Category: Other
Dirty Finance
Feb 02, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has tied up with Malaysia’s central bank to combat cross-border money laundering and terrorist finance, the Central Bank said. “Sri Lankan authorities should ensure that the FIU should be given operational independence to ensure freedom from undue influence or interference,” the IMF said. The […]
OPEC to keep oil output steady; Venezuela wants higher prices
VIENNA, Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – OPEC ministers turned down calls for extra output on Thursday, voicing concern that the weak US economy may cause oil prices to drop further from recent historic peaks above 100 dollars. Most members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps 40 percent of world oil, said the […]
Climate change could devastate South Asia, Africa crops: study
CHICAGO, Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – Climate change will cause severe crop losses in Africa and Asia within the next 20 years unless farming practices are changed, a study released Thursday has found. Those crop losses could lead to food shortages and a loss of livelihood among the world’s poorest people, the authors warned. And […]
Tiger smuggler in Thailand surrenders
BANGKOK, Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) – A Thai man accused of trafficking tiger and leopard carcasses as well as hundreds of live pangolins has turned himself over to authorities, police said Friday.The Thai navy raided the trafficking operation on the Laos border late Tuesday and retrieved the carcasses of six tigers and five leopards, plus […]
‘s former chief leaves board of directors
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – Dethroned Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel left the struggling Internet firm’s board of directors on Thursday.Semel’s departure comes just two days after Yahoo revealed plans to lay off 1,000 employees as part of an effort to revitalize a company that analysts say strayed from its profitable strengths while […]
Electronic Crime
Feb 01, 2008 (LBO) – Canadian police are probing links with Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers in a bank payment card fraud involving suspects of Sri Lankan origin, a media report said. Canadian police had stopped a car that ran a stop sign and arrested two Canadian and two British residents of Sri Lankan origin with […]
Bernanke cuts rates to protect financial system
WASHINGTON, Jan 30, 2008 (AFP) – The US Federal Reserve has stepped up its campaign to head off recession with another half-point rate cut as part of an aggressive move to avert a downward economic spiral, analysts say.The cut Wednesday in the federal funds rate to 3.0 percent came just eight days after an emergency […]
Shell profits surge to record 31 billion dollars in 2007
LONDON, Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday that net profits leapt 23 percent last year to a record 31.331 billion dollars (21.115 billion euros), energised by soaring crude prices.Net profit on a current cost of supply basis, excluding fluctuations in the value of inventories, rose by 9.0 […]
Higher Numbers
Jan 31, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s inflation rose by 3.0 percent in January driving 12-month inflation to 20.8 percent on a revised index of consumer prices in Colombo, the government’s statistics office said. Another index of Colombo prices which has a higher weight of food and is based on the consumption pattern of working […]
IMF lowers global growth forecast, citing financial crisis
WASHINGTON, Jan 29, 2008 (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday lowered its 2008 global growth outlook, citing a US slowdown and financial market turmoil that have put emerging economies at risk. The global economy is poised to grow 4.1 percent this year, down 0.3 percentage points from a previous estimate, the IMF report […]
Coal prices surge to catch up with oil
SYDNEY, Jan 30, 2008 (AFP) – Floods in Australia, freezing weather in China and transport bottlenecks in Indonesia have helped stoke a sharp rise in the price of coal, putting pressure on Asian consumer industries. Soaring demand from China and India as their economies steam ahead has also combined to push the cost of the […]
Singapore ready to bailout another global bank: newspaper
SINGAPORE, Jan 30, 2008 (AFP) – The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), fresh from multi-billion-dollar capital injections into troubled global financial institutions, has the capacity for an additional bailout, a report said Wednesday. “We will look at any deal that is shown to us.We have a duty to do so. We would still have […]