WTO holds first Ministerial meeting in four years

(November 30, 2009) The World Trade Organisation (WTO) begins its first ministerial meeting in four years Monday aimed at reviewing the work of the 153-member group. While trade negotiations are not on the agenda of the three-day gathering in Geneva, the stalled global trade round is likely to play a major role, following a call by world leaders for an agreement on the issue by the end of 2010. Instead of considering a trade deal, WTO chief Pascal Lamy sees the meeting as providing “a platform for ministers to review the functioning of this house”. Security barriers have been erected around the conference venue and police reinforcements have been called in from other parts of Switzerland amid concerns about demonstrators attempting to disrupt the meeting. An anti-capitalist protest in Geneva...

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Posted in Anand Sharma , Geneva , global trade , Ministerial meeting , Pascal Lamy , World Trade Organisatio , WTO , WTO chief

Sea Level Rising Faster Than Forecast

(November 24, Bloomberg) Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting faster than expected and the future rise in sea level will be “much higher” than previously forecast, a group of 26 climate scientists said in a report today. The rise in global sea level since 1995 has been 3.4 millimeters a year (0.13 inches), 80 percent greater than past predictions, said Richard Somerville, a professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and a contributor to today’s report. Sea levels may rise 1 meter by 2100, double earlier forecasts, according to the report. About half of the authors took part in a United Nations panel that in 2007...

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Posted in global warming

Sri Lanka to grow oil palm in 5000 hectares

(November 13, 2009) The cabinet of Sri Lanka has approved a proposal to import seeds of oil palm for the cultivation in estate lands managed by the plantation companies. Under the programme, it is expected to cultivate palm oil in 5000 hectares.. Oil palm cultivation by the estates is criticized by some of the residents in the adjacent villages due to the trees' high consumption of water that cause the water resources to dry out....

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Posted in Agriculture , palm oil , plantation , Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka schemes ‘legal reform’ to negate identity and grab land

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 November 2009, 02:34 GMT] News reports from Colombo indicate Sri Lanka government is planning to revise the Theasa Vazhamai law of Tamils, which is a constituent legal code, ever since the formulation of the island’s current legal system by the Dutch. The urgency of the Sri Lanka state at this juncture is not social reformation but grabbing the lands of Tamils without legal hurdles, besides removing last vestiges of Tamil sovereignty in the state apparatus, Tamil legal circles said. The very word ‘Theasa Vazhamai’ means the conventions of the nation or country. This is a civil legal code applicable to the people of the Jaffna Peninsula and was codified by the Dutch in early 18th century, by compiling the traditional laws of the times of Tamil sovereignty before...

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Posted in land grabbing , Sri Lanka , Thesawalamai

Justice Ministry to amend Thesawalame law

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda (Daily Mirror) Ministry of Justice and Law Reform has taken measures to amend the Thesawalame law with necessary changes in line with the present requirements. The Ministry has appointed a committee headed by Justice Siri Pawan to look into the new provisions of the Thesawalame law. The Media Secretary to the ministry of Justice and law Reform Gamini Sarath Godakanda told the Daily Mirror. Thesawalame law is applied to inhabitants of Tamils in the Northern Province and has been subjected to many controversies. According to this law, property can be divided into three categories, such as inherited property of the man from his parents; inherited property of the wife from her parents and the acquired property of the man and wife during their lifetime together. According...

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Posted in Thesawalamai

Coconut industry hit by imported palm oil

(November 03, 2009) Sri Lanka's major opposition United National Party (UNP) yesterday charged that the coconut industry in the country was in serious trouble with 60 percent of coconut mills in the North Western province alone having been closed down. Opposition Leader of the North Western Province Shamal Senarath told a news conference yesterday that the coconut industry is in dire state because the excessive importation of palm oil to the country. He alleged that the import duty on palm oil had been reduced to 5 percent from 28 percent in order to satisfy a few businessmen who import palm oil and have state patronage. The government had...

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Posted in coconut industry , palm oil , Sri Lanka