Category: World

NEW YORK, Feb 19, 2008 (AFP) – The price of oil in New York spiked to a record 100.10 dollars a barrel Tuesday on supply concerns. The price for a barrel of light, sweet crude, eclipsed the record set in January of 100.09 dollars a barrel. The market rallied amid speculation that the Organization of […]

ADELAIDE, Feb 18, 2008 (AFP) – Australian coach Tim Nielsen told the touring Indians and Sri Lankans here Monday to worry about their own form instead of concerning themselves with the home side’s performances.Nielsen was responding to claims from both that the Australians were struggling, despite being the clear leader on the tri-series ladder. Sri […]

LONDON, Feb 18, 2008 (AFP) – The price of platinum on Monday struck a record high above 2,100 dollars owing to a tight supply situation, dealers said. On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum struck a record 2,119 dollars an ounce. It later stood at 2,090 dollars as profit-taking set in. The latest advance […]

NEW DELHI, Feb 19, 2008 (AFP) – India could soon begin producing “original” Kalashnikov assault rifles under licence and stop buying knock-offs of the ubiquitous weapon, a Russian firm said Tuesday. Speaking at the end of a four-day weapons fair in New Delhi, Izhmash JSC said it was negotiating with India on the local production […]

MOSCOW, Feb 17, 2008 (AFP) – Russia angrily condemned Kosovo’s declaration of independence on Sunday and while many major powers are expected to recognise the fledgling state, even the European Union is divided. The foreign ministry said it “could set an unmanageable precedent in the conduct of international relations, the established global order of sovereign […]

PARIS, Feb 18, 2008 (AFP) – Australia on Monday became the lastest nation to welcome Kosovo’s declaration of independence, joining the United States and several European powers, despite fierce objections from Serbia and Russia.Ethnic Albanians account for around 25 percent of Macedonia’s two-million population.In 2001, the government and ethnic Albanian rebels waged a brief fight […]

TEHRAN, Feb 16, 2008 (AFP) – Iran’s parliament on Saturday approved a three-billion-dollar spending plan to fund diesel and petrol imports during the next Iranian year, the official IRNA news agency reported.MPs approved a budget allowing imports worth up to 30 trillion rials (3.2 billion dollars) in the new year beginning on March 20. Iran […]

RAIPUR, India, Feb 17, 2008 (AFP) – As the state at the epicentre of India’s Maoist insurgency battles the rebels, journalists say they too are finding themselves branded as outlaws.A law passed by Chhattisgarh state in 2005 made it a crime to “assist in a meeting” with a member of a banned organisation, or to […]

BERLIN, Feb 17, 2008 (AFP) – Germany braced Sunday for more fallout from the worst tax evasion scandal in its history, exposed by a mysterious informant who reportedly took a five-million-euro award and now says he fears for his life.The German government said it paid the unnamed whistle-blower to hand over Liechtenstein bank details on […]

GENEVA, Feb 15, 2008 (AFP) – The World Health Organisation announced Friday that it planned to adopt a new international treaty on the illegal tobacco trade by 2010. The existing FCTC agreement, signed in February 2005, aims to rein in the estimated five million annual deaths caused by smoking, which the WHO says will double […]

NEW DELHI, Feb 16, 2008 (AFP) – A massive defence fair opened in India’s capital Saturday, with hundreds of global weapons firms competing for billions of dollars of sales to one of the world’s largest armies and biggest spenders. Some 450 firms from countries including the United States, Russia, Britain, Russia and Israel are displaying […]

BOSTON, Massachusetts, Feb 16, 2008 (AFP) – The US National Academy of Engineering has announced the grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century that, if met, would improve people’s lives.The list of 14 tasks was unveiled Friday by a diverse committee of experts from around the world, convened at the request of the US […]