Tag: Sri Lanka
Rights, democracy under threat in Sri Lanka: US envoy
COLOMBO, February 1, 2014 (AFP) – Democracy is under threat in Sri Lanka and its rights record has deteriorated in the five years since the end of a bloody ethnic war, a top US envoy said Saturday.Nisha Biswal, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said Colombo had failed to ensure reconciliation, justice […]
Sri Lanka rejects US criticism over rights, democracy
COLOMBO, February 2, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Sunday rejected “patently unfair” allegations by the United States that its rights record had deteriorated in the five years since the end of a bloody separatist war.Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris said remarks by Nisha Biswal, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, […]
Sri Lanka inflation at 4.4-pct in January 2014
Jan 31, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s consumer prices rose 4. buy 4 percent in the 12-months to January 2014, down from 4.7 percent in December, the state statistics office said.But external inflation usually generated by reserve currency central banks like the Federal Reserve has also started to moderate and if Fed tightens or normalizes […]
Asian shares tumble as emerging market fears return
HONG KONG, January 27, 2014 (AFP) – Asian markets sank on Monday following the worst losses on Wall Street in seven months, with investors gripped by renewed fears over emerging economies days ahead of a crucial Federal Reserve policy meeting. Japan’s Nikkei, which was the best performer last year, continued its 2014 downtrend as the […]
UK in nationalist bid to push up European business costs, undermine capitalism
LONDON, January 24, 2014 (AFP) – British Prime Minister David Cameron was on Friday to insist that the “re-shoring” of jobs from countries such as India and China could be a key factor in spurring European economic growth.Cameron is due to tell the World Economic Forum being held in the Swiss town of Davos that […]
” GDP data row
COLOMBO, January 22, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main statistics office Wednesday said a senior official who denounced alleged government pressure to inflate economic growth data would be sacked after he was found guilty of leaking confidential information. Statistics chief Gunawardena denied that he was under pressure to change economic data to suit the government […]
‘s killing
COLOMBO, January 22, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lankan investigators arrested a ruling party politician who failed to turn up to his trial for the Christmas Day killing of a British tourist two years ago, police said Wednesday.Sampath Vidanapathirana, a councillor in the southern region of Tangalle, was tracked down and arrested in the capital Colombo […]
Sri Lanka mass grave count hits 36
COLOMBO, January 17, 2014 (AFP) – Forensic experts have discovered more bodies in an unmarked mass grave in Sri Lanka’s former war zone, raising the total to 36, an official said Friday. A team led by judicial medical officer Dhananjaya Waidyaratne found four more skeletons Thursday in the first mass grave uncovered since troops defeated […]
Sri Lanka president to test popularity with local polls
COLOMBO, January 12, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Sunday called snap local elections seen as a gauge of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s popularity ahead of national polls expected to be held later this year, officials said.The southern and western provincial councils, the highest level of local government, have been dissolved, clearing the way for local […]
Sri Lanka protests US war crimes remarks
COLOMBO, January 10, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Friday it would protest to the United States over its allegations that army shelling killed hundreds of families during the final days of the island’s ethnic civil war. Sri Lanka maintains that not a single civilian was killed by troops and in November ordered a census […]
US war crimes envoy visits Sri Lanka site
COLOMBO, January 9, 2014 (AFP) – A top US official investigating war crimes has visited a former Sri Lankan battleground where hundreds of families were killed in army shelling, the US embassy said Thursday, triggering an angry response from Colombo. The US Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice Stephen Rapp spent Wednesday and Thursday travelling in […]
Sri Lanka targets US$2.5bn in FDI in 2014
Jan 10, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is targeting 2.5 billion US dollars in foreign direct investors in 2014 with 2013 estimated to have drawn about 1.3 billion US dollars, a minister said. Investment promotions minister Lakshman Abeywardene said FDI inflows had reached 870 million US dollars by September and full year data was still […]