Category: World

BHOPAL, India, Feb 19, 2007 (AFP) – Police were investigating Monday a hospital’s involvement in illegal female foeticide after 437 baby bones were dug up close by the complex, a state government said Monday.Police began unearthing the bones on Saturday from Christian Medical Hospital, in central Madhya Pradesh state, after a tip-off that medical staff […]

LAHORE, Pakistan, Feb 19, 2007 (AFP) – Desperate relatives defied police and forced their way into the carriages that arrived here Monday evening with survivors of the train blast in India.“They are known for attacks on trains in India,” he said. Joy and pain as train blast survivors arrive in Pakistan =(PICTURE)= ATTENTION – RECASTS […]

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 17, 2007 (AFP) – An international team of marine experts on Saturday called for an immediate ban on fuel subsidies to deep-sea fishing “bandits” blamed for plundering stocks and ravaging undersea ecosystems.The grouping of leading fisheries economists, biologists and ecologists said governments around the world were indirectly funding the destruction of fragile […]

HARARE, Feb 12, 2007 (AFP) – Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate, the world’s highest, soared again by more than 300 points to 1,593 percent in January, according to official figures released Monday. The often forcible seizure of white-owned farms which were then doled out to landless blacks often without any skills, tools or experience has been […]

NEW DELHI, Feb 13, 2007 (AFP) – India’s central bank tightened monetary policy on Tuesday for a second time in two weeks to fight surging inflation, announcing a 50-basis-point hike in the cash-reserve ratio requirement for commercial banks. The central bank has been using a variety of tools to fight inflation since it began a […]

NEW DELHI, Feb 11, 2007 (AFP) – Inflation is rearing its head in booming India, sparking warnings that soaring food prices spell misery for the poor and that the country’s economy may be overheating.The wholesale price index, India’s most closely watched cost-of-living indicator, on Friday showed inflation at 6.58 percent, the highest reading since December […]

SEOUL, Feb 11, 2007 (AFP) – At least nine foreign migrants including eight Chinese were killed and 18 others hurt in a blaze early Sunday at a detention centre in the South Korean port of Yeosu, local officials said. “The Prime Minister instructed Justice Minister Kim Sung-Ho to examine all detention facilities for illegal immigrants […]

ESSEN, Germany, Feb 10, 2007 (AFP) – Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers and central bank chiefs called Saturday for “vigilance” on hedge funds, a trillion-dollar industry that has grown strongly and rapidly in recent years. “Given the strong growth of the hedge fund industry and the instruments they trade, we need to be vigilant,” […]

DHAKA, Feb 9, 2007 (AFP) – Two more Bangladeshi politicians including a former minister have been detained as part of the interim government’s anti-corruption drive, officials said Friday.The arrests bring the number detained to 25, ten of whom are former ministers. The detainees have links to both the main political parties. Outgoing junior energy minister […]

BEIJING, Feb 9, 2007 (AFP) – China is catching up with India in providing call centre services, one of the fastest-growing areas of global outsourcing, Chinese state media and a research firm said Friday. The number of employees at call centres in China is likely to rise 22 percent in 2007 to 158,000, while in […]

GENEVA, Feb 7, 2007 (AFP) – Chinese international patent applications more than doubled in 2006, reflecting a “changing geography of demand” along with other Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, the World Intellectual Property Organisation said on Wednesday.China filed 3,910 patents under the aegis of WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2006, up […]

PARIS, Feb 5, 2007 (AFP) – A former child soldier from Sierra Leone who started killing at the age of 12 opened an international conference on Monday with an appeal for action to stop the exploitation of children in war.“At that time, taking a gun and shooting somebody had become as easy as drinking a […]