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Global tea experts call for formal standards on world market
NAIROBI, Nov 27, 2006 (AFP) – Global tea experts meeting in Kenya Monday called for tough minimum quality standards to address the growing problem of poor tea entering the international market and depressing prices.“In targeting potential growth markets, recognition of and compliance with food safety and quality standards is essential,” said Kaison Chang, a senior […]
Tele Cash
November 27, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has raised about 40 million rupees from June-Sept by taxing foreign movies, dramas and sitcoms aired on local television stations, the finance ministry said. Introduced in June, the ministry said the levy on telecasts of foreign films, teledramas and commercials are aimed at safeguarding the local film industry […]
Dialog TV
November 27 2006 (LBO) – Dialog Telekom, the island’s biggest mobile phone operator, Monday announced plans to acquire satellite pay television operator Communiqu Broadband Networks (Pvt) Ltd and CBN Sat (Pvt) Ltd for 523.8 million rupees. Dialog Telekom, dominates the industry with over 3 million subscribers, followed by Mobitel Lanka, Celltel Lanka Ltd, Hutchinson. The […]
‘s largest palm oil firm
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27, 2006 (AFP) – Three Malaysian plantation firms will merge to create the world’s largest listed palm oil business, worth 31.4 billion ringgit (8.6 billion dollars), under an ambitious plan announced Monday.A new vehicle, Synergy Drive, will buy the assets and liabilities of Sime Darby Bhd, Golden Hope Plantations Bhd and Kumpulan […]
Sri Lanka ceasefire effectively over?
Nov 27, 2006 (AFP) – The Tamil minority of Sri Lanka must have their own independent state, rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran declared Monday, effectively ending the island’s peace process.In his annual policy speech, delivered from a secret hideout, the Tamil Tiger leader accused the Colombo government of waging military and economic war against Tamils and […]
Tamil Tiger supremo faces war or peace deadline in Sri Lanka
Nov 27, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was to deliver a keenly-awaited address Monday to Sri Lanka’s embattled Tamil people that will help shape the course of the island’s troubled peace process.The defence ministry reports 2,018 Tiger rebels killed in the past year. His speech will come one year after he warned […]
Three cement company workers shot dead
Nov 27, 2006 (AFP) – Unidentified gunmen shot dead three local employees of a Japanese cement company in north-eastern Sri Lanka on Monday as Tamil Tiger rebels and security forces traded artillery fire, police said.The ethnic separatist conflict has claimed at least 60,000 lives since it began in 1972.The three Tamils working for the Mitsui […]
” trawler
Nov 27, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy Monday sank a suspected Tamil rebel trawler off the island’s northwest coast, killing at least four people on board, a defence ministry spokesman said.A patrolling “fast attack” naval craft came under fire from the vessel 50 nautical miles (92 kilometres) north of Udappuwa, he said. “We returned […]
‘s annual speech
COLOMBO, Nov 26 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces went on high alert Sunday, officials said, as Tamil Tiger rebels remembered 18,742 comrades killed in their decades-long campaign for a separate homeland.More than 3,400 people have been killed in an upsurge in violence in the past year in Sri Lanka, where over 60,000 have died […]
Sri Lanka President pushes joint sea patrols on Indian visit
NEW DELHI, Nov 26, 2006 (AFP) – The visiting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse Sunday sounded out India on joint patrolling of their maritime border in a bid to halt smuggling and cross-border terrorism.Rajapakse, who began a five-day working visit to India Sunday, told reporters he planned to talk to Indian leaders about strengthening patrols […]