News Portal, latest news from around the world.

(CNN) -- India's economy registered a slight slowdown in its growth in the first quarter (April to June) this fiscal year. GDP figures came in at 7.7% -- roughly in line with expectations, but lower than the 7.8% growth last quarter.

This is the slowest pace of economic growth in six financial quarters. Analysts largely attribute the slowdown to recent monetary tightening.

India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, has raised interest rates 11 times in the last 18 months in an attempt to curb double-digit inflation.

The rate hikes have led to a slowdown in domestic consumption, which is reflected in India's auto industry. Auto sales in India fell in July for the first time in nearly 3 years.

Chief economist D.K. Joshi of Indian research and ratings agency Crisil said the GDP figures were predictable.

He raised a red flag about the poor performance of the mining sector, saying it could lead to a slowdown in manufacturing. He also said a sharp fall in construction activity in India is a worry, as this sector employs a vast number of India's population.

(CNN) -- Taiwan's health department is investigating how the organs of an HIV-positive donor were cleared for transplant for five recipients at two hospitals.

Four patients at the National Taiwan University Hospital received the man's liver, kidneys and a lung; a fifth patient at National Cheng Kung University Hospital received his heart.

To restore confidence in organ transplants in Taiwan, Dr. Chiu Wen-Ta, minister of the health department, announced three task forces on Monday: an investigation team to find out what led to the incident and issue disciplinary actions; a victims' caregiving team to assist the patients and their families; and a medical consultant team to work with the hospital in monitoring the patients' health.

Taiwan Today, operated by the government information office, cited sources as saying the transplant team had misheard "reactive" as "nonreactive" in reference to the donor testing HIV-positive.

Beijing (CNN) -- Workers pulled to the surface 19 miners from a flooded mine in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province early Tuesday morning, bringing the total number of rescued miners to 22, state media said.

Crews continue to look for three other miners.

The Hengtai coal mine flooded on August 23 when miners mistakenly drilled into a neighboring mine that was flooded, the Xinhua news agency said.

Water surged in, endangering the lives of 45 miners who were inside.

Nineteen escaped, three were rescued Saturday, and the body of a dead miner was brought to the surface early Sunday.

Rescuers drilled a 900-foot-deep hole to make contact with the miners and pumped more than 130,000 cubic meters of water, Xinhua said.

Early Monday, they reported hearing "knocking sounds."

They lowered relief supplies including food, a lamp, pen and paper -- and something shook the rope to which the package was tied, Xinhua said.

(CNN) -- Apple was slow to act against the booming counterfeit industry in China and other Asian countries, according to cables obtained by WikiLeaks.

The technology giant eventually organized a team in March 2008 to curtail the explosion of knockoff iPods and iPhones, according to an electronic memo from the Beijing embassy dated September 2008.

Yet, three years after Apple moved to crack down on widespread counterfeiting and put pressure on China, progress has been slow. Gadget piracy isn't a high priority for the Chinese government, the U.S. reports and experts say.

Members of Apple's recently formed global security team were recruited from Pfizer after they executed a series of crackdowns on counterfeit Viagra production in Asia, the report says.

John Theriault, formerly Pfizer's security chief and, before that, a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, leads Apple's global security unit. Don Shruhan, who worked for Theriault at Pfizer, is now a director on Apple's security team in Hong Kong.

Shruhan told the Beijing embassy official that his group at Pfizer spent five years planning raids on counterfeit drug rings, the cable says. He said he's "afraid" of the volume of imitation Apple products being produced in China and about the inexperience of Apple's lawyers in dealing with Chinese authorities, the report says.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. A Pfizer spokeswoman, who declined to comment on personnel matters, said the company has a strong global security team to handle the increase in counterfeit medicine worldwide.

WikiLeaks, a group that publishes private government documents, posted tens of thousands of previously unreleased U.S. diplomatic cables last week. The reports from the Beijing embassy detailing Apple's piracy crackdown were unclassified, but many were described as "sensitive" and "not for Internet distribution."

In December, Apple said it removed an application from its mobile store that let people browse WikiLeaks documents from their iPhones "because it violated developer guidelines." The company suggested that the app broke laws or could be harmful to people, but many free-speech advocates cried censorship, as they have in the past when Apple has pulled apps.

The fresh WikiLeaks documents shed new light on Apple's struggles with intellectual-property theft in China, but the subject hasn't completely flown under the radar.

(FT) -- A Chinese tycoon plans to buy a vast tract of Icelandic land for a $100m tourism project which critics fear could give Beijing a strategic foothold in the North Atlantic.

Huang Nubo, a real estate investor and former Chinese government official, has struck a provisional deal to acquire 300 square kilometres of wilderness in north-east Iceland where he plans to build an eco-tourism resort and golf course.

Opponents have questioned why such a large amount of land -- equal to about 0.3 per cent of Iceland's total area -- is needed to build a hotel. They warned that the project could provide cover for China's geopolitical interests in the Atlantic island nation and Nato member.

While home to just 320,000 people, Iceland occupies a strategically important location between Europe and North America and has been touted as a potential hub for Asian cargo should climate change open Arctic waters to shipping.

The deal has been agreed with private landowners but must still be approved by the Icelandic government, which owns part of the land, which is known as Grímsstadir á Fjöllum.

Ögmundur Jónasson, the Icelandic interior minister, who would be responsible for the decision, signalled concern over the plan. "China has been very active in buying up land around the world so we need to be aware of the international ramifications," he told the Financial Times.