By Patricia A. Butenis The 20th century American politician Thomas “Tip” O’Neill once famously said that “all politics is local”. That was often true of the news in the last century as well. With the advent of so many technological changes, however, the truism for information in the 21st century has become “all news is ...

The highest oversubscription ever seen for a Sri Lankan international bond in April and KPMG’s latest positive Change Readiness Index ranking for Sri Lanka show the growing international investor confidence in the country, which prefers patient investments to hot money. “Sri Lanka has entered a new era of development thanks to the visionary leadership of ...

Reuters: Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi took her place in Myanmar’s parliament on Wednesday, ushering in a historic new political era after nearly a quarter-century fight against military dictatorship. The 66-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate waded through throngs of foreign and local reporters as she entered parliament in Naypyitaw to join a fragile new ...

VESAK is the festival of light. Yet this year it seems that the lights will have to be dimmed to reflect the reduced lustre of the country’s economy. As the Power and Energy Ministry organisers raffle draws for people who save electricity during the upcoming religious season there are many other efforts happening behind the ...

Colombo Page: The Sri Lanka Army has strongly denied a UN report that said unexploded cluster munitions have been found in northern Sri Lanka indicating the military’s use of cluster bombs during the war with the Tamil Tiger terrorists. The Army has noted that the military had not used cluster bombs and that cluster munitions ...

LONDON (Reuters): Warm weather and fears of a fuel shortage helped drive the biggest increase in British retail sales in more than a year in March, raising chances that recovering consumer spending may have helped the economy to avoid recession. The unexpectedly strong figures will come as a relief for policymakers as they try to ...

The Colombo stock market yesterday produced a late rally following the removal of the 10% price band by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The market’s value swelled by Rs. 41 billion whilst main All Share Index gained by 2% or 111 points as sentiments of investors and brokers got a boost following the regulatory ...

Reuters: Pakistan officials are hoping this month’s mini home series against Bangladesh will finally convince neighbouring India to renew bilateral cricket ties between the two Asian cricket powerhouses. Bangladesh will become the first foreign team to play full internationals in Pakistan since March 2009 when Sri Lankan cricketers and officials were attacked by gunmen in ...

Despite being Asia’s worst performer, there is some news for cheer as the Colombo Bourse has achieved the milestone of over half a million local individuals dabbling in shares though not regularly. The total operative CDS accounts of local individuals by end March grew to 500,198, thereby crossing the half a million mark for the ...

Last Sunday when the unknown Ajinkya Rahane scored 103 runs off just 60 balls at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, which helped the Rajasthan Royals to score a massive 195 runs at IPL season five, my mind went to just one ethos the IPL is all about – highlighting performance. It is how IPL ...

Reuters: India has decided to allow foreign direct investment from Pakistan, Trade Minister Anand Sharma said on Friday, before the two countries were due to open a trading post on the Wagah border in the latest sign of thawing economic ties. Liberalising heavily restricted trade and investment flows is now the driver of peace efforts ...

Reuters: Japan’s Sony Corp flagged a record $6.4 billion annual net loss, double an earlier forecast and a fourth straight year of red ink, as it writes off deferred tax credits, heaping more pressure on its new CEO to turn around the giant electronics company. Sony, which plans to cut 10,000 jobs – about 6 ...

DUBAI (Reuters): Iran has cut oil exports to Spain and may halt sales to Germany and Italy, Iran’s English-language state television reported on Tuesday, in an apparent move to strengthen its position ahead of crucial talks with world powers later this week. But, in an indication that Tehran’s “counter-sanctions” were of little impact, Spain’s biggest ...

On 30 March, Cunard Line’s latest luxury cruise vessel MV Queen Elizabeth made her inaugural call to Colombo, marking the third inaugural vessel call to Colombo made by the cruise liners operated by the parent company Carnival UK within the first quarter of 2012. The vessel left Southampton on 10 January this year and is ...

News Butterfly, the unique TV programme from the US’ FOX news network, is now filming in Colombo for an exclusive segment on Sri Lanka’s new upswing. News Butterfly Market Place (NBMP) is described as a ‘unique women’s movement on TV’. According to NBMP, ‘the programme is a TV Channel venture for beautiful and talented women ...

The challenges Sri Lanka has to face in its march towards development are manifold. Although the war has ended the wrong political ideologies, the proposals and timetables it created are still in operation. By Government Information Department Additional Director General Chandrapala Liyanage Similarly, various social activity groups and individuals and organisations operating under the advice ...

Reuters: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has called off a three-nation international tournament after India and Malaysia refused to send their teams because of security concerns. PHF secretary Asif Bajwa told a news conference on Wednesday the Indian federations had pulled out of the tournament scheduled from April 9-13 on the advice of its foreign ...

By Cheranka Mendis Even if the status of the world economy seems to have found a rather fragile equilibrium with Europe over the past six weeks, the world is no closer to being immune from the risks that have cropped up as a result of the European and USA led recession and changes in world ...

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters): Global stocks and the oil price dipped on Thursday as disappointing U.S. data continued to temper risk appetite and analysts said the effect of a potential accord to release oil reserves would take time to filter through to the broader economy. In Europe, shares fell to a three-week low and peripheral ...

Reuters: Brent crude fell for a second session on Wednesday, breaching $125, on the possibility of a release of strategic oil reserves by the United States even after crude stockpiles in the world's largest oil user rose more than expected last week.  Oil remained supported by supply concerns on rising tensions between Iran and the ...

TOKYO (Reuters): Asian shares drifted lower on Wednesday, after rallying the previous session on hopes for further stimulus from the Federal Reserve, as investors waited for more clues on the state of the U.S. economy.  European equity markets were likely to follow weaker Asian peers, with financial spreadbetters predicting major European markets   to open down ...

By Cheranka Mendis The volatility in Middle Eastern markets, coupled with the increasing issue of low quality due to competition and increasing costs, has placed the local tea industry in a big fix, which could, if unattended, immediately mark the end of a Sri Lankan legacy in four to five years. Despite Sri Lankan tea ...

By Joshua Nicholas Firms that successfully employ Investor Relations (IR) have more success enticing institutional investors, larger IPO’s, higher share prices, and find it easier to raise debt and equity. What is IR? A guide published by the London Stock Exchange (LSE) defines IR as, “the ongoing activity of companies communicating with the investment community.”  ...

Arab News: RIYADH: Saudi businessmen have evinced immense interest in attending the upcoming the Sri Lanka Expo 2012 scheduled from 28 to 30 March in Colombo, Sri Lankan Embassy’s Commercial Counselor Anil Sirimanna said. The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) has organised the three-day event being held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall ...

Reuters: Asian shares gave back earlier gains on Thursday after data showed China’s factory activity shrank for a fifth successive month, underscoring concerns about a growth slowdown in the world’s second largest economy.  The MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan index was nearly flat, falling sharply from a 0.6 percent gain before the Chinese data. Still, the ...

Unity is strength: Let us unite as a nation and a group of likeminded nations in the world Sri Lanka is a senior member Sri Lanka is a senior member of the world family, maintaining high standards of human rights on international standards, which is not an alien system to us. Our culture is based ...

By D.C. Ranatunga “We bear a very heavy responsibility to build up this service with great care, vigilance and intellectual integrity so that the people of this country belonging to different ethnic groups, believing in four different faiths, of diverse economic groups, living in varying environments, urban and rural, with different levels of literacy and ...

My column today is an attempt to focus our attention on a few less spoken or untold developments that may have a profound influence on how we carve our way through in creating a desirable social, economic and political future for mankind on this only planet of ours. While I will not specifically touch on ...