Category: Other
India gives conditional green light to emission cuts
NEW DELHI, November 28, 2009 (AFP) – Indian Premier Manmohan Singh said Saturday he was willing to commit his country to “ambitious” global carbon emission cuts, provided others shared the burden.Home to nearly 1.2 billion people, India is the only major greenhouse gas emitting nation yet to announce figures on reining in its carbon output, […]
‘s Tata Motors swings to quarterly profit
MUMBAI, November 27, 2009 (AFP) – India’s leading vehicle company, Tata Motors, reported Friday it had swung to a consolidated quarterly net profit, helped by a better performance by its premium car marques Jaguar and Land Rover.Tata Motors’ net profit, including British motoring icons Jaguar and Land Rover, totalled 217.8 million rupees (4.65 million dollars) […]
Sri Lanka farmers connect to markets on mobile phones
Nov 27, 2009 (LBO) – A trial Sri Lankan commodity trade matching portal using mobile phones to improve marketing of farmer produce will need private sector investment to be sustainable, an official said. Chitranganie Mubarak, a Senior Programme Head of the Information Communications Technology Agency (ICTA), said the project is part of efforts to use […]
Sri Lanka seeks to expand plantations
Nov 25, 2009 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government wants to encourage rubber and coconut cultivation outside traditional areas of production, Plantations Industries Minister D M Jayaratne said.He said there was high demand for land to grow coconut in the east, after the end of the ethnic war made cultivation there commercially viable. The eastern […]
Legal Action
PARIS, November 23, 2009 (AFP) – A French court on Monday jailed 21 Tamil Tiger militants convicted of extorting millions of euros from the Tamil diaspora in France to fund their armed campaign in Sri Lanka. The toughest sentence of seven years in was given to Nadaraja Matinthiran, whom the court heard was the leader […]
Sri Lanka Malwatte profit down despite higher rubber earnings
Nov 23, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Malwatte Valley Plantations said net profit for the September quarter fell six percent to 152 million rupees from a year ago with earnings from rubber up sharply but no provision made for a recent wage hike. Sales in the quarter rose 21 percent to 717 million rupees, according […]
Sri Lanka tea industry eyes NZ dairy success
Nov 23, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea industry needs to work together more closely like New Zealand’s dairy industry which dominates a big share of the world’s dairy trade, an industry official said. Kumar Jayasuriya, chairman of James Finlay, Colombo, a big plantations company whose ultimate parent is Britain’s Swire group, said the industry […]
Fight
SYDNEY, November 23, 2009 (AFP) – Australia moved to tighten security at its main immigration centre on Monday after a riot by 150 asylum-seekers, reportedly wielding pool cues, broomsticks and tree branches, left 37 wounded.Immigration Minister Chris Evans said security would be increased to prevent a repeat of Saturday’s mass brawl between Afghan and Sri […]
Flashy Indian brides struggle with high gold prices
NEW DELHI, November 22, 2009 (AFP) – For Indian brides buying jewellery, the bigger the better is the general rule, but record gold prices during this year’s wedding season are forcing many to compromise.India is the world’s biggest consumer of gold, so the rise of local prices to records above 1,000 dollars an ounce is […]
UN Call
November 19, 2009 (AFP) – The United Nations on Thursday stepped up pressure on Sri Lanka to free thousands of war-displaced civilians held in state-run internment camps.“Months after the conflict ended, our main concerns haven’t changed. People are still not given free access to leave these camps on their own free will,” UN humanitarian chief […]
Index
Nov 20, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has slipped five places to 97 in the annual corruption perceptions index in an annual perception survey conducted among 180 countries, by Transparency International, a corruption watchdog.“What we see is a clear indictment on Sri Lanka and the urgent need for major systemic changes to wipe out corruption,” […]
Sri Lanka flash floods make 58,000 homeless: official
November 19, 2009 (AFP) – Nearly 60,000 people were left homeless in Sri Lanka Thursday following flash floods in the capital Colombo and the suburbs, an official said.“We have a list of over 58,000 individuals who were left homeless in and around Colombo,” Kodipillai said, adding that they were being housed in public buildings. Thousands […]