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‘s highest rate of over 100-year-olds: expert
HAVANA, May 24, 2008 (AFP) – About 1,800 Cubans are over 100 years old, making it the country with the highest rate of centenarians, an expert said Saturday.Eugenio Selman-Housein, chairman of the 120 Years Club and previously head of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s medical team, also said “life expectancy has gone up to almost […]
To predict quakes, listen to the animals, China survivors say
TANGSHAN, China, May 25, 2008 (AFP) – Well before this city was destroyed by an earthquake 32 years ago, the coming disaster was loudly preceded by strange animal behaviour and other bizarre signals that survivors wish they heeded.“The animals were trying to tell us something.If only we knew that, not so many people would have […]
Sri Lanka told by US to practice what it preaches
May 25, 2008 (LBO) – The United States has said Sri Lanka’s government must do more to stop abductions and “disappearances” and that having laws alone is not enough without ensuring actual protection of human rights. “Sri Lanka has the necessary institutional framework in place, but it needs to empower its institutions to carry out […]
Reserve currencies should stop money printing to contain commodity bubble: IMF study
May 25, 2008 (LBO) – The world’s major ‘reserve currency’ central banks should stop money printing to end a monetary shock that is firing a global commodity bubble and food riots in poor countries, a new International Monetary Fund study has said. The money issued by major central banks such as the Federal Reserve and […]
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 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 […]
‘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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
” for peace, reconciliation: scholar
May 24, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should commemorate the 25th anniversary of the July 1983 riots and put forward its best offer to the Tamil people as part of a political offensive to end the war and find peace and reconciliation, a US scholar said. William Grassie, a senior Fulbright Fellow, said the commemoration […]
Steep Rise
May 24, 2008 (LBO) – After dragging their feet for months Sri Lanka’s state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) jacked up diesel prices by an unprecedented 37 percent and petrol by 23 percent, while a unit of Indian Oil Corporation said it would follow suit. An International Monetary Fund study said this week that commodity markets […]