All Blogs
Cash Pile
December 07, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s NDB Bank Thursday teamed up with global money transfer giant Western Union, to tap the lucrative foreign remittances market, officials said. Around 1.5 million Sri Lankans working and residing overseas sent home 1,918 million dollars last year, and the island’s Central Bank expects the figure to hit 3.0 […]
Sri Lanka scales down tea production forecasts as trade union strikes continue
December 07, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is unlikely to reach last year’s tea production record, as trade unions strikes on estates since November over a wage hike, shows no signs of slowing. December production is likely to reach about 21 million kilos over the usual 25 million kilos. “The outlook for January too is not […]
Geography Lesson
December 07, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to hire a British survey company to re-draw the island’s continental shelf boundary, so that the country can claim additional rights to the seabed and any natural resources it holds. The government said Thursday that it had approved the appointment of Geophysical survey company Geotechnical Engineering and […]
Political parties, parliaments most corrupt: graft poll
BRUSSELS, Dec 7, 2006 (AFP) – Political parties and parliaments are seen as the world’s most corrupt institutions and governments are not doing enough to combat the problem, a poll by a respected global graft watchdog said Thursday. The Transparency International survey, of some 60,000 people in 62 countries, found that many ordinary citizens thought […]
Airbus to hike investment in India to one billion dollars
NEW DELHI, Dec 7, 2006 (AFP) – Europe’s Airbus said Thursday it would hike investment in India to at least one billion dollars as it forecast the country would need 1,100 new planes over 20 years to meet soaring travel demand. The aircraft maker had pledged to plow back 500 million to 600 million dollars […]
Five years on, copyright theft remains a Chinese trademark
BEIJING, Dec 7, 2006 (AFP) – When Shanghai police broke up a counterfeit pharmaceuticals ring that produced fake Tamiflu in August, it seemed a blow had been struck against China’s notorious intellectual property thieves.Tamiflu, produced by Roche, is one of the few treatments deemed effective against bird flu, and the seizure of 400 kilograms of […]
School shelled as 9 dead in fresh violence in Sri Lanka
Dec 7, 2006 (AFP) – At least seven civilians and two soldiers were killed in fresh violence in Sri Lanka hours after the government announced tough anti-terror laws to battle Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said.Three civilians were killed and 10 students were wounded when Tamil Tiger rebels shelled a school in the northeastern district of […]
Sri Lanka president says democracy must not stop anti-terror fight
COLOMBO, Dec 7, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president has warned that democracy must not come in the way of battling terrorism, after his government moved to revive tough laws to bolster their battle against the Tamil Tigers. In his televised address, broadcast overnight Wednesday, Mahinda Rajapakse said the Tamil Tigers were scuttling the chances […]
Aid workers blame bureaucracy for growing struggle to help Sri Lankans
PARIS, Dec 7, 2006 (AFP) – Western aid groups warned of a growing struggle to help Sri Lankan victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami and of the country’s war, four months after the massacre of 17 aid workers, and blamed bureaucracy for blocking their work.“The humanitarian situation is catastrophic,” said Aloysius John, head of Asia […]
Blast rips Sri Lanka water mains
Dec 7, 2006 (AFP) – A powerful explosion blew up a pipeline supplying water to parts of the capital and immediate suburbs, police said Thursday.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast at Boralesgamuwa, just south of Colombo, late Wednesday. There were no casualties or damage to other property, police said. Water supply […]