Category: World

XIANGHE, China, Dec 12, 2007 (AFP) – Twice-yearly economic talks between China and the United States began here on Wednesday with the Chinese currency and the world powers’ ballooning trade imbalance again under the spotlight. The two days of talks began at a sprawling convention centre an hour’s drive southeast of Beijing, following complaints and […]

LONDON, Dec 11, 2007 (AFP) – The wife of a man who resurfaced after being presumed dead for more than five years was set to appear in court on Tuesday charged with two counts of deception. Anne Darwin, a 55-year-old former doctor’s surgery receptionist, will appear in Hartlepool Magistrates Court, where her husband John, 57, […]

MANILA, Dec 11, 2007 (AFP) – Indonesia will borrow 300 million dollars from the Asian Development Bank to develop the country’s capital markets, the Philippines-based lender said Tuesday. The programme would promote transparency and information disclosure in capital markets, enabling market valuation of fixed-income instruments, an ADB statement said. Jakarta has undertaken financial sector reforms […]

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 9, 2007 (AFP) – Six South American presidents on Sunday launched the Bank of the South, the region’s answer to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as a source for development funds. Presidents Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Nicanor Duarte of Paraguay, Rafael Correa […]

SINGAPORE, Dec 10, 2007 (AFP) – The Singapore government’s investment arm announced Monday that it will inject almost 10 billion US dollars into Swiss bank UBS, its largest ever investment in a company.The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) said it would inject 11 billion Swiss francs (9.74 billion US dollars) into UBS, which on […]

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Dec 9, 2007 (AFP) – Here are the main options for tackling greenhouse-gas emissions, listed by order of feasibility: – ENERGY EFFICIENCY: Improve energy efficiency in transport, buildings, appliances, lighting. ADVANTAGE: Can make big, early gains in braking growth in carbon pollution.DISADVANTAGE: Tougher standards may run into opposition from transport lobby, consumer […]

NEW DELHI, Dec 8, 2007 (AFP) – Developing nations must be allowed to boost carbon emissions to lift millions out of poverty, says the head of the Nobel prize-winning climate change panel slated to formally get the award on Monday.“If you have the case of India, a half a billion people who do not even […]

WASHINGTON, Dec 8, 2007 (AFP) – The White House faced another clash with Congress Saturday after furious Democratic lawmakers demanded a probe into the CIA’s destruction of tapes showing harsh interrogations of captured Al-Qaeda operatives.The Central Intelligence Agency’s admission that it destroyed tapes of at least two interrogations in 2005, at a time when Congress […]

NEW YORK, Dec 7, 2007 (AFP) – Wall Street enters the home stretch of 2007 in an upbeat mood as investors brace for a meeting of the Federal Reserve which is widely expected to yield a third straight cut in US interest rates. Bond prices weakened in the past week as investors moved into stocks. […]

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 7, 2007 (AFP) – JetBlue will begin offering passengers free e-mail access on one of its airplanes next week as Internet connections that have become ubiquitous on the ground begin taking to the skies.Industry analysts expect 2008 to be the year in-flight Internet begins to take-off. An Airbus-320 passenger jet called “BetaBlue” […]

TOKYO, Dec 7, 2007 (AFP) – Japan’s economy grew at an annualised pace of 1.5 percent in the third quarter of 2007, much less than an initial estimate of a 2.6 percent expansion, the government said Friday. But the world’s second-largest economy saw a recovery after shrinking in the second quarter, buoyed by brisk exports […]

WASHINGTON, Dec 6, 2007 (AFP) – A vast mortgage relief package brokered by the Bush administration is likely to ease the pain of the US housing slump but with an uncertain cost for markets and the financial system, analysts say.“That’s a loss for mortgage holders but it’s a smaller loss than would come from foreclosure,” […]