Category: South Asia

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 […]

NEW DELHI, December 14, 2008 (AFP) – India on Sunday denied any of its aircraft had intruded into Pakistani air space, as tensions ran high between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours over the Mumbai attacks.Pakistan’s air force said Indian jets flew over the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir and the eastern city of Lahore, both places […]

NEW DELHI, December 12, 2008 (AFP) – India’s industrial growth unexpectedly shrank for the first time in 15 years, data showed Friday, hit by the widening global recession that has weakened demand in Asia’s third-largest economy. Industrial production contracted by 0.4 percent in October after expanding by 12.2 percent in the same month a year […]

NEW DELHI, December 7, 2008 (AFP) – The Indian government on Sunday announced an extra four billion dollars in spending to shield the economy from the impact of the global financial crisis.The government said it would also ensure a substantial increase in expenditure for next year’s budget.“The government has decided to seek authorisation for additional […]

MUMBAI, December 1, 2008 (AFP) – For 60 hours, Mumbai residents watched aghast as gunmen opened fire in a station and hospital, seizing two top hotels and a Jewish centre in a coordinated assault that left at least 172 people dead. But soon after an attack described by many in the media here as “India’s […]

MUMBAI, November 30, 2008 (AFP) – India’s interior minister resigned Sunday as anger grew over intelligence failures leading up to the attacks on Mumbai and investigators focused on a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group. Home Minister Shivraj Patil said he took “moral responsibility” for the assault by heavily-armed militants which left nearly 200 people dead and […]

MUMBAI, Nov 29, 2008 (AFP) – Commandos killed three holdout gunmen Saturday in Mumbai’s Taj Hotel, bringing an end to a two-day Islamic militant assault on India’s financial capital that left at least 155 dead, including 21 foreigners. The final attack on the historic seafront hotel was marked by heavy gunfire and loud explosions that […]

MUMBAI, November 27, 2008 (AFP) – Indian commandos battled into the early hours of Friday to end a multiple hostage crisis in Mumbai after suspected Pakistan-based Islamic militants killed 125 people across the city. Officials said they had almost totally cleared the luxury Taj Mahal hotel where gunmen had been holed up for more than […]