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A joint study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and KPMG estimated that the media and entertainment industry will grow at 12.5 percent over the next five years to cross the Rs 1,00,000-crore mark by 2013. The report showed that it grew 15 percent annually since 2006 into an $11.68-billion [...]

Mexico City – An estimated 500,000 truck and bus drivers in Mexico were on a 24-hour strike starting Monday, demanding the government freeze diesel prices.
Regional authorities in the states most affected by the strike tried to maintain a skeletal bus service so as not to inconvenience commuters. Private buses were allowed to operate as [...]

Prague – At least 43 passengers were injured Monday, three of them seriously, when two trains had a head-on collision in the north-eastern Czech Republic, the CTK news agency reported, citing medical officials.
The railways said in a statement that one of the drivers was likely at fault as he ran a red light instead of [...]

Dresden, Germany – Leftists battled Saturday with riot police escorting a march by far-right protesters in Dresden, Germany.
Much of the German city was destroyed and thousands of Germans burned to death by Allied firebomb raids late February 13 and early February 14, 1945. German neo-Nazis claim the Allies committed a war crime. Left-right clashes [...]

Bangkok – The issue of Rohingya refugees is to be raised at the South-East Asian summit to be held this month in Thailand, which has been accused of abusing the rights of the Myanmar minority group, officials confirmed Tuesday.
The summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) set for February 27 to March [...]

Tokyo – Nissan Motor Co revised downward its earnings forecast for the full fiscal year after the yen surged against other major currencies and consumer appetite for cars waned owing to the global recession, the company said Monday.
Japan’s third-largest automaker after Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co estimated it would incur an operating [...]

New Delhi – India’s economy is expected to post its lowest growth in six years and fall to 7.1 per cent for the current fiscal year against 9 per cent the previous year, according to government data released Monday.
The estimate – the first official projection for the financial year ending on March 31 – [...]

Los Angeles – The largest actors’ union in the United States has ousted its combative executive director in a backlash against his hard line negotiating style that had nearly brought the Screen Actors Guild to the brink of a debilitating strike.
The board of the union fired executive director Doug Allen on Monday night, and appointed [...]

Jakarta – Rescuers on Tuesday stopped the search for about 260 people still missing after a ferry sank off Indonesia’s West Sulawesi province earlier this month, an official said.
Thirty-five people were rescued, including the ship’s captain, and nine others found dead after the ship sank in stormy seas on January 11 off the port town [...]

San Jose, Costa Rica – The Costa Rican government is seeking international aid in the wake of last week’s devastating earthquake, news reports said Tuesday.
According to Costa Rican authorities, the death toll in the 6.2-magnitude quake has risen to 20 and damage has been estimated at around 100 million dollars.
Eight bridges, 7 power lines, 61 [...]

Copenhagen – Thousands of people gathered Tuesday in downtown Copenhagen to protest the ongoing violence in Gaza.
The protest at the main city hall square was organized by among others opposition parties and trade unions. Organizers estimated 5,000 people attended.
Earlier Tuesday, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged Israel and Hamas to cease the violence.
Rasmussen [...]

London, Jan 9 (ANI): Laws to keep a check on the details of every email sent in the UK are facing flak as many believe they are an attack on privacy and a waste of money.
In an EU-wide bid to tackle terrorism, all Internet service providers (ISP) will need to keep data about emails sent [...]

Mendhar, Jan 7 (ANI): The gun battle between army personnel and militants here continued for the seventh consecutive day on Wednesday.
According to defence sources, an intense gun battle continued with army troops firing rockets and mortars targeting the militants” cave hideouts in Bhati Dhar forest area.
Security forces have cordoned off the area around the forest [...]

Washington, Jan 7 (ANI): Researchers at Baylor University have developed a new way to transform coconut husks into automotive interiors.
They say that it is possible to make trunk liners, floorboards and car-door interior covers using fibers from the outer husks of coconuts, replacing the synthetic polyester fibers typically used in composite materials.
“Why coconuts? That’’s the [...]

London, January 6 (ANI): Bernard Madoff, the prime accused of a 50 billion dollar investment fraud, should be sent behind bars immediately for mailing jewellery, estimated at 1 million dollars, to his family while under house arrest, US prosecutors have debated.
The Wall Street fund manager, the perpetrator of the biggest financial fraud in history, had [...]

London, Jan.6 (ANI): The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has declared that capitalism is dead because of the credit crunch.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O”Connor, 76, made the astonishing claim at a lavish fund-raising dinner at Claridges which secured pledges of hundreds of thousands of pounds for the Catholic church, the Telegraph [...]

Gaza – Fierce clashes erupted Monday night in eastern and northern Gaza City between Palestinian militants and Israel soldiers, witnesses said.
Witnesses said they heard heavy and intensive tank shelling in the Tufah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, and added that Israeli troops and militants were also engaged in gun battles.
Gaza resident Mohamed al-Aklouk said dozens [...]

Hanoi – Vietnamese workers found an unexploded bomb believed to have been dropped by the US Air Force during the Vietnam War, a military official said Monday.
The bomb, estimated to weigh 250 kilograms, was 1.2 metres long and has a diameter of 30 centimeters. It was found Friday in front of a house on central [...]

Washington, Jan 5 (ANI): A team of scientists has claimed to have identified the Gulf of Maine in the US as a wintering ground and potentially a new breeding ground for a group of endangered whales.
Researchers at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center have identified this new breeding ground, after reports that a large number of [...]

Beijing  – China’s estimated foreign trade surplus rose to a record 290 billion dollars last year despite a global slowdown hitting exports in the second half of the year, state media said on Sunday.
Foreign trade for 2008 totalled about 2.55 trillion dollars, up 18 per cent from 2007, the official Xinhua news agency quoted a [...]