Category:
IRB scraps Asian World Cup qualifiers in Sri Lanka
TOKYO, Oct 27, 2006 (AFP) – The International Rugby Board has axed Colombo as the venue of the final Asian qualifying round for next year’s World Cup due to security problems, the Japan Rugby Football Union said Friday. The IRB will decide a new host city for the November 19-25 qualifying round for the finals […]
Sea battle, shelling reported ahead of Sri Lanka peace talks
COLOMBO, Oct 27, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy fought a five-hour battle with Tamil Tiger gunboats amid fears the rebels were launching a major attack against the northern Jaffna peninsula, a pro-Tiger website reported Friday. Navy patrols attacked rebel craft early Thursday morning, the Tamilnet.com website said, adding that heavy artillery and mortar fire […]
Non-Negotiable
Oct 26, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka™s trade ministry has shot down efforts by local businessmen to get desiccated coconut off India™s protected list, to avoid a political battle with the island™s largest trading partner. Desiccated coconut is on a preferential trading list which gives Sri Lankan exports to India a preferential duty of 57 […]
Stellar Performance
July 27, 2006 (LBO) – Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka’s largest cellular phone operator, Thursday posted a 47 percent rise in net profits for the nine months to September, as subscriber growth lifted revenues. A unit of Telekom Malaysia, Dialog Telekom, reported a 7.55 billion rupee group net profit, while revenues climbed 47 percent to 18.89 […]
Sri Lankan government, rebels must stop “rampant” abuse
GENEVA, Oct 26, 2006 (AFP) – The advocacy group Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels to use their talks in Geneva to end “escalating” and “rampant” abuse of civilians.Nearly 3,000 people have been killed and some 217,000 have fled their homes since bitter fighting escalated earlier this […]
Sri Lanka warring parties in Geneva to cool down war
GENEVA, Oct 26, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s warring parties arrived in Geneva Thursday for their first face-to-face meeting in eight months amid international pressure to halt ethnic bloodshed and save a crumbling ceasefire.The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) returned to the Swiss city after suicide bombings, conventional war and tit-for-tat killings that […]
Death squads take bloody toll in Sri Lankan frontline town
VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka, Oct 26, 2006 (AFP) – Vaithilingam Mahenthiran and two of his friends were gunned down on a Saturday afternoon earlier this month.The day before, two other young men were shot to death and dumped in a ditch on the roadside, their hands bound and heads hooded. Before the weekend was over, three […]
Attacks, disappearances continue ahead of Sri Lanka peace talks
Oct 26, 2006 (AFP) – At least 30 people were killed or disappeared last week in the embattled Sri Lankan flashpoint town of Jaffna, Tamil rebels said Thursday, despite pledges to hold peace talks to end a bitter ethnic conflict.“The rate of killing and disappearance in Jaffna showed no sign of letting up,” the Tamil […]
‘s one-year treasury yield at 12.03%
October 25, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s borrowing costs continued to climb up following Wednesday’s weekly treasury bill auction, with market players anticipating a further hike in policy rates next month, traders said. Yields on all maturities went up with the central bank refraining from printing money to keep rates down. Yields for three month […]
Bigger Say
October 25, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s conglomerate John Keells Holdings Ltd Wednesday said it has raised its ownership in port operator South Asia Gateway Terminals (Pvt) Ltd to 33.75 percent. “The success of SAGT further proves the ability of Sri Lankan companies to develop and add value to large scale infrastructure projects,” Ratnayake added. […]
BPO Ponzi
October 25, 2006 (LBO) – A Ponzi-style fraud that was masquerading as an internet based outsourcing company, shut up shop Wednesday, leaving thousands of Sri Lankan defrauded of millions of rupees. Mt. Lavinia police said the operators, who ran a company called Seagullsoftwares have fled the office and they had no idea how many people […]
Major Update
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 24, 2006 (AFP) – Mozilla on Tuesday released a new version of its Firefox web browser that has gained popularity as a free alternative to Microsoft’s ubiquitous Internet Explorer software.In the two years since its release by the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, the Firefox browser has won millions of devotees worldwide. The Firefox […]