Category: Other
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BERLIN, April 14, 2008 (AFP) – Massive production of biofuels is “a crime against humanity” because of its impact on global food prices, a UN official said Monday on German radio.. “Producing biofuels today is a crime against humanity,” UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler told Bayerischer Runfunk radio. Using arable […]
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WASHINGTON, April 12, 2008 (AFP) – Rising prices, especially for food, could have terrible consequences for the world, including the risk of war, and action needs to be taken to keep inflation in check, the IMF head said Saturday. “Food prices, if they go on like they are doing today …the consequences will be terrible,” […]
Sri Lanka poultry breeder shifts to modern facility
April 13, 2008 (LBO) – Poultry breeder Three Acre Farms Limited (TAFL) plans to relocate some of its operations to a facility which is being fitted with modern farming equipment and infrastructure, the company said. “Over the next two years, the commercial broiler operation at Bulathsinghala will be relocated and the existing facility will be […]
‘s two-wheeler boom
SINGAPORE, April 12, 2008 (AFP) – Record high oil prices, environmental concerns, affluent lifestyles as well as the need to dodge city traffic are driving a boom in Asia’s motorcycle and bicycle market, industry figures say.The rediscovery of cycling as a way to keep fit is also helping to boost demand for two-wheelers, those at […]
Rising inflation in Europe prompts strike threats
PARIS, April 12, 2008 (AFP) – Inflation in Europe, far from being throttled as suggested in some quarters only 18 months ago, is alive and kicking hard at the middle classes as well as ordinary workers.Price rises, and consequent constraints on living standards, are pushing trade unions into confrontation with management in many countries. A […]
Bad Justice
April 12, 2008 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan court has released a man who was held in custody for 55 years without charge, a report said on Saturday. Thantriye Emis Singho, 83, was arrested by police in 1953 for carrying a sword in a Colombo suburb. A court sent him to a state-run mental hospital […]
”: Paulson
WASHINGTON, April 12, 2008 (AFP) – The global economy faces “considerable challenges” in the shape of a slowing US economy, financial market turmoil and higher inflation, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Saturday. Paulson, addressing the spring meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, said global growth had been favorable in past years but […]
Rate hikes expected as Indian inflation spikes to 7.4-pct
NEW DELHI, April 11, 2008 (AFP) – Indian inflation accelerated to 7.41 percent, according to official data released Friday, dealing a blow to the government and fanning expectations of monetary tightening. Annual inflation quickened to 7.41 percent for the week ended March 29, from seven percent the previous week, according to the Wholesale Price Index, […]
Inside Deals
April 11, 2008 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan supreme court judge has proposed amending regulations on stock market offences to cover markets regulators as well as all company shareholders. Supreme court judge Saleem Marsoof said a serious deficiency in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Act is that it does not provide against the use […]
Nude pic of French first lady Carla Bruni sold for US$91,000
NEW YORK, April 10, 2008 (AFP) – A photograph of a nude Carla Bruni, the ex-model now married to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, was sold Thursday to a Chinese collector for 91,000 dollars at Christie’s — more than 20 times its predicted price. The gelatin silver print, taken by photographer Michel Comte in 1993, depicts […]
Boardroom Behaviour
April 10, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s top state legal advisor has told company directors not to be mere ‘rubber stamps’ but to act independently and in the best interests of their companies and stakeholders. Attorney-general C R de Silva said company directors today are expected to meet an increasing range of obligations amidst commercial […]
With US in crisis, global economy in peril: IMF
WASHINGTON, April 8, 2008 (AFP) – The global economic outlook is increasingly grim with the United States mired in a recession from a housing meltdown whose effects are still spreading, the IMF said Wednesday. Global expansion is set to slow to 3. 7 percent in 2008 amid an unfolding crisis that began in the United […]