Category: World

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2008 (AFP) – US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was scheduled to meet Wednesday with officials in charge of Pentagon and Air Force purchases to discuss the controversial 35-billion-dollar refueling tanker deal. On June 18 the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, backed a protest by aerospace giant […]

SAN FRANCISCO, June 25, 2008 (AFP) – Google has introduced a tool that lets advertisers figure out which websites their ideal customers are inclined to visit.“Google Ad Planner” lets advertisers enter demographics they wish to target and then returns a list of websites likely to appeal to people with those characteristics. “We hope you’ll find […]

MUMBAI, June 24, 2008 (AFP) – India’s central bank unleashed a fresh round of monetary tightening Tuesday, raising its key short-term lending rate by half-a-percentage point after inflation hit a 13-year high of over 11 percent. The Reserve Bank of India raised its repo rate at which commercial banks borrow funds from the central bank […]

PARIS, June 24, 2008 (AFP) – The number of millionaires worldwide rose 6.0 percent last year to 10.1 million, with the sharpest gains recorded in emerging market powerhouses India, China and Brazil, a study revealed Tuesday.The 12th annual World Wealth Report, prepared by US investment bank Merrill Lynch and information technology group Capgemini, highlighted the […]

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2008 (AFP) – US school children will face longer walks to the bus stop, longer days and shorter weeks at school, while university students are pushed to take online courses, all thanks to relentless spiraling fuel prices. Several counties in the central-eastern state of Maryland are considering giving their yellow school buses […]

YOKOHAMA, June 25, 2008 (AFP) – Soaring raw material costs pose a major challenge to automakers, which have no choice but to raise vehicle prices, Nissan Motor Co.chief executive Carlos Ghosn said Wednesday. The surging prices of steel and other materials are the “single most important challenge facing the industry and facing Nissan,” Ghosn said […]

PARIS, June 25, 2008 (AFP) – The world economy is likely to grow by about 4.0 percent this year and the United States should avoid a recession, the governor of the Bank of France Christian Noyer said on Wednesday. Noyer, who is also a member of the monetary policy council of the European Central Bank, […]

BRUSSELS, June 25, 2008 (AFP) – A panel of EU lawmakers approved European plans requiring that air fares clearly include all extra charges so passengers know exactly what they are paying.In the crackdown on hidden expenses, all air fares would have to include all taxes, fees and charges on top of the basic ticket price […]

BRUSSELS, June 25, 2008 (AFP) – US consumers could be hit hard by new security laws demanding that all cargo containers bound for the United States be scanned for radiation or weapons, a senior US customs official said.The measures, which Congress has demanded must enter force in 2012, will oblige countries to scan every one […]

MUMBAI, June 23, 2008 (AFP) – The governor of India’s central bank said Monday he was looking at new options to halt a surge in inflation, currently running at a 13-year high. “We are currently in the midst of intensive examination of issues and options,” Reserve Bank of India chief Y.Y. Reddy said at a […]

DHAKA, June 24, 2008 (AFP) – The backbreaking job of pedalling a rickshaw in Bangladesh could soon be history with a local company saying it has come up with battery-powered, rechargeable cycles.Bangladesh Diesel Plant, an agricultural farm tool manufacturer owned by the country’s powerful army, says it has created an electric rickshaw and plans to […]

HARARE, June 23, 2008 (AFP) – Zimbabweans faced an uncertain future Monday after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai abandoned a run-off election saying violence had made a fair vote impossible, in a move that virtually hands victory to President Robert Mugabe. “We will no longer participate in the violent illegitimate sham of an election process,” Tsvangirai, […]