Tag: Sri Lanka
Black Gold
May 10, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to award its first offshore oil exploration contract before the end of May, petroleum minister A H M Fowzie said. The ministry was preparing a paper on bids received for offshore exploration and its recommendation to submit to the cabinet of ministers for approval next week, he […]
Serendipity
May 09, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to start searching for oil onshore after the accidental discovery of gas seeping from the ground, government officials said. Petroleum minister A H M Fowzie said Friday the government has received technical support from Egypt to start the initial exploration work. The accidental discovery of signs of […]
On Hold
May 09, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is keeping retail fuel prices at current levels despite crude oil prices soaring to new highs and mounting losses at the state oil retailer, Petroleum minister A H M Fowzie said. The state-owned oil refiner Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) had run up losses amounting to seven billion rupees […]
‘s east coast holds key polls
TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, May 9, 2008 (AFP) – A heavy security blanket was thrown over eastern Sri Lanka ahead of Saturday’s local polls, seen as a key test for the hawkish government as it escalates the war against Tamil rebels. President Mahinda Rajapakse is hoping the east’s first provincial council elections in 20 years will […]
”Karuna released into immigration detention
May 9, 2008 (AFP) – A former leader of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebel splinter group, jailed in Britain since January, has been released and transferred to an immigration detention centre, officials said Friday.Vinayagmoorthy Muralitharan, also known as Colonel Karuna, was released Thursday following his imprisonment for possessing false documents, the British High Commission (embassy) […]
Iraq, Sri Lanka, Pakistan on journo killer list: rights body
VIENNA, May 8, 2008 (AFP) – Ninety-three journalists were killed in 2007, almost half of them in Iraq, the International Press Institute media watchdog said in its annual press freedom review published Thursday.The figure was the second highest in a decade after 2006, which saw 100 journalists’ deaths, according to IPI figures. Forty-two journalists died […]
‘s displaced
May 8, 2008 (AFP) – A United Nations agency Thursday appealed for 36 million dollars to feed thousands of Sri Lankans displaced by fighting between troops and rebels amidst galloping global commodity prices. The World Food Programme (WFP) now feeds more than a million Sri Lankans, of whom 400,000 have been internally displaced. “The World […]
Sri Lanka, Pakistan, unfit for Human Rights Council: rights bodies
UNITED NATIONS , May 6, 2008 (AFP) – Gabon, Bahrain, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zambia do not deserve a seat on the Human Rights Council, the United Nations’ top rights body, two non-governmental organizations said Tuesday.In a joint report, UN Watch and Freedom House, which champion human rights worldwide, lamented that Gabon and Zambia were […]
Sri Lanka plans medical help to Myanmar
May 06, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is planning to send a team of medical doctors and nurses to Myanmar, the foreign ministry said. Media reports said around 22,000 people are believed to have been killed by a cyclone that raged through the country last week. The government was also making a donation of 25,000 […]
Sri Lanka highways authority funds drained by overstaffing: official
May 06, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s road development bureaucracy is hugely overstaffed and a drain on public funds and unable to effectively maintain the island’s road network, a senior government official says. Sirisena Amarasekera, secretary, ministry of highways and road development, says there are around 10,000 people, including maintenance workers, in highway and road […]
‘s defence chief urges censorship
COLOMBO, May 5, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main media rights group on Monday voiced alarm after the island’s hawkish defence chief reportedly branded some journalists “traitors” and called for sweeping censorship. The Free Media Movement said Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who has long demanded strict controls on how news organisations are allowed to cover the war […]
Sri Lanka central bank suppressing interest rates: researcher
May 05, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank is keeping interest rates suppressed and below the inflation rate to reduce government borrowing costs and maintain a high growth rate that presents a ‘rosy’ picture, a researcher says. “Galloping inflation is also due to suppression of the interest rate by the government,” says Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, […]