Category: World

TOKYO, May 26, 2008 (AFP) – Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp.and its truck-making affiliate have joined a project to develop an environmentally friendly vehicle capable of moving both on roads and railways, an official said Monday. Toyota and affiliate Hino Motors Ltd.will take part in the development of a new model of a road-rail vehicle originally […]

TANGSHAN, China, May 25, 2008 (AFP) – Well before this city was destroyed by an earthquake 32 years ago, the coming disaster was loudly preceded by strange animal behaviour and other bizarre signals that survivors wish they heeded.“The animals were trying to tell us something.If only we knew that, not so many people would have […]

HAVANA, May 24, 2008 (AFP) – About 1,800 Cubans are over 100 years old, making it the country with the highest rate of centenarians, an expert said Saturday.Eugenio Selman-Housein, chairman of the 120 Years Club and previously head of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s medical team, also said “life expectancy has gone up to almost […]

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2008 (AFP) – The saying goes that money can’t buy happiness.But inquiring economists have been working for decades trying to prove or disprove the notion.Resarchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business released a study in April showing “a clear positive link” between wealth and “subjective well-being,” based on global […]

JAKARTA, May 24, 2008 (AFP) – Indonesia hiked the cost of fuel by around 30 percent Saturday in response to soaring global oil prices and a ballooning subsidy bill, leaving hard-pressed households facing even more economic woe. Long queues formed at petrol stations ahead of the announcement late Friday that prices would rise by an […]

SAN FRANCISCO, May 23, 2008 (AFP) – Microsoft said Friday it is ending its quest to create an online library of the world’s books as the technology titan revamps its strategy to battle Internet search king Google.Live Search Books and Live Search Academics projects are being cancelled and the websites will be taken down next […]

BANGALORE, India, May 24, 2008 (AFP) – India’s gleaming new Bangalore international airport opened Saturday despite protests by residents and businesses who said getting there by road could prove a nightmare.The state-of-the-art 630-million-dollar facility sprang into life after a court threw out pleas by local people to keep the existing airport open for commercial flights. […]

BERLIN, May 24, 2008 (AFP) – While economists quibble, the world’s richest man has decided: the United States is already in recession.So Warren Buffet tells German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview to be published on Monday. “It is perhaps not a recession in the way that economists would understand it…but people are already feeling […]

NEW DELHI, May 22, 2008 (AFP) – New draft texts on industrial goods aimed at clinching an elusive deal in global trade talks will have to be “completely revised,” India’s commerce minister said on Thursday.The World Trade Organisation’s Doha round of talks to reduce trade barriers was launched in 2001 with the target of reaching […]

NEW DELHI, May 23, 2008 (AFP) – India’s currency is feeling the pressure as world oil prices soar and foreign investors lose their “risk appetite” for emerging market assets amid global financial turmoil, analysts say.The Indian rupee — which a few months ago was trading at 10-year highs — now looks poised to post its […]

BRUSSELS, May 23, 2008 (AFP) – A key survey released Friday boosted fears that the eurozone is flagging, pointing to a sharp slowing in business activity as soaring oil prices, the high euro and the US-born credit crunch take their toll.The widely-watched eurozone’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI), compiled by NTC Research, found that business activity […]

KUALA LUMPUR, May 22, 2008 (AFP) – Telekom Malaysia said Thursday its net profits in the first quarter fell 12.8 percent from a year ago to 519.7 million ringgit (162.4 million dollars) on higher operating and financing costs. Malaysia’s largest telecommunications firm said sales for the three months to March rose 10.6 percent to 4.6 […]