Tag: Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka defence secretary escapes assassination bid
December 31, (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the brother of the country’s president had escaped a suicide assassination attempt, officials said.The blast had killed at least one person and injured 14 others, police said.The convoy of Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse had been targetted in the morning blast near the Citi Bank branch […]
‘s inflation hits 19.8% as Central Bank credit climbs to Rs 100 bn
November 30, 2006 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka shot up to 19.8 percent in November from 17.2 percent in October, the Census & Statistics Department said Thursday, as Central Bank credit to government climbed to 100 billion rupees, and real interest rates were pushed further into negative territory. Economists had been predicting that […]
Sri Lanka Central Bank shows first signs of ending loose monetary policy
November 30 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank showed the first signs of ending its loose monetary policy after shunting the country into a balance of payments crisis and driving consumer inflation to 19.8 percent in November, as credit to government from the monetary authority climbed towards a billion dollars. In an unusual move, the […]
Five killed in Sri Lanka as train hits truck
Nov 30, 2006 (AFP) – Two soldiers and three policemen were killed Thursday when their pick-up truck was hit by a commuter train at an unprotected level crossing near the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, police said.Sri Lanka has stepped up security across the country after Tamil Tiger rebels announced Monday that they had no option […]
Sri Lanka bloodshed to worsen, warns Crisis Group
Nov 30, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s peace initiative was flawed from the start and the island now faces an immediate prospect of more violence, the International Crisis Group (ICG) warns.The conflict resolution experts note however in a new study received here Thursday that neither government forces nor the Tamil rebels appear able to defeat […]
‘s peace envoy to meet warring parties in Sri Lanka
Nov 30, 2006 (AFP) – A top Norwegian peace broker arrived in Sri Lanka Thursday, a diplomat said, as Tamil Tiger separatists insisted government forces have killed off an Oslo-brokered ceasefire. Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict has claimed at least 60,000 lives since it began in 1972. Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer was to hold separate talks with […]
Horrible Dream
November 29, 2006 (LBO) – Indian fuel retailer Lanka IOC Ltd sank deeper into the red posting a 605 million net loss during the quarter ending Sept., as it is yet to collect billions of rupees from the Sri Lankan government for selling fuel below costs. A unit of the Fortune 500 Indian Oil Corp. […]
Independence-seeking Tigers already run shadow state
Nov 29, 2006 (AFP) – The Tamil Tigers have renewed a campaign to partition Sri Lanka, but the guerrillas already have a surreal separate “state” of their own.The Tigers usually sign off their communications with “thirst of the Tigers is Tamil Eelam”. But a former Sri Lankan defence minister said it was not a state […]
Food aid reaches besieged Sri Lanka town amid lull in fighting
Nov 29, 2006 (AFP) – A convoy of food on Wednesday reached 40,000 people trapped by weeks of heavy fighting in the island’s restive east as artillery exchanges died down, a relief official said. The first 20 trucks out of more than 100 vehicles arrived at the rebel-held town of Vakarai bringing food and medical […]
Tamil Tigers isolated in bid for own state in Sri Lanka
Nov 29, 2006 (AFP) – A rebel bid for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka has run into outright international rejection with the United States leading calls for new peace talks and an end to bloodshed. A second round of peace talks this year collapsed in Geneva last month over the government refusal to […]
Tigers step up artillery barrage after call for separate state
Nov 28, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels stepped up artillery and mortar bomb attacks against military bases in the restive east Tuesday, a day after calling for their own independent state.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas fired at security forces in the district of Batticaloa, killing at least one soldier and wounding […]
Sri Lanka president calls for talks to avert all-out civil war
Nov 28, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Tuesday offered fresh talks with Tamil Tigers to avert a return to all-out civil war as the top guerrilla leader wrote off the Norwegian-backed peace process.President Mahinda Rajapakse, currently visiting India, said he was ready to have direct talks with Velupillai Prabhakaran, the elusive leader of the Liberation […]