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More Healdine News from Sri Lanka
Fuel crisis in Sri Lanka worsening today
Sunday, 25 October 2009 - 1:22 AM SL Time
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Worsening the current fuel crisis in Sri Lanka, over 90 percent of the country`s filling stations have already been closed by this afternoon due to lack of fuel as a result of the work-to-rule campaign launched by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation employees.
The work-to-rule campaign, called by the state-owned oil company last Wednesday midnight entered into a third consecutive day today with no resolution in sight.
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SriLankan will not crash: Aviation Minister
Friday, 23 October 2009 - 8:19 PM SL Time
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Ports and Aviation Minister Chamal Rajapaksa told Parliament yesterday that the national carrier Sri Lankan Airlines has been affected by the global recession, as have all other airlines in the region.
Responding to a question by Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michael Perera about the profitability of the airline, claiming that a March 31 annual report had said the airline was not profitable Minister Chamal Rajapaksa said the profit of Rs. 4.4 billion mentioned in the report was revenue collection brought in by re-leasing airlines.
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People elected this Govt. not to hold elections whole year , waste billions of people s money and Ministers time on it
Thursday, 22 October 2009 - 1:42 AM SL Time
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www.unp.lk
UNP M.P. Gayantha Karunatileke addressing the media at the UNP media unit today (21), said this Govt. was elected to serve the people , develop the country and fulfill its promises . Instead, the Govt. has been wasting the people s monies holding elections throughout the year while its Ministers and parliamentarians have been wasting their time on election campaigns and unlawful election activities , whereby the country s economy , education sector, agriculture, health sector and development programs have been totally neglected.
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Former Tamil castaways build new lives here
Tuesday, 20 October 2009 - 10:14 PM SL Time
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Set adrift in 1986 off East Coast, migrants now call Canada home
Twenty-three years ago, Anandakumar Sothinathan was floating off the coast of Newfoundland with 154 other Tamil refugees in two overcrowded lifeboats.
Instead of taking them to Canada, a smuggler had abandoned them in international waters with a compass and vague directions for finding freedom.
Over more than two days at sea, the lifeboats, which had just one motor between them, ran out of gas and began to drift. If anyone fell asleep, they risked tumbling into the rough sea. They had no food, and people prayed and cried.
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U.S. charges billionaire Rajaratnam with insider trading
Sunday, 18 October 2009 - 10:49 AM SL Time
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Rajaratnam, 52, considered the richest Sri Lankan in the world
Billionaire hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and executives from some of the most prestigious U.S. companies were charged on Friday with the largest hedge fund insider-trading scheme ever.
Investigators said they used court-approved telephone wire taps for the first time in a Wall Street insider trading case, sending shivers through the hedge fund industry which has traditionally picked up and shared trading tips to make big profits.
At the center of the case are Rajaratnam, his Galleon hedge fund and two executives from hedge fund New Castle, which was a unit of Bear Stearns Asset Management before Bears Stearns Cos collapsed in 2008, but is still in operation.
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Young Tamils swap bombs for BlackBerrys
Sunday, 18 October 2009 - 4:00 AM SL Time
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Bala Muhunthan has that high-class hip-hop look: Dolce & Gabbana jeans, tight polo shirt, chunky silver ID tags worn as pendants and an ever-present, ever-beeping BlackBerry. Privately educated in Denmark and the UK, the 22-year-old lives in London and attends a leading business school. Muhunthan spends his weekend nights at members bars or parties in Mayfair. Saturday afternoons, he plays golf or football with his friends. I love London. I love the fast life, he says.
But at the start of April, Muhunthan took a step outside the fast life: alongside thousands of fellow Sri Lankan Tamils, he stood in front of the Houses of Parliament, demanding a ceasefire in Buddhist Sri Lanka s bloody offensive against Hindu Tamil separatists, which was reaching a violent climax after 25 years of on-off fighting. To Londoners accepting pamphlets from the protesters whose actions were replicated over the following weeks in Paris and New York it may have seemed a clear-cut case of might versus right. But the Tamil struggle for an independent state in Sri Lanka has been spearheaded by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) deemed by the west to be one of the world s most sophisticated terrorist groups.
