Category: Other
New Zealand inflation falls to 1.8-pct
WELLINGTON, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) – New Zealand’s inflation rate for the September quarter was held to an unexpectedly low 0.5 percent, pinning the annual rate to 1.8 percent, according to official figures released Monday.New Zealand inflation lower than expected The lower than forecast result — attributed to lower prices in health and education due […]
Indian shares cross record 19,000 points
MUMBAI, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) – India’s benchmark Sensex index surged more than three percent to a fresh intraday record on Monday, crossing the 19,000-point mark for the first time ever, led by buying from overseas funds, dealers said.They said a series of record highs on the Mumbai stock exchange, during a 3,000-point climb in […]
New IMF, World Bank heads face reform challenge
WASHINGTON, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) – The new heads at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund face the tough task of restoring credibility to the powerful financial bodies which hold an annual summit this month, analysts say.“Both (Robert) Zoellick and Dominique Strauss-Kahn are certainly competent people.But I don’t think it is so easy […]
Zimbabwe consumer authority raises milk and other prices after shortages
HARARE, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) – The Zimbabwean government authorised Friday new increases in the prices of basis foodstuffs in a bid to ease widespread shortages that followed an order for retailers to halve their tariffs. The National Incomes and Pricing Commission announced it had approved rises of between 50 percent and 200 percent for […]
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WASHINGTON, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) – A former top US military commander in Iraq said Friday that the current White House strategy in Iraq will not achieve victory in the four-and-a-half-year war, which he described as “a nightmare with no end in sight.” In the bluntest assessment of Iraq by a former senior Pentagon official […]
EU to step up sanctions on Myanmar, ban timber, gems
BRUSSELS, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) – The European Union is set to beef up its sanctions against Myanmar next week by introducing an embargo on timber, gems and metals, according to a draft text agreed Friday.EU foreign ministers could approve the import bans — which would notably affect Myanmar’s teak and jade trade — when […]
Backdoor Fund
October 13, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s supreme court has been asked to probe the allocation of over 50 billion rupees in next year’s budget for unspecified spending outside the authority of parliament which has raised suspicions of a hidden fund. The Court is expected to announce this week if it will allow the case […]
‘s forex reserves top 1.43 trillion dollars
BEIJING, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) – China’s foreign exchange reserves, already the world’s largest, surpassed 1.43 trillion dollars at the end of September, the central bank said Friday. The figure was up 45.1 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said in a statement posted on its website. The news came the same day […]
Copycats
Oct 12, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankan companies should keep a close tab on the trade marks registry to ensure protection of their own marks, an intellectual property rights lawyer said Monday. Not being alert may result in copycat competitors registering similar trade marks and capturing market share, president’s counsel Harsha Cabral said. From multinational […]
Fed money printing drives platinum to record high, gold hits 27-year peak
LONDON, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) – The price of platinum forged a record high on Thursday as the white metal was hit by tight global supplies, while gold soared to the best level since 1980 on the back of the weak US dollar, analysts said. Platinum surged as high as 1,408.50 dollars an ounce on […]
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Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) – A former Sri Lankan foreign minister on Thursday accused the government of failing to investigate extra-judicial killings and using “terrorism” to fight Tamil Tigers rebels.Government lawmaker Mangala Samaraweera said an ongoing visit to the island by the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, underlined the international focus on […]
Sri Lanka dockyard chases new navy and civil jobs
Oct 10, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard, the island’s sole listed ship builder, is bidding for three new local ship building contracts, including one from the navy where it has tied up with a Croatian yard, officials said. The yard, a subsidiary of Japan’s Onomichi Dockyard Co. which provides management and technical expertise, […]