PERTH, Australia (Reuters): Commonwealth leaders on Sunday defended their moves to toughen support for human rights, rejecting criticism the group was becoming irrelevant and had failed at their three-day summit to hold member Sri Lanka accountable for alleged abuses. But several leaders of the 54 mostly former British colonies, meeting in the remote Australian city ...

Five energetic young professionals, representing Rotary International District 3220 Sri Lanka will fly to Osaka, Japan for a Group Study Exchange (GSE) programme in November. Led by a Rotarian Past President Pubudu de Zoysa, a member of Rotary Club of Colombo, the team includes Rukshi Liyanage, Shamali Perera, Srikanth Selladurai and Mel Gunasekera. The month-long ...

Sri Lanka Economic Association Conference – Key takes at the inauguration By Dinali Goonewardene The Government in addition to domestic constraints faces a series of external and global constraints and the Sri Lanka Economic Association at its annual sessions from 13-14 October 2011 discussed this under the theme ‘Achieving National Economic Goals Amidst Global Challenges’. ...

In the midst of the turmoil in international financial markets and national economies, Sovereign Wealth Funds are coming into closer focus. For the first time since the breakout of the financial crisis, the financial mandarins of China intervened to shore up confidence in the country’s four largest banks by increasing its holdings in them through ...

BEIJING (Reuters): China urged the European Union on Monday to deal with its debt crisis as soon as possible and prevent contagion from spreading, as the country’s number four-ranked leader arrived for a visit of the continent, including Greece. “We hope that the EU countries concerned will reach a comprehensive settlement plan as soon as ...

Truman visits CIS Truman State University Missouri USA International Admissions Coordinator Rachel Davis recently met with Colombo International School Principal M.J. Chappell with the aim of introducing the most affordable US higher education to CIS students. Truman State was ranked as the #1 public university in the US Midwest by the US News and World ...

Sri Lankan represents global team of entrepreneursAspirations Edu-cation’s General Manager Deepamala Abeysekera became the only Sri Lankan to represent a group of 30 entrepreneurs in the world from, USA, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa, to read for her postgraduate studies in entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge. Cambridge has acquired an international reputation as an ...

Professionals are shy to raise critical issues in public!It is believed that the single focus advocacy proposal of the Joint Chambers of Commerce and Industry for the Budget 2012 to address is the continuing high priority of enhancing the ‘ease of doing business in Sri Lanka’. A president of a chamber holds a publicly articulated ...

Reuters:  Australia cricket captain Michael Clarke is expecting great things from his predecessor Ricky Ponting in the one-day series against South Africa that starts on Wednesday. “Ricky’s very experienced and talented and I believe he still has a hell of a lot to offer Australian cricket in both ODIs and tests,” Clarke told a news ...

DNH Financial shares some key insights to the upcoming earnings season and how to manage investments in the Colombo stock marketFIn the absence of any significant news, the Sri Lanka bourse continued to trade on a lacklustre note with the ASPI and MPI falling by 2.2% and 1.7%WoW to close the week at 6,550 and ...

The semi finals of the IT Mastermind quiz programme organised by the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) with the full sponsorship of ESOFT Computer Studies have begun, and are telecast live every Sunday at 5.30 p.m. on ITN. Sixty four students, selected for the final round, are vying for the semi finals in eight ...

The Carlton Sports Network (CSN), Sri Lanka’s premiere sports entertainment channel will be exclusively broadcasting all the action as the Lions take on Pakistan in 3 Tests , 5 ODI’s and 1 T20 match, commencing 18th October 2011. Enjoy exclusive access via CSN all throughout the series as it travels from Abu Dhabi to Dubai ...

I first met Nirosh de Mel as a schoolboy, at Colombo International School; then headed by its Founder, Elizabeth Moir. He was rather mischievous but bright; an excellent combination which has stood him in good stead on life’s journey. Although I had met him with his parents on and off at family events, I was ...

The world’s economies are competing for investment, in order that they create jobs for their citizens and trade effectively in goods and services in this globalised world economy. Barriers and restrictions are tumbling down as nation states compete against each other, to become attractive to investors.Competitiveness is a comparative concept of the ability of a ...

Reuters: Three Pakistan cricketers, driven by greed, betrayed their team mates and the sport of cricket itself by taking bribes to fix incidents during a test match against England last year, a London court heard on Wednesday. The plot was orchestrated by Pakistan captain Salman Butt and his agent Mazhar Majeed and involved the team's ...

The Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE), the vibrant forum of the new generation entrepreneurs of Sri Lanka plans to conduct a highly interactive series of programmes named ‘Zero to Billionaire – The Story behind Sri Lankan Business Heroes of the 21st Century’ to bring to the surface the untold truths of success of the ...

Long awaited and following the enormous success of the first edition of the Colombo Art Biennale ‘Imagining Peace’ in 2009, CAB is delighted to announce its second edition with ‘Becoming’ in February 2012. CAB is honoured and proud to introduce its two curators for this year’s edition of the Biennale – Roman Berka, who heads ...

Justice and fair-play is paramount Justice and fair-play are of paramount importance to all members of the world family consisting of 193 nations expecting justice and fair-play equally. It is the principle on which the United Nations was established in place of the less-effective League of Nations, in order to settle differences among nations based ...

Admits that he tampered with the ball during triangular series in SL Former Pakistani cricket player Shoaib Akhtar lived up to his notorious title of being “controversy’s favourite child” with the launch of his autobiography in India. In a book titled “Controversially Yours”, Akhtar hits out at prominent names in the world of cricket and ...

Initiated as an add-on trip to the Council of International Schools (CIS) South Asia Tour and coordinated by Scholarships for USA (Pvt) Ltd. (www.scholarshipsforusa.com), Vanderbilt University, Pepperdine University and Penn State would be visiting Colombo on October 4/5 in the company of few prestigious universities that have rarely travelled to the island before. The highlight ...

Named ODI Player of the Year 2011 and LG People’s Choice AwardSri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara was in for double joy as he was named ODI Player of the Year 2011 as well as LG People’s Choice Award winner at the LG ICC Awards in London. During the performance period, Kumar played 25 ODIs and compiled ...

Millennium Information Technologies (MillenniumIT), a leading technology solutions provider yesterday announced the appointment of Amit Alok as its new President and General Manager. Two years ago MillenniumIT became part of  London Stock Exchange Group Plc, the international exchange business, and since then has gone from strength to strength, providing the Group with the world’s faste...

By S.S.Selvanayagam The Board of Investment (BOI) had some welcome news recently as two monetary claims made against the BOI amounting to a sum of approximately Rs. 47,000,000 and a further sum of US$ 21,000 was dismissed by Court. In another similar case, Bonaventure Textiles Lanka Ltd. too instituted action against the BOI claiming a ...

This is a headline article of Khaleej Times – one of the most prominent and leading newspapers in the United Arab Emirates.  According to the news item 350milion population in the Arab World is in need of 160,000 doctors.  In the UAE out of the population 80% are expatriates mainly from South Asia.   The ...

The Sri Lanka Private Sector Assessment of the Report to the United Nations Secretary General by the Panel of Experts on accountability in Sri Lanka was released on Thursday. The private sector critique is a compilation of views raised by a private sector group in Sri Lanka who are concerned about the content of the ...

By Harsha de Silva We understand that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is planning to compound undisclosed securities fraud by some billionaire investors. Media reports have begun to circulate that Environmental Resources Investments (ERI) and its Directors have agreed with the SEC to pay an insignificant fine of Rs. 10 million and compound an ...

Reuters: England piled more misery on India with a thrilling six-wicket victory in a one-off Twenty20 match at Old Trafford on Wednesday. After losing the test series 4-0, India started brightly in the shortest version of the game and racked up 165 all out, only to see England reach their target with three balls to ...

Magdoom Mohammed, managing Director WAN-IFRA South Asia, says he’s very bullish about the growth of print media business in the next 12 months in this interview in Campaign Asia. Q: With an Indian at the helm of affairs at Wan-Ifra, the flavour of the year is India. A: The challenges of the news publishing industry ...

Reuters:  South Korea’s LG Electronics hasn’t been so smart with its smartphone business. Its mobile phone division has suffered five consecutive quarterly losses, cutthroat competition is pressuring it to overhaul the business and its shares have plummeted. The money-losing phone unit has also been a major value destroyer for LG shareholders. LG’s market value is ...

Asia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio Network, Sri Lanka’s largest radio network, has provided yet another enriching and historic experience to Sri Lankans living around the globe with the introduction of international SMS News Alerts. For the first time in Sri Lankan media history, ABC Radio Network’s Gold FM, Hiru FM and Sooriyan FM which have ...