World population will reach 7 billion this year: study

PARIS, August 17, 2011 (AFP) – The world population will reach seven billion later this year, with increases in the number of people in Africa off-setting birth rate drops elsewhere, according to a new French study published Thursday. “It has increased seven-fold over the last two hundred years, topping seven billion in 2011, and is […]

India and China to lead gold demand: WGC

MUMBAI, August 18, 2011 (AFP) – Gold, at record-breaking levels as global economic worries mount, will see sustained demand from key markets India and China this year despite high prices, the World Gold Council said on Thursday. Global demand for the second quarter to June was 919. 8 tonnes, down 17 percent year-on-year, from 1,107 […]

‘s home town

HAMBANTOTA, August 17, 2011 (AFP) – When the 2004 Asian tsunami hit Sri Lanka, the sleepy fishing region of Hambantota was flattened and 3,000 people perished. Now it is riding a massive wave of construction. Hambantota, the home constituency of President Mahinda Rajapakse, is not only emerging as a commercial and logistics hub of Sri […]

Sri Lanka central bank relaxes forex controls

Aug 17, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has relaxed some exchange controls allowing citizens and foreign residents to engage in a series of forex transactions without seeking permission from the state, improving economic freedoms. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka said the new moves would “enhance investor confidence, strengthen the foreign reserves in […]

Oil Attraction

Aug 17, 2011 (LBO) – State-run Russian oil firm Gazprom has visited Sri Lanka for talks on exploring oil off the coast of Mannar in the island’s east the foreign ministry said. A delegation lead by Gulev Veleriy, managing director of Gazprom International had met foreign minister G L Pieris. The visiting team had discussed […]

Sri Lanka cement supplies disrupted amid price controls

Aug 16, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s cement supplies remain disrupted amid price controls and posturing by rulers and the co-operative sector involved in another controversy, in a repetition of a similar debacle in the poultry sector. The Daily Mirror newspaper said Monday three cement firms have written to Sri Lanka’s consumer affairs agency which […]

Concern over loss of treasured freedoms, big brother state, in US

CHICAGO, August 16, 2011 (AFP) – Sweeping new policing powers, the tacit acceptance of torture and a backlash against Muslims that has grown fiercer 10 years after the September 11 attacks have made the United States a less free and open society. The erosion of fundamental American values along with massive — and what some […]

Economic leadership at crux of turmoil: World Bank

SYDNEY, August 14, 2011 (AFP) – World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said Sunday that investors had lost confidence in the economic leadership of several key countries, warning global markets were in a “new danger zone” as a result. Zoellick said a convergence of events in the United States and Europe had rattled investors in countries […]

Sri Lanka youth seeking Korean jobs already working: think tank

Aug 15, 2011 (LBO) – A snap survey by a Colombo based think tank among thousands of young Sri Lankans queuing up to find jobs in Korea have revealed that a majority of them were already employed and looking for better salaries. said 63.4 percent of those polled at a centre in Colombo were already […]

Buyers from Sri Lanka, India, China eye lakefront land

Aug 13, 2011 (LBO) – Prime land facing a lake in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo is being eyed by buyers from India, China as well as large local business groups that want to take part in a lakefront promenade development, an official said. A 30-year war ended in 2009 and Sri Lanka is looking forward […]

Sri Lanka US$400mn lakefront mall by India group

Aug 11, 2011 (LBO) – Indocean Developers (Pvt) Ltd, a firm backed by an Indian property group, will build a 400 million US dollar shopping and residential complex in a prime lakefront in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, officials said. Janaka Kurukulasuriya, chairman of Sri Lanka’s Urban Development Authority said the Indian promoters had paid 23 […]

Sri Lanka urban agency plans Colombo JV development

Aug 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Urban Development Authority will call proposals for a joint venture commercial development in a nine acre state land in the capital Colombo, chairman Janaka Kurukulasuriya said. “We need the money urgently but we also need money in the long term to sustain,” he said. The agency has more […]

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