Category: World

JAKARTA, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) – A massive 7.9-magnitude quake struck off the western coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Wednesday, prompting authorities to issue a tsunami warning, meteorologists said. The archipelago nation sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The undersea earthquake, which hit […]

VIENNA, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) – OPEC ministers head into crunch talks about the cartel’s output on Tuesday, with signs that the group might bend to the will of Saudi Arabia and increase production.It has an output target of 25.8 million barrels, but the 10 members constrained by output limits are estimated to be producing […]

BEIJING, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) – China’s inflation hit its highest rate in almost 11 years in August while the nation’s trade surplus soared again, official data showed Tuesday, signalling more interest rate hikes ahead.The United States and other nations argue China’s yuan currency is being kept undervalued, giving Chinese exporters an unfair advantage, and […]

NEW YORK, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) – Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden eulogized one of the September 11 hijackers in a video released on Tuesday’s sixth anniversary of the attacks that still traumatize the United States. As Americans remembered the almost 3,000 people killed, an attempted bomb attack in Turkey and a security alert at […]

LONDON, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) – Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop cosmetics chain, died on Monday evening after suffering a major brain haemorrhage, her family said. Roddick, 64, was with her husband and two daughters at a hospital in Chichester, southern England, when she died at 6:30 pm (1730 GMT). She had been […]

VIENNA, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) – OPEC oil ministers arrive in Vienna on Monday, under pressure to help combat high crude prices, which have surged to near-record highs and loom as a new risk for the global economy.The outcome is uncertain of a formal meeting on Tuesday, when the group will decide whether to raise […]

JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) – A top World Health Organisation official on Monday urged the world to get tough with tobacco companies, saying smoking deaths are an international scandal. “The deaths and misery caused by smoking continue to be one of the greatest scandals of our time,” said Shigeru Omi, WHO […]

TOKYO, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) – Japan’s economy contracted in the second quarter of 2007 as firms cut spending on new factories and equipment, the government said Monday, adding to jitters over the global economic climate. Past GDP estimates were also revised, showing the economy shrank by 0.1 percent in the third quarter of 2006, […]

BASEL, Switzerland, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) – The crisis in the US housing market risks spreading to the whole of the nation’s economy, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet said Monday on behalf of world central bankers.Trichet was speaking in his capacity as head of the G10 group of central bankers from industrialised and emerging […]

WASHINGTON, Sept 8, 2007 (AFP) – A Malaysian human rights lawyer has filed a four trillion dollar lawsuit against Britain for alleged atrocities suffered by Indians whose forefathers were brought as indentured laborers to Malaysia during colonial rule. Among them were South Africa, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji and Mauritius, he said. […]

SYDNEY, Sept 9, 2007 (AFP) – Sydney brothels have had to import prostitutes from other states to get over a demand hump caused by security agents and delegates attending an Asia-Pacific summit, an industry spokesman said Sunday. APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua […]

HARARE, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) – The Zimbabwean government has authorised all retailers to raise prices by 20 percent, in a bid to to ease widespread shortages, reports said Friday.The price hike comes two weeks after government allowed retailers and manufacturers to increase prices on basic commodities such as sugar, cooking oil, chicken and soap. […]