Category: Other

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006 (AFP) – Hispanics and Asians are the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States, where one in three people now belong to a minority group, the US Census Bureau said Wednesday. In 2005, the minority population totalled 98 million, or 33 percent of the 296.4 million US population, the agency […]

SINGAPORE, May 9, 2006 (AFP) – Singapore-based luxury resort and spa chain Banyan Tree has outlined plans for a public listing to raise funds for further international expansion. The company intends to raise more than 100 million Singapore dollars (64 million US) from the proposed listing, it said in a preliminary prospectus late Monday. It […]

SINGAPORE, May 9, 2006 (AFP) – Singapore-based luxury resort and spa chain Banyan Tree has outlined plans for a public listing to raise funds for further international expansion. The company intends to raise more than 100 million Singapore dollars (64 million US) from the proposed listing, it said in a preliminary prospectus late Monday. It […]

MOSCOW, May 9, 2006 (AFP) – It can be a delicacy or status symbol, a cure-all, or even an aphrodisiac, but ecologists are warning that Russian caviar could disappear altogether as the Caspian Sea’s sturgeon population reaches dangerously low levels. The WWF conservation group has for the past few months waged a campaign to persuade […]

PARIS, May 9, 2006 (AFP) – It may sound like science fiction, but the prospect that suicide bombers and hijackers could be made redundant by flying robots is a real one, according to experts. The technology for remote-controlled light aircraft is now highly advanced, widely available — and, experts say, virtually unstoppable. Models with a […]

NEW DELHI, May 9, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told reporters in India Tuesday that foreign help is needed to pressure Tamil Tiger rebels back to peace talks to save a fragile ceasefire.Samaraweera, in New Delhi on a two-day visit to brief the Indian government on the faltering peace efforts, said […]

LONDON, May 8, 2006 (AFP) – The Beatles’ multimedia corporation Monday lost a British High Court battle with Apple Computer, leaving the US group free to continue using the apple name and logo on its revolutionary iTunes music store website. Beatles’ Apple Corps was seeking financial damages and court orders to stop Apple Computer using […]

NEW DELHI, May 6, 2006 (AFP) – A ship carrying scientists conducting environmental studies sank off the India’s eastern coast early Saturday, a report said. All 18 people on board, including the crew, escaped, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. “The accident occurred after an explosion, the reason for which is under investigation,” […]

LOS ANGELES, May 4 (AFP) – Movie piracy costs Hollywood’s big studios about 6.1 billion dollars last year, far more than the 3.5 billion dollars the industry had previously conceded, a stunning report revealed Wednesday.A study ordered by the US film industry’s lobbying group, the influential Motion Picture Association of America, revealed that pirates were […]

LONDON, May 4, 2006 (AFP) – An unemployed man has been charged with murder after two shop workers in one of three allegedly racially motivated firebomb attacks on Asian-run convenience stores in London, police said Thursday. Robert Torto, 32, is accused of killing shopkeeper Khizar Hayat, who was originally from Pakistani Kashmir, and his employee, […]

BANGKOK, May 4 (AFP) – A top official for the UN’s tsunami recovery effort was meeting Thursday in Bangkok to launch a new drive to improve accountability for the 13 billion dollars donated to five countries hit by the deadly waves.“There was a great appreciation that accountability to donors, the affected populations, and to the […]