Category: South Asia

LONDON, April 2, 2009 (AFP) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Thursday the International Monetary Fund was partly to blame for the global financial crisis, highlighting a lack of regulation of developed economies. India did not need to ask the IMF for financial assistance, he said.“We have no intention of going to the IMF… […]

April 02, 2009 (LBO) – The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said it has donated 15 million dollars (1.7 billion rupees) worth of food aid for Sri Lanka to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). USAID said its donation supports the WFP Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO) titled Food for Peacebuilding and […]

LAHORE, March 31, 2009 (AFP) – Pakistan’s most wanted militant Tuesday claimed responsibility for a deadly police academy assault and threatened to attack the US capital in retaliation for a series of air strikes. Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, for whom the United States has posted a five-million-dollar reward, said there would be more attacks […]

NEW DELHI, March 18, 2009 (AFP) – Nineteen-year-old Souraj Thapa has never heard of the global financial crisis, but he’s finding that his job chances are drying up. “I’ve been to three companies but they’re not hiring,” said Thapa, a delivery courier in the Indian capital whose previous company went out of business and who […]

LONDON, March 14, 2009 (AFP) – The Maldives will become the world’s first carbon neutral country by fully switching to the use of renewable energy within a decade, President Mohamed Nasheed said in an article to be published Sunday.“People often tell me caring for the environment is too difficult, too expensive or too much bother.I […]

NEW DELHI, March 11, 2009 (AFP) – India is to conduct a massive security review of key missions in South Asia following threats against its nationals in Afghanistan, a report said Wednesday. The Indian Express newspaper reported that officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs, spy agency the Intelligence Bureau and the elite counter-terrorism National […]

Mar 10, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s biggest state bank has proposed a bold project to make the island a Dubai-style duty free shopping mecca for the billion-plus consumers on the Indian sub-continent. Gamini Wickramasinghe, chairman of Bank of Ceylon (BOC), said much revenue can be generated by enticing visitors from the region, exploiting the […]

SLAMABAD, March 7, 2009 (AFP) – Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan believes a “foreign element” could be involved in this week’s attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, according to an interview published Saturday. “It could be India, Afghanistan, the Tamil Tigers,” Khan was quoted as saying in an interview published online by The Times […]

Mar 05, 2009 (LBO) – The Indian Ocean atoll nation of Maldives said it had banned shark hunting close to shore and a complete ban on shark products exports was on the cards to shore up depleting numbers. The Maldives attracts 600,000 tourists per year and the sector accounts for 28 percent of gross domestic […]

CHICAGO, March 1, 2009 (AFP) – Global warming could delay the start of the summer monsoon by five to 15 days within the next century and significantly reduce rainfall in much of South Asia, a recent study has found.“These circulation changes decrease moisture flow over the land, and we see longer periods without rain, along […]

GENEVA, February 27, 2009 (AFP) – The UN refugee agency said Friday it was preparing for the arrival of tens of thousands of displaced people fleeing the conflict zone in northern Sri Lanka over the coming weeks.The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had received 300 acres of land […]