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Sri Lanka fines US embassy!
Saturday, 17 October 2009 - 3:29 AM SL Time
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SRI LANKA`S main water utility said Friday it had fined the US embassy in Colombo more than US$3,000 (S$4,193) for illegally tapping supplies from the national network.
The National Water Supply and Drainage Board said it found that the supply to US ambassador Patricia Butenis` official residence in Colombo bypassed the water meter.
The US authorities were fined US$3,222 after the unusually low water bills for the building aroused suspicion and prompted an inspection.
`When informed of the illegal tapping of water, they agreed to the fine,` a board official said, asking not to be named.
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Vote-on-Account: Sri Lanka Govt. seeks staggering Rs.361 billion
Friday, 16 October 2009 - 1:48 AM SL Time
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With the Budget not being presented this year, the Cabinet yesterday approved the Vote-on-Account seeking a staggering Rs.361 billion for next year, government sources said.
They said that of this amount, Rs.197 billion is for recurrent expenditure, Rs.158 billion for capital expenditure and Rs.6 billion for Advanced Account Activities.
The government had decided on a Vote-on-Account instead of the customary Budget based on the premise that the term of the present parliament was due to expire in a few months and a majority of government members expressed the view that the incoming government which would be elected to office next year should be given the onus of presenting the Budget.
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Sri Lanka in $500 mln, 5-yr bond sale
Wednesday, 14 October 2009 - 8:29 PM SL Time
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Reuters
* Sri Lanka selling bond due Jan. 2015 to raise $500 mln
* Deal to be executed this week price guidance likely Weds.
* Only S.Lanka`s 2nd global bond offering since debut in 2007
COLOMBO/HONG KONG, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka is opening orders for only its second global bond ever, aiming to raise $500 million after investor sentiment towards the South Asian country improved sharply with the end of a 25-year civil war.
The country, which debuted in the international bond market in 2007, is selling dollar bonds due in January 2015 in an offering handled by JPMorgan, HSBC and The Royal Bank of Scotland.
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Get ready for Presidential or General Election - Sri Lanka President
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 - 11:21 AM SL Time
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President Mahinda Rajapaksa summoned all the SLFP electoral organizers last evening to Temple Trees and requested them to get ready for either the Presidential or General election to be declared very soon.
The President, however, did not say which election would be conducted first under the present circumstances.
The SLFP General Secretary Agriculture Development Minister Maithreepala Sirisena who addressed the meeting first asked the organizers to stop their overseas tours during this period and fully concentrate on work at their respective electorates starting from today.
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Behind The Sri Lankan Bloodbath
Friday, 9 October 2009 - 2:38 PM SL Time
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Colombo`s victory over the Tamils shows India`s power on the wane.
Thousands of noncombatants, according to the United Nations, were killed in the final phase of the Sri Lankan war this year as government forces overran the Tamil Tiger guerrillas. Nearly five months after Colombo`s stunning military triumph, the peace dividend remains elusive, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa setting out--in the name of `eternal vigilance`--to expand by 50% an already-large military. Little effort has been made to reach out to the Tamil minority and begin a process of national reconciliation.
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Clinton has forgotten the Monica episode - Sri Lanka PM Wickramanayaka
Wednesday, 7 October 2009 - 10:04 PM SL Time
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She should focus on her own backyard instead of making allegations of women being abused in other countries.
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, in a live radio interview this morning, said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seems to have forgotten the Monica (Lewinsky) episode and should focus on her own backyard instead of making allegations of women being abused in other countries.
The US Secretary of State, who had stirred controversy last week after making a statement saying women had been raped in war countries that were at war including Sri Lanka, is the wife of former President Bill Clinton who was at one time himself in the spotlight after being accused of sexually abusing his staff member Monica Lewinsky.
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Reveal secret talks with LTTE - Ranil tells govt
Tuesday, 6 October 2009 - 10:28 PM SL Time
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Opposition UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe alleged that senior LTTE leaders such as Daya Master and George Master were spared because they had threatened to reveal the truth about a secret meeting between the government and the LTTE in the Wanni.
