Category:
432 Chinese babies get kidney stones from tainted milk powder
BEIJING, September 13, 2008 (AFP) – China’s health minister said 432 babies had kidney stones after drinking contaminated milk powder and vowed to punish those responsible as the country’s latest product safety scandal escalated Saturday. Gao Qiang said production had been halted at Sanlu Group after industrial chemical melamine, added by farmers and milk sellers […]
Catastrophe looms as Hurricane Ike pounds Texas coast
GALVESTON, September 13, 2008 (AFP) – Mammoth Hurricane Ike lashed the Texas Gulf coast with rain and wind late Friday, flooding parts of Galveston and threatening “catastrophic” destruction as it heads on a path towards Houston, the fourth largest US city. More than a million people have fled their homes as the Texas-size storm bore […]
Oil prices around US$100, despite hurricanes, OPEC cuts
NEW YORK, September 12, 2008 (AFP) – Oil prices closed narrowly mixed Friday amid a near-total shutdown of offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, where a massive Hurricane Ike was bearing down deep in the heart of the US oil industry. In choppy trade, the market also watched signs of further financial stress in […]
Bank Rating
Sept 11, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Fitch Ratings has confirmed the ‘AA(lka)’ rating of state-run Bank of Ceylon, with ‘stable’ outlook, and said its exposure to the government had fallen, though it remained high.Fitch said the bank’s ‘Individual’ rating at ‘D/E’ and ‘Support’ rating at ‘4’, reflected its systemic importance as the largest bank […]
Cyber Education
Sept 12, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is starting post-graduate university courses using broadband mobile links provided by Mobitel, a celco, to remotely lecture students, officials said.The mobile learning of ‘mlearning’ system was developed by the University of Colombo, Mobitel and the IT firm Microsoft. “This is a hybrid system of learning, which includes traditional […]
Suspected US missile kills 12 in Pakistan: official
MIRANSHAH, September 12, 2008 (AFP) – A missile from a suspected US drone killed 12 people Friday in a Pakistani tribal area where US forces have been aggressively targeting Al-Qaeda militants — fuelling anger from its key “war on terror” ally. The missile hit a house on the outskirts of Miranshah, the main town in […]
Bomb explodes in Sri Lankan capital: police
COLOMBO, September 11, 2008 (AFP) – A bomb exploded on a railway track in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Thursday, the second such blast in as many days, but there were no casualties, police said. The blast caused little damage to the railway line at Sedawatte, a slum area of the city, a police […]
Sri Lanka power utility to start net metering
Sept 11, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s power distributors are to start net metering, where customers would be able to generate small amounts of renewable energy, ‘export’ to the national grid, and only pay for the ‘net’ amount of electricity used.A note to cabinet said the proposal would encourage customers to generate their own electricity […]
Venezuela expels US ambassador, threatens to cut oil
CARACAS, September 12, 2008 (AFP) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled the US envoy to Caracas late Thursday and threatened to halt crude exports to the United States on a day he highlighted the recent arrival of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers. Chavez on Thursday ordered US ambassador Patrick Duddy to leave the country within […]
Sri Lanka slams UN chief
September 11, 2008 (AFP) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came in for tough criticism Thursday from Sri Lanka’s government, which accused him of unwittingly helping Tamil Tiger rebels. Responding to the UN chief’s concern over civilians displaced by heavy fighting in the north of the island, a Sri Lankan government rights official said a […]
Bunker Supply
Sept 11, 2008 (LBO) – Ship fuel prices at Colombo port could fall by around five percent after a tank farm previously operated by one player is converted to a common storage facility, a supplier has said.Lanka Marine Services (LMS), a unit of John Keells Holdings was ordered to return a tank farm and land […]
Foreign Unit
Sept 11, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank said the long term credit rating of its Bangladesh unit had been upgraded by one notch to AA+ from AA, by Credit Rating Information and Services Ltd (CRISIL). CRISIL had given it a ST-1 short term rating. Commercial Bank of Ceylon had bought Credit Agricole lndosuez […]