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Pakistan to complete Khokhropar-Munabao road by December

     Karachi: Pakistan will complete the construction of its side of the road between Kokhrapar and Munnabao by December. On Thursday, Sindh Chief Minister Dr.Arbab Ghulam Rahim issued instructions to this effect to senior officials connected with the project, who had met him for a review. Arbab, according to the Daily Times, is said to have stressed on the fact that President Pervez Musharraf had issued orders for the opening of this international border by December this year. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has also passed on the responsibility for the completion of the project to the Sindh government with an assurance that the federal government would provide 50 percent of the funds required for it, the chief minister said. The chief minister hoped that the construction of the Mirpurkhas- Khokhropar border road would help to promote trade between Pakistan and India. The secretary works and services department told the meeting that his department had prepared a report of the project amounting to Rs 344.841 million that had been cleared by the PDWP at its meeting held on July 14, 2004 and was waiting for administrative approval. He said the road to be constructed between Mirpurkhas and Khokhropar would have two railway crossings, 20 culverts and five bridges. The chief minister also directed that the road from Hyderabad to Mirpurkhas be completed on build-operate-transfer basis.

Thousands displaced by Maoist insurgency in Nepal: UN  (Go To Top)

     Kathmandu: A United Nations envoy said today that thousands of people in Nepal have been displaced by the Maoist insurgency racking the Himalayan nation and are in need of urgent assistance. Walter Kalin, representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, said the issue had been neglected in the nation of 27 million where the army is seeking to crush a Maoist revolt aimed at installing a communist republic, The News quoted UN envoy as saying. Official Nepalese figures put the number of displaced people in the kingdom at around 8,000 but the amount is "far greater," he said. He blamed the population displacement on "acts of violence or threats, forced recruitment and extortion by the Maoists, fear of reprisals by the army for allegedly providing food or shelter to the rebels and a generalized climate of insecurity." Kalin said displaced people in the desperately poor nation faced a lack of access to food, shelter, health care and education and were also at risk of sexual abuse. His trip followed the signing last week of an agreement by the UN's Geneva-based human rights office and Nepal to set up a monitoring operation to prevent human rights abuses in the conflict.

89 heads of state, special envoys attending Afro-Asian summit (Go To Top)

     Jakarta: At least 89 heads of state and government, besides special envoys are attending the ongoing Asian-African Summit, which opened on Thursday at the Jakarta Convention Center. Briefing mediapersons here, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said that representatives of 10 regional organizations, 20 countries and 11 international organizations as well as 1,978 delegates and 1,426 representatives of domestic and foreign media are attending the summit. They included Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, China's President Hu Jintao, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah AhmadBadawi, Brunei's Sultan Hasanal Bolkiah and South African President Thabo Mbeki. The plenary session of the summit is expected to come out with a new declaration on Asian-African strategic partnership, that would revive the original goals of the 1955 Bandung meeting, besides asserting the interests of 73 percent of the world's population, Hassan said.

Wipro net profit up 58 percent; revenue up 39 percent (Go To Top)

     Bangalore: IT major Wipro Limited has reported a 58 percent jump in net profit and a 39 percent increase in revenue for fiscal 2004-05. The company's net profit increased from Rs. 1203.2 crore in 2003- 04 to Rs. 1894.8 crore for the fiscal year 2004-05. During the same period its revenue increased from Rs. 5881.20 crore to Rs. 8,169.80 crore. Wipro's Board of Directors, who issued the results here on Friday, also recommended the issue of bonus shares to shareholders (including to ADS holders) in the ratio of one additional share for every one share held subject to shareholder approval in Annual General Meeting to be held in July 2005. The Bangalore-based Company, which is listed at the New York Stock Exchange, also announced a cash dividend of five rupees per share/ADS on existing paid-up capital (equivalent of 2.5 rupees per share on the expanded capital). "Wipro recorded yet another year of very good performance. The results of Wipro Limited once again reflect the passion of Wiproites for facing challenges and triumphing over them," said Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited. "Considering the emerging opportunities in the global market and our unique business model, the future outlook looks as exciting as the journey has been so far," Azim Premji said here in a statement. For the fourth quarter, the company has posted a net profit of Rs. 433 crore against Rs. 320 crore in the year-ago period. The revenue has increased to Rs 2,312 crore from Rs. 1,786 crore in the corresponding quarter in 2003-04. Describing the fourth quarter result of the company as better than expected, Wipro Vice-Chairman Vivek Paul said, "Our differentiated model resulted in revenues from global IT services in Q4 at 375 million dollars, ahead of our guidance of 370 million dollars." The company has also approved the merger of its backoffice subsidiaries, Wipro BPO Solutions Ltd. (formerly Wipro Spectramind Services Ltd.), Spectramind Ltd. (Bermuda) and Spectramind Ltd. (Mauritius). A company statement also said that it had added 41 new clients in the fourth quarter and projected an income generation of 385 million dollars between April and June 2005. .