Category: Other
” India visit
MUMBAI, November 6, 2010 (AFP) – President Barack Obama announced Saturday 10 billion dollars in trade deals with India to create 50,000 US jobs, on a visit that began with an emotional tribute to victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Kicking off a four-nation Asian tour weighted towards prying open new markets for US goods, […]
‘s oldest axe found in Australia
SYDNEY, November 5, 2010 (AFP) – Archaeologists Friday revealed they have found a piece of a stone axe dated as 35,500 years old on sacred Aboriginal land in Australia, the oldest object of its type ever found. The shard of stone, found in Australia’s lush and remote far northern reaches in May, has marks that […]
Sri Lanka Dialog broadband speeds rated best
Nov 05, 2010 (LBO) – Broadband download speeds delivered by Dialog Axiata, Sri Lanka’s dominant mobile operator, exceed expectations although its main rival Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) does better on other measurements, a report said. Dialog’s 1Mbps (megabytes per second) post-paid broadband package delivers more than promised in download speeds, recent Quality of Service Experience […]
”
PARIS, November 4, 2010 (AFP) – Physicists in Scotland said on Thursday they had devised a flexible material that manipulates light, marking a small step towards “invisibility” clothing beloved of science fiction writers and Harry Potter. The work is in the domain of metamaterials, or compounds with a surface that interacts with light thanks to […]
Sri Lanka Cargills says strengthens dairy presence
Nov 04, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Cargills will strengthen its presence in the island’s dairy sector by taking over three processing plants and having broader access to farmers, the company said in a statement. “The acquisition of Kotmale Holdings PLC comes in the wake of these identified opportunities and potential for sustainable long term […]
Sri Lanka slashes import taxes on edible oils, potatoes
Nov 01, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has slashed import taxes on vegetable oils, potatoes and onions to encourage imports as local prices rose, a senior finance ministry official said. S R Attygalle, director general fiscal policy, said the import tax on coconut oil has been cut to 15 rupees a kilo or 15 percent, […]
Sri Lanka farm gate coconut prices up 26-pct over two months
Oct 31, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s raw coconuts prices hit another high this week pushing average farm gate prices up 26. 5 percent over the past two months, as import protection remained tight amid higher global prices for substitutes. At Thursday’s auctions in Colombo average prices rose 894 rupees to 33,910 rupees for a […]
Connectivity
Oct 31, 2010 (LBO)- Improved connectivity is an essential precondition for trade in goods and services, hopefully better governed once the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and Sri Lanka is completed and signed. The already large movements of people between the two countries will only grow when multimodal and lower-cost options are restored and […]
Garden Path
Oct 30, 2010 (LBO) – Investors in Sri Lanka’s failed high-yield financial firms have lost more money than they should have by delaying liquidation and pressuring someone else to put additional cash to cover their losses, a legal expert has said. Neomal Gunewardene, partner of Nithya Partners, a law firm, said depositors in failed financial […]
Thai Crackdown
BANGKOK, October 30, 2010 (AFP) – Thai authorities have arrested 61 Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka, police said Saturday, in the second such crackdown in recent weeks. After a tip-off, 114 people were rounded up in the southern province of Songkhla on Thursday, but some were freed because they were able to present valid travel […]
” wedding ceremony
October 30, 2010 (AFP) – The Maldivian government has apologised to a European couple abused as “swine” and “infidels” during what was supposed to be a romantic renewal of wedding vows in the Indian Ocean archipelago. Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed “personally apologised” to the couple in a telephone conversation on Saturday afternoon, his office said […]
Earth-size planets abound in Milky Way: study
WASHINGTON, October 29, 2010 (AFP) – One out of four Sun-like stars in our Milky Way galaxy could host Earth-size planets, making life-bearing systems like ours possibly more common than previously thought, an astronomical study said Thursday. Dubbed the most extensive planetary census of its kind, the NASA-funded study at the University of California, Berkeley […]