Category: Other

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2007 (AFP) – Global finance chiefs launched a new bid Friday to bridge gaps on economic and currency policy at talks clouded by a growing scandal threatening the tenure of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz. Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the […]

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2007 (AFP) – The world’s seven richest nations said Friday a WTO deal to tear down global trade barriers was “imperative,” following a measure of progress achieved by leading players at talks in India. “We believe that a successful conclusion of the Doha Development round is imperative,” Group of Seven finance ministers […]

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2007 (AFP) – IMF policymakers on Saturday are to press on with a campaign to save their 60-year-old body from irrelevance at a time when their sister institution, the World Bank, has been shaken by a pay scandal involving its president, Paul Wolfowitz. The International Monetary Fund’s steering committee, representing the Fund’s […]

HONG KONG, April 12, 2007 (AFP) – World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz personally ordered the hefty pay rise given to his girlfriend at the bank, the Financial Times website reported on Thursday. It cited two people who had seen a memo from Wolfowitz to the head of human resources spelling out the terms of the […]

BHUBANESWAR, India, April 12, 2007 (AFP) – India on Thursday test-fired a nuclear-capable medium-range ballistic missile which can reach the Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai, defence sources said. The launch of the Agni-III missile took place from Wheeler Island, 180 kilometres (110 miles) northeast of Bhubaneswar, the capital of eastern Orissa state. It was […]

WASHINGTON, April 12, 2007 (AFP) – World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz Thursday apologized for making a “mistake” over hefty pay rises given to his girlfriend at the development lender, but refused to say if he might quit. “I made a mistake, for which I am sorry,” Wolfowitz told a press conference as an uproar intensified […]

VATICAN CITY, April 8, 2007 (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday decried the “suffering in the world” in his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) on Easter Sunday. “How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world! Natural calamities and human tragedies that cause innumerable victims and enormous […]

NAIROBI, April 7, 2007 (AFP) – Pirates have released a UN-chartered cargo ship and an Indian vessel they captured in the unpatrolled waters off the coast of Somalia, a maritime official said Saturday.Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers’ Assistance Programme said the hijackers freed the MV Rozen on Friday, more than a month after it was […]