Category: World

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2008 (AFP) – Americans say the media are devoting too much ink and airtime to the US presidential race, amid growing criticism that news coverage has focused on the superficial instead of important issues.Half of the public, 51 percent, say news outlets are offering “too much coverage of the campaign,” according to […]

PARIS, May 2, 2008 (AFP) – The UN’s new top advisor on food blamed two decades of wrong-headed policies by world powers for the food crisis sweeping the globe, in a stinging interview published on his first day in office Friday.Frenchman Olivier de Schutter, a law professor and human rights campaigner, told Le Monde newspaper […]

PARIS, April 30, 2008 (AFP) – Three Chinese institutions were among the world’s top four banks at the end of 2007 at a time when the market capitalisation of Western banks was suffering from a global financial crisis, a study showed Wednesday.The number one spot in the rankings, compiled by the Boston Consulting Group, was […]

MUMBAI, April 30, 2008 (AFP) – India’s second-biggest telecoms firm Reliance Communications reported Wednesday its fourth quarter net profit rose 46.8 percent on revenue growth across its businesses.The company showed a net profit of 15.03 billion rupees (374 million dollars) for the three months ended March 31, up from 10.24 billion rupees a year earlier. […]

LONDON, May 1, 2008 (AFP) – There is too little regulation of financial services industries in British overseas territories like Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands, an official report said Wednesday.The study, by the influential House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, looked at Foreign Office activity in Britain’s 14 overseas territories, including the two low-tax […]

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2008 (AFP) – The rapid appreciation of the Chinese currency against the US dollar is taking a big toll on Asian companies using China as base for exports to the United States, according to a top US business official. The yuan has risen 18 percent against the dollar since China abandoned a […]

NEW DELHI, May 2, 2008 (AFP) – Indian steelmaker Essar Steel said Thursday it planned to acquire US steel company Esmark, valuing the deal at 1.1 billion dollars, as it pushes ahead with an aggressive North American expansion drive.With the planned buy, Essar will have nearly seven million tonnes of steelmaking capacity in the United […]

WASHINGTON, April 29, 2008 (AFP) – The United States on Tuesday released 40 million dollars in emergency aid for the World Food Program (WFP) to help deal with the growing global food crisis affecting the poorest nations. The funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), will be added to 200 million dollars […]

April 30, 2008 (AFP) – The dollar was little changed in Asian trade on Wednesday as investors sat on their hands ahead of a Federal Reserve interest rate decision and a US economic growth report, dealers said.A decision by Japan’s central bank to leave its key interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent had little impact. […]

BANGKOK, April 30, 2008 (AFP) – Thailand’s prime minister said Wednesday his country had agreed in principle to form a rice price-fixing cartel with Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia as costs of the staple grain rocket. The grouping of Mekong nations would be similar to the oil cartel OPEC, and would be called the Organisation […]

FRANKFURT, April 29, 2008 (AFP) – An internal probe at German industrial group Siemens has found that almost all its sectors of activity were subject to active corruption, a company statement said Tuesday. The international law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton “has found evidence in each of the examined groups and in various countries indicating […]

BEIJING, April 28, 2008 (AFP) – China is loosing some of its attractiveness to foreign investors as rising costs are forcing some US manufacturing firms to leave the country, the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) said Monday.More than two-thirds of AmCham’s member companies surveyed in an annual white paper agreed that China was losing some […]