Category: World

MANILA, October 17, 2008 (AFP) – The Vice-President of the Philippines has confirmed the hijacking of a Filipino-manned ship off Somalia and appealed to shipping companies to sail within areas patrolled by a multinational coalition.“We are still awaiting further developments on the latest Somali piracy case,” Noli de Castro said in a statement that named […]

NEW YORK, October 15, 2008 (AFP) – Wall Street stocks plunged Wednesday in the second biggest single day point loss in history and their worst percentage fall in two decades, ravaged by fears the world’s biggest economy is slipping into recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 733.08 points (7.87 percent) to close at 8,577.91 […]

WASHINGTON, October 16, 2008 (AFP) – With recession fears for the US economy growing by the day in the wake of a global financial crisis, analysts are pondering the questions of how deep and how wide the downturn will be.Reinforcing those fears, the Commerce Department reported that US retail sales — a key to economic […]

TOKYO, October 16, 2008 (AFP) – Emergency measures to tackle the financial crisis provided little relief for nervous investors Thursday, as stock markets around the world took a battering on fears of a global recession ahead. With most analysts now considering a US recession inevitable, markets looked beyond the current wave of bank rescue packages […]

PARIS, October 16, 2008 (AFP) – Calls mounted Thursday for an overhaul of the global financial system as stocks took a new hammering and Switzerland took drastic action to defend its prized banks with a 60 billion dollar package for UBS. The Tokyo stock market suffered its worst loss for two decades, closing down more […]

MANILA, October 15, 2008 (AFP) – World rice markets are likely to remain tight next year despite an expected record harvest after key producers clamped down on exports, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said Wednesday.Export prices of one of the world’s most important grains almost tripled between last November and May, triggering riots in […]

WASHINGTON, October 14, 2008 (AFP) – The US economic crisis could well make life easier for US military recruiters, who have struggled in recent years to meet their services’ enlistment goals in a time of war. “We do benefit when things look less positive in civil society,” said David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel […]

SYDNEY, October 14, 2008 (AFP) – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Tuesday unveiled a 10.4 billion dollar (7.25 billion US) economic stimulus package to counter a slowdown caused by the global financial crisis. “The global financial crisis has entered into a new dangerous and damaging phase, one that goes to the real economy — […]

TOKYO, October 14, 2008 (AFP) – Japan’s government on Tuesday announced measures aimed at stabilising the ailing stock market, including a loosening of restrictions on companies buying back their own shares.The moves helped to fuel a powerful rally on the Tokyo stock market, which soared more than 12 percent in early trade as investors cheered […]

KUWAIT CITY, October 14, 2008 (AFP) – Stocks in the booming Gulf emirate of Dubai leapt nine percent at the opening of trade on Tuesday, leading gains in the oil-rich Gulf as global markets made a spectacular surge. Abu Dhabi and Oman each jumped six percent, but the Kuwait Stock Exchange, the second largest Arab […]

WASHINGTON, October 14, 2008 (AFP) – The US government will spend up to 250 billion dollars to buy shares in struggling banks in the latest effort to stem a global financial crisis, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Tuesday.“Yet the alternative of leaving businesses and consumers without access to financing is totally unacceptable. When financing isn’t […]

REYKJAVIK, October 14, 2008 (AFP) – Trading resumed on the Reykjavik stock exchange Tuesday and the main index showed a decline of 76.13 percent, but market officials insisted this figure was heavily distorted by the absence of trading in finance companies. Excluding Iceland’s comatose financial stocks, which were suspended more than a week ago and […]