Category: World

MUMBAI, Apr. 29 (AFP) – Jet Airways, India’s largest private airline, said Saturday full-year net earnings rose 15 percent on air-traffic growth and profit from the sale and leaseback of planes.For the year ended March 31, the airline reported net profit of 4.5 billion rupees (101 million dollars).Full-year revenues rose 39 percent to 61.4 billion […]

BANGALORE, India, Apr. 28 (AFP) – Tucked away in a nondescript building in india’s high-tech city, Nawal Gani sits in her drawing room drying coffee cups after yet another session of telling people’s fortunes.In Hindu-majority India, where most people consult astrologers for matters ranging from marriages, new business ventures and even what time to step […]

MUMBAI, Apr. 28 (AFP) – Indian shares staged a knee-jerk plunge Friday, then rallied after the stock market regulator cracked down on two dozen operators, alleging manipulation of initial public share offerings. Mumbai’s benchmark 30-share Sensex index plunged 490 points or 4.1 percent to 11,344.61 in the first minute of trading before recovering sharply. After […]

PARIS, April 26, 2006 (AFP) – Embarrassed by that tattoo with the name of that former lover? Or those characters in Chinese that you believed meant “eternal love” but later found out to mean “penguin hairball”?Laser treatment is the solution for getting rid of these unwanted body markings, but it can take up to a […]

ATHI RIVER, Kenya, April 27, 2006 (AFP) – China’s rapid expansion into Africa in search of fuel to feed its booming development needs is leaving a profound mark on the continent’s economies, often in little noticed sectors. And as Kenya hosts Chinese President Hu Jintao on his last stop in a three-nation African tour, the […]

LONDON, April 27, 2006 (AFP) – Britain’s secret service, famed for lurking in the shadows, launched its first overt recruitment operation on Thursday, calling on men and women who are looking for a challenge.For the first time in its 97-year history, MI6, the country’s foreign spy agency, published an open advertisement in a newspaper. “From […]

LONDON, April 27, 2006 (AFP) – Britain’s secret service, famed for lurking in the shadows, launched its first overt recruitment operation on Thursday, calling on men and women who are looking for a challenge.For the first time in its 97-year history, MI6, the country’s foreign spy agency, published an open advertisement in a newspaper. “From […]

PARIS, April 27, 2006 (AFP) – Air France-KLM, Singapore Airlines and a string of other carriers are increasing the fuel surcharge element in their long-haul ticket prices, again passing on to passengers the rising cost of aviation fuel.The airlines justify the price hikes by the recent surge in crude prices, sparked by fears that the […]

NEW DELHI, Apr. 24 (AFP) – An Indian court has ordered domestic whisky makers not to use the words “Scot” or “Scotch” for their distilled brews as it would violate global copyright laws, a lawyer said Monday. These include 53,000 dollars to Cartier, 35,000 dollars to Time magazine and 280,000 dollars to Microsoft — all […]

COLOMBO, Apr. 23 (AFP) – Fishermen in the Indian Ocean tourist paradise of the Maldives gave police their biggest catch of illegal drugs after an accidental discovery of hashish in a lagoon, the Haveeru News Service reported Sunday.Lobster fishermen found the hasish packed in 1,697 plastic bags on the ocean bed, the news agency said, […]

Apr.20 (LBO) – The conviction on 19 April of Minivan journalist Abdullah Saeed and his sentence to life imprisonment was engineered by the authorities in order to harm the country’s only opposition newspaper, Reporters Without Borders said Thursday. The international advocacy group for media freedom, called for a new trial by an impartial court and […]

Sri Lankan school children and women stand in a queue as they wait for a free lunch offered by a charity organisation 26 March 2005 at the tourist resort town of Hikkaduwa in southern Sri Lanka as the region marks the three-month anniversary of the December 2004 tsunamis that killed nearly 400 people in the […]