Category: Industry
Minnows capable of World Cup heroics
NEW DELHI, February 17, 2011 (AFP) – 8. 2-6-7-3. Those are not the bowling figures of Australian leg-spin wizard Shane Warne or Pakistani fast bowling great Wasim Akram, but of a one-time tennis player in a World Cup match. Kenyan left-arm spinner Aasif Karim, who also represented his country in the Davis Cup, was 39 […]
Curtain up on cricket World Cup
NEW DELHI, February 17, 2011 (AFP) – Canadian rocker Bryan Adams helps kickstart the 2011 cricket World Cup on Thursday at the tournament’s opening ceremony, marking the start of a gruelling six-week sporting marathon. The 10th edition of the showpiece event is being launched in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, joint hosts of the 14-team competition […]
Family deaths hit Sri Lanka curtain raiser
February 17, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lankan batsman Chamara Silva is likely to miss his team’s opening World Cup match, due to a death in his family, an official said Thursday. Sri Lanka, the 1996 champions and 2007 runners-up, face Canada in their first match at the newly-built Mahinda Rajapakse Stadium in the southern town […]
Rail Paradise
Feb 17, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s first high-speed locomotive not only covered its inaugural journey in record time, but also maintained a centuries-old tradition of being late. However, the locomotive on the inaugural run was not the one that was supposed to be there in the first place. Maintaining another tradition, the authorities used […]
On Track
Feb 16, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka inaugurated a rail track on the south coast upgraded with Indian aid to enable train speeds of up to 100 kilometres an hour, reducing travel time, Wednesday, a statement said. The Galle-Matara track of 42 kilometres has been up-graded by India’s state-owned IRCON to world standards, the Indian […]
Sri Lanka domestic aviation eyed by US aircraft maker
Feb 15, 2011 (LBO) – US aircraft Cessna is eyeing Sri Lanka’s fledgling domestic aviation industry after the end of a 30-year war has prompted liberalization of the sector and a tourism boom is increasing demand for international flights. “Because of the stability and peace in the country Sri Lanka now has a moment where […]
Maldives free British man after mid-air bomb scare
February 15, 2011 (AFP) – Maldives police have released a British man accused of sparking a bomb scare on a SriLankan Airlines flight, a spokesman said Tuesday, explaining he had been misunderstood by cabin crew. The airline faced attacks during Sri Lanka’s 37-year civil war that pitched Tamil Tiger rebels against government troops. Fighting ended […]
Briton arrested after Sri Lankan airline bomb hoax
February 14, 2011 (AFP) – Police in the Maldives arrested a British man Monday after he caused a bomb scare aboard a SriLankan airlines flight from London that was diverted to the atoll nation, an official said. The flight was heading for Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo but was forced to land in the Maldives where […]
Sri Lanka tourist arrivals up 46-pct in January
Feb 15, 2011 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in January 2011 rose 46.2 percent to 74,197 with Western Europe generating 32,627 and India being the single most important country with 13,786 visitors. Visitors from Western Europe who are important for the country’s beach resorts rose 53.7 percent from a year earlier maintaining the […]
Sri Lanka seen as among fastest growing passenger markets
SINGAPORE, February 14, 2011 (AFP) – Eight-hundred million more people will travel by air by 2014, over a quarter of them from China, raising the need for more efficient traffic management and airports, IATA trade body said Monday. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecast an estimated 3. 3 billion air travellers in three years’ […]
Sri Lanka Aitken Spence Hotels net up on interest
Feb 14, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotels, which also has operations in the Maldives, said net profit for the December quarter was up 30 percent to 272 million rupees, with revenues growing 5. 0 percent 2.0 billion from a year earlier. But operating profits fell 9.0 percent to 351 million during the […]
Bank Numbers
Feb 14, 2011 (LBO) – The December 2010 quarter net profit at Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank almost doubled to 1.4 billion rupees from a year ago with basic earnings per share up 96 percent to 8.84 rupees, a stock exchange filing said. Interest income fell 9.8 percent to 4.7 billion rupees and interest expenses fell […]