Category: World

TOKYO, March 13, 2008 (AFP) – The dollar slumped to a 12-year low against the yen and to a new all-time nadir versus the euro in Asian trade Thursday as traders bet on a hefty cut to US interest rates next week, dealers said. It is “only a matter of time before the dollar tests […]

NEW YORK, March 13, 2008 (AFP) – Dutch-listed investment fund Carlyle Capital Corporation announced Thursday it had failed to reach a deal with its creditors and had defaulted on debt of nearly 17 billion dollars (11 billion euros).Share-trading in the troubled fund, linked to private equity giant Carlyle Group, was suspended in Amsterdam Friday, resumed […]

BILOXI, Mississippi, March 11, 2008 (AFP) – Barack Obama won Tuesday’s Democratic primary in the southern state of Mississippi, racking up another victory over Hillary Clinton in the party’s bitter White House race.The Illinois senator’s camp demanded she be ousted from the campaign, while Clinton said she regretted the remarks but did not cut Ferraro, […]

NEW YORK, March 11, 2008 (AFP) – World stocks broke out of their slump with a powerful rally Tuesday as the US and other central banks moved to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the financial system to ease a global credit squeeze. The announcement helped lift the malaise in equity markets, which had […]

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2008 (AFP) – The United States ranked North Korea and Myanmar Tuesday among the world’s worst violators of human rights and took other Asian countries to task for alleged abuses.In Australia, the report mentioned “domestic violence against women and children, particularly in Aboriginal communities, and societal discrimination against Aboriginal people.” But the […]

TOKYO, March 12, 2008 (AFP) – Japanese opposition lawmakers Wednesday voted down Bank of Japan deputy Toshiro Muto as the next central bank chief, defying the government which refused to look for a new candidate.Relations between the two main parties have been severely strained by a string of disputes culminating in the ruling coalition ramming […]

TEHRAN, March 11, 2008 (AFP) – High inflation, unemployment, slack monetary policy and a lack of foreign investment: Iran is suffering from a litany of economic problems ahead of Friday’s legislative elections.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad swept to power in 2005 on a platform to make the poor — many of whom have left villages to swell […]

HONG KONG, March 11, 2008 (AFP) – Asian stocks closed mostly up after a late rally Tuesday as bargain hunters emerged despite earlier US share price falls sparked by growing worries over a global credit crunch.Most markets around the region reversed early losses to turn higher in late trade, after suffering steep falls on Monday. […]

SAO PAULO, March 10, 2008 (AFP) – More than five million vehicles and almost nine in ten new vehicles in Brazil now run on both gasoline and ethanol derived from sugar cane, the car manufacturing association Anfavea said Monday. Anfavea president Jackson Schneider told reporters in Sao Paulo that Brazil — a pioneer in biofuels […]

SINGAPORE, March 11, 2008 (AFP) – A Singapore teenager and her family have been charged with physically assaulting an Indonesian maid, including pulling out her teeth and pouring hot wax on her, the Straits Times reported Tuesday.More than 140,000 domestic workers mainly from Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, work in Singapore.Cases of employers abusing […]

LONDON, March 11, 2008 (AFP) – Oil prices struck a record high of 109.20 dollars per barrel on Tuesday after the dollar hit a fresh all-time low against the euro, traders said. The euro reached a record high of 1.5495 in European tradin. A weaker US currency increases demand for dollar-denominated oil as it becomes […]

NEW YORK, March 10, 2008 (AFP) – US stocks sustained a fresh beating Monday as oil prices briefly rocketed to fresh highs above 108 dollars a barrel and as The Blackstone Group private equity firm announced a big quarterly loss. Financial stocks fell heavily through the day in the wake of Blackstone’s revelation and as […]