Author: lbostgadmin
Indonesia hikes fuel prices despite protests
JAKARTA, May 24, 2008 (AFP) – Indonesia hiked the cost of fuel by around 30 percent Saturday in response to soaring global oil prices and a ballooning subsidy bill, leaving hard-pressed households facing even more economic woe. Long queues formed at petrol stations ahead of the announcement late Friday that prices would rise by an […]
Microsoft closes the book on online library
SAN FRANCISCO, May 23, 2008 (AFP) – Microsoft said Friday it is ending its quest to create an online library of the world’s books as the technology titan revamps its strategy to battle Internet search king Google.Live Search Books and Live Search Academics projects are being cancelled and the websites will be taken down next […]
After protests, new Bangalore airport opens
BANGALORE, India, May 24, 2008 (AFP) – India’s gleaming new Bangalore international airport opened Saturday despite protests by residents and businesses who said getting there by road could prove a nightmare.The state-of-the-art 630-million-dollar facility sprang into life after a court threw out pleas by local people to keep the existing airport open for commercial flights. […]
‘s richest man Buffet
BERLIN, May 24, 2008 (AFP) – While economists quibble, the world’s richest man has decided: the United States is already in recession.So Warren Buffet tells German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview to be published on Monday. “It is perhaps not a recession in the way that economists would understand it…but people are already feeling […]
Sri Lanka warplanes bomb restive north: defence ministry
May 24, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka warplanes bombed a suspected rebel boat yard and provided cover for ground troops pushing into rebel territory, the defence ministry said Saturday. On Saturday, the proxy Tamil National Alliance (TNA) also accused the government of carrying out attacks against civilians. “We vehemently condemn the cowardly and brutal attack […]
Leasing Rating
May 24, 2008 (LBO) – Fitch Sri Lanka has confirmed a ‘BBB-(lka)’ rating of Ceylease Financial Services (CFSL), a unit of state-run Bank of Ceylon, with a ‘stable’ outlook but said interest costs and bad loans were rising. Fitch says the comparatively high net NPL to equity ratios are partly due to the company’s relatively […]
Sri Lanka senior journalist found assaulted
May 23, 2008 (LBO) – A senior Sri Lankan journalist was found severely assaulted in the early hours of Friday after being abducted from his home the previous night, colleagues at his newspaper said. Keith Noyahr, deputy editor of the Nation newspaper, was abducted from near his home in a suburb of Sri Lanka’s capital […]
Sri Lankan rights group condemns assault on journalist
May 23, 2008 (AFP) – A Sri Lanka media rights group Friday condemned the abduction and assault of a senior journalist, saying it was motivated by his criticism of the government’s war against Tamil Tiger rebels. Most of the victims are Tamil journalists working in the island’s embattled north and east.Sinhalese journalists working in the […]
Sri Lanka mediamen protest abduction of colleague
May 23, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s media rights groups protested the abduction and assault of senior journalist of a national weekly Friday calling on authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice. “Until such time culprits are brought to book, the FMM holds the Government responsible for abduction and assault of journalist Keith Noyahr, noting […]
” threat to Beijing Olympics: IAEA
VIENNA, May 23, 2008 (AFP) – The UN atomic watchdog said Friday that it had seen no concrete intelligence regarding a possible dirty bomb threat to this summer’s Olympic games in Beijing.Talking to journalists, Anita Nilsson, head of nuclear security at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was asked is she could confirm that the […]
India trade minister rejects new WTO texts
NEW DELHI, May 22, 2008 (AFP) – New draft texts on industrial goods aimed at clinching an elusive deal in global trade talks will have to be “completely revised,” India’s commerce minister said on Thursday.The World Trade Organisation’s Doha round of talks to reduce trade barriers was launched in 2001 with the target of reaching […]
No more whoopee for Indian rupee
NEW DELHI, May 23, 2008 (AFP) – India’s currency is feeling the pressure as world oil prices soar and foreign investors lose their “risk appetite” for emerging market assets amid global financial turmoil, analysts say.The Indian rupee — which a few months ago was trading at 10-year highs — now looks poised to post its […]