Category: Other
Sri Lankan plantations firms call for more land security
Sept 17, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s plantations companies have called for greater security of land on which they grow export crops like tea to ensure more investment in the upkeep of estates and factory modernization. To make matters worse, compensation due on such acquisitions is not forthcoming despite repeated appeals. Planters’ Association (PA) chairman […]
Bangladesh gets duty-free access to Indian garment market
DHAKA, Sept 16, 2007 (AFP) – Bangladesh and India on Sunday signed a deal that will allow Dhaka to export eight million garments duty-free across the border, an agreement billed by New Delhi as a “milestone” in trade relations.“India is growing rapidly and its middle class is booming.So in the near future India can very […]
Dollar firms, sterling hit by Northern Rock bank panic
NEW YORK, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) – The dollar steadied Friday a day after plunging to a record low on the euro, while the pound fell on jitters after a Bank of England bailout of key British lender Northern Rock.In late New York trade, the dollar stood at 115.35 yen after 115.04 Thursday and 1.1896 […]
ECB shrugs off French criticism, German support for prudence
PORTO, Portugal, Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) – European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet shrugged off on Saturday fresh French criticism of the ECB over its handling of recent financial market turmoil. EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia defended Juncker, saying he “deserves … our recognition as a president of the group that is […]
Northern Rock customers continue to take money out
LONDON, Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) – “My head tells me it’s all right but my heart says otherwise,” said an anxious accountant on the state of beleaguered British bank Northern Rock.The man in his 50s was queuing Saturday with 200 other worried customers outside the branch of Britain’s fifth-biggest mortgage lender in Golders Green, north-west […]
Later Later
Sept 14, 2007 (LBO) – The hearing of the case on the sale Sri Lanka Telecom shares by its Japanese shareholder has been put off till November 22, lawyers said. Lawmaker Sripathi Sooriyarachchi who was sacked earlier in the year as a minister by President Mahinda Rajapakse, went to court alleging that the sale caused […]
Bank of England to bail out British lender: reports
LONDON, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) – The Bank of England has agreed to provide emergency funding to mortgage lender Northern Rock after it fell victim to the liquidity squeeze in the banking sector, media reports said on Thursday.In an interview with the Telegraph published on Thursday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Darling said that in “crude […]
Google founders pay million dollar parking fee
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) – Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin park their jet just a stone’s throw from their offices, paying 1.3 million dollars a year for rights at a federally maintained airfield, The New York Times reported Thursday.Why put up with bothersome local traffic when you can shell out a […]
Lifestyle disease deaths may double by 2015, WHO warns
SEOUL, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) – World deaths from “lifestyle” diseases will double by 2015 unless all-out efforts are taken to combat them, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned Friday.It said about 17 million people die prematurely each year as a result of the global epidemic of largely preventable chronic diseases — the leading cause […]
Indonesia issues another tsunami alert
JAKARTA, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) – Indonesia on Thursday issued a third tsunami warning in the past 24 hours, as a strong aftershock of a 7.7 magnitude rattled Sumatra island, the meteorology office said.The quake hit at 6:49 am (2349 GMT Wednesday), about 140 kilometres (87 miles) southwest of the town of Jambi, in the […]
Dollar drops as speculation grows on Fed move
NEW YORK, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) – The euro flirted with a new record high against the dollar Tuesday as speculation increased about a Federal Reserve rate cut to help get credit flowing and stave off a US economic downturn.The single European currency fetched 1.3838 dollars at 2100 GMT after 1.3797 late Monday in New […]
Southeast Asia gears up for palm oil boom
JAKARTA, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) – Southeast Asian nations are gearing up for a palm oil boom as interest in biofuels soars, but activists warn the crop may not satisfy a global thirst for energy that is both clean and green. They caution that oil palm plantations require massive swathes of land — either what’s […]