Category: Other
‘s IndiGo to start overseas flights
NEW DELHI, January 20, 2011 (AFP) – India’s ambitious budget airline IndiGo will start international operations in August, the company said in a statement, a week after it placed a huge order for 180 new aircraft. The aviation ministry has approved IndiGo’s proposal to launch services to Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai and Muscat. “IndiGo is delighted […]
Anti Smuggling
OTTAWA, January 19, 2011 (AFP) – Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews renewed calls Wednesday for tougher measures to curb human smuggling, amid reports the defeated Tamil rebels are regrouping in his country. Toews said “new information” suggests that “syndicated criminal networks are organizing migrant smuggling ventures potentially destined for Canada. ” Without elaborating, he […]
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LONDON, January 18, 2011 (AFP) – Britain has asked India to waive diplomatic immunity for a senior diplomat following reports that he assaulted his wife at their London home, the Foreign Office said Tuesday. Police were called to the home of the envoy, named by media as Anil Verma, last month following reports of a […]
Nobel laureate Yunus in Bangladesh court
DHAKA, January 18, 2011 (AFP) – Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus appeared in a Bangladesh court on Tuesday in a defamation case dating back to 2007, posing further legal problems for the microfinance pioneer in his homeland. Last week, the government ordered a probe into Yunus’s Grameen Bank, with which he shared the Nobel […]
Sri Lanka mahouts suspended over elephant death
January 17, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main elephant orphanage Monday suspended two mahouts and a curator following the death of a 23-year-old male pachyderm in their care, a senior official said. Elephants are considered sacred animals in Sri Lanka and a judicial inquiry is required before one can be buried. Gunaratne said the centre […]
Sri Lanka to push green jobs
Jan 18, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka labour minsitry and the internatonal labour organisaton is to look for ways to create more ‘green jobs’ and provide skills for workers in environmentally friendly enterprises. “Moving the Sri Lankan economy onto an environmentally sustainable and low carbon development path will change the socio-economic structures of the country […]
Sri Lanka warns of high food prices after floods
January 17, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka warned Monday that food prices could shoot up after devastating floods in the north and east of the country destroyed rice and vegetable crops. Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said vegetable prices had already been affected because of the impact on growing areas that were swamped by unusually […]
Sri Lanka mine fears as floods recede
January 16, 2011 (AFP) – Unexploded mines planted during Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatist war may have shifted during recent floods, officials said Sunday, as residents started to return to their badly-damaged homes and farms. More than one million people were initially displaced in the flooding, with the east of the island worst affected by a […]
Floods hit harvest festival in Sri Lanka former war zone inundated
BATTICALOA, January 15, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils would normally celebrate their annual harvest festival Saturday, but instead they are struggling to survive the worst flooding in living memory. With a handful of rice and a couple of incense sticks, Sadairani Kumar is keen to mark the festival of Thaipongal, popular among the […]
Regulatory Review
Jan 15, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will modernize its governing law to meet market trends and introduce civil sanctions for market offenders, an official said. SEC chairwoman Indrani Sugathadasa said the 1987 SEC law has been change three times but there had been “no overall review of the provisions […]
Freedom
January 15, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lankan authorities on Saturday released 78 suspected Tamil Tiger rebels from an internment centre to mark the Tamil harvest festival of Thai Pongal, an official said. A total of 48 women and 30 men left a military-run facility in the northern town of Jaffna, the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation […]
‘s inflation leaps above 8.0%
NEW DELHI, January 14, 2011 (AFP) – India’s inflation rose again to 8. 43 percent in December, data showed Friday, as the government announced steps to curb food prices amid mounting public anger over the cost of living. The wholesale price index, used as the main measure for inflation in India, accelerated to 8.43 percent […]