Category: South Asia

KARACHI, February 17, 2009 (AFP) – Pakistan is to ask for an additional loan of 4.5 billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund to patch up an economy wilting under a widening trade deficit, an official said Tuesday.Among other tight demands, the IMF wants a reduction in Pakistan’s deficit and huge borrowing from the central […]

UNITED NATIONS, January 30, 2009 (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday appealed to the Sri Lankan government and its Tamil foes to ensure safe passage for an estimated 250,000 civilians caught in the fighting in the northeast of the island country.“The Secretary General calls upon the (rebel) Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), […]

January 29, 2009 (AFP) – The United Nations evacuated hundreds of severely wounded civilians from behind rebel lines in Sri Lanka Thursday as government troops fought to secure final victory over the Tamil Tigers.Human rights bodies have called for immediate steps by both the Colombo government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to […]

NEW DELHI, January 24, 2009 (AFP) – India’s 76-year-old Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underwent heart bypass surgery Saturday, raising questions about his political future with general elections looming.Doctors decided to perform the surgery, which was due to take up to eight hours, after Singh complained of chest pains earlier in the week. The procedure began […]

THE HAGUE, January 23, 2009 (AFP) – Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo hopes to alert the world to the plight of child soldiers when he finally faces Congolese militiaman Thomas Lubanga next week at the International Criminal Court’s first-ever trial.“This case is about how serious it is to enlist hundreds of children and transform them into killers,” […]

KUALA LUMPUR, January 22, 2009 (AFP) – Malaysia is on alert for Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, saying he may have fled here after troops surrounded his last remaining stronghold, according to reports Thursday.Police chief Musa Hassan told the New Straits Times daily he had ordered a nationwide alert following reports that Prabhakaran, […]

Jan 19, 2009 (LBO) – Cairn India, which has won a license to explore for oil off Sri Lanka’s west coast, said it got Indian government approval to go ahead with the development of an oil field in north-west India. The company said it holds material exploration and production positions in west India and east […]

NEW DELHI, January 15, 2009 (AFP) – India’s inflation fell for a tenth straight week, according to official data Thursday, creating more room to boost the nation’s slowing economy, economists said.Annual inflation stood at 5.24 percent for the week to January 3, down from 5.91 percent a week earlier, according to the Wholesale Price Index, […]

MUMBAI, January 11, 2009 (AFP) – A billion-dollar accounting scandal at one of India’s top outsourcing firms has left the government and financial regulators scrabbling to control the damage.Besides huge losses for investors, the scandal has seriously dented India Inc.‘s reputation for strong corporate governance, often viewed as being a notch above its other Asian […]

Jan 04, 2009 (LBO) – The new government in the Maldives, in move to privatize the economy, is looking at selling state-owned businesses and becoming more investor friendly, the Maldivian leader said on a visit to Colombo. We come here to open the country for business. We are looking at an ambitious decentralization program. We […]

DHAKA, December 30, 2008 (AFP) – Former Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina Wajed has won a landslide victory in general elections, with her party picking up more than 75 percent of seats, an Election Commission official said Tuesday.Commission spokesman S.M. Asaduzzaman told AFP that votes in 295 of the 299 seats had been counted, and Sheikh […]

ISLAMABAD, December 27, 2008 (AFP) – Pakistan has redeployed thousands of troops to the border with India, officials said Friday, in a dramatic escalation of tensions with New Delhi in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.Washington urged the two sides to avoid escalating tensions and said it was touch with both countries. Indian Prime Minister […]