Category: Other
Sri Lankan tea output down in 2009 despite year end rally
Jan 23, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea production was fell 9.0 percent to 289.77 million kilograms in 2009, despite a sharp recovery in output in the latter part of the year amid surging prices. In December tea output rose 29.5 percent to 25.1 million kilogram from a year earlier. Orthodox black tea, which is […]
Arms Dealing
WASHINGTON, January 23, 2010 (AFP) – A New York court sentenced two men to 14 and 26 years in prison Friday for providing support to the Tamil Tigers separatist group, the Justice Department said Friday. Government troops killed the LTTE leadership and declared the total annihilation of the separatist guerrillas on May 18, ending Asia’s […]
‘s child brides
PARIS, January 22, 2010 (AFP) – Babies born to child brides in India run a higher risk of malnourishment compared to those born to older mothers, says a paper appearing on Friday. Anita Raj, a professor at Boston University School of Public Health, led an investigation into 19,000 children born to 13,500 women who had […]
Sri Lanka dairy farmers get US lift
Jan 20, 2010 (LBO) – Dairy farmers in eastern Sri Lanka will get technical help to improve milk production and also be linked to agri-business firms, in a program supported by the United States. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has signed a deal with Manmunai West Livestock Breeders Cooperative Society to increase the […]
Pacific Refuge
WELLINGTON, January 19, 2010 (AFP) – New Zealand has agreed to take 13 Sri Lankan refugees who spent weeks refusing to leave an Australian customs boat in Indonesia last year, the government said Tuesday. New Zealand originally did not want to take any of the Tamil refugees who refused to leave the Oceanic Viking, but […]
Giant, leaping Asian carp threaten US Great Lakes
CHICAGO, January 20, 2010 (AFP) – Huge Asian carp, which act like “aquatic vacuum cleaners” and leap into the air when spooked by motorboats, may have invaded the US Great Lakes despite a massive effort to block them, officials said Tuesday. Researchers analyzing water samples have discovered fragments of Asian carp DNA in Lake Michigan, […]
Sri Lanka farmers to learn to live with wild elephants
Jan 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka rural farmers living close to forested areas with wild elephants will be taught to manage human animal conflicts through a new model dairy pilot project, its promoters said. Exetel, an Australian IT firm that runs a call centre in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society […]
Disaster Relief
LEOGANE, January 16, 2010 (AFP) – A first shipment of UN food aid arrived on Saturday in the ruined Haitian town of Leogane, where street after street of homes and businesses was torn apart by this week’s devastating earthquake. Just 17 kilometres (10 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince, Leogane was close to the epicentre […]
Scenes of horror, devastation in Port-au-Prince
PORT-AU-PRINCE, January 13, 2010 (AFP) – In just one terrifying minute the earth convulsed Tuesday in Haiti, flattening buildings and casually tossing chunks of twisted metal and concrete into the air. Thousands fled sobbing in terror and panic onto the streets of the capital Port-au-Prince, seeking to escape the fury of the 7.0 earthquake. But […]
‘s Bharti acquires control of Bangladesh telecom firm
MUMBAI, January 12, 2010 (AFP) – India’s biggest mobile phone firm Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced it will acquire a 70 percent stake in Bangladesh-based Warid Telecom, signalling the company’s strong global ambitions. The move into Bangladesh by Bharti comes after its plan to ally with South Africa’s MTN to create an emerging market telecom […]
Bailed Out
COLOMBO, January 11, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s court of appeal on Monday freed on bail a Tamil editor whose 20-year prison sentence last year for supporting “terrorism” drew international criticism, a court official said. Official figures show nine journalists have been killed and another 27 assaulted in the past three years in Sri Lanka […]
Europe freeze strands travellers, cuts power
BERLIN, January 10, 2010 (AFP) – The Arctic freeze gripping Europe left hundreds of people stuck in vehicles in deep snow or stranded at airports with scores of flights cancelled and power cuts to thousands of homes on Sunday. The treacherous conditions cut off villages in northern Germany and on the Baltic islands, and disrupted […]