Category: South Asia

ISLAMABAD, October 26, 2009 (AFP) – Pakistan’s military said Monday that the death toll in a major military assault on the Taliban rose to 227, reporting heavy losses in the battle to control a village en route to a Taliban bastion.Nineteen militants were killed during the last 24 hours, a military statement said, bringing the […]

NEW DELHI, October 24, 2009 (AFP) – India said Saturday a long-delayed auction of radio bandwidth for third generation (3G) telecommunications services will start in January and will be open to foreign companies.The Central Bureau of Investigation alleged in a statement “a criminal conspiracy between certain officials” of the ministry and “private persons/companies and others […]

NEW DELHI, October 24, 2009 (AFP) – India’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki reported Saturday that its quarterly net profit had soared 93 percent year-on-year, amid signs pointing to a reviving domestic economy. Maruti, majority owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, reported net profit of 5.7 billion rupees (123 million dollars) in the second financial […]

NEW DELHI, October 23, 2009 (AFP) – India’s telecom minister Friday denied any corruption in the awarding of new licences to telecom companies in the country last year after a raid by federal police on his ministry.India’s federal criminal investigation agency raided the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Thursday on suspicion that mobile phone network […]

MUMBAI, October 23, 2009 (AFP) – Indians spent nearly 2.0 billion dollars buying gold last week during Hindu festivities, an increase compared with 2008 despite record prices, the World Gold Council said on Friday. The World Gold Council (WGC) said gold sales rose 5.7 percent to 56 tonnes from a year earlier in the week […]

HUA HIN, October 24, 2009 (AFP) – Asian leaders discussed plans at a summit Saturday to “lead the world” by forming an EU-style community, as regional giants China and India tried to cool a simmering border spat.Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pressed his regional counterparts to move towards the creation of an East Asian bloc […]

NEW DELHI, October 22, 2009 (AFP) – The world’s cheapest car, the Nano, launched by Indian maker Tata earlier this year, faces possible checks after owners complained of fires apparently caused by short circuits.But Tata Motors said it would not order a recall of the Nano, at least 7,500 of which have been delivered since […]

SYDNEY, October 22, 2009 (AFP) – Australia could be set for a decades-long commodities boom fuelled by rocketing demand from China and India, a senior official said in the country’s latest upbeat economic assessment. Treasury secretary Ken Henry also said a return to full employment was a “conceivable possibility” in the coming years, with major […]

NEW DELHI, October 21, 2009 (AFP) – India’s economy has withstood the global financial crisis well and should grow by 6.5 percent this fiscal year, a top government panel forecast Wednesday. The panel, which advises India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on economic policy, put the estimated growth range for the country between 6.25 percent and […]

NAIROBI, October 19, 2009 (AFP) – Somali pirates hijacked a Chinese bulk carrier Monday northeast of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, as the marauding sea bandits hunted their prey ever further from base to wrong-foot naval patrols.According to the European Union’s anti-piracy naval mission (EU NAVFOR), the unnamed ship was seized 550 nautical miles […]

MALE, October 18, 2009 (AFP) – Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed, who staged the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting at the weekend, is emerging as the global stuntman in the battle against climate change.Nasheed, 42, dived with his cabinet to the sea bottom Saturday in an effort to press December’s UN summit in Copenhagen to cap […]

NEW DELHI, October 17, 2009 (AFP) – India’s government has praised a decision by India’s richest businessman Mukesh Ambani to take a 66 percent pay cut after it called for firms to avoid “vulgar” executive salaries, a report said Saturday.The minister’s call to rein in executive pay came amid pressure from governments around the world […]