Category: Other

SHANGHAI, June 2, 2008 (AFP) – China’s foreign exchange reserves rose to 1.76 trillion dollars at the end of April, state media reported Monday, reaching a level higher than the rest of Northeast Asia’s combined.“This (figure) seems to suggest the inflow of hot money is speeding up,” the newspaper quoted Logan Wright, an analyst with […]

ISTANBUL, June 2, 2008 (AFP) – Air travel industry body IATA predicted Monday that airlines would lose 2.3 billion dollars this year dramatically reversing an earlier prediction of profits nearly twice this figure. “Oil skyrocketing above US 130 per barrel has brought us into uncharted territory.Add in the weakening global economy and this is yet […]

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2008 (AFP) – The Democratic Party dealt a severe blow to Hillary Clinton’s fading White House hopes, restoring renegade states Michigan and Florida to its presidential convention, but with halved voting power.Barack Obama, 46 was left two giant strides closer to making history as the first black presidential nominee, with only three […]

LOS ANGELES, May 31, 2008 (AFP) – Oscar-winning US actress Holly Hunter got star treatment Friday, as her name was embedded and her film career honored on Hollywood’s “Walk of Fame.” The 50-year-old actress, her two-year-old twin sons, director Steven Spielberg and actor Ed Harris were all on hand for the unveiling of the 2,363rd […]

DUBAI, May 31, 2008 (AFP) – The Gulf emirate of Dubai on Saturday banned the sale of tobacco to anyone under the age of 20 with immediate effect and barred young people from public areas in which smoking is allowed.The anouncement was made in public advertisements in Arabic-language newspapers as part of a “Youth Without […]

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, May 31, 2008 (AFP) – The first rain from India’s annual monsoon, crucial to millions of farmers and the health of the overall economy, hit the southwest coast on Saturday. The southwest monsoon sweeps the subcontinent from June to September and is an economic lifeline for the 235 million farmers in India where just […]

May 30, Japan (AFP) – A Japanese man puzzled by food mysteriously disappearing from his refrigerator got a shock when he found out a woman had been living in his home for months without permission, police said Friday.The 57-year-old man living alone — or so he thought — in the western city of Fukuoka installed […]

May 30, 2008 (AFP) – As Iran’s economy is buffeted by inflation, the country’s homeowners are fast becoming richer in a real estate bubble that is driving affordable housing beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.Prices have doubled within a few months in satellite town of Parand and Hashtgerd, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Tehran, while […]

May 29, 2008 (AFP – India’s top vehicle maker Tata Motors reported a slight fall in annual profit on Wednesday as it announced a capital raising plan to fund its purchase of British luxury icons Jaguar and Land Rover. The company, part of the steel-to-tea Tata Group conglomerate, reported net profit fell to 21.67 billion […]

May 29, 2008 (AFP) – A slowdown looms for India’s economy amid global financial turmoil even though it may post better-than-expected growth for last year in official data due on Friday, economists say. Just as positive global factors supported India’s expansion earlier, “negative global factors,” such as surging commodity prices and growing investor risk aversion, […]

Nepal’s ousted king Gyanendra is packing his belongings and planning to leave his palace in Kathmandu on Friday in line with a two-week deadline, a prominent newspaper editor told AFP Thursday. “According to our sources, the King is packing up his personal belongings to move out of the palace,” Kishore Shrestha, editor of the Nepali-language […]