Category: Other
” wakes up to new world order
DZIALDOWO, Poland, June 14, 2007 (AFP) – It is the stuff of fairytales and happy endings, the story of a Polish railway worker who woke up to a new world of plenty after falling into a “coma” 19 years ago when Poland was still communist. “The only problem now is having the money to pay […]
Sri Lanka tea strike prunes profits at Maskeliya Plantations
June 14, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Maskeliya Plantations, which produces some of the island’s best high grown teas, has reported a sharp fall in profits following a strike last year. Profit after tax fell 91 percent to 11.3 million rupees in the financial year ended March 31, 2007 from 138 million rupees the year […]
Blocked Call
June 14, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s highest court halted the sale of shares of the country’s largest fixed access operator to a Malaysian firm Thursday, after a lawmaker filed suit against the deal. Sri Lanka Telecom slid 1.50 to close at 37.00 on Thursday. Japan’s NTT which holds a 35.2 percent stake in Sri […]
Wrong List
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2007 (AFP) – US Middle East allies Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, as well as key trading partner Malaysia were added Tuesday to a Washington blacklist of countries trafficking in people.Algeria and Guinea were the other additions to the blacklist of the US State Department’s annual “Trafficking in Persons Report,” which analyzed […]
Saudi Arabia executions rise to new high this year
RIYADH, June 11, 2007 (AFP) – Not even the king can save a convict on death row for premeditated murder from the executioner’s sword in Saudi Arabia.However, Amnesty International, in its 2007 report, said “many defendants complained that they were not represented by lawyers and were not informed of the progress of their trial”.The death […]
Tourists to Nepal up 45 per cent since peace deal
KATHMANDU, June 11, 2007 (AFP) – Tourism arrivals to Nepal have shot up nearly 45 percent since former Maoist rebels ended their bloody “people’s war” at the end of 2006, officials said Monday. Landlocked and impoverished, Nepal relies on tourism for about four percent of the country’s economy employment for some 300,000 people. “The last […]
Go Back
June 11, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has deported over 400 foreign nationals so far this year for overstaying their visas and working in the island illegally, the island’s immigration chief said Monday. Most of the deportees were of South Asian origin and had entered Sri Lanka on tourist visas, Controller of Immigration and Emigration, […]
Deviltry
June 10, 2007 (LBO) – A popular folk story talks of a villager and a chance meeting of a demon in the forest and using his craftiness to get the demon to work for him. Therefore, the use of inflation as a measure for funding government budgets is not an advisable strategy for any government. […]
Clear Rules
June 08, 2007 (LBO) – A top World Bank official Thursday warned of the dangers of governments accepting unsolicited proposals in public-private partnership projects, saying it could lead to controversy and corruption allegations. Governments accepting unsolicited proposals in public-private partnership (PPP) projects should introduce some form of competitive bidding, World Bank Country Director Naoko Ishii […]
Ships cry for help as wild weather lashes Australia
SYDNEY, June 8, 2007 (AFP) – Rescue helicopters braved wild weather to airlift 21 crew members from a stricken freighter as pounding seas threatened to beach others on Australia’s east coast Friday.The Filipino and Korean crew on board the 30,000-tonne coal carrier Pasha Bulker, which ran aground off Newcastle harbour north of Sydney, were winched […]
Inflated Fines
June 07, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s capital markets watchdog is planning to impose stiffer penalties as part of an overall revamp of key statutes governing the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), a top official said. The authorities have recently introduced a new company law and new corporate governance rules are being made mandatory for listed […]
” inflation with subsidies as prices spike
DHAKA, June 7, 2007 (AFP) – Bangladesh’s emergency government was Thursday set to announce a slew of subsidy and welfare measures in a 12.6 billion dollar anti-inflation budget. The interim government’s finance minister, A.B. Mirza Azizul Islam, would announce the budget in a pre-recorded speech to be broadcast by radio and television stations. The military-backed […]