Inflation serious threat to growth - India PM
NEW DELHI - India's Prime Minster Manmohan Singh said high headline inflation was beginning to pose a serious threat to India's high growth plans, in one of his strongest warnings over the risk of rising prices.
Singh added that farm supply chains needed to be boosted with organised retail chains, a statement seen pushing for the entry of modern supermarkets despite strong political opposition for foreign-owned multibrand retail from within his Congress party.
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Pakistan to decide how to reduce cabinet
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan will decide how to reduce the cabinet, a ruling party official said, in a concession to the opposition which is unlikely to help garner support for wholescale economic reform as demanded by the IMF.
The main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) faction, has demanded a smaller cabinet as part of a 10-point economic agenda accepted by the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in early January.
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Guantanamo prisoner dies while exercising-U.S.
MIAMI - An Afghan prisoner collapsed and died at the Guantanamo detention center after working out on an exercise machine, the U.S. military said.
Awal Malim Gul, who was accused of being a Taliban commander and al Qaeda associate, died at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base on Tuesday evening, the U.S. military's Southern Command said.
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Bangadesh to speed grain purchases on record food prices
DHAKA - Bangladesh's state grains buyer plans to increase the volume of rice and wheat in tenders to speed up imports and build stocks in the face of record global food prices.
"We are thinking to raise the volume of grains in tenders," an official at the Directorate General of Food, who declined to be named, said.
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India police arrests ex-telecoms min over graft
NEW DELHI - Indian police on Wednesday arrested a former telecoms minister over an alleged telcoms scam linked to awarding mobile licences, Indian television channels reported, in a move that could weaken the coalition government.
The former minister, Andimuthu Raja, belongs to a key regional parliamentary ally of the Congress-led government and his arrest could spark tension within a coalition hit by a series of corruption scandals.
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US general "militarily uncomfortable" with Afghan date
LONDON - A senior U.S. military commander said on Tuesday setting a 2014 goal for halting NATO combat operations in Afghanistan weakened the Taliban's arguments although he was "militarily uncomfortable" with it.
NATO agreed at a Lisbon summit last November to hand control of security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces by the end of 2014 and said the NATO-led force could halt combat operations by the same date if security conditions were good enough.
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Pakistan safe havens not a "mission-stopper" for US
WASHINGTON - The United States can win its nearly 10-year-old war in Afghanistan even if neighboring Pakistan does not shut down militant safe havens on its side of the border, a top U.S. commander said on Tuesday.
The United States has sought for years to pressure Pakistan to take on Islamist insurgents who have sought refuge in Pakistani border sanctuaries of North Waziristan from where they attack Western forces in Afghanistan. (Compiled by World Desk Singapore, +65 6870-3815)
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