Category: World

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, […]

SINGAPORE, June 23, 2008 (AFP) – World oil prices rose in Asian trading on Monday after Saudi Arabia said at a weekend summit that it had raised output, and said speculators were partly to blame for higher prices.New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, was 29 cents higher at 135.65 […]

BRUSSELS, June 23, 2008 (AFP) – Business activity in the 15 countries sharing the euro contracted in June for the first time for almost five years, according to a widely watched survey on Monday.The eurozone’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI), compiled by data and research group Markit, slid to 49.5 points in June, from 51.1 in […]

SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, 2008 (AFP) – A Harvard University dropout who ushered in the home computer age and made billions of dollars along the way will have his last official day of work at Microsoft on June 27.Three people will essentially fill the void left behind when Bill Gates retires from the company he […]

JEDDAH, June 22, 2008 (AFP) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah launched an offensive against oil “speculators” on Sunday as he opened a summit on the soaring price of crude which exposed OPEC divisions over whether to increase production.The king announced that Saudi production had now risen to 9.7 million barrels a day, the highest figure […]

SINGAPORE, June 22, 2008 (AFP) – Got at least five million US dollars? A private banker is at your service in Singapore, which is fast gaining a reputation as the Switzerland of Asia for the world’s growing ranks of multi-millionaires.The tiny, tropical island-state, Southeast Asia’s most advanced economy, has emerged as a centre for the […]