Category: Other
Flipkart battles Amazon for India e-shopping dominance
NEW DELHI, June 4, 2014 (AFP) – India’s online retailers are bulking up on acquisitions and funding as they battle the world’s biggest Internet shopping giant, Amazon, for supremacy in the hyper-competitive domestic market.Late last month, Flipkart, India’s largest e-shopping portal, announced the takeover of rival Myntra in a deal analysts estimated at 0 million […]
Extinct bat found in Papua New Guinea
SYDNEY, June 4, 2014 (AFP) – A big-eared bat which was thought to be extinct has been found in a forest in Papua New Guinea, highlighting the unique biodiversity of the developing nation, researchers said Wednesday. Until the find the bat, or Pharotis imogene, had not been seen in 120 years. “The species was presumed […]
Indian central bank keeps rates steady
MUMBAI, June 3, 2014 (AFP) – India’s hawkish central bank kept key interest rates unchanged Tuesday at its first meeting to set monetary policy since new pro-growth Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office.After meeting in the financial capital Mumbai, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the benchmark repo rate, at which it lends to […]
Celebrations as India gets new state of Telangana
HYDERABAD, June 2, 2014 (AFP) – Celebrations erupted in southern India to mark the creation of the new state of Telangana on Monday at the culmination of a separatist campaign stretching back nearly six decades. Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, who at one stage went on hunger strike as part of the push to create what is […]
13 dead as rains lash Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, June 2, 2014 (AFP) – Unusually heavy monsoon rains have flooded Sri Lanka’s capital and neighbouring districts where mudslides killed at least 13 people, officials said Monday. The island’s western and southern regions experienced heavy rains with more than 100 millimetres (four inches) dumped within about one hour on Sunday, an official at the […]
Self Immolation
SYDNEY, June 2, 2014 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seeker has died after setting himself on fire while awaiting a visa decision in Australia, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Monday.Leorsin Seemanpillai, 29, who was living in Geelong, outside Melbourne, after being granted a temporary visa a year ago, suffered burns to 90 percent of […]
Sri Lanka arrests Indian fishermen after Modi talks
COLOMBO, June 1, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy said Sunday it had seized 29 Indian fishermen, the first arrests since President Mahinda Rajapakse and India’s new premier held talks on resolving the thorny issue of poaching. The navy arrested the Indians along with six trawlers off the island’s northwest coast on Sunday, a navy […]
‘s Noorani Estates plans expansion, possible listing
May 30, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Noorani Estates (Pvt) Ltd, a poultry firm that operates under the brand Nelfarms is planning to invest over one billion rupees over three years to expand, with a possible stock exchange listing also on the cards, a top official said.“We are very bullish about the industry,” Noordeen Sethwala, […]
Deport Debate
KUALA LUMPUR, May 28, 2014 (AFP) – The United Nations refugee agency and Human Rights Watch on Wednesday decried Malaysia’s deportation of two Sri Lankan refugees and an asylum-seeker accused of being Tamil Tiger separatists.“Malaysia’s forced return of these refugees to Sri Lanka is no free pass for torture and mistreatment,” Phil Robertson, the rights […]
Pakistan India relations take surprising warmer turn with Modi
NEW DELHI, May 26, 2014 (AFP) – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was expected to hold landmark talks with his Pakistani counterpart and announce his new cabinet Tuesday as he looked to hit the ground running on his first day in office. The morning after Modi and his slimmed-down team of ministers were sworn in, […]
UN rights office condemns Maldives death penalty revival
GENEVA, April 29, 2014 (AFP) – The UN human rights office on Tuesday voiced concern over moves to revive the death penalty in the Maldives, including for minors, after a six-decade freeze on capital punishment in the Indian Ocean archipelago.“We are deeply concerned about a new regulation adopted in the Maldives on implementation of the […]
Shifting Focus
WELLINGTON, May 27, 2014 (AFP) – People-smugglers are looking to target New Zealand now that Australia’s tough border protection policies have effectively “closed down” that country to asylum-seeker boats, Prime Minister John Key said Tuesday.While the voyage to New Zealand from places such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka is potentially far more perilous than trying […]