Washington, Dec 1: Acid attacks are commonly used to terrorise and subjugate women in many parts of Asia, including Pakistan, the New York Times has said.

Naeema Azar, whom Nicholas Kristoff interviewed, and who had once been an attractive, self-confident real estate agent, had acid thrown at her, blinding her and burning most of her face.

Shahnaz Bukhari, a Pakistani activist who founded an organisation to help such women, has helped her, the Daily Times reported.

Naeema’s huband, Azar Jamsheed, who disfigured her, escaped and has never been arrested.

Islamabad, Nov. 29: The Pakistan Government has done an about turn on its earlier promise to send Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director-General Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha to India in connection with the probe into the terrorist strikes in Mumbai.

After a late night meeting between Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, it was decided that a representative of the intelligence agency would travel to India.

"A representative of the ISI will visit India, instead of its Director General Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha, to help in investigating the Mumbai terrorism incident," a spokesman for the Prime Minister''s House said.

Tokyo- Japanese home electronics company Sharp Corp and Italy's largest power company Enel SpA plan to launch a joint venture to develop a number of photovoltaic power plants by the end of 2012, Sharp said Thursday.

The joint business was expected to start in spring, and it plans to build power plants mainly in southern Italy with a total output capacity of 189 megawatts, using thin-film solar cells, the Japanese company said.

Tokyo - Asian stock markets rebounded Tuesday after gains on Wall Street spurred by the US government's bailout plan to save the banking giant Citigroup Inc.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average surged more than 5 per cent on Wall Street's overnight rally and a weaker yen, which increases exporters' overseas earnings.

The Nikkei index soared 413.14 points, or 5.22 per cent, to close at 8,323.93.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also up 3.6 per cent at 831.58.

Bangkok - This year started out on an optimistic note for tourism in South-east and East Asia.

But after a strong first quarter, arrivals slowed, first on rising oil prices that peaked at 147 dollars a barrel in July, and then the the financial tsunami broke in the US in October and quickly spread to Europe, Japan and South Korea.

Tokyo - Having grown up during years of economic slumps and now seeing their country in a recession, young Japanese are bucking their national image of being globe-trotters and are preferring to stay at home.

Home is not only more comfortable, but overseas travel has lost the allure that it used to have.

"The number of young Japanese [customers] has dropped notably in the last years, and that's crucial for us," said Yumi Isozaki, a spokeswoman for the Japan Association of Travel Agents.