Category: World

BEIJING, Nov 15, 2006 (AFP) – China is planning to expand a consumption tax on luxury items and adjust upward other taxes in an effort to even out income distribution and reduce poverty, state press reported Wednesday.Ongoing tax reforms should include adjustments to the personal income tax, property tax, and consumption tax in an effort […]

HALIFAX, Canada, Nov 14, 2006 (AFP) – Few people had heard of microcredit before a determined Bangladeshi economist called Muhammad Yunus won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, but Yunus has put the industry in the spotlight as a potential poverty-busting tool.“Governments in developing countries must demonstrate a strong political commitment towards supporting microfinance as an […]

LONDON, Nov 15, 2006 (AFP) – Seven big investment banks said on Wednesday that they planned to create a new pan-European platform for trading shares to rival established stock markets. The seven banks are Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS. The initiative by the banks is aimed at […]

SINGAPORE, Nov 14, 2006 (AFP) – Singapore will raise its consumption tax next year to fund social programmes for its lower income households rather than turn to Scandinavian-style welfare systems, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in remarks published Tuesday.Raising the goods and services tax (GST) from the existing five percent to seven percent will […]

GENEVA, Nov 14, 2006 (AFP) – Drug prices have increased in the past five years despite a commitment by the World Trade Organisation’s 149 members to make them more accessible to the world’s poor, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Tuesday.MSF said in a statement that newer HIV medicines recommended by the World […]

RIYADH, Nov 13, 2006 (AFP) – Oil powerhouse Saudi Arabia posted a record budget surplus of 58 billion dollars in 2005 on the back of surging crude prices while its gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 6.5 percent, newspapers reported Monday. In its annual report on the Saudi economy, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), […]

WASHINGTON, Nov 10, 2006 (AFP) – What do Bill Gates, Queen Sofia of Spain, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and billionaire philanthropist George Soros all have in common?They all believe that small business loans known as microcredit can help lift tens of millions of the world’s poorest people, who mainly live across Asia, out […]

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 […]