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Virgin test flies coconut oil powered jumbo jet
LONDON, Feb 24, 2008 (AFP) – The first flight by a commercial airline to be partly powered by biofuels and billed as heralding a eco-friendlier and cheaper era of airline travel took place on Sunday, Virgin Atlantic said.Airlines meanwhile also see biofuels as cheaper alternatives to kerosene, whose price is soaring as oil futures strike […]
Six million North Koreans chronically short of food
SEOUL, Feb 24, 2008 (AFP) – Nearly six million North Koreans are in chronic need of foreign food aid this year with children, nursing and expectant mothers and the poor most at risk, the World Food Programme said Sunday. A Seoul official and media reports said this month however that South Korean rice aid intended […]
Sri Lanka Galle Literary festival and the exit option
Feb 25, 2008 (LBO) – Reactions to the 2nd Galle Literary Festival that very successfully concluded last month testify to the entrenched strength of statist thinking in this country. It could also be interpreted as more evidence of the pre-eminent role of envy in the Sri Lankan psyche (Rusiyavata vadiya lokui irisiyava as three-wheeler philosophy puts […]
Sri Lanka military says 41 killed in fresh fighting
Feb 25, 2008 (AFP) – At least 36 Tamil Tiger guerrillas and five Sri Lankan government soldiers have been killed in fresh fighting in and around rebel-held territory, the island’s defence ministry said Monday. War planes bombed a suspected Tamil Tiger naval base in the district of Kilinochchi on Sunday, inflicting heavy damage, the ministry […]
Sri Lanka central bank asks for currency note designs
Feb 25, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has called for public ideas to produce a new series of notes offering cash prizes for winning designs. The monetary authority has so far produced notes under 10 different themes from the time it was created soon after Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain. The first […]
Sri Lanka state workers demand trebling of festival allowance
Feb 25, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s powerful state worker unions have demanded a trebling of festival allowances as inflation tipped over 20 percent following loose monetary and fiscal policies in the past year. The latest in such moves is a new increase in car taxes after state workers were given thousands of tax-slashed cars. […]
Terminal Disease
Feb 24, 2008 (LBO) — Sri Lanka will cancel a controversial deal for a container terminal at Colombo port and bring new conditions after a consortium led by the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) won a financial bid, a media report said. The deal hit newspaper headlines with port workers alleging that state-run Sri Lanka […]
Bank Ownership
Feb 24, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s DFCC Bank has taken the Central Bank to court in a legal challenge on restrictions on its ownership of another bank in which it is a big shareholder, a newspaper reported. DFCC is resisting a ruling by the Central Bank Monetary Board seeking to reduce its shareholding in […]
Hard-pegged Hong Kong sees 4.3-pct inflation as US prices soar 4.6-pct in Jan 2008
HONG KONG, 2008 (AFP) – Higher food prices drove Hong Kong’s underlying inflation rate up to 4.3 percent year-on-year in January, official figures showed Friday. “Apart from the global food inflation, elevated energy prices, appreciation of the (Chinese yuan currency) and the weakening of the Hong Kong dollar would continue to pose upside risks to […]
A row with girlfriend that could divorce England from Scotland
EDINBURGH, Feb 24, 2008 (AFP) – Alex Salmond, the head of Scotland’s government, has spent his political life fighting for independence from London but says he bears no ill-will towards the “auld enemy”, the English. Nine months after his election as first minister, Salmond sits in his elegant official residence in Edinburgh insisting that independence […]