Politicians across the Indian political spectrum are condemning President Bush's remark, linking high food prices in the West to a growing middle class in India. From New Delhi, VOA Correspondent Steve Herman reports Indians are pointing the finger back at the United States.  The governing coalition and opposition in India rarely agree on much, but they are united in condemning the American president for saying a growing demand for food grains by India's middle class is partly to blame for the surge in global food prices.

Feb 2008: Ministers are treating school pupils as if they were business products to be managed rather than children to be educated, an Oxford University study has suggested. The Nuffield Review of 14-19 education said the Government's aim of boosting the British economy was overshadowing the true role of schools in young people's lives.

BEIJING (AFP) - China will contribute 1.4 billion dollars to an international nuclear fusion project that aims to emulate the power of the sun to provide limitless clean energy, state press said on Tuesday 8th January 2008. read more

Oct 8 2007: An ambitious programme to reduce poverty and provide adequate social services for all citizens by 2015 is unlikely to be met in full by any developing country in the Asia-Pacific region, a report predicted on Monday. While progress has been made on combating poverty, it has been coupled with a troubling increase in economic inequality, said the report on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

Global warming likely will lead to an increase in infectious disease around the world, as viruses, microbes and the agents that spread them flourish, experts at a medical conference warned Tuesday. The problem is already evident and has become particularly acute in just the past decade, according to researchers at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

The problem here is that our education system lacks proper identification objectives. We have never reviewed the changing aims and objectives, keeping at par with the changes occurring in the society, either according to design or otherwise. In a developing society like Pakistan, higher education should help in developing the personality, preserving, enriching and propagating the cultural heritage, as well as cultivating the faculties and talent of human resources. This should be attempted in a way so that the educated play his role effectively in the community and society at large, as leaders and change agents and educators in order to spread the benefits of higher education to those who are denied opportunities for the same. This is all the more necessary if we bear in mind the fact that the education system in Pakistan is maintained at a high community cost and that for everyone receiving education, there are at least 40 more that are left outside the stream. read more

KUALA LUMPUR: Fifty per cent of Muslims worldwide will deposit their money in Islamic banks by 2015, and an estimated 50% to 60% of total savings of Muslims globally will be managed by Islamic financial institutions in Asia 10 years from now. read more

Islamic financial institutions asked to play a key role in helping developing countries meet crucial UN goals on poverty, health and primary education

July 2007: Bribery is costing the world $1 trillion a year with the burden falling disproportionately on the billion or so people living in extreme poverty, the World Bank said yesterday.

ISLAMABAD, July 4: Opposition members on Wednesday submitted two adjournment motions to the Senate Secretariat seeking discussion on the alleged Rs92 million embezzlement in the Zakat fund. read more