Category: Other

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, 2008 (AFP) – Export-driven Asian economies are shifting away from a strategy of keeping currencies weak against the US dollar in an indication of troubling times for the region, a US think tank said Wednesday. Central banks in Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea on Tuesday reportedly began selling dollars to shore up […]

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 […]

May 28, 2008 (AFP) – African leaders on Wednesday lashed out at rich nations for failing to tackle trade inequalities even as they make lofty pledges to boost aid.The leaders, in Japan for a major development conference, urged industrialised nations to make it easier for them to export food, coffee and other products at fair […]

May 28, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government debt office rejected bids to buy 8.5 billion rupees of treasury bills Wednesday, selling 3.2 billion rupees through the auction. The government sold 2.0 billion rupees of 6-months bills at 18.14 percent, down 16 basis points from last week. The yield on 12-month bills also fell 10 […]