaning […]
Australia remain the team to beat
LONDON, Dec 25, 2007 (AFP) – By the end of a year where Australia continued to remain supreme as the leading Test and one-day side it was easy to think little had changed in world cricket.They won a third straight World Cup and, after a run of 14 consecutive Test wins, they were closing in […]
” from Iraq to Sri Lanka
VATICAN CITY, Dec 25, 2007 (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday lamented the “grim sound of arms” in the world’s conflict zones, from Sudan to Sri Lanka and especially the volatile Middle East, in his Christmas message.“On this day of peace, my thoughts turn especially to those places where the grim sound of arms […]
Sri Lanka says 13 rebels killed in ongoing heavy fighting
Dec 25, 2007 (AFP) – At least 13 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed on Christmas Eve in heavy clashes with Sri Lankan security forces in northern Sri Lanka, the defence ministry said Tuesday.Six members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were killed in a confrontation in the district of Mannar on Monday while […]