Category: Other
Sri Lanka dairy business prospects seen improving
Apr 23, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s dairy sector is improving with strong competition among processors expanding demand for milk and helping farmers, the US Agency for International Development said. USAID has boosted the sector by partnering with a private company to increase milk production, it said in a statement. A USAID study showed that […]
Maldives president wins UN eco prize
Apr 22, 2010 (LBO) – President Mohamed Nasheed of Maldives, a low lying atoll nation in the Indian Ocean which fears inundation rising sea levels, has won a top environmental prize from the United Nations, his office said. He has been named a winner of the ‘Champions of the Earth’ award for policy leadership. Maldives […]
‘s water crisis laid bare by clash with US cola giants
NEW DELHI, April 21, 2010 (AFP) – A pollution fine for Coca-Cola and an order for PepsiCo to cut water use at factories in India have highlighted an intensifying conflict between big business and farmers over natural resources. Last month, a report commissioned by the southern state of Kerala ordered Coca-Cola to pay 47 million […]
Policy Debate
Apr 21, 2010 (LBO) – Dr Harsha de Silva has been an exemplary policy intellectual. He had the greatest impact in contributing to the shifting of the frame for discussing inflation in Sri Lanka from the misguided focus on imported inflation to one that correctly places the actions of the Central Bank and the now […]
World Banks says East Asia could stabilise emissions by 2025
BEIJING, April 19, 2010 (AFP) – The World Bank said Monday that East Asia could stabilise its greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 while maintaining economic growth by investing in energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies. Achieving the target would require the region’s biggest energy guzzlers to invest an extra 80 billion dollars a year to make […]
Indian police defuse two bombs at cricket ground
BANGALORE, April 18, 2010 (AFP) – Police in the southern Indian city of Bangalore Sunday defused two crude bombs next to a cricket stadium, a senior officer said, a day after explosions outside the ground injured eight people, Both devices were found next to the 40,000-seater Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the blasts on Saturday sparked panic […]
Refugee Move
JAKARTA, April 18, 2010 (AFP) – Indonesia is likely on Monday to move scores of Sri Lankan migrants who have refused to leave their rickety boat for the past six months, the foreign ministry said. “Most probably on Monday…. Wait for the details tomorrow,” foreign ministry official Sujatmiko told AFP when asked about the expected […]
Clerical Probe
LA HAYE, April 16, 2010 (AFP) – A Catholic priest in the Netherlands has come under investigation over allegations of child abuse and embezzlement in Sri Lanka, Church officials and the police said Friday. The Rotterdam diocese said in a statement it had contacted the police and dismissed the priest. Rotterdam police spokesman Karel van […]
No Entry
NEW DELHI, April 17, 2010 (AFP) – The ailing mother of Sri Lanka’s slain Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has been denied entry to India for medical treatment, the Press Trust of India reported Saturday. Vallipuram Parvathi travelled from Malaysia to the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Friday night, but was prevented from […]
Sri Lanka tea producers say need support for replanting
Apr 17, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s plantations companies needs financial support to replant ageing trees as production costs rose, an industry official said as the state held back proceeds from an industry development levy. Dhamitha Perera, chairman of the Planters’ Association which represents corporate tea producers, said the costs of replanting estates with old […]
India inflation nears double-digits, rate hike seen
NEW DELHI, April 15, 2010 (AFP) – India’s inflation rate crept closer to double digits, official data showed Thursday, as analysts forecast another hike in interest rates to contain prices in Asia’s third-largest economy. Year-on-year wholesale price inflation, India’s main cost-of-living measure, edged up to 9.9 percent in March from 9.89 percent the previous month, […]
India plans launch sale of 4G mobile services: report
NEW DELHI, April 14, 2010 (AFP) – India plans to hold an auction of ultra-high-speed fourth-generation (4G) mobile phone spectrum soon after completion of 3G access now underway, a report said Wednesday. It will also heat up the battle for customers in the world’s fastest-growing mobile market. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has […]