Category: Other
Sri Lanka tea prices up as crop plunges
March 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices rose again at this week’s Colombo auction mainly because volumes had fallen sharply owing to drought but crops are expected to revive with the onset of some rains. Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers said Sri Lanka’s tea production in January 2009 was the lowest in 15 […]
Cricket Impresario
WASHINGTON, March 11, 2009 (AFP) – Cricket mogul and financier Allen Stanford is refusing to cooperate with authorities investigating his role in an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud, court documents showed Wednesday. The Texas magnate who faces civil charges linked to luring investors into 9.2 billion dollars in securities under fraudulent pretenses, is using his constitutional guarantee […]
India in major embassy security review: report
NEW DELHI, March 11, 2009 (AFP) – India is to conduct a massive security review of key missions in South Asia following threats against its nationals in Afghanistan, a report said Wednesday. The Indian Express newspaper reported that officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs, spy agency the Intelligence Bureau and the elite counter-terrorism National […]
No Bail
March 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ceylinco group chairman Lalith Kotelawala remained in remand over fraud charges at an unlisted subsidiary that has collapsed with a court Wednesday also ordering a halt to any sale of the firm’s assets.The Ceylinco group has put on sale several of its subsidiaries and properties to raise funds […]
Sri Lanka aims to be South Asian shopper paradise
Mar 10, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s biggest state bank has proposed a bold project to make the island a Dubai-style duty free shopping mecca for the billion-plus consumers on the Indian sub-continent. Gamini Wickramasinghe, chairman of Bank of Ceylon (BOC), said much revenue can be generated by enticing visitors from the region, exploiting the […]
No Kidding
Mar 09, 2009 (LBO) – One day a wealthy Englishman travels to Italy on business.While there he decides to buy a hand-crafted cupboard to furnish his new summer home in Spain.He visits an exclusive store in Rome, which sells furniture sourced from a small carpentry workshop in Morocco.This furniture is fabricated from wood imported from […]
” in cricket attack
SLAMABAD, March 7, 2009 (AFP) – Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan believes a “foreign element” could be involved in this week’s attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, according to an interview published Saturday. “It could be India, Afghanistan, the Tamil Tigers,” Khan was quoted as saying in an interview published online by The Times […]
Sri Lanka tea prices rise as output falls
March 07, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices rose at this week’s Colombo auctions mainly because of a shortfall in crop as well as improved quality, brokers said.Prices are likely to remain strong if the present dry weather continues and curtails the crop, they said. About 50 invoices of high grown teas from regional […]
Maldives bans reef shark hunting
Mar 05, 2009 (LBO) – The Indian Ocean atoll nation of Maldives said it had banned shark hunting close to shore and a complete ban on shark products exports was on the cards to shore up depleting numbers. The Maldives attracts 600,000 tourists per year and the sector accounts for 28 percent of gross domestic […]
Sri Lanka tea exports fall sharply
March 5, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka, one of the world’s biggest tea exporters, registered a 30 percent drop in overseas sales in January because of a decline in the crop, the Sri Lanka Tea Board said on Thursday. Growers have also curbed output at the request of the Tea Board to manage high production […]
Global warming could delay, weaken monsoons: study
CHICAGO, March 1, 2009 (AFP) – Global warming could delay the start of the summer monsoon by five to 15 days within the next century and significantly reduce rainfall in much of South Asia, a recent study has found.“These circulation changes decrease moisture flow over the land, and we see longer periods without rain, along […]
UN braces for Sri Lankans fleeing conflict
GENEVA, February 27, 2009 (AFP) – The UN refugee agency said Friday it was preparing for the arrival of tens of thousands of displaced people fleeing the conflict zone in northern Sri Lanka over the coming weeks.The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had received 300 acres of land […]