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Eight killed in fresh Sri Lanka violence
May 4 (AFP) – Two policemen and six others were killed Thursday in separate clashes in northern Sri Lanka where a fragmentation mine also exploded but caused no casualties, officials said.Six men travelling in two three-wheeler taxis were shot dead by security forces when they tried to attack a military sentry point at Nelliyadi in […]
Going Upstream
May 2 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is setting up an upstream oil company as the country gets ready to auction several off-shore oil exploration blocks, Petroleum Minister A H M Fowzie said. An upstream petroleum company engages in exploration and production of oil. At present Sri Lanka imports crude oil and the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum […]
Flying Easy
May 3 (LBO) — A new ticketing system for Sri Lanka that cuts the paper trail between airlines and travel agents took off Wednesday, with Emirates issuing the first tickets. Instead of individual ticket formats issued by airlines, travel agents are given a stock of Standard Traffic Documents (STD) to issue tickets for all airlines […]
Checking Numbers
May 3 (LBO) – A Chinese construction firm selected to design and build the Colombo-Katunayake expressway submitted their financial proposal last week after a two-month delay. A government appointed technical evaluation committee is now going through the proposal and hopes to have their report out as early as next week, secretary to the Highways Ministry, […]
Malaysia warns jail for text-messaging behind the wheel
KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 (AFP) – Malaysian motorists who read or send SMS text messages while behind the wheel face going to jail, authorities warned in a report Wednesday, saying texting is more dangerous than talking on the phone. Malaysia’s Road Transport Department last year nabbed 600 motorists for using text messaging services and is […]
Sri Lanka vows punishment for killers of press workers
May 3 (AFP) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse marked international press freedom day Wednesday vowing to punish killers of two newspaper workers at a pro-rebel Tamil daily.Gunmen stormed the offices of the Uthayan newspaper in Jaffna, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital Colombo, Tuesday night, killing a manager and another employee, journalists […]
Bullet-riddled bodies found in northern Sri Lanka
May 3 (AFP) – The bullet-riddled bodies of three men were found at a village in northern Sri Lanka Wednesday as tensions mount in the region, police said. The victims were dumped at Chettikulam in the Vavuniya district where government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels clashed in recent weeks. “We don’t know who these people […]
Gunmen storm Sri Lanka news office killing two
May 03(AFP) – Gunmen stormed a Tamil newspaper office in Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula killing two people and further raising the toll in the bloodiest month since a 2002 truce took effect, officials said Wednesday.More than 60,000 people have been killed in the island’s drawn out Tamil separatist conflict in the past three decades. -Ian […]
World Bank unlikely to cut cheap aid to Sri Lanka despite rising incomes
May 03 (LBO) – The World Bank has not taken a decision to end concessionary lending to Sri Lanka despite the tsunami-hit island reporting more than 1,000 dollar per capita income for the third-straight year, a top official said Wednesday. Sri Lanka’s 24 billion dollar economy boasted a 1,250 dollar per capita income for 19.5 […]
Press freedom body names five new ‘predators’
PARIS, May 2 (AFP) – Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) is to mark international press freedom day Wednesday by naming five new “predators on the freedom of the press” to add to the 32 it has already identified.The names, made available Tuesday, are those of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, armed Tamil […]
Low Value
May 2 (LBO) — A lower than expected valuation of prime commercial property belonging to Sathosa may delay its sale to a state bank, a top official said.The chief government valuer has assessed the 225 perches property at Union Place at a much lower price than originally expected by the trade ministry, an official said. […]
Trade Glitch
May 02 (LBO) – A tariff cut of up to 70 percent on imports from India under the Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement has been pushed back due to legislative delays. The tariff changes are currently in Parliament and there has been a delay in getting it approved but it is purely a procedural delay, Lal […]