Category: World

NEW YORK, Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) – US stock markets tumbled heavily in the week to Friday, giving Wall Street a fresh battering, despite Congress granting a green light to a giant economic stimulus package sought by the White House. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions. The plan, worth around 150 billion dollars, […]

SYDNEY, Feb 9, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka were the second best side at last year’s World Cup but captain Mahela Jayawardene has admitted that a continuing inability to beat Australia is becoming a major concern.Another loss would make it hard for Sri Lanka to reach the finals of the tri-series. On Friday, in the […]

TOKYO, Feb 9, 2008 (AFP) – The euro is still above its fair value, EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia said Saturday. There may be calls however behind closed doors from European ministers for action to try to stem the dollar’s decline against the euro, which is hurting exporters in the eurozone, analysts […]

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 […]