Bloomberg

Sri Lanka’s rating outlook was cut to negative from stable by Standard & Poor’s because of depleting foreign-exchange reserves and delays in receiving a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

“The underlying pressures on Sri Lanka’s external liquidity position have intensified,” said S&P, which rates the island’s long-term foreign currency debt at ‘B’, five levels below the investment grade.

May 11 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka denied reports that at least 1,200 Tamil civilians were killed in artillery shelling in the north and accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of mounting a propaganda campaign to win international sympathy.

Civilians came under artillery and rocket attack by the army at the weekend in the government-declared security zone on the northeastern coast, TamilNet, a Web site that gives reports from the Tamil perspective, said yesterday. The air force carried out bombing raids yesterday, it said.