Category: Other

NEW DELHI, June 4, 2008 (AFP) – India’s airlines suffered a combined loss of nearly a billion dollars in the past financial year and the figure could double this year if fuel prices keep rising, a government official said on Wednesday.The firms suffered a total loss of around 40 billion rupees (937.6 billion dollars) in […]

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2008 (AFP) – Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke signaled Tuesday that the US central bank is worried about the dollar, saying the sagging currency has led to “unwelcome” inflation pressures.“We may see somewhat better economic conditions during the second half of 2008, reflecting the effects of monetary and fiscal stimulus, reduced drag […]

OAKLAND, June 4, 2008 (AFP) – A private San Francisco area university dedicated to the study of the cannabis industry is giving a whole new meaning to higher education. At Oaksterdam University — so called after the nickname locals have given to Oakland — students learn how to grow, harvest and cook marijuana, as well […]

KUALA LUMPUR, June 4, 2008 (AFP) – Malaysia said petrol prices will jump 40 percent from Thursday, as it moves to cut the spiralling cost of subsidies despite the prospect of public outrage. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the price hike could suppress economic growth and drive up inflation as high as 5.0 percent […]

GENEVA, June 2, 2008 (AFP) – The WTO’s chief negotiator on freeing up access for industrial products said Monday he sees no point in further talks until member states are ready to compromise over tariffs and other key sticking points. The 152 members of the WTO need to “work among themselves to bridge their positions […]

REYKJAVIK, June 2, 2008 (AFP) – Iceland and Norway resumed whale meat exports to Japan this year after an 18-year interruption, industry representatives from both Scandinavian countries said.“Iceland and Norway resumed exporting whale meat to Japan,” Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, president of the Icelandic association representing Minke whale hunters, told AFP. “We (Iceland) have exported to […]

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2008 (AFP) – Amid skyrocketing fuel and food prices, consumers in the United States are hitting the breaks on spending and even discovering the merits of home-grown food. With petrol prices inching toward four dollars a gallon — up 25 percent in just five months — and domestic food inflation up 6.3 […]

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2008 (AFP) – Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday the central bank is “attentive” to the sagging dollar and would look at steps “to guard against risks” to inflation from a weak currency. Bernanke, speaking via satellite to a monetary conference in Barcelona, Spain, offered a mixed assessment of US economic […]

SAO PAULO, June 2, 2008 (AFP) – With its prodigious farm exports and its major industry making ethanol from sugarcane, Brazil is seeking to show that in the food versus biofuel debate at least in its case the two can co-exist. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has challenged critics who claim biofuel production is […]