Category: World

NEW YORK, Aug 14, 2006 (AFP) – Global beverages giant PepsiCo Monday named Indra Nooyi as its new chief executive, capping a rapid rise to the highest ranks of corporate America for the Indian-born woman. Nooyi, 50, will succeed the 58-year-old Steve Reinemund on October 1st, although Reinemund will keep working for the company until […]

HONG KONG, Aug 11, 2006 (AFP) – Passengers at Asian airports faced delays and were stopped from taking electronics and liquids on board US-bound flights Friday as security was stepped up after British police foiled an alleged plot to blow up planes over the Atlantic Ocean. Additional dog squads and bomb disposal and detection teams […]

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 10, 2006 (AFP) – Personal computers have transformed society in a mere 25 years and they are just getting warmed up.In the short time since IBM launched its pioneering PC on August 12, 1981, teenagers have gone from hiding secrets in locked diaries to baring all on social networking websites such as […]

NEW DELHI, Aug 10, 2006 (AFP) – With a billion-plus people in a hot climate and a booming economy, India should be a choice market for Coke and Pepsi — but the two cola giants have instead faced a very bumpy local ride. The brands are in the midst of a publicity nightmare after an […]

LONDON, Aug 10, 2006 (AFP) – Air travel to and from Britain was plunged into chaos on Thursday in the wake of the discovery of a plot to blow up airlines on transatlantic flights. Many airlines said they were cancelling all flights to Britain and to the epicentre of the threat, London Heathrow, one of […]

LONDON, Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) – Standard Chartered, the Britain-based emerging markets bank, said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy 80.86 percent of Pakistan’s Union Bank for 413 million dollars (321 million euros). “The acquisition of Union Bank will make Standard Chartered the sixth largest bank in Pakistan by market share of assets and […]

NEW DELHI, Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – India accounts for six percent of global road accidents but has only one percent of the world’s vehicles, a safety research consultant said Tuesday.The country has the world’s fourth highest annual tally of road accidents, said Jeya Padmanaban of consultancy JP Research, according to a Press Trust of […]

WASHINGTON, Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – If you had a billion dollars in the bank and lived a jet-set lifestyle out of a string of luxury homes filled with valuable artworks, your taxes would be pretty hefty, right?Well not entirely, according to a Senate probe that has examined hundreds of documents and issued 74 subpoenas […]

LAS VEGAS, Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – Locks commonly used at homes and businesses worldwide were so easy to pick that children could do it, computer hackers practicing the skill were shown on Sunday.In a Las Vegas casino meeting room devoted to the art of lock picking for the course of a three-day DefCon hackers […]

LAS VEGAS, Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – The most vexing weakness in computer security is not in the hardware or the software, it is in the people who use the machines, according to top hackers and cyber safety specialists.“It really is more of a human problem than a technical problem,” Dan Kaminisky of Dox Para […]

HARARE, Aug 6, 2006 (AFP) – Zimbabweans last week flooded banks to hand in old notes after the central bank slashed three zeroes from the local currency, but analysts said the new money would not provide relief from record inflation. Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank slashed three zeroes from its currency last Monday to help consumers battling […]

HARARE, Aug 6, 2006 (AFP) – Zimbabwe has ordered a new freeze on prices of goods following a spate of increases on the heels of last week’s currency reforms to combat the effects of the country’s nearly 1,200 percent inflation, a state-run paper said Sunday.The country’s isolation from its traditional trading partners in Europe following […]