Category: World

SINGAPORE, Oct 16, 2007 (AFP) – Oil traded at a record high in Asia of 86.29 dollars a barrel on Tuesday amid mounting tension between Turkey and Kurdish rebels in Iraq.In early morning trade New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, was 16 cents higher than the 86.13 dollars […]

OAKLAND, California, Oct 16, 2007 (AFP) – Environmentalist lawyers are threatening to sue Apple in 60 days if the iconic US company doesn’t make iPhones greener or warn buyers of toxins in the devices.The Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, California, sent Apple notice on Monday after environmental activist group Greenpeace released a scientific analysis […]

WELLINGTON, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) – New Zealand’s inflation rate for the September quarter was held to an unexpectedly low 0.5 percent, pinning the annual rate to 1.8 percent, according to official figures released Monday.New Zealand inflation lower than expected The lower than forecast result — attributed to lower prices in health and education due […]

MUMBAI, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) – India’s benchmark Sensex index surged more than three percent to a fresh intraday record on Monday, crossing the 19,000-point mark for the first time ever, led by buying from overseas funds, dealers said.They said a series of record highs on the Mumbai stock exchange, during a 3,000-point climb in […]

WASHINGTON, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) – The new heads at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund face the tough task of restoring credibility to the powerful financial bodies which hold an annual summit this month, analysts say.“Both (Robert) Zoellick and Dominique Strauss-Kahn are certainly competent people.But I don’t think it is so easy […]

HARARE, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) – The Zimbabwean government authorised Friday new increases in the prices of basis foodstuffs in a bid to ease widespread shortages that followed an order for retailers to halve their tariffs. The National Incomes and Pricing Commission announced it had approved rises of between 50 percent and 200 percent for […]

WASHINGTON, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) – A former top US military commander in Iraq said Friday that the current White House strategy in Iraq will not achieve victory in the four-and-a-half-year war, which he described as “a nightmare with no end in sight.” In the bluntest assessment of Iraq by a former senior Pentagon official […]

BRUSSELS, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) – The European Union is set to beef up its sanctions against Myanmar next week by introducing an embargo on timber, gems and metals, according to a draft text agreed Friday.EU foreign ministers could approve the import bans — which would notably affect Myanmar’s teak and jade trade — when […]

BEIJING, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) – China’s foreign exchange reserves, already the world’s largest, surpassed 1.43 trillion dollars at the end of September, the central bank said Friday. The figure was up 45.1 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said in a statement posted on its website. The news came the same day […]

LONDON, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) – The price of platinum forged a record high on Thursday as the white metal was hit by tight global supplies, while gold soared to the best level since 1980 on the back of the weak US dollar, analysts said. Platinum surged as high as 1,408.50 dollars an ounce on […]

SINGAPORE, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) – The Singapore dollar was trading at 10-year highs against the greenback on Wednesday after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) signalled a slight tightening of its policy, dealers said.In morning trade the local unit was at 1.4665 to the US dollar, up from 1.4752 on Tuesday. MAS, the de […]