Category: Other
‘s party set for coalition rule
MALÉ, March 23, 2014 (AFP) – Maldives President Abdulla Yameen’s party is poised to win control of parliament with the support of a key ally, early projections in the Indian Ocean nation showed Sunday. President Yameen’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) was leading in 34 out of the 85 constituencies after Saturday’s polls while his […]
Maldives to go ahead with polls, says commission
MALÉ, March 21, 2014 (AFP) – The Maldivian elections commission said Friday it planned to go ahead with this weekend’s parliamentary polls despite the islands’ new president expressing doubts over whether the vote can be conducted.President Abdulla Yameen told a public rally in the capital island Male on Thursday night that a depleted Elections Commission […]
‘s homing trick stuns scientists
PARIS, March 19, 2014 (AFP) – The Burmese python has a built-in compass that allows it to slither home in a near-straight line even if released dozens of kilometres away, researchers said Wednesday.Capable of growing over five metres (16 feet) long, pythons are among the world’s largest snakes.Although native to South and Southeast Asia, the […]
Maldives probe reports of possible MH370 sighting
NEW DELHI, March 19, 2014 (AFP) – Authorities in the Maldives were probing reports Wednesday that islanders saw a “low-flying jumbo jet” on the day the missing Malaysia Airlines plane vanished.While the islands’ National Defence Force said that no trace of Flight MH370 had been picked up on radar, police and the civil aviation authority […]
‘s Watawala Plantations ends management deal
Mar 18, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations Plc said a management agreement with Estate Management Services (Pvt) Ltd, its key shareholder has been ended.In Sri Lanka’s commercial tea plantations date back from the British colonial era where third party ‘agency houses’ used to charge management fees on an arm’s length basis. The firm […]
Digital Commerce
Feb 18, 2014 (LBO) – Every day we are moving closer to having almost as many mobile subscribers as there are people on earth. Close to 40 percent of the world’s population arenow ˜online’ and some 750 million households globally are connected to the internet. New devices and platforms such as smartphones are constantly shaping; […]
Toyota suspends Indian auto production amid labour unrest
TOKYO, March 17, 2014 (AFP) – Toyota said Monday it has suspended production at its two Indian auto assembly plants in response to threats against management and “deliberate” assembly-line stoppages, as efforts to hammer out a labour deal failed.A Tokyo-based company spokesman said Toyota hoped to restart production quickly, but could not give a timeline […]
India suspends search for plane, awaits new instructions
NEW DELHI, March 16, 2014 (AFP) – India on Sunday suspended its search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 around the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands and in the Bay of Bengal and is awaiting a new request from Malaysia, a defence official said.“The entire operation is on hold for now. We are awaiting fresh instructions […]
US ship, plane to search Bay of Bengal for missing jet
WASHINGTON, March 14, 2014 (AFP) – A US naval ship and surveillance plane are heading to the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal to search for a missing Malaysian airliner that vanished a week ago, officials said Friday.The hunt had initially focused on the South China Sea east of Malaysia — along the intended route […]
Gallow Fright
COLOMBO, March 11, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s new executioner panicked after seeing the country’s main gallows for the first time and has since gone AWOL leaving the authorities hanging, the top prison official said Tuesday.“But, with this chap leaving, we are now in a quandary,” Pallegama said. “In case the government resumes hanging, we […]
Sri Lanka capital to get wetland and beach parks
Mar 11, 2014 (LBO) – Wetland’s in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo will be preserved and a educational wetland park is also being built, under a World Bank funded program to improve the city, an official said.Seneviratne also said the two ‘beach parks’ will be set up in the north and south Colombo. Rohan Seneviratne additional […]
One worker killed in Indian nuclear submarine accident
NEW DELHI, March 9, 2014 (AFP) – One Indian worker was killed in an accident during construction of a nuclear submarine, a defence statement said Sunday, the latest in a string of deadly mishaps to hit the navy.Two other workers were injured in the accident on Saturday at a ship building centre in the southeastern […]