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Sri Lanka rejects criticisms on human rights probe
Sept 22, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s attorney-general’s department has rejected criticism of the island’s human rights record made by an independent, international panel, saying that the government was doing it best to probe abuses in an impartial manner. A statement from the AG’s Department said a report issued by the Independent Group of Eminent […]
Sri Lanka needs sensible monetary and fiscal policies: IMF report
Sept 22, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka needs sensible fiscal and monetary policies and less fiscal dominance of the economy, a new report by the International Monetary Fund has said. The government is now expecting full year growth to be between 6 and 7 percent this year. The discussion paper by IMF researchers called for […]
Sri Lanka chases Indian MICE
Sept 21, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is targeting Indian firms to persuade them to hold their business meetings in the island in a bid to boost its flagging leisure industry which has been hit by an internal conflict, officials said. Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, an agency that promotes the Meetings, Incentive travel, Conventions and […]
Indian inflation falls to near five-year low
NEW DELHI, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) – India’s annual inflation rate has fallen to a near five-year low, official data on Friday showed, but soaring global crude prices threaten to push the cost-of-living higher, economists said.Inflation slowed to 3.32 percent for the week ended September 8 from 3.52 for the previous week, according to the […]
Playboy opens first European store in London
LONDON, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) – Playboy continued its evolution from adult magazine to international merchandising brand by opening its first store in Europe Friday at the heart of London’s shopping district.Playboy has a long history of doing business in the British capital.In 1966, it opened its first club and casino on London’s upmarket Park […]
Sri Lanka India sea canal row escalates
CHENNAI, India, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) – A state leader in India has dismissed a deity worshipped by millions as a “big lie”, deepening a highly sensitive row over plans to dredge a shipping lane through an area sacred to Hindus. The chief minister of India’s southern Tamil Nadu state said the government was justified […]
World Bank ex-chief says power heading east
HONG KONG, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) – The former president of the World Bank said Friday that rich countries were ill-prepared to deal with the “tectonic shift” in economic power towards developing nations, in particular to India and China.James Wolfensohn said rich nations still treated major developing nations with a “colonial” attitude and had not […]
Dollar sinks to new euro low as Fed prints more money; Saudi to drop dollar peg?
NEW YORK, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) – The dollar sank to a record low against the euro Thursday after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warned that US mortgage woes may deepen, raising hopes of interest rate cuts. Also weighing on the US currency were rumors that Saudi Arabia is going to drop the domestic currency’s […]
Sri Lanka minister rejects charges of funds misuse
Sept 21, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s deputy finance minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya rejected charges that the government had misused funds in starting a new budget airline and a bank. He gave no further details in his speech. He also said the government has evidence of transfers of funds by previous governments from the Treasury to […]
Sri Lanka fighter jets bomb Tiger areas
Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan war planes bombed a Tamil Tigers’ ammunitions store in the north of the island Friday, causing heavy damage, the defence ministry said.The ammunitions cache was used by Imran-Pandiyan, an elite regiment of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the military said. “The air strikes taken were based […]
Sri Lanka tax office clearing tarnished reputation, says official
Sept 21, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tax department is slowly regaining its reputation which had been tarnished by a tax scam and complaints of bullying tax payers, the island’s top Treasury official said Friday. “The image of the Inland Revenue Department is changing from being 100 percent bad to being slightly positive,” Treasury Secretary […]
Sri Lanka downgrades official growth forecast
Sept 21, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has downgraded its economic growth forecast to between six and seven percent for 2007 as a fast growing public sector and a budget deficit that pushed interest rates up, dragged the island down. “Last year it was 7.4 percent this year it will be certainly higher than 6 […]