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More Healdine News from Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka state to recruit 17,000 unemployable graduates
Thursday, 12 November 2009 - 2:46 AM SL Time
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Sri Lanka`s government is to recruit 17,000 graduates from state universities unemployable in productive sectors, expanding an already bloated public sector, ahead of planned national polls due early next year.
Graduates from state universities, who are educated at the expense of the people through general taxes, have successfully cultivated a perception that the society owes them a lifetime job as well.
State sector workers get tax free jobs and pensions.
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IMF warns Sri Lanka against borrowing
Tuesday, 10 November 2009 - 2:09 AM SL Time
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The IMF on Monday warned Sri Lanka against issuing government bonds to build up foreign currency reserves after it released the second instalment of a 2.6-billion-dollar bailout.
The International Monetary Fund said Colombo`s reserves were at a `comfortable position` having slumped to a historic low of one billion dollars earlier this year, but cautioned against more borrowing.
`There is a difference between borrowed reserves and reserves collected from the current account (of the balance of payments), like booming exports,` IMF resident representative in Sri Lanka, Koshi Mathai, told reporters.
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SRI LANKA: Colombo s Diplomatic Sparring Games with EU, U.S.
Saturday, 7 November 2009 - 9:57 PM SL Time
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One thing that has set apart the current administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa from those of his predecessors is its diplomatic duals with international heavyweights.
While battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the government took criticism of its conduct of the war and other rights violations by western nations in international fora head-on, and on more than one occasion came out a winner.
It has successfully fended off scrutiny at United Nation bodies like the Security Council and the U.N. Human Rights Council with the help of regional powers like India and China. Now once again the government is engaged in high-stakes diplomatic manoeuvres, this time with the U.S. and the European Union.
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President Rajapakse spends Rs. 19 million per day on his office alone
Thursday, 5 November 2009 - 6:04 PM SL Time
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UNP.LK
On the basis of the vote on account presented to Parliament this year , a colossal Rs. 1400 million had been allocated for the President s office expenditure . This means that he requires a sum of Rs. 19 million per day for his own office expenditure.
While allocations to Ministries are drastically cut and Govt. says it has no money to bring down the cost of living , tariffs and taxation burdens heaped on the people , the President who speaks loud , perhaps too loud about his concern for the people has found it fit to take the lion s share without any compunction.
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The U.S. Wants to Talk to Sri Lanka`s Tiger Tamer
Wednesday, 4 November 2009 - 1:04 AM SL Time
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TIME Magazine / CNN
To many Sri Lankans, Lieut. General Sarath Fonseka is a bit of a hero. Now the equivalent of the U.S. military`s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Fonseka was the former army commander who helped strategize and lead the campaign that put a decisive end to the quarter-century-long separatist war of the Tamil Tigers. The intensity of the onslaught raised criticism around the world, including a 68-page State Department report to the U.S. Congress that took to task the conduct of both government forces and the Tigers. Now, what appears to be an attempt by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to interview Fonseka about the war has raised angry protests from the highest official ranks in Sri Lanka.
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US seeks info on Gota from Fonseka
Monday, 2 November 2009 - 10:55 PM SL Time
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Criticizing a US to move interview Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka, now on a short visit to the US, the Sri Lanka government says an attempt is being made to target Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
Highly placed officials say the government is aware of a US move to use General Fonseka as a source against the Defence Secretary, in their investigations targeting the retired infantryman as a possible war crimes suspect.
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Policemen responsible for forced drowning of a youth at the Bambalapitiya beach was taken into custody.
Saturday, 31 October 2009 - 8:53 PM SL Time
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A police constable attached to the Bambalapitiya police station wanted in connection with Thursday s forced drowning of a youth at the Bambalapitiya beach was taken into custody by the Colombo Crime Division last evening after he surrendered himself to police yesterday afternoon, police said.
Police spokesman Nimal Mediwaka said the Police and Army personnel who had allegedly assaulted the 26 year old youth in the shallow sea near the Bambalapitiya Railway Station and caused him to drown on Thursday afternoon had been identified and would be arrested.
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Australia refuses Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka
Thursday, 29 October 2009 - 1:11 AM SL Time
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Australian authorities have said 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers in Indonesia will not be taken to Australia, their intended destination.
The ethnic Tamil asylum seekers have spent 10 days on an Australian customs ship in Indonesian waters.
Indonesia agreed last week to take the group to have their claims examined, but local officials are refusing to allow the Australian vessel to dock.
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US State Department hails Sri Lanka decision to probe war crime report allegations
Wednesday, 28 October 2009 - 6:51 AM SL Time
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The news that Sri Lanka has taken an official decision to appoint a commission to probe in to the US allegation of war atrocities was hailed by the US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly at the daily press briefing Monday, 26 October in Washington saying this is exactly what we would expect Sri Lanka would do would be to look into these very serious allegations of human rights abuses.
So I think that we would welcome these reports that they re planning to set up this kind of investigative commission.
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Sri Lanka denies Tiger chief executed after surrender
Monday, 26 October 2009 - 8:33 PM SL Time
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The Sri Lankan government rejected on Monday fresh accusations that Tamil Tiger separatist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was executed after surrendering to security forces.
Sri Lanka`s military announced on May 18 the killing of Prabhakaran, who led a 37-year campaign for an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the majority Sinhalese country.
The Sri Lanka Guardian, a US-based website that describes itself as an independent news organisation, reported over the weekend that Prabhakaran had surrendered, but was tortured and killed by the army.
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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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