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Sri Lanka tea exports to Iran face high duties, packet ban
May 07, 2008 (LBO) – High import duty rates and a ban on packet tea imports by Iran is preventing Sri Lankan tea exporters from better penetrating a potentially lucrative market, industry officials said. Instead, a lot of the Sri Lankan tea that reaches Iran is smuggled over its borders, with Dubai as the region’s […]
Netting Victims
May 07, 2008 (LBO) – Hundreds of Indian victims of the Goldquest scheme are flocking to police to lodge complaints after courts ordered authorities to re-open investigations in to the scheme, media reports said. By Tuesday, more than 600 victims who lost their money in the Goldquest’s multi-level scheme had filed complaints, Times of India […]
Brand Value
May 07, 2008 (LBO) – Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka’s top celco has been named the most valuable brand in Sri Lanka in a ranking by Brand Finance, the company said Wednesday. The Dialog brand has been valued at 12.4 billion Sri Lanka rupees, retaining its place from last year. The ranking uses publicly available data […]
Sri Lanka a blue whale watching hot spot
May 07, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka may be one of the easiest places to watch whales, allowing it to become a global top spot to watch blue and sperm whales, a researcher and an eco-tourism specialist have said. “I think Sri Lanka has enormous potential to be a whale destination,” marine biologist Charles Anderson, […]
‘s Bharti joins 700-million-dollar cable project linking Britain
BANGALORE, India, May 7, 2008 (AFP) – Bharti Airtel, India’s top mobile-phone operator, said Wednesday it had joined a consortium to build a 700-million-dollar submarine cable system. Bharti signed a construction and maintenance agreement in London for the Europe India Gateway (EIG), the first high-bandwidth, optical-fibre cable system from India to Britain, the company said. […]
UAE urged to limit foreigner visas to six years
DUBAI, May 7, 2008 (AFP) – The United Arab Emirates, whose booming economy functions thanks to millions of foreign workers, has been urged to put a six-year cap on their residency, a local newspaper reported on Wednesday.The internal affairs and defence committee of the consultative Federal National Council (FNC), said the workers should leave the […]
Maldives gets ready for August polls
May 7, 2008 ( LBO) – The Indian Ocean Island of Maldives is in the final stages of wrapping up its new constitution, which will pave the way for the nation’s first multi-party elections this year, officials said Tuesday.Political parties have only been legal on the 1,192 coral islands since 2005 when President Maumoon Abdul […]
ECB focuses on inflation as governors meet in Athens
ATHENS, May 7, 2008 (AFP) – The European Central Bank is widely expected to leave its key interest rate unchanged again Thursday, focusing as it is mandated to do on inflation rather than the risk to growth, analysts say.The ECB governing council meets here at a twice-annual event organised in a eurozone capital, hosted this […]
Sri Lanka, Pakistan, unfit for Human Rights Council: rights bodies
UNITED NATIONS , May 6, 2008 (AFP) – Gabon, Bahrain, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zambia do not deserve a seat on the Human Rights Council, the United Nations’ top rights body, two non-governmental organizations said Tuesday.In a joint report, UN Watch and Freedom House, which champion human rights worldwide, lamented that Gabon and Zambia were […]
Sri Lanka opens T-bills to foreigners
May 06, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has allowed foreign investors to buy short term treasury bills from Tuesday, the government’s debt office said, as global credit conditions made buyers wary of long term instruments. Sri Lanka had permitted foreign investors to buy Treasury bonds which have a maturity of one year or more in […]