As a result of a notable boost to the outlook for fuel demand, thanks to cold weather conditions across the US and signs of an economic recovery, oil prices hit a four-week high – by extending gains in Asia above $78 per barrel on Monday.

With the recent hike in oil prices marking a turnaround from a two-and-a-half months’ low of below $70 a barrel two weeks back, analyst Tomokazu Amano, of Tokyo’s Mitsubishi Corp Futures & Securities, said: “The market is getting support as a cold wave in the U. S. Northeast is projected to boost demand.”

The third edition of the Asian Airgun Championship in Doha from December 16-22 will also double up as the qualification event for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games to be held in Singapore next year.

“The Youth Olympics has a similar qualification criterion as the Olympics. The Asian Airgun event is the only tournament where Indian youth can qualify for the Singapore event,” said national coach Sunny Thomas. “We have some very good shooters who can make it to Singapore and among them Ayonika Paul, Shruti Bhattepatil and Neha Sapte are the frontrunners,” said Thomas.

As a complete ban on the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) comes into force on January 1, 2010 the representatives from United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), India and Nepal began to thrash out issues concerning illegal trade of ozone depleting substances (ODS) and other environmental crime at a three-day workshop commencing here today.

The workshop proposes to educate the officers of customs and security officers deployed on the borders about the sensitivity of the environmental crime and ensure better coordination among the enforcement agencies to check their movement, said Atul Bagai, Head Asia Pacific, OzonAction Programme, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE) under the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP).

Singapore  - Asian-Pacific leaders on Sunday vowed to work for a strong outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks in three weeks, but failed to give targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"We reaffirm our commitment to tackle the threat of climate change and work towards an ambitious outcome in Copenhagen," the 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) said in a joint statement after their two-day annual summit in Singapore.

But they did not mention any target for slashing emissions, thus backing off from an earlier draft of the declaration.

Singapore  - Asian-Pacific leaders on Sunday vowed to work for a strong outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks in three weeks, but failed to give targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"We reaffirm our commitment to tackle the threat of climate change and work towards an ambitious outcome in Copenhagen," the 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) said in a joint statement after their two-day annual summit in Singapore.

But they did not mention any target for slashing emissions, thus backing off from an earlier draft of the declaration.

Hong Kong - Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta on Thursday were named the Asian cities most vulnerable to climate change in a survey by the environmental pressure group the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The study, timed to coincide with the weekend opening of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Singapore, warned that the three cities along with eight others in the region must prepare for "a brutal climate future."

Seoul - The global financial crisis has triggered the rise of Asia as a regional financial hub with the Asian economy leading the world economy's recovery, economists said Friday in Seoul.

"If concern still lingers in Europe, and Americans tend to be cautiously optimistic, Asian optimism is definitely obvious," Dominic Barton, global managing director at McKinsey & Co, said at the Seoul International Finance Conference 2009, a gathering of more than 400 international economists.

Asia's economy was proving more resilient than expected, economists said, the region's optimism fuelled by rising numbers of consumers and massive government spending on infrastructure.

Love Twenty20 cricket and futsal? Now get ready for the shorter version of basketball (the 3-on-3), a faster and more athletic form of the game, which will be making its debut at the 3rd Asian Indoor Games to be held at Hanoi, Vietnam, from Oct. 30 to Nov 8.

Also called FIBA 33, this version is played only on half of the conventional basketball court and comprises three players in each team (unlike 5 in normal game).

Bangkok/Phnom Penh  - When it comes to attracting a potential spouse, South Korean soap operas seem to be the best way to a South- East Asian bride's heart.

Over the last decade, thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodian women have left their homes to marry South Korean husbands, lured into dubious unions by dreams of financial security and glitzy, city lifestyles in a modern Asian nation.

It’s the human touch that makes ‘boring’ business interesting to people, says CNN anchor Richard Quest Ritu Pandey.

Nonsense!” That’s journalist and host of CNN show Quest on Business, Richard Quest’s reaction when asked if business reporting is indeed as boring as it is perceived. “People-to-people interaction is what makes business interesting. Those who say so, have no idea of interesting reporting,” he retorts.

They may be new to the cricketing world and far from understanding the nuances of the sport, but Chinese women cricketers are getting ready to prove their mettle in the next year's Asian Games in Guangzhou.

The 15-member squad is currently training at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali under their head coach Mamatha Maben, a former India international cricketer.

Maben, who has been attached with the team since March this year, feels the team has been making good progress.

“There are not too many players who have taken up the sport in China and among women, there are just a negligible few,” she said. “Only 15 play cricket and all of them are here,” Maben said.

Singapore  - German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG said Thursday that it had gained passengers on its Asian routes since last year although the aviation industry was hit hard by the global economic crisis.

"On the Asian routes, we are not losing passengers; we are gaining passengers," Lufthansa's vice president for the Asia-Pacific, Uwe Mueller, said in Singapore.

Singapore  - Asian nations should generate their own growth engines and seek more independence from the US economy to better protect the region's economic dynamism against global financial downturns, a leading Asian economist from the United Nations said Thursday.

After the worldwide recession, the Unites States was unlikely to resume its role as the engine driving Asia's growth like in the past, Nagesh Kumar, chief economist of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, told a seminar in Singapore.

Istanbul  - Asia may be leading the global economic recovery, but it could face a period of slower growth and rising unemployment in coming years as it transitions from exports to domestic demand, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Sunday.

Governments will have to prop up their economies for much longer than in past economic crises if they wish to avoid another downturn in 2010 or 2011, the IMF said.

Dubai, Oct 1 : A special function will be held in this West Asian metropolis Oct 2 to mark the International Day of Non-Violence, observed around the world on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The Indian consulate in Dubai, along with the Indian High School here, will jointly host the function at 5 p. m. in the school premises, a consulate statement said Thursday.

The programme will begin with recitations from the Koran, the Bible and the Bhagawad Gita, similar to the manner in which Gandhi -- father of the Indian nation -- used to hold his public meetings.

It will include hymns and dances by students as well as audio-visual presentations on the Mahatma.

Istanbul  - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) sharply raised its growth forecast for China on Thursday as part of what it called a "remarkable" turnaround by emerging Asian nations that are driving a global economic recovery.

China's economy will grow by 8.5 per cent this year and 9 per cent in 2010, according to figures in the IMF's semi-annual World Economic Outlook. In July, the IMF predicted growth of 7.5 per cent this year and 8.5 per cent in 2010.

Bangkok/New Delhi  - Migrant remittances are expected to fall 5 to 8 per cent this year after hitting a record-breaking 305 billion dollars in 2008, the United Nations predicted Monday.

Singapore  - Rice researchers Monday called on Asian governments to invest more in agricultural infrastructure and development to prevent another rice crisis in the region due to dwindling supplies and rising prices.

"We have to be vigilant, we have to be cautious," said Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), in Singapore.

Bangkok  - China's state-driven stimulus package may have boosted its own domestic growth but has had little knock-on effect for South-East Asia, the lead analyst of Fitch Ratings in Asia said Monday.

"The stimulus that China engaged in has not really benefited the rest of the region," said James McCormack, Fitch's managing director and head of Asia sovereigns.

McCormack noted that while China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.1 per cent in the first quarter of this year, most South-East Asian economies experienced sharp contractions in the same period, showing there is no correlation between China's growth and the region's.

Manila  - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) cited on Wednesday the progress made by Asia and the Pacific countries in reducing poverty, but noted that "large pockets of poverty" remain in many countries in the region.

"Over the past 15 years, Asia has made rapid progress in the fight against poverty, reducing the number of poor from around one in two to around one in four," the Manila-based ADB said.