Category: Other

ROME, May 12, 2008 (AFP) – Rice production in Asia, Africa and Latin America is forecast to reach a new record level in 2008, but world rice prices could remain high in the short term, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Monday.However the destruction of Myanmar’s food resources by a deadly cyclone could […]

SYDNEY, May 13, 2008 (AFP) – Australia will boost its skilled migrant intake 30 percent to record levels in a bid to overcome a shortage of skilled workers, the government said Tuesday.As part of the centre-left Labor government’s first budget, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said an extra 31,000 skilled migrants would be allowed into Australia […]

DUJIANGYAN, China, May 13, 2008 (AFP) – At least 10,000 people remained buried Tuesday in a single city in China’s Sichuan province following a massive earthquake, Xinhua news agency said. The 10,000 were missing in the city of Mianzhu, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) southeast of the epicentre of the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck on […]

BEIJING, May 12, 2008 (AFP) – China’s inflation rate hit 8.5 percent in April, remaining near 12-year highs, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday. The figure comes on top of 8.3 percent consumer price inflation in March and 8.7 percent in February. China has made inflation control a top priority for economic policy-making this […]

BEIJING, May 12, 2008 (AFP) – A massive earthquake rocked southwest China on Monday killing thousands of people and flattening schools and homes in a powerful tremor that was felt across a swathe of southeast Asia.The quake, with a magnitude of 7.8, struck close to densely-populated areas of Sichuan province including the capital Chengdu. It […]

WARSAW, May 12, 2008 (AFP) – Irena Sendler, a Polish woman who saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation in World War II, died Monday in Warsaw aged 98, her daughter confirmed.“She died today,” Janina Zgrzembska told AFP. A social worker, Irena Sendler worked with Warsaw’s poor Jewish families prior […]

PARIS, May 12, 2008 (AFP) – Renault-Nissan and the Indian group Bajaj announced a joint venture Monday to produce a 2,500-dollar (1,600-euro) car, with sales expected to begin in India in early 2011.The joint venture would be 50 percent owned by Bajaj Auto, 25 percent by Renault and 25 percent by Nissan, said a staement.The […]

YANGON, May 12, 2008 (AFP) – Aid groups said Sunday that supplies trickling into cyclone-hit Myanmar were far less than was needed, as the faltering relief effort suffered a new blow with the sinking of a Red Cross boat. The boat, carrying vital supplies of drinking water, rice, and purification tablets, hit a submerged tree […]

MANILA, May 11, 2008 (AFP) – With food prices hitting record highs the jury is still out in Asia as to whether genetically modified crops hold the key to future food security.The Philippine government has openly embraced the commercial growing of genetically modified (GM) corn, but neighbouring countries appear less than enthusiastic. “There has been […]

UTSIRA, Norway, May 11, 2008 (AFP) – As Norway prepares for a future after oil, the gale-force potential of harvesting wind power off its long coastline has become an increasingly attractive proposition.“Wind-mapping shows that … Norway is among the (world’s) most ideal locations for wind power, both on the coast and offshore,” said Norwegian Deputy […]