Category: Other
Australian cows to prop up Sri Lanka rupee, increase incomes
Sept 13, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run cattle farms are getting cows from Australia to become ‘self sufficient’ in milk and reduce “the drain on the country™s foreign exchange resources”, the finance ministry said. A 12.9 million US dollar project co-financed by Australia’s Export Finance Insurance Corporation (EFIC) Cooperative and Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank (Rabobank) of […]
Boat People
Sept 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has arrested a fishing vessel with 40 people suspected to be illegal migrants headed for Australia, an official said. Sri Lanka navy has stepped up naval patrols and strengthened its presence along the island’s coast to combat piracy and illegal immigration. “The boat was arrested off the island’s […]
Sri Lanka sugar firm raises capital
Sept 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Pelwatte Sugar Industries, which produces sugar and alcohol has made a 306 million cash call to fix its finances by selling one share for every four held by current shareholders. The firm said in a stock exchange filing that it had a stated capital of 679 million rupees […]
NASA launches twin satellites to map inner Moon
WASHINGTON, September 10, 2011 (AFP) – NASA on Saturday launched a 0 million pair of washing-machine-sized satellites on a mission to map the Moon’s inner core for the first time. The twin spacecraft took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on a three-month journey to the Moon at 9:08 am (1308 GMT) […]
Sri Lanka tea seen threatened by climate change
Sept 09, 2011 (LBO) – Climate change brought about by global warming could threaten the famed quality of Sri Lanka’s tea, the island’s main agriculture export and its best known brand, a new report said. “Could this be the beginning of a shift in the global tea cultivation map? ” the brokers asked. “The impact […]
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ISLAMABAD, September 8, 2011 (AFP) – Pakistan and Iran on Thursday said a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline between the two countries was pressing ahead on schedule despite US objections to the project. The two signed an export deal last year for Iran to supply natural gas to its eastern neighbour from 2014, with sales to reach […]
And the heavens showered Earth with gold
PARIS, September 7, 2011 (AFP) – Were it not for meteorites striking Earth some four billion years ago, humans would never have laid eyes on the gold that has raised and ruined civilisations, according to a study published Thursday. Two hundred million years earlier, during the violent throes of planetary formation, Earth was a mass […]
Sri Lanka tea prices recover
Sep 08, 2011 (LBO) – Prices of teas made by Sri Lankan plantation company estates rose this week although still below production cost as supply fell and demand improved with brokers saying the market seems to have bottomed out. There was good demand at the Colombo auctions with improved buying mainly from shippers to the […]
Sri Lanka UK researchers in bid to save rare loris
Sept 07, 2011 (LBO) – Researchers from Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom are devising ways to save a rare primate that is threatened with extinction from habitat loss, including a species that was ˜rediscovered’ two years ago. The University of Colombo, Open University of Sri Lanka and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is […]
Ford building $1bn manufacturing complex in India
NEW DELHI, September 6, 2011 (AFP) – US auto giant Ford has started construction on a $1 billion manufacturing and engineering complex in India as it bets on the country to help drive global growth, a company statement said Tuesday. The Detroit firm still has a long way to go to make the region a […]
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NEW DELHI, September 7, 2011 (AFP) – For advertising executive Govind Nair, working in India’s outsourcing industry for a California telecoms firm means burning the candle at both ends for his customers. “They try to be considerate. They know there’s a 12-and-a-half-hour time difference between India and San Francisco but we still end up getting […]
Sri Lanka nut shortfall hits Renuka Agri profits
Sep 06, 2011 (LBO) – High coconut prices caused by a crop shortfall reduced profits at Renuka Agri Foods last year although exports increased. Net profit fell 20.5 percent to 144 million rupees in the year ended March 31, 2011 from 181 million rupees the year before with earnings per share falling to 36 cents […]