Author: lbostgadmin
Records Intact
NEW DELHI, India, Oct 7, 2006 (AFP) – The body representing India’s booming outsourcing business insisted Saturday that the country was a safe place to do business following a British TV news sting showed alleged call centre fraud.Britain’s Channel 4 aired a documentary Thursday purporting to show how the data of thousands of British customers […]
Fresh fighting erupts as Sri Lanka peace bid stalls
Oct 6, 2006 (AFP) – Heavy sea and land battles erupted Friday in Sri Lanka with the military reporting the recovery of 22 bodies of Tamil rebels after a Norwegian envoy failed to secure a deal to re-launch peace talks.Some 60,000 people have been killed in the separatist conflict since 1972. The military and the […]
Charities demand access to 200,000 in Sri Lanka war zones
Oct 6, 2006 (AFP) – International relief agencies on Friday demanded access to some 200,000 people displaced by Sri Lanka’s worsening ethnic conflict and denounced restrictions on aid workers. A group of foreign non-governmental organisations in a joint appeal asked both the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels to ensure that aid workers had […]
Headache-immune woodpeckers, picky dung beetles win IgNobels
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, Oct 6, 2006 (AFP) – Scientists who answered questions such as why woodpeckers don’t get headaches, whether dung beetles like their diet and if rectal massage can cure hiccups have at last been recognised for their work.The IgNobel Prizes, a tongue-in-cheek alternative to their more formal Scandinavian counterparts, were presented by genuine Nobel […]
Credit card ousts the giving basket at US churches
WASHINGTON, Oct 6, 2006 (AFP) – The days of donating at church by dropping money into a basket may become a thing of the past if Marty Baker has his way.Baker, a pastor in the southern state of Georgia, has come up with a divine idea to raise money for the Lord — automated teller […]
Staying High
SINGAPORE, Oct 5, 2006 (AFP) – Oil prices rebounded in Asian trade Thursday, coming off near 8-month lows on continuing unrest in Nigeria and amid reports that OPEC members are ready to cut production in a bid to support the market, dealers said. At 11:25 am (0325 GMT) New York’s main contract, light sweet crude […]
Funny World
October 5, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Thursday cut retail fuel prices, but raised prices for alcohol and cigarettes, as the government disclosed plans to raise defence expenses and hike overall spending by over 40 percent next year. In addition, defence spending is to climb by 45 percent to 139.5 billion rupees, with military procurements […]
Sri Lanka peace bid hits new snag
Oct 5, 2006 (AFP) – Norwegian peace brokers were Thursday struggling to get Sri Lanka’s warring parties to agree on a venue for talks, with Tiger rebels demanding Oslo and the government Geneva, diplomats said.“The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is going on the basis they want talks in Oslo because that was the […]
Sri Lanka probing foreign aid groups
Oct 5, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Thursday it was probing the activities of several foreign aid groups operating in areas controlled by both the government and Tamil Tigers rebels.“The government has reviewed the work visas of certain members of the… non-governmental organisations in view of the continuing police investigations into allegations of inappropriate […]
Zimbabwe crisis signals boom time for Zambian tourism
VICTORIA FALLS, Zambia, Oct 5, 2006 (AFP) – For years it was regarded as a backwater and the poor relation to its southern neighbour, but the spiralling crisis in Zimbabwe has led to a massive upsurge in Zambia’s tourism industry.A total of 650,000 foreign visitors travelled to Zambia last year, a rise of nearly half […]
‘s value added tea exports dip, despite record highs in Aug
Oct 05 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has shipped less value added teas for the eight months to August, as a key buyer Libya is yet to place any big orders, a commodity broker said Thursday.The island main export crop earned 56.48 billion rupees by shipping 218.13 million kilos from Jan-Aug, a growth of 12 percent […]