Category: Other

TOKYO, Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) – World finance chiefs will try to bolster confidence in the faltering global economy when they meet Saturday amid signs of trans-Atlantic friction over how to respond to recent market mayhem. Washington’s calls for other major economies to boost domestic demand seem set to fall on deaf ears as Japan […]

NEW YORK, Feb 7, 2008 (AFP) – Tobacco use could kill more than one billion people around the world this century unless governments and civil society act to reverse the epidemic, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released Thursday.“One hundred million deaths were caused by tobacco in the 20th century,” said the report […]

US-VOTE – 02/07/2008 01:41 GMT – AFP PRINT WASHINGTON, Feb 6, 2008 (AFP) – Hillary Clinton’s race for the White House showed vulnerability Wednesday as she admitted tapping her own pocketbook for five million dollars to keep up a grueling fight against rival Barack Obama. “A month and a half is an eternity in politics […]

LONDON, Feb 7, 2008 (AFP) – A property fund backed by an investment arm of the Dubai government bought prime west London property from the Queen’s portfolio, the monarch’s property managers announced on Wednesday. Its revenues from its assets are paid to the finance ministry. The Crown Estate, which manages Queen Elizabeth II’s real estate, […]

TOKYO, Feb 7, 2008 (AFP) – The euro was slightly weaker against its major rivals in Asian trade on Thursday amid nervousness ahead of an interest rate decision by the European Central Bank, dealers said.They said traders were also cautious about a weekend meeting of world finance chiefs in Tokyo where recent financial market turmoil […]

PARIS, Feb 5, 2008 (AFP) – Europe will press the United States to show “more cooperation” in dealing with the global financial crisis at a weekend meeting of top finance officials, France’s European minister said Tuesday. “It would have been better if there was a more cooperative attitude — exchanges between treasuries, central banks, fewer […]

NEW YORK, Feb 5, 2008 (AFP) – US stocks went into a tailspin Tuesday as a shockingly weak reading on service sector activity bolstered the notion that a recession is at hand in the world’s biggest economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 370.03 points (2.93 percent) to end at 12,265.13 after sharp losses on […]

Feb 06, 2008 (LBO) – Maldives have cleared the bar to elect a woman president, but the glass ceiling is unlikely to shatter soon as the incumbent strongman wants to rule on into a fourth decade, analysts said. Though the 50-member majlis, a representative body, has cleared the way Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, 70, has already […]

WASHINGTON, Feb 4, 2008 (AFP) – The World Bank named Monday Justin Lin Yifu, who defected from Taiwan to China and rose to become a top economic strategist for the communist country, as its chief economist, the first time a Chinese has held the job.World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Lin, the founding director of […]

TOKYO, Feb 5, 2008 (AFP) – Slumping global stock markets and fears of a US recession are set to dominate a weekend meeting here of the world’s top finance chiefs, but analysts see little chance of any coordinated action. Although the fallout from the US subprime loan woes is spreading around the world, with the […]