Category: Other

PARIS, Oct 11, 2006 (AFP) – Oil prices have fallen because of stockbuilding and slowing demand but a possible OPEC output cut, global instability and growth in China and the Middle East are likely to keep the market under tension, the IEA said Wednesday.The International Energy Agency forecast an increase of 1.2 percent in global […]

DHAKA, Oct 11, 2006 (AFP) – Bangladeshi textile manufacturers pledged Wednesday to investigate child labour allegations after a British television network showed children making clothes for supermarket giant Tesco.Channel 4 News had secretly filmed children as young as 12 it said were working at four factories that supply the British supermarket giant. S.M. Fazlul Hoque, […]

SINGAPORE, Oct 11, 2006 (AFP) – Tech-savvy Singapore will offer free wireless broadband service in public areas from next year, the government said.The programme will increase the number of wireless hotspots from 900 currently to 5,000 over two years, allowing Singaporeans wireless connectivity beyond homes, offices and schools where the service is currently available, the […]

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10, 2006 (AFP) – Malaysia will issue up to four licences to telecommunication operators to provide “fourth generation” wireless high speed Internet services, a senior minister said Tuesday.The government in July cancelled the original tender for the WiMAX 2.3 gigahertz spectrum, saying that the specifications were not in line with the ministry’s […]

PARIS, Oct 10, 2006 (AFP) – Vineyards in the new world and even in China are stealing a march on traditionally dominant European producers in the race to slake the world’s fast-growing thirst for wine.From having a market share of just 1.6 percent 20 years ago, wines from countries like Chile, Australia and the United […]

LONDON, Oct 9, 2006 (AFP) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to push for reform of the banking and insurance sectors, and to raise investment in infrastructure, in an interview published in the Financial Times on Monday.“These are our two biggest priorities,” Singh told the newspaper. His remarks to the newspaper largely echo those […]

LONDON, Oct 9, 2006 (AFP) – Indian shipbreaking workers on Monday called on industry chiefs meeting in London Monday for tighter regulations to cut the number of serious injuries and deaths in the sector, particularly in Asia.“We need the help of the world, we need the help of the people to help the workers,” Vidyadhar […]

STOCKHOLM, Oct 9, 2006 (AFP) – US economist Edmund S.Phelps won the 2006 Nobel Economics Prize on Monday for work on trade-offs in macroeconomic policy, the Nobel jury said, noting that his work had improved understanding of how policy affected welfare for present and future generations. List of Nobel Economics Prize laureates 2006: Edmund S. […]

PARIS, Oct 9, 2006 (AFP) – Scientists took a dour wait-and-see attitude after North Korea claimed to have successfully conducted a nuclear test on Monday.Only careful analysis of data returned by seismic or atmospheric sensors will say whether the blast was a success or a damp squib, they said. Nor could they rule out the […]

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, Oct 6, 2006 (AFP) – Scientists who answered questions such as why woodpeckers don’t get headaches, whether dung beetles like their diet and if rectal massage can cure hiccups have at last been recognised for their work.The IgNobel Prizes, a tongue-in-cheek alternative to their more formal Scandinavian counterparts, were presented by genuine Nobel […]

WASHINGTON, Oct 6, 2006 (AFP) – The days of donating at church by dropping money into a basket may become a thing of the past if Marty Baker has his way.Baker, a pastor in the southern state of Georgia, has come up with a divine idea to raise money for the Lord — automated teller […]