Category: World

NEW DELHI, Dec 30, 2007 (AFP) – India’s giant Tata Group plans to launch the world’s cheapest car early in January while also looking set to drive off with two of the poshest marques — Ford’s iconic Jaguar and Land Rover brands.Ratan Tata, head of the tea-to-steel Tata conglomerate, will unveil the “People’s Car” January […]

ROME, Dec 28, 2007 (AFP) – Tens of thousands of people are expected to take part in a giant New Year’s kiss in front of Saint Mark’s Basilica in the romantic Italian city of Venice, the authorities said Friday. “New Year 2008 in Venice will become the New Year of love,” the Venice municipality said […]

WASHINGTON, Dec 28, 2007 (AFP) – The dollar is losing ground as the currency of choice in the world’s foreign exchange reserves, the International Monetary Fund said Friday. The dollar’s share of forex reserves was 63.8 percent in the third quarter, compared with 65.0 percent in the second quarter and 66.5 percent in the 2006 […]

ISLAMABAD, Dec 29, 2007 (AFP) – Pakistan’s interior ministry said Saturday that the international community “does not understand the environment” in the country, ruling out international help in probing Benazir Bhutto’s death.With questions raised about the official account of how she died, which has been rejected by Bhutto’s aides and supporters, ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed […]

HARARE, Dec 27, 2007 (AFP) – After a year which saw the official inflation rate surge to 8,000 percent, shelves run dry and opposition leaders beaten up, few people in Zimbabwe can wait to see the back of 2007. While veteran President Robert Mugabe hopes to secure a seventh term of office in elections next […]

ISLAMABAD, Dec 28, 2007 (AFP) – Pakistan’s interior ministry said Friday it was “unaware” of Al-Qaeda claiming a link to Benazir Bhutto’s killing but said “extremist elements” behind a wave of attacks this year could be responsible.Asked about a report on Pakistan’s ARY TV network that the militant group founded by Osama bin Laden was […]

VALLETTA, Dec 27, 2007 (AFP) – The tiny Mediterranean island nations of Cyprus and Malta join the eurozone on January 1, turning the single-currency area from a 13-country zone into a club of 15.Large companies will take the change in their stride, said Gordon Cordina, advisor of Malta’s employers’ federation.“For a small open economy like […]

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Dec 26, 2007 (AFP) – Nepal’s state-owned oil company on Wednesday hiked petrol prices by nearly 10 percent, the second increase in the last two months, to meet a rising import bill in the landlocked nation, officials said.Shah said there would be a gradual improvement in supplies in the next few weeks. “The […]

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Dec 27, 2007 (AFP) – Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed Thursday in a suicide attack at a campaign rally, the interior ministry told AFP. A suicide bomber blew himself up just after the rally and it was not immediately clear how she died. “It may have been pellets packed into the […]

MOSCOW, Dec 27, 2007 (AFP) – President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged government ministers to fight inflation by making Russia’s agriculture sector competitive against foreign food imports.The bank’s earlier 2008 inflation target was between six and seven percent.“One of the key tasks for 2008 is to fight inflation. Unfortunately we have not been successful at […]

VATICAN CITY, Dec 25, 2007 (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday used his Christmas homily to speak out against selfishness and the degradation of the environment as he celebrated midnight mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica.The tradition of the creche in St Peter’s Square was established by Benedict’s predecessor John Paul II in 1982. “Man […]

LONDON, Dec 24, 2007 (AFP) – European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet pledged, in an interview published Monday, to focus on eurozone inflation, and not let interest-rate cuts in the United States and Britain distract the bank from tightening monetary policy.Speaking to the Financial Times from Frankfurt, in an interview conducted on December 13, Trichet […]