Sri Lanka’s benchmark stock index, the world’s worst performer this year, may extend its slump as the central bank raises interest rates to curb inflation, according to HSBC Holdings Plc’s private banking unit. HSBC Private Bank, which oversees about $499 billion, will wait for stock valuations to fall to “single digit” multiples before it considers ...

Iran’s parliament said on Tuesday it was ready to impose a ban on oil exports to some European states, the country’s English-language Press TV reported.   “In retaliation to the Zionist (Israel)-backed measure of the European countries to ban Iran oil, we are ready to impose a ban on oil exports to some European countries,” ...

CHENNAI: Aiming to strengthen its foothold in the growing two-wheeler market,TVS Motor company today said it would introduce automatic tranmission scooters and motorcycles from 2013,with 20 per cent better fuel efficiency. The Chennai-based auto major today showcased its latest automatic

After the recent Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, critics found three new words for the acronym ‘CWG’ – Corruption, Waste and lack of Governance. The Chairman of the Indian National Olympic Committee, who was Chairman of the Organising Committee, is presently in Tihar Jail, in Delhi with many of his acolytes, on charges regarding ...

Amid religious blessings, President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday ceremonially declared open the country’s first expressway, the E-01 Southern Expressway, from Colombo to Galle. Unveiling a commemorative plaque at the southernmost access road to the expressway from the Pinnaduwa interchange in southern city of Galle, the President in his capacity as the Minister of Highways opened the ...

Arrenga Capital Research takes a deeper look at Budget 2012 and impact on select listed companies 1. A challenging deficit target – 6.2% of GDP in 2012 I. Government revenue targeted to grow by 20.2% YoY to Rs. 1,126.1 b (14.7% of GDP) II. Total Government expenditure to rise 14.1% YoY to Rs. 1,594.9 b ...

I like to be an optimist. No matter what may happen around us, I would like to retain feelings of hope I have for all human-kind and on a more intimate level for you, for me, the newborn and the to-be-born. Yet, what has already happened around me, happening now and may happen in the ...

Nearly two decades ago, Jeep invented the premium sport-utility vehicle (SUV) segment with the introduction of the Jeep Grand Cherokee. More than four million sales later, Jeep improves the formula and delivers the ultimate combination of Jeep 4×4 capability and on-road refinement with the all-new 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee.  Jeep Grand Cherokee delivers premium on-road ...

According to latest report of Global Peace Index (GPI), Sri Lanka ranked 126 while Norway ranked in ninth place. Here we are talking about the riots that took place in UK recently and the same GPI ranked the UK in 26th place (100 places ahead of Sri Lanka). A series of incidents erupted in England ...

COLOMBO: A TV documentary with gruesome footage that appears to back up war crimes charges against Sri Lankan troops has aggravated ethnic wounds two years after the end of the island’s civil war.

COLOMBO: A TV documentary with gruesome footage that appears to back up war crimes charges against Sri Lankan troops has aggravated ethnic wounds two years after the end of the island's civil war.

Fridges Consume 51% Electricity Air conditioning takes 78% of the electricity bill followed by lighting (16%), but in an un air conditioned house, the fridge with 51% of electricity intake is the paramount consumer, followed by the television (13%), rice cooker (12%) and lighting (8%). Intake of electricity in fridges increases in the opening and ...

By Lewie Diasz* Marketing’s forefathers Theodore Levitt and Phillip Kotler defined marketing in an era where baby boomers and generation X prevailed and marketing has evolved ever since and the evolution can be classified into different eras. The evolution begins from a hunter-gatherer orientation to agriculture orientation and then the early 1900s where demand exceeded ...

Opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei emerged from house arrest late Sunday to join protesters in central Cairo, echoing their demand that U.S.-allied President Hosni Mubarak resign and establishing himself as the face of Egypt's six-day pro-democracy uprising. The dramatic nighttime appearance by ElBaradei - the Nobel Peace Prize winner who returned to Egypt last week after the protests began ...

By Malathi De Alwis On 18 May 2009, Sri Lanka officially declared the end of a 30-year civil war fought between. Sri Lankan government forces (GoSL) and Tamil militants, namely the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). Such a sea...

by Ranil Wickremesinghe By the 4th century BC, Asia had begun its first cycle of economic growth and power. This was the reason why Alexander the Great decided to travel eastward to establish an empire. At that time there was...

by Dr.Kavan Ratnatunga Anula Meier Radalage has the distinction of having been the last Sinhalese to run a business in Jaffna before the conflict with the LTTE ended in May 2009. Her guest book lists special envoys Erik Solheim and...

Iran began the process of loading 163 fuel rods into the reactor core of its first nuclear power plant on Tuesday, celebrating the achievement as proof that Tehran can outmaneuver international sanctions.The plant, built with Russian help in the southern port city of Bushehr

Bedevil: In the same boat by Channa Wickramasekera Colombo: Bay Owl Press, 2010 Reviewed by Sivamohan Sumathy ‘We may have all come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now’. - Martin Luther King, Jr. Why has...

The media office of the Voice of Asia Network that operates Siyatha TV, Siyatha FM, Real Radio, Vettri FM and Siyatha, came under arson attack at around 1.30 this morning, reports say. Residents of the area around the office – located on Hunupitiya Lake Road in Colombo 2 – said that they had first heard ...

By D.B.S.Jeyaraj The  tragic history of post-independence records that the Tamils of Sri Lanka have been subjected to mass-scale mob violence in the years 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983. The anti-Tamil violence of July 1983 was the most terrible and horrible of them all. It remains etched in memory even after 27 years. Twenty ...

By Rajan Philips On May 17 in Tehran, the foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey, and Brazil announced that they had reached a deal on exchanging uranium fuel for use in the Tehran Research Reactor....

by Pearl Thevanayagam The recently concluded war with all its human miseries such as loss of lives, widowhood, displaced and maimed civilians, orphans, destruction of properties and denigration of agricultural lands and the disruption to normal life throughout the island...