Category: Other
India government warns on BlackBerry
NEW DELHI, August 26, 2010 (AFP) – India warned the makers of the BlackBerry Thursday its messaging services could be shut down if it failed to give security agencies access “in readable format” as a compliance deadline loomed. A shutdown would affect corporate users among BlackBerry’s 1.1 million customers, whose communications have a higher level […]
Nail Torture
Aug 27, 2010 (LBO) – Doctors in Sri Lanka have removed 15 metal objects including nails and pins from a woman domestic worker who had returned from Saudi Arabia a media report in the island said. Some also go the Maldives, which is the best managed economy in South Asia with the strongest exchange rate. […]
Mother Teresa remembered, 100 years on
KOLKATA, August 26, 2010 (AFP) – A solemn mass kicked off a day of remembrance Thursday on the birth centenary of Mother Teresa, known as the “Saint of the Gutters” for her life’s work with the sick and destitute of Kolkata. Mother Teresa began her missionary work with the poor in Kolkata in 1948 and […]
Indian PM says wealth divide adding to instability
NEW DELHI, August 26, 2010 (AFP) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said that the country’s widening divide between rich and poor was a factor that encouraged crime and caused difficulties for police. Singh told a conference of police chiefs in New Delhi that national security was being threatened by an array of […]
Nail Torture
Aug 25, 2010 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan woman working as a domestic aide in Saudi Arabia has had 24 flaming nails driven in to her foot and a needle into her forehead by her employers, a rights body has said. Several hundred thousand Sri Lankan women work in Middle Eastern countries. The rights body […]
Sri Lanka urged to lift land controls by World Bank
Aug 25, 2010 (LBO) – A World Bank study has called on Sri Lanka to loosen controls on land ownership and use, saying restrictions tend to keep poor farmers poor. “Land-development ordinances that regulate the use and transfer of land keep a larger proportion of people dependent on agriculture,” the report said. “They also keep […]
Detained
VANCOUVER, August 24, 2010 (AFP) – Canada’s independent Immigration and Refugee Board on Monday ordered the continued detention of all 443 adult Tamil asylum seekers who arrived August 13 aboard the cargo ship MV Sun Sea. Adjudicators agreed with government requests for more time to analyze the migrant’s identity documents. With the 380 men and […]
Indian carmaker signs preliminary deal to buy Ssangyong
SEOUL, August 23, 2010 (AFP) – India’s leading sports utility vehicle maker Mahindra and Mahindra signed a preliminary agreement Monday to take over bankrupt South Korean carmaker Ssangyong Motor, Ssangyong said. Ssangyong announced the signing of the memorandum of understanding in a regulatory filing to the Seoul stock exchange, but no figures for the deal […]
” recovery
NEW DELHI, August 23, 2010 (AFP) – India announced new stimulus measures Monday worth 225 million dollars to help garment, leather and handicraft exporters during the “fragile” global economic recovery. The country’s export growth slowed sharply in July on weakening demand from Western markets and the government has warned that the pace could slacken further […]
Maldivian festival of ideas brings together artists, scientists
Aug 22, 2010 (LBO) – The Maldives plans to hold a festival bringing together international and local artists and experts from the fields of literature, art, science, drama, music and poetry in October this year. The event, billed as a festival of “ideas, conversations and fun” will celebrate “one of the world’s most hopeful new […]
Indian film industry wants more awareness over film piracy
MUMBAI, August 22, 2010 (AFP) – Ashish is a senior executive in the financial sector in the home of Bollywood, Mumbai. He earns a good wage, lives in an upmarket neighbourhood and sees himself as a decent, law-abiding citizen. But like many Indians, the 49-year-old sees nothing wrong with buying the latest Hindi-language and Hollywood […]
Sri Lanka gives more money to promote rice over wheat flour
Aug 19, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government is to spend 2. 5 billion rupees over the next three years to extend a programme to encourage rice cultivation and consumption and reduce wheat flour consumption, a spokesman said. Rambukkwelle said the government wants to support the agriculture sector which it sees as a key factor […]