Three Sri Lanka cricketers wounded in Pakistan shooting: minister

March 3, 2009 (AFP) – At least three players in the Sri Lankan cricket team were hurt in a gun attack while being driven to the Lahore cricket stadium in Pakistan on Tuesday, Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge said. The team bus came under fire as the players headed to the Gaddafi stadium for the third […]

Sri Lankan cricketers hurt in Pakistan attack: police

LAHORE, March 3, 2009 (AFP) – Masked gunmen opened fire on the Sri Lankan cricket team’s bus in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday, killing at least eight people and wounding six team members, police said.Sri Lankan officials said six team members — five players and a coach — were wounded and that […]

Pakistan attackers laid siege then fled: police

LAHORE, March 3, 2009 (AFP) – The attackers who ambushed Sri Lanka’s cricketers near a Pakistani stadium mounted a sophisticated assault using rockets, grenades and guns before escaping in stolen cars, police said. Witnesses said the attack started with an explosion at 08:40 am (0340 GMT) as a convoy carrying the Sri Lankan national team […]

Sri Lanka Ceylinco Insurance veterans promoted

March 03, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ceylinco Insurance said it has appointed Rajkumar Renganathan and Ajith Gunawardena, chief executive directors of the company’s Life and General insurance divisions, as joint deputy chairmen of the company with immediate effect. A company statement also said its funds were invested according to regulatory guidelines and that only […]

Outlook Cut

Mar 03, 2009 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings has cut the credit outlook of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the island’s largest fixed access operator, to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’ after the sovereign rating outlook was lowered last week. Fitch said SLT’s long-term foreign currency rating of ‘B+’ and local currency rating of ‘BB-‘ were unchanged. Its domestic […]

Sri Lanka Dilshan hits ton after Samaraweera double

LAHORE, March 2, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka continued to pile the pressure on Pakistan as Tillakaratne Dilshan followed up Thilan Samaraweera’s double century with a ton of his own in the second Test here Monday.Pakistan’s experienced leg-spinner Danish Kaneria was once again a major disappointment, conceding 174 runs without taking a wicket in his […]

Banking Woes

March 02, 2009(LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank said it made a loss of 709 million rupees in the December 2008 quarter compared with group net profit of 199 million a year ago with a sharp rise in bad loans and a slowdown in deposits.Total capital adequacy ratio at bank level has slipped to 8.32 […]

‘s Sangakkara, Samaraweera defy Pakistan

LAHORE, March 1, 2009 (AFP) – Kumar Sangakkara and Thilan Samaraweera notched brilliant hundreds to help Sri Lanka recover from early wobbles on the opening day of the second Test against Pakistan here Sunday.Samaraweera followed his 231 in the drawn first Test in Karachi with a superb unbeaten 133 while Sangakkara scored 104 as the […]

Last Resort

Feb 27, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank may open a liquidity facility as a last resort, in a bailout package for troubled finance and leasing companies which has a 4.2 billion rupee fiscal component, officials said.In recent times the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has used such tactics to finance agricultural sector credit and […]

Economic Lubricant

Feb 26, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers has approved a bailout package for finance and leasing firms in a move to release assets seized from defaulting borrowers back into productive commercial use. “Equally, people who have bought lorries and lands will be able to once more use these assets for the purpose […]

In Remand

Feb 26, 2009 (LBO) – Lalith Kotelawala, chairman of Sri Lanka’s Ceylinco group, has been arrested and remanded over an alleged fraud that caused the collapse of group firm Golden Key Credit Card Company. The magistrate court order to remand Kotelawala was given when the case on an alleged fraud at Golden Key was taken […]

Big Guys

Feb 26, 2009 (LBO) – A call for bids to build a new container terminal in Colombo port has drawn the interest of some of the world’s top port operators and shipping lines as well Sri Lankan conglomerates.The SLPA official would not name the latest bidders except to say that all the companies which had […]

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