Category: World

NEW DELHI, Jan 26, 2007 (AFP) – India may be registering blistering rates of growth but only three percent of its people understand the economic reforms being implemented and most think they have benefitted only the rich, said a survey published Friday.“Seventy-two percent of Indians were unaware of the economic changes that the country has […]

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 26, 2007 (AFP) – Davos regulars Bill Gates, Tony Blair and Bono sought Friday to stir the collective conscience of the annual huddle of global leaders over the plight of the developing world.Bono, the U2 frontman — a rare exception to the bar on celebrity delegates at this year’s gathering of the […]

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 25, 2007 (AFP) – US Trade Representative Susan Schwab on Thursday played down hopes of a breakthrough at a meeting on deadlocked global trade talks this weekend but said progress was being made.“I don’t think we’re looking at a breakthrough in the near term,” Schwab told AFP on the sidelines of the […]

NEW DELHI, Jan 24, 2007 (AFP) – India, one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile phone markets, said Wednesday it plans to announce its next generation — 3G — policy by March that telecom players expect will ease congestion. “The policy will be ready by March 2007,” Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said on the sidelines of […]

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 24, 2007 (AFP) – The world’s business and political elite kicked off its annual retreat in Davos on Wednesday, with climate change and the Middle East riding high on the agenda — at least in public.The four-day gathering of movers and shakers in the Swiss ski resort boasted the usual impressive guest […]

TOKYO, Jan 22, 2007 (AFP) – Toyota Motor Corp. plans to build a low-cost car undercutting Renault’s emerging-market Logan through a “radical” rethink in design and production, the president of the fast-growing Japanese automaker said. “The focus is on low-cost technology,” Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe told Britain’s Financial Times newspaper in an interview published Monday. […]

TOKYO, Jan 22, 2007 (AFP) – International tuna conservation bodies Monday opened their first joint meeting to look at ways to save the animals from overfishing, which environmentalists fear is driving them to extinction.The five-day meeting in the western Japanese city of Kobe will look at ways to share information among regions to monitor tuna […]

BRUSSELS, Jan 18, 2007 (AFP) – After taking action against Microsoft and Google, Belgium’s French-speaking newspapers are seeking redress from another Internet search engine, Yahoo, their lawyer said Thursday.“We sent a letter of formal notice to Yahoo yesterday” so that it will stop publishing articles from Belgian newspapers on its search engine without prior authorisation, […]

Jan 18, 2007 (AFP) – The Bank of Japan decided against raising its ultra-low interest rates Thursday in the face of fierce political pressure, backing down in a standoff that has put its credibility into question.After a week during which government officials had lined up to publicly urge the central bank not to gamble the […]

WASHINGTON, Jan 16, 2007 (AFP) – People native to South Asia are at greater risk of heart attack at a younger age than other people because of factors that include lifestyle choices such as smoking, a study published in the US journal JAMA said Tuesday. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal account for about […]

PARIS, Jan 17, 2007 (AFP) – Airbus said on Wednesday it had lost first place to Boeing in the battle for orders in 2006, but said it would increase deliveries in 2007 and would launch a cargo version of its A330-200 plane. Airbus has led US-based Boeing for new orders since 2001, but the European […]

HONG KONG, Jan 16, 2007 (AFP) – Hong Kong has been ranked as the world’s freest economy ahead of rival Singapore in a report released on Tuesday by a right-wing American think-tank, The Heritage Foundation. The ranking by the Washington-based organisation puts the former British colony at the top of its Index of Economic Freedom, […]