PARIS (Reuters): France announced 65 billion euros of tax hikes and budget cuts over five years, as President Nicolas Sarkozy seeks to protect the country’s creditworthiness in financial markets without killing his chances of re-election in six months time.  The main goal was to protect a top-notch credit rating that allows France to fund itself ...

I still remember the thoughts that crossed my mind on the day that Harvard University announced the top 50 candidates for the 2011 Global Leaders in Development forum. The excitement was high, but then again the commitment to me personally in Sri Lanka made it a catch 22 decision. The decision was tougher, given that ...

Airline, unions appear again before govt-ordered labour tribunal Qantas says 447 flights grounded, 68,000 passengers affected since Sat PM calls for end to dispute World leaders at Perth meeting among those affected Rival airlines put on more flights MELBOURNE, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Qantas Airways and its unions appeared before a labour tribunal on Sunday ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters): Google Inc is making another push to bring its Web savvy to television sets, hoping to tap into a vast new market despite consumers’ lukewarm reaction to one of its initial offerings. The Internet search engine unveiled a revamped version of its Google TV service and announced plans to create about one ...

DOHA (Reuters): Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera will launch a sports news channel across the Middle East next month, it said in a statement on Thursday. The channel will broadcast hourly news bulletins and 20 sports news programmes covering major international tournaments and events including European football leagues on Egyptian satellite Nilesat, the statement said. ...

 VAN, Turkey  (Reuters): As many as 1,000 people were feared killed on Sunday when a  powerful earthquake struck Turkey, collapsing dozens of buildings and pulling down phone and power lines in the southeast of the country, officials and witnesses said. Emergency workers battled to rescue people trapped in buildings in the city of Van and ...

GENEVA (Reuters): The United Nations human rights office called on Friday for a full investigation into the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. “It is unclear how he died. There is a need for an investigation,” UN Human Rights Spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva. Referring to separate cell phone images showing ...

Sri Lankan represents global team of entrepreneursAspirations Edu-cation’s General Manager Deepamala Abeysekera became the only Sri Lankan to represent a group of 30 entrepreneurs in the world from, USA, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa, to read for her postgraduate studies in entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge. Cambridge has acquired an international reputation as an ...

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) says there is no need for travel agents and tourists to change Thailand travel plans due to flooding to the north of Bangkok. PATA head office is located in Bangkok city centre which is operating normally. PATA Interim CEO Bill Calderwood said today: “As you are aware from TV ...

Reuters: Arab foreign ministers stopped short of suspending Syria from their regional organisation on Sunday over its military crackdown on dissent, instead urging the government and opposition to negotiate an end to the violence. “We will call all of the parties of the opposition and government to hold a dialogue within 15 days,” the League’s ...

The Carlton Sports Network (CSN), Sri Lanka’s premiere sports entertainment channel will be exclusively broadcasting all the action as the Lions take on Pakistan in 3 Tests , 5 ODI’s and 1 T20 match, commencing 18th October 2011. Enjoy exclusive access via CSN all throughout the series as it travels from Abu Dhabi to Dubai ...

TOKYO (Reuters): Sony Corp will recall 1.6 million of its Bravia brand LCD televisions worldwide after several incidents of TV sets emitting smoke or parts melting due to faulty components, a company official said on Wednesday. The 11 incidents all took place in Japan, but the faulty parts may affect TV sets sold around the ...

Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, yesterday took delivery of its first A330-200 aircraft retrofitted with Panasonic Avionics Corporation’s (Panasonic) Global Communications Suite. The comprehensive communications and entertainment solution, ‘Sky Hub’, offers passengers onboard full broadband connectivity to access internet, mobile phone services and, for t...

nAsia Pacific most robust region; flat growth for Western Europe in Q2 nFMCG ad spend shows signs of slowing in Europe and North America, while advertising for clothing and accessories increases in Asia Pacific Despite overall growth of 5.7 per cent for the advertising industry in Q2 2011, ad spending fell in nearly half the ...

WELLINGTON,   (Reuters) :The intensity level at the rugby World Cup was ratcheted up a notch on Monday as the surviving eight teams began their preparations for the knockout phase, while England and New Zealand asked the public to ‘move on’. The quarter-finalists had settled their Auckland or Wellington bases, the venues for next weekend’s encounters, ...

Women in South AsiaFollowing is the address delivered by the High Commissioner of Pakistan Seema Ilahi Baloch at the South Asia Women in Media Forum: The women of South Asia must be proud, because our land can boast of some of the greatest women leaders of our times. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Husina ...

Reuters: The man tasked with running the new Libya reminded his forces that the war was not yet over as the latest deadline for the surrender of pro Muammar Gaddafi towns loomed and fighters massed on both sides. Earlier on Thursday, the voice of the on-the-run former leader boomed out from his hiding place, denying ...

How does one manage the media – i.e. from a PR sense?  If you speak about this subject to any mainstream media journalist, he is probably not going to like the word ‘manage’, as managing might also connote control. But from a PR point of view, managing the message in the media is the most ...

Reuters: England piled more misery on India with a thrilling six-wicket victory in a one-off Twenty20 match at Old Trafford on Wednesday. After losing the test series 4-0, India started brightly in the shortest version of the game and racked up 165 all out, only to see England reach their target with three balls to ...

Reuters: Hurricane Irene lashed New York with heavy winds and driving rain on Sunday, flooding some of Lower Manhattan's deserted streets and large parts of the northeast, but the feared major devastation was avoided as the storm lost some of its punch. Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm on Sunday morning after marching up ...

Reuters:  South Korea’s LG Electronics hasn’t been so smart with its smartphone business. Its mobile phone division has suffered five consecutive quarterly losses, cutthroat competition is pressuring it to overhaul the business and its shares have plummeted. The money-losing phone unit has also been a major value destroyer for LG shareholders. LG’s market value is ...

Reuters: The race to pick Japan’s sixth leader in five years appeared on Friday to be shaping up as a battle between the most popular contender and a rival backed by a party powerbroker, although with five candidates in play, the outcome was hard to call. Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who came under fire for ...

Asia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio Network, Sri Lanka’s largest radio network, has provided yet another enriching and historic experience to Sri Lankans living around the globe with the introduction of international SMS News Alerts. For the first time in Sri Lankan media history, ABC Radio Network’s Gold FM, Hiru FM and Sooriyan FM which have ...

Coming from a marketing background I tend to view the happenings of the world from a lens that can be different to many. Last week’s developing story of the Anna Hazare episode in India was unique, in my perception. A man who does not own a computer and is 74 years of age, with little ...

Our ‘poli-socionomic’ dialogue You will recall that like Capt. Kirk in his Star Ship-Enterprise,’ we also ventured into new territory with our first discussions under this theme ‘poli-socionomics,’ which appears to have caught on somewhat; thus, on behalf of those of us who still dare to think, I must thank those editors who carried it. ...

Journalism today has become a top job worldwide in terms of the power it wields, be it in social reform, removing unpopular regimes or exposing corruption. It has virtually become the world’s watchdog and sometimes its powers even spread into becoming both the judge and the jury in deciding what is right and wrong. Especially ...

Reuters: Police arrested leading anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare on Tuesday, just hours before he was due to fast to the death, as the beleaguered government cracked down on the self-styled Gandhian activist agitating for a new “freedom” struggle. At least 1,200 followers of the 74-year-old Hazare were also detained, signalling a hardline stance from Prime ...