Category: Other
Venezuela consolidates Zimbabwe path
CARACAS, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) – Lawmakers Friday launched a national campaign for constitutional reform to consolidate President Hugo Chavez’s power and socialist agenda that a weak and splintered opposition seems powerless to stop.With Chavez loyalists taking up all 167 seats of the single-chamber legislature, the constitutional reform is assured passage before it is put […]
Sri Lanka tea trade charges cess fund delays jeopardizing industry
August 24 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea trade, the island’s main export earner, has said funds raised from a tax on exports are still not being ploughed back adequately to develop the industry despite numerous complaints. Delays and inadequate disbursements are hindering factory modernization work and tea promotion in highly competitive global beverage markets, exporters […]
Dollar falls against euro on ECB rate expectations; yen slips
NEW YORK, Aug 23, 2007 (AFP) – The dollar traded mainly lower Thursday as the euro gained ground on heightened expectations of an interest rate hike next month by the European Central Bank.But the greenback firmed against the yen, which came under selling pressure after the Bank of Japan held its key benchmark lending rate […]
No more live sex-changes on Chinese TV
BEIJING, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) – China has banned a blood-spattered genre of reality TV shows where patients undergo sex-change operations and cosmetic surgery live in front of mass audiences.It is estimated that one million Chinese undergo plastic surgery every year, according to state media reports.The “exhibitionist” programmes serve the sole purpose of boosting viewer […]
Walkman powered by carbo diet
TOKYO, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) – Bread and potatoes are sources of human energy, and now a carbohydrate diet is also powering up a Walkman. Sony was also hit last year by the recall of millions of laptop batteries over fears they could catch fire.Japanese technological giant Sony Corp., hoping to be eco friendly, said […]
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SINGAPORE, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) – Asian economies should weather any fallout from the current turmoil in global financial and stock markets sparked by a crisis in the US subprime credit sector, Standard and Poor’s said Friday.Quick action by central banks worldwide, including those in Asia, to inject liquidity into the financial system has eased […]
‘s Ceylon Tea Services reports slow down in tea bag exports
Aug 24, 2007 (LBO) – Tea bag exporter Ceylon Tea Services Ltd., part of the Dilmah brand group, said net profit fell 7.1 percent to 152 million rupees for the quarter ended June 30, 2007. Revenue fell 1.2 percent to 738 million rupees in the same period, according to interim results. The company is one […]
Sri Lanka hosts global tea forum to discuss production, standards
August 24 (LBO) – Experts from the world’s top tea producing and consuming countries will meet in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo next week to discuss issues concerning sustainable production and food safety standards. This meeting, being organized by the Sri Lanka Tea Research Institute with the Tea Board and CTTA, will see scientists from […]
” not dramatic for global growth”: IMF
SAO PAULO, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) – Financial markets turbulence probably will curb global economic growth slightly this year, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Rodrigo Rato, said Wednesday.“It would not be surprising if (the turmoil) had a certain impact on growth, more intense in certain countries than in others,” Rato said at […]
Young Japanese losing interest in cars, booze
TOKYO, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) – Young Japanese are rapidly losing interest in cars and drinking and choosing instead to save their money, a survey said Wednesday. Japan is in the midst of its longest expansion in the post-World War II era, but private consumption has been stagnant. Young people in the world’s second-largest economy, […]
Sri Lanka Tata Tea unit reports lower June quarter profits
August 22, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations plc, a unit of India’s Tata Teas, said net profit for the quarter ended June 2007 fell 24 percent to 35 million rupees compared with last year. Revenue rose to 917 million rupees from 802 million the year before, according to interim results released by the […]
Nissan to put fuel efficiency gauge in all new models
TOKYO, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) – Japan’s Nissan Motor Co.announced Tuesday plans to install a fuel efficiency gauge in all future new models in its latest effort to tap growing interest in energy-saving motoring. Nissan said that based on its own tests it estimates the gauge could cut fuel consumption by an average 10 percent […]