Category: World

SAN FRANCISCO, June 13, 2006 (AFP) – Using a technology once the domain of nerds, US auction website eBay is collecting the wisdom of millions of users in a how-to guide for buying and selling online. Any of eBay’s estimated 185 million users can contribute insights to an eBay “wiki,” a website that allows visitors […]

NEW DELHI, June 14, 2006 (AFP) – An Indian state has decided to drop popular nursery rhymes like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep” from text books for first-graders for being too Western, reports said Wednesday.“We want our children to have value education in local color,” newspapers reported Narottam Mishra, minister of […]

DUBAI, June 14, 2006 (AFP) – Internet blogs are giving rise to a new breed of Arab activist as ordinary residents increasingly use them to press for more political rights and civil liberties in conservative Gulf states. Typical was a recent posting by a 33-year-old Saudi man. “Are we destined to just listen to the […]

SAN FRANCISCO, June 13, 2006 (AFP) – Using a technology once the domain of nerds, US auction website eBay is collecting the wisdom of millions of users in a how-to guide for buying and selling online. Any of eBay’s estimated 185 million users can contribute insights to an eBay “wiki,” a website that allows visitors […]

PARIS, June 14, 2006 (AFP) – The Paris Club of the world’s richest lending nations marks its golden anniversary Wednesday, facing questions over its role in a new era of growing wealth in many debtor nations.Created in 1956 during a meeting in Paris of creditor nations for Argentina, the 19 Paris Club members, covering the […]

TOKYO, June 13, 2006 (AFP) – International accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers set up a new firm in Japan on Tuesday after its Japanese partner came under fire over financial fraud.PricewaterhouseCoopers Arata will begin operations from July 1 to service both domestic and international companies in Japan, the US-based company said in a statement. The establishment came […]

NEW DELHI, June 13, 2006 (AFP) – Trucks, buses and some train services were halted Tuesday as part of a nationwide one-day strike against the government’s hike last week in fuel prices, reports said.In the capital New Delhi, hundreds of protesters waved placards and shouted slogans near the parliament while others burnt an effigy of […]

TOKYO, June 13, 2006 (AFP) – International accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers set up a new firm in Japan on Tuesday after its Japanese partner came under fire over financial fraud.PricewaterhouseCoopers Arata will begin operations from July 1 to service both domestic and international companies in Japan, the US-based company said in a statement. The establishment came […]

PHNOM PENH, June 13, 2006 (AFP) – A rat which bumbled into one of Cambodia’s largest power plants was blamed for blacking out the entire capital Phnom Penh and much of surrounding Kandal province over the weekend, a power official said Tuesday.Millions were cast into darkness Sunday night and sat through hours of sweltering heat […]

SYDNEY, June 11, 2006 (AFP) – The Australian wine industry is drowning in a glut of grapes, as it struggles to sell up to one billion litres of wine sloshing around in storage tanks across the country. Record output in 2004 and 2005, and a near-record crush this year, have led to a massive oversupply […]

JAKARTA, June 10, 2006 (AFP) – Indonesian officials Saturday said they have arrested more than 100 illegal immigrants from Sri Lanka in the latest crackdown on human trafficking.A total of 107 Sri Lankan men were detained when immigration officials raided two houses Thursday in the resort town of Cisarua, said Muhammad Indra, a director with […]

HARARE, June 9, 2006 (AFP) – The inflation rate in economically-ravaged Zimbabwe soared to a new record high of 1,193.5 percent for May, officials said on Friday, with economists predicting even higher rates in the coming months. “The year-on-year rate of inflation in May 2006 was 1,193.5 percent, gaining 150.6 percentage points on the April […]