Category: World

HONG KONG, Aug 4, 2006 (AFP) – Hong Kong people have the least sex in the world, managing it less than once a week, a survey has found. “Pressures from life and the relationship of a couple will also affect sex ability,” he said, urging couples to communicate better about their love lives to enhance […]

NEW DELHI, Aug 4, 2006 (AFP) – India’s Supreme Court has told US beverage giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to supply it with details of the chemical composition and ingredients of their products, a report said Friday.The notice to the two companies was issued after a study released this week said their drinks contained unacceptable levels […]

TOKYO, Aug 4, 2006 (AFP) – The Bank of Japan faced a fresh scandal Friday as it admitted giving 73 million yen (632,800 dollars) in excessive travel expenses to officials for business trips over the past seven years.The central bank, which is working to regain public trust after its governor’s private investment scandal, said it […]

GENEVA, Aug 4, 2006 (AFP) – Overnight bombings in Lebanon cut off an “umbilical cord” for relief supplies and halted evacuations from the country to Syria, international and UN agencies said Friday.Israeli warplanes wrecked four bridges along the coastal highway in the Christian heartland north of Beirut, cutting off practically the last landlink with neighbouring […]

NEW DELHI, Aug 3, 2006 (AFP) – In India’s rough and tumble political world he was always the “gentleman politician”. But now, former foreign minister Jaswant Singh stands accused of sparking a spy chase that has gripped India in a bid to boost sales of his just-released memoirs “A Call to Honour”. The book has […]

DHAKA, Aug 2, 2006 (AFP) – India accused Pakistan of jeopardising a fledgling South Asian free trade deal by failing to fully implement key tariff cuts as a regional ministerial meeting wound up in Dhaka on Wednesday. India said that a Pakistani move to limit tariff concessions for Indian goods was a breach of the […]

NEW DELHI, Aug 2, 2006 (AFP) – Employing children under 14 in households, roadside eateries and hotels will be illegal in India from October, the government has announced, saying it hopes to improve the plight of millions. But rights activists held out little hope that the lot of child labourers would change. A labour ministry […]

DHAKA, Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) – South Asian foreign ministers started a two-day meeting in the Bangladesh capital Tuesday amid gathering clouds over the future of a regional free trade deal. The foreign ministers of the seven South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations would try to thrash out a dispute over tariff concessions, […]

LONDON, Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) – The Great British Beer Festival served the first of an estimated 300,000 weird and wonderful pints from across the globe Tuesday as a London exhibition hall was transformed into the biggest pub in the world.More than 700 different real ales, ciders, perries, and bottled beers are available for tasting […]

PARIS, Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) – Vigorous economic growth and signs of inflation are drawing central banks into the US Federal Reserve’s footsteps on the path towards higher interest rates, marking the end of cheap money. Almost the entire global economy is facing the same combination, and alarms have begun to ring among monetary authorities […]

BANGALORE, India, July 30, 2006 (AFP) – Twenty-five years ago, with an investment of just 250 dollars, a tiny software company took shape in a one-bedroom apartment in the western India city of Pune.Today Infosys Technologies has revenues of 2.1 billion dollars and employs 58,000 people in more than two dozen countries, ranking as India’s […]

LIEPAJA, Latvia, July 29, 2006 (AFP) – Some countries will do anything to attract tourists. In Latvia, they have pristine beaches, architectural pearls, verdant countryside and excellent cuisine, but why bother when you can have abuse and insults — even get shot — in a former KGB prison? On a hot July day, about 20 […]