Category: South Asia

NEW DELHI, February 2, 2011 (AFP) – India’s top mobile phone firm Bharti said on Wednesday quarterly net profit slid 41 percent, hit by costs from its new Africa business and foreign exchange losses, but was upbeat on its future. But Bharti began last month rolling out its ultra-fast third-generation (3G) telecom services which analysts […]

NEW DELHI, January 31, 2011 (AFP) – Eight South Asian countries have launched a regional scheme to share information on poaching and wildlife trafficking in a bid to protect dwindling populations of tigers and other rare animals. After talks in Bhutan at the weekend, the countries launched the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN), according […]

DHAKA, January 30, 2011 (AFP) – The mayor of Chittagong city in southern Bangladesh said Sunday that he would pay hundreds of beggars a daily wage to keep them off the streets during the cricket World Cup. Manzur Alam said that about 300 disabled beggars would be given 150 taka (two dollars) a day after […]

DHAKA, January 24, 2011 (AFP) – Bangladesh has ordered a probe into the slump on the Dhaka Stock Exchange and unveiled a series of reforms to restore confidence in the market. The move follows the index’s 30-percent fall since it hit a historic high of 8,918. 51 on December 5, with the crisis being blamed […]

NEW DELHI, January 20, 2011 (AFP) – India’s ambitious budget airline IndiGo will start international operations in August, the company said in a statement, a week after it placed a huge order for 180 new aircraft. The aviation ministry has approved IndiGo’s proposal to launch services to Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai and Muscat. “IndiGo is delighted […]

LONDON, January 18, 2011 (AFP) – Britain has asked India to waive diplomatic immunity for a senior diplomat following reports that he assaulted his wife at their London home, the Foreign Office said Tuesday. Police were called to the home of the envoy, named by media as Anil Verma, last month following reports of a […]

DHAKA, January 18, 2011 (AFP) – Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus appeared in a Bangladesh court on Tuesday in a defamation case dating back to 2007, posing further legal problems for the microfinance pioneer in his homeland. Last week, the government ordered a probe into Yunus’s Grameen Bank, with which he shared the Nobel […]

NEW DELHI, January 14, 2011 (AFP) – India’s inflation rose again to 8. 43 percent in December, data showed Friday, as the government announced steps to curb food prices amid mounting public anger over the cost of living. The wholesale price index, used as the main measure for inflation in India, accelerated to 8.43 percent […]

NEW DELHI, January 13, 2011 (AFP) – The Canadian maker of BlackBerry said Thursday it had found a way out of an ongoing standoff in India over allowing security agencies access to the smartphone’s encrypted messaging service. However, the solution did not include providing access to corporate e-mail services, Research In Motion (RIM) said in […]

KARACHI, January 9, 2011 (AFP) – More than 20,000 people rallied in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi on Sunday, police said, against proposed amendment to blasphemy laws that were recently used to sentence a Christian woman to death. The protest follows Tuesday’s assassination of the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, by one of his […]

MUMBAI, January 7, 2011 (AFP) – Indian stocks slumped for the fourth day running on Friday, shedding 2.44 percent on mounting fears that interest rates will be raised sooner than expected to curb the spiralling cost of food. The benchmark 30-share Sensex index ended 492.93 points lower at 19,691.81, a three-week low. Surging vegetable prices, […]

WASHINGTON, January 5, 2011 (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund Wednesday praised India’s stewardship of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, saying the country’s growth prospects appear robust. The IMF said that India had emerged from the global financial slump with a strong recovery since mid-2009 led by domestic demand, particularly infrastructure investment. “Executive directors […]