Category: Other
Sri Lanka appoints new committee to examine plantation leases
June 18, 2007 (LBO) – The government is setting up a new committee to examine the long-term leases of estate lands to the privatized plantations firms, a senior government minister said. Sri Lanka has privatized former government held estates through long-term leases given to more than 20 plantations companies. Cabinet Spokesman Anura Yapa said a […]
Outrage as Chinese slave scandal deepens
BEIJING, June 15, 2007 (AFP) – More than 450 people, including young children, have been freed from slavery in Chinese brick factories and mines but hundreds of others are believed to still be trapped, police said Friday. “It is outrageous that transient rural labourers were forced to work 20 hours a day and one was […]
Tokyo bourse buys stake in Singapore exchange
June 15, 2007 (AFP) – The Tokyo Stock Exchange said Friday that it had acquired a stake of almost five percent in the Singapore stock exchange operator as part of its efforts to forge links with overseas bourses.The Singapore group welcomed the move and said it was ready to explore prospects for further collaboration with […]
‘s oldest monastery
BEIJING, June 15, 2007 (AFP) – Chinese authorities have removed a giant Buddhist statue from Tibet’s oldest monastery, in a move US-based rights group said Friday reflected an ongoing crackdown in the Tibetan region.The 30-foot (nine metre) gold and copper-plated statue of Guru Rinpoche, the founder of Buddhism, was torn down by Chinese police in […]
” lawmakers seek action
WASHINGTON, June 13, 2007 (AFP) – The US Treasury stopped short of branding China a “currency manipulator” Wednesday even as new efforts were launched in Congress to punish Beijing for maintaining an undervalued yuan. The Treasury, in a much-anticipated semiannual report, said China’s tightly controlled exchange rates have led to a variety of economic problems […]
” wakes up to new world order
DZIALDOWO, Poland, June 14, 2007 (AFP) – It is the stuff of fairytales and happy endings, the story of a Polish railway worker who woke up to a new world of plenty after falling into a “coma” 19 years ago when Poland was still communist. “The only problem now is having the money to pay […]
Sri Lanka tea strike prunes profits at Maskeliya Plantations
June 14, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Maskeliya Plantations, which produces some of the island’s best high grown teas, has reported a sharp fall in profits following a strike last year. Profit after tax fell 91 percent to 11.3 million rupees in the financial year ended March 31, 2007 from 138 million rupees the year […]
Blocked Call
June 14, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s highest court halted the sale of shares of the country’s largest fixed access operator to a Malaysian firm Thursday, after a lawmaker filed suit against the deal. Sri Lanka Telecom slid 1.50 to close at 37.00 on Thursday. Japan’s NTT which holds a 35.2 percent stake in Sri […]
Wrong List
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2007 (AFP) – US Middle East allies Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, as well as key trading partner Malaysia were added Tuesday to a Washington blacklist of countries trafficking in people.Algeria and Guinea were the other additions to the blacklist of the US State Department’s annual “Trafficking in Persons Report,” which analyzed […]
Tourists to Nepal up 45 per cent since peace deal
KATHMANDU, June 11, 2007 (AFP) – Tourism arrivals to Nepal have shot up nearly 45 percent since former Maoist rebels ended their bloody “people’s war” at the end of 2006, officials said Monday. Landlocked and impoverished, Nepal relies on tourism for about four percent of the country’s economy employment for some 300,000 people. “The last […]
Go Back
June 11, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has deported over 400 foreign nationals so far this year for overstaying their visas and working in the island illegally, the island’s immigration chief said Monday. Most of the deportees were of South Asian origin and had entered Sri Lanka on tourist visas, Controller of Immigration and Emigration, […]
Saudi Arabia executions rise to new high this year
RIYADH, June 11, 2007 (AFP) – Not even the king can save a convict on death row for premeditated murder from the executioner’s sword in Saudi Arabia.However, Amnesty International, in its 2007 report, said “many defendants complained that they were not represented by lawyers and were not informed of the progress of their trial”.The death […]