Category: World

PARIS, Nov 10, 2006 (AFP) – Health services across Asia could crash in the face of a worsening epidemic of obesity-led diabetes, experts warn. The more common Type 2 diabetes results mainly from an unhealthy diet and inactivity. In 2003, 194 million people in Asia had diabetes and by 2025, the tally could be 333 […]

SYDNEY, Nov 10, 2006 (AFP) – The crippling cost of studying in Australia is forcing foreign students to take up risky sex work to make ends meet, a researcher said Friday.A sharp rise in university fees in recent years and visas that restrict international students’ working hours had driven some into illegal prostitution, Sarah Lantz […]

November 9, 2006 (AFP) – Barbara Adams has been witness to huge change in Nepal during the 45 years she has lived in the Himalayan country. Well before backpackers and overland travellers from Europe made Nepal a fixture on the hippy trail, Adams was living in the remote kingdom as consort of a prince from […]

HARARE, Nov 9, 2006 (AFP) – The Zimbabwean government is to establish an official commission to monitor prices and incomes in the latest attempt to stall skyrocketing inflation, a government minister said Thursday.“We are hopeful that the (incomes and pricing) commission will be in place soon,” Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu told AFP. […]

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8, 2006 (AFP) – A visa-on-arrival deal aimed at attracting tourists to Malaysia had allowed thousands of foreigners to overstay in the country, reports said Wednesday.Under a move introduced on September 1, Malaysia has allowed tourists from 24 countries to apply for a visa upon arrival, for a fee of 100 ringgit […]

HANOI, Nov 8, 2006 (AFP) – Vietnam’s WTO accession will impact on the 70 percent of its people who work in agriculture by securing key export markets but also threaten them with much tougher competition at home, experts say.“Vietnam’s joining the WTO is necessary and will help the country develop its agricultural sector more quickly […]

BANGALORE, India, Nov 7, 2006 (AFP) – Shareholders of Indian software major Infosys Tuesday approved a plan for converting 30 million local shares into its US counterpart in a bid to list the firm on the Nasdaq index, officials said.N.R. Narayanamurthy, chief mentor of Nasdaq-listed Infosys technologies said the price of the American Depository Shares […]

HANOI, Nov 7, 2006 (AFP) – Most Vietnamese appear to welcome their country joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) but many also fear they must step up the pace or fall behind as the country enters the fast lane of globalisation.A recent international Gallup poll found that the communist ruled and so far McDonalds-free country […]

BEIJING, Nov 7, 2006 (AFP) – Boosted by a huge and growing trade surplus, China’s forex reserves have shot past the one-trillion-dollar mark and nothing is likely to stop them rising even further, analysts said Tuesday.“They have grown by 200 billion dollars a year over the past three years …and they will continue to grow […]

NEW DELHI, Nov 7, 2006 (AFP) – The government may cut income tax rates as more people are declaring their income and paying taxes than ever before, India’s finance minister said Tuesday.P. Chidambaram told a conference of economic editors that the percentage of revenue raised from income tax has risen to 11.2 percent of GDP […]

BANGALORE, India, Nov 7, 2006 (AFP) – The retired founder of software giant Infosys Tuesday took a swipe at officials of India’s southern Karnataka state over their bid to rename Bangalore as Bengaluru, or “the town of boiled beans.” “For me, changing the name is not important,” Infosys chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy told reporters. […]

The media rights body Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had voiced concern over a series of recent actions taken against journalists in the Indian Ocean coral islands of Maldives. Maldivian authorities have arrested an opposition cartoonist, expelled two foreign journalists including one working for the online newspaper Minivannews.com and backtracked on plans to end the state’s […]