Author: lbostgadmin
Power cuts plunge half Bangladesh into darkness
DHAKA, May 19, 2006 (AFP) – Almost half of Bangladesh was plunged into darkness as the national electricity grid tripped, shutting down most of the country’s power generation units, reports said Friday. The capital Dhaka and districts across the north were affected by the more than two-hour shutdown late Thursday as summer temperatures soared above […]
‘s Merapi
KINAHREJO, Indonesia, May 19, 2006 (AFP) – The guardian of Indonesia’s Mount Merapi leads a silent procession — or what should be — around his hamlet under the cover of night in a bid to appease the volcano’s ancient spirits. Merapi, which means “Mountain of Fire”, has been belching potentially deadly heat clouds from its […]
Muslim jeans for worshippers cause a stir in Pakistan
KARACHI, May 19, 2006 (AFP) – A new line of jeans for Muslims who want to stay comfortable when they pray has drawn mixed reactions from religious hardliners in Pakistan, where the trousers are being made. Designed by an Italian company and named after the Arabic term for Jerusalem, Al Quds Jeans are baggy with […]
Bigger Footprint
May 19 (LBO) – Dialog Telekom, a unit of Telekom Malaysia, Friday kicked off a 150 million dollars expansion drive to grow its mobile and broadband business in Sri Lanka. For the three months to March 31, Dialog’s net profits soared 39 percent to 2.39 billion rupees, while revenues jumped 55 percent to 5.95 billion […]
Sri Lanka tourism stays steady in April, despite local violence
May 19 (LBO) – Tourist traffic to Sri Lanka stayed steady in April to reach 46,000 travelers, despite ongoing political instability and civil unrestthe island’s main tourism promotion body said Friday. Our advisory was updated to include a reference to local elections that take place next week and warning against political gatherings and demonstrations, John […]
U.S. gives million dollars to spruce up tsunami shelters
May 18, 2006 (LBO) – The United States Thursday gave Sri Lanka a one million dollar grant to upgrade and improve the living conditions in 40,000 transitional shelters built after the December 2004 tsunami. Nearly 20,000 people still live in transitional shelters, of which around 40 percent are in need of upgrades, the U.S. said […]
‘s restive region
May 18, 2006 (AFP) – Heavy mortar bomb attacks were reported from Sri Lanka’s restive north-eastern port district of Trincomalee Thursday, residents and police said.Security forces were firing at suspected Tamil rebel positions from which they came under attack overnight, police said as residents said they heard several mortar bomb explosions within a half-hour period. […]
Sri Lankan FM urges donors to pressure Tamil rebels
TOKYO, May 18, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera called Thursday on donor countries to raise pressure on the Tamil Tigers to resume talks and to curb the rebels’ fund-raising overseas.Samaraweera was in Tokyo ahead of a May 30 meeting here of Sri Lanka’s key financial backers, which comes as killings mount […]
Soldier gunned down as Sri Lanka FM seeks pressure on Tigers
May 18, 2006 (AFP) – A rebel sniper gunned down a soldier at a de facto front line in northern Sri Lanka, the army said Thursday as the country’s foreign minister asked donor nations to pressure Tamil rebels to resume talks.An army statement blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the soldier’s death […]
Cannes briefs: Jesus goes straight, Love and celluloid, Hanks waxes hot
CANNES, France, May 17, 2006 (AFP) – Snips from the Cannes film festival, which kicked off Wednesday: Jesus Christ going straight in “Da Vinci Code” British actor and gay activist Ian McKellen took a swipe at the controversy surrounding “The Da Vinci Code” saying he thought the Catholic Church would have been happy about it […]
”s turn for secretary general
TOKYO, May 18, 2006 (AFP) – UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday that most nations believe his successor should come from Asia, as campaigning for his replacement intensifies.“I can say that most of the member states believe that it is a turn for Asia,” Annan told a news conference in Tokyo. “It is a […]
‘s Heathrow Airport
HEATHROW AIRPORT, England, May 18, 2006 (AFP) – The biggest passenger aircraft in the skies, the Airbus A380, landed at London’s Heathrow Airport on Thursday.The super-jumbo touched down at the west London airport at 1:19 pm (1219 GMT), making its British debut to test new facilities for jumbo aircraft. The arrival of the gigantic double-decker […]