Tag: Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka pardons jailed Tamil editor: minister
May 3, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Monday pardoned a convicted Tamil editor whose 20-year prison term last year for supporting “terrorism” drew international criticism, the foreign minister said Monday. J. S. Tissainayagam, who edited North Eastern Monthly magazine in Colombo, has been pardoned by President Mahinda Rajapakse to coincide with World Press Freedom […]
Sri Lanka suspends Fonseka court martial
May 3, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s court of appeal on Monday suspended a court martial against former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who tried to unseat the president in elections earlier this year. The court ordered the military tribunal that began hearings against Fonseka in March to halt its work until a decision has been […]
Sri Lanka top economists, poll, back IMF fiscal restraint: report
May 02, 2010 (LBO) – Top Sri Lankan economists and a poll by an influential newspaper has backed the revival of a stalled International Monetary Fund deal to discipline government spending and preserve economic stability. A poll by Sri Lanka’s by the Business Times, a part of Sri Lanka’s The Sunday Times an influential English, […]
First for Central Asia as ADB meets in Uzbekistan
TASHKENT, May 1, 2010 (AFP) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Saturday opened its annual meeting in Uzbekistan, a first for Central Asia and a coup in the ex-Soviet state’s drive to be recognised as a regional economic power. Some 3,000 participants — including heads of state, central bank governors and finance ministers — […]
‘s Union Bank gets Malaysian, US capital, plans IPO
May 01, 2010 (LBO) – Union Bank (UB), has inked a deal to raise 1.5 billion rupees in capital from Genting Group, a Malaysian conglomerate and Shorecap, a US based banking fund and is hoping to go public within an year, an official said. “Genting is giving 1.0 billion (rupees), Shorecap 500 million rupees,” Union […]
Sri Lanka holds first post-war May Day
May 1, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s political parties were holding May Day rallies on Saturday for the first time since the ending of nearly four decades of ethnic bloodshed. Nearly a dozen meetings were scheduled in the capital and suburbs, but labour day celebrations by opposition parties were low-key following their drubbing in two […]
Sri Lanka inflation slows to 5.8-pct in April
Apr 30, 2010 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo rose 5. 8 percent in April 2010 from a year earlier, down from 6.3 percent in March, the second straight monthly fall, the government’s statistics office said. In the month of April the Colombo consumer price index fell 1.0 percent in absolute terms […]
Immigration debate shakes US to the core
NEW YORK, April 30, 2010 (AFP) – From the deck of New York Harbor’s tour boat the Statue of Liberty looks as welcoming today as when greeting new immigrants a century ago. But the soaring figure and even loftier inscription — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” — […]
Sri Lanka budget gap widens in January: data
Apr 29, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s budget gap widened in January 2010 from a year earlier, with revenues rising modestly but unable to keep up with current spending, which accelerated almost three times faster, official data shows. The government raised 48.3 billion rupees in revenues in January up 5.2 percent from 2009, but still […]
‘s house: politician
April 29, 2010 (AFP) – The ancestral home of Sri Lanka’s slain Tamil Tiger rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has been demolished as it was becoming a tourist attraction, a Tamil politician said Thursday. M. K. Sivajilingam, secretary of the Tamil National Liberation Alliance, accused security forces of destroying the house a year after Prabhakaran was […]
Reforms to allow Sri Lanka president to retain power: report
April 28, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s ruling party will press ahead with constitutional reforms to allow President Mahinda Rajapakse to run for a third term in office, a press report said Wednesday. With the support of smaller parties and defectors, Rajapakse’s party could soon muster the six seats needed to have the two-thirds majority […]
Sri Lanka Overseas Realty expands amid a property market pick up
Apr 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan developer Overseas Realty (Ceylon), a unit of Singapore’s Shing Kwan group said it was starting an expansion of a property project amid a pick up in the property market. Overseas Realty owns the twin tower World Trade Centre building in Sri Lanka’s capital which houses the Colombo Stock […]