Tag: Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka reports 430 killings in five months
June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Some 430 Sri Lankans were slain during a five-month period, most of them minority Tamils, a commission said on Thursday, amid growing controversy over rights abuses in the conflict-hit island. The Special Presidential Commission on Disappearances said the killings were reported between September 2006 and February 2007 as the country […]
Ruling Roost
LONDON, June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Ten years after British energy markets were liberalised the customer is king and can put pressure on prices with a click of a computer mouse to change provider.Since Britain first prised open its gas and electricity markets to private households in 1998-1999, the market has settled down and prices […]
Sri Lanka hopeful Norway meeting will help peace process
TOKYO, June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Thursday he was optimistic that a meeting of top donors this week would help to revive the island nation’s moribund peace process.Peace broker Norway is holding the crucial meeting of Sri Lanka’s top aid donors in a bid to halt a new […]
” in Western aid cut
WASHINGTON, June 26, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka told Western donor nations Tuesday that it would be a “tragic error” to cut aid to the island nation due to alleged human rights abuses linked to a longstanding ethnic conflict.Britain, Germany and the Netherlands have already slashed various forms of aid to Colombo due to human […]
Japan voices concern over Sri Lanka economy, human rights
TOKYO, June 27, 2007 (AFP) – Japan, the single largest donor to Sri Lanka, on Wednesday expressed concern about the human rights situation in the island nation during a visit by Colombo’s foreign minister, the government said. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso raised “the Japanese public’s heightening concerns over the human rights situation in Sri […]
” economy
June 27, 2007 (LBO) – Areas bordering Sri Lanka’s western province, which is open to the world and has good infrastructure, grew fastest last year with a rapidly advancing service sector, the Central Bank has said. “In contrast, all the other provinces had per capita value added below the country average, ranging between 0.8 in […]
” in Sri Lanka murder probe
GENEVA, June 25, 2007 (AFP) – A bullet being used in an investigation into the killings in Sri Lanka of 17 aid workers last August may have been removed from evidence, an international legal watchdog said on Monday. The International Commission of Jurists said its observer on the probe, senior British lawyer Michael Birnbaum, found […]
Structural Attempt
June 26, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces found a powerful Claymore mine near an oil storage depot in the capital Tuesday, the defence ministry said.The 20-kilogram (32-pound) bomb was hidden inside the fuel tank of a vehicle belonging to a local official from the island’s Tamil Tiger-held northern district of Kilinochchi, the ministry […]
Sri Lanka to set up prosperity index to track rural growth
June 26 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank is to introduce a prosperity index to track the progress of the island’s provinces which are lagging behind and have high levels of poverty, Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said. It will also set up a results-based monitoring and evaluation system to see how development in […]
Sri Lanka scraps tax on imported food
June 26, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Tuesday scrapped value added tax on ten key food items in a bid to bring down food prices driven to high levels by money printing to finance the budget deficit last year.Last year the Central Bank printed 38.5 billion rupees to finance a fiscal deficit 8.4 percent of […]
Sri Lanka rebel lawmakers woo Marxists
June 25, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka ruling party two-man rebel faction led by sacked former foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera has invited the Marxist-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) for talks. The duo has accused the government of corruption, nepotism and autocratic rule and claimed the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party has no internal democracy. In […]
Sri Lanka central bank says overnight rate volatility and inflation would moderate
June 25, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s reserve money targeting regime is showing results and volatility in overnight rates and inflation will moderate, Central Bank said Monday, days after short-term treasury yields went up by 30 basis points. The bank no longer operates a full policy rate regime, with the discount window nominally at 12.00 […]