Category: Other
Renewables major part of 2050 world energy mix: UN
PARIS, May 7, 2011 (AFP) – Renewable power from the Sun, wind, water and biomass can and should generate a major portion of the planet’s energy supply by 2050, according to a draft United Nations report obtained by AFP. Renewables have the potential to bring power to the world’s poorest regions, boost energy security for […]
India to supply power to Bangladesh
NEW DELHI, May 7, 2011 (AFP) – India said Saturday it would start to supply some 250 megawatts of power to neighbouring Bangladesh by 2013 as it moves to cement relations between the South Asian neighbours. The step is part of a drive by the two countries for closer ties. “Work on the transmission line […]
India govt panel cuts growth forecast to 8.5%
NEW DELHI, May 6, 2011 (AFP) – The top economic adviser to India’s prime minister has cut his estimate for economic growth in the current fiscal year by half a percentage point to 8. 5 percent, citing inflationary pressures. The Indian government has targeted 9.0 percent growth for the year to March 31, 2012, but […]
Hundreds join anti-government protest in Maldives
May 6, 2011 (AFP) – Hundreds of anti-government protesters took to the streets of The Maldives for a sixth consecutive day Friday to demonstrate against soaring prices and demand that President Mohammed Nasheed resign. Eyewitnesses said more than 500 people gathered in Republican Square in the capital Male after Friday prayers to protest against economic […]
Sri Lanka tea prices fall
May 06, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices fell for the second week at the Colombo auctions with brokers warning that surging crops and a drop in quality could reduce prices further and bring down earnings of producers. “Overall a lower market,” Forbes & Walker Tea Brokers said in a report. “Auction offerings were […]
Internal Inquiry
May 4, 2011 (AFP) – The United States called on Sri Lanka Wednesday to bring to justice anyone responsible for war crimes committed as the island crushed a decades-long insurgency. US diplomat Robert Blake said Colombo should carry out its own investigation into allegations contained in a United Nations report of atrocities during the 2009 […]
Second Round
May 4, 2011 (AFP) – The jury in the Wall Street insider trading trial of hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam was ordered Wednesday to restart deliberations from scratch after one juror had to be replaced. Judge Richard Holwell instructed the jury that after one of their members had to be replaced for medical reasons, the […]
”s fourth-quarter profit dives 31%
NEW DELHI, May 5, 2011 (AFP) – India’s top mobile phone firm Bharti Airtel said Thursday its fiscal fourth-quarter net profit tumbled 31 percent from a year earlier, weighed by costs from its new Africa acquisition. Net profit fell to 14.01 billion rupees ($314.3 million) in the three months to March from 20. 44 billion […]
Climate Finance
May 04, 2011 (LBO) Climate change is a burning issue under discussion today. As a small island nation, Sri Lanka is vulnerable to serious threats of climate change, causing both humanitarian and health hazards, as flooding in recent months has shown. British Foreign Secretary William Hague has described climate change as perhaps the twenty-first century’s […]
I control therefore I am: chimps self-aware, says study
PARIS, May 4, 2011 (AFP) – Chimpanzees are self-aware and can anticipate the impact of their actions on the environment around them, an ability once thought to be uniquely human, according to a study released Wednesday. The findings, reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, challenge assumptions about the boundary between human and […]
Fourth night of protests in Maldives
May 3, 2011 (AFP) – Anti-government protesters took to the streets of the Maldives for a fourth night on Tuesday, as police baton-charged demonstrators and arrested a senior opposition activist, eyewitnesses said. Police arrested opposition member Umar Naseer on Tuesday night as he led scores of people through the narrow cobbled streets of Male, demanding […]
”, GI tea logos
May 04, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has launched new logos for Ceylon tea to protect the island’s best known brand under the Geographical Indicators (GI) international trade regime and promote it as ozone friendly. The 1.5 billion US dollar Ceylon tea industry aims to use the new logos to market the tea as a […]