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Beijing unveils limits to control housing market

BEIJING (AFP) – The city of Beijing has issued rules limiting families to one new apartment purchase as authorities try to rein in rampant property speculation and soaring prices, state media reported on Friday.
“For the time being one family can buy only one new home in the city,” China News Service [...]

Read More » No commentApril 30, 2010

Japan’s recovery accelerating, central bank says

TOKYO – Japan received a brighter assessment of its economic future Friday, with a key central bank report highlighting an accelerating recovery and easing price declines.
In its semiannual outlook, the Bank of Japan predicted that the world’s second biggest economy would see faster growth this fiscal year, which began April [...]

Read More » No commentApril 30, 2010

Mumbai attack planner had ’split’ personality: uncle

NEW DELHI (AFP) – David Headley, a plotter of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, had a double personality that enabled him to switch between a Westerner and a devout Muslim, his uncle said in an interview broadcast Friday.
Headley, the son of a former Pakistani diplomat and a white American woman, has confessed [...]

Read More » No commentApril 30, 2010

Myanmar premier forming new election party

YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar’s prime minister, who recently retired from his military post, has applied to form a new political party ahead of rare elections expected later this year, state media reported Friday.
Thein Sein and 26 others registered to form the “Union Solidarity and Development Party” on Thursday at [...]

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ANA posts annual net loss of 610 million dollars

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) reported Friday a net loss of 57.4 billion yen (610 million dollars) for the year to March, citing weak air travel demand, despite its cost cutting efforts.
The figure was smaller than the company’s own net loss projection of 65 billion yen announced [...]

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Sarkozy ends Beijing visit at Forbidden City

BEIJING (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and toured the Forbidden City with his wife Friday to wrap up the Beijing leg of a state visit focused on putting past tensions to rest.
Sarkozy, who arrived in China on Wednesday, then headed to Shanghai to [...]

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‘15 feared dead’ after Indian school boat accident

UWAHATI, India (AFP) – Fifteen people, mostly school children, are feared dead in India’s northeastern state of Assam after an overcrowded wooden river boat capsized mid-stream, police said Friday.
A police official said there were about 25 people in the small boat when it capsized Thursday evening on the Buridihing river about [...]

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Samsung Electronics sees six-fold surge in profit

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea’s Samsung Electronics said Friday first-quarter net profit surged more than six-fold from a year earlier to 3.99 trillion won (3.6 billion dollars) amid stronger demand and higher memory chip prices.
Samsung, the world’s largest maker of computer memory chips and flat screen televisions, also reported a [...]

Read More » No commentApril 30, 2010

N.Korea expels most S.Koreans from resort

SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea on Friday ordered some 40 South Korean staff to leave a jointly run mountain resort in the North as ties soured further over Seoul’s refusal to restart tours there, officials said.
The North ordered out all except 12 employees of Hyundai Asan, the South Korean company [...]

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Five dead in Indian temple stampede: police

NEW DELHI (AFP) – At least five people died in a stampede at a temple in northern India where a crowd of tens of thousands had gathered for a festival, a local police official told AFP on Friday.
“Five women died on Thursday evening and twelve people have been admitted to hospital,” [...]

Read More » No commentApril 30, 2010