Category: Other
Lawlessness
Aug 11, 2011 (LBO) – Friday Forum, a Sri Lankan citizens group fighting to re-establish rule of law and liberal democracy, has raised fresh concerns about lawlessness in the island’s north after an elderly Tamil journalist was brutally assaulted. A 30-year war in the island’s north and east ended two year ago. Local elections were […]
Sentencing Plea
Aug 11, 2011 (LBO) – Lawyers for Raj Rajaratnam, a Sri Lanka born fund manager convicted of insider trading, said he should be dealt leniently because of his failing health, the state exaggerated his crimes and his good deeds. US prosecutors had demand a maximum sentence of 24.5 years and described him as the ‘modern […]
Death Sentence
NEW DELHI, August 11, 2011 (AFP) – India’s president has rejected mercy pleas from three men convicted of the 1991 assassination of then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, paving the way for their execution, an official told AFP on Thursday. “The rejection (of the clemency petitions) happened last week after the president returned from a foreign […]
Sri Lanka wildlife groups boycott elephant census
Aug 10, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan conservation groups are boycotting an elephant census, and called on the private sector not to support the effort, after a government minister revealed plans to capture up to 300 calves with tusks for domestication. Agrarian and wildlife minister S M Chandrasena was reported as saying that the survey […]
Sri Lanka Bairaha June net down 47-pct
Aug 10, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Bairaha Farms, a poultry group said net profits fell 47 percent to 55. 1 million rupees in the June 2011 quarter with revenues down 01 percent to 565 million rupees. The firm reported earnings of 3. 45 rupees per share for the quarter. Sri Lanka’s poultry stocks have […]
Sri Lanka war ravaged rice mill gets ILO help
Aug 10, 2011 (LBO) – The International Labour Organization is helping a co-operative society in northern Sri Lanka rebuild a war-damaged rice mill, which will process paddy produced by 2,000 farmers in the area. The mill in Nadunkerni, Vavuniya, can process 4,000 metric tonnes of paddy (unhusked rice) a year, creating 20 jobs. The ILO […]
Sri Lanka eastern farmers to grow sea bass, mussels, oysters: USAID
Aug 10, 2011 (LBO) – Farmers in Trincomalee in eastern Sri Lanka are growing sea bass in cages as part of a larger aquaculture project involving 1,300 people who will also grow mussels and oyster, with help from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The US embassy in Colombo said over 50 percent of […]
Indian minister says confidence returns to market
NEW DELHI, August 10, 2011 (AFP) – Confidence has returned to India’s share market after it plunged to a 14-month low on the back of the latest global financial turmoil, the country’s finance minister said Wednesday. India’s benchmark Sensex index of 30 leading shares soared nearly 400 points in early trade as part of a […]
Flowing water on Mars sparks new hunt for life traces
WASHINGTON, August 5, 2011 (AFP) – Scientists have found evidence of flowing salt water on steep Martian slopes, which if confirmed would be the first discovery of active liquid water on the red planet, NASA said Thursday. The data gathered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has given new focus to the hunt for life forms […]
Sri Lanka can tap Vietnam for aquaculture: minister
July 30, 2011 (LBO) – Vietnam is ready to send experts to Sri Lanka to transfer aquaculture knowledge and techniques to grow seaweed, lobster and sea-cucumber, visiting minister Vu Van Tam said in Colombo. “We can send out technicians or experts to help Sri Lanka,” deputy minister Tam said. “Or we are ready to receive […]
Rights Activist
July 29, 2011 (AFP) – The body of a prominent Sri Lankan human rights activist missing since February last year has been found, the United Nations said Friday. Pattani Razeek, managing trustee of non-governmental organisation the Community Trust Fund, was exhumed by police on Thursday after a tip-off from two suspects arrested in relation to […]
Sri Lanka former war-torn areas get cold chain
July 28, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings backed by the US Agency for International Development will build a ‘cold chain’ to bring fishery and agricultural produce from former war torn regions to the market. Sri Lanka’s Hayleys group and USAID are also involved in a project to grow and export fruits and […]