Tokyo  - NTT DoCoMo Inc on Friday reported a net profit rise of 40 per cent to 173.1 billion yen (1.76 billion dollars) year-on-year for the July-September period on increased sales of handsets.

Stockholm - Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg on Friday criticized major Swedish banking groups for not signing on to a stability plan approved earlier this week.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of parliament's committee on European Union affairs, Borg said he also urged the general public to "pick up the phone and call their bank to find out if they have lowered their mortgage rates" or not.

Borg said he was disappointed that the banks have not lowered mortgage rates as much as envisaged in the wake of the plan that was approved Thursday by the European Commission in Brussels.

Rome - Italy's largest natural gas and oil company, Eni, said Friday its third-quarter net profit rose 37 per cent thanks to soaring crude oil prices and boosted production.

Net profit increased to 2.94 billion euros (dollars 3.83 billion) from the 2.15 billion euros registered in the same period in 2007, Eni said in a statement.

"Eni has delivered another quarter of excellent results driven by strong production growth and good operational performance in all our divisions," Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni said in the statement.

New Delhi - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed "deep concern" over the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday and asked rebel General Laurent Nkunda to engage in dialogue.

During a visit to the Indian capital New Dehli, Ban urged Nkunda to stick to the ceasefire announced by the Tutsi rebel leader.

The situation in the African state was "very threatening," Ban said, stressing the UN's neutrality in the conflict. "We are trying to help," he added.

Ban said that he has been engaged in talks with Rwanda President Paul Kagame, a supporter of Nkunda, since the beginning of his visit to India on Thursday.

Islamabad - Pakistani authorities on Friday switched their focus from rescue efforts to providing relief aid for thousands of earthquake survivors, who are spending cold
nights under the open skies, officials said.

Soldiers aided people in remote villages ravaged by the shallow 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck the northern and central parts of the gas-rich Balochistan province
early Wednesday.

Two days after the tragedy, the official death toll stood at 225 but the provincial Chief Minister Aslam Raeesani said it might cross 300.

"(The) bulk of the rescue work is over and operations have systematically entered the relief phase," said Major Ali Qasim, a military spokesman in Quetta, the capital of

New Delhi  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that his discussions with Indian leaders reaffirmed his belief that India was ready to play a greater role on the world stage.

"I was only a year old when India became a UN member state, and it is truly impressive how much this country has achieved since then as a leading voice in the developing world, as a long established democracy and a growing economic power," Ban said at a press briefing.

The secretary general held wide-ranging talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Pratibha Patil and Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee during his two-day visit.