Category: World

KUWAIT CITY, October 7, 2008 (AFP) – Shares plunged across the Arab world on Tuesday as panic over the global financial crisis gripped investors, with the market in oil powerhouse Saudi Arabia sinking by more than seven percent. The biggest loss was reported in Egypt, where the key index plummeted by more than 16 percent […]

GANDHINAGAR, October 7, 2008 (AFP) – India’s Tata Motors signed an agreement on Tuesday to secure a new home for its troubled Nano cheap car project in the business-friendly state of Gujarat. The move came after Ratan Tata, the group’s chairman, decided to abandon a nearly completed factory in communist-run West Bengal due to violent […]

PARIS, October 7, 2008 (AFP) – The EU moved to increase support for big banks as the international finance chaos deepened Tuesday, with Russia setting up a huge rescue package for its banks and markets again panicking. Russia was also to negotiate a four billion euro (5.4 billion dollar) emergency loan to Iceland, which is […]

LONDON, October 7, 2008 (AFP) – British customers with accounts in the online arm of faltering Iceland’s second-biggest bank voiced alarm after it halted transactions. Icesave stopped British customers withdrawing or depositing money, it announced, as Icelandic authorities said they had taken control of the bank and the island’s financial sector teetered on the brink […]

WASHINGTON, October 6, 2008 (AFP) – Troubled lender Wachovia Corp. appeared determined Sunday to plow ahead with a planned union with Wells Fargo & Co., despite an order from a New York State Supreme Court in favor of jilted suitor Citigroup. Citigroup was blindsided last week in its bid to complete a tie-up after Wachovia, […]

LONDON, October 6, 2008 (AFP) – British finance minister Alistair Darling is considering giving banks billions of pounds in return for shares to shore them up in the face of the global credit crunch, media reports said Monday. The plan is a middle way between full nationalisation, as with Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley […]

NEW DELHI, October 6, 2008 (AFP) – India’s corporate optimism has sunk on worries about the global economy and weakening demand, according to a new survey Monday, as the stock market and rupee fell to fresh lows. Some 57 percent of the 348 firms in the cross-sector survey reported Asia’s third-largest economy had grown “moderately […]

DUBAI, October 6, 2008 (AFP) – A Dubai government firm on Monday announced it will build a “new city” in the booming Gulf emirate at a projected cost of 95 billion dollars, shrugging off the global financial turmoil.The announcement came one day after Dubai developers Nakheel said it planned to build a tower which will […]

LONDON, October 5, 2008 (AFP) – British department store Selfridge’s on Sunday launched a new up-scale chocolate treat — the “Credit Crunch” — for shoppers looking for comfort food amid the international financial crisis. “Although people might be looking to spend a little less at the moment, they still want to treat themselves to the […]

NEW DELHI, October 5, 2008 (AFP) – A decision by the giant Tata Group to shift a factory building the world’s cheapest car after angry farmer protests has refueled debate about India’s troubled industrialisation push.The company said late last week it was pulling the Nano car project out of West Bengal state, even though the […]

DUBAI, October 5, 2008 (AFP) – United Arab Emirates-based firms Dana Gas PJSC and Crescent Petroleum announced that they had begun producing gas under a deal with Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region over Baghdad’s objections. The firms said that, following completion of the project’s first phase, they expected to supply 75 million cubic feet (2.25 million […]

BERLIN, October 5, 2008 (AFP) – The German government has offered an unlimited guarantee for all private savings accounts, a finance ministry spokesman told AFP Sunday, amid the spreading financial crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said earlier in a statement to reporters: “We tell all savings account holders that your deposits are safe. The federal […]