Category: World

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

NEW YORK, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) – A horrific week on Wall Street has put the bears in command as the market braces for more bleak news from the US housing front and earnings that may show how companies are weathering the storm. In the week ended Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 4.05 […]

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,, India, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) – India’s communist-ruled Kerala state has ordered containers of illegal rubbish shipped in from New York to be sent back, a minister said Friday. The containers were supposed to hold only “raw materials” meaning waste paper under a deal between paper manufacturing company Kochin Kadlas and New York Municipality. […]

WASHINGTON, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) – Developing countries on Friday dismissed the International Monetary Fund’s pace of reforms to increase their voice in the troubled institution as “disappointing and unacceptable.” The Group of 24 developing countries, representing the majority of the IMF’s membership but only an impotent minority in its operations, reiterated its call for […]

KARACHI, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) – A suicide bombing targeting former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto killed at least 125 people, turning her emotional homecoming parade after eight years in exile into a scene of carnage Friday.Bhutto was unhurt, escaping with her life as the blast ripped through the police escort for the parade in […]

NEW YORK, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) – New York crude oil prices surpassed a record 90 dollars a barrel in after-hours trading Thursday as Iraq urged Turkey not to take military action against Kurdish rebels located in northern Iraq.Traders said oil prices were also stoked higher by a weakening US dollar and global supply jitters. […]

TOKYO, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) – The head of a UN climate panel that shared the Nobel Peace Prize warned Friday that Asia was particularly vulnerable to global warming, with the continent set for more disasters unless action is taken. “Asia being the rapidly growing continent with the largest share of the human population located […]