Category: World

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2008 (AFP) – With market turmoil intensifying on fears of a banking crisis, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke faced a new grilling Wednesday after warning of a bumpy road to economic recovery. Bernanke was set to appear in the House of Representatives for a second day of testimony on the Fed’s semiannual […]

SINGAPORE, July 16, 2008 (AFP) – Oil prices rose in Asia on Wednesday after fears for economic growth sent prices into their steepest fall in 17 years during New York trading, analysts said. New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, was 22 cents higher at 138.96 dollars a barrel. The contract […]

LONDON, July 16, 2008 (AFP) – World stock markets struggled on Wednesday after sharp losses driven by the unfolding US financial crisis and before more testimony from US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, dealers said. Bernanke warned of economic gloom on Tuesday and his next comments are awaited anxiously by investors, reeling from the collapse […]

HARARE, July 16, 2008 (AFP) – Zimbabwe’s inflation rate, already the world’s highest, hit an astronomical 2.2 million percent Wednesday after Robert Mugabe’s re-election in a one-man poll critics had said the nation could ill afford. After months of silence on the inflation rate, central bank governor Gideon Gono let slip it was well into […]

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2008 (AFP) – The US Federal Reserve on Monday tightened home mortgage lending in a bid to improve consumer protection from practices blamed in part for the worst US real-estate crisis in decades.The Fed said its board of governors approved rules for home mortgage loans “to better protect consumers and facilitate responsible […]

LONDON, July 15, 2008 (AFP) – World equity markets and the dollar fell heavily on Tuesday on scepticism that a dramatic weekend US government rescue of two mortgage giants would contain crisis in American finance, analysts said.European equities sank after more steep losses on Wall Street and in Asia, despite an exceptional US rescue on […]

BANGKOK, July 15, 2008 (AFP) – Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Tuesday announced a 46-billion-baht (1.36-billion-dollar) raft of benefits to counter poverty caused by soaring living costs.The six-month anti-poverty scheme will provide tax cuts and free services for six months to Thailand’s worst-off, Samak told a news conference broadcast on national television. The measures […]

LONDON, July 14, 2008 (AFP) – The president of Emirates airline on Monday criticised the policies being imposed by Britain and the European Union on airlines that he said were stifling moves towards greater efficiency.In a comment piece in the Financial Times, Tim Clark wrote that the aviation industry was going through “the greatest crisis” […]

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2008 (AFP) – Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unveiled measures Sunday to bolster key US housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were given Federal Reserve oversight and bigger credit lines.Paulson said the “central role” the two play in real estate financing meant they should continue to respond to shareholders, and […]

SAN FRANCISCO, July 13, 2008 (AFP) – It’s mind over machine: a US high-tech company has created a headset allowing computer game lovers to use their thoughts to move mountains and make objects disappear on screen.Emotiv, a San Francisco-based startup that marries neuroscience and computer engineering, says its EPOC gaming headset offers only a glimpse […]

PHNOM PENH, July 13, 2008 (AFP) – Sath Vanny sits anxiously at the door to her tiny one-room hut in the factory district of Cambodia’s capital.She left her hometown in the southern province of Takeo seven years ago to work at a women’s shirt factory, sending most of her earnings back to help the family […]

LOS ANGELES, July 12, 2008 (AFP) – Federally-seized IndyMac Bank was due to reopen Monday after suffering one of the biggest bank closures in US history, as the troubled US mortgage industry struggles to stem further meltdown.The regulatory Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) announced Friday it had placed the California-based bank, worth an estimated 32 […]