A top Russian diplomat on Friday warned Ukraine against banning Russian television channels, Interfax news agency reported, in the latest of a series of spats between the ex-Soviet neighbours.

In India, speaking English with an American accent is no longer the preserve of call centre workers. Children, business people and the elderly here are now seeking a US twang.

PARIS, Oct 9, 2008 (AFP) - The 'Crash of 2008' is a problem: economists can't define it, collective memories react with deep but differing emotions, and current values clash with what 'crash' meant in 1929.

The current crisis is the worst since the great Wall Street collapse created a vortex from which emerged the Great Depression of the 1930s, economists agree in comments to AFP.

SYDNEY, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Australians who sound like Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin could soon be a relic of the past, a report said Sunday.

WASHINGTON, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - The White House on Tuesday strongly urged the media not to describe its economic rescue effort as a 'bailout,' calling that a loaded term wielded by the package's critics to defeat the plan.

It is generally accepted that all the languages of the world are
equal no matter how remote or small the number of speakers may be.
The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2008 as the

 

OTTAWA, September 8, 2008 (AFP) - Canada's main opposition leader Stephane Dion says his biggest handicap as he campaigns for votes in the country's snap elections is his difficulty communicating in English, which he blamed on a 'hearing problem.'

'I have a hearing problem and it may be linked to that,' the Liberal leader said in an interview with the Globe and Mail newspaper.

DAYTONA BEACH, September 5, 2008 (AFP) - The LPGA Tour backed off a plan to require players to speak English or face suspensions, with LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens saying Friday that a punishment-free program would be adopted.

Australian Aboriginal children can count even without having words for numbers, according to a ...

Credit crunch, carbon footprint and electrosmog squeezed into Britain`s Chambers dictionary ...

Credit crunch, carbon footprint and electrosmog squeezed into Britain`s Chambers dictionary ...

Spanish may be one of the world`s most-spoken languages, but a group who masters it better than ...

Instead of going east to China for the Beijing Olympic ceremonies, Estonia`s President Toomas ...

WASHINGTON, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - One Asian had his wrong leg amputated while another was thrown in jail for not taking her medication -- all because of limited English proficiency in the United States.

The cases may seem appalling but not uncommon to Asian Americans.

SAO PAULO, July 24, 2008 (AFP) - A summit of Portuguese-speaking countries this week is to be dominated by a reform of their language that has seen Brazil win out over opposition in Portugal in terms of spelling uniformity.

MANILA, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - South Korea is considering changing its visa rules to allow Filipino teachers to teach English, the Philippine foreign department said Thursday.

South Korea currently only allows teachers from countries where English is a national language, such as the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, but not the Philippines.

WASHINGTON, July 7, 2008 (AFP) - Are you a wing nut pretexting as a netroots advocate on webinars and thought you could blend in anonymously?

Or a soju-, prosecco- and edamame-loving pescatarian -- but not part of an esoteric religion?

MOSCOW, June 29, 2008 (AFP) - Russia will be able to create its first Internet addresses using the Cyrillic alphabet next year, communications ministry official Vladimir Vassiliev told Interfax news agency on Sunday.

The move follows a decision by the organisation that regulates the Internet to deliver a radical shake-up to the domain-name system.

LONDON, June 7, 2008 (AFP) - The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling daily, published Saturday the first of six editions in Polish aimed at the country's Polish community during the 2008 European football championships.

BRUSSELS, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - The Chinese government is to pay for European teachers to visit the country to improve their knowledge of its language and culture, under a new project launched in Brussels on Monday.

Federal institutions in Canada have their work cut out to create a truly bilingual environment where staff can choose to use French or English, the country's language commissioner said Thursday.

Bilingualism in Canada is stalled in federal bureaus, where many staff lament not having a choice of using either French or English in the workplace, the language commissioner said Thursday.

DUBLIN, May 22, 2008 (AFP) - New Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was at the centre of a row Thursday after he was caught on microphone using an expletive in parliament.

A spokeswoman for Cowen said he regrets any offence caused after the incident in the Dail, or lower house of parliament on Wednesday.

LISBON, May 16, 2008 (AFP) - Portugal's parliament voted by a large majority on Friday to implement a long delayed accord on a unified form of the Portuguese language originally agreed with seven Portuguese-speaking countries in 1991.

Basically the agreement harmonises spelling and adds three letters, k, w and y, to the alphabet.

PARIS, May 13, 2008 (AFP) - France's Larousse publishing house on Tuesday launched an online French-language encyclopedia offering free access to its dictionary and inviting users to contribute content, aiming to rival Wikipedia.

VATICAN CITY, May 9, 2008 (AFP) - The Catholic Church's official language of Latin finally made it onto the Vatican website Friday alongside Italian, English, French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.

VATICAN CITY, May 9, 2008 (AFP) - Latin, the official language of the Roman Catholic Church, on Friday took its place on the Vatican's official website alongside six of its modern descendants.

DUBLIN, April 29, 2008 (AFP) - The town of Dingle, one of Ireland's best-known tourist destinations, won its battle on Tuesday against a government edict to adopt the Irish language version of its name.

Under a 2004 order enacted by Irish Affairs Minister Eamon O Cuiv, Dingle became Daingean as part of a move requiring over 2,300 towns to adopt Gaelic names.

LONDON, April 24, 2008 (AFP) - Five centuries after they were written, the works of England's most famous playwright William Shakespeare have been brought up to date -- making them understandable for the youth of today.

DUBLIN, April 24, 2008 (AFP) - A village in the southwest of Ireland won its battle to get its ancient 'harlot' back on Thursday when a government order officially changed its name in the Irish language.

For centuries, the village in County Limerick, known as Doon in English, had been known in Gaelic as Dun Bleisce, or Fort of the Harlot, but the name was changed in 2003.

NEW YORK, March 20, 2008 (AFP) - Authorities in the US city of Philadelphia have ruled that the owner of a local restaurant who placed a sign asking customers to 'speak English' had done nothing to violate discrimination rules.

WASHINGTON, March 18, 2008 (AFP) - Thirty years after the US government commission that monitors communications began enforcing a ban on expletives on the airwaves, it is seeking to extend its policing to also cover swear words that slip out 'fleetingly'.

TALLINN, March 13, 2008 (AFP) - Education authorities in Estonia Thursday warned that the hands-down dominance of English in its schools is depriving the Baltic state of the language specialists it will need in the future.

A hefty 84 percent of pupils in this country of 1.3 million people opt to study English, according to official statistics.

LONDON, March 10, 2008 (AFP) - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) launches its new Arabic-language cable and satellite television channel on Tuesday, laying down the gauntlet to existing pan-Arab stations.

LONDON, March 10, 2008 (AFP) - The British Broadcasting Corporation launches its new Arabic-language cable and satellite television channel on Tuesday, in its second attempt to enter the Middle East market.

LONDON, March 3, 2008 (AFP) - The British Broadcasting Corporation's new Arabic-language cable and satellite television channel will launch next week, bosses said Monday, laying down the gauntlet to existing pan-Arab stations.

TALLINN, Feb 27, 2008 (AFP) - Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves faced sharp criticism Wednesday for reportedly claiming that speaking Russian meant whitewashing his Baltic state's five-decade Soviet occupation.

TOKYO, Feb 14, 2008 (AFP) - Tokyo's outspoken governor, who was taken to court for a jibe against the French language, insists that he in fact loves France -- and even once had a French girlfriend.

Governor Shintaro Ishihara, known for his nationalist views, said in 2004 that French was disqualified as an international language as it was impossible to count in it.