Mr. Wickremesinghe made these allegations at a Deniyaya election rally where he urged the government to reveal details of these talks held in the Wanni between the LTTE and the Presidential Secretary.
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War`s end lures tourists back to Sri Lanka
Saturday, 3 October 2009 - 4:19 AM SL Time
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Sri Lanka`s bitter 25-year civil war has come to an end, and tourists can safely return to this island off India to enjoy its beauty, history, diversity and friendly people
`Serendip,`
Arab traders called Sri Lanka ages ago, the `Island of Gems.` From this our word `serendipity` is derived, the gift of finding unexpected but beautiful things. This often happened to us on Sri Lanka, for it was once aptly named `The Island of the Blessed,` the earthly paradise given to Adam and Eve after they were turfed out of Eden because of that unfortunate affair with the apple.
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Sri Lanka accepts UN criticism of camps: minister
Thursday, 1 October 2009 - 9:58 PM SL Time
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Sri Lanka on Thursday said it accepted much of the United Nations` recent criticism over its handling of 250,000 Tamils detained in camps since the end of the island`s ethnic conflict six months ago.
Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe pledged the government would address recommendations made by Walter Kaelin, a representative of the United Nations secretary-general, who last week toured the detention facilities.
`He (Kaelin) said a lot of factual things like getting the sewer and sanitation right on an urgent basis and to make things comfortable for those living inside the camps,` Samarasinghe told AFP.
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I won`t mortgage Motherland - Sri Lanka President
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 - 1:03 AM SL Time
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President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised the nation that he will not allow anyone to mortgage the Motherland or auction it under any circumstances.Addressing the gathering at the handing over of land deeds ceremony Ranbima at Temple Trees yesterday, President Rajapaksa said promises given under the Mahinda Chintana were being achieved one by one uninterrupted.
`People had lost their hopes, interest and trust in politicians who had promised to fulfid their dreams, specially the youth. Political promises during the election campaigns were empty pledges. But we have promised what we can achieve. We are using the Mahinda Chintana practically and it is being achieved one by one,` he added. `People today do not accept false promises. Now you can`t forget pledges. People will not allow that,` he said.
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Sri Lankan citizenship to IDP children born in India during war
Sunday, 27 September 2009 - 11:10 AM SL Time
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The Sri Lankan Government has decided to issue citizenship certificates to over 400 children of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) born during their displacement in India at the time of the country`s civil war which ended four months ago.
Two programmes will be held in Vavuniya and Mannar next week to provide citizenship to over 400 IDP children who were born in India and do not possess Sri Lankan citizenship, the state-owned Daily News reported.
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Sri Lanka Air gone broke, how asks Ranil
Saturday, 26 September 2009 - 12:39 AM SL Time
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The national airline, Sri Lankan Air is broke due to the irresponsible financial and administrative policies of the government, Parliament was told yesterday.
Opposition and UNP Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said Air Lanka Catering Service, a subsidiary of the Sri Lankan, had earned a profit of Rs. 4,000 million in 2007, but the following year - in 2008, it had suffered a loss of Rs. 9,000 million. The government must inform the House the reasons for this loss.
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Sri Lankan proposal for Jaffna harbour
Thursday, 24 September 2009 - 8:06 PM SL Time
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Sri Lanka has submitted a proposal to India on renovating and rehabilitating parts of the strategically important Kankasanthurai (KKS) harbour in Jaffna in the north, according to media reports.
The Sri Lankan Ports Authority (SPLA) recently submitted a list of what the Lankan government expects at KKS port to the High Commission officials. SLPA chairperson P. Wickrama attended the meeting.
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Sri Lanka economic revival better than expected: IMF
Wednesday, 23 September 2009 - 9:10 AM SL Time
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Sri Lanka`s economic revival is better than originally expected when the International Monetary Fund approved a stand by loan, and tax revenues are improving, a review mission said in Colombo.
The IMF was originally expecting 3.0 percent growth for the island for 2009 but has revised it up to 3.5 percent.
`Things are on the upside, the economy is bottoming out,` IMF mission chief Brian Aitken said.
`Export and imports are improving and we have a cautiously positive outlook.`
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