Category: General Services

November 17, 2009 (LBO) – A hospital built by India’a Apollo chain that is now under Sri Lankan government control is to offer beds to military personal to become more socially equitable, a senior official said. The Apollo Hospital in Colombo was renamed Lanka Hospitals after it ended its licensing and support services agreement with […]

November 8, 2009 (AFP) – A 16-year-old Sri Lankan boy became the first victim in the country of influenza A(H1N1), or swine flu, doctors said Sunday.“The boy had a history of respiratory problems and he died four days after admission to Kandy hospital,” Samarasinghe said. The Medical Research Institute in Colombo confirmed the boy, whose […]

Nov 06, 2009 (LBO) – Cargills (Ceylon) group which runs Sri Lanka’s largest retail chain said profits rose 35 percent to 139 million rupees in the September 2009 quarter from a year earlier, and was planning a billion rupees in new investments in the current year. Last year, the firm had a 73 million rupee-one […]

JEDDAH, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – Larita Delacruz sits on the concrete base of a bridge pylon, rubs her swollen belly and explains her predicament: she is five months pregnant with twins, and wants to go home to give birth. But after four years of working as a maid in Saudi Arabia, she lacks both […]

Nov 04, 2009 (LBO) – A group of graduates were water cannoned at tear gassed by police when they tried to march up to office of Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa Wednesday as part of a protest demanding state jobs.Sri Lanka’s graduates educated at tax payer expense free in state universities have spread a successful […]

Nov 03, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Munchee biscuit brand won top place as brand of the year, while Panadol, a paracetamol product, bagged the gold for the international brand at the eighth annual Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) brand awards. Unlike awards which recognizes creativity, SLIM brand award organizers say they judge the […]

Oct 27, 2009 (LBO) – Ceylinco Land Exchange, a real estate firm in Sri Lanka’s troubled Ceylinco group, is striking out under a new name, while employees are negotiating to buy out the firm, officials said.The firm is now operating under the name of People’s Realty Limited. “The management is negotiating with relevant companies [to […]

Oct 22, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s migrant workers and their remittances are unlikely to be seriously affected by the global economic slowdown, the Institute of Policy Studies said in a report. But unskilled migrant workers, especially those in the construction industry, may be affected by the slowdown in construction and service sectors in Gulf […]

LONDON, October 8, 2009 (AFP) – US and British universities dominate the top of a league table of universities worldwide published Thursday, but Asian seats of learning are moving up the global rankings. Harvard remains in top spot in the Times Higher Education (THE) league table, followed by Britain’s Cambridge University then Yale in third […]

Sept 23, 2009 (LBO) – The Red Cross movement had spent 220 million US dollars to build 30,000 houses, upgrade healthcare centres, re-build water supply and drainage facilities in villages devastated by a tsunami in 2004, officials said.“The tsunami operation has been an unparalleled challenge for the Red Cross movement in Sri Lanka,” Paul Fmes, […]

Sept 21, 2009 (LBO) – The catering unit of state-run Sri Lankan Airlines said it was expecting an upturn with more visitors coming to the island after a war with a 1.2 billion rupee net profit already under its belt in the year to March 2009. These include Emirates, Qatar, Malaysian Airlines, Royal Jordanian, Kuwait […]

Sep 20, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tertiary education policy should change to encourage fee-based universities of international standard to be set up, which will prevent students going abroad for degrees, a senior academic has said. Due to under-investment in tertiary education, areas for which there is a demand in the economy, such as engineering, […]