Category: Other

OTTAWA, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) – Attempts to reduce US dependence on imported oil by adding more ethanol to its gas tanks are only driving up food prices while delivering moot energy benefits, a Canadian bank warned on Monday.Corn prices have already jumped by 60 percent over the past two years as American ethanol producers […]

BANGALORE, India, Oct 23, 2007 (AFP) – Dale Carnegie Training, which has taught business skills to more than eight million professionals worldwide, said Monday it will open its first school in India to make graduates “employable.” The New York-based company tied up with Walchand PeopleFirst to open the “finishing school” in Bangalore to smooth out […]

MANILA, Oct 23, 2007 (AFP) – Free trade, changing diets, and rapid urbanisation is leading to a decline in rice production, one of the world’s leading experts on the crop said.“As prosperous rice-growing countries move toward free trade in agricultural production, they may increasingly find it difficult to sustain producers’ interest in rice farming,” said […]

MUMBAI, Oct 23, 2007 (AFP) – Indian shares surged 4.99 percent Tuesday as investors cheered a move that eased concerns about a proposed regulatory change previously seen as soon limiting purchases by overseas buyers, dealers said. The Mumbai stock exchange Sensex index rose 878.85 points or 4.99 percent to 18,492.84 after the regulator allowed foreign […]

TOKYO, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) – The dollar suffered fresh losses in Asian trade Monday, hitting a record low against the euro after US share prices slumped and world finance chiefs refrained from voicing increased concern about currencies. Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations on Friday only reiterated that […]

WASHINGTON , Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) – The financial turmoil that erupted earlier this year in the US subprime housing market was “an accident waiting to happen” and could have taken place in any other sector, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said here Sunday.“Credit spreads across all global asset classes had become compressed to […]

WASHINGTON, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) – The head of the International Monetary Fund, Rodrigo Rato, warned Monday there are risks of an “abrupt fall” in the dollar, linked to a loss of confidence in dollar assets.“There are risks that an abrupt fall in the dollar could either be triggered by, or itself trigger, a loss […]

THE HAGUE, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) – Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga will on Monday become the second person to appear before the International Criminal Court to face accusations of massacring villagers, using child soldiers and sexually enslaving women.In the largely procedural hearing, Katanga, 29, will not be asked to enter a plea on the […]

WASHINGTON, Oct 20, 2007 (LBO) – The International Monetary Fund named the United States first in a list of countries that were undermining global economic stability and called for tighter regulation of asset-backed securities. . The monetary watchdog’s premier policy making body, the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), called on the United States to […]

MUMBAI, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) – Overseas fund flows into Indian equities will drop in the coming weeks, triggering near-term uncertainty, amid regulatory moves to restrict record capital flows, analysts say. The Indian regulator Tuesday issued a proposal to curb the use of participatory notes — or P-Notes — which allow overseas investors to buy […]

WASHINGTON, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) – Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega slammed the International Monetary Fund Saturday for having been lax in its handling of a US housing-related credit crisis that roiled global markets.“Allow me to point out the irony of this situation,” Mantega told IMF policymakers at the opening of annual meetings here of […]