Sirens wailed and loudspeakers ordered residents of coastal towns and villages from Indonesia's Aceh province to Sri Lanka to seek safety during an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami practice drill on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka will be among 18 countries around the Indian Ocean Rim which will participate in an ocean-wide tsunami exercise on October 14 to coincide with World Disaster Reduction Day.

Endangered lemur species found only in Madagascar are being slaughtered and served up in local restaurants as poachers take advantage of a security vacuum on the island after a coup earlier this year.

To take on MNC dominance in new-generation molecules.

The conventional anti-lepidopteran formulations sell for Rs 500-600 a litre (Rs 250-300 an acre), whereas Syngenta

"The trends in disasters, particularly from climate change, are of enormous concern," said John Holmes, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

"We can only expect that this kind of trend is going to continue," he told a news conference.