Category: Other
Western fast food, waistlines surge in India
NEW DELHI, October 9, 2011 (AFP) – Every lunchtime at a McDonald’s on the corner of one of central New Delhi’s biggest streets, queues of hungry young patrons, often four-wide and unruly, snake towards the counters. In another study published last month, the International Federation of the Red Cross focused on the “double-edged scandal” of […]
Legal Status
NEW YORK, October 9, 2011 (AFP) – Raj Rajaratnam, convicted in the biggest US insider trading case for years, faces a sentence of up to 24 years prison next week at the close of a case seen as making an example of the hedge fund tycoon. The sentencing hearing on October 13 before federal Judge […]
Climate talks inch ahead on aid despite discord
PANAMA CITY, October 8, 2011 (AFP) – Climate negotiators said Friday they made progress on laying out ways to help poor countries but deep differences remained on core issues ahead of a make-or-break talks in South Africa. With scientists warning that the planet is far behind on meeting pledges to control climate change, officials from […]
US seeks WTO action on China, India subsidies
WASHINGTON, October 6, 2011 (AFP) – The United States said Thursday it has enlisted the World Trade Organization to obtain detailed information on subsidy programs in China and India. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said that Washington had submitted information to the WTO identifying nearly 200 subsidy programs that China has failed to notify as […]
Indian Ocean tsunami alert system to be tested on Oct 12
PARIS, October 6, 2011 (AFP) – Nearly two dozen countries next Wednesday will take part in a full-scale test of the Indian Ocean’s tsunami alert system, using the 2004 Sumatra quake as the basis for the exercise, UNESCO said on Thursday. Exercise IOWAVE 11 will re-enact the seismic events of December 26, 2004, simulating a […]
Sri Lanka tea estate gets govt nod for tie up
Oct 06, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Bogawantalawa Tea Estate, a listed firm said it has received approval from the state to transfer management of three factories and land to the domestic arm of a US based tea marketing firm. Bogawantalawa Plantations said in a stock filing that it had received the nod from the […]
Sri Lanka value added tea exports cleared by Syria
Oct 06, 2011 (LBO) – Syria has lifted an import ban on value-added tea exports from Sri Lanka which had raised fears it could sharply reduce earnings from the island’s main export product. “There’s now no ban by Syria,” said Hasitha De Alwis, director promotions of the Sri Lanka Tea Board. “The ban on smaller […]
Indian Ocean tsunami alert system to be tested on Oct 12
PARIS, October 6, 2011 (AFP) – Nearly two dozen countries next Wednesday will take part in a full-scale test of the Indian Ocean’s tsunami alert system, using the 2004 Sumatra quake as the basis for the exercise, UNESCO said on Thursday. Exercise IOWAVE 11 will re-enact the seismic events of December 26, 2004, simulating a […]
India to launch $45 tablet computer
NEW DELHI, October 4, 2011 (AFP) – India is set Wednesday to launch its long-awaited low-cost computer, a tablet device designed to bring the information technology revolution to tens of millions of students. The touchscreen computer has a seven-inch (18-centimetre) screen, Wi-Fi Internet access, a media player and 180 minutes of battery power, according to […]
Asia leads world in child-labor products: US report
WASHINGTON, October 4, 2011 (AFP) – India, Bangladesh and the Philippines lead the world in the number of products made by child workers, a US government stock-taking of the global scale of underaged labor revealed Monday. Some 130 types of goods — from building bricks and soccer balls to pornography and rare ores used in […]
Sri Lanka value-added tea exports fall
Oct 04, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s value-added tea exports have fallen in recent months in what a tea broker described as a “disturbing trend” as the country is trying to coax its main export up the value chain. Tea bags rose to a “healthy” nine percent in the quarter from six percent a year […]
‘s rupee a victim of global turmoil
NEW DELHI, October 2, 2011 (AFP) – India’s rupee has slid nearly 10 percent in three months against the dollar, a consequence of global economic uncertainty that will stoke already high inflation in Asia’s third-biggest economy. The rupee’s tumble makes import prices of everything from oil, fertilizers to food staples such as pulses, fuelling near-double-digit […]