Category: South Asia

NEW DELHI, April 13, 2009 (AFP) – A professor dubbed “the love guru” is contesting India’s elections on an unusual platform — more freedom for lovers and standing up to vigilante groups who frown on public displays of affection. Matuk Nath Choudhary, who is standing in the Bihar state capital of Patna, is promising that, […]

PATTAYA, April 12, 2009 (AFP) – The dramatic cancellation of an Asian summit after rampaging Thai protesters stormed the venue has set back a regional effort to tackle the global economic crisis, analysts said.The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was to have hosted two days of talks with the leaders of China, Japan, South […]

April 07, 2009 (LBO) – Britain has renewed its call for a humanitarian ceasefire in Sri Lanka and urged Tamil Tiger rebels to release civilians being held as a human shield. Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has commented on the situation in Sri Lanka following worrying reports of fighting in civilian concentrated areas within the country, […]

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2009 (AFP) – For the United States, much may be riding on an unlikely relationship between America’s highest ranking military officer and Pakistan’s powerful army chief.Over cups of tea and the occasional cigar, the avuncular American admiral and the reserved general talk about terrorist threats and sensitive military operations in a region […]

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 […]