Category: Other
Sri Lanka to farm Asian sea bass
July 01, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has approved a 2.5 million US dollar project to farm Barramundi or Asian Sea Bass off the coast of Trincomalee in North Eastern Sri Lanka, the state investment promotion agency said. Oceanpick, a Sri Lankan firm will partner with a Scottish firm to farm the fish in cages, […]
Sri Lanka to count sloth bears
July 01, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s wild life conservation authorities and a biodiversity organization, with funding from private business will count and estimate a sloth bear population in a national park in the North West of the island.The chamber said in a statement that the sloth bear sighting have declined in recent years and […]
British PM backs Taliban peace talks on Afghan visit
KABUL, June 29, 2013 (AFP) – British Prime Minister David Cameron made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Saturday, backing talks with the Taliban after his top general said the West missed a chance to strike a peace deal 10 years ago. “The attack that was organised near the presidential palace will not deter us […]
Fashionista
June 28, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military has released a woman leader of the Tamil Tiger militant group from four years of detention after she completed training in “bridal dressing”, the president’s office said Friday.The Tigers were known for their spectacular suicide bomb attacks and controlled a third of Sri Lanka’s territory at the […]
New flame-headed bird species found in Cambodia capital
PHNOM PENH, June 26, 2013 (AFP) – A new species of bird with a distinctive orange-red coloured tuft of feathers on its head has been found in Cambodia’s populous capital city, conservationists said on Wednesday. The remarkable discovery of the Cambodian tailorbird, or orthotomus chaktomuk, in Phnom Penh — and several other locations including a […]
Media Policy
June 23, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president has scrapped a contentious code of conduct for journalists after editors and rights groups condemned it as a further blow to press freedom, government and media sources said Sunday.President Mahinda Rajapakse ordered his information ministry not to proceed with the proposed code of conduct bill, but instead […]
Bond Deterrent
June 24, 2013 (LBO) – A pilot scheme to charge a 3,000 sterling immigration bond from visitors in five countries including Sri Lanka will only apply to the “highest risk applicants”, the British High Commission in Colombo said. The pilot will be evaluated to make it permanent, the statement said. Children under 18-year will be […]
”s Agadez among new UNESCO sites
PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Japan’s Mount Fuji, a series of ancient terraced rice paddies China, and the desert city of Agardaz in Niger were among the cultural jewels granted World Heritage status by UNESCO at its annual meeting on Saturday. On Saturday, UNESCO also inscribed the landscapes of terraced rice fields of Honghe Hani, south […]
Rescuers race against time as India monsoon toll nears 600
DEHRADUN, June 22, 2013 (AFP) – Relief teams were racing against time Saturday to rescue tens of thousands of stranded people in rain-ravaged northern India as the death toll from flash floods and landslides neared 600.Rescue workers who managed to reach those stranded were racing to cut down trees and clear vegetation to allow military […]
‘s Elpitiya Plantations boost tea yields, diversifies crop
June 21, 2013 (LBO) – Elpitiya Plantations Plc, a unit of Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence group said it had boosted tea yields and diversified into cinnamon oil palm and oil milling, allowing it to boost profits.In the year to March 2013, 11 percent of its 2.8 billion rupees in revenues came from palm oil as […]
Casino Watch
June 21, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will look into the possibility of setting up a casino regulator, a government minister said responding to a call by a legislator of the island’s main opposition.“We respect that idea,” information minister Keheliya Rambukwelle told reporters Thursday at a weekly news briefing to announce cabinet decisions. “Let’s see […]
Work Practices
June 20, 2013 (LBO) – A minimum age for employment may be raised to 16 years from 14 if proposals in a national policy on youth are adopted, officials said. Sri Lankan children however have had problems, especially in the past, where school-going age children in poor families were taken out of school and sent […]