Category:
” Clinton
WASHINGTON, May 28, 2010 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday the Sri Lankan postwar reconciliation panel “holds promise” as she pressed for it to have enough powers to pursue claims of wartime atrocities. “I think this commission holds promise and we hope and expect that it will fulfill that promise,” Clinton […]
” cheers up crisis-hit Latvia
RIGA, May 29, 2010 (AFP) – Decked out in pink, their locks glinting in the sunshine, hundreds of blondes marched arm-in-arm through the Latvian capital Riga Saturday, in a bid to raise spirits in the slump-stricken Baltic state. Tourists and locals marvelled as more than 800 blondes wove their way through the streets for the […]
Flat Quarter
May 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Deutsche Bank unit’s March 2010 quarter profits were flat at 235.2 million rupees on lower net interest income balanced by higher exchange income, published accounts showed. Deutsche Bank’s Sri Lanka unit’s gross assets grew 13 percent to 27 billion rupees. Deutsche Bank’s March quarter interest income fell 21 […]
Lease Growth
May 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s People’s Leasing Company, a unit of state-run People’s Bank is planning to raise 500 million rupees from a 4-year debenture which has been rated ‘A-(lka)’ Fitch Ratings Lanka said. “The proceeds from the issue will be utilised to fund the growth of PLC’s lease, hire purchase, and loan […]
Tech Craze
PARIS, May 28, 2010 (AFP) – Thousands of die-hard Apple fans mobbed shops in parts of Europe and Asia on Friday after the iPad, touted as a revolution in personal computing, began its global launch. Long queues of customers snaked outside Apple shops in Australia and Japan hours before the opening and similar huddled masses […]
Soft Skills
May 28, 2010 (LBO) – An information technology firm has set up a software development centre in Sri Lanka’s former war-torn eastern region with support from the United States, its embassy in Colombo said. Kingslake Engineering Systems had set up development centre in Akkaraipatti in the Ampara district with financial support from the US Agency […]
Australia to start legal action against Japan over whaling
SYDNEY, May 28, 2010 (AFP) – Australia will start legal action to stop Japan hunting whales next week, officials said on Friday, following years of tensions over the annual slaughter in waters near Antarctica. Documents will be submitted to the International Court of Justice in The Hague “early next week”, after repeated threats of proceedings […]
Sri Lanka president rejects foreign war crimes probe
May 28, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse has rejected international calls for a war crimes probe into the final offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels last year. Sri Lanka has been under pressure to submit to an international investigation after the United Nations reported that at least 7,000 civilians perished in the final […]
Sri Lanka needs to contain deficit for long term growth: ADB chief
May 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has to contain its fiscal deficit to sustain growth and maintain stability as the country emerges from a 30-year conflict and rebuilds war damaged infrastructure, Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda said. In 2009, Sri Lanka’s deficit expanded to 9.8 percent of gross domestic product overshooting a 7.0 […]
Sri Lanka welcomes end to US travel warning
May 27, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Thursday welcomed the lifting of a US warning against travel to the Indian Ocean island, anticipating a boost to tourism and investment a year after a bloody civil war ended. The number of holidaymakers arriving in the four months to April this year rose nearly 50 percent […]
Great Expectations
May 27, 2010 (LBO) – Education is an issue which many of us think we know how to fix, but, nobody is giving us the reigns. Lucky Minister Bandula Gunawardna the education ministry has fallen on his lap. Unlucky Minister BG – expectations about the ministry are high but there is no way that they […]
Boat People
KUALA LUMPUR, May 27, 2010 (AFP) – Sixty-one Sri Lankan asylum seekers held in a Malaysian immigration depot Thursday entered day three of a hunger strike in a desperate effort to win freedom and settlement in a third country. Immigration authorities could not be reached for comment. Activists say Malaysia is often used as a […]