Category: South Asia

August 6, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s state television on Thursday announced that the new head of the remnants of the Tamil Tiger rebels had been arrested in Thailand. Pathmanathan, an overseas-based leader who took over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) following the killing of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in mid-May, was also […]

NEW DELHI, August 6, 2009 (AFP) – These are tough times for India’s flagship outsourcing industry whose skilled, low-cost workforce helped plant the country on the global business map.With the world in the grip of the worst economic slump since the 1930s, revenue growth from outsourcing — subcontracting work to a third-party company — is […]

GLASGOW, August 3, 2009 (AFP) – Scotland is known around the world for bagpipes, Scotch whisky, haggis and tartan kilts. But now it is trying to protect a less obviously Scottish treasure: chicken tikka masala.A chef from Glasgow claims he invented the curry dish, and is pressing the European Union to give it “Protected Designation […]

DHAKA, July 30, 2009 (AFP) – When Kohinur Akhter’s 19-month-old baby boy came down with a fever and cough a little over a week ago, she had no idea the medicine she gave him to ease the pain would put him on his death bed. Now Akhter has been told by doctors in Bangladesh that […]

July 29, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan menswear retailer Hameedia has expanded into the neighbouring Maldive islands, opening a showroom in the capital Male.“It involves a careful selection of fabrics and accessories, studying both national and international market trends, and, the demanding task of marketing.” Hameedia Managing Director Fouzul Hameed said the company was looking […]

NEW DELHI, July 26, 2009 (AFP) – The Indian version of a US reality TV show that extracts secrets from minor celebrities has caused protests and a furore in parliament with its focus on infidelity, incest and other taboo subjects. Indian Express columnist Shubhra Gupta was similarly insistent that viewers should be the final arbiters […]

July 24, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is to free some 1,800 jailed military deserters as part of a presidential amnesty, a justice ministry spokesman said on Friday. In 2003, the government moved to legally discharge 51,000 deserters from the security forces. Tens of thousands were killed in Sri Lanka’s decades-old Tamil separatist conflict.The pardon […]

NEW DELHI, July 23, 2009 (AFP) – India’s top mobile company, Bharti Airtel, reported Thursday that first-quarter net profit jumped 24 percent and said it was still in merger talks with South Africa’s flagship MTN cellular group.Bharti said net profit for the three months to June 30 rose to 25.17 billion rupees (526 million dollars) […]

NEW DELHI, July 23, 2009 (AFP) – The world’s leading universities such as Harvard and Yale could soon be allowed to open colleges in India under new legislation proposed by the government, a report said Thursday.India has a severe shortage of higher education institutions and a booming population with more than 30 percent of its […]

PESHAWAR, July 22, 2009 (AFP) – The price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle is soaring as militant groups and private militias mushroom in an increasingly battle-torn northwest Pakistan, arms dealers and buyers say. Civilians too, frightened by the upsurge in violence and citing a lack of government protection, are also forking out to arm themselves […]

NEW DELHI, July 20, 2009 (AFP) – The world’s most populous nations will gaze skywards Wednesday as the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century lays a carpet of darkness across India and China, from Mumbai to Shanghai.In ancient China, eclipses were often associated with natural disasters or the death of an emperor, and […]

NEW DELHI, July 20, 2009 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hoped to seal a defence pact boosting US arms sales to India in talks here Monday that should also see agreement on the siting of two US nuclear reactors. On the business end of her five-day visit to India, Clinton met Prime […]