Category: World

SINGAPORE, June 9, 2008 (AFP) – World oil took a breather Monday from spiralling prices seen hitting 150 dollars which have prompted consumer nations to urge a production increase amid warnings of a global recession. New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, eased 1.06 dollars to 137.48 dollars a barrel […]

MUMBAI, June 9, 2008 (AFP) – Indian shares fell 4.66 percent to under 15,000 points in morning trade Monday in the wake of a Wall Street plunge triggered by surging oil prices and a sharp jump in US unemployment, dealers said. The benchmark Mumbai 30-share Sensex index fell 726 points to 14,846.18, a near-three month […]

TOKYO, June 8, 2008 (AFP) – As world oil prices skyrocket, thousands of households in energy-poor Japan are taking part in an ambitious experiment to use fuel cells to light and heat their homes.Since the prime minister’s official residence became the first house in the world to be equipped with a domestic fuel cell in […]

HANOI, June 8, 2008 (AFP) – Vietnam’s economy, until recently a darling of foreign investors, has overheated and may be sliding into a boom-and-bust cycle that could require IMF-style assistance, analysts say. The economy widely hailed last year as Asia’s next tiger has been battered by double-digit inflation, a ballooning trade gap, a tanked stock […]

TEHRAN, June 8, 2008 (AFP) – The price of crude oil is set to rise even further to 150 dollars a barrel by the end of summer, Iran’s representative to the OPEC oil cartel warned on Sunday.“I foresee the price of oil reaching around 150 dollars a barrel by the end of the summer,” the […]

NEW YORK, June 6, 2008 (AFP) – The dollar tumbled Friday after a US government survey revealed a much higher-than-expected jump in the nation’s unemployment rate during May to 5.5 percent. Analysts said the report underlined lingering economic woes but noted the Federal Reserve’s precarious position because further interest rate cuts could spur inflationary pressures […]

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2008 (AFP) – Serotonin plays a key role in regulating emotions such as aggression and impulsivity during decision making, according to British research appearing Thursday in the United States. Neurologists and psychiatrists have long linked serotonin, a hormone that transmits chemical messages between nerve cells, and social behavior, but its precise role […]

TOKYO, June 6, 2008 (AFP) – The world must spend one percent of its annual economic output to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the IEA said Friday, calling for an “energy technology revolution” to curb global warming. Unless governments take action now, carbon dioxide emissions will rise by 130 percent by the middle of […]

NEW DELHI, June 6, 2008 (AFP) – An Indian court has upheld the right of state-owned Air India to ground overweight flight attendants, a report said.Lawyers for the airline told the court the attendants were moved from flight duty to ground duty when they failed to meet minimum physical fitness standards, the Hindu newspaper reported. […]

ATHENS, June 5, 2008 (AFP) – Drug cheats will be banned from future Olympics after Beijing 2008 if they are caught and sanctioned for over six months, the International Olympic Committee said on Thursday.“An athlete would not be deemed eligible to compete at an edition of the Olympic Games if he or she were caught […]

KUALA LUMPUR, June 6, 2008 (AFP) – Malaysia plans to almost halve the number of foreigners working in the plantation and manufacturing sectors by 2010 by reducing its yearly foreign intake by 400,000, a report said Friday.Human Resources Minister S. Subramaniam said the government wanted to reduce the imported labour force in the country from […]

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2008 (AFP) – Incidents of piracy have spiked across the world since 2000 but there is no evidence to support fears of extremist groups linking up with pirates for their operations, a new study finds.It attributed the rise to the expansion of the global sea trade, congested chokepoints, corrupt officials, shifting spending